Category — Mac

I love these things!

So my second-generation iPod Shuffle has been out of commission for a while. It turns on and plays, but will not show up when connected to any computer. I’ve reset, retried, connected to many different USB ports on many different machines…it’s just broke.

I finally got around to trying to get it serviced or replaced last night. This is what I ran into:

The screenshot above (click on it for a larger view) shows that, to get my iPod serviced or replaced, Apple would like me to pay a $59.00 service fee plus $6.95 shipping and handling, for a total of $65.95. Keep in mind that this is to receive a refurbished second-generation iPod Shuffle.

Well, this seemed a bit unusual to me, so I opened up another tab in Safari, navigated to the Apple store, and confirmed my suspicions with this:

Yes. I can buy a brand-new iPod Shuffle for only $49…with FREE shipping! This is almost $17 less than a refurbished model would cost!

For just over $3 more than I was being charged for a used 1GB Shuffle, I could get a new 2GB Shuffle.

Thanks for nothing, Apple.

Not sure why I’ve been on such an iPhone kick today, but I just had to post this article.

In a post this morning, I referred to a draft bill in congress that had the potential to end the exclusive agreement between Apple and AT&T in the US, thus making the iPhone available with other carriers.

Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Investment Symposium, Tim Cook, Apple CEO, stated that Apple isn’t married to the one-carrier strategy it has used so far, even if it makes the most business sense.

Click here to read the full article at AppleInsider.

As predicted, Apple updated their MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops today, and there are some exciting changes…enough to make my MacBook Pro feel inferior.

Both models now feature the Intel Penryn Pro Core 2 Duo processor with faster processor speeds. As is typical of Apple, the price points for the machines stay about the same while the performance and capacity of the machines goes up.

Read on for the details…

[Read more →]

In an earlier post, I reported that the multitouch features of Apple’s Macbook Air trackpad were apparently strictly software-based leading to the assumption that those features could be ported to existing Mac laptops. MacRumors, this morning, published a story that demonstrates this is not true. According to Apple:

MacBook Air features the most advanced trackpad we’ve ever made, integrating the multi-touch technology from the iPhone. This integrated feature is unique to MacBook Air.

These advanced multitouch features are rumored to be released on some or all future Mac laptops, but those of us with existing Mac laptops are, sadly, out of luck.

I recently had a friend complain that my blog posts were too “Mac biased” and, therefore, useless to PC users. While I won’t apologize for being an adamant Mac fan, I’ll try to throw them a bone here with this little gem:

PicLens is a browser plugin that is, in my humble opinion, one of the coolest innovations for viewing images from the web. You really have to see it to fully understand what I’m talking about, but basically it allows the user to view a “feed” of images in a full-screen, interactive environment.

I know that it works with Flickr, Google Images, Picassa, Yahoo, and Facebook at this point, but, if there are not already others, I’m sure there will be soon!

It is available for Safari, Firefox, and Internet Explorer. The newest feature, the 3D “Wall” of images, only works in Firefox and IE. I’ll take this opportunity to throw out my Firefox plug. My advice: quit using Internet Explorer. If you are a PC users and don’t have it, download Firefox here.

Head over to piclens.com to download the plugin that’s right for your browser. Once the plugin is installed, anytime you mouse over an image on a site that works with PicLens (Media RSS enabled), a small play button will fade in. Click that button to begin the experience. If you need more help, you can click the Tutorial link on the piclens.com site.

Questions? Leave a comment here, I’ll respond. Enjoy.

I was excited to discover from a macnn article today that the multitouch technology, first released with the iPhone and now existing on the iPod Touch and MacBook Air as well, is simply a software feature. This means that, potentially, the ability to swipe through pages, zoom in and out of images with a pinch or spread of the fingers, or possibly more could be added to existing MacBooks and/or MacBook Pros with a software update.

No official release plans have been laid out by Apple, but it’s exciting news, nonetheless!

Apple released its much-anticipated 10.5.2 update for OX 10.5 (Leopard) today. Run Software Update on your Mac to receive the new update. I’ll spare you the details, but information can be found from Apple here.

A new application was released yesterday by Pangea Software called Bracketeer. This Mac utility allows photographers to combine different exposures of the same image into a new “enfused” image with a much higher range of tones.

At first glance, this looks pretty cool, but I haven’t had a chance to play with it much. I’ll re-post with more information once I’ve tried it. Pangea also has a panorama software available. There are free demos available, but it’s only $20 for both programs, so if it works, I’ll throw down for that.