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News & Opinion
Products
Software
News & Opinion
Price Cut on iMacs Soon?
Hardmac's
Lionel says:
"The Jon4lakers.com site put on line this capture which they say
came from the Apple Intranet.
"One finds the iMac
exactly the same as already marketed, but with a consequent fall of
price going from $200 for the basic model with a reduction of $400 for
the high-end.
"If Apple decided to stop with the Centrino 2 for the moment, this
fall could indeed be justified."
Link: Soon a
Price Cut on the iMacs??
Mac mini Rev Around the Corner?
Hardmac's
Lionel reports:
"One of our 'sources' has indicated that he has more and more
problems obtaining a supply of the Mac mini from Apple.
"With a little bit of luck (but we have already said this many
times) Apple could have finally decided to update this machine that we
particularly appreciate...."
Link: News
from the Mac mini Front?
Google Founder on No Chrome Browser for Mac: 'It's
Embarrassing'
MacUser's
Derik DeLong reports:
"Valleywag has pulled a section out of a Kara Swisher interview with
Sergey Brin, one of the Google co-founders. When asked if she has tried
it, Swisher tells Brin she hasn't because of a lack of a Mac
version.
"He then tells her 'It's embarrassing.' and 'I run it in VMware on
my Mac.'"
Link: Google
Founder on Lack of Mac Chrome: 'It's Embarrassing'
Google Readying Chrome for Mac and Linux
ZD Net UK's Tim
Ferguson reports:
"Google has revealed it is working on versions of its Chrome
internet browser for Mac and Linux operating systems.
"Writing on the the search giant's Mac Blog, Google software
engineer Amanda Walker said the company is now 'actively working' on
versions of the newly released Chrome for Mac OS X and
Linux...."
Link: Google
Readies Chrome for Mac and Linux
Print Wirelessly from Your PC on a Mac Network
My First Mac'
Paul McKie says:
"I've had a Mac in my house since 1999 but my employer insists I use
a PC for work purposes. Because I'm on the road or in meetings away
from the office I have a PC laptop. I'm often at home working on my PC
and find I have to print something.
"In the past I had to untether my USB printer from my iMac running
Tiger to plug into my Dell Latitude D510 (running Windows XP
Professional) and print that way. I was also accessing the Internet by
unplugging the Ethernet cable from my Mac and connecting it to the
Dell. But that meant only one computer at a time on the 'Net. So when I
worked on it, the kids were unable to surf.
"I am no computer genius. I knew it was possible to work wirelessly
but I was intimidated by the prospect of setting up a router (a process
complicated by the fact that many router manufacturers do not support
the Mac platform so their installation software is PC only - even
though all routers will work with a Mac). I also needed a router that
would work with my PC as well as the Mac (the 802.11n speeds and
configurations of Mac modems are still barely supported by most devices
out there).
"A few years back my ISP had a special offer to set up a wireless
network. The Dell has a built in wireless card and the wireless router
they installed (a SpeedStream 6520 for those who need to know) allowed
me to work and surf the net on the laptop while others at home could
use the Mac online.
"I heard so much about Mac OS X's versatility and its ability to
seamlessly chat with Windows machines. I knew there had to be a way to
get these two computers to speak to each other and then for my PC to
print wirelessly."
Link:
How Do I Print Wirelessly from My PC on a Mac Home Network?
Products
OWC Announces Retroactive Industry Leading Warranty
Coverage
PR: Other World Computing (OWC), a leading Mac and PC
technology company, today announced that new, longer warranty programs
on select award winning Mac and PC compatible OWC and Newer Technology
product lines - up to triple the duration - are being automatically
extended to OWC retail customers who purchased these solutions in
2008.
OWC and NewerTech storage solutions are currently available in
single drive solutions of up to 1.0 TB and multi-drive solutions of up
to 4.0 TB.
From desktop to rack, from performance RAID to bus-powered
performance portable - OWC and NewerTech solutions provide a wide array
of options ideal for audio/video, backup (Apple Time Machine ready),
media center, music, photography, and more.
The following models in standard configurations of 80GB and higher
and shipped on or after January 1st, 2008 - previously covered by a two
year warranty are now covered by a three year warranty:
- OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro 'Quad' FireWire 800/400+USB2+eSATA
- OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro FireWire 800/400 + USB 2.0 (Single and
Dual-Drive RAID Models)
- OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro FireWire 400 + USB 2.0
- OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro USB 2.0 Dual-Drive + Hub
- OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual-Drive eSATA
- OWC Mercury Elite Pro 'Classic' FireWire 800/400 + USB 2.0
- OWC Mercury Elite Pro 'Classic' FireWire 400 + USB 2.0
- OWC Mercury Elite Pro 'Classic' USB 2.0
- NewerTech miniStack v2 FireWire 400 + USB 2.0 Storage + Powered Hub
Solution
- NewerTech miniStack v2.5 FireWire 400 + USB 2.0 Storage + Powered
Hub Solution
- NewerTech miniStack v3 FireWire 800/400+USB2+eSATA Storage +
Powered Hub Solution
- GuardianMAXimus Hardware RAID-1 (Mirrored) FireWire 800/400+USB2
Data Redundant Solution
The following models in standard configurations of 40GB and higher
and shipped on or after January 1st, 2008 - previously covered by a one
year warranty are now covered by a three year warranty:
- OWC Mercury On-The-Go FireWire 800/400 + USB 2.0 Bus Powered
Portable
- OWC Mercury On-The-Go FireWire 400+USB 2.0 Bus Powered
Portable
- OWC Mercury On-The-Go FireWire Bus Powered Portable
- OWC Mercury On-The-Go USB 2.0 Bus Powered Portable
The following models in standard configurations of 80GB and higher
and shipped on or after January 1st, 2008 - previously covered by a one
year warranty are now covered by a two year warranty:
- OWC Neptune 'Value Done Right' FireWire 400 Solutions
"The best warranty is one you never have to use, but should the need
occur - OWC is proud to provide a superior level of support and
warranty term to our customers. Even when not used, we understand the
comfort a longer warranty term provides and these new longer warranties
with retroactive coverage are a testament to our confidence in the
reliability of these OWC and NewerTech brand storage solution lines,"
said Larry O'Connor, CEO of Other World Computing. " These solutions
are engineered to demanding quality standards in order to deliver the
most reliable, highest performance available on the market in each
storage category."
In addition to industry leading warranty coverage, OWC and NewerTech
storage solutions offer further value added features like including all
interface connecting cables for Plug and Play operation straight from
the box, free lifetime US-based technical support, and a $200 retail
value utility software bundle consisting of award winning Prosoft
Engineering Data Backup 3, NovaStor NovaBACKUP, and Intech SpeedTools
Utilities software.
Link: OWC Storage
Solutions
Software
Opera 9.60 Beta 1: Fast, Powerful Browser and Email
Client
PR: On Wednesday, Opera released the first public beta of
Opera 9.6, which represents a substantial update from OPera 9.5.2.
As the Opera promo for the beta explains:
Your day just got easier
Opera 9.6 beta is designed with your life in mind. The day is short
and productivity is essential, so let Opera help you tackle your 'to
do' list.
What's New?
- Link it: Opera Link now lets you sync custom Search engines and
typed History. We even synchronize the shortcuts in your custom
Searches.
- Feed Preview: Just click on the Feed icon on the right of the
address bar in Opera 9.6 beta and you will be able to preview the feed
on our clean and efficient two column layout.
- Speed Enhancement: Go on, surf around, you'll notice the Web is
snappier with Opera 9.6 beta
Opera Mail
- Low Bandwidth Mode: Makes Opera Mail use as little bandwidth as
possible.
- Follow/Ignore threads and contacts: Allows you to dismiss
unimportant messages and make it easier to recognize important
ones.
Here's your 'to do' list for exploring Opera 9.6 beta 1
- Create custom search shortcuts from any search field on the
Web.
- Synchronize browser settings such as your custom search shortcuts,bookmarks and Speed Dial with Opera Link, and access your settings from
your computer, cell phone or Opera-powered game console.
- Check out the feeds available on your favorite sites with Opera's
feed preview feature. Just click on the feed icon in the address bar
and find out what feeds you may be interested in.
- Set up an e-mail account with Opera's new and improved Mail
application. Opera Mail now features "low bandwidth mode" and more
powerful "Thread" and "Contacts" management capabilities.
- Report any bugs in this Opera 9.6 beta to bugs.opera.com/
New in version 9.6 beta 1
New and improved features
- Opera Link - Custom search engines and typed history (typed history
is only the history you explicitly type or select from the address bar)
are now joining bookmarks, speed dials, personal bar, and notes in
Opera Link.
- Feed Preview - Now you can preview an RSS/Atom feed before
subscribing.
Opera Mail
- Low Bandwidth Mode - Low Bandwidth Mode is a setting on mail
accounts that makes Opera Mail use as little bandwidth as possible. For
IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol), this means that Opera will
only synchronise new messages and it will not fetch message attachments
unless requested. For POP (Post Office Protocol), Opera will not fetch
more than the first 100 lines of a message unless requested
- Follow/Ignore threads and contacts - Follow and Ignore are new
features for users that receive numerous messages. It makes it easier
to dismiss unimportant messages and easier to recognise important
messages. Activate this feature by selecting Follow/Ignore in the email
context menu (or click the message subject header), then select either
Follow Thread or Ignore Thread. Also, you can click the names in the
From or To headers to enable the following or ignoring of
contacts.
- Go To Thread - You can now also use "Go to thread" which means that
you can view only the messages from that thread. This is useful for
those that employ flat view.
Changes since Opera 9.52
User Interface
- Opera now remembers the bookmark panel position after restart
- Added a setting opera:config#UserPrefs|
- ShowBookmarksInAddressfieldAutocompletion to prevent bookmarks from
showing in the Address field auto-completion drop-down
When setting opera:config#TransferWindow|KeepEntriesDays to 0, Opera
now removes the transfer history when restarting
- The new Opera Scrollmaker will indicate the previous position of
the bottom or top of the page after a scroll action, and needs to be
enabled with opera:config#UserPrefs|EnableScrollMarker
- Value 0 means: off
- Value 1 means: show when reaching the bottom or top of the page,
and when the last scroll action scrolls less than a full page's
amount
- Value 2 means: always show when scrolling
Once enabled, it will indicate the position of the bottom or top of the
page before a scroll action is initiated
- Sites using HTTP Auth are now saved in typed history
- Opera now stops loading pages with iframes when closing the page or
pressing stop
- The document property has been removed from iframe objects for
compatibility with Gecko, WebKit, and the Acid3 test
- The fraud protection dialog now works when using a proxy
Mail, News, Chat
- The account settings dialog can now be configured to prevent IMAP
(Internet Message Access Protocol) accounts from downloading
attachments until requested by a user
- Fixed open/save of images in Opera Mail when using the image
context menu
- Made all top-level access points (except All Messages)
selectable
Display and Scripting
- Fixed a problem where dynamically added xml-stylesheet processing
instructions were ignored
- Added support for the caller property on functions:
http://developer.mozilla.org/En/Core_JavaScript_1.5_Reference:Global_Objects:Function:caller
Miscellaneous
- Added Core version (currently "Presto/2.1.1") to the User Agent
header.
System requirements: Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later.
System Support: PPC/Intel
Free
Link: Opera
9.6 beta 1
iLovePhotos Puts Organizing and Sharing Photos on
Autopilot
PR: iLovePhotos has launched an innovative way for Mac users
to effortlessly manage and share their photos using facial detection
technology.
According to the IDC report, Worldwide Digital Image 2007-2011
Forecast: The Image Capture and Share Bible, nearly 500 billion digital
photos will be taken worldwide this year.
"With all the photos taken with digital and film cameras, scanners,
digital camcorders and phone cameras," IDC Program Director of Digital
Imaging and Solution Services, Ron Glaz, said, "less than eleven
percent are ever uploaded to an online photo-sharing site."
This means that even the most important memories are left
unorganized and forgotten on people's hard drives, rarely to ever be
seen again.
iLovePhotos is free desktop software for Macs that solves this
problem. It utilizes facial detection and visual tagging to help people
quickly and easily organize, share, and enjoy their photos around the
people in them.
The iLovePhotos Mac software can both complement and synchronize
with iPhoto or act as a standalone photo manager.
As users import pictures, the software automatically detects the
faces of the individuals in each picture. This allows users to easily
filter their library to show only photos of specific people. As you
start typing a person's name, iLovePhotos pulls their full name and
contact information from your address book. Using this information,
iLovePhotos allows you to set up automatic sharing feeds. For example,
if Jane wants to share pictures of her newborn with her mother and
close relatives, iLovePhotos can send those pictures to Jane's family
every time her newborn is tagged. Each photo is automatically uploaded
by the software to iLovePhotos.com and the recipient receives an email
with a link to the images being shared with them.
Perhaps the most compelling feature is the software's ability to
help people bring long-lost photos back into their lives. It does this
by creating intelligent personalized slideshows based on how often
people appear in photos, who they appear next to most frequently, and
many other attributes. These slideshows can be embedded online or
watched on an iPhone, iPod, or AppleTV.
iLovePhotos was hand-picked among hundreds of aspiring companies to
launch at DEMOfall 08. The invitation-only event has established a
reputation for spotting emerging trends in the technology industry and
identifying innovative products and services most likely to have a
significant impact on the marketplace. The conference runs from
September 7-9 in San Diego.
Link: iLovePhotos
Telestream Drive-in for Disc-free DVD Storage on
Your Mac
PR:
Telestream, the provider of Flip4Mac Windows Media Components for
QuickTime, today announced a new product for digital media enthusiasts.
Drive-in is a first-of-its-kind software application that allows Mac
users to create and store images of digital video discs (DVDs) on
personal computer hard drives. Released Friday, September 5, Drive-in
provides travelers and home theater enthusiasts with quick, easy access
to personal DVD movie collections for playback on laptops, desktop
computers and home entertainment systems. A Windows version is planned
for future release.
Drive-in is an innovative application that allows you to store your
personal DVD library on your Mac. It's great for:
- Laptop owners who like to watch movies on the go
- DVD collectors with a home theater system
- Families who often misplace or damage DVDs
Using Drive-in you can create an image of a DVD disc on your laptop
or home entertainment system. The image preserves the quality,
navigation and special features of the original DVD and can be played
using Apple's DVD Player or Front Row. Once you've stored movies to
your hard drive - just browse, select and play!
Drive-in preserves the DVD's original content protection and allows
you to play your images on any licensed computer in your household.
Drive-in provides all the benefits of DVDs, however disc-free hard
drive storage offers a number of advantages over conventional physical
DVD storage. Drive-in provides a richer user experience, for browsing,
searching and accessing movies. Plus, the risk of misplacing or
damaging physical discs is eliminated. Home theater users can
consolidate their movie libraries onto a single, secure location. For
travelers, drive-in saves battery life by removing the need to search
and spin an optical disc, enabling viewing of several movies on a
single laptop battery.
"Any family that has a collection of DVDs is well aware of the
hassles of losing and damaging personal DVD movie discs," said Dan
Castles, CEO of Telestream. "Our goal with Drive-in is to preserve all
the original content, while improving search, storage and retrieval.
Drive-in provides a great playback experience on personal computers. It
removes the hassles of the physical disc and allows users to store away
their DVDs, so they are not lost or damaged."
Under license by the DVD CCA and DVD FLLC, Drive-in creates an image
that is an exact duplicate of the information that is on the owner's
original DVD disc, thus preserving original content protection. In
addition, Drive-in locks the software to the owner's computer and locks
the images to the software. Drive-in allows users to play movie images
on computers that they own, but it does not allow users to share their
images with others.
Drive-in also preserves the quality, navigation and special features
of the original DVD. Additional helpful features include the ability to
store thumbnails of cover art, names of actors, and movie descriptions
which simplifies searching, browsing and selection of movies. Users can
play Drive-in software using Apple's DVD Player or Front Row to further
enhance the user experience.
For more than a year, tens of thousands of users have participated
in the Drive-in public beta. Digital media enthusiast, Jeff Puritz,
reports, "I have been looking for exactly this program for a long time.
I have no interest in stealing video but want to keep some DVDs on my
hard drive for travel."
In Dave Peterson's article, Building a Disc-Free DVD Library With
Drive-in which appears on GadgetyTech.com, he says of Drive-in, "I like
the idea of being able to load in all my DVDs for ease of access and
still have all the features built into the disc. Picture quality of the
video image is excellent, the same as if you were running it from the
original disc, and all menu and special feature content is available as
it would be on the disc."
Drive-in is now available in two versions; a single-seat and a
multi-seat that enables users to image and playback DVDs on up to five
computers in a household. The single-seat version is priced at $39,
while the multi-seat version is $59.
Link: Drive-in
Desktop Mac
Deals
Low End Mac updates the following price trackers monthly:
For deals on current and discontinued 'Books, see our 13" MacBook and MacBook Pro,
MacBook Air, 13" MacBook Pro, 15" MacBook Pro, 17" MacBook Pro, 12" PowerBook G4, 15" PowerBook G4, 17" PowerBook G4, titanium PowerBook G4,
iBook G4, PowerBook G3, and iBook G3 deals.
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