[12/29] Apple Issues Press Release, Files SEC Forms 10-Q and 10-K Restates 1997-2006 Earnings by $84M

Today, Apple issued a press release on its internal investigation of back-dating stock options for some executives and filed with the SEC Form 10-Q for the third quarter of 2006 and Form 10-K for the 2006 fiscal year ending September 30. Both SEC forms had been delayed due to the investigation. The total effect of the issue is to understate compensation by $84M for the period beginning in 1997 though 2006, a seemingly mere drop in the bucket.

Here is the full text of Apple's press release:

Apple® today filed its Form 10-Q for the quarter ended July 1, 2006 and its Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2006 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Both filings had been delayed pending the conclusion of an independent investigation by the special committee of the board of directors into past stock option practices and the resulting restatement of the Company’s financial results. Apple undertook this investigation on its own initiative and has informed the SEC and the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the results.

Based on an analysis of the findings of the independent investigation, the Company has recognized total additional non-cash stock-based compensation expense of $84 million after tax, including $4 million and $7 million in fiscal years 2006 and 2005, respectively. The restatement arises solely from certain stock option grants made between 1997 and 2002; the investigation found no grants after December 31, 2002 that required accounting adjustments.

“The special committee, its independent counsel and forensic accountants have performed an exhaustive investigation of Apple’s stock option granting practices,” in a joint statement said Al Gore, chair of the special committee, and Jerome York, chair of Apple’s Audit and Finance Committee. “The board of directors is confident that the Company has corrected the problems that led to the restatement, and it has complete confidence in Steve Jobs and the senior management team.”

Other reports have indicated that Apple CEO Steve Jobs did not personally profit from the the stock option back-dating issue. He knew about them but was unaware that they were illegal.

[12/29] Graphics Board Sales Increase in Q3 as Does Nvidia's Market Share

The latest report from Jon Peddie Research estimates that shipments of add-in graphics boards (vs integrated chipsets) increased nearly 11 percent in the third quarter of 2006 over the second quarter and nearly 8 percent over the 2005 third quarter. However, the total value continued to decline and was 12 percent less that the 2005 third quarter, reflecting a significant 20 percent decrease in price per board year over year.

Add-in graphics boards continued to be used predominantly in the performance sector (75%). The mainstream sector stood at 13 percent, workstations at 5 percent, enthusiasts at 4 percent and the value sector at 3 percent.

Nvidia at 59 percent continued to gain market share from ATI/AMD at 40 percent. All others were only 0.6 percent. [Bill Fox]

[12/29] Software Special of the Day: iTunify 1.5.1 (Universal) for 33% Off Today Only--$9.99

iTunify lets you:

• Find duplicate tracks
  
• Find & Replace in ID3 tags with support for Regular Expressions
  
• Change the case of ID3 tags (upper, lower, word, sentence)
  
• Exchange ID3 tags
  
• Number ID3 tags sequentially
  
• Run add/subtract operations in ID3 tags
  
• Import & Export artwork with advanced options
  
• Import & Export ID3 tags with advanced options
  
• Convert ordinary AAC tracks to Audiobooka & vice versa
  
• Remove dead tracks from library
  
• Remove artwork from tracks
  
• Remove tracks from playlists or the library and trash them
  
• Remove checked tracks from library
  
• Reset Bookmark Position
  
• Toogle track's mode "Skip when shuffling"
  
• Toogle track's mode "Remember playback position"
  
• Toogle track's mode "Part of gapless album"
  
• Remove unchecked tracks from library
  
• Invert Check Marks
  

And all within iTunes!

Normally $15.00, iTunify 1.5.1 (Universal) is offered for $9.99--that's 33% off as Today's MacUpdate Software Promo. [Bill Fox]

[12/29] MacsOnly.com begins 12th Year on the Web

Yesterday was the eleventh anniversary of our publishing relevant information for the vast majority of Mac users. In 1995 we started out calling ourselves "Everything Macintosh" as an adjunct to being a volunteer assisting the monitor of CompuServe's Mac forum. We wrote simple guides for CompuServe on how to get on CompuServe when using Classic Mac OS and helped other Mac users with their problems. We transferred our information to the Web and kept a growing list of Mac- and Apple-related Web links.

When we discovered another Web site with the same name that claimed to pre-date us by a few weeks, we changed our name to "For Mac Users Only." That name was soon contracted to just Macs Only! when we began accepting advertising.

Back in 1995 there were only a handful of Mac Web sites that did anything more than simply post Web links. Several of them, like MacCentral (now Macworld), became large commercial successes. Others, like the venerable MacInTouch dating back a year earlier to 1994 and O'Grady's PowerPage have continued to provide valuable news and information in much the same mode as in 1995. Some bit the dust. But today there are dozens, if not hundreds, of Mac Web sites. To help deal with this, MacSurfer has continued to be the pre-eminent Mac Web site indexer since 1995.

As we enter our 12th year, we look forward to Macworld 2007 in a little under two weeks. We'll be there and report on Steve Jobs keynote, provide hands-on reports on the new Apple products and walk the show floor for several days, reporting on new products for the Mac world. Until then, news will be light as it has been for the past week but we will continue to post following New Years Day on Monday. [Bill Fox]

[12/28] Free Golf Strategies, Tough Shots and Around the Green Video from iTunes Store

The iTunes Store now offers a free instructional video Golf Strategies, Tough Shots and Around the Green as well as The 2006 PGA Grand Slam of Golf for $1.99. The free instructional video stars PGA of America Director of Instruction Rick Martino, 2005 Teacher of the year Peter Krause and PGA Professional Michael Reed and is 23min 41sec in length.

The free "Golf Strategies..." instructional video is available from this iTunes Store link . [Bill Fox]

[12/28] Software Special of the Day: SmartBackup 2.0 (Universal) for 49% Off Today Only--$9.99

SmartBackup is the ideal application for lightweight daily backups. Here are some of its features:

• very fast and easy to use
  
• backup presets
  
• backup saved search results
  
• exclude saved search results
  
• archiving of changed files
  
• archiving of deleted files
  
• preserves labels, custom icons
  
• handles multiple backup sets
  
• one-click restore
  
• automate with iCal
  
• included automator action
  
• headless (commandline) mode

Normally $19.50, SmartBackup 2.0 (Universal) is offered for $9.99--that's 49% off as Today's MacUpdate Software Promo. [Bill Fox]

[12/28] Tonight on The Tech Night Owl LIVE--Top 2006 Tech, New 2007 Tech and M$

Tonight on the last new episode of The Tech Night Owl LIVE for 2006, host Gene Steinberg presents a look back at the top tech achievements of the year and what may come in 2007 from Apple and other companies with Macworld's Dan Frakes and ace troubleshooter Ted Landau. In addition, Ted will talk about the great gadgets that somehow never get used much after the box is opened. On the other side of the tracks, Joe Wilcox, new editor of Microsoft Watch, will talk about the past year and the year ahead for the world's largest software company.

You can tune in the Web broadcast Thursday night from 6:00 to 8:00 PM Pacific, 9:00 to 11:00 PM Eastern. [Bill Fox]

[12/28] Free Macworld 2007 Expo Exhibit Passes from Peachpit Press

Peachpit is offering free passes to the upcoming Macworld Conference & Expo taking place at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, January 9-12, 2007. To request a pair of passes (exhibit-only passes, a combined $90 value), send an email message to Peachpit with your name and postal address, and Peachpit will mail out the passes. If you prefer to register online and obtain your own free passes, simply go to this Macworld Web page and use the Priority Code: PC0249.

All free passes from Peachpit are available on a first-come, first-served basis, and Peachpit must receive requests by January 3, 2007. [Bill Fox]

[12/27] TopxNotes and TopXNotes iPod v1.2 from Tropical Software

TopXNotes is a modern note organizer with many useful features. Perhaps TopXNotes' most unique feature is MultiView, the ability to view many notes at once and the accompanying MultiView Sliding Toolbar that keeps text buttons always over where you type. TopXNotes also features the NoteOrganizer, an advanced table of contents with categories and groups you define based on your information. TopXNotes' most popular benefit is QuickNotes that gives you instant access to your key notes from the desktop. TopXNotes also features automatic backups, unlimited Undo, Find, and note encryption to keep sensitive information safe.

The TopXNotes iPod version allows a select set of notes to be exported to an iPod.

TopXNotes is $30 (a Classic Mac OS version is available for $25) and TopXNotes iPod is $35. Free trial versions are available. [Bill Fox]

[12/27] Software Special of the Day: iota-calc X 1.7 (Universal) for 50% Off Today Only--$9.99

iota-calc is a programmer's calculator. Its key features are:

• Supports a rich expression format, which is in most cases identical to what you would type in your programming language.
  
• Support for adding unlimited numbers of variables or variable expressions.
  
• Built-in debugger that lets you see the expression simplified step by step.
  
• Debugger Back-step lets you backup as many steps as you like so that you can replay critical operations.
  
• C/C++ operator precedence.
  
• Mouse optional, all calculator commands and functions can be done using the keyboard alone.
  
• Mini-Calc Mode lets your calculator take up very little screen real estate, and yet remain entirely usable.
  
• Running paper tape(s) (1 per calculator) for calculations, allows annotations, and is stored between runs.
  
• Built-in ASCII chart makes it easy to look up even invisible characters.
  
• View results in big endian (default) or little endian.
  
• Numerous built-in unit conversions (memory sizes, lengths, areas, volumes, temperatures etc.)
  
• Built-in great circle route and straight line distance calculator.

Normally $19.95, iota-calc X 1.7 (Universal) is offered for $9.99--that's 50% off as Today's MacUpdate Software Promo. [Bill Fox]

[12/27] Redux--docXConverter 1.0 works All the Time

In our hands-on review of docXConverter by Panergy, we lauded it for beating Microsoft's Mac BU "to market" with a Mac converter for Word 2007 documents in their new default XML format. But we also noted that docXConverter 1.0 failed to convert two widely available sample Word 2007 XML (or .docx) documents (.doc 1 and .docx 2). However, docXConverter converted a dozen or so other .docx documents just fine.

Daniel Pohoryles of Panergy wrote us with an explanation:

"The reason why some docx files could not be opened by docXConverter is because the sample.docx file available from OpenXMLDeveloper.com was done with Word 2007 beta 1 TR. This file cannot be opened by the Word 2007 released version because the docx format has changed between beta 1 TR (March 2006) and the final release. About the file from from OSNews it is certainly a similar problem as Word 2007 detects it as a corrupted file. In both cases the Word 2007 released version (the one of 30 November 2006 that Microsoft is selling) does not open these files."

We confirmed that our copy, a trial copy, of the shipping version of Word 2007 can not open either sample .docx document that stumped docXConverter 1.0. Therefore, we are unaware of any instance where docXConverter 1.0, $20 shareware, has failed to convert a Word 2007 .docx document so it can be read on a Mac. Daniel told us that a v1.0.1 would be out soon with improved error messages. [Bill Fox]

[12/26] Software Special of the Day: Mailings 1.9.3 (Universal) for 40% Off Today Only

Mailings is a full featured application for batch emailing that delivers any web page or plain text document with attachments to multiple recipients for marketing, news announcements, product updates etc.

Mailings facilitates the task of delivering regular bulk email distributions with such features as logging, progress monitoring, scheduling, error recovery, throttling, personalization and much more. Integrates with your mail client, browser and Address Book to simplify its functionality. The one window user interface makes the program a breeze to learn and fun to use.

Normally $39.00, Mailings 1.9.3 (Universal) is offered for $19.99--that's 40% off as Today's MacUpdate Software Promo. [Bill Fox]

[12/22] Apple released iPod shuffle Reset Utility 1.0.1 Update

The iPod shuffle Reset Utility 1.0.1 is available for download from this Apple Web page. It restores the first generation white "gum pack" iPod shuffle. Restoring an iPod deletes all music and data and reinstalls the latest software, v1.1.5 in the case of the white iPod shuffle.

According to Apple, the Reset Utility is used to fix the following problems:

• With the iPod shuffle switched on, pressing the Play button will cause amber and green LEDs to flash for a few seconds, and the unit will not play any music, nor can you sync music to it from iTunes.
  
• On a Mac, the unit will only be recognized in Apple System Profiler under Hardware -> USB and will not appear or mount in the Finder.
  
• When attempting to restore, the unit may not be recognized at all. However, if it is recognized, the restore may fail with an error dialog "Firmware update failure. Disk write error" or another error. It may take 3 restore attempts before the error appears. Note: iPod shuffle may take several minutes to be recognized.

More details are available on this Apple Web page.

Our white iPod shuffle continues to work great, including getting excellent battery life, so we have not applied this updated utility to it. [Bill Fox]

[12/22] Apple Number 2 in BusinessWeek's "Hot Growth 50"

BusinessWeek.com rated companies for growth in 2006 measuring by growth in sales, total return to shareholders, return on equity and overall sales. Apple Computer ranked #2 behind Amkor Technology. Apple beat out other high growth well-known tech firms like Google at #4 and Oracle at #8.

BusinessWeek had this to say about Apple:

Apple Computer (AAPL), No. 2 on the Tech Hot Growth ranking, is the prime example of a company that has created its own opportunities. Its breakthrough innovation in digital music has made it an international icon and propelled sales up 39% over the past 12 months, to $19.3 billion. The company sold 39 million iPods in the 2006 fiscal year, as well as 5 million Macintosh computers.

Amkor Technology cuts individual chips from silicon wafers made by companies like Intel and packages the chip for insertion into computers. More... [Dana Baggett]

[12/22] Software Special of the Day: Money 2.1 (Universal) for 49% Off Today Only

Money helps people organize and manage their personal finances quickly and easily. It supports all the features required for personal or small-business accounting needs.

Normally $39.00, Money 2.1 (Universal) is offered for $19.99--that's 49% off as Today's MacUpdate Software Promo. [Bill Fox]

[12/22] Brief Hands-On Report--Parallels released Desktop for Mac 2.5 Build 3094 Beta 2

Parallels released the second beta of version 2.5 of its Desktop for Mac (DfM), a way to run other OS's in a window in Mac OS X, much like but much better than the defunct Virtual PC software. It is available for download via MacUpdate.com. Note that Build 3094 is a beta. The current stable release is version 2.0 Build 1970.

Parallels lists these improvements for DfM Build 3094:

• USB 2.0 support - "Plug and play" popular USB devices like external hard drives, printers, and scanners, and use them at full native speed.
  
• Current Build 3094 doesn't support isochronous devices such as web cameras, microphones, etc.
  
• Full-feature virtual CD/DVD drive - Burn CDs and DVDs directly in virtual machines, and play any copy-protected CD or DVD just like you would on a real PC
  
• Improved Coherence mode - The ground-breaking feature that lets you run Windows applications without seeing Windows just got better! Now you can:
  
  • Place Windows applications on your Mac desktop or in your application dock. Just click to launch them directly from OS X!
    
  • Use Command+tab to cycle through Windows and Mac applications simultaneously, and "hide and show" Windows applications just like you would with Mac applications
    
  • View the Windows Command Console in Coherence mode
    
  • Use Coherence in Windows 2000, Windows 2003, Windows XP and Windows Vista!
    
• Better Boot Camp support - Using your Boot Camp partition in Parallels Desktop is now easier than ever. Beta2's Boot Camp support includes:
  
  • Full support for FAT32 and NTFS partitions
    
  • Easy offline configuration. Simply tell Parallels Desktop that you want to create a virtual machine from a Boot Camp Partition and click start. No complicated set up required!
    
  • No need to re-activate Windows each time you switch between Boot Camp and Parallels. Activate Windows only once inside Parallels and work in both environments

We previously reported on DfM beta 1 of version 2.5 (Build 3036) and that is the version that we had installed and it was working very well. We have Windows XP-SP2 and Windows Vista RC1 virtual machines. First, we installed Build 3094 over Build 3036 as an upgrade. This was a mistake. Our monitor's video went wonky on our XP-SP2 virtual machine with a full screen slide, not just in the Parallels window but our entire monitor, from left to right whenever we shut down XP-SP2. The Vista RC1 virtual machine fared worse in that we could not install the new Parallels Tools. Vista just hung.

We uninstalled Parallels DfM and reinstalled Dfm Build 3094. This time we were able to install the new version of Parallels Tools in Vista just fine but the wonky video now happens with Vista as well as XP-SP2.

We updated both OSs, 21 updates for XP-SP2 and 1 for Vista RC1 We also updated Firefox, Thunderbird and Adobe Reader. Then we were able to download and install the Office 2007 for Windows trial in XP-SP2. The latter will allow us to make documents in the new default XML format to check converters for the Mac version of Office 2004 and v.X. All went off without a hitch.

We worked for awhile to see a USB 2.0 hard drive attached to our MacBook Pro to no avail with XP-SP2 or Vista RC1. We downloaded and installed iTunes 7.0.2 in XP-SP2 to see if it would see our iPod with video attached but it did not. However, if we clicked the USB icon in the lower right corner of DfM, the list of USB devices included the hard drive and iPod. If selected, the device was ejected. Apparently, we have some more learning to do to use the new USB 2.0 capability in DfM.

As a side note, neither virtual machine can find our HP Laserjet 3030 multifunction machine attached by USB to our AirPort Extreme Base Station. Vista RC1 found our HP Color Laserjet 2605n connected directly to our network but XP-SP2 did not. Thankfully, we use Macs and Mac OS X that instantly find both printers using Bonjour technology.

That's enough Windows frustration for one day. [Bill Fox]

[12/21] [Updated] Hands-On Report--docXConverter 1.0, a Microsoft Word 2007 .docx File Converter

The Mac developer community has beaten the pants off Microsoft's Mac BU in already providing a converter for the new default XML format of Microsoft Word 2007. As we noted in several articles, the Mac BU has promised to provide file converters for Office:Mac 2004 and v.X in the spring of 2007, several months behind the official release of Office 2007 even though file converters for the previous Windows version of Office are already available. The Mac BU even explained in detail why it will take several months after the official release of Office 2007 to produce the Mac converters. It didn't take Panergy that long.

Yesterday, Panergy released docXConverter 1.0 for converting Word 2007 .docx files to .rtf (rich text file) files that the Mac version of Word 2004 and Word v.X can read. docXConverter 1.0 is $20 shareware. Panergy has addressed a huge problem for some since the default format of the new Office 2007 is the new XML-based .docx and Office 2007 is already in use in the enterprise and through free trial downloads from Microsoft's Web site. The .docx files are not compatible with any Mac version of Microsoft Office.

Does it work? We downloaded docXConverter 1.0 which has a trial mode. The trial allows one to convert up to 20 documents for free. Three sample .docx documents of varying complexity are included. All three were converted to an .rtf file and opened in Word 2004 by docXConverter 1.0 with no apparent problem. We even saved the .rtf as .doc files with no problem except for a font substitution required since our copy of Word 2004 does not have the Calibri font.

docXConverter 1.0 failed to convert the sample.docx file available from OpenXMLDeveloper.com and provided an error message that it only works on .docx and .doc files. Same with the Office 12 file from OSNews. However, these two files are NOT in the final Word 2007 format. Even our trial copy of Microsoft Word 2007 couldn't open them. docXConverter 1.0 converted the ten .docx files in EuroLook-DOCX-Sample-Documents available from SourceForge.net.

Unfortunately, as of review publication time we do not have a copy of Word 2007 to compare the original .docx sample files and converted .rtf files side by side or to generate independently a .docx file. We tried to download a trial copy of Office 2007 from Microsoft using Parallels running Windows Vista and Internet Explorer 7 but were thwarted by the registration page claiming that we hadn't filled in all the required fields when in fact we had--we even filled in all of the optional fields but no joy. We ran into the same exact problem trying to register for the download using Safari and Camino under Mac OS X 10.4.8. We finally gave up when ironically the online version of Office 2007 trial failed to run stating that the Citrix server didn't work yet with Windows Vista. Later we were able to download a trial copy of Office 2007 when we set up Parallels with Windows XP.

In summary, docXConverter 1.0 works well. Those who need to convert Word 2007 .docx files to run on Word 2004 and v.X should check out Panergy's offering. There's also Docx-Converter.com but it loses images and formatting and a docx Automator Script that requires one to unzip a .docx file.

Panergy has beaten Microsoft's Mac BU by over three months. But to be fair, docXConverter only converts Word 2007 files and not Excel 2007 or PowerPoint 2007 files. The Mac BU will produce all three converters and they will be free. [Updated: we added comments on the two errant .docx files and edited this review accordingly.] [Bill Fox]

[12/21] Software Special of the Day: iGet 2.5.3 (Universal) for 50% Off Today Only

iGet is an inventive file transfer tool designed specifically for the Mac. It allows you to log into your account on any remote Mac and browse, find, and get the files you need. As easy to use as the best FTP clients, iGet is much more Mac-oriented: you can stop and resume file and folder transfers, and you see the real Mac icons and Finder labels for all your files as you browse. iGet can even put files into the Trash remotely.

With Spotlight searches that execute on the remote Mac, you can find anything quickly. Always-on strong SSH encryption keeps your data secure, and you never have to think about details like HFS metadata, resource forks, or unusual characters in your file names. With iGet, it just works. It's designed to work well over virtually any kind of network connection, not just a fast LAN. This makes iGet a great tool for accessing your Macs over the Internet. And with it's innovative "zero-setup" design, you don't have to install any special software (not even iGet) on the remote Mac before connecting.

Normally $49.95, iGet 2.5.3 (Universal) is offered for $24.95--that's 50% off as Today's MacUpdate Software Promo. [Bill Fox]

[12/21] Brief Hands-On Report--Mozilla released SeaMonkey 1.0.7 and Thunderbird 1.5.0.9 Security Updates

On the heals of Firefox 2.0.0.1, Mozilla released SeaMonkey 1.0.7, its integrated internet suite and Thunderbird 1.5.0.9, its stand-alone email client.

According to the Release Notes, Sea Monkey 1.0.7 and Thunderbird 1.5.0.9 contain stability fixes and the same security fixes. The security fixes are:

MFSA 2006-74 Mail header processing heap overflows
MFSA 2006-73 Mozilla SVG Processing Remote Code Execution
MFSA 2006-72 XSS by setting img.src to javascript: URI
MFSA 2006-71 LiveConnect crash finalizing JS objects
MFSA 2006-70 Privilege escalation using watch point
MFSA 2006-69 CSS cursor image buffer overflow (Windows only)
MFSA 2006-68 Crashes with evidence of memory corruption (rv:1.8.0.9/1.8.1.1)

two less than Firefox 2.0.0.1.

We downloaded both updates and used each for awhile. SeaMonkey is the primary Web application of one of our staff members and we ran into not problems. Thunderbird is our backup email client to Apple Mail and primary email client whenever we have to use a Windows machine. It worked fine as well. [Dana Baggett & Bill Fox]

[12/21] Tonight on The Tech Night Owl LIVE--Top Tech in 2006, New Tech in 2007, Glass Writer Pro and Redstone Software

Tonight host Gene Steinberg presents a look back at the top tech achievements of 2006 and what may come in 2007 from Apple and other companies with industry analyst Ross Rubin of the NPD Group. You'll also meet Glen Bledsoe, author of Glass Writer Pro, an application that reinvents the look and feel of a word processor. In addition, Christopher Young, managing director of Redstone Software, will talk about their low-cost remote access networking solutions, known as Vine Viewer and Vine Server. You can tune in the Web broadcast tonight from 6:00 to 8:00 PM Pacific, 9:00 to 11:00 PM Eastern. [Bill Fox]

[12/21] Montage 1.1 Public Beta (Universal)--Scriptwriter for Mac OS X

Mariner Software released the public beta version of Montage 1.1, the only screenwriting software developed exclusively for Mac OS X. This is the product's first significant update since its initial release earlier in the year. Version 1.1 introduces several feature additions, such as:

* New! Production style scene numbering.
* New! .mac integration.
* Significant improvements in importing Final Draft® and text scripts.
* Improved SmartType system.
* New! Assignable Keywords.

The Mac community is invited to download the public beta Montage 1.1 and make suggestions or submit bug reports. A full description of the 1.1 feature list and current outstanding issues can also be found on the beta page above.

Montage makes it easy to create, edit, and manage screenplays on a Macintosh. From the ability to import Final Draft or text documents, to using custom, pre-formatted templates for film, TV, and theater, to the time-saving Smart Views, Montage guides both the first time screenwriter or the seasoned veteran, from start to finish.

Once a script is complete, Montage allows the user the ability to submit, track, and send a query, synopsis, and scripts to hundreds of included industry contacts through Montage's integration with Apple's Address Book.

The shipping version of Montage 1.1 will sell for $139.95 but will be a free upgrade for all 1.0 customers. Montage 1.1 is expected to ship next month at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco. [Bill Fox]

[12/21] Password Wallet 4.0 (Universal) for Mac OS X is Out

PasswordWallet is a convenient, easy to use, secure place to store all your usernames, passwords, PIN numbers, or combinations. PasswordWallet 4.0 and its Palm OS Conduit were completely rewritten from the ground-up with Cocoa. Both the application and conduit are Universal and run natively on Intel and PowerPC Macintoshes. They've kept the same tight and unobtrusive appearance and added some incredible new features to help you get your work done faster. Here are some of the features:

• PasswordWallet has a tight user interface that allows you to use your passwords as quickly and as painlessly as possible.
  
• The unique Auto-typing technology is more secure than copying your password to the clipboard.
  
• Use Auto-typing to enter multiple usernames and passwords across multiple web pages.
  
• For security, PasswordWallet uses the BlowFish encryption algorithm with 448-bit keys to protect your data. For safety, PasswordWallet can copy your password to the clipboard and clear it automatically after you paste.
  
• Keep your master password in the Mac OS X keychain.
  
• Easy to use mult-file synchronization.
  
• Synchronize with your Palm compatible PDA! (With purchase of PasswordWallet™ for PalmOS)

PasswordWallet is $20 shareware. [Bill Fox]

[12/20] Brief Hands-On Report--Mozilla released Firefox 2.0.0.1 Security Update

The Firefox Web browser from Mozilla has been updated to v2.0.0.1. It is available via Check for Updates in the Help menu, MacUpdate.com or this Mozilla Web page.

According to the Release Notes the following security issues were fixed in this update:

MFSA 2006-76 XSS using outer window's Function object
MFSA 2006-75 RSS Feed-preview referrer leak
MFSA 2006-73 Mozilla SVG Processing Remote Code Execution
MFSA 2006-72 XSS by setting img.src to javascript: URI
MFSA 2006-71 LiveConnect crash finalizing JS objects
MFSA 2006-70 Privilege escalation using watch point
MFSA 2006-69 CSS cursor image buffer overflow (Windows only)
MFSA 2006-68 Crashes with evidence of memory corruption (rv:1.8.0.9/1.8.1.1)

Five of the last six are listed as critical.

We downloaded a copy from MacUpdate.com and installed it with no problems. Fortunately, our favorite Firefox theme Nautipolis 1.7.0 by Alfred Kayser is still good but there is an update to 1.7.03 so we installed it. We surfed to a number of pages with java applets for making payments, etc. and found no problems. Firefox 2 is remarkably fast. [Bill Fox]

[12/20] Brief Hands-On Report--Apple released Security Update 2006-008

Apple released Security Update 2006-008. It is available for download via Software Update or as stand-alone files from either of these Apple Web pages (Universal edition or PowerPC edition). According to the ReadMe file,

Security Update 2006-008 is recommended for all users and improves the security of the following components:

Quartz Composer
QuickTime for Java

The security details are as follows:

CVE-ID: CVE-2006-5681

Available for: Mac OS X v10.4.8, Mac OS X Server v10.4.8

Impact: Visiting a malicious web site may lead to information disclosure

Description: Java applets may use QuickTime for Java to obtain the images rendered on screen by embedded QuickTime objects and upload them to the originating web site. When this facility is used in conjunction with Quartz Composer, it becomes possible to capture images that may contain local information. This update addresses the issue by disallowing Quartz Composer compositions in unsigned Java applets. Quartz Composer compositions continue to function locally. Applications and signed Java applets that utilize QuickTime and QuickTime for Java are unaffected. This issue does not affect systems prior to Mac OS X v10.4. It also does not affect the Windows platform. Credit to Geoff Beier for reporting this issue.

We downloaded and installed the security patch on a number of Macs: PowerBook G4, Power Mac G4 Cube, 2GHz iMac Core Duo, 2.33GHz iMac Core 2 Duo and a 15" MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo. All went well with the installations and no issues were discovered while briefly using the updated computers running Mac OS X 10.4.8 client and server. [Bill Fox & Dana Baggett]

[12/20] Software Special of the Day: InPreflight 1.0.5 (Universal) for 40% Off Today Only

InPreflight is a comprehensive quality control solution for Adobe InDesign. It gathers information about document fonts, colors and links and lets you instantly locate potential problems according to user-defined settings. It also serves as a powerful information tool that conveniently concentrates all necessary info in one place and reveals some link attributes otherwise unavailable in InDesign. Users can also generate detailed preflight report, open links in default application and show them in InDesign document, and reveal links/fonts in Finder.

Normally $24.95, InPreflight 1.0.5 (Universal) is offered for $14.95--that's 40% off as Today's MacUpdate Software Promo. [Bill Fox]

[12/20] Brief Hands-On Report--Microsoft's Mac BU released Revised Patch for Office 2004 for Mac (11.3.2)

Microsoft's Mac Business Unit (Mac BU) released a revised patch for Office 2004 ahead of schedule (late in week). The patch (11.3.2) is available for download via the Microsoft AutoUpdate application, the "Check for updates" menu item of any Office 2004 application or as a stand-alone file from this Microsoft Web page.

Last week an errant patch was released and quickly pulled. The Mac BU promised a revised update that would remove the errant update (11.3.1) and reinstall the stability fixes. The Mac BU has done so already. According to the ReadMe file,

This update contains several improvements for PowerPoint and Entourage.

The details of the improvements are:

3.1 Improvements for PowerPoint 2004

3.1.1 Stability is improved
This update fixes an issue that causes PowerPoint to quit unexpectedly when you open a presentation.

3.2 Improvements for Entourage 2004

3.2.1 Contact names that contain special characters are handled correctly
This update fixes an issue that causes meeting requests to display incorrectly when sent to contacts with names that contain single quotation marks ('), double quotation marks ("), and parentheses.

3.2.2 Public folder messages are not duplicated
This update fixes an issue that causes duplicate messages to appear in public folders.

3.2.3 Compatibility with Mirapoint Message Server™ is improved
This update fixes an issue that causes Entourage to quit unexpectedly when accessing mail folders on a Mirapoint Message Server.

The updated files are:

Database Utility 11.3.2
Microsoft Component Plugin 11.3.2
Microsoft Database Daemon 11.3.2
Microsoft Entourage 11.3.2
Microsoft Framework 11.3.2
Microsoft OLE 11.3.2
Microsoft PowerPoint 11.3.2

These are the same files that were updated by errant updater 11.3.1.

We updated Office 2004 on our Macs using AutoUpdate. They included Macs that had been updated with the errant patch 11.3.1 and those that hadn't. All Macs and backup FireWire drives took the patch with no trouble. In several hours use, no Office 2004 for Mac application has had an issue following the update. [Bill Fox]

[12/20] Microsoft's Mac BU released Revised Patch for Office v.X for Mac (2006-12-19)

The patch (2006-12-19) is available for download via the "Check for updates" menu item of any Office v.X application or as a stand-alone file from this Microsoft Web page. Here is the ReadMe file on Update (2006-12-19),

This update contains several improvements to enhance stability in PowerPoint.

The improvements for PowerPoint X is:

3.1.1 Stability is improved--This update fixes an issue that causes PowerPoint to quit unexpectedly when you open a presentation.

The updated files are:

Microsoft PowerPoint 10.1.9 (061018)
MS OLE Library (Carbon) 10.1.9 (061213)
MS Structured Storage (Carbon) 10.1.9 (061213)

Again, these are the same files that were updated by the errant 10.1.9 updater. [Bill Fox]

[12/20] Month of Apple Bugs Coming January 1

Two security researchers plan to issue a bug a day report on Mac OS X for a whole month starting January 1, 2007 in a so-called Month of Bugs according to this InfoWorld article. They claim they re doing it to help push Apple into fixing bugs in the Mac OS X kernel, QuickTime, iPhoto, Safari and iTunes. Apple just released Security Update 2006-008 that fixed a well-know QuickTime vulnerability. [Dana Baggett]

[12/20] Lithium Ion Batteries with Reduced Risk Coming

A CNET article mentions Boston-Power, a small startup company founded by battery executives, as being on the verge of signing up a major notebook company to use their revised and less risky lithium ion batteries. Other firms are improving lithium ion batteries by changing the chemistry of the anode or cathode (i.e. contact ends). Boston-Power claims to have made improvements in 30 areas of manufacturing lithium ion batteries and has a patent for a lithium nickel cathode to replace the standard lithium cobalt cathode. Companies are still focussing on lithium ion batteries because lithium provides the best energy density and battery life of any other material. [Dana Baggett]

[12/19] Photoshop CS3 Beta One-on-One Preview, a Free Video by Photoshop Expert Deke McClelland

Deke McClelland, the bestselling author of Adobe Photoshop CS2 One-on-One (O'Reilly, $39.95) and Photoshop trainer extraordinaire, released a training video that covers Adobe Photoshop CS3 Beta's terrific new features. Called "Photoshop CS3 Beta One-on-One Preview," this large-format 90-minute video series is available for free from Deke's online media partner, lynda.com.

According to Deke, "Photoshop CS3 Beta is something very new, a free upgrade that'll work until the fully developed program ships next year. The day Adobe's download link went live, lynda.com posted my Photoshop CS3 Beta One-on-One Preview video series. These aren't demonstrational videos--they're the very first full training package on all the new features, big and small, complete with a live-action introduction and step-by-step exercise files. And it's totally free, to lynda.com members and non-members alike. Combined with my Adobe Photoshop CS2 One-on-One book from O'Reilly, you have everything you need to know about Photoshop CS3."

To watch Deke's CS3 video, just go to this lynda.com Web page. There are 19 pop-up QuickTime video files (about 90 minutes) and an exercise files download. [Bill Fox]

[12/19] Software Special of the Day: Bookdog 3.11.21 (Universal) for 33% Off Today Only

Bookdog is the premier Shepherd and Guardian of bookmarks for your Macintosh. After you install Bookdog, you spend a few minutes adjusting how you want your bookmarks sorted, click 'Sort' and within seconds your bookmarks are all in order! Click 'Analyze' to find duplicates and then fix them. Open the Preferences, activate Bookwatchdog, and your bookmarks be re-sorted after you make changes. Automatically. Do you seem to have alot of bookmarks that don't work anymore? Tell Bookdog to Verify. He'll go to all your websites, fetch their data, present a report, give you some options on how he can automatically fix bookmarks that have been "redirected", and finally present a handy tool which allows you to quickly review and fix the remainder. When you tell him to Migrate your bookmarks between browsers (Safari, Camino, Firefox) he finds the right folder and, if you want him to, avoids creating duplicates. Atta boy! Finally, you see the intelligence you knew your Mac was capable of.

Normally $14.95, Bookdog 3.11.21 (Universal) is offered for $9.95--that's 33% off as Today's MacUpdate Software Promo. [Bill Fox]

[12/19] Use Priority/Coupon Code MACSANTA for Discounts on Mac Software from their Developers

From now through December 25th, customers can save 20% on great Macintosh software from great Macintosh software companies. By using the simple coupon code MACSANTA at each vendor's store, customers will save on software from:

• A-Sharp, including their outliner Opal
• Bare Bones, including their world-renowned text editor BBEdit
• C-Command, including SpamSieve, the Eddy-award winning spam blocking tool
• Flying Meat, including VoodooPad, the brain organizing wiki-based notebook
• Potion Factory, including the podcast creation tool Podcast Maker
• Red Sweater, including the personal productivity timer FlexTime
• Rogue Amoeba, including the record-any-audio tool Audio Hijack Pro

MacSanta is here, and he brings great savings with coupon code MACSANTA! [Bill Fox]

[12/19] New Office:Mac Updates Coming Soon from the Mac BU at Microsoft

As we noted last week, Microsoft inadvertently released updaters for Office v.X and Office 2004 for Mac that weren't ready for release. Then, the updaters were pulled by Microsoft with the advice to uninstall them if one already had installed them but with no advice on how to do so. We advised to sit tight since the updaters appeared to cause no difficulties for us.

Now Erik Schwiebert of the Mac BU at Microsoft on its Mac Mojo blog has advised not to worry since the errant updates are benign, an expert echoing of our empirical advice. They contained tested stability fixes plus some untested "security bits." Schwiebert mentioned that new updaters (10.1.9 new build and 11.3.2) will be issued probably later this week that will remove any untested security bits from the errant updates and retain the stability fixes. This advisory was repeated on the Microsoft Security Response Center Blog.

We laud the Mac BU for being open about what is going on, something that does not ...ah...er... always happen with Apple. And remember, the Mac BU makes great Mac software and they, as a unit, are not responsible per se for policies dictated by their parent, Microsoft. [Bill Fox]

[12/19] From the Dark Side--Technology Director Ousting Macs in Suburban Chicago School District

As you well know, there are people in the computer technology field in K-12 education who think they know better than anyone else and dictate what tool educators must use despite the programmatic and fiscal consequences. Armed with such irrelevant tripe as "most people use Microsoft Windows in the real world," they decide to eliminate Apple's Macintosh computers in favor of Windows systems with no real factual studies of educational program requirements, educational effectiveness of computing platforms or the actual total cost of ownership. Most do not appear to have the slightest understanding of computing systems as educational tools or instruments nor any real technical computing knowledge beyond the Windows world. They run roughshod over experienced educators who do have intimate knowledge about the effectiveness of their teaching tools by branding them in a derogatory manner as emotional fanatics either directly or by implication.

From a CourierNewsOnline article it appears that this very process may be playing out in a suburban Chicago school district with a 2:1 Mac vs. Windows ratio among its computing systems. We hope not. But according to the article the new technology director has ordered a study of how to phase out most Macs rather than a study of which computing platform is best for the school district's primary business--education--or which system has the lowest REAL total cost of ownership. And, yes, education IS the part of real world. In our opinion, the technology director should conduct the appropriate studies before embarking on a program of ous ting Macs. [Bill Fox & Dana Baggett]