[MyAppleMenu] Jan 21, 2005

[applesurf at myapplemenu.com]

MyAppleMenu
==================================================
<http://www.myapplemenu.com/>
Mac news for Mac people

[Top Stories]

*** Behold The Artful Price Tag
<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/20/garden/20appl.html?oref=login>
William L. Hamilton, New York Times

The design excitement last week in Apple's latest introductions was not in the Mini's small simple box or the Shuffle's stick-of-gum wand. It was in the prices.

[News]

*** Dr. Bob Arnot: Backpack Broadcasting
<http://www.apple.com/pro/video/arnot/>
Joe Cellini, Apple

Given the magnitude of the mission and the volatility of the country, the surprise is in how little Arnot required beyond his Save the Children mandate to tell the story.

*** Harold Moss: Handcrafting In High Definition
<http://www.apple.com/pro/video/moss/>
Nancy Eaton, Apple

"Composing and recording an original piece of something from scratch overnight, while you're also trying to finish the animation, starts to become a little impossible. So to just be able to sit down with Soundtrack and come up with something that works really well and sounds more than professional, it's hugely helpful."

*** iPod Shuffle May Not Play Well With All AAC Files
<http://www.macnn.com/news/27783>
MacNN

A document on Apple's support website says that users may not be able to play songs that are encoded by applications other than iTunes.

[Opinion]

*** No Cannibals
<http://www.macopinion.com/columns/intelligence/05/01/20/index.html>
Philip Machanick, MacOPINION

The competition is not the rest of Apple's range, it's the rest of the world.

*** Dell Could Take Hint From Apple's Style
<http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1753217,00.asp>
David Coursey, eWeek

Apple's continued existence is proof that design does mean somethng and that customers will pay a premium for that sort of excellence.

*** Once And Future Lawsuits
<http://www.drunkenblog.com/drunkenblog-archives/000376.html>
DrunkenBlog

*** Pepsi iTunes Contest: The Tilt Still Works
<http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/portable-media/ipod/pepsi-itunes-contest-the-tilt-still-works-030740.php>
Gizmodo

*** iPod Shuffle Not Compatible With eMac Or iMac G3
<http://apple.weblogsinc.com/entry/1234000890028397/>
Barb Dybwad, Unofficial Apple Weblog

The physical limitations imposed by the placement of the USB ports on those models make it impossible for the shuffle to plug into them. Luckily, many folks will already have on hand one possible piece of equipment for connecting the shuffle: a USB hub.

*** Is The Dock A Hopeless Kludge Or Just In Need Of A Few Tweaks?
<http://lowendmac.com/musings/05/0120.html>
Dan Knight, Low End Mac

[Review]

*** Keeping It Together
<http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/mac911/2005/01/keeptogether/index.php>
Christopher Breen, Macworld

Given that the only way to be sure that my iPod suffle cap sticks around is to physically attach it to the shuffle, this would be my solution.

*** The Mac Mini: Inside And Out
<http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/editors/2005/01/macminiinside/index.php>
Dan Frakes, Macworld

The big question on many prospective Mac mini buyers' minds is, "How easy is it to upgrade the RAM?" First things first, you need Apple's official Mac mini Upgrade Tool Kit (otherwise known as "two very thin putty knives").

*** Smarter Shuffle Playlists
<http://playlistmag.com/weblogs/todayatplaylist/2005/01/smartshuf/index.php>
Christopher Breen, Playlist

I mentioned that while iTunes' new Autofill feature is convenient, you can create better playlists for the shuffle with a Smart Playlist. After a couple of colleagues responded with "Care to show us how, smart guy?" I've come up with this.

*** Shuffle, The Newest, Cheapest iPod Yet, Will Surprise You
<http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/edwardbaig/2005-01-19-baig_x.htm>
Edward C. Baig, USA Today

I had no clue which of 137 eclectic melodies would play next. And frankly, that was part of the appeal.

*** Hands On With The Mac Mini: Taking Apple's New Desktop Out For A Test Drive
<http://www.macworld.com/2005/01/news/macminihandson/index.php?lsrc=mcrss-0105>
Dan Frakes, Macworld

Overall, as I suspected, the Mac mini performs well, but not spectacularly.

[Sidetrack]

*** Rumor Today: Apple To Reward Employees With Free iPod Shuffles
Heng-Cheong Leong

AppleInsider <http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=847>: Apple in the coming weeks will begin offering complimentary iPod shuffles to many of its employees... Several Apple employees at the company's retail stores have been told to expect a free 1GB iPod shuffle sometime in the next three weeks.

Cool. What better to simultaneously provide a little reward for your hardworking employees while equiping them with a little extra product knowledge than to do this? And, next year, if Apple's sales break through the roof again, maybe both 2006's editions of iPod and Mac mini too?

[Wintel]

*** Latest MSN Messenger Worm Can Hijack System Info
<http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1752988,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594>
Ryan Naraine, eWeek

*** Microsoft Cuts 62 Testing Jobs
<http://news.com.com/Microsoft+cuts+62+testing+jobs/2110-1022_3-5544187.html?part=rss&tag=5544187&subj=news.1022.20>
Ina Fried, CNET News.com

The job cuts come as Microsoft is moving some work from manual to automated testing. Workers were given the option of looking for other jobs at Microsoft.

The Tomorrow Weblog
==================================================
<http://www.myapplemenu.com/tomorrow/>
Emerging Technologies. Innovative Applications. New Economy

[News]

*** A Plan For Spam Folders
<http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2005/01/20/spamfolder.html>
Brian McWilliams, O'Reilly Network

*** Google Loses Trademark Dispute In France
<http://news.com.com/Google+loses+trademark+dispute+in+France/2100-1030_3-5543827.html?part=rss&tag=5543827&subj=news.1030.20>
Stefanie Olsen, CNET News.com

A French court has ruled that Google must refrain from using the trademarks of European resort chain Le Meridian Hotels and Resorts to trigger keyword ads.

*** Video Chief: Sony Correcting Mistakes
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23459-2005Jan20.html?nav=rss_technology>
Yuri Kageyama, Associated Press

Sony missed out on potential sales from MP3 players and other gadgets because it was overly proprietary about music and entertainment content, the head of Sony's video-game unit acknowledged Thursday.

[Linux]

*** Judge Orders IBM To Turn Over Code In Battle With SCO
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24676-2005Jan20.html?nav=rss_technology>
Associated Press

A federal judge in Utah has ordered IBM to turn over more programming code to The SCO Group, whose lawsuit accuses IBM of illegally inserting proprietary Unix code into the Linux operating system.

*** Novell, Red Hat Ready For OS Battle
<http://www.infoworld.com//article/05/01/20/04HNlinux_1.html>
Ed Scannell, James Niccolal, Robert McMillan, InfoWorld

Linux distributors upgrade open source servers.

MyAppleMenu Reader
==================================================
<http://www.myapplemenu.com/reader/>
The other things in life

[Life]

*** The Father Of Infertility
<http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2005/01/21/infertility/index_np.html>
Sabrina Prardis, Salon

When I was going through the grueling process of trying to have a baby, I longed for the comfort of empathetic women. I found it where I least expected it: From my blunt-spoken dad.

MyAppleMenu Shuffle
==================================================
<http://www.myapplemenu.com/podcast/>
Life is random. More tunes, less talk.

[Tunes]

*** Start A Little Late
<http://www.epitonic.com/artists/anniehayden.html>
Annie Hayden, The Rub
<http://mp301.epitonic.com/files/reg/songs/mp3/Annie_Hayden-Start_A_Little_Late.mp3>