Release date: Wed, 14 May 2008 16:51:39 -0500

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Release date: Wed, 14 May 2008 14:42:00 -0500

The Xtand is a solid aluminum stand that not only holds your iPhone when your hands have better things to do, but does so in that "I'm an aluminum stand that looks like an iMac stand" kind of way. It's 100% fanboy gear, but we have to admit, the 360-degree rotation and cable management system (aka hole in the back) actually look kind of convenient. No word on price at this time. If only Jeff Foxworthy's career were alive right now, we could end this post with a decent "you might be an Apple fanboy if..." joke. Our condolences to his family. [JustMobile via MobilitySite]

Penny Arcade Adventures: Episode One will be released on May 21st.

According to ZDNet.de, Intel Manager Hannes Schwaderer confirmed that Apple would be using the Intel Atom processor in a future version of the iPhone. The new model will reportedly be a larger model with a 720x480 pixel display, correlating with cir...

When Apple releases new hardware, it’s usually not owners of the previous models that are looking to upgrade—rather, it’s people who own older systems. With that in mind, Macworld Lab compares the test results for the latest iMacs to some older models, including a Core Duo-based iMac and an iMac G5.

For the first time Apple has sold out its developer conference. WWDC takes place June 9-13 in San Francisco.

On Thursday, shareware developer Maintain released version 4.1 of Cocktail (Leopard Edition), Cocktail, the popular shareware utility program that allows for additional Mac OS X system tests. The new version, a 2.6 megabyte download, adds the following fixes and...

iSobre has unveiled an interoffice mailing envelope-style carry sleeve for the MacBook Air. It's made of Spanish leather and comes in two models.

Downgrading to an earlier version may help.

Your Mac Life (YML), with Shawn King, which airs every Wednesday night, will talk about the grand opening of Apple's Boylston Street Apple store in Boston on Thursday. It will be the largest Apple store in the U.S., and Mr. King will be there. He'll discuss the events at Apple's media preview for journalists on Wednesday

GhostReader, AssistivWear's text to speech software, adds new voices for some languages and enhances others, and also features other changes.

According to CNET, RIM is planning to ship the newly announced Blackberry 9000 with some new-fangled music capability—like a Roxio application that allows users to organize music on their PC and transfer it to their phone and a program dubbed "Blackberry Media Sync" that will make it possible to transfer music to the phone via iTunes. How does Apple feel about all this? There has been no official word yet, but my guess is that Steve is going stomp on RIM Godzilla style. [CNET]

Apple has added a new “Get a Mac” commercial to its web site. The new ad is “Sad Song.” As usual, they star John Hodgman and Justin Long as the “PC” and “Mac,” respectively. And this time the PC sings a country song.

Apricorn has released a dual interface version of its US$49 EZ Upgrade Notebook Hard Drive Upgrade Kit, a solution that allows the transfer of all data, applications, documents, address books, e-mail, settings, operating system, and preferences from an old PATA/IDE or SATA notebook hard drive to a new hard drive.

Aquafadas has announced PulpMotion Advanced, the “big brother” of PulpMotion and software designed to let you create professional looking presentations using your own pictures, videos and music.

AT&T plans to boost the speed of its 3G wireless network to speeds of 20 megabits per second in 2009, “paving the way for over-the-air downloads that are more than five times faster than what customers can achieve today,” reports AppleInsider.

“iPod Game Console, Tablet at WWDC? Highly Unlikely”—RoughlyDrafted Magazine

MacTech released the “MacTech Office Scripting Advisor”—a set of guidelines, and questions designed to guide readers to the best scripting options for Microsoft Office. Hot on the heels of today’s Microsoft announcement that VBA will be returning to the Mac, the scripting advisor gives any type of script user the…

By Fabio M. Zambelli Swisscom has announced that it will be the carrier for the iPhone in Switzerland later in 2008. This brings the total number of countries/territories carrying the iPhone to 36—37 if Panama is added into the América Móvil network.

Adobe has released an update to the Adobe Digital Negative specification (DNG), a publicly available archival format for the raw files generated by digital cameras. This update provides new and expanded specifications that provide the digital imaging industry with increased flexibility and improved workflow for their raw images, according to…

The Macsimum Podcast for May 13 is now available here and the RSS feed is here. 


By Ramona Bissudo At its best, What Happens in Vegas has scenes (too few of them) that call to mind the dark comedy of 1989’s classic War of the Roses. But too often it involves toilet humor, including a sink scene that’s confoundingly similar to one in the recent Baby…

Awhile back we ran a story about Kevein Rose (founder of Digg), predicting on his podcast, that the next generation iPhone may support video chat. Also, we recently posted pictures of what looked like a possible camera lens behind an iPhone’s screen. Well, there’s more news, or should I say…

Developers, take note: Servoy has announced a public pre-release of version 4.0 of its flagship product, Servoy, with an Eclipse plug-in; form inheritance; form variables; live client debugging; an enhanced scripting environment; a menubar plug-in; design broadcasting; team synchronization; and the ability to edit multiple objects.

Speck’s SeeThru Hard Shell for MacBook Air is a two-piece, snap-on shell for the world’s thinnest laptop. Once installed you don’t have to remove it to use the laptop. All ports are accessible with the case on.

Although piracy of software on personal computers declined in many countries in 2007, fast growing computer markets in some of the world’s highest piracy nations caused overall numbers to worsen—a trend that is expected to continue. Moreover, dollar losses from piracy rose by US$8 billion to nearly $48 billion.

On today’s commentary, Gene “Mac Night Owl” Steinberg offers “More reasons for Microsoft to love Apple.”

Those who think there’s little room for personal computer—and other technology—growth in the U.S. should think again. There seems to be plenty of growth—and plenty of opportunity for Apple.

Apple is opening yet another retail outlet – this one in downtown Boston and it will be the biggest Apple store in the United States. The day before Grand Openings, Apple has a special Media Preview for invited journalists and Your Mac Life will be in attendance, taking pics and…

A new Apple retail store will open in Boston this week. Meanwhile, other stores are coming to the Big Apple and Australia.

USB Fever has released three new iPhone cases. The iPhone Hard Crystal Case – Flowers is a US$16.99 hard case with a flowers theme.

XChange International has released the new BatchXSLT (approximately US$684), which lets users convert InDesign documents to understandable XML and HTML.

"Some time before 2012"

I've made no secret of my overwhelming enthusiasm for the iPhone, and have sung its glories here and elsewhere many times. That doesn't mean that I never get irritated the device. I do. And, by far, my most frequent annoyance is with Safari -- especially when using it on the EDGE network

MacTech has released the MacTech Office Scripting Advisor, a set of guidelines and questions designed to assist users with the best scripting options in Microsoft Office

CSS Menu Writer is a new extension for Dreamweaver that helps you build customized CSS-based menus for your Web site.

Toontrack has updated its free application, Toontrack Solo and released EZplayer Pro, a new MIDI engine for drum loops.

A Microsoft executive said the company is aiming to capture 40 percent of the smartphone market by 2012, according to Infoworld

Fixes for two daunting problems facing users after this update.

Rumors are flying that Apple will release a small tablet-like device. Some see it as a MID, mobile Internet device, and some see it as a handheld gaming device. It could be both. In the past, Apple has put a lot of emphasis on its iPod touch as the next generation device, without a phone, to carry on the iPod tradition.

When it opens its doors to customers on May 15, the Apple Retail Store on Boylston Street — located in the heart of Boston’s historic Back Bay — becomes the largest Apple Store in the US. Customers will enjoy hands-on access to the Mac, iPhone, and iPod on the first two floors, and on the third, they’ll find a Genius Bar and Boston’s first Pro Labs, offering free, in-depth training on Apple’s pro applications.

We are pleased to inform you that Cocktail 4.1 (Leopard Edition) has been released. Cocktail 4.1 (Leopard Edition) is the latest maintenance update for Cocktail (Leopard Edition). It adds support for clearing dynamic [...]

Amsterdam - 14 May 2008 - ConvenienceWare / AssistiveWare today announced the release of GhostReader 1.5, which adds new voices, enhanced iPhone/iPod export, a pronunciation editor and much more. GhostReader is a [...]

O2's parent company, Telefonica Europe, may have dropped a hint at Apple's iPhone plans when CEO Matthew Key said that his company will be making a joint iPhone announcement with Apple in "the coming weeks." The revelation came after O2's first quarter earnings announcement on Wednesday

BurnAgain FS enables multisession disc burning with regular CD-R/RW and DVD-R/RW media.

Over at Mertiline, you can save 50% off iPod classic accessories including GelaSkins. The savings might not sound like much when it comes to already cheap accessories, but coupled with free shipping you can score a GelaSkin for $9, car charger for $5, USB car charger for $6, alarm clock for $25, or shower adapter for $23. Just make sure to enter the code "mp3ac50poff" at checkout. [Meritline via bargainjack]

Maintain announced the immediate availability of Cocktail 4.1 on Wednesday. The update for the Leopard edition of the system maintenance utility improved support for Safari 3.1, and added support for clearing the dynamic link editor's shared cache

ZDOne writes "ZDNet's reviews team have been tinkering with the various ways of running OS X on standard PCs. They found that with the right hardware components, a standard PC running Mac OS X Leopard is, at first sight, no different from a genuine Apple Mac. Special CPU extensions such as Intel VT-x provide support for software solutions like Parallels Desktop for Mac. Even Adobe Photoshop, which queries a Mac to verify its authenticity, runs fine on a standard PC thanks to EFI emulation. However the article points out that it's a pretty technical proposition at the end of the day and beyond all but the most powerful power users. And then there is the legal question. Don't even think about trying to put OS X on your PC without first purchasing a legitimate copy of Mac OS Leopard."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Here is a way to automatically change your status when sending or receiving audio/video invitations. You'll need to create four simple AppleScripts, and save them into your user's Library » Scripts » iChat folder (create the folder if necessary).

Open Script Editor (in Applications » AppleScript), then copy and paste these scripts, one at a time, into the Script Editor window. Click the Compile button, then select File » Save As and point to the previously-noted iChat folder. Name them as shown with each scripts code, on the second page of the hint... Script name: iChat invited video.scpt

using terms from application "iChat"
  on received video invitation theText from theBuddy for theChat
    set status to away
    set status message to "In conference"
  end received video invitation
end using terms from

Script name: iChat invited audio.s...

Most OS X apps can have their interface elements accessed by AppleScript, and so anything can be scripted. Unfortunately, not all apps use an Aqua interface, especially games with game-engine-rendered interface elements. This means AppleScript can't find buttons, etc., to click on, and you're out of luck trying to automate actions.

Recently, I was given the unpleasant task of automating actions in such unfriendly apps. I just about went crazy trying to find a way to write a simple script with coordinates for mouse click events.There's nothing available within AppleScript for pushing the mouse around, and I couldn't find any command-line utilities either. Out of necessity, I wrote my own.

This is my first time writing anything that even resembles Cocoa, and my first time writing code that compiles in nearly 10 years. I'm a scripting guy, and I just wanted to be able to write a script. What I wrote is a little command-...

This one is pretty simple, but very easy to overlook. When using Photoshop, especially on small laptop screens, the cursor often just seems to "vanish" into thin air -- this is possibly due to LCD screen redraw lag, or just because the 'accurate' form of the various cursor types tend to be very small.

So, when trying to position the cursor accurately, just hold down the Space Bar for a second, and the cursor, wherever it is on the screen, will switch to a relatively large 'hand' icon. That's usually enough of a visual hint to be able to reposition it to where you want it, so you can switch to another tool, crop, marquee, or brush, and get on with your work.

This sure saves on eyestrain -- and that's a good thing!

Apple hosts free seminars and tutorials on a variety of topics -- both in-person at Apple Stores (at least in the USA) and online. You can find in-person events using this page, which has a number of search options. If you'd like to just see the online tutorials, try this page. Simply create an account (i.e. provide email and password) to register for the seminar/event -- you'll get an email with a link to the seminar/event.

There are topics covering everything from podcasting to GarageBand to Motion, switching to the Mac from Windows, Windows compatibility, and much more -- check out the lists at the above links.

[robg adds: Not a direct hint per se, but given I'd never seen either of these pages, I thought they might be worth sharing. There are some good tutorials available, at least in the ...

Internet provider Earthlink announced on Tuesday that it will shut down its Philadelphia municipal Wi-Fi network, the flagship of its municipal wireless initiative and remove it from the city's street lights. According to Macworld, Earthlink released a statement citing...

If you use Data Backup over a network, this update will correct some issues for you.