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ExtraBITS for 05-Jan-09

iMacworld Puts Macworld Expo on Your iPhone or iPod touch — Going to Macworld Expo with your iPhone or iPod touch? Just in time for this week’s show in San Francisco, IDG and Zami.com have released iMacworld, an app that provides a directory of exhibitors (including floor plans for the North and South Halls), products, and sessions. (Link goes directly to iTunes.) (Posted 2009-01-04)

Adam Talks about Apple and Macworld Expo on Inside Mac Radio — Adam’s tour of the Macintosh podcasts and radio shows continues with a session on Inside Mac Radio with Scott Sheppard to discuss the fate of Macworld Expo in the light of Apple pulling out of future shows. (Posted 2009-01-04)

Pulsar Streams XM and SIRIUS Radio on the Mac — Subscribers to XM or SIRIUS radio services in the United States can now listen to their favorite stations on the Mac. The public preview release of Rogue Amoeba’s Pulsar frees you from using dedicated hardware or listening via a Web browser. (Posted 2009-01-02)

30 GB Zunes Abruptly Die — Dead Zune, dead Zune, watcha gonna do, watcha gonna do when they come for you? Macworld picks up the story of 30 GB Microsoft Zune players spontaneously failing early on 31-Dec-08. Microsoft determined it was a leap-year bug, and affected Zunes should function normally on 01-Jan-09. (Posted 2008-12-31)

Roku Adds HD Support to Netflix Player — Roku has updated its $100 Netflix Player to handle high-definition video content from the movie rental and delivery service. Netflix Player streams video from Netflix via the Internet to a TV or monitor. Roku also confirmed that companies other than Netflix will be providing HD content in the next three months. (Posted 2008-12-23)

Get Down with the Macintosh Boogie — Duane Straub, bassist in the Macworld All Star Band, has posted the lengthy (we’re talking years!) story about how he came to write the “Macintosh Boogie,” along with a link to a video of the song itself. It’s the first Mac-specific piece of boogie-woogie music we’ve heard! (Posted 2008-12-23)

Adam Talks about Apple and Macworld Expo on Tech Night Owl Live — If you haven’t yet had enough of the whole Apple pulling out of Macworld Expo topic, tune into the Tech Night Owl Live radio show for Adam’s take on what’s behind Apple’s decision, and why he thinks (or at least hopes!) Macworld Expo will stick around. (Posted 2008-12-22)

Google Native Code to run x86 Code Inside Browsers — Neil McAllister at InfoWorld examines what could be Google’s most audacious plan yet – to download and run native x86 code within a Web browser on a Mac or PC. The goal is increased performance and security, but note that code will need to be written specially or recompiled for Native Client, so it’s not as though your favorite apps will suddenly be accessible within Firefox. (Posted 2008-12-19)

Recording Industry Shifts Focus from Individuals to ISPs — The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is shifting from suing alleged illegal downloaders of music – as well as dead people, pensioners without computers, and others – to getting ISPs to disconnect subscribers who the RIAA says are illegal uploaders. The RIAA won’t gain any personal information about putative offenders, but ISPs that participate will put the RIAA’s interests ahead of their customers’s interests, and are relying on the RIAA’s accuracy in identifying violations. (Posted 2008-12-19)

Workaround for Software Update Hang While Installing — Apple has posted a support article explaining how to recover (by deleting partially downloaded files) if Software Update stops responding during its “Configuring installation” phase. The bug is fixed in Mac OS X 10.5.6, but can still affect the 10.5.6 update process. (Posted 2008-12-18)

AOL Instant Messenger 1.0 for Mac OS X Released — AOL finally releases an updated version of AIM. It was in a public beta test for a few weeks. It’s nothing special; move along. (Posted 2008-12-16)

New York Times Reporter Moves to Cybersecurity Beat — Veteran New York Times technology reporter John Markoff, long one of the paper’s main Apple watchers, is changing beats to cover the intersection of computation and science, as well as the social implications of technology and so-called cybersecurity and cyberwarfare. It’s terrifying that the risks of computer security exploits to individuals, companies, and even countries are great enough to warrant such mainstream coverage. (Posted 2008-12-15)

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