The big news this week is Microsoft’s $44.6 billion bid to buy Yahoo, so Adam looks at what’s involved and comes away unconvinced that it’s a good idea. Back in the Macintosh world, Apple released updates to iWork and iWeb, but draws ire for remaining almost entirely mum on what changed. Glenn laments the loss of the Crazy Apple Rumors Site, Joe explains how to work around the disconcerting way that video chats make eye contact nearly impossible, Adam weighs in on the Direct Marketing Association’s move against the Catalog Choice service, and Mark relates his woes in dealing with warranty repairs. This issue brings a number of practical tips, such as how to avoid mysterious crashes on launch in Word 2008, ways of working around an infinite Setup Assistant loop at startup, and what to do when your Mac starts typing in the wrong language. We also welcome a new sponsor – CS Odessa, makers of ConceptDraw – and open a DealBITS drawing to give away copies of Sound Studio 3. Lastly, check out our latest Leopard ebooks on backing up, maintaining your Mac, and more!
Apple released updates to iWork and iWeb, but described three of the four updates with a mere eight words (and that's counting "Mac OS X" as three words. Read on, not for a useful description of the updates (which isn't possible), but for Adam's rant at Apple for not trusting us with real information.
In a surprise move, Microsoft has made an unsolicited $44.6 billion offer to buy Yahoo. Does this make sense? Will Yahoo accept the offer?
Thanks to CS Odessa, makers of the ConceptDraw business graphics program, for sponsoring TidBITS.
If you work with audio, don't miss your chance to win a copy of Sound Studio 3 from Freeverse!
As the saying we just made up goes, "The strangest truth is that which is false." That's why we'll miss Crazy Apple Rumors Site so very much. Also, they gave us pie.
Will Word 2008 not launch for you? Here's one possible solution.
Glenn finds that Leopard heads into an infinite Setup Assistant loop due to a single damaged file. He feels like a Windows user for a moment: the only way out is to reinstall the operating system.
If you find that your Mac unexpectedly starts typing in a different character set, such as Greek or Arabic, the explanation may be simple.
Catalog Choice must be doing a good job of helping individuals reduce the flood of unwanted catalogs - the Direct Marketing Association is on the defensive.
Our authors have been hard at work exploring Leopard's ins and outs, and we have three new ebooks for you that tell you what you need to know about Time Machine, maintaining your Mac, and using the big new features in Leopard.
Using iChat or Skype for video chats or remote presentations can be awkward in that you can't look into the camera and see the person on the other end at the same time. Until Apple's patented solution to this problem materializes, you can get partway there with a simple gadget called See Eye 2 Eye.
When you're buying a hardware add-on for your Mac, features and price are key factors, but what about warranty? If your accessory fails, will the manufacturer replace it? We explore what consumers need to know about the differences from one manufacturer's warranty to the next - looking not just at the number of years you're covered, but the number of days, or weeks, you might have to wait for service.
This week's discussions cover a wide gamut: migrating contact information and synchronizing to a Palm Treo, comparing Drive Genius to DiskWarrior, Apple's annoying lack of useful release notes, booting from an external hard drive, and more.