Apple dominated the news again last week, releasing a snazzy new iPod nano and minor updates to the rest of the iPod line, along with iTunes 9 and iPhone OS 3.1. And if that weren’t enough, two days later the company pushed out Mac OS X 10.6.1 and a raft of security updates for Tiger and Leopard. We have all the details on those releases, along with coverage of the New York Times Web site being compromised and AT&T’s announcement of which cities would get faster cellular connectivity first. In fact, lots of other stuff happened last week too, so check the Bonus Stories for links to more content on our Web site. Finally, Snow Leopard continues to drive software releases, including Default Folder X 4.3.1, Phone Amego 1.0.3, PDFpen 4.2.1, PhoneValet Message Center 6.0.3, Simon 2.5.3, Airfoil 3.3.3, Audio Hijack Pro 2.9.3, Cocktail 4.5, ConceptDraw Updates, HP Printer Drivers for Mac OS X 10.6, iMac Graphics Firmware Update 1.0.2, Apple RAID Card Firmware Update, Firefox 3.5.3, QuickTime 7.6.4, and Suitcase Fusion 2.v13.2.
The iPod touch is now either cheap or fast, the iPod shuffle drops its price, and the iPod classic enlarges its hard drive.
Apple threw the kitchen sink at the iPod nano, making it a video and audio recorder, pedometer, and FM radio tuner with an added built-in speaker, all while keeping the price on the 8 GB model the same.
Details are still forthcoming, but over the weekend, numerous visitors to the New York Times Web site saw pop-ups masquerading as antivirus alerts and advertising Windows software that was itself malware.
Along with Mac OS X 10.6.1, Apple has released Security Update 2009-005 to fix a wide variety of security vulnerabilities in various versions of Tiger and Leopard.
AT&T has said which six cities will get its mobile broadband upgrade first, doubling the connection speed from the iPhone 3GS and laptop cards to cellular towers. Also, who are the five or ten people you call most?
Apple has unveiled iTunes 9, expanding its crowdsourcing capability with Genius Mixes, introducing long-awaited app arranging capabilities, bringing new home network sharing features, and expanding music and movie content offerings with iTunes LP and iTunes Extras.
The latest update to iPhone OS adds app recommendations using the Genius feature, the capability to purchase ringtones directly, and an option to lock your device remotely using MobileMe. Serious security problems were fixed as well.
Even Snow Leopard's updates are faster and sleeker. Mac OS X 10.6.1 is out with minor fixes for Apple Mail, Flash security, and printer drivers. A few unacknowledged errors seem to have disappeared, too, although other problems remain. We wax poetic. Or at least prosaic.
Notable software releases this week include Default Folder X 4.3.1, Phone Amego 1.0.3, PDFpen 4.2.1, PhoneValet Message Center 6.0.3, Simon 2.5.3, Airfoil 3.3.3, Audio Hijack Pro 2.9.3, Cocktail 4.5, ConceptDraw Updates, HP Printer Drivers for Mac OS X 10.6, iMac Graphics Firmware Update 1.0.2, Apple RAID Card Firmware Update, Firefox 3.5.3, QuickTime 7.6.4, and Suitcase Fusion 2.v13.2.
Between Apple's iTunes, iPod, and iPhone announcements last week, and the release of Mac OS X 10.6.1, we just ran out of space to include everything we wrote in this issue of TidBITS. These articles will likely appear in the future, but if you want to read them now, just visit our Web site (where you can make comments too!).
Read on for a collection of links to the most interesting articles and resources that the TidBITS staff discovered on the Web this week.
TidBITS Talk continues to be a great resource for good information, as this week proves. Readers share their experiences with Snow Leopard upgrade stumbles, AirPort connection problems, recovering iCal calendars, and buying external hard drives. Also, readers discuss Mac OS X support for the ZFS file system in Snow Leopard, cropping photos in iPhoto prior to making a book, and whether the new iPod nano with video can be controlled by a computer.