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Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Perian. Swiss Army Knife For Quicktime.

No, I still haven't got Leopard, and no, I still haven't managed to get this blog back in order - this is just a quickie.

Whilst hunting for a solution for my quicktime movie file that played only video and not sound, even though VLC played both, I stumbled across a shiny gem inscribed: "Perian".

Codecs galore, in one simple, easy to find place. It's open source and donation driven. Check it out if you're having quicktime blues, it supports pretty much everything.

www.perian.org

Till next time!

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, Tuesday, December 18, 2007 1:02 PM

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Leopard.

Yeah. It's out. You know you want it, you know you've been secretly longing for it even if you've vehemently protested that you haven't. No argument will work with me here, you know I'm right.

I know you believe me.

The only sharp pointy thing aimed at my bubble of leopard security is that I don't actually own it yet. It seems my finances have decided that leopard isn't going to be released for another month or so, ignorant of the very real fact that its already shipping.

From what I can see it looks good, but I can't honestly deliver any sort of verdict until I've tried the new OS myself, on my iMac C2D (Previous generation). Then I'll be able to write the low-down. Till then however, I'm directing readers to the MacNN article on Leopard. MacNN have a good reputation for responsible journalism, and even the best and most expereinced bloggers will secretly visit it from time to time.

Happy Leopard'ing.

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2 Comments. | By Skippy, Saturday, October 27, 2007 7:26 PM

Saturday, September 22, 2007

iPhone Carried Across Pond.

Because things are so crazy hectic, all we've done on the MacTake are drafts for posts. That means we haven't actually posted anything, so I'm just going to post this overly pessimistic draft to try and pretend we've actually accomplished something here. Bear with us, university application stuff will be over soon.

The post below this one outlined the basics of the UK iPhone release, and we view them with mixed feelings here at the MacTake. We'll admit that the cost of the iPhone itself (£269) is on target, but we can't happily accept the cost of the contract for the phone (£35 per month entry level). To be fair, we always complain about the cost, it's just what we do.
An 18 month contract is far too long, especially since the features offered are definitely sub-standard. You get free access to all the 7500 Cloud wifi hotspots, but other than that you're limited to EDGE access instead of 3G. I don't want to pay £35 a month and only get EDGE access when I'm not near a cloud access point, as well as only getting 200 minutes a month.
When you go to pick up an iPhone in the UK (Assuming you even want to buy one), you'll have to fork up £269 for the phone, and then £630 for the contract. Altogether that's £899. The advanced technology is in the phone, the most advanced thing available in the contract is visual voicemail.
I have a feeling that phone unlocking shops will soon be handling iPhones on a daily basis.
The whining over, I'm happy to see that the iPhone made it across the pond at all. If the contract price drops, or even just includes more features, I'll pick an iPhone up. Till then, my RAZR is a lot smaller, a lot cheaper, and a lot easier to stick in my pocket. Plus all the assassins carried the exact model I have in the Bourne Ultimatum movie.

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, Saturday, September 22, 2007 8:57 AM

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

UK iPhone details

To nobody's great surprise, Apple's press conference today was indeed about the UK iPhone release. First, just the plain facts:


We'll have a more in depth analysis of these facts tomorrow, along with our individual opinions. In the meantime, you can find more here.

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0 Comments. | By Alasdair Corbett, Tuesday, September 18, 2007 10:14 PM

Sunday, September 9, 2007

Apple loyal as ever to customers.

Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Inc. published an open letter to iPhone users attempting to calm the disquiet that followed Apple's decision to drop the price of the 8GB iPhone by $200USD. Users who bought the iPhone before the price drop, will receive a $100 store credit - as long as they haven't already received any sort of rebate, etc.

This sort of gesture is generally viewed as completely unnecessary by the rest of the industry (minus exceptions like Microsoft's loyalty to its 360 buyers), but really strikes an underestimated chord with consumers. Apple has done right by us, as its customers once again, and as always, demonstrated that loyalty is fostered only by example. 

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, Sunday, September 9, 2007 6:20 PM

10 Downing Street - iPlayer needs to be Mac compatible.

I just got an email from 10 Downing Street, telling me to check out this link, to read more on the status of the iPlayer petition. Quick news is that the BBC have to release the software for "a range of operating systems", presumably meaning operating systems that are not just in the Windows Family, such as Mac OSX or Linux. They're going to be scrutinized every six months to ensure that they're living up to their mandate.

Now for the official line from the BBC: a Vista version of iPlayer will be available this year, and they are working on a Mac and Linux version but they mentioned no release date for that.

Some background on the iPlayer: It's an app by the BBC allowing users to download and watch any program aired, but only after its been broadcast. Check it out at www.bbc.co.uk/iplayerbeta.

It's progress, but it'd be better to see a Mac port delivered alongside the Windows one, or at least an expected release date.

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, 6:02 PM

Saturday, September 8, 2007

Let's ignore the iPod for a minute and talk about Google Earth.

Last night I had a crazy dream, it involved me helping an injured pilot fly his boeing 747. I raced into the cockpit, sat down at the controls, and tapped the plane into a slow turn by pressing the left arrow key and then centering the ailerons with a quick tap of the c key. I then withdrew the landing gear and adjusted the flaps to 0% with the g and shift+f keys respectively. I could see the green fields of Britain below me looking rather picturesque, so I pressed cmd+ctrl+shift+3 and took a screenshot of it.
No really, that was my dream - presumably because I had just discovered the new easter egg flight simulator in the new Google Earth (4.2) the night before.


I read about it in this week's NewScientist, and couldn't resist giving it a shot. You have to press cmd+option+a firmly (and maybe more than once) to get it working, but then you can get started.

Google has listed the flight controls here and I'd recommend reading them before using the simulator. 

Unfortunately you can't see your plane in 3rd person perspective and there aren't any of the noises you'd associate with flight or any sound at all actually. But it's fun enough just silently cruising around the world. I'm now following the Nile River on my way to see the Pyramids, so I have to take my leave: I'm losing altitude.

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, Saturday, September 8, 2007 8:43 AM

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

New iPods and iPhone price reduction

This is just a brief post to mention that we're aware of the redesigned iPod line. These include a new Nano, a Classic version and an iPhone-esque Touch version. Follow the link or browse the newly-updated Apple Store for more details.

There have also been some pricing reshuffles for the iPhone, which obviously only apply to the US.

We'll have more tomorrow after we've more thoroughly read and analysed the news. Just thought I'd let you know that we are keeping track of this sort of thing.

Oh, and a friend of mine has just coined the term "iPhod" for the Touch. Expect to read that a lot around here.

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0 Comments. | By Alasdair Corbett, Wednesday, September 5, 2007 9:59 PM

Thursday, August 30, 2007

TV Shows Crawl Out of Pond.... Arrive in UK.

I noticed today that the UK iTunes store now sells TV show episodes. This is a brilliant step in the right direction, and hopefully we'll be on par with those chaps in the US soon enough. (What with their automatic TV Show season passes, and movies...)

A handful of shows are now available, including Ugly Betty, LOST, Desperate Housewives and of course: That 70's Show.
I have no idea what That 70's Show is, all I know is that it isn't Stargate, CSI, Lost, 24 or COPS, therefore it sucks.


My logic is impeccable.
Anyway, Alasdair and I have been chatting, and we've decided that I need to post more on tWTB, and that he will probably become a regular writer on The MacTake. Also, we're planning to resume those tips & reviews posts, as well as our 5 Podcast Picks (Of the Month), and weekly App Picks.
We also think a blog pick is in order, but we'll see about that after things get back on track.

I guess after the exams I just forgot the meaning of the phrase "regular blogging" and its taken me all this time to rediscover the MacTake and its reader base, and realize that I have a lot of things crammed in my head that I really need to post about.

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2 Comments. | By Skippy, Thursday, August 30, 2007 4:23 PM

Monday, August 27, 2007

iPhone Updates + Unlockification

It seems that Apple's latest update for the iPhone has made many of its users very happy indeed. Among this list of unspecified bug fixes was a wifi and camera patch. Apparently now the wifi reception range of the iPhone has greatly increased, and the camera no longer blurifies moving objects. (Source).

Yes I love my crappy non-existent verbs use, don't you?

Also a team of dedicated do no gooders claim they have found the end to AT&T goodness on the iPhone. They reckon that they even managed to unlock the phone with a software driven service, no hardware meddling for them! (Site).

Now I think Apple is mighty unhappy about this, well actually I think Apple couldn't care less but AT&T are mighty unhappy about this, and they're directing their unhappiness at Apple. You know: why didn't you make the phone more unlockification proof? Geez Steve, we spent all this money ripping you and everyone else off and you didn't even make the phone like um, more magic!
Not that anyone at AT&T would have coined my new term (just yet). Unlockification is hereby taking its first few steps* out into the wild west of the intertubes.

So my advice would be that if you are using this unlockification service: change your name, dye your hair, cut your hair, get a tan / lose your tan, leave the country, and stay far away from Cupertino, before Steve Jobs co-releases with AT&T, the iKill.

All humor aside, its an interesting achievement and if I was standing next to the guys who did it, I'd hi-five them for sure.

* Official first few steps anyway...

Note:
This post lives in 132 Diminishing-Ability Drive, Spelling-Mistake Land.

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, Monday, August 27, 2007 10:07 AM

Thursday, August 23, 2007

iPhone puts big toe tentatively in pond.

Rumors have spread that the iPhone will be carried over the pond from America to Europe by O2, Orange and T-Mobile. If that is true, I'll be in the queue on day one to pick my shiny iBaby up.
Now these companies have declined to comment but are ready to announce their deals on the 31st August at the IFA tech show in Berlin.
Cross your fingers fellow other-side-of-the-pond dwellers.

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, Thursday, August 23, 2007 10:14 AM

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Run and hide, lotus just came back for Mac.

Lotus is terrible right? I'm sure we can all agree that the Lotus application suite is just plain annoying. I remember running it on Windows 95 back in the day. Every time I booted up the box it'd get as far as logging in before it would freeze up for about 5 minutes. Then after my ears couldn't bleed anymore blood at the sound of a grinding hard-drive, the lotus apps icon would appear in the system tray.

And the worst thing was that nobody ever used it in our house! It just came with the machine and every attempt we made to rid ourselves of it didn't work. It was like a perpetually self healing app, constantly foiling our clumsy efforts to uninstall it. Because, you see, it knew that we needed it: that our bumbling in Add-Remove Programs was just an accident and that we were fools. Not.

The word processor just plain old hurt my scull. Using the spreadsheet app was like trying to learn hieroglyphics, whilst hanging upside down. The whole experience bore a strange resemblance to moldy sweet potato pie. From a distance it looks interesting and tasty, step closer and you instantly know precisely why you don't want to eat it.

So the point of this rant about Lotus? Lotus Notes Domino 8 is coming back to haunt us, on a Mac near you. Now I'm sure that they will have made a great program, and I guess that the number after Domino, (being 8) suggests that they have previously made 7 versions of the same piece of software. I don't know however, as this is the first time I've checked back in on them while not wearing a ski mask.*

So it can't all be bad surely? The MacTake thinks: You bet it damn well can, but we can live in relative peace for a year before its released for OS X, then the official MacTake verdict will be heavily passed.

Till next time.


Notes:
* I don't actually have a ski mask (nor have I visited Lotus), and no, I've never raided any company HQ buildings whilst shouting "Get a Mac you nubs, leopard is vista 2.0!"). And while I'm in the business of correcting speculation, no I haven't done a rain dance in public yet, and no I don't even know how to do one but I presume it involves shouting at the sky a bit. Oh and yes, I did do that kamikaze barrel run at the enemy base yesterday during the paintball game, I do not have a (brave) identical twin, and yes it also hurt like hell when I got painted a different color by enemy defenders.

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1 Comments. | By Skippy, Sunday, August 19, 2007 8:00 PM

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Critics aim their batteries at Apple.

Just like Alasdair said, we at the MacTake aren't quite impressed with the whole concept of a class-action suit being filed over a battery life issue. So let's get something straight as an Apple and Macintosh community:

300-400 Charges before the battery starts losing capacity. That's a fair bit but even after this magic number is reached, your battery doesn't suddenly stop working. It goes through a graceful process where it slowly dribbles away capacity over a long period of time, and I think people will find their iPhones will greatly outlive that $86 per annum replacement fee prediction.

In truth, most of us in the Apple community are pretty familiar with the battery life we're talking about here as the iPod had this same 'problem'. I've had my iPod for 2 years and it holds as much juice as it did after its first full charge. Most of us will find that the iPhone will perform similarly.

If you think about it, consumer image is extremely important to Apple and if they made a one year cycle battery for their iPhones, consumers would react badly causing a general drop in confidence over the entire Apple product-line. So, designing their iPhone batteries to generate a per annum battery replacement revenue would probably result in a net loss overall. I think this is another example of a sensationalist, over-eager attack on Apple, and I don't believe it holds too much substance.

But we'll wait and see shall we? You never know, it's not beyond Apple to have an off day, but their track record is good enough to suggest that they'll usually correct it well.

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2 Comments. | By Skippy, Saturday, August 18, 2007 7:00 PM

Friday, August 17, 2007

Class-action suit filed over iPhone batteries

I rarely post here but since I do have the ability to do so, I thought I would bring this little nugget of information to your attention.

As you may well know, iPhones, like iPods, do not have user serviceable batteries and thus must be sent off to Apple in order to have batteries replaced should they fail. This fact was not made obvious, or available before purchase, to consumers who managed to nab an iPhone on the day they were released.

A lawsuit, apparently the second of two so far, has been levelled against Apple for failing to inform consumers of this potential expense, on the basis that the iPhone battery will die completely after 300 charges, forcing users to replace it, and pay Apple $86, once a year.

According to official documentation and Apple's response to the first class-action suit, the iPhone battery should last between 300 and 400 charges at full capacity before slowly diminishing. This is pretty much what batteries do.

However, without getting into the legal details and the responses, one thing about this struck me as very odd. Let's do some maths.

iPhone release date: 29 June 2007
Current date*: 17 August 2007
Number of days the iPhone has been available: 50

50 * 24 = 1200 hours since release

Minimum battery capacity on iPhone: 6 hours (while web browsing)
Charges after which the iPhone battery will allegedly fail: 300

300 * 6 = 1800 hours usage time needed


So to summarise, the plaintiffs here would need to have been browsing the web for 1800 hours since the iPhones launch. 1200 hours ago. And that's not even counting the time it would take to charge, or the problems with the case filed in July.

The only possible conclusion here is that these people have been using their iPhones while travelling at a significant fraction of the speed of light. As far as we at the MacTake are aware, this is not a documented feature of the iPhone but it's possible that these people were beta-testing new firmware that adds travel functionality at relativistic speeds. If this is indeed the case we're sure that Apple will have worked out the problems that this causes with the battery by the time they release the "iWarp" app.

You can read more here.



*used for simplicity, since I don't know when the suit was filed

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0 Comments. | By Alasdair Corbett, Friday, August 17, 2007 7:08 PM

Friday, August 10, 2007

Sittin on the ol' armchair.

I'm jamming away right now to my old iTunes playlist, browsing the web with my vast array of bookmarks and chatting to buddies with my saved user information on iChat. That's right, the iMac is back from repairs!

The hard drive was wiped and the technician installed OS X from scratch, after replacing the logic board that seemingly caused our woes. Then I whipped out some toasted DVD's, copied some files over and opened up iBackup. iBackup restored everything I had backed up and I'm back on track! Tomorrow I'll wake up and wonder if the grey screen of death hardware crash was naught but a dream.

It seems I've missed a lot of new happenings. Or rather not been around to voice my take on them. Apple released those shiny new iMacs with their well, shininess, and also iLife 08. I haven't got my hands on the new iLife just yet but I'll be chattering about it on the MacTake once I do.

What do I think about the new iMacs? Great time for a design change, its moved the iMac into the more pro design areas, what with the grey aluminum and glass makeup. A few hardware upgrades but honestly? No giant leaps here.

I'd have to agree with anyone who said that the new iMacs are visual stunners, however, I just can't get the thought that Apple might just one day regret this design move, out of the back of my head.

It seems we've left the shiny white iPod world completely behind. Excepting for the white MacBook, Apple's product range has almost completely transitioned to the steely grays of pro style aluminum.

Well I intend to hold on to my iPod style iMac for a while yet, they'd have to ship free cookies with the new iMacs for me to even think of buying one. I just like where its at.

I remember hearing someone in PC World describing the iMac as "Basically just a giant iPod that does more. You know it looks like one too, but sideyways."

The iPod design has been such an icon to the world, I only hope that the new iMac one can set a recognized standard for desktop computers.

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, Friday, August 10, 2007 8:09 PM

Friday, July 6, 2007

News Scoop.

Things with StreamK are moving along so quickly now and I'm really proud of our development and design team. They're working extremely well together, and achieving things I never thought possible with the web platform we're working on. The StreamK gui which is due for release some time this month is looking more and more like a well-crafted software program, and less like a website.

One of the big trade-offs we've had to make however, is with web standards. Although every line of our html and css is w3c compliant, we've had to rely on some very javascript for some of the more complex functions within the gui. It means people with dinosaur browsers, or who have simply turned javascript off will have a great degree of difficulty using the gui. Naturally, I'm not happy with this at all. I don't want to sidestep users who for whatever reason need their javascript turned off.

However I think its about time the industry moved forward. Javascript should have been around long enough for it to be taken as verse. It should be embedded in all browsers known to man. Even phone browsers. And I believe that using simple javascript within a page should be completely acceptable under the web standards umbrella.

Don't worry though, if you are planning to use your phone to access the StreamK gui there will be a entirely text-based version of it released along with the full version.

Enough talk about Dunhenry, more talk about Mac.

Apple has released the iPhone to shelves and drooling customers in the US (duh!). I happen to be in the UK and haven't really been able to get my hands on one. If you own an iPhone, write in to me at skippy@mactake.streamk.com and tell me what you think of it. Pros, cons and all in between.

Apple has also released Audio updates, Security updates and Safari security updates. Worth getting if you ask me!

Not quite sure what the audio update did, but things seem to be louder yet again. Still no idea how that actually helps me though, it was already plenty loud.

Everybody see the new iTunes ad featuring Paul McCartney? That was refreshing. Good to see old grievances buried with the hatchet.

A new version of iTunes was released which does.... what? It changes some colours, and that's all I can see as different. Although the colours are nice, I feel like I have to be missing something. Tell me what it is folks, if you've noticed. ( I should probably just read the update information ).

Joost has released yet another version which seems to behave a little better on OSX. It features a bunch of new channels, and a bunch of really irritating advertisements.
Since when did L'Oreal have anything to do with Alliance Atlantis' sci fi movies? I've grown a distinct hate for the brand and everything it stands for (minus pretty girls). Please, bring back car ads, IBM ads or anything more tasteful.

More later!

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, Friday, July 6, 2007 9:24 AM

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Safari Update and YouTube on iPhone

Apple has released a security update for Safari 3 Beta. Worth downloading if you ask me, but bear in mind you'll need to restart. Get this by clicking on the Apple menu, and then Software Update...

Also, looks like there will be YouTube content on the iPhone. Don't quite know how it's going to work considering the internet speed, but we'll have to wait and see!
Check out www.apple.com/startpage for information on that.

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, Saturday, June 23, 2007 9:38 PM

Saturday, June 16, 2007

News Scooping.

It has indeed been a while since I've managed to post here on the MacTake, but I'm finally back. You see, I've been working closely with the development team on Dunhenry's next release of streamk. Let me just say: yes, it will be a general public release, and yes we'll support user created themes and to a degree, applications.

So what has happened while I've been away? Amongst other goodies, Leopard was previewed again at the WWDC. Major changes to finder and desktop, and some other presents thrown in. Check it out at apple.com/macosx/leopard/. Because I'm late on covering that, I won't go into too much detail as you will have all seen the keynote or got the idea by now anyway.

One thing I will mention is, if you want the nice new desktop background shipping with leopard now.... you can find it here.

Otherwise, there was an update for appzapper which I recommend getting, and ID is releasing their new engine for the Mac, along with some of EA's games. However macnn doesn't think much of this, and until I see that cider actually works well on my iMac C2D 256mb x1600 system, I'll still be using the family PC to play most of my games on.

Leopard has also ranked as #1 on amazon for pre-orders, and Apple has released a version of Safari for windows. It's buggy, but looks sweet and seems to do everything just that little bit faster than IE7.

Also, a mac os x beta version of Safari (which is considerably less buggy than the windows version) has been released. Few changes include improved finding and tabs. It's worth checking out.

Till next time!

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, Saturday, June 16, 2007 1:06 PM

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

iPhone Release Date June 29 2007

Apple has officially announced the release date of the iPhone for the US as this June 29th. They also have released tv ads for the phone which are quite neat and can be found at apple.com/iphone/ads. You might notice that there seems to be a minimum 2 year contract requirement with AT&T before the phone can be bought. Fine for people already with AT&T and satisfied with their service, but for others this might warrant a trip to the local phone unlocking booth. That's if they can actually do that at all. Any insights you have would be great, you can email them to skippy[at]mactake.streamk.com or post them as comments.

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, Tuesday, June 5, 2007 5:45 PM

Steve Jobs & Bill Gates at D5.

I couldn't believe my eyes this morning when I got up; I saw a picture of Bill Gates on the Apple website. Worse still, it was Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, and they were smiling.


So naturally I clicked on it, downloaded the 900 something mb video podcast and watched all 1 hour 30 minutes of it at school on my iPod. It was great, something a little new for me and thus really refreshing. When you see so much Mac vs. Windows squabbling, its just wonderful to see Bill Gates and Steve Jobs shake hands. The greatest misconception around is that Apple actually maliciously competes with Microsoft, or that Apple and Microsoft really compete at all in a negative sense. Apple and Microsoft have been partners since the early beginnings, and hopefully will continue to be. But I decided to fix that picture of Bill & Steve for Apple anyway.

Just kidding. I used to be a PC user and have always been a fan of Bill Gates. When I made the switch to the Mac, Steve Jobs jumped on to my favorite-people list alongside Bill, Jack O'Neill from Stargate SG1 and Captain Kirk. So really the picture should look like this:


I completely recommend going over to apple.com/startpage and checking this out. There is an audio-only version for those with slower connections or iPod nanos etc.

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, 4:03 PM

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Living room YouTube & 160gb Apple TV.

The exams are officially over, and I return from that dark land of equations bearing yet more good news. Apple have announced that YouTube content will be available via Apple TV, streamed directly from the net. This is a giant step for all those youtubers out there filming and producing the (occasionally) original and (usually) interesting content that really drives the YouTube machine. At any rate, I'm looking forward to seeing more of CultureKiller from the comfort of my lounge chair.

One wonders how it'll all work however, with limited functionality in the Apple Remote. For instance, how do we search for 'Lonelygirl15' with only 6 buttons? However, I'm sure Apple, true to form, will arrive at a truly ingenious conclusion. We'll just have to wait and see.

Apple have also released a new configuration for the Apple TV, upping the hard-drive to 160GB of space. An improvement, but for the hardcore amongst us, still not enough. *Imagines Steve Jobs tossing hands up in frustration. Gee, what gives you guys!? Haven't you ever heard of DVD collections? Lousy torrent leechers.*

Shucks, who am I kidding? We all did/do it. The point of the matter is that the new configuration has clinched the deal for me, I'll be off soon to pick up a new shiny Apple TV. That is, as soon as I can actually afford one.

Read the Apple article/announcement here.

Votes are down, and its been decided. The "Happy Mac'ing" closing phrase will only be used for reviews, important posts and rants. News is exempt. Not that I don't want you to be happy when reading the news but rather that using the phrase too much is driving the best of us crazy.

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, Thursday, May 31, 2007 7:29 PM

Friday, May 25, 2007

Apple Security Updates

Hey there. Its been a while, but so have the exams. One left, and then I'll be back on track, when it comes to posting at least.

Thanks to Alasdair who kindly handled that Engadget news, and expect to see him more and more on the MacTake. ( That's as soon as I start pulling my weight again on theworldtodayblog.co.uk ).

Quick bit of news, Apple has released security updates:
Security Update 2007-005 is recommended for all users and improves the security of the following components:

bind
CarbonCore
CoreGraphics
crontabs
fetchmail
file
iChat
mDNSResponder
PPP
ruby
screen
texinfo
VPN
Looks interesting and I'd give it a shot. Normally I just download security updates immediately, rather than wait for verdicts and bug reports, and I'm going to do the same for this lot. However, if you do notice a bug or know of a bug / concern regarding these updates, please post in on it. I'd be happy to read your emails sent to skippy[at]mactake.streamk.com, as well as comments posted directly on this blog. You can always contribute anonymously on the MacTake.

Joost invites are still flowing people; even with the exams I'm finding time to send them off, so send requests to skippy[at]mactake.streamk.com.

Till next week, Happy Mac'ing!
(by the way. Pirates of the Caribbean 3 is fantastic. If you get a chance, go see it! )

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1 Comments. | By Skippy, Friday, May 25, 2007 6:41 PM

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Joost: Reborn. Invites flowing free.

Joost has resumed operation. Don't ask me why, or how. It just did. Good news is that I've sent off the latest batch of invites already, so if you want one, email me at skippy[at]mactake.streamk.com and I'll pop it off to you asap.

Onto other news: I just registered for an account at Scott Bourne's ApplePhoneShow. Its full of itty-bitty bites of iPhone magic. Definitely recommend that you go check it out sometime. Also, Alasdair on theworldtodayblog has directed us to a pretty-cool video. Conan visits Intel. Its on clipstr.com so if you have the time, check it out!
Happy Mac'ing!

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, Thursday, May 10, 2007 8:02 AM

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Joost: Sudden Death.

Is anyone else having this problem? You see, I've promised my readers free joost invites; as many as they want providing my fingers can scurry around on the keyboard fast enough to send them all. However, Joost isn't co-operating. This isn't some lame excuse, this is a Joost-addicted man on fire.



And you can see why I'm feeling the burn. The Start Joost button is there, but grayed out. So near, but so far; to cite another cliché.

If anyone else is having this problem, stick up a comment, send an email, post a letter; just share your joost deprived worries with me, as well as tips.

I'll keep an eye on it, and will check again later tonight and tomorrow. Sorry to all of you who are waiting for an invite, you will get it, I promise.

Till then, Happy Mac'ing!

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6 Comments. | By Skippy, Wednesday, May 9, 2007 7:16 PM

Apple Update Anomalies. (with added voodoo)

Reader/Surfer 'M', from the UK has brought to my attention a little software update issue she's been having. Whenever Apple Menu>Software Update the WWAN support update consistently showed up on the top of the update list, but without the checkbox selected.

The update concerned can be found on the Apple Website here, and seems only to apply to wireless peripherals and express card's for MacBooks.
About this update
The WWAN Support Update v1.0 provides SW support for the following WWAN products:

Available on the Cingular network:
•Novatel Merlin XU870 ExpressCard (HSDPA)

Available on the Sprint network:
•Novatel Wireless Merlin EX720 Express Card (EVDO Rev. A)
•Novatel Wireless Ovation U720 USB Modem (USB Adapter, EVDO Rev. A)

Available on the Verizon network:
•Novatel XV620 ExpressCard (EVDO Rev. 0)
•Novatel V740 ExpressCard (EVDO Rev. A)
•Novatel Wireless Ovation U720 (USB Adapter, EVDO Rev. A)

To translate that: The update seems to be for the macbook range, and provides support for the above products, if perchance you ever happen to buy or use them. No harm done in installing it, and it may actually save you some time if you ever find yourself urging for that novatel wireless merlin goodiness.

On other news, Apple has released a 'placebo' patch that will correct the firmware on your apple macbook batteries.
Our batteries have firmware? Wow.
Read up on it at twit, and the apple download page.
Till next time, Happy Mac'ing!

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, 6:52 PM

Joost Beta - Now for friends.

Good news for all us Joosters, a new version is out there with new channels and unlimited invitations. As far as I can tell, running the old version doesn't work anymore, so if you need your Joost fix head on over and download the new version. Correct me on that one however.

If you don't know what Joost is, read it up on the MacTake here, or visit joost.com. If then, after discovering the delightful world that is Joost, you want an invitation, email me at skippy[at]mactake.streamk.com and I'll whizz one your way.

Music, Swimsuit (bowchickabowwow) and other channels have been added. The kindly folks at Joost have also promised to add new channels every week, which is looking good for the Joost community.

Last but not least, we invite you to enjoy the variety of new shows we're introducing each week. This week we bring you a host of new channels from Universal Music, great science fiction like Earth Final Conflict, and Creature Comforts from Aardman Animations. We've also got swimsuit models and snowboarders, anime and animals, and much more. But that's just the beginning.
Each week we'll launch new channels - making sure you can watch what you want, when you want. So stay tuned...


You can download the new version of Joost here.

So the whole 'Happy Mac'ing' has been itching at me. Its a little strange, geeky and oh so band-camp'ish. But it is familiar and almost heart warming.

Should I keep it... or should it go? You tell me. Till then (grimace), Happy Mac'ing!

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2 Comments. | By Skippy, 4:40 PM

Wired Ducks & Trains

Just watched this on wired. Now I have to wonder how it was done, the slightest cable under that train would've taken the camera man's head off. I'm thinking because he turned the camera around, that it was automated, or completely blue(green) screened. If it was real, it would've been damned scary.

Check it out, and happy Mac'ing.

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, 9:21 AM

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

New Mac Ads

Apple has released 3 new GetAMac ads. They're juicy, and full of Mac wisdom; the ads cover the issues of choosing one of Vista's many versions, to the genius bar & of course the slow release time of the whole OS.

Kind of a big stab at MS, and featuring more of PC's self deprecating humor and lamentations. At any rate, they're bound to induce a chuckle.



Check them out at apple.com/getamac

Happy Mac'ing!

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2 Comments. | By Skippy, Tuesday, May 8, 2007 8:59 PM

xhtml errors

Well it looks like Blogger is refusing to spit out valid comment code, giving my blog a lovely red sheen originating from the VALIDATION FAILED sign of the w3c site.

Till I write some nifty javascript to solve the problem, (that also doesn't get passed off as invalid html), it'll have to stay. Needless to say there is little performance or aesthetic hit, if any at all. Blogger is spitting out uppercase <BR/> tags, which of course under xhtml is undefined.

So as a disclaimer, I love blogger, but also, the xhtml invalidity is way out of my hands. (Unless anyone has a tip...)

Happy Mac'ing.

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, 8:17 PM

Spamming FTW

I don't quite know why, but Blogger has put the MacTake on the potentially naughty list and now requires me to complete word-verification before posting.

Probably to do with the constant republishing of the blog as I update the templates, either way, when I click the button it tells me to click to request a review, I just get the help page telling me to click the button I already clicked to get a review. Probably just a short-term bug, or possibly Google have decided they don't like me (which would be odd considering my profound love for them).

Anyway, this is what Blogger has to say about spam blogs:
Blogs engaged in this behavior are called spam blogs, and can be recognized by their irrelevant, repetitive, or nonsensical text, along with a large number of links, usually all pointing to a single site.

In other topics, I'd like to do a senseless butt-kissing plug. You should go read dvorak.org/blog. I do.

Also, Apple is giving away free music. (in a way).

Happy Mac'ing!

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, 6:52 PM

Template Update

Just to actually confirm this is the new template update for the MacTake. We borrowed the design from the new Dunhenry Website template that is still in the works.

Just to come forward with this straight away, the star-style permalinks were inspiration from daringfireball, which in the past I've used for typography and gui inspiration. Its a great website and definitely go check it out!

More features will be added to the template as time goes on, I have a flickr photostream to add as well as a delicious feed. In the mean time, hope you like the new design, and if you spot a bug email me at skippy[at]mactake.streamk.com.

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, 8:32 AM

Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Apple proves its still green.

Steve Jobs has for the first time openly discussed his plans for Apple to get green, and stay green.
Apple have cut lead out of their product lines, and have attained a 9.8% recycling weight of past sales amongst other things.

They've made industry leading decisions and implemented them even before bodies such as the EU thought them up. As of now, they're actually devoting research into the overall carbon footprint of their products, results and data of which they plan to announce about this time next year if not sooner.


We will be providing updates of our efforts and accomplishments at least annually, most likely around this time of the year. And we plan to bring other environmental issues to the table as well, such as the energy efficiency of the products in our industry. We are also beginning to explore the overall carbon “footprint” of our products, and may have some interesting data and issues to share later this year.


Happy (Green) Mac'ing!

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, Wednesday, May 2, 2007 7:12 PM

Sunday, April 29, 2007

News: Halo 2.0.1 Update

Good news for all of us still addicted to Halo 1 on Mac. We've seen this game come from xbox, to pc to Mac PowerPC, and finally to Universal Binary. Now a patch has been released from MacSoft to better improve the UB version's performance on Intel & PowerPC Macs.

If you ask me, the performance gain is quite impressive, the whole game has a smoother graphical feel, and you'll actually note a whole bunch of new reflections, textures and changes that, rather than take the game's look and feel away from the original xbox version, bring it closer.

I'm running it on 1680x1050 right now, and seem to be getting a frame rate of about 25 on the open area in Assault on the Control Center. Pretty good, considering that wasn't before possible, even with the x1600.

The update is only 4mb, so don't hesitate to head on over and pick it up. You can download it by clicking here.

Happy Halo'ing!

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, Sunday, April 29, 2007 2:07 PM

Sunday, April 22, 2007

MBP Hacked, Safari exploit.

Its been confirmed on electronista that a MacBook Pro was successfully hacked at a competition, when the rules were loosened to allow participants to attack the computer via code sent through malicious websites, instead of directly attacking the computer. Winners were able to gain user level shell access, via an exploit in Safari.

My personal risk assessment is that there really isn't much to worry about, as of now the flaw is a 0day hack, but I expect Apple will be on top of it soon enough. The hack isn't in the wild, its proof of concept. I'm going to continue using Safari, especially since that in order to exploit this hole, you have to navigate to a specific website containing malicious code, one that, isn't actually online as of now. ( Ill try and keep the blog updated pertaining to this ).

If you want to play it safe and it might just be wise, depending on the nature of your security requirements, just hold off using Safari for a day or two till Apple release a patch. Instead, use Camino or Firefox.

Happy Mac'ing!

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, Sunday, April 22, 2007 5:56 PM

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Phone Scam 0845

Seems to be another phone scam going on. A number listed as 08450229977 will call for 2 seconds to a cell phone, before hanging up. The victim is expected to be interested to see who called and therefore, call back, from then on I expect charges will be incurred or an advertising message relayed.

This is being reported from within the UK.

Just watch out for it!

Duplicated this post on theworldtodayblog also...

Happy Mac'ing!

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, Saturday, April 21, 2007 10:54 AM

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Newer Mac Ad: "Stuffed"


Okay so scratch the below post and heads up! Apple have just released another new mac ad, entitled 'stuffed', and very reminiscent for those of us who may have switched to Mac from Windows.

Check it out!

Happy Mac'ing!

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, Saturday, April 14, 2007 4:45 PM

New Mac Ads

These have been out for a while, but since there isn't much else going on I thought I'd better cover my bases and mention that Apple have released two new, spiffing mac ads.

Check them out at:
http://www.apple.com/getamac

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, 4:39 PM

MacBreak 64: Apple TV / Video

Well since MacBreak videos are so tasty and possibly rare, when Leo Laporte released episode 64 I just felt I had to blog about it too.

Go on and catch this great episode featuring Merlin Mann & Leo Laporte reviewing the Apple TV, jump on over to http://www.twit.tv/mb.

Happy Mac'ing!

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, 8:45 AM

Friday, April 13, 2007

Leopard Delay

Bad news folks, Leopard has been delayed further, to October. A beta will still be handed out at the WWDC, and Apple are blaming the delay on the iPhone's high software requirements.

Read up about it on: Endgadget

Sad, sad news, but on the flipside, at least Apple are paying attention to the quality control of the OS.

Happy Mac'ing.

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, Friday, April 13, 2007 9:41 PM

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Spam Fighter?

Well... like you all I'm fed up of spam. Is there a way to fight back? SpamPoison.com thinks so.

They suggest that placing a link to their site will 'suck' spam robots into it and feed them a never-ending list of fake emails. The only way to find out is to run the link, (I guess).

So for a while now I'll have this banner up on the MacTake, and I'll get back to you with whether or not it appeared to work.




Happy Mac'ing!

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, Wednesday, April 11, 2007 4:49 PM

MainMenu Update (Support for 10.4.9)

Well, I loved this app before, and I love it now. MainMenu initially ran into some trouble with the 10.4.9 update, but I'm glad to say that the dev's have now fixed that, and released a juicy update.


Definitely check it out, over at:
http://www.santasw.com/

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, 3:09 PM

Monday, April 9, 2007

100 000 000 iPods for me?


100 Million iPods have now been sold, according to Apple. Read more on their website at http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2007/04/09ipod.html

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, Monday, April 9, 2007 1:45 PM

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Octogoodieness. 8 brain's are better than 2.


If you haven't noticed (hang thy head in shame!) Apple recently announced 8 core Mac Pros. Excellent! Now my plans for world-domination can be processed at up to 3.0GHz and I can watch dvd's, render a movie, play quake and listen to MacBreak all at once.

Just need to buy one first.

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, Wednesday, April 4, 2007 9:25 AM

Monday, March 19, 2007

10.4.9 Issues

Surfer Glenn pointed out what seems to be a sharing problem brought on by the 10.4.9 update. The problem affects OS 9 Classic Macs trying to initiate a sharing connection with an OSX 10.4.9 Mac.

MacMaps.com has kindly detailed steps for a fix to this problem, which involves initiating the connection with the OSX Mac instead of the OS9 Mac. Details and instructions can be found at:
http://www.macmaps.com/upgradefaq.html

So far only a few issues have popped up with the update and its looking smooth. If you are having issues please send an email or comment, we'd value your opinions and contributions!

Thanks to surfer Glenn for pointing this out!

Happy Mac'ing.

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, Monday, March 19, 2007 7:50 PM

Friday, March 16, 2007

iTunes Update 7.1.1

Lately the MacTake has become a bit of a news blog, content has been difficult to churn out because of work and scholarly schedules. Fear not however, I carry a trusty notepad around everywhere with me and with it I note down all sorts of crazy ideas. Suffice it to say, there's good stuff coming folks.

The official line from Apple is as follows:
"iTunes 7.1.1 addresses a stability issue and minor compatibility problems in iTunes 7.1."

Happy Mac'ing

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, Friday, March 16, 2007 7:25 PM

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

10.4.9

Apple have released a massive update, 10.4.9 alongside an iPhoto patch.

10.4.9 has delivered increased security, stability and boot up times.

Definitely recommend downloading it, but note some compatibility issues:

MainMenu will not work with 10.4.9 as of its current version. I don't think there was any warning for the Dev's over there and I'm sure they're already under-way with a fix.

It seems with every major system update, my iMac increases its boot time. Its now about 45 seconds on a fast start up.

You can get the update by clicking on Apple, then Software Update...

If anyone else has any issues with 10.4.9, email or comment in! Your views are appreciated!

Happy Mac'ing

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3 Comments. | By Skippy, Wednesday, March 14, 2007 6:59 PM

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Skype 2.5 For Mac Update

Skype has released a much anticipated update, bringing it to version 2.5 for OS X.

Improved stability and 10 way conference calling features added. Check it out at:
http://www.skype.com/download/

Also consider getting the widget, which has proved useful before!

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, Tuesday, March 6, 2007 9:05 PM

iTunes 7.1 & Quicktime 7.1.5 Updates Released

Apple just rolled out updates for iTunes and Quicktime, bringing both of the apps to versions 7.1 and 7.1.5 respectively.

8 major security flaws were fixed for Quicktime, so I'd recommend the update. As for iTunes, a basic round up of perceptible changes are as follows:

Added support for Apple TV which looks exciting:



Added this amazing full-screen coverflow feature ( Pretty sure it wasn' there before ):


Full screen looks like this:

Also added a new 'Sorting' tab under the get info for each media file:


And finally looks like some minor bug fixes all round, the messy text column problem (rhymes nicely) seems to have gone away forever.

Reminder:
To download the update, click the Blue (or grey) Apple at the top left menu, and click Software Update.

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, 7:18 PM

Thursday, March 1, 2007

TheWorldToday

Alasdair Corbett (versuscom.com) and I have bravely teamed up to author a daily blog and weekly gag comic over at www.twtoday.co.uk . (TheWorldToday)

I'm really excited to have this chance to work on a blog and comic with Alasdair, and so far have been really enjoying the experience.

Meanwhile, did you know that the funny button in the top right hand corner of a finder window (for example) has an official Apple name?


Thats right, they call it: 'the little white pill'.


I dibs the name for my upcoming mac comic brainchild. Don't touch!

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, Thursday, March 1, 2007 7:43 AM

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

The Merlin Show



Merlin Mann, father of www.43folders.com has just started a new video netcast called the Merlin Show at
http://www.themerlinshow.com.

By 'just', I do mean already 4 episodes through it. Fans of ThatPhoneGuy will be happy to hear that The Merlin Show is in iPod compatible format.

Merlin seems to be focusing on doing interviews with other visionaries, and as far as I can say, its working! I can thoroughly endorse and recommend this netcast, rank it on your best-of-podcasting list right up next to the MacCast and MacBreak Weekly.

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, Tuesday, February 27, 2007 7:00 PM

Apple TV

I'm a day or so late for this one, and probably even the iPhone news, but Apple have had to delay the shipping of the Apple TV till mid-march.

Now I did read this news about the Apple TV on maccast.com, so kudo's and credit to Adam for being on the ball!

Read about it and more at:
http://www.maccast.com/

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, 6:54 PM

New iPhone Teaser Ad



Apple have released a new iPhone teaser ad, featuring clips from a selection of films in which someone is holding a telephone and saying the equivalent of 'Hello'.

You can check this ad out at:
http://www.apple.com/iphone/hello/

Interesting to note that the word iPhone isn't anywhere in the ad, and the phone still seems to be set to come out in June. We do get a nice view of the iPhone's back though.


Note as well that Apple doesn't seem to have made any progress with their FCC approval yet, but I'm sure its in the works.

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, 6:41 PM

Monday, February 26, 2007

New iTunes 'Just for you' beta Roll Out


Now I don't know how long this has been up, but I noticed it just now whilst browsing iTunes for some music. Nothing too new, I'm nice and comfortable in my musical taste niche (if you will).


Scrolling down, I see iTunes has suggested to me songs it thinks I will like. And well, apart from the KT Tunstall (which I may probably actually listen to one day, just to be open to change), its pretty on track.
I know this technology has been around for ages, and is relatively easy to code into anything from php to the dreaded visual basic, but to me at least its news and fairly exciting to see it being rolled out on the iTunes store.

You can tell the system that you already own a song that it has suggested, or that you really don't like it.


Just a note, I don't believe that this is going to be available for users without an account, but if someone has the chance it'd be great to have that checked out.

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, Monday, February 26, 2007 8:38 PM

Sunday, February 25, 2007

MacCast Loop

Not quite yet time for my weekly podcast round-up, but I thought I'd tell you of a new podcast in the works.

TalkShoe External Link

Adam Christianson and Victor Cajiao have teamed up to do a live talkshoe podcast together. Now from past experience we know that Adam + Victor + podcast = great show, so I doubt that we'll be disappointed with the MacCast Loop.

Adam and Victor have done podcasts together quite a few times before, my favorite being the WWDC coverage they did back in 06, so its really great to see them podcasting together on a more regular and permanent basis.

So, heads up and check out:
Talkshoe External Link

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0 Comments. | By Skippy, Sunday, February 25, 2007 2:02 PM

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