Joe Kissell wrote the book on MobileMe, but also knows it's not the best solution for everyone. In this Macworld article, Joe explores other ways of getting a similar range of features.
Apple has changed its iTunes Plus upgrade policy, allowing you to pick individual tracks and albums to upgrade and remove digital rights management protection for songs you bought with DRM enabled. Upgrades are still $0.30 per song and $3.00 per album in the U.S. market.
The App Store really does contain more than just games and novelty programs. Jeff Carlson spotlights eight applications that designers will find helpful in his article at CreativePro.com.
Although Seagate has yet to respond to our inquiries about how Mac users can update buggy firmware in a wide selection of buggy Seagate drives, Steve Maller reports that Seagate tech support walked him through building a CD that booted his Mac Pro into FreeDOS, after which he could run the firmware updater. PowerPC-based Macs and drives in external cases are still out in the cold.
Apple has announced it will begin shipping iLife '09 on 27-Jan-09. The latest version features major upgrades to iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand; comes free with new Macs; and costs $79 for all other users.
For Macworld's 25th anniversary issue, Adam contributed an article looking at the near-term future of software on the Mac, focusing on three things: what's coming in Mac OS X, the possibility of a Mac App Store, and how Apple is embracing cloud computing. The nut? Don't expect big changes in the next year or two.
As part of Macworld's 25th anniversary issue, Adam wrote an article about what he feels are Apple's six worst Mac-related products of all time. It's pure opinion, so check out the reader comments about what was - and should have been - included.
In MacVoicesTV episode 917, recorded at Macworld Expo, Tonya plays along as Andy Ihnatko plans to take over NASA and then they both talk about Macworld Expos past, present, and future. Bob LeVitus and Bryan Chaffin join them midway.
Macworld reports that the specifications of the $999 polycarbonate MacBook, the last of the white-shelled models to be sold, has had its graphics card upgraded to the Nvidia GeForce 9400M. The preinstalled system memory was raised to 2 GB as well.
Forgot to post this earlier, during the bustle of Macworld Expo, but here are my Apple-related predictions for 2009, as solicited by our friends at Macworld before the show. Note that part of my second prediction has already come true. Score!
Hard drive manufacturer Seagate is working on a solution to a firmware problem that is rendering many of its high-capacity drives unusable. If you've purchased a Seagate Barracuda 7200.11, DiamondMax 22, or Barracuda ES.2 SATA model, check to see if your drive is affected and learn more about possible fixes. Seagate says data remains intact but inaccessible, and is providing recovery services for drives that have been bit by the bug.
Donning his pundit hat, Adam weighs in on the fuss surrounding Steve Jobs's medical leave, taking the stance that it shouldn't affect Apple's operations and that the public at large has no right to know anything about Jobs's health.
If you haven't already listened to Adam and Macworld's Jim Dalrymple talk about the Macworld Expo keynote in the MacNotables podcast, you can now watch them go at it on this MacVoicesTV episode, since Chuck Joiner had the whole thing videotaped as well. These aren't your average talking heads!
About a year ago, Joe Kissell wrote "Looking Video Chat Problems
in the Eye" (2008-01-31) about the problem of making eye
contact when videoconferencing. A recent patent application from
Apple indicates they're still searching for a way to enable users to
look their video chat partners in the eye.
The money quote from my conversation with Mike Musgrove of the Washington Post about Steve Jobs's six month medical leave: "I hope and believe Apple is a sufficiently grown-up company that a key executive can step out from day-to-day operations without impacting it in a big way."