TidBITS turns 15 this week! In lieu of blowing out candles, Adam looks back over 15 years of Mac ownership. This week also brings a flood of Apple news, starting with the 29-Apr-05 release date of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger (and word that our "Take Control of Tiger" ebooks will be released simultaneously), and continuing with the company’s stellar Q2-05 earnings report; the release of Mac OS X 10.3.9 Update; fixes to iMovie HD, iDVD 5, iPhoto 5, and iSight software; and the announcements of Final Cut Pro 5, DVD Studio Pro 4, Motion 2, and Soundtrack Pro.
Take Control 40% Off Sale for TidBITS 15th Anniversary -- This week marks our 15th anniversary of continuous weekly publication, and we're celebrating with a 40 percent off sale on our Take Control ebooks
Mac OS X 10.3.9 Update Released -- Apple has released Mac OS X 10.3.9 Update, which is almost certainly the last numbered release for Panther. With Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger due to ship 29-Apr-05 (details later in this issue), any new Panther releases will be specific application or security fixes (as was true for Jaguar)
iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iSight See Updates -- Apple last week released updates to three of its iLife '05 applications, providing a small but welcome collection of bug fixes
Adam & Tonya at New Mexico User Groups -- Tonya and I have never traveled to the southwest United States, so we're particularly looking forward to a trip to visit not one, not two, but three New Mexico-based Macintosh user groups in early May
DealBITS Drawing: PDFpenPro Winners -- Congratulations to Kevin Wong of csua.berkeley.edu, Rick Jarnat of earthlink.net, and Ferd Diemer of lycos.com, whose entries were chosen randomly in last week's DealBITS drawing and who each received a copy of SmileOnMyMac's PDFpenPro PDF editing utility, worth $94.95
My main laptop bag holds so much that I'm tempted to pack a lot more than I need much of the time, and the end result is that my svelte little 12-inch PowerBook G4 ends up being only a fraction of the overall weight I carry
Ending the rampant speculation of exactly when Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger would be released, Apple last week announced that its next-generation operating system will be available for sale as of 6:00 PM on Friday, April 29th, 2005, although you can also pre-order from Apple (and other retailers)
Apple's latest quarterly report turned in another stunner: $290 million in net earnings in their most recent fiscal quarter ending 26-Mar-05, compared to $46 million a year ago
At the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) event on Sunday in Las Vegas, Apple revealed the latest lineup of its professional video and audio applications, Final Cut Studio
This week marks our 15th anniversary of TidBITS, and although we remain somewhat astonished that we've maintained a weekly publication schedule through so many years, the evidence that we've done so is incontrovertible
People at Apple aren't the only ones furiously preparing for Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. We're putting the finishing touches on our slate of Take Control of Tiger ebooks, which we plan to ship right when Tiger does.
Pre-orders Open for Our Tiger Ebooks -- Apple announced that Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger would ship at 6:00 PM on 29-Apr-05, prompting immediate questions in email from readers asking if we would be updating our ebooks for Tiger
The second URL below each thread description points to the discussion on our Web Crossing server, which will be faster.
Replacing eFax with MaxEmail -- Adam's article on switching to a new fax service prompts other suggestions from readers, including other applications that can view the TIFF-F formatted files that some services create