Apple Locks Up Low End of Music Player Field — In a move sure to stymie competitors’ attempts to offer less-expensive MP3 players than the wildly popular iPod line, Apple last week lowered the prices of its tiny iPod shuffle players and introduced a new, less-expensive 1 GB model of the sleek iPod nano. The new $150 nano joins the existing 2 GB and 4 GB models, which remain $200 and $250, respectively, and is available immediately in black or white, worldwide. In the meantime, the 512 MB and 1 GB models of the iPod shuffle fall to $70 and $100.

<http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2006/feb/ 07ipod.html>

<http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/>

Apple also announced that cable TV network Showtime is tossing its hat in the episodes-for-sale ring. The complete first seasons of Weeds, Sleeper Cell, and Fat Actress are available now for $2 per episode, joining a selection of programs from MTV, Comedy Central, and Nickelodeon that were added late last month, such as South Park, Jackass, and Dora the Explorer. Television shows on the iTunes Music Store are available only in the U.S. [MHA]

<http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2006/jan/ 26itms.html>

<http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2006/feb/ 07showtime.html>

DealBITS Drawing: browseback Winners — Congratulations to Viktor Berry of viktor.com, Perry Prince of mind.net, and Fernando Rendon of comcast.net, whose entries were chosen randomly in last week’s DealBITS drawing and who each received a copy of SmileOnMyMac’s browseback Web history utility. Even if you didn’t win, you can save $5 off browseback by placing an order using the third link below; this offer is open to all TidBITS readers through 20-Feb-06 and drops the price to $24.95. Thanks to the 537 people who entered, and keep an eye out for future DealBITS drawings! [ACE]

<http://www.smileonmymac.com/browseback/>

<http://www.tidbits.com/dealbits/browseback/>

<http://www.smileonmymac.com/browseback/ dealbits.html>

<https://tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=08403>

<https://tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=08409>

Possibly you haven’t noticed, but during the past several months, up to just a couple of issues ago, I didn’t contribute much to TidBITS. The reason is that I was extremely busy all that time, working flat out on some AppleScript-related projects. Those projects have now come to fruition, so I now have liberty (and leisure) to tell you about them.

First on the list is the completion of the second edition of my book, "AppleScript: The Definitive Guide," published by O’Reilly Media. I overhauled just about every chapter, and rearranged things and added some new sections, to improve the exposition, to correct mistakes or earlier gaps in my own understanding, to respond to reader suggestions, and of course to take account of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. To top it all off, I compiled my own index. Owing to the usual time pressures, it has taken a second edition for this book to become all that I wished it to be, but now I’m very happy with it. Whether you’re a total beginner who has never programmed before, an experienced scripter in need of a clear reference, a Perl hacker trying to grok the AppleScript frame of mind, or a Cocoa programmer starting to add scriptability to your application, this book is intended as your guide. It’s priced at $40 ($27 at Amazon, but they don’t seem to be able to list the new edition correctly; check the isbn.nu book comparison service run by TidBITS Contributing Editor Glenn Fleishman for other retailers).

<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/applescpttdg2/>

<http://isbn.nu/0596102119>

Next we have the brand spanking new, insanely fast, startlingly cool, all-singing, all-dancing, all-Cocoa version 4 of Late Night Software’s Script Debugger. This is the product of master programmer and magician Mark Alldritt; my role involved consulting about Cocoa, arguing about interface, writing a few lines of code, and (most important) writing the online help documentation. Script Debugger makes it easy to explore scriptable application dictionaries and objects, provides numerous editing shortcuts, and lets you understand exactly what your script is doing, line by line and value by value. It gives you information you can’t get in any other way. For me, it’s the AppleScript sine qua non; without it, I can’t do any AppleScript programming at all (and certainly couldn’t have written my book). It’s priced as a developer tool ($200, or $100 to upgrade from an earlier version), but it proves its worth instantly. At the very least, if you write any AppleScript programs, download and try Script Debugger as a free 20-day demo; you’ll have a blast. Requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later.

<http://latenightsw.com/sd4/>

<http://latenightsw.com/sd4/download.html>

Finally, I’m pleased to announce my upcoming participation in the AppleScript Pro Sessions, to be held this year just outside New York City in May. I’ll be talking about Automator and giving my usual insanely paced complete introduction to AppleScript Studio. The AppleScript Pro Sessions are a sequence of in-depth seminars covering the most widely needed topics in AppleScript, run by experienced consultants Ray Robertson and Shane Stanley. The previous Sessions occurred last November in Chicago, and contributed materially to several key points in my book. I’ve been involved with the Sessions for several years now, but I still always come away amazed at their depth and range: beginning scripters and hardened programmers alike come away enlightened and satisfied. The number of valuable tips per minute that Ray and Shane provide is simply not to be believed.

<http://www.scriptingmatters.com/aspro.php>

AppleScript is a curious language, to say the least. It’s a dinosaur, an almost unchanged survival of code written in 1993 to run on a slow computer with a mere speck of RAM. The language suffers from peculiarities of architecture and design, from a dearth of accurate documentation (which my book is intended to correct), and from the fact that all scriptable applications are utterly different from one another. Nevertheless, AppleScript goes on and on, not least because it lies at the core of major publishing workflows. Attendees at recent AppleScript Pro Sessions have come not only from newspaper and book publishers, but also from companies with catalogs of every kind, such as IKEA, Reebok, and Land’s End. And at the same time, AppleScript is present on every Mac; it comes into play wherever applications communicate with one another (like when you press the Mail button in iPhoto, or when iChat knows what iTunes is playing), and you can use it to automate and customize the behavior of scriptable applications. AppleScript brings applications together; it also brings humans together. These last months have been a wonderful and fulfilling time for me, not least because of the splendid people I’ve been privileged to work with – folks like Mark, and Ray and Shane, and the AppleScript Pro Sessions attendees, and the great people on the AppleScript team at Apple, and my editors and associates at O’Reilly, and AppleScript users everywhere who have helped and encouraged me. My thanks to all of them, and to Adam Engst and the TidBITS gang for letting me be absent all this time.

So – I’m tired, is it nap time yet?

If you’re the designing type, perhaps you can visualize what different typefaces look like without seeing them on screen. But for people like me, seeing is believing, and whenever I’m looking at creating something for the Web, the trial-and-error process of finding a good combination of font settings always takes longer than I’d like. With the TypeTester, a sleek online application written by Marko Dugonjic, you can ease and speed up that process. (Thanks to Anne-Marie Concepcion for tipping me off to TypeTester in her free DesignGeek newsletter; if you work in design or layout, you should be reading it.)

<http://www.senecadesign.com/designgeek/>

In essence, TypeTester is a Web-based font comparison utility. It provides three columns, each of which can have different specifications, and each of which displays a paragraph of text (Lorem Ipsum is the default, but you can enter your own) in a variety of different styles. Here’s how it works. First, choose a typeface from a pop-up menu that helpfully divides them into three categories: typefaces that are available by default for both Mac OS X and Windows, Mac OS X-only defaults, and Windows-only defaults. You can also specify any other typeface loaded on your computer. Second, choose from pop-up menus to set the size, leading, tracking, alignment, word space, decoration, color, and background color (the color picker is truly amazing). As you choose each item, TypeTester automatically restyles the associated column of sample paragraphs using CSS styles. You can then repeat the exercise with the two remaining columns to compare different settings. When you’re happy with the settings for a column, there’s a link in the Tools tab that provides the related CSS code in a small pop-up window for you to copy and use in your site’s CSS file.

<http://typetester.maratz.com/>

TypeTester is free, though Marko is happy to receive donations (check the About tab). I’ll definitely be using it next time I’m trying to figure out what typeface to use on a Web site. Give it a look!

Given the canonical exchange rate of a picture for a thousand words, sooner or later you’re going to need to draw diagrams. OmniGraffle, from The Omni Group (the same folks who brought you OmniWeb, Adam’s favorite Web browser), is a wonderful application that draws diagrams with easy grace.

<http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/ omnigraffle/>

<https://tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07775>

OmniGraffle has a venerable history. Conceptually, it’s modeled on a NeXT-based application called Diagram! (a product of Lighthouse Design, a company later swallowed and, in typical fashion, subsequently scuttled by Sun), which goes back to the early 1990s and used to cost $500. The price has come down a lot since then; in fact, for many users, OmniGraffle is free, because for the past four-odd years it has come bundled with certain higher-end Macs. Meanwhile, OmniGraffle has had lots of time to evolve; and that evolution, as a result of the generous, thoughtful, and innovative programming practices at The Omni Group, has yielded stunning results.

A diagram is like a drawing, but it consists primarily of shapes and smart connectors. A shape is just that: a shape. It could be a geometric shape, it could be drawn freehand, it could have an image inside it, it could have color and a shadow and so forth. A smart connector is basically a line. It could have an arrow on one or both ends, it could have thickness, it could have a label. But the important thing is that it should be possible to connect two shapes with a smart connector and have the connector "stick" to both shapes even when, in the course of developing the drawing, the shapes are repositioned.

So a diagramming program is a kind of drawing program. And there is a certain protocol for how drawing programs should work; a program that strayed from the accepted conventions would be difficult to use, and you’d think there would be little room for improvement. Nevertheless, OmniGraffle isn’t just an acceptable drawing program, or even a good drawing program; it’s a fantastic drawing program. I would be unable to convey in words how simple and clear it is to work in OmniGraffle. Everything about it is easy and delightful: the way a shape highlights as you approach it with one end of a smart connector, the way grouping of shapes is indicated, the way you switch between tools, the way the inspector windows are organized. Drawing a diagram with OmniGraffle is as easy as breathing; everything just works the way it should.

I’ll just give a couple of examples of some nice touches that I particularly appreciate. A diagram isn’t just any kind of drawing; it needs a certain uniformity. So, as you drag a shape, little indicators appear, telling you when the shape is aligned with another shape or when it’s the same distance from shape B as shape B is from shape A. There are also numerous ways of making one shape look like another: not only can you copy and paste formatting, but a style summary inspector lets you drag just the desired attributes of a shape (such as its color or its stroke) to another shape. Furthermore, you can easily select just shapes that have certain attributes in common, so it is easy to (say) make every orange shape green.

Another remarkable aspect of OmniGraffle is how flexible it is. All sorts of things that you wouldn’t have thought of as diagrams can be opened as OmniGraffle documents. OmniOutliner outlines, for example, opens with an intelligent initial layout, the hierarchy being represented by connection lines. (Indeed, an OmniGraffle document has an outline view, which can be a good place to work sometimes, as when creating or rearranging a big structure.) An Xcode project opens as a chart of its classes and methods. And OmniGraffle is heavily scriptable, so in theory all sorts of custom automated diagram import and export should be possible.

On the downside, OmniGraffle’s online help is infuriating: it’s a Help Viewer document consisting of numerous pages, but there’s no navigation assistance (a page has no links telling your where you are or letting you move about the hierarchy of pages), and hyperlinks all lead, not to the relevant page, but to a search page. It also isn’t difficult to think of missing features in OmniGraffle. For example, it has no true named styles (such that I might change the color of "MyStyle" from red to blue and have all shapes with that style change from red to blue automatically – only the increasingly moribund AppleWorks implements this correctly).

Also, in OmniGraffle, the "intelligence" of objects is not all that it might be: for example, connection lines do nothing to avoid overlapping with shapes, and labels on connection lines do nothing to modify their orientation as the line moves. Contrast this with the obscure but very powerful programmable "intelligence" of objects in ConceptDraw, which I reviewed several years ago in TidBITS. If you don’t need that sort of power feature, however, OmniGraffle is probably a better choice than ConceptDraw: OmniGraffle is cheaper, it feels like pure Cocoa (not a Windows port), it’s fun and easy to use, and it does exactly what it’s supposed to do.

<https://tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06179>

OmniGraffle costs $80, or $150 for a Pro version that adds features such as tables (matrixes) of shapes, Visio import/export, shape notes, and multi-page documents. A temporary trial license is available. OmniGraffle requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later, and is a universal binary for you early Intel Mac adopters.

<http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/ omnigraffle/pro/>

<http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/ omnigraffle/download/>

Okay, I’m annoyed. Why is that airports, even relatively modern ones, have so few power outlets accessible to the public? I discovered this during a layover in Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, waiting for a connection en route to San Francisco for Macworld Expo. Although I have two batteries for my PowerBook, Tonya has only one for her iBook, and even my two batteries wouldn’t last for both flights plus the long layover in Chicago. So we set out to find a power outlet, preferably one that wouldn’t expose us to being trod upon by passersby and that would keep us away from the incessantly piercing beeps from the carts for folks who can’t walk from gate to gate.

At least in O’Hare’s C concourse, it seemed that there was an average of one power outlet for every three or four gates, and such scarcity ensured that those outlets were always fully occupied. After a good 10 minutes of peering at walls, support columns, and various airport accouterments that themselves required power, we finally found an eating area in which several tables along a wall were near power outlets, and the turnover was high enough that we were able to snag one relatively quickly.

If we traveled more, I might consider buying a high-capacity external battery, which can provide up to 10 hours of usage. However, at between $300 and $500 (depending upon capacity), they’re not cheap, and they would add extra weight to my travel bag.

<http://www.batteryvalues.com/Apple-powerbook_g4 _15_aluminum-laptop-batteries-product- b5760m.aspx>

<http://www.batteryvalues.com/Apple-powerbook_g4 _15_aluminum-laptop-batteries-product- b5755m.aspx>

On the face of it, the paucity of power outlets is ridiculous. It’s not as though airports pay any attention at all to power consumption (as evidenced by the massive number of lights and other machines), and the devices that travelers want to plug in sip the tiniest of wattages. Our laptops, for instance, theoretically drink only about as much power as a 45 watt light bulb; now that I’m home, I’m using a much-appreciated Christmas present from Tonya – a Watts-Up power meter – to determine exactly how much power my laptop uses in different situations (15 to 30 watts in normal usage and when charging, about 1 watt when fully charged, and nothing when the laptop isn’t plugged in, unlike some power adapters). And airports provide plenty of free amenities, ranging from the televisions feeding news and football addicts to the janitorial services that keep the restrooms clean, so it’s not like the people managing airports are philosophically adverse to making the airport experience less unpleasant.

<http://www.doubleed.com/>

A recent discussion in TidBITS Talk, spurred by Travis Butler’s review of third-party power adapters, lamented this sorry situation. As a number of people pointed out, finding a power outlet is only the first step – finding a working power outlet is entirely another matter, and Matt Neuburg said that the last time he tried to plug into an outlet in LAX in Los Angeles, his power adapter fell right out of what turned out to be a non-standard outlet. But it could be worse. Some years ago I once plugged my PowerBook G3 into a seemingly dead outlet in the Denver airport, only to discover the next day (by virtue of the PowerBook running its battery dry in the night while plugged into a working power outlet at home), that the airport outlet had in some way destroyed my power adapter. And Matt mentioned having seen a story about a computer user in Germany who was charged with "theft of services" for plugging into a power outlet.

<https://tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2802>

<https://tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=08312>

<https://tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=08315>

Could electrical power be becoming an upsell item? In Syracuse, New York, we noticed a cell-phone charging pedestal that charged $3 for 30 minutes of battery-boosting power (the claim was that you could bring a dead cell phone battery up to 25 percent capacity in 15 minutes and 50 percent in 30 minutes). It came with plugs for most types of cell phones and was operated by SmarteCarte, the same company that rents luggage carts in many airports. Needless to say, this pedestal of power was plugged into the wall, and I had a mischievous vision of someone unplugging it to hijack its power outlet for a cell phone wall wart, though when I checked it more carefully on our return trip, its outlet was locked up tight.

Power provision doesn’t have to be so crass. Even in upstate New York, where our power costs about 12 cents for a kilowatt-hour, charging a cell phone for 30 minutes wouldn’t cost even a penny – in fact, some quick tests with the Watts-Up showed that it would barely cost a penny per day to leave my cell phone charging all day long. Sure, SmartCarte’s power pedestal is also selling the convenience of being able to charge a cell phone if you forgot your power adapter, but on a pure cost per kilowatt-hour basis, SmartCarte is printing money. Assuming anyone uses the device, of course. Seems like a pay phone would be a more cost-effective method of calling home, and airports are the one place where pay phones still exist.

Hmm. Maybe I should start traveling with a power strip purely so I can use – and then share with my fellow power-hungry travelers – any outlet I can find. If I’m arrested for theft of services, promise you’ll all send me cookies in prison.

"Take Control of .Mac" Updated to Cover iLife ’06 — Joe Kissell has been hard at work ever since Macworld Expo, adding 22 pages to his comprehensive "Take Control of .Mac" to cover the changes Apple unveiled in Steve Jobs’s keynote. Most notable is the information Joe added to cover the ways you can use .Mac with the iLife ’06 applications, including instructions on how to create Web sites and blogs with iWeb, photocasting with iPhoto 6, and publishing podcasts and video podcasts with GarageBand 3 and iMovie HD 6. Other new details include instructions for accessing your iDisk using the new browser-based interface, information about Apple’s optional upgrade to 4 GB of iDisk storage and 250 GB per month of data transfer, and the increased flexibility in dividing space between iDisk and messages. Joe also updated his discussion of .Mac Groups with information about group slideshows, browser-based access to the group’s iDisk, using iWeb to publish group Web pages, more-flexible storage space allocation, and recent interface changes. If you’re using .Mac, you won’t find a better or more up-to-date source of documentation on how to use it, particularly in conjunction with the just-released iLife ’06 applications. But, as much as we’d love it if you’d purchase a copy right away, we’d be remiss if we didn’t tell you to go check out your .Mac Member Benefit for February first – it will be worth your while to do so!

<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/dot-mac.html? 14!pt=TRK-0030-TB816-TCNEWS>

<http://www.mac.com/WebObjects/Tools.woa? destination=memberBenefit>

Joe Kissell Discusses New .Mac Features on MacVoices — Just in time for the release of the significant 1.1 update to his ebook "Take Control of .Mac," Joe Kissell spoke with MacVoices about the new features that Apple recently added to the .Mac online service. If you’d like to know more about what’s new in .Mac, or get a better idea of whether joining .Mac is right for you, tune into this podcast, which you can find at:

<http://www.macvoices.com/archives/2006/636.html>

The first link for each thread description points to the traditional TidBITS Talk interface; the second link points to the same discussion on our Web Crossing server, which provides a different look and which may be faster.

Sony to do for books what iTunes did for music? Sony is about to introduce a new ebook reader that comes closer to the experience of reading text on paper, but even more intriguing is an online ebook store fashioned like Apple’s iTunes Music Store. The question is: can Sony pull it off, or will the efforts be crippled by DRM or proprietary technologies? (28 messages)

<https://tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2876>

<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/714/>

Yojimbo comments — Readers take note of Bare Bones Software’s program for storing important bits of information, branching off into a side discussion of whether application uninstallers would be helpful on the Mac. (24 messages)

<https://tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2877>

<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/715/>

Searching for a small microphone — Since the PowerBook’s internal microphone picks up the sound of typing notes so easily, a reader solicits advice on buying an external microphone for recording interviews. (9 messages)

<https://tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2878>

<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/716/>

Awkward aspects of the Intel transition — Now that the Intel iMac is on the market, what practical issues have arisen in the switch away from the PowerPC architecture? (11 messages)

<https://tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2879>

<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/717/>

Path Finder 4 comments — Matt Neuburg’s article on the Finder replacement Path Finder 4 generates opinions on what the program does right and what it still needs to work on. (13 messages)

<https://tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2880>

<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/718/>

PocketMac comments — BlackBerry owners relate their experiences with the PocketMac synchronization software that Patrick Dennis recently reviewed. (4 messages)

<https://tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2881>

<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/719/>

Do people like Treos or not? Patrick’s article on the BlackBerry and PocketMac also prompted one reader to wonder about the differing opinions of Palm’s smartphone. (12 messages)

<https://tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2886>

<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/723/>

iTMS open for any musician — The iTunes Music Store isn’t available just to the big music producers – though that helps. At least two companies can help post and sell your work on the iTMS, but there are several limitations. (2 messages)

<https://tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2883>

<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/720/>

Charging for email? AOL and Yahoo have proposed a scheme whereby companies would pay to have their "good" email delivered. Is it destined to fail, or does a glimmer of a good idea reside there? (8 messages)

<https://tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2884>

<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/721/>

Photo storage while traveling — What’s the best way to secure your digital photos on the road so that you don’t lose them en route? (10 messages)

<https://tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2885>

<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/722/>

Angle brackets and URLs — How many publications’ readers would debate the proper formatting of URLs in email? At least one! (4 messages)

<https://tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2887>

<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/724/>