This week we’re featuring audio and video, music and TV. First, Adam reviews SpotDJ, a new Web-enabled service that puts the DJ back into iTunes with short audio spots that you hear after appropriate songs play in iTunes or on your iPod. Then, Jeff offers his initial impressions of the just-shipped Apple TV after a popcorn-fueled “testing” session. But we didn’t spend the entire week goofing off, as Glenn looks at Other World Computing’s 3 GB memory kit to max out the RAM on certain Macs along with how it might impact performance. Adam also examines Chax, a free utility that gives iChat a tabbed interface and a plethora of useful configuration options. In the news, we cover the release of SpamSieve 2.6 and how to get MacTech’s VBA-to-AppleScript transition guide for Microsoft Office users.
Michael Tsai has released SpamSieve 2.6, a notable update to his popular spam-filtering tool. This version adds Mozilla Thunderbird to the extensive list of supported email programs and improves detection of image spam and phishing messages
MacTech Magazine is once again accepting votes for the 2007 MacTech 25, a roundup of the people who contribute the most technical assistance to the Macintosh community through their writing, speaking, and problem-solving
As a non-artist, I'm always a sucker for programs that let me create interesting graphical effects - especially with text - without requiring Photoshop
iChat has increasingly become a necessary aspect of business and personal communication, but I still don't love the program. I remain peeved by its approach to status (see "iChat Status Report," 2004-03-29) and its general clumsiness
Other World Computing has a 3 GB memory kit that it says is a first for Intel Core 2 Duo MacBook laptops. Apple doesn't offer this option. The same $340 kit - a set of one 1 GB and one 2 GB PC5300 DDR2 SO-DIMM modules - also works with the Core 2 Duo iMac and the 15-inch, 2.16 GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro
"There goes the last DJ, who plays what he wants to play, who says what he wants to say." -Tom Petty in "The Last DJ"
I've never been sufficiently involved with radio to quite understand Tom Petty's lament about the passing of the independent disc jockey as "the last human voice." But even if I missed hearing Wolfman Jack live in his prime, there are times when I'm listening to my favorite music in iTunes or on my iPod that it feels, well, a little repetitive
Although the iPod has been "video-enabled" for more than a year, Apple treats video playback on the portable device as an incidental extra feature. The upcoming iPhone comes closest to the video iPod that Apple fans have been waiting for, with its widescreen-capable display
How to rationalize duplicates across 11 drives -- With thousands of duplicated photos on 11 hard drives, where does one begin to cull the dupes? (9 messages)
UK Mac ads -- The UK versions of Apple's Get a Mac ads use two actors who not only complement each other, but also bring a little edge to the Mac/PC relationship