Macteens Magazine Editors contributed to this story.

Live from the WWDC 2008 Keynote

by Aaron Plane • 06/09/2008 at 11:06 AM

Welcome to Macteens’ annual keynote coverage of Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference, live from the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Our coverage will begin shortly before 10 AM PST (1 PM EST). Updates are posted in chronological order, with new updates at the end of this page. Our normal site is stil available, and will return after the conclusion of today’s event. In addition, our forums are still open and available.

• 2:00 AM - Welcome to Macteens’ annual keynote coverage of Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference, live from the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Our coverage will begin shortly before 10 AM PST (1 PM EST). Updates are posted in chronological order, with new updates at the end of this page. Our normal site is stil available here, and will return after the conclusion of today’s event. In addition, our forums are still open and available.
• 8:50 AM - The attendee line for the keynote appears to be several blocks long. Attendees have started to enter the second level the building, for the last span of their waits. Several shrouded banners have been noted, including a large one in a lab area.


• 9:00 AM - The keynote is expected begin in about an hour. The Apple Store Online is now down, as expected.


• 9:34 AM - The keynote is expected begin in about half an hour.


• 9:35 AM - Aaron Tait has several pictures of the line & wait on his flickr page.


• 9:50 AM - People are pouring into the hall.


• 9:56 AM - Attendees ar beginning to take their seats.


• 9:58 AM - Classic rock songs are being played as people continue to pour into the hall. (I wonder if there any Beatles songs being played...)


• 10:02 AM - Al Gore is being shown on the screens (he’s in the audience).


• 10:05 AM - Lights have been dimmed. Time for the keynote to begin.


• 10:06 AM - Steve is on stage.


• 10:06 AM - Steve has been working on some “great stuff”. 52 000 attendees at WWDC ‘08 (Record numbers).


• 10:07 AM - 3 parts to Apple - Mac, Music, iPhone.


• 10:08 AM - Bertrand Serlet will demo 10.6 “Snow Leopard” after lunch (during the keynote?).


• 10:09 AM - 250 000 people have dowloaded SDK, 4000 in the beta program.


• 10:10 AM - 3 parts to iPhone 2.0- SDK, users, and enterprise.


• 10:11 AM - Ecxchange support, previously stated in the March 6th special event.


• 10:11 AM - 35% of Fortune 500 companies participated in the beta program. (This is going to be huuuge!)


• 10:12 AM - Higher-Ed has participated, too.


• 10:14 AM - CTOs of various companies discuss iPhone 2.0.


• 10:15 AM - Contacts search in real time.


• 10:16 AM - Video’s done. Scott Forestell is going to do a demo.


• 10:17 AM - Talks about core APIs: Cocoa Touch, Media, Core Services, Core OS.


• 10:18 AM - A fast implementation of OpenGL (Hello iPhone/Touch gaming!).


• 10:20 AM - Cocoa Touch makes UIs a breeze. Hoping they get to the “meaty” stuff soon.


• 10:20 AM - Demo of a Cocoa Touch application being built.


• 10:21 AM - Application, Nearby Friends, uses Address Book API to find friends within a 10 mile radius.


• 10:22 AM - Building an interface is a piece of cake by dragging elements and combining them.


• 10:24 AM - Inteface Builder automagically knows the orientation of your iPhone.


• 10:25 AM - Within minutes, created a fully functional app. Showing it off via his iPhone.


• 10:26 AM - Demo is done. Developers love the awesomeness of the iPhone dev. platform.


• 10:28 AM - Super Monkey Bal for iPhone is nearly complete.


• 10:29 AM - Now Sega is up on stage demoing Super Monkey Ball with multiple levels.


• 10:30 AM - “Available at launch of app store for $9.99”.


• 10:30 AM - Scott has introduced eBay and their native iPhone app.


• 10:32 AM - Now bidding on an item live on iPhone.


• 10:32 AM - Watching a $12.5 million golf course in Mexico.


• 10:33 AM - eBay app for free when App store launches.


• 10:34 AM - Location-based API being demoed by Loopt.


• 10:36 AM - Free on iPhone and app store on launch.


• 10:36 AM - Next up - Michael from Sixapart talking about Typepad app.


• 10:36 AM - Now demoing Typepad app.


• 10:37 AM - Presenter mentions that it is “incredibly easy to post to my blog”.


• 10:38 AM - Creating posts, viewing pending posts, integrated with Safari mobile. App for free from App Store.


• 10:39 AM - The Associated Press is now up.


• 10:39 AM - iPhone “important catalyst”. Demos “Mobile News Network”


• 10:40 AM - Stay up to date, dynamic caching on iPhone, award-winning photography.


• 10:40 AM - Watch video on it, too (demoing video).


• 10:41 AM - Share your news via iPhone.


• 10:41 AM - Available free from the App Store. More on the way.


• 10:41 AM - Pangea Software is next up. 2 Games. Brian is presenting.


• 10:42 AM - 2 games ported from Mac - Enigmo and ....


• 10:44 AM - Racing game - Cromag Rally. All playable. iPhone itself is a steering wheel.


• 10:45 AM - “Took no time to do. Steering took 5-10 minutes”.


• 10:45 AM - $9.99 each.


• 10:45 AM - Individual developer. Scott is impressed. INSURANCE person, but definitely not an insurance app.


• 10:46 AM - App is called Band. Sounds cool.


• 10:47 AM - Demoing various instruments. The crowd is going wild with this one.


• 10:48 AM - Available in app store in a few weeks.


• 10:48 AM - MLB.com di next up, new app for fans of baseball.


• 10:48 AM - Live feeds from games, who’s on base, etc. Real time video highlights, too.


• 10:50 AM - “Best possible video experience, on edge or wifi”.


• 10:50 AM - Available in App Store when it launches.


• 10:51 AM - Next up - Modality.


• 10:51 AM - Modality shows off medical learning app.


• 10:52 AM - Hundreds of images, etc. Crowd laughes over some sort of image in demo.


• 10:52 AM - Students found app beneficial for studying.


• 10:53 AM - Dozens of apps launching after App Store.


• 10:54 AM - Next up is MiMvista. More medical stuff.


• 10:54 AM - Medical imaging app.


• 10:55 AM - Demonstrating multi-touch use with app.


• 10:56 AM - 3D reconstruction of medical imaging. New direction for MiMvista. Look for it at launch of App Store.


• 10:57 AM - Last app from Digital Legends. Amazing game, according to Scott.


• 10:58 AM - iPhone is very capable game device. Only 4 days to port game, a couple more for iPhone specific features. Full 3D game. Ready by september.


• 10:59 AM - “We have an incredible SDK”.


• 11:00 AM - Round of applause for all devs.


• 11:00 AM - People want something that will send you notices (like Growl?).


• 11:01 AM - NO background apps. It drains battery and makes iPhone sluggish.


• 11:01 AM - “this solution: A task manager”.


• 11:02 AM - Push notification service for all developers.


• 11:03 AM - Developers can “push” stuff via IP (badges, alert sounds, custom text alerts).


• 11:03 AM - Scales well. No battery loss. No chopping CPU cycles. Over Wi-fi and network. All done with the SDK.


• 11:04 AM - Steve back on stage.


• 11:05 AM - Contact search in 2.0. Full iWork support.


• 11:05 AM - Microsoft office also, Word, Excel, Powerpoint.


• 11:06 AM - Bulk delete ame move. New calc (scientific when in landscape mode). Parental controls (some teens, like you, probably won’t like this).


• 11:07 AM - New language support. 2 types of Japanese, and 2 types of Chinese (draw characters with fingers).


• 11:07 AM - iPhone 2.0 is gonna be phenomenal! In early July. Free for iPhone. $9.95 for iPod Touch.


• 11:08 AM - Wirelessly download apps from iPhone. Automatically tells you updates.


• 11:08 AM - Fairplay will be protecting devs apps.


• 11:09 AM - Now able to access in 62 countries. If 10MB or less, you can download over cell network.


• 11:10 AM - Enterprise method to distribute apps over their iPhones only, via Intranet.


• 11:11 AM - 3rd way to add apps. Called “App-Hoc”. Mostly for universities. Can distribute over 100 iPhones.


• 11:12 AM - Next: Something new.


• 11:13 AM - MobileMe.


• 11:13 AM - What it is? Exchange for the rest of us. “Using ActiveStink ”


• 11:14 AM - Push email, contacts, and calendars for all Wherever you are.


• 11:14 AM - Get your info from cloud on multitude of devices. Email gets pushed to MobileMe devices.


• 11:15 AM - Everything is up to date. Built in with Calendars on iPhone. Works with native apps.


• 11:16 AM - Works with Outlook.


• 11:16 AM - Web 2.0 with AJAX tech. Buzz words are “in” with Apple, I guess.


• 11:17 AM - Taken gallery and built-in with MobileMe.


• 11:18 AM - Is mac.com dead now? Phil is showing MobileMe on his Mac.


• 11:19 AM - “Sleek and smooth interface”.


• 11:21 AM - Showing the advanced features of MobileMe.


• 11:21 AM - iDisk is now much cooler than before.


• 11:22 AM - Now showing interaction via iPhone.


• 11:24 AM - MobileMe - going back and forth between “cloud”, iPhone, and Mac.


• 11:25 AM - Demoing photos from iPhone sent to MobileMe.


• 11:26 AM - MobileMe will be available for $99/year. 60 day free trial. Available in early July. MobileMe replaces .mac!.


• 11:28 AM - Crowd goes insane. 90% customer satisfaction.


• 11:31 AM - More affordable iPhone.


• 11:31 AM - Today, introducing new iPhone 3G.


• 11:32 AM - Flush headphone jack, same display, improved audio.


• 11:33 AM - Why 3G? Obvious.


• 11:34 AM - Demoing loading website from 3g (21 seconds) vs. 59 seconds on EDGE.


• 11:35 AM - 3G speeds actually approaching Wifi. “Amazingly zippy”.


• 11:35 AM - 36% faster than Nokia N95 or Palm Treo.


• 11:36 AM - Better battery life. Standby time is 300 hours. 3G talking - 5 hours. Browsing 5-6 hours. Video 7 hours. Audio - 24 hours.


• 11:38 AM - GPS built in - crowd goes WILD.


• 11:39 AM - Location data from GPS, can use as tracker.


• 11:39 AM - Done with the intro. Crowd is excited.


• 11:40 AM - More countries soon.


• 11:40 AM - Hopefully up from 6 to 25. Countries - going through countries with “A Small World”.


• 11:42 AM - Everywhere there’s GSM. I’m assuming the crowd made noise because of the neighbours to the north, Canada.
• 11:45 AM - iPhone 3G will go on sale for $199 at 8GB. $299 for 16GB - also available in white.


• 11:46 AM - Will be available on July 11, in twenty two countries. New ad announced, now playing.


• 11:47 AM - “It’s finally here.. the first phone to beat the iPhone ...introducing the new iPhone.”


• 11:48 AM - Ad appears to spoof Apple’s practice of secrecy, crowd cheers.


• 11:49 AM - Steve asks for the crowd to give a round of applause for Apple’s development teams.


• 11:50 AM - Steve concludes the keynote, “I’ll see you this week.” Stay tuned to Macteens for more coverage.

Aaron Plane is trying his absolute best to hold back tears for his beloved 12" PB, who is beginning to develop an acute inferiority complex (Is that a good thing?). Aaron is also partially responsible for our sister site, LinuxTeens, and when not busy, can be found trying to better his Mac (and Linux) experience.

The Impact of a Touch

by Caitlyn Imbimbo • 05/21/2008 at 11:12 AM

Almost every product shipped by Apple seems to be a gem in the eyes of loyal Mac and iPod fans. However, once in a while, Apple creates a product that makes a splash in the entire community. One can see that Apple has hit that target with the innovative iPhone and iPod touch. Both products are very much alike, with the only obvious difference being the cellular phone capabilities offered by AT&T for the iPhone. The intended audience is in some sense the same even though the products are separate.

When a company ships a product so radically different than the norm, as Apple did last year with the original iPhone and later with the iPod touch, there is always risk as to whether the product will be a hit or miss. It seems, however, that Apple has really hit the ball out of the park with this product. One knows they are successful when a product makes a splash in the community that does not include your targeted audience. A targeted audience uses your product in the way it’s intended to be used. A community outside of this finds use or necessity in the product in an unexpected, yet capable way. I believe a product is truly success when it can satisfy both of these kinds of people because therefore, a company never runs out of customers interested in the product.

Roughly two weeks ago, my Trigonometry and Algebra III class was working on polar coordinates. In order to convert polar coordinates to rectangular coordinates on a graph, the student must know a specific formula in which you input the correct numbers into. We were taking a test that basically determined the final few points on our average for that marking period, as the grading quarter was coming to a close that week. So, long story short, this was an important test. Without knowing the formulas, it was safe to assume you were in some trouble.

Memorization comes quickly and easily to me being one who has to learn many scripts throughout the course of a year. Unfortunately, not every one in the class was in the same boat. I don’t fault them for being unprepared as Trigonometry is quite an intense course in my high school. I noticed the guy that sits next to me begin to scramble as he got his test and browsed through the questions. For a moment or two, he gnawed away at the tip of his pen cap, as his mind tried to recall these complicated formulas. I noticed a rush of release come across his face, and his jaw stop annihilating his pen cap. Assuming he had remembered the necessary information, I continued on with my test. But I again was distracted as out of my peripheral vision, I noticed the guy reach into his front left pocket and slyly pull out his iPhone in class. Using his lucky seating position near the window and AT&T’s faint internet connection in the room, I watch in amazement as the boy sitting next to me found another use for the innovative technology Apple created this past year: cheating. After a few taps at the buttonless screen, the boy’s face stretched into a smile as he copied the formulas to his paper.

At the end of class, as we all tediously walked up to our teacher’s desk and dropped off our completed exam papers, I overheard another boy from the class mention to this boy that sat next to me the following: “Was that the iPhone touch? That was good thinking using it to find the formulas.” Regardless of the interesting strategy to use his iPhone to cheat on our test, this uneducated statement also told me something about the impact of this product. The iPhone and iPod touch have created such a splash in not only the technology using community but the current younger generation in general that those completely oblivious to the insanely great nature of Apple, Inc. as a whole know the significance of a touchscreen, music playing, internet seeking device in today’s digital world.

What is the moral of this story? It is not to teach you to cheat on your Algebra III test using your internet capable iPhone or iPod touch in class. The moral of this story is that when a company ships a product so radically different than the norm, as Apple did last year with the original iPhone and later with the iPod touch, there is always risk as to whether the product will be a hit or miss. I believe it is safe to say that regardless of minor complaints from loyal Apple fans wanting wireless connectivity with their Mac or something along those lines, that Apple has definitely created a successful product with the iPhone and iPod touch. The popularity, countless uses and unique design makes this product stand out in the crowd. Even to those who cheat on their tests and refer to products by improper names.

Caitlyn Imbimbo

Why Twitter Is NOT As Hot As Everyone Thinks

by Daniel Hollister • 03/08/2008 at 12:29 PM

Is less always more? Is small always big? If you looked at any of the hot stories over the past few days surrounding Twitter, you might be convinced of it.

Twitter has been getting lots of attention recently, being called the next Facebook, the next big social network, the next big [insert analogy here]. And while I am sure Twitter is growing rapidly, those markets are entirely different. Twitter is not equipped at all to be considered a social network on the scale of Facebook or MySpace, and the notion that it is not only in the big leagues with those guys but might surpass it is laughable.

I thought it was necessary to point out the inherent flaws in that idea preventing Twitter from going big time. While often times less is more in web apps, I don’t think Twitter’s limitations truly prove that theory to the majority of people wishing to stay in touch with friends.

1) You’re limited to 140 characters. The biggest limitation is also the most obvious. 140 characters might be fun for status updates and phone-friendly conversation, but not enough. Direct messages are bound by this limitation as well. I don’t know about you all, but often times if I’m trying to keep in touch with old friends, I occasionally have a lot to say to someone on their wall or in a message. 140 characters is simply laughable as an end-all to online social interaction.

2) Way too much clutter. Twitter’s downfall is actually how popular it is. The front page of the site only alerts you of the 20 most recent updates from your friends. If you have any significant number of friends, or if any of them update frequently, your Twitter home page could only show you the last few minutes, forcing you to either check the website an ungodly number of times per day or subscribe to the text messages. Texting, though, provides the same problem: clutter. How many hundreds of messages are you willing to receive in a day?

3) You can pick between breadth or depth, but not both. If you have too many friends, you get too many messages to deal with. If you want to really get updates often from those you care about the most, you have to sacrifice following, well, most people.

4) He who is most annoying, succeeds the most. Inevitably at some point you will befriend That Guy Who Updates Every Five Minutes. Upon viewing the website or glancing at your cell phone, it will be dominated by a handful of people. And herein lies the problem – everyone will post updates at different frequencies, and those that don’t update as often, or more specifically, those who do not update most recently from when you check your phone or website, get left out in the crowd. And trust me, more text does not mean better quality or higher importance. You’re left to choose between either de-friending someone you are interested in, or simply letting them totally dominate your profile.

5) Archiving sucks. If you happen to miss your friend’s update about that event they were at the other night, your only real option is to go find their profile and scroll through recent updates until you find it. You can’t even search through updates, including your own.

6) Nobody wants to use it. Let’s face it, the only reason we use social networks is to stay in touch with our friends, and if our friends aren’t there, we have no purpose in being there. You could say this about any new social network, but Twitter is different in that most people don’t understand it. Most of my non-geek friends who I’ve gotten to try out Twitter found it too boring and limited (which it is) to really spend any time on it. Generally if you have a better product, the trouble is getting people to try ours out to begin with. Even when people are encouraged (forced) to try out Twitter by their friends, most don’t get it and don’t stay.

7) It doesn’t do anything. Do you honestly think the reason Facebook applications are exploding is because we’re all secretly dying for simplicity? Did I mention the 140 character limit? Twitter does not do anything. If you removed every feature of Facebook except the status update and the RSS feed, you’d have Twitter.
The fact that Twitter is even getting this kind of positive press is mindblogging to me. Keep in mind that I write this as an active (and rather addicted) Twitter user. I like Twitter – there are many things it does well. Twitter is great for getting real-time event highlights, having a short, casual conversation (smalltalk, you mightsay) with a small group of friends, marketing yourself to fans, or following the lives of people who you don’t generally have access to in a way that feels more personal than a blog.

But Twitter is not a Facebook replacement. It is not in that same market of the big social networks, and it certainly cannot hold a candle to any of them when it comes to what we really want: to stay in touch with our friends. We want to post photos, see photos, write a couple paragraphs to someone we haven’t talked to for a while, post a 30-character status when we don’t feel like doing anything else, seeing an feed of not just what our friends type but what they’ve done lately.

So I ask again – why all the attention for something so small?

Daniel Hollister is the Editor-in-Chief of Macteens, and has been apart of the Macteens community since 2002. He is a filmmaker, designer, entrepreneur, and Mac enthusiast from Santa Cruz, California. When not arguing in the forums and working 18 hour days, Daniel can be found sleeping. That is it, he has no time for anything else. Daniel currently works and resides in Hollywood, California.

The Achilles’ Heel of iPhone Data (And Why It Makes The SDK Lose Value)

by Daniel Hollister • 03/02/2008 at 04:38 PM

The other night, I was sitting in a lovely coffee shop in Westwood, waiting for my friends to either show up and meet me, or for them to call and let me know when they would be doing so. Since I had several minutes to burn either way, I pulled out my trusty iPhone and started to browse Facebook for some time. A few minutes after I finished doing this, I noticed that suddenly I had two voicemails from friends who were rather confused as to why I didn’t pick up. (I almost always pick up my phone.)

I had five bars of service in a major part of Los Angeles. What gives?

Suddenly it hit me. While it has been long known that you cannot use EDGE while receiving phone calls, the iPhone is not smart enough to give priority to the voice connection. Or, at the very least, it cannot do so consistently.

That’s right—my menial browsing of Facebook was enough to stop the mighty iPhone from receiving phone calls.

After some testing in this matter, it would appear that while the results vary, the majority of the time you are on EDGE, the phone will not ring. Period.

Old news for some? Probably. After all, I did know this was an EDGE limitation, but my old phones (a Motorola SLVR and a Sony Z310a) were both smart enough to pause the EDGE connection whenever the phone rang and allow me to answer the call. The fact that the iPhone does not do this is… well, disturbing.

While all of us are sitting here salivating over the imminent SDK, it occurred to me that most of the applications I would really want or expect are data-intensive apps. In this situation, one can therefore assume that if using anything like an AIM app over EDGE could hinder your ability to pick up calls when you need to.

Is that worth it? Is your shiny RSS feed app or Jabber client worth your inability to receive calls? I would have to say no. For many of us, our phones are our lifelines to friends, family, and work. In my situation, I must be reachable via cellphone virtually any time, and a missed call that I don’t notice for fifteen minutes or longer can be a serious problem for me.

And I know there’s others out there that are similar. Most smartphone users are people who have a schedule to keep or a project to run, and communication is key.

The argument, of course, is that you can use these apps just fine over wifi. But how often are most iPhone owners really in hot spots? Most wifi areas besides my house that I go do require me to log in, and I seldom log out—meaning that if I am using an AIM client and then walk out of the coffee shop, either the AIM client needs to be smart and log me off on its own when it determines I am on EDGE, or I have to think about it, and manually log off every time I leave.

Forcing people to think about what they’re doing is never good for an Apple product.

This is a limitation that will be eliminated with a 3G iPhone, but for the rest of us, what will we do? Is the iPhone’s inability to give priority calls something in the chipset or something that can be provided to us with a software update?

Will it be worth it to produce or use applications that are as data-intensive as the ones we’ve been hoping for?

While it is a great thing that the iPhone is revolutionizing internet access on-the-go, sacrificing the phone aspect of your iPhone is far too high a price.

Daniel Hollister is the Editor-in-Chief of Macteens, and has been apart of the Macteens community since 2002. He is a filmmaker, designer, entrepreneur, and Mac enthusiast from Santa Cruz, California. When not arguing in the forums and working 18 hour days, Daniel can be found sleeping. That is it, he has no time for anything else. Daniel currently works and resides in Hollywood, California.

Review: AblePlanet Clear Harmony Headphones

by Jordan Chark • 02/27/2008 at 05:24 PM

Being an audiophile myself, it’s always an experience whenever I put on a new pair of headphones. Lately, I’ve been trying out AblePlanet’s Clear Harmony “Active Noise Canceling with Linx Audio” headphones. While I myself don’t necessarily experience the problem, many people find it uncomfortable to wear in-ear “IEMs” for an extended period of time. That, of course brings us to the over the ear noise-canceling category which the Clear Harmony fits into. The category, largely dominated by Bose, has seen much competition over the years, and now it’s time to see how the AblePlanet’s stack up.

Design/Comfort

The comfort was probably one of the first things I noticed while putting these on. The headphone padding, which feels somewhat leather-like, is very soft and comfortable for extended use. Also, the headband is covered in a similar material, an essential detail some other manufacturers tend to neglect. They come with a hard-shell zippered carrying case with plenty of room for the headphones and various adapters/cables. One gripe, however: the plastic headphone shells feel a bit clunky, but they do have a good amount of weight to them.

An important note: The AblePlanet’s work on 2 standard AAA batteries, but that’s mainly for the noise canceling feature, and can be used without them in case you run out.

Sound/Noise Cancelling

The sound is generally decent, with pretty powerful bass and average mids, but the treble response could definitely be better. I sampled several genres of music with these, and found them to be enjoyable to listen to, albeit not the most enjoyable. However, I did find them to shine while listening to podcasts and TV/Movies in noisy environments such as cars. The noise cancelling almost confines you to your own, personal bubble of sound, and speech is quite clear. Also, the “Linx Audio” feature, highly touted by the manufacturer, allows you to hear all the subtleties in the music without crankin’ up the volume as you’re probably used to.

Conclusion

While the sound isn’t as sharp, nor layered as I have heard elsewhere, the average consumer is not too likely to notice the difference. Also, with their solid noise-canceling added into the mix, they become a viable alternative to Bose’s high-end QC3s in that respect. They’re pretty comfortable and look fairly classy. The price-tag is a bit steep at $350, which may mean you’ll have to sit down and contemplate the purchase. Overall, if you’re looking for over-ear noise canceling ‘phones in this range, I’d recommend them.

Jordan Chark is a staff writer for Macteens.

A Lot of Hot Air

by Seth Hover • 02/07/2008 at 03:44 PM

It wasn’t a surprise to many.

Apple’s announcement of the slim-and-trim MacBook Air had diehards buzzing in Moscone Center, most clamoring to test it after the keynote.

But after we cut out the hype, we found that the MacBook Air really doesn’t have much to offer. Sure, it’s tiny. Apple has wasted no time demonstrating this by hiding it in envelopes, but it’s not like the ultraportable market is a new area. Sony’s VAIO VGN-X505VP was released in 2004, less than an inch thick at it’s bulkiest, and just over a centimeter at it’s thinnest with the lid closed. It’s also a lot lighter than the “AirBook”. Of course, it’s a Windows-centric machine, so it’s either stuck with XP or Vista. It’s obvious where we stand on that issue.
The biggest problem is that there is really no market for such a laptop. It’s far too expensive for a consumer machine, but the features Apple touts are dismally inadequate for any professional use.

The hard drive options seem to be what Apple is proudest of. At the lowest-priced configuration, the Air uses an 80GB 4200RPM PATA drive. This is the same drive that the 80GB-capacity iPod Classic uses, which shows the trust Apple has in it’s technology across the board. Unfortunately, the drive just isn’t up to intensive tasks. Besides it’s relatively low capacity (would it have been so hard to give us the 160GB iPod drive?), the speed is a major bottleneck. 4200RPM combined with a PATA interface (most Apple products, including the MacBook, use the newer, faster SATA interface) irreparably cuts the speed of the Air.

Unless… for a measly $999, Apple is willing to hook users up with a drive with less capacity.

Wait, what?

Okay, the technology is cool; basically, it’s like having a giant SD card in place of a platter-based drive. The speed increase over the 80GB drive is nice, but at a 64GB maximum, though, that will fill up fast. Apple suggests 9GB of hard drive space alone for OS X (http://www.apple.com/macosx/techspecs/), which significantly cuts into what little is available. Fill that up with applications and media, and there isn’t left with much to work with.

Oh, and that’s after you manage to install things. See, the Macbook Air doesn’t have an optical drive. To get around this, you can either (surprise) spend more money on Apple’s new external hard drive (and sacrifice your lone USB port) or ‘hijack’ another computer’s optical drive over WiFi. Not only does is this option slow (it’s limited to the speed of the slowest wireless card involved), it provides users no way to use CDs in a truly portable setting. Some might not need this feature, but we’d argue that CDs and DVDs aren’t as dead as floppy disks (remember the first iMac?).

Another missing feature? Firewire. This effectively cuts out anyone working with video and further limits wired networking options (in fact, with the lack of ethernet, there are NO included wired networking capabilities. You can, however, spend even more money for an ethernet-to-USB adapter).

So who is the Macbook Air for? Well, it’s price leaves out cash-strapped students and many consumers. It isn’t powerful enough for professional use, save for Internet access, word processing and maybe light Photoshop work. Forget using it in most creative fields; there’s too little hard drive space and too little connectivity features for serious photographers and anyone who works with video. Apple really dropped the ball on this one; for the price, they provide too little. A lot of the technology really isn’t ready for primetime (we’re still reeling over the extra grand for the SSD). Save your money; unless you really need the thinness of the Air, you can get a Macbook with a faster processor, more hard drive space and more RAM for the same price.

Seth Hover , Macteens' Senior Editor and forum urchin-at-large, favors sleep and slack to work and productivity. It shows.

The Mac in the Theatre

by Caitlyn Imbimbo • 02/06/2008 at 01:35 PM

The Macintosh platform has for a long time been labeled as the machine for “creative professionals”. What does this really mean? Well, in more common terms, this means that Apple provides the industry with computers that allow for its users to get things done, easily, quickly and effectively. With a Macintosh the possibilities are endless. Recently, however, I was approached by a family friend contemplating making the move from the Windows platform to Mac OS X. They specifically said to me that they are really just looking for a machine that they can do the usual stuff on. We all know what that entails. Email, web browsing, photo management, instant messaging, etc. Looking at the bottom of the line MacBook, this person asked me if it would be worth purchasing such a machine, due to its potential and their lack of a need for such a creative machine. My answer was to him, the story I am about to share with you, which helped him to realize, you never know what area of your life may make you appreciate the fact that you’re a Macintosh user.

Generally, I tend to separate my online presence with my personal life. However, readers of my blog or any sporadic personal content I’ll post on Twitter, etc., may be aware of the fact that I am deeply involved in a community theatre. Every year, we attend the Speech and Theatre Association of New Jersey (STANJ) competition and awards, which just happens to be next weekend, ironically. We also travel to the state Thespian Festival each winter, New York City each spring to work with Broadway stars in workshops, and this summer, we have been selected to compete in the Edinburgh International Theatre Festival in Scotland. So, as you can see, a lot of time and dedication is required to make such a program a success. Many people are surprised to realize how intricate a production can be. You need talented actors and actresses. You need a set design crew. You need a prop crew. You need a lighting crew, a sound production crew, a fund raising crew, a running crew to change sets in between scenes, and a house crew to seat the audience. You need to find people willing to and able to handle each of these jobs as well.

So, last fall, I co-starred in a production of “The Diary of Anne Frank” as Miep Gies. There were some last minute cast changes made in that cast, as understudies were placed into permanent roles for various reasons. There was a lack of volunteers as well for this show to work on crew. All of these changes took place last minute; the day before the dress rehearsal to be exact. That was two days before we went on. The show required a soundtrack of various sound effects, recorded voice overs from some actors and a few transition tracks for set changes. We had found someone willing to run sounds over the speaker system during the production, but we had yet to find someone capable of putting together a soundtrack on such short notice without any resources being provided by the theatre. I spoke with my director and took a look at what needed to be done to create a soundtrack. As I was reading the sheet of information, the Mac user inside of me began to break out into my personal life. My mind began saying to me, “Oh, that’s a simple process in iTunes.” or “Audio Hijack could handle that.” “Quicktime Pro would have that done in ten minutes, tops.”

I knew immediately, that the production of this soundtrack was something that my MacBook could have produced without a sweat weeks ago. The reason was not because my Macintosh was fast, or because I was an avid, experienced Mac user. The reason I knew that my computer could handle the job was because I already had in mind, the specific applications I needed to use and exactly how I needed to use them. The next day, I brought my Core Duo MacBook to rehearsal and produced the soundtrack in a matter of an hour. I ripped some sound effects in iTunes, recorded some voice overs in Quicktime Pro, removed some cuts or dead air with Audio Hijack and put it all together back in iTunes. The production was saved, the soundtrack worked flawlessly on our speaker system and the play was one of the best I’ve ever been a part of. Not to mention it earned me a few compliments on my great looking computer.

So, what’s the moral of this story? The Macintosh can never fail you, even if you are a basic computer user. Why? The fact is that every Macintosh application is made with that extra bit of tender, love and care. The UI is simple and each program is running within seconds. There’s no need to dig through manuals or Help menus. Applications are made with a distinctive purpose and the menus allow users to run on basic instinct, even if this is the first time they’ve ever opened the application. There isn’t much you can’t do on a Mac these days and you never know when you’ll need something done quickly and easily. That’s what being a Mac user is all about. It’s saving time and being more productive on a system that is a pleasure to work on. I have to honestly say that I have yet to have a time, in my three years of being a Mac user, where I had a task to be completed and I could not find some way to do it in Mac OS X. The process is stress free. In situations like the one I described at my local theatre, you will be grinning as you complete your projects, because you know that the process wouldn’t be as enjoyable if you weren’t using an Apple product. It can make you truly appreciate the operating system. The bottom line is you never know when a random aspect of your life will require your Macintosh, so even if you start out as a basic user, the switch to OS X can only help you in the end. The Mac isn’t meant just for video editors, photographers, or a band’s manager. The Mac is meant to make your entire computing experience, no matter what you do, simpler, easier and more efficient.

Caitlyn Imbimbo

Replay 1 (2/5/08)

by Seth Hover • 02/05/2008 at 01:07 AM

There’s a chance you hate the bands on this list.
Why?
Well, this week I’ve decided to cover some screamo bands.
Why?
Isn’t screamo what those annoying kids that shop at Hot Topic listen to? Don’t all the singers sound like they’re whining?

Well, yeah. But these bands are really good. Just try and get past the vocals, for the most part.

Song: Sleepers
Band: Saosin
Album: Saosin, Capitol Records, 2006
I’m more a fan of Saosin’s original line-up (with Anthony Green on vocals and Pat McGrath as the studio drummer), but their eponymous full-length is solid musically. The singles from Saosin all blew me away; Sleepers is a a great burst of guitar-driven energy with great percussive variation.

Song: Bye Bye Blues (The Whole West Coast Is Ruined)
Band: Drop Dead, Gorgeous
Album: Worse Than A Fairy Tale, Rise/Suretone, 2007
It seems like screamo bands either: don’t have keyboard players, or they have terrible keyboard players. Drop Dead, Gorgeous is neither. Their key section is provided mostly by dark piano sounds, which accents the slightly off-beat horror movie-type quality that many of their songs have. I’m a fan of this song in particular because of the dynamics; it starts with a great sparse sound and moves into wave after wave of different loud, dissonant parts.

Song: The Circus That Has Brought Us Back To These Nights (Yo Chocola!)
Band: The Fall Of Troy
Album: The Fall Of Troy, Lujo Records, 2003
Taking cues from fellow-Pacific-Northwesterners The Blood Brothers, TFOT has a very math-influenced style, combined with a wide range of vocals and guitar dynamics. Filled with odd time signatures and abrupt changes, “The Circus...” is a polished noise experiment from start to finish. Not bad considering the members of the band were 17 when this was recorded.

Song: The Girl Who Was Born Without A Face
Band: Schoolyard Heroes
Album: Fantastic Wounds, The Control Group, 2005
Another Washington band, Schoolyard Heroes add a heaping dose of horror-movie cliche to the mix. Their sophomore album is much more polished than The Funeral Sciences, from Ryann Donnelly’s increased vocal range to the time signatures and innovative guitar techniques. The best part, though, is the last four seconds: an amazing choppy cap at the end of the darkest song on this list.

Song: Line & Sinker
Band: Billy Talent
Album: Billy Talent, Atlantic, 2003
Billy Talent is definitely poppier than the other bands here, but the energy they produce takes them past pop-punk into a power-punk sound combined with screamo vocals. Both melodic and high-pitched singing are met with frantic screaming during the choruses, and the loud, sparkly guitar transforms into a crunchy powerhouse and back again throughout.

Seth Hover , Macteens' Senior Editor and forum urchin-at-large, favors sleep and slack to work and productivity. It shows.

Quick Tip: Keeping Your Mighty Mouse Mighty

by Judson Collier • 02/03/2008 at 10:07 AM

The most difficult part about using the Mighty Mouse is actually keeping it clean. If you A. Own a Mighty Mouse and B. Are not a neat freak, You know what I mean. Just with a little bit of oil and grime from your finger tips, your Mighty Mouse’s scroll ball is totally crippled from the 360 degree scrolling. Luckily there is a fix for this.

Step One: Unplug your Mighty Mouse.
Step Two: Get a damp paper towel. Not too damp, you don’t want any water damage of course.
Step Three: Hold your mouse upside down, and use your finger on the cloth to scroll in all directions using the scroll ball. Go to town with that scroll ball, because you are literally scrubbing the dirt out. You should probably see dirt on the paper towel when your done.

And Voila! If the problem persists later, repeat this, and learn to wash your hands.

Judson Collier is relatively busy, so he doesn't currently have a biography.

Review: Logitech Pure-Fi Anywhere

by Judson Collier • 02/02/2008 at 12:23 PM

I’ve always had loads of trouble finding a good way to blare my music. You know what I mean. When you’re sitting at home, bored out of your mind, and decide to pump some music and just dance like a fool to your favorite band (yes, we know about your undying love for Hannah Montana). And let’s face it, there is no Mac with built-in speakers that scream. You need something that’s light, but still packs enough punch to get the job done.

Introducing the Pure-Fi Anywhere Speaker System.

Upon opening the package you will immediately find a sleek black travel case that holds the speakers, the remote and the charger. (Oddly enough, there’s no room for your iPod after that.) The speakers themselves look fantastic. The unit comes in black and white, with a glossy plastic covering.  The system is all-in-one, so the only cord you need are the charger. The form factor overall is smooth and very clean-cut.

The greatest feature of the Pure-Fi is its portability. Not only is the system small but it is also very lightweight, eliminating the boom box factor, and its battery can hold a charge for up to ten hours. It’s a great device for taking around with you to school, to the beach, or wherever. The sound is great on this system for it’s size. It does pack a punch, but it’s not going to power your house party.

The only real negative to the product is the remote that comes with it. It feels cheap and very cluttered, which definitely drags down the experience of the player. They put in four dedicated buttons to navigate the iPod Menu’s, which is totally pointless unless you are less than 3 feet away.

Overall the Pure-Fi is an awesome player for your room, and although it will take $150 out of your pocket, its form factor and function still make this player a great buy.

Judson Collier is relatively busy, so he doesn't currently have a biography.

Macteens Goes Blog Format

by Daniel Hollister • 02/02/2008 at 10:03 AM

As of today, Macteens is now a blog. Over the next few months, we’ll be transforming the whole look and feel of the website to keep it cutting edge, but for now we have reshaped the front page to be more conducive to the publishing style that our readers love the most. We will still produce the in-depth content that Macteens has been known to create, but we will be doing this alongside a very frequently-updated blog. In addition, we will be tailoring our content more towards you—that is, we’re going to put the “teen” back in Macteens with exciting new content focusing on the needs and wants of this growing demographic. We hope you enjoy it. Be sure to check it all out and give us some feedback!

Daniel Hollister is the Editor-in-Chief of Macteens, and has been apart of the Macteens community since 2002. He is a filmmaker, designer, entrepreneur, and Mac enthusiast from Santa Cruz, California. When not arguing in the forums and working 18 hour days, Daniel can be found sleeping. That is it, he has no time for anything else. Daniel currently works and resides in Hollywood, California.

Macteens Live at Macworld 2008: Keynote Coverage [Archived]

by Macteens Magazine Editors • 01/15/2008 at 01:41 PM

Welcome to Macteens Magazine, and we hope you will enjoy our Keynote Coverage. In the meantime, check out our Twitter feed, which we will update frequently throughout the week. We'd also like to thank Verizon Wireless for sponsoring us with the equipment needed to provide our coverage.

10:37am The crowd is raving after Newman's performance. Jobs thanks the crowd for attending, and encourages them to visit the booth to try out the new products. Looks like we're just about done here- stay tuned to Macteens for further coverage of this week's Macworld Conference and Expo.

10:33am Randy Newman talks a bit, and mentions some strenuous relations between the US and other nations. He's come up with a humerous song, that is in defense of the United States.

10:30am Steve recaps all the accomplishments that Apple has made in just the first two weeks in 2008. He mentions that apple still has 52 weeks to go, and they're very excited. Steve Jobs is wrapping up the keynote, and has a special treat for the viewing audience- a performance by Randy Newman (not John Mayer, as greatly anticipated by the multi-year Macteens staff represented this year at Macworld).

10:26am Going forward, Apple will announce environmental details on major product announcements. He notes that the unit is made of 100% recyclable aluminum, and the unit's display and packaging do not contain any hazardous chemicals that many look toward when thinking about a greener Apple.

10:25am Apple has a new ad for the MacBook Air, which starts by showing a manila envelope, and a person grabbing the slim machine right out of the envelope, just like a piece of paper.

10:23am 5 hour battery life, .16 to .76 inches, 13.3" display, full size keyboard, multi touch gestures, iSight, 1.6 GHz Core 2 Du, 2GB memory, 80 GB HD and 802.11N networking round out MacBook Air. It'll be available in two weeks for $1799.

10:21am Steve mentions that most users won't miss the optical drive, since a lot of things can be downloaded. A virtual disk technology is available via the Finder, and allows users who have installed special software on other machines to directly access those drives with just one click.

10:20am With Steve back on the stage, he continues by showing off the side of the unit, which includes a 45W Magsafe power connector, and USB/Micro-DVI/Headphone (no Firewire) ports behind a door. An optical drive is not included, but a superdrive will be sold separately (that does match the MacBook Air) for $99.

10:18am So how does this all fit? Steve continues by showing the bottom side of the unit in a slide. An 80 GB 1.8" hard disk (same as the iPod hard disks) along with an optional pricey upgrade to 64GB, a battery and electronics. The unit features an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, shrunken to 60% of its original size, running at full speed. Steve remarks it's an incredible feat of engineering, and invites Paul Otellini, CEO of Intel, to talk about it.

10:16am The new MacBook Air's trackpad enables additional multi-touch functionality. Steve shows the crowd how's this work, and a lot of gestures used on the iPhone hold desktop equivalents.

10:11am He continues by noting the compromises other manufacturers make when bringing these products to the market. The thinnest notebook now, a Sony Viao notebook, is TWICE the size for the MacBook Air. It's so thin, it fits inside of a manila envelope. Steve proceed to show the audience the product- held in non other than a manila envelope. It is EXTREMELY thin, in a full aluminum enclosure. It has a full size keyboard and full size trackpad, and the head-on view seems similar to that of the Titanium PowerBook design- black keys with ambient light sensor backlighting. The unit has a magnetic latch, and a 13.3" LED backlit display. Built in iSight is included.

10:09am Steve says that today is the day Apple introduces another great Mac notebook product- this time MacBook Air. It's gong to be the most slim notebook ever.

10:08am On to the fourth and the last item- "There's something in the air."

10:03am Steve continues by mentioning that the first studio on board with movie rentals was Fox, and introduces Jim Gianopulos on to the stage to talk about Fox's contribution to the movie rentals on iTunes. Jim talks about business models, and gets on to what his research indicated, and says there's a slide that best represents it- a slide of home with earbuds setup just like a silhouette iPod ad. It was simply a the best thing to do for Fox and the studios. Jim appears to slip up- the Simpsons Movie, at least, will be available to download tomorrow. He also notes the Family Guy Blue Harvest DVD, and a lot of the speculation that hit the web recently, and confirms that the content can be brought directly into iTunes.

10:00am "We're very excited by the new AppleTV". This new device is actually just a software upgrade- a free upgrade available of apple.com. AppleTV currently sells for $299, but Steve notes that Apple wants it to be more accessible to everyone, and announces a reduced price of $229.

9:57am Steve emphasize everything can be done without a computer. He shows off browsing .Mac web gallery content, and does it with ease. He also shows Flickr photos, which are just as easy to show off. There appears to be a bite of a bug during this demo, as there's a black screen while the music plays. "I'm afraid Flickr's not serving up the photos on that one."

9:54am Movies are being re-encoded and the database is being updated, and the entire iTunes Store music library will be available. Steve notes that HD content can be streamed right off of the web. The crowd is shown a great demo video of a podcast of a skier descending down an incredible incline, and parachuting at the end of the slope.

9:51am Search is supported on the new AppleTV, and gives users many advanced ways to find what content they're looking for.

9:47am The new UI on AppleTV is very slick, and allows users to easily preview, purchase and download movies and TV shows. The new UI also displays activity from users who bought similar movies. The entire experience is seemless, although it did appear to take few moments for the movie to begin during the demo. Steve shows that skipping by chapter is now supported as well.

9:43am Steve continues with other places you might want to watch your movies, like a widescreen television. Many have tried to perfect a product, but all have failed. Enter AppleTV, take two. This new device allows users to rent movies on AppleTV, in full HD quality in Dolby 5.1 sound. Photos can be downloaded from Flickr and .Mac. Youtube videos can be watched, and you can buy TV shows and music direct from the device, and all of this requires NO COMPUTER connection. The device will sync like last generation AppleTV product if users would like them to. The device is the same form factor, but the UI is all new.

9:40am Movie rentals have two prices: library items are 42.99, while new items are $3.99. Over 1000 movies will be available, and can be watched anywhere. These movies can be watched instantly (as they download), and can be transfered to iPods. You have up to 30 days to begin watching the films, and have 24 hours to complete watching (though you may watch as many times as you want).

9:37am Steve continues on with his third topic, iTunes. Over 4 billion songs sold, 20 million just on Christmas alone. He touches on moves, with 7 million downloads- not quite up to their expectations. Apple today is introducing something new, since people only watch movies a couple times- movie rentals. Five major studios on board, Disney Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal and Sony.

9:34am Mail, Stocks, Notes and Weather are being incorporated into a new version of firmware for the iPhone touch. This is a PAID upgrade available on iTunes, but will be bundled with new units leaving the factory.

9:33am A free updated iPhone firmware package will be available later today that incorporates all the new features outlined below.

9:30am The new home/launch screen works great with Webclip. Icons "jiggle" and can all be moved to up to nine different launch screens.

9:28am Jobs continues demoing all these new features. They all very closely resemble the leaked firmware pictures and videos available on the internet.

9:25am He continues by bringing the upcoming iPhone SDK. Still in development, Apple wants to give iPhone users something today. Maps with location (approximation based upon cell phone tower polling), Webclips (adding webpage icons to your home screen), customized home screens, SMS of multiple people and chapter browsing in movies. Other new features are being rolled out in this update. Many of the features present in the "spy videos" are indeed present in the new version of the iPhone firmware.

9:22am Not wasting anytime, Steve talks about the second thing on his agenda. Second on tap is the iPhone. Over 4 million iPhones have been sold since its release. iPhone captures 19% of the smart phone market. Apple believes that this will hold strong into the future, and will continue to get even better.

9:19am He continues on by noting a big feature in Leopard, Time Machine. Today Apple's adding an accessory to their lineup for Time Machine, "Time Capsule". It combines Airport Extreme Base Station and a Wireless Hard Disk. Two sizes: 500GB at $299, 1TB at $499. Jobs notes it's a very aggressive price for the market, since Apple wants people backing up. He continues by playing the recent Time Machine advertisement.

9:17am Steve starts with Leopard, and its great market success. He's recaping all the positive critical reviews that it received in the press. He notes that Office 2008 is out today, "last big app to be native to Intel."

9:14am: Starting about 15 minutes late, the crowd is greeted by a "Happy New Year" Get a Mac ad. Steve Jobs takes the stage and begins by thanking the crowd for an "amazing 2007". Four things to talk about today.

7:13am: We are sitting inside Moscone West right now, and we probably have another hour and a half before we actually get inside the main room.

2:03am: We're in line waiting for the Keynote, which will start at 9am. Our coverage will officially begin at that time.

Macteens Magazine Editors contributed to this story.

Macteens Holiday Gift Guide 2007

by Daniel Hollister • 12/17/2007 at 01:34 AM

It’s that time of year again. Yes, the holidays—a time to shower yourself… er, your friends and family with some great new tech toys. Here at Macteens, we love tech toys. A lot. Here are our top picks—the best of everything for your wish list. Or, if you’re really nice, these are the things you might buy for the Macteen in your life.

Best MP3 Player - Apple iPod Nano ($149/$199, Link)

It probably comes as no surprise that we’re recommending an iPod, but why the Nano? Truth is, we’ve never seen anything quite as versatile as Apple’s current iteration of this model. The Nano holds a decent amount of music, plays your videos with shocking quality and detail, and is almost as portable as the Shuffle. While you won’t get as much storage out of this as you would a Touch or Classic, 8GB is nothing to sneeze at—especially considering its tiny size. At $199 for the 8GB model and $149 for the 4GB model, this is your best bet for anyone who doesn’t need to have their entire music and video collections at their side at all times.

Best Headphones: Sony Fontopia MDR-EX51LP ($39.99, Link)

Good sound is a necessity these days. For those of us who prefer to venture from the white iPod headphones Apple has delegated to us, finding a great pair can be daunting. Look no further than the Sony MDR-EX51LP’s, a great pair of in-ear headphones. Unlike most in-ear headphones, the Fontopia’s are extremely comfortable and come with three different sizes of ear cushions. Audio is balanced, the quality is great, and bass—the biggest complaint of most inexpensive pairs of headphones—is deep and vibrant. There’s also some sort of magic in the cord. No matter how long you use the headphones; how many times you wrap up the wire; how you stuff it into your bag: the cord remains undamaged and straightens right out. Magic! For the price, there is absolutely nothing better. These guys sound better than most pairs of $100 headphones we’ve tested. Get them.

Best Still Camera - Canon 400D ($529.95, Link) + Canon 50mm lens ($74.95, Link)

Let’s face it, Canon makes the best digital SLR’s and lenses around. The 400D is no different. This camera, referred to generally as the Rebel XTi, sports a self-cleaning 10.1 megapixel CMOS censor, a bright 2.5” LCD screen, 9-point autofocus, and all the features you’d expect from a great SLR. Like the other cameras in the Rebel line, the body is plastic as opposed to magnesium, but it feels sturdy and the 400D has a better shape and grip than its predecessor.

One of the best parts of using a Canon SLR is being able to use Canon glass. We’re recommending the body-only version paired with the Canon 50mm f/1.8 prime lens. At only around $70, this is an absolute steal, as most lenses in this caliber are in the $250-350 range. With the conversion rate, this lens functions as an 80mm lens on the 400D, great for amazing portraits, headshots, close-ups, etc. For the beginner who wants to start taking truly professional-looking pictures with gorgeous depth-of-field, this is the setup to get. In addition, its f/1.8 aperture makes it great for concert photography and other places where light might be scarce. Do yourself a favor and pick up these two items. Your photos (and those who view them) will thank you for it.

Best Video Camera - Canon HG10 ($799, Link)

Can you tell we like Canon? Seriously though, the HG10 is an amazing new little. Canon kicked off a revolution with the release of the HV20, the first consumer 1080p camera on the market, and now they’ve done it again. The HG10 is smaller than the HV20, yet has virtually the same optics and the same glorious 1080p resolution. The HG10’s main appeal lies in the fact that it does not record onto MiniDV tapes but onto an internal 40gb hard drive in the high-quality AVCHD format. Say goodbye to inferior compression and waiting for tapes to capture. You can record about 5 hours on the internal hard drive at the best quality before needing to offload it. For $799, there’s nothing better. Enter 2008 with a camera that truly represents the cutting-edge of consumer technology.

Best Monitor - Dell UltraSharp 2407WFP-HC ($699, Link)

What? There’s a Dell on the Macteens gift list? Believe it or not, this is the absolute best deal in monitors. Utilizing a comparable panel to that of Apple’s own 23” Cinema Display, this Dell 24” monitor provides users with a great picture for $200 less. While you may not enjoy the design very much, the monitor makes up for it by having multiple inputs, an adjustable stand, picture-in-picture capability, and many other features.

If you want to spend even less money, you can get away with purchasing this monitor’s little brother, the E248WFP, which costs only $469—half of what Apple’s equivalent monitor costs. Beware, though. While this monitor is excellent, it lacks the versatility of the UltraSharp and the panel has viewing angle issues. We’d all love to be using Apple displays, but until Apple ups their game and lowers their prices, go for the Dell.

Best Speakers - Audioengine A2 ($199, Link)

As our Macs inch closer and closer to our living room stereos, the need for high-quality multipurpose speakers is increasing rapidly. The Audioengine A2 is a two-piece speaker system that fits this niche well. They take inputs via RCA or 1/8” mini jack and pack 60W of power. Built with great tweeters and subwoofers, audio quality sounds great, is very balanced, and the bass is great. You can turn these suckers up pretty high without any noticeable loss in quality. As far as design goes, the A2’s are simply gorgeous. You almost want to set them up somewhere other than your desk, just so they get the attention they deserve. While they’re a bit pricey at $199, there is absolutely no two-piece speaker system that looks or sounds this good. The A2’s are for true audiophiles, and are sure to please.

Best Microphone - Blue Snowball ($99, Link)

Whether you’re a novice podcaster, aspiring singer or simply want to chat with your friends, the Blue Snowball has got you covered. Like everything Blue makes, the Snowball is sturdy and very well designed. The microphone’s patterns make it suitable for all sorts of applications, and the quality is incredible for the price. It connects to your Mac using USB, and is supported under OS X for use without any extra software. The Snowball comes with a tiny mic stand for your desk, and several other accessories are available from Blue. This is the best mic for the price, and it’s versatile to boot.

Best Software - Pixelmator ($59, Link) and Final Cut Express ($199, Link)

There’s nothing better than Final Cut Pro for video editing, but as Apple has been showing us lately with many of their products, they’re totally content giving us consumer versions with just as much power—just lacking a few of the extra features none of us really need anyway. Final Cut Express 4 is one such example. FCE4 borrows from its bigger brother some of the best features, including the open timeline and support for the newest HD codecs. You can also import projects from iMovie, making the transition for budding editors that much easier. At $199, Final Cut Express 4 is a true bargain. It’s perfect for your editing needs, whether that you’re cutting up your family’s Christmas morning footage or splicing together your new TV pilot for that pitch meeting at NBC you have next month.

We gave a pretty good review to Pixelmator when we reviewed it a couple of months ago, and now with the 1.1 update, we love it even more. Since it relies on your graphics card for most of the computing, Pixelmator is the fastest image editor you will encounter for some time. The 1.1 update fixes lots of bugs, adds tons of filters, and supports more file formats and graphics tablets. While it won’t be taking over Photoshop’s professional market anytime soon, there’s no better graphics app for quick edits and most consumer purposes.

Best Accessory - Rain Design mStand ($44.91, Link)

The mStand is a gorgeous stand for your precious laptop. It matches the MacBook Pro’s aluminum body and simple, elegant design. Unlike many stands, the mStand is not only solid in construction, but makes your laptop feel safe as well. The stand has rubber feet on the corners as well as a metal lip in the front to stop your poor machine from falling off. Despite it being aimed at MacBook Pro users, the MacBook models look great on it, as well. For anyone looking for a stand, whether it’s for ergonomic reasons or to raise the monitor so you can hook up your own keyboard and mouse, the mStand is a great value and the best stand we’ve seen.

Happy Holidays!
These are our picks for the holiday season. While it’s been suggested that we recommend cold hard cash as our true pick for teenagers who never know exactly what they want, the old adage – that it’s the thought that counts – still stands, and the fun is in the surprise. The above products represent the absolute best of what we have seen this year, and we know that you (or the recipient, if you’re nice like that) will enjoy them.

Daniel Hollister is the Editor-in-Chief of Macteens, and has been apart of the Macteens community since 2002. He is a filmmaker, designer, entrepreneur, and Mac enthusiast from Santa Cruz, California. When not arguing in the forums and working 18 hour days, Daniel can be found sleeping. That is it, he has no time for anything else. Daniel currently works and resides in Hollywood, California.

What the #!%*! is a malcor?

by Dan Pourhadi • 11/20/2007 at 06:49 PM

What the hell’s a “malcor”?

Sounds like a kind of dinosaur. Or the name of some creature in World of Warcraft.

Maybe an alien from Star Trek. “I am Malcor, leader of the Laymonians!”

See what I did there? Snuck in a phonetic “lame.”

Because that’s what ”malcor” is. Lame.

Is it just me, or is there something strangely ironic about some kid going around, attacking websites for being too Mac fanboy-like?

Think about it: He hacked two sites. I’m no uber-l33t hax0r, but I imagine that’s no easy feat. He’s made a name for himself, and people are worried. Imagine all the time during the day he spends on this—not necessarily hacking or whatnot, but just thinking about it.

Isn’t that its own form of obsession?

Besides, what makes the two sites hacked—Wolsey’s and MacApper—fanboyistic? The fact that they focus on a particular topic? I don’t recall either site publishing pieces like, “Why Windows Sucks Azzz and Macs r da Bomb.”

By Malcor The Great’s logic, any site with a specific focus could be considered “fanboy.” PCMag: fanboy. SportsIllustrated: fanboy. GameSpot: fanboy.

The first is a PC site; second is all about sports; third is games. That’s pretty much all they cover. Does that mean they’re “fanboys” of those topics, and thus on principle must be shut down?

Seems kinda stupid.

But hey, what do I know.

I’m not saying I’m surprised by this. I like to look at people’s perception of “Mac fanboyism” the same way many look at the Far Right’s worries of “The War on Christmas.”

Is there a war? Not really. There’s only the perception of war, and that alone gives it a sort of non-real reality. There are people out there who are probably trying to kill the religious components of Christmas and make it intrinsically secular. But not many.

And sure, there are Mac fanboys. Kids who go from message board to message board preaching their love of the Mac and hatred for anything non-Apple, personally attacking others for what brand of computer they bought.

But is that the norm? Is this culture wide-spread? Hell no. The vast majority of content published on Mac websites are written by sensible people who are fans of Apple products, not out of loyalty, but because the products work, and work well.

Mac fanboyism is only rampant in the minds of idiots who see one person behave a certain way, and assume it’s the norm for all. A typical stereotyper—the same kind of person who judged people on race; the same kind of person who thinks all Republicans are war-mongering neo-cons; the same kind of person who thinks all Democrats are tax-raising hippies; the same kind of close-minded, brain-dead fool who thinks all PC users are idiots for using Windows.

On his blog, Malcor The Impotent equates posting pictures of Mac setups with smugness. Why? Obviously because he never took a vocab course. (He likes to write “fanboi” too, which sort of makes me think he’s a 13-year-old girl who likes to hang out on MySpace and PerezHilton.com.)

I’m giving this kid more credit than he deserves. He’s probably some lonely fella’ just looking to get some attention. Given that one of the reasons he gave for attacking MacApper was that it sounded like “Mac Crapper” certainly doesn’t enforce his philosophical, the-Mac-world-would-be-better-without-them arguments for hacking these sites.

Well, congrats, kid. You’re getting your 15 minutes of fame. You’ll probably get a cozy desk job at some security research firm someday, making good money protecting large corporations’ websites. Bet you’re proud.

For now, you’re demonstrating the same kind of obsessive elitism you claim to be fighting against. Bet you’re proud of that, too.

And seriously. What the hell is a “malcor”?

Dan Pourhadi is a freelance technology writer from the northwest suburbs of Chicago. He writes several Mac-focused columns for various publications and has contributed to MacAddict Magazine. Dan is also a contributor to MacUser.

Interview: Daniel Jalkut of Red Sweater

by Anthony Cole • 10/23/2007 at 07:12 AM

Daniel Jalkut is the guy behind Red Sweater Software, creator of such apps such as MarsEdit and Clarion. He agreed to sit down with us and do an interview.

MT: So like some of us here at Macteens, you originate from Santa Cruz. How did growing up there or going to UCSC influence your approach to software?

DJ: I didn’t realize some of you are from Santa Cruz. Cool! First of all, some of your readers might not know that the town has a reputation as a free-thinking place. Lots of liberal politics and actions, but also just about every other possible point of view. Growing up in that environment, it’s easy to get in the habit of challenging assumptions. So I consider my creative thinking to be very much inspired by growing up in such a thought-provoking place.

MT: What was it like working for Apple back in the day? Why did you leave to go solo and start Red Sweater?

DJ: I first worked at Apple in 1994 and joined as a permanent employee in 1996. At that time, the company was sort of entering one of its historic low periods, but almost everybody I worked with was brilliant, and the company seemed to be overflowing with brilliant ideas. I looked around and thought there was no way the company could just go out of business. Something big was in store. I had no idea it would be something like the iPod or iPhone (or even iMac!) but my assumptions about the intrinsic innovation power of the company have continued to be proven.

I worked on Mac OS X, in the Core Services group, from before the first public release through 10.2. I knew the operating system had a long way to go, but I felt like it was a good “jumping off” point. The transition from OS 9 to OS X had been a success, as far as I was concerned, and I knew if I stuck around I’d get focused on some new multi-year ambition. I was around 25 at the time and I like to joke that I was going through a mid-20’s crisis. I had enjoyed my computer science training in school, but also wanted to learn more about music. So I quit Apple in 2002 and went back to school for a 2nd BA in Music. While I was working at the degree, I just sort of fell into indie development.

MT: What are the advantages of being an indie developer over working for Apple or a larger company?

DJ: There’s something really powerful about having complete choice over your hours. At a company like Apple you’re liable to have a lot of flexibility in your hours - in exchange of course for working long nights when the pressure is on! But as an indie developer, you literally run the show. It’s all about satisfying clients or customers, and you decide how best to do that. While many companies are flexible with hours on a day-to-day basis, it’s far less common to find a company who will let you pick up and leave town for a few days, if you decide you’d rather work from a cafe in New York, for instance. These aspects of day-to-day freedom are what most separate indie development from working for a larger company.

MT: Indie Software, such as MarsEdit, has been a driving force in the Macintosh community. What is it like being a developer? What is your inspiration?

DJ: Being an indie software developer is rewarding because you’re sort of mainlined to the customer’s reaction. Everything you do either succeeds or fails with your name on it, and you take feedback directly from the people. This sounds cheesy but it’s true that my inspiration comes directly from the positive feedback I get when something I’ve worked hard on totally clicks with customers. When I released MarsEdit 2 the reactions in public and in private were extremely gratifying and rewarding. The inspiration is to keep getting feedback like that with future product releases, and to keep
blowing customers’ minds with amazing products and support.

MT: What’s your opinion of the “Delicious Generation”? Are you planning on doing anything special with Core Animation on any of your projects?

DJ: Delicious Generation is a term my friend Paul Kafasis of Rogue Amoeba came up with, to sort of distill what is an obviously changing trend in software design. For years the prevailing wisdom on the Mac has been to put consistency and simplicity ahead of almost everything else. The standard tools from Apple make it easier to stick with conventions, and a document from Apple even documents how applications should look and behave. This is a great approach from a usability point of view, but sometimes it’s not very sexy. What many so-called Delicious Generation applications are doing is fixating on the lack of flashy appeal in some visual designs, and trying to remedy that. Because it’s a fixation though, I think they sometimes err too far away from usability.  In summary what I think will happen in the longer term is great applications will be those that adopt a healthy dose of both the standard UI conventions and the flashy-appeal encouraged by these “delicious” apps.

Core Animation is not particularly on my radar because I’ve been focusing on features for 10.4 users. With 10.5 coming out, I’ll be looking at areas where animation can improve the usability of my applications.

MT: In your opinion, what are the best pieces of software that you can buy on the market today? (Besides anything from Red Sweater, of course).

DJ: It depends so much on what you’re trying to do. There are too many great examples in too many fields. If I’m sounding like a politician who won’t answer the question it’s partly because I’m frustrated by the idea of having to pull a few pieces of software off the top of my head. Let’s just say we’re really sort of spoiled on the Mac. There is a lot of great software and it’s getting better quickly these days, thanks in part to the great technology Apple keeps giving us developers.

MT: Let’s talk about MarsEdit a bit. You have the red sweater blog that’s updated regularly, so your blogging has obviously had an impact on the direction of the software.

DJ:It’s true. I’ve been a MarsEdit user for much longer than I’ve been the MarsEdit developer! So when I got my hands on it there were definitely some things that wanted to start working at immediately. My pet peeves, combined with some vocal feedback from the public, were basically what made the priority list for the first several dot-releases, and the 2.0 upgrade.

MT: Have you used any of the competition such as Journler or Ecto? What do you find the advantages of MarsEdit over those or a web interface to be?

DJ: I haven’t used any of them on a regular basis, but I have taken a look at every comparable desktop product I can find on any platform. I think it’s healthy to look at similar work, just like an artist probably gets inspiration from going to an art museum.

But I don’t think of them so much as competition. Does that sound ridiculous? The reason is that compared to the web interfaces for blogging, all of us desktop blogging clients are just tiny blips on the map. As far as I’m concerned the web interface is the only competition worth tackling. Calling each other competitors would be like describing the people in your town as “competitors for oxygen.” The oxygen is everywhere and free for the taking. The blog systems have no particular incentive to discourage or compete with desktop clients, so they make ideal competitors. They even help us out by improving their remote editor interfaces!

The story is the same for all desktop clients: “How can we get more web interface bloggers to see the value of desktop blogging?” I don’t have any interest in pursuing the thousands of customers who use
desktop “competitors” when there are literally millions of web interface users who can be convinced of the value of MarsEdit.

MT: Where do you see MarsEdit in a year? Are you planning on adding anything big to the application?

DJ: MarsEdit is really taking off as the number of bloggers takes off. Especially as people get more into managing more than one blog at a time, the benefits of desktop blogging are multiplying.

The list of priorities for MarsEdit is always changing, partly because the blogging universe is also changing. But some big things on the horizon are the Atom Publishing Protocol, which was recently ratified as a proposed standard. This is pretty meaningless to most users but what it means is there is an improved interface that many blog systems will start supporting. This interface will make it easier for desktop clients like MarsEdit to achieve better performance and increased features. So I’m excited to get MarsEdit ready to take advantage of that.

Another thing that always looms as a desirable feature is the notion of WYSIWYG editing. Many MarsEdit users would just as soon remove the word “HTML” from their vocabulary, but they still need to stomach at least a little bit of it to add bolding or italics to their posts. I definitely see a “rich editor” in MarsEdit’s future, though my crystal ball is not clear enough yet to see if that’s in a year’s timeframe or not.

MT: Is there anything at all you’d like to tell those of us who are just getting into development? Are they any real pitfalls to developing software full-time?

DJ: There are occupational risks with full-time software development. Sitting in a chair with your eyes glued to a screen for 8-12 hours or more a day is not very healthy. I would recommend that everybody getting into the field try to establish healthy habits while you’re still young. Get up and work a sport into your daily activities. Or run errands throughout the day instead of all at once. Any excuse you can get to move around and diversify your life will help your body and your mind.

MT: You’re in a courtroom. The People of Mars vs. Red Sweater Software. MarsEdit. Copyright infringement. What do you do?

DJ: I ask about the price of renting office space on Mars. I’m sure we could reach an amicable agreement.

Thanks to Daniel Jalkut for allowing us to interview him, and tune in later for a review of Red Sweater Software’s MarsEdit 2.0.

Anthony Cole has been a Macintosh user for 6 years. He currently lives in Silicon Valley, and when not busy writing some crazy article, coding some bizarre application, or crashing the macteens server, finds his forte to be varsity football and doing freelance web design on the side, along with his Junior year of high school (well, only sometimes).

Review: Pixelmator

by Honda Wang • 10/09/2007 at 08:14 AM

First impressions can be misleading, and Pixelmator is not an exception. Granted, it’s one of the best image editors I have ever used, but for those expecting a Photoshop competitor, you may be disappointed.

What’s Great
Now don’t get me wrong, I love Pixelmator for what it’s meant for: basic, yet powerful image manipulation and editing. This light and speedy app does what it does incredibly well, and better than any equal-level competitor on the market.

Pixelmator makes use of Apple’s Core Image to make it the world’s first GPU-powered image editing software. This innovation makes it fast, real fast. Not only did this app boot in less than three seconds, it also applied any filter I chose to a photo at an amazing speed. Photoshop takes, at the very least, two or three times as long to do the exact same thing.

Choices, and More Choices
Pick an image, any image. You’ll probably be able to open it. Pixelmator supports the obvious: JPGs, PNGs, and it also has the ability to open PSD files and many others you’ll most likely never encounter in your lifetime. It offers a great amount of flexibility over almost all of the images that you have on your Mac. The main format that isn’t supported by Pixelmator, but still used by many people, is the RAW/NEF camera format.

Even though it shines as a simple image editor, it also features powerful tools and filters that make the $59 price tag seem almost too modest for this great app. The magic wand tool works perfectly, and the gradient tool has an interesting, innovative method of adjustment and application. Pixelmator also comes with excellent built-in filters that achieve beautifully smooth effects with virtually no render time needed.

Integrated = Powerful
Included with this powerful package is a built-in photo browser that can look through your photos in iPhoto. For me, I don’t have too many photos stored in folders, so being able to run through my iPhoto library with the photo browser is a great feature without having to open up iPhoto to get the picture I want.

Something even better is its Automator integration. There is a plethora of Pixelmator actions in Automator that you can use with one or one hundred photos, it doesn’t really matter. Even though Photoshop already has available Automator actions, it’s the fact that Pixelmator can execute actions in such quick procession that makes it a more powerful tool than Photoshop when using Automator.

Delicious
A cool little feature of Pixelmator that screams “Delicious Generation!” is the use of your Mac’s iSight to immediately add a layer to your image from your iSight. It’s not really useful. It’s just...cool; providing all the excitement of a Japanese photo sticker booth.

What’s Not So Great
There is absolutely no doubt at all that Pixelmator is a great app, but it’s missing those key features that prevent me from completely switching over.

No Shortcuts?
There are those keyboard shortcuts that you learn to love and you love to use in Photoshop. But with Pixelmator, there are none of those familiar shortcuts to use. In order to transform your image, you must use an overcomplicated interface to scale your image or whatever else you’re doing to it. This process could have been simplified by just using something along the lines of Photoshop’s Free-Transform tool activated by “Command + T”.

To make this more counter-productive, you cannot use the “Shift” key to automatically restrain proportions, you have to manually click on a restrain proportions button. There is no “auto snap” feature in Pixelmator, so you must painstakingly move the image manually where you want it to be--or just the general area where you want it to be.

Typography Sucks
There really isn’t any pretty way to say this, but Pixelmator offers no real power over managing text in the interface. Whereas in Photoshop you can adjust the kerning, line height, font size, colour, and more by simply selecting the layer and changing those elements; in Pixelmator, there’s absolutely nothing for text manipulation.

This is a huge downside for people like me, who constantly use type in our graphics, and who need exact and specific changes to the text--whether small or large. Pixelmator’s lack of any useful typography tools just leaves us out in the dust.

Over-hyped?
Some of the hype of Pixelmator is deserved, but not all of it. Pixelmator lacks features that will never make it a true competitor to Photoshop or a Mac killer app. Pixelmator is only unique to any other image editing application because it’s GPU-powered. Otherwise, it’s just a moderately-priced and pretty image editing application.

One of the biggest offenders of over-hyping is CrunchGear. CG is completely wrong to label Pixelmator a Photoshop-killer. To put it in standardized test terms: Pixelmator is to Photoshop as Kwik-E-Mart is to Walmart. The Kwik-E-Mart is a lot faster than going to Walmart, but the big W offers so much more than the Kwik-E-Mart will ever be able to.

The Verdict
Pixelmator is not going to be my default photo/image editing software. It cannot currently replace Photoshop for me. But, there will be times when I need to quickly edit a photo, and that’s where Pixelmator really does shine, speed and ease of use.

Let me restate that Pixelmator is an awesome image editing application. It literally loaded in less than three seconds when I first booted it. The only problem is that I already have Photoshop, and I love Photoshop to death. If only I were a regular guy that wanted something fast and easy to use for editing photos, then Pixelmator would be perfect for me.

Right now, there really are just two choices of commercial image editors that I suggest. That’s Pixelmator and Photoshop. If you aren’t a professional, you can’t afford Photoshop, or you just don’t need the power, then buy Pixelmator. Otherwise, Adobe Photoshop CS3 is the way to go.

Honda Wang is a teenager who hails from Iowa. He uses a black MacBook and can usually be found coding away or doing something else tech-related. If not, please contact the police about a missing person.

Three (Other) Communities for Teens

by Nick Danforth • 10/03/2007 at 09:40 PM

With internet communications rapidly overtaking much of our social lives, the number of websites designed specifically for this purpose has increased by hundreds, if not thousands. While many sites are quite generic in purpose, many cater specifically to a certain “cult”, intentionally or not. For student Mac-users, and other Apple fans alike, there are a few excellent social networking sites available.

MacRumors Forums
Though there are multiple Apple message boards on the web, none stick out more prominently than the MacRumors Forums. With a user-base of thousands, and knowledge to match, the Mac Forums (as they are commonly known) are the perfect way to easily get plugged in to an Apple community.

The Mac Forums feature individual message boards for each Apple computer, as well as forums for general advice and help, external peripherals, a marketplace, general discussion, and of course: Apple news and rumors.

Though there are thousands of regular posters, the Mac Forums still have a small community feel, and it’s very easy to connect with other Mac users.  The bottom line is this: If you’re an Apple user and are looking for a great forum, then the Mac Forums should be the top on your list.

Twitter
Another excellent way to connect with your online tech friends is the acclaimed networking service, Twitter. Often hailed as the “instant messenger replacement”, Twitter offers an easy way to keep in contact with people throughout the day, which can easily eliminate unnecessary IM chats.

Networking with Twitter is as simple as it can get. Just simply answer the question, “what are you doing?” whenever you are inclined. Your status update will be sent out to all of your contacts. It’s an easy way to indirectly communicate with your online friends, killing off the dreaded IM question, “wats up??”.

Twitter can also be used on the Mac with the third party desktop application, Twitterific, created by the IconFactory, which makes “tweeting” more accessible, and therefore tempting you to update more frequently. Twitterific features a simple yet sleek user interface, and is free to download.

If you don’t want to wait for a forum response to a question, or fear into a deluge of messages on iChat, then check out Twitterific. It definitely lives up to all the claims.

Facebook
Last, but most certainly not least, is Facebook, a remarkable replacement for the oh-so spam-ridden MySpace. Many people enjoy creating a personal page on the internet for friends and colleagues to look at and comment on. MySpace successfully accomplishes this, but with many banner ads along the way.

Facebook has a much cleaner interface than MySpace, and basically performs an identical task: the ability to create and customize a personal page on the web. Adding features to your Facebook page is much simpler than a MySpace page. Simply add one of the thousands of Facebook applications, and drag it to the desired spot on your page. More Mac-like than MySpace? Definitely.

Facebook is also generally populated by more of your online friends than MySpace, making it another great way to communicate back and forth with your internet buddies. Though it does not feature a user base as large as MySpace, thousands of people use Facebook on a daily basis, making it no small competitor.

All in all, Facebook is a worthy replacement of MySpace, featuring a fairly large user-base, ease of use, and a cleaner interface to boot.

Conclusion
Though there are hundreds of excellent social networking sites on the web, these offer great features for Mac users, and tech fans in general. Each serves a slightly different purpose, but they all make it easier to network with an online community. 

Nick Danforth is a staff writer for Macteens.

iPod touch: Flawed from Conception

by Steve Pan • 10/01/2007 at 10:34 AM

Have you tried the new iPod touch yet? I did last Saturday, and I have to tell you it probably has most orgasmic user interface ever designed, implemented, and put into mass production. We’re talking about stuff that even Space Age engineers with an eye towards the future would not have been able to predict. I’m sure that your average scientifically literate individual in the 1950’s would not disagree that storage would eventually get cheaper and smaller to the point where thousands of megabytes of data (in the 50’s putting 50MB in a configuration the size of a fridge was considered impressive) could be stored cheaply and efficiently without bulky mechanical parts. Had you told your scientifically minded friend that instead of turning a dial or flipping that switch to interact with your devices, one could simply and without much effort glide around an electronic touchscreen no bigger than the rearview mirror on his car, he probably would accuse you of being a “shiftless hippie” and would have you out on the street in no time flat. However, friends, this is not going to be just glowing coverage of the iPod touch. In fact, the few words above are about the only praise, though well deserved, that I will shower onto the new product.

Longtime Steve Pan fans will remember the terribly late review I did of Doom 3 for Macteens a while ago. I ranted and raved that the game’s design was schizophrenic; it often wanted to do x when really it was a half-assed job of y with a smattering of z. Judging from the launch of the iPod touch, I would have to say the same identity crisis is present. The dilemma is classic; what do you do if you invest millions into one product that offers a boatload of features, but isn’t selling because everyone wants a similar product sans a few of the features that no one but a select few desired and at a much lower price point? That’s not to say that everyone hated the iPhone, but the “true” video iPod had been in the hearts and minds of obsessive Apple watchers long before rumors of an Apple branded phone hit the streets.  Simply put, Apple gimped the “iTouch,” maybe even beyond what was really necessary and prudent. After all, if I wanted a damn iPhone, I would’ve bought one. This heavy-handed attempt at differentiation doesn’t offer buyers a well-defined leisure device and more business-orientated tool. Rather, it drives an artificial cleavage between two devices that fundamentally share the same brains and guts, as well as the same buyer demographic.  Instead of feeling like something that should naturally be left off the feature list because of hardware absurdities, such as Safari on the iPod classic, the removal of the iPhone mail app and the other goodies from the iPhone seem like overkill.

That’s not to mention the other controversies over the iTouch that have made its launch contentious even for an Apple product. From the beginning a common complaint from many has been the comparably paltry storage size of the device. To tell you the truth, I was expecting a 16-32gb device when we really got an 8-16gb device. With the rest of the iPods pushing the storage limit towards the stratosphere, it seems strange that Apple wouldn’t wait for bigger NAND chips to reach mass production to at least match the former lower end iPod storage sizes. That, coupled with the screen issues (now remedied with the 1.1.1 update) that left many owners angry and distraught. I’ve heard stories of people trading in four or five iPods before getting one with an acceptable screen. The crisis deepened to the point where proud Apple neckbeards were coveting and hoarding iTouches ending with “38C,” indicating a defect-free iTouch made in the 38th week.

Needless to say, I am shaken by the recent turn of events. Even the laissez-faire attitude towards device firmware hacking hasn’t survived unscathed by the recent iPod line refreshing. When a particularly daring and cunning hacker known as Martyn posted the contents of the iPod touch RAM disk to his private server it was slammed with a takedown notice from Apple. The team has virtually clammed up. The iTouch dev wiki hasn’t been updated in over a week and despite my probing on IRC the team won’t even give vague hints. For the first time, Apple has stopped thinking different and has started to adopt Microsoft-style tactics in terms of sloppiness and authoritarian control. Astute readers will know that, while history doesn’t repeat itself, patterns do emerge. And like the East India Company, Standard Oil, and in the future maybe even Microsoft, eventually it’ll come to an end.

Steve Pan reminds you that Windows isn't evil, just bad. Mr. Pan doesn't mind incessantly bugging editors to publish his articles, just to be faced with photos that are... let's just say less than eye-pleasing.

Pourhadi Perspective: iPod Confusion

by Dan Pourhadi • 09/21/2007 at 11:59 AM

“I think I’m going to buy an iPod.”

Really, which one?

“The black one.”

Right, but which iPod?

“The new one.”

...Which new one?

“The new one that plays video!”

They all play video!

“What?!”

Huh?

“The new black iPod with the big screen that plays video!”

Ah screw it.

Decisions, decisions...

I went to the store the other day to buy a new iPod nano. I picked it up, turned it around, closed one eye and measured its thickness, compared it to my current iPod, felt its curves and texture—all the standard stuff you’re supposed to do according to the Apple Product Purchasing Manual. It passed the test, and I was about to ask the logo-shirted iPod-pusher to get me one to go.

But from time to time I’m visited by a ghostly shadow of a figure, no discernible identity or structure, but which exists almost sub-atomically...maybe even only mentally, in my disorganized machine-gun-like tornado of a mind. It’s brief flash of thought and idea merging into one, a synapse explosion leading to a moment of pure, unfettered enlightenment.

It’s a rarity, this ghostly figure, and I’ve taken to calling it ad iudicium, or to some: Common Sense.

I put down the nano and thought hard about my next move. I felt for my pockets. An 8GB, black 2G nano in one, and an 8GB iPhone in the other. Both storing relatively the same amount of music, with the iPhone accompanying me literally everywhere I go (social norms dictate that I be reachable by voice or text wherever, whenever, despite the growing evidence that people are unknowingly complete idiots when using these mobile communicators).

Ad iudicium spoke: “Why, Daniel, would you purchase yet another 8GB device? What good will it do you, what purpose would it have? How would it make your life more complete, more satisfying?”

I could not answer. I thought of all possible situations in which a new iPod could be used: in the car, on a plane, in the subway, walking down the street. The street and subway are taken care of by the iPhone, which sits in my pocket anyway. The car and plane, however...my current nano currently fills those roles, but with limited ability: it can’t play video—and even if it could, I have to sync only a small subset of my music library as it is. I need more media, not less. Something that will let me bring everything, everywhere I go.

My eyes shifted right. There, ignored by the crowd of enthused iPoddists gawking at the more-prominently-placed fatty nanos and smudged-up touches, sat The iPod Formerly Known as iPod.

It’s a classic.

The name is practically insulting. The iPod classic.

“Which one did you get?” asked a friend.

A black 80GB classic.

“The classic?! The old one?”

Right. The old one.

It feels embarrassing just saying the name. “Where’d you get it?” I imagine a brainless Zune-using dolt (yes, I know, repetitive) asking. “An antique shop?”

Instead of unleashing a series of clever remarks questioning the legitimacy of whatever intelligence he claims to posses, I’d point at the Zune in his hand and say no more, making my point quite clear.

But you can’t really blame the fool: “classic” hints at “aged”; a relic from the past. An out-dated symbol of a preceding generation.

Or, at least, that’s how it sounds.

Oxford does my work for me

“Classic” doesn’t mean aged, of course. In fact, the Oxford Dictionary’s first entry for “classic” makes it seem a perfect fit for the new HD-based iPod.

classic |?klasik|
adjective
“judged over a period of time to be of the highest quality and outstanding of its kind”

Now it sounds like Apple’s just bragging.

Oxford explains the discrepancy between “high quality” and “aged”:

Traditionally, classic means ‘typical, excellent as an example, timeless,’ and classical means ‘of (esp. Greek or Roman) antiquity.’

It’s not the iPod classical. It’s the iPod classic.

But it still doesn’t sit right.

Where’s the damn iPod?

The lack of an actual “iPod” adds an unfamiliar feel to a very familiar product. It always stood as the base, the foundation for which all other iPods were constructed.

The mini, the nano, the shuffle—all took from the iPod, but were identified by their differentiated suffixes. At the top still stood the pure, unhindered “iPod.”

Now, there is no base. There is no foundation. They’re all independently defined by their names. They’re all separate, at least perceptually, and all but one have mostly the same functionality.

Talk about disorder: not only now do you have people imagining the iPod classic as the old, outdated iPod, but you have the absence of a “regular iPod,” the standard large-storage ‘Pod with which everyone was familiar.

Instead you have the iPod shuffle, the iPod nano, the iPod classic, and the iPod touch. And whole a lot of iPod confusion.

You’ll get used to it

Honestly, that’s been bugging me since the announcements. It just seemed like a whacky move—why couldn’t Apple just keep the iPod the “iPod”? It’s still the same form, the same HD-based concept, and still is visually and marketably different than the rest of the new iPod line. No one would’ve been confused with just “iPod,” and it wouldn’t have such a misconstrued stigma. And now all of Apple’s music products (except the iPhone, which is in what I consider a different category) have two words in their name, excluding “Apple.” Which is just weird. There is no more “Apple iPod.” There’s “Apple iPod nano” and “Apple iPod classic.” It’s confusing; some people have given up even trying to get the names right: my boss, probably out of principled rebellion, refers to them all as “uPod.”

But if you take a step back and analyze Apple’s entire product line, the switch doesn’t seem at all unusual: Apple has the “Mac,” but there is no “Mac” computer. There’s the Mac mini, the iMac, the Mac Pro, the MacBook, and the MacBook Pro.

(Hold on, lemme guess: “Wouldn’t ‘iMac’ be equivalent to iPod thus voiding your argument?” Uh, no, because Apple’s music product isn’t the “Pod.” The iMac still has an addition to its name that identifies it in the “Mac” line. Question: do you own a Zune?)

I complain about it now. I’ll probably complain about it two weeks from now, too. But eventually it’ll grow on me; probably when the 2G iPod classic arrives (assuming we’re not now calling the classics the 6G iPod). It’ll become just a fact of the iPod’s existence, giving Apple all the room and flexibility it needs to make any sort of iPod it wants, without worrying about infringing on the “baseline” iPod that we’ve all gotten used to. Without a perceptual baseline, you have unlimited potential for differentiation, which is exactly what Apple wants.

We’ll get used to it. And like the Mac, it won’t be so confusing.

***

“I think I’m selling my Dell and buying a Mac.”

Really? Which one?

“Oh shut up.”

Dan Pourhadi is a freelance technology writer from the northwest suburbs of Chicago. He writes several Mac-focused columns for various publications and has contributed to MacAddict Magazine. Dan is also a contributor to MacUser.

The Evolution of the Apple Product Line

by Jordan Chark • 09/19/2007 at 01:52 PM

By now, the great unwashed masses (and you loyal readers) know all about the new iPod lines: The Shuffle (remixed), the Nano (a fat video player), the Classic (the sixth generation of the original line), and the iPod Touch (iPhone minus phone). While it wasn't the biggest Apple announcement in recent memory, it was a definite step forward for the iPod line. Regardless, the update was long overdue. Being aware of Apple's constantly updated products is a virtue of a smart shopper (and rumor mongers); however, this didn't really apply with the 5G model.

Speculated 6G designs have been making the rounds through the interwebs for over a year now, which may seem a bit ridiculous, but in reality, you might recall that the fifth-gen iPod was released way back on October 12th, 2005.

To put this all in perspective, take a look at Apple's product lines from the beginning. Back then, Apple was a small company run out of a garage by two guys (His Steveness and the loveable Woz). As their company grew, the number of products they were putting out did too. The original Apple I was succeeded by the company's first real star, the Apple //.

That's where things start to get somewhat complex. A separate product line emerged, beginning with the Apple /// in 1980, followed by 1983 by the Apple IIe and the venerable Lisa as successors in their respective lines. The Apple //e had two successors: the //c in 1984, and the //e Enhanced in 1985.

At the same time, the Lisa's successor was unveiled: the original Macintosh. Known as the "grandfather" of Apple's consumer-level computers, its iconic design also influenced desktops and consumer products (both Apple products and knockoffs). In terms of portability, the Apple //c led to the Macintosh Portable (known as the "Luggable" because of its weight—close to 17 pounds!), paving the way for the Powerbook line and the short-lived Newton.

Flash forward about 15 years to the release of the original iPod. The first iPod begat the 2G models in 2002, featuring greater capacity and and a new solid-state wheel. In 2003, Apple released the 3G iPod with repositioned buttons and yet-higher capacity. Then the product line splits, beginning with the iPod Mini, a jogging-and-pocket-friendly little brother to the full-sized line. From that, the Nano (an even smaller player) and the Shuffle (the screenless ultra-portable line) surfaced.

The full-sized iPod gained a similar 'touch wheel' from the iPod mini (the same navigation system ever since). After a few short-lived revisions (color and photo capabilities, as well as yet-greater capacity), the iPod Video (later considered the flagship, the Video suffix was dropped) was released. With the exception of a few minor revisions, the iPod Video was the longest-lasting revision in the families' history.  Of course, the iPhone was released, but it couldn't really be classified in line with the rest of the iPod family; was it an early fifth generation successor? A new line in and of itself? Apparently not- but even that has been branched with the new iPod Touch.

At this point, it's still unclear: where exactly are these product lines going? Honestly, not even Steve can be sure—but after all, this is Apple…

As of late, though, the lines are getting messy. Is Apple missing the one "iPod"or saturating the market with all of the designs? Are they missing a single, mainstream “Mac”? While I could probably go on for the next few pages, or heck, write a book on the topic, I'd rather it be up for discussion. Let your opinions be known in the comments section!

Jordan Chark is a staff writer for Macteens.

Back in Black. (And Aluminum.)

by Caitlyn Imbimbo • 09/13/2007 at 07:48 AM

The summer of 2007 has been a summer of many changes for Apple, Inc,; the most highly anticipated being the release of the iPhone, on June 29. Less advertised were MacBook Pro updates incorporating the new Intel Santa Rosa processor technology earlier that same week. All was (fairly) new well in the Apple product lineup… except for the iMac. The iMac had had an unusually long 325 day long product cycle (compared the iMac’s previous average of 168 days).

Had they forgotten the iMac? It seemed so, until rumors surfaced of a shiny new glass screen and an aluminum finish to match the Mac Pro line. Shortly after launch, I got the chance to test the new design (it pays to be friends with the Geniuses!). Here’s what I thought:

New Design & Glass Screen
The most apparent change, at first glance, is the slimmer case made of aluminum and glass, iMac firsts. Apple incorporated a mixture of silver and black colors to create a stunning new look for the iMac. As you’ve probably seen in pictures, the iMac retained the last revision’s design of the "floating display" on a simplistic aluminum stand. However, this model is noticeably thinner than the original Intel iMac’s body.

One thing you can’t tell from the photos though, is that the back of the machine, sporting a shiny black Apple logo and a matte black finish, bulges out a bit more than the previous model. It probably won’t matter to the average user, but it’s worth noting the difference.

The layer of glass the Apple has implemented into the new iMac’s screen creates a glossy finish, similar to the one found in current portable lines. I have always been a fan of the glossy screens, even before I purchased my MacBook in the summer of 2006. However, I do have one minor gripe with it. My main concern stems from my interest in graphic and web design. It’s a well-known fact that a glossy finish will make colors appear more saturated than they actually are. This can lead to inaccurate color representation in print and for users of matte screens.

One great thing about the glossy screens, though, is the lack (or lessening) of glare. Even on a larger screen, there was no visible glare indoors. For new users, it may take a bit of getting used to, but trust me, worth it. The iMac’s screen is very adjustable and can be set to the whatever angle you prefer. Even in the Apple Store, which is an insanely bright atmosphere, I had no trouble seeing through the glass into the virtual world that we know and love as Mac OS X.

New Keyboard
One of the most accurate Apple rumors I have ever seen come to pass, aside from the recent iPod Nano updates, was that of the aluminum keyboard Apple is now including with iMacs (which is also sold separately now as Apple’s default consumer keyboard). It’s basically a slim piece of aluminum with "chiclet keys" like those on the MacBook.

I was anxious to try out this new keyboard, as I’m a fan of the Macbook keyboard. But could it carry over to a super thin and what looked like an unsteady piece of aluminum? The answer is a resounding yes. As flimsy as the new Apple keyboard may appear in photos, it’s far from it. I typed at my usual speed (blazingly fast, honest), and at no time did I feel as if the keyboard was not able to handle the constant taps at its keys.

I love the full sized keyboard. It’s strong and insanely sleek-looking. It matches the Apple style and the new iMac beautifully. Of course, I do have one problem with the new Apple keyboard; or rather, the wireless version that is slated for release within the month. Rather than simply cutting the cord on this new keyboard, Apple has more or less adapted the Macbook keyboard (cutting out everything to the right of the return button). My concern with this Bluetooth keyboard, though, is not it’s lack of keys. It is really the design. Ergonomically, I don’t see how it’s going to work. It is supported by a curved stand. I’m not sure if that will be as sturdy or supportive as the wired aluminum keyboard. Apple has said that it is supposed to sit on your lap, but that can’t be comfortable or realistic all the time.

General Performance Opinion
Where can one begin with a computer that, during its release, had a processor so advanced that it wasn’t even listed on Intel’s website yet? The iMac I tested was a near-top-of-the-line 24" 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme with 2GB of RAM. I wasn’t able to obtain any benchmark specs for you or run super extensive tests. However, I was able to get a feel for the overall system, its performance and its speed.

Let’s begin with what a lot of general consumers may be looking for a report on: boot time. Starting up the new iMac took approximately 23 seconds. Twenty-three seconds is about the time it takes for my MacBook Core Duo with 2GB of RAM and 2GHz processor to load, so I wasn’t too impressed. But then I began to think: the iMac at the Apple stores are always loaded with software to give users a feel for all kinds of applications on the machine. I also realized that this machine is only being used at stock level. The new iMacs have the capability to go to 4GB of RAM, so this boot up time could easily be increased.

Obviously, general Mac OS X usage was faster than my slightly older MacBook. However, the new iMac really shines in Apple’s pro applications. Think about it: the 24" iMac contains two 2.8GHz processors. I mean, Mac OS X is decently fast on an older 15" PowerBook if all you plan to do is chat, browse the web or basic office functions. When you use the iMac to its full potential, you can see just how powerful this machine really is. The speed of Photoshop CS3 was simply amazing to me. iLife applications loaded in seconds. Safari was up and running almost instantly upon my clicking its icon in the dock. As I said, I was not able to throughly test the speed of the new iMac’s processors. However, I can tell you this much: the 2.8GHz processor is amazing and so far the fastest processor on any entry level Mac. The combination of the updated processor and video card inside the aluminum iMac really makes the purchase worth it. With this kind of speed, you could use the iMac until Apple releases the next one in two years (but let’s hope it’s sooner!).

New Software
The aluminum and glass iMac isn’t amazing simply for it’s looks and speed. What makes a Mac so tempting to so many people is the ability to do just about anything right out of the box. Apple’s included selection of top-quality software ranges from an instant-messaging app, web browsing software and a stunning email application to a full-blown movie editor, photo management system and a word processor.

On August 7th, Apple released long overdue upgrades to to it’s popular creative and productivity suites (iLife (’08) and iWork (’08)). Both were significant updates that packed some great new software and features. The best part is that anyone who buys an iMac will get a copy of iLife ‘08 included in their Macintosh and a free trial version of iWork ‘08. Therefore, I was able to give both software updates a whirl on the 24" iMac.

I’ll save the major nitty gritty information for dedicated reviews; however, in short some of the great enhancements to iLife were made mostly in iPhoto, iWeb and as some would say in iMovie. iPhoto ‘08’s most prominent new feature, in my eyes, is the addition of Events. Events allows you to organize your photos by the days they took place. You can browse through your Event folders, each containing a picture review of its contents. iMovie is completely redesigned, acting not only as a movie editor but a movie library organizer; sort of like iPhoto for movies. Most love it or hate it. I’m still on the fence with iMovie ‘08. It looks like it carries a lot of potential; however, so many users got used to the amazingly simple style and design of iMovie ‘06. It’s hard to teach old dogs new tricks. Lastly, a mind-blowing (as far as Apple is concerned) new feature in iWeb: support for external domains. This means that a user doesn’t need to purchase a .Mac account in order to host an iWeb-created website. iWeb allows you to enter the FTP information for an domain and web server space you may have online already, a much needed and soon-to-be very-appreciated new feature.

iWork ‘08’s upgrades weren’t as numerous, but what they lacked in quantity they made up for in quality. With minor updates to Pages (allowing it to be used in a new word processing mode) and Keynote (minor updates, including new themes), came the introduction of an application called Numbers. The application is meant to be Apple’s response to the demand in an Excel-type spreadsheet application from Mac users. Numbers has a great UI. Being someone who wasn’t very familiar with the what seems to be complicated interface and features of Excel, I wasn’t sure if I would like or even know how to use Numbers. Upon opening it on the new iMac, however, I immediately caught on. Apple has done it again. They have taken something complex and made it simpler, yet just as feature-filled as the competition. I think as time goes on, iWork will truly become the anti-Office suite Apple had high hopes to be. It certainly is well on its way.

With the passing of the one month anniversary of the aluminum iMac’s release, the machine seems to be selling well, but not as rapidly as I’d expected. I must say, this must be one of the more drastic design changes an Apple computer has seen in a bit of time. In any case, the speed alone (including software and higher RAM capacities) either make up for the change in appearance (if you’re not a fan) or make the package even more attractive (for those of you who are loving Apple’s move towards an almost all aluminum lineup).

Caitlyn Imbimbo

Five Reasons to Buy Logic Studio

by Daniel Hollister • 09/13/2007 at 07:46 AM

Following suit with Final Cut Studio, Apple today announced Logic Studio—an update not only to their Logic Pro application, but a bundle of applications and workflows that tie into each other. Here's five reasons Logic Studio rocks.

It's All About the Bundles
Similar to Final Cut Studio, Logic 8 is now actually Logic Studio. And for only half the price that the single Logic 7 application used to be—yes, half—you now get Logic Pro 8, MainStage (an interface for live production which we will discuss), and Soundtrack Pro 2. Not a bad deal.

New Interface
Apple has a long history of buying out the competition—or at least buying companies that produce software they wish they could. Generally when they do this, though, they're bringing over an interface that is far inferior (and totally different) from what Apple fans are used to.

In the first release, Apple normally doesn't touch the interface all that much. (Take one look at Color, they're new addition to Final Cut Studio, and you'll see what I mean.) Sure, the new applications they bring over are amazing, but with a crappy interface, the experience just isn't quite there.

With Logic Studio, the interface has finally been Apple-ified. It's gorgeous, intuitive, and finally matches the look and feel of the Pro Apps that we have all learned to love.

MainStage
Finally the ability to run a live show with your Mac without having to leave your Pro Apps behind. With MainStage, Logic users can now perform live shows with a wide arrange of hardware options while using their Mac to keep it all going. If you already have a track created in Logic that you want to perform live—that is, you want to play it live but want to retain your software instruments and settings—MainStage will do just that. No other configuration needed, no extra software, no file conversion, no compatibility issues.

No Dongle!
Finally, the damn USB dongle is gone. Enough said. Honestly, this may be the feature I'm most excited about. If I had a nickel for every USB drive I've lost…

Plays Well With Others
Not only does Logic Studio come with some other awesome applications, but it finally has crossed that line between being a standalone application and becoming apart of a workflow. Logic Pro 8 interacts with not only Soundtrack but Final Cut Pro as well, which means it is now a serious contender for movie scoring. With Logic Studio and Final Cut Studio 2, you now have a workflow to create an entire film from start to finish—and as of now, this includes not just the mixing and mastering of a final score, but the creation of this score, as well.

And The Band Plays On
I can say without a doubt that I am very excited about the release of Logic Studio, and I will have no qualms purchasing it. More applications, more features, lower price? Count me in!

Daniel Hollister is the Editor-in-Chief of Macteens, and has been apart of the Macteens community since 2002. He is a filmmaker, designer, entrepreneur, and Mac enthusiast from Santa Cruz, California. When not arguing in the forums and working 18 hour days, Daniel can be found sleeping. That is it, he has no time for anything else. Daniel currently works and resides in Hollywood, California.

Top Ten (Free) Back to School Apps

by Honda Wang • 09/10/2007 at 09:14 AM

It's time to go back to school again for all macteens, and we must ask ourselves a few questions: how can I integrate more of my studies with my beloved Mac? Can I really be more productive? What freeware apps do what I need them to do? Below is a list of ten great Mac apps that'll make your school year a better experience.

Quicksilver

A necessity for not only students, but also anyone who needs to do work on a Mac. It's not an app launcher, it's an everything launcher. Quicksilver has an interface similar to the
command line, but is more powerful and user-friendly. Quicksilver's ability to do things like rapidly resize photos or integrate with a GTD workflows can make you more productive in a matter of seconds.

Check out 43folders for some useful Quicksilver tips and tricks.

Adium

Who uses a Mac without Adium? It's arguably the best multi-service instant messaging application available for Mac OS X. It's highly customizable with a wide range of buddy list styles, sounds sets, dock icons, and window styles. While it might not support audio or video chat, it's certainly the best way to chat with all your friends.

GIMP

GIMP is the best open-source Photoshop alternative available. It's free, it has a similar interface, and it has all the bells and whistles you need for
image editing. No need to blow a few hundred bucks just to paste your principal's head on Paris Hilton's body.

iProcrastinate

iProcrastinate, an anti-procrastination application written by a student and made for students, helps manage your homework, classes, and various other to-dos. It has exactly what you'd expect of a good Mac app: an easy-to-use interface. If you need an easy way to manage what you have to do and get out of that procrastination habit, then iProcrastinate is exactly what you need.

Senuti

Let's say you really want this awesome song, and your friend has it on his or her iPod. Senuti will let you take a song from your friend's iPod and transfer it onto your Mac. Senuti's sole purpose is to transfer songs from an iPod to a Mac, and it's incredibly easy to use. And needless to say, it'll save your life if your Mac's iTunes library gets corrupted.

Ourtunes

You want to share music files over your dorm network via iTunes? Ourtunes lets you do just that, and it's cross-platform for those Linux heads. Ourtunes not only has no limit to the number of users that can connect (the iTunes limit is five), but it also allows users to download songs to their own library. All you have to do is watch out for those pesky RIAA agents who can't tell the difference between stealing and sharing.

iAlertU

iAlertU safely secures your MacBook with your Apple Remote by monitoring your MacBook's SMS (sudden motion sensor). If your MacBook is disturbed, an alarm goes off and a photo is taken using the built-in iSight. It's pretty handy when you're in a library and you urgently need to answer the call of nature. Here's a demonstration of how it works.

VLC

VLC Media Player is the Swiss army knife of media players, and if you don't already have it, then get it now. It'll do WMV, MOV, AVI, MKV, MPEG-2, MP3, OGG, and much more. VLC comes in handy if you have a library of videos in different formats, and you only want one media player for them all.

Schoolhouse 2

Schoolhouse is an extensive school life management application that will allow you to schedule homework and projects, attach files to those assignments, and even email your instructors. The only feature the developers forgot is the ability to fetch documents and assignments from the future. Think of it as an advanced version of iProcrastinate that procreated with iCal.

LaTeX (TeXShop for Mac OS X)

Everyone has Microsoft Office or Pages, but what about when you want to go beyond basic word processing? That's when you need a typesetting program like LaTeX. Why don't you shock your teacher by typing your calculus homework with work shown? LaTeX is not just for typesetting mathematical and scientific papers, however. It is the most flexible typesetting tool available.

Dario Taraborelli has a great article on why LaTeX is superior to any word processor on the market.

I hope you find this list helpful, and that you'll get a few apps that'll be handy for school. Is there an app that I might have forgotten to put in this list? Do you disagree with something? Make it known in the comments!

Honda Wang is a teenager who hails from Iowa. He uses a black MacBook and can usually be found coding away or doing something else tech-related. If not, please contact the police about a missing person.

Why iMovie ‘08 Matters

by Daniel Hollister • 09/07/2007 at 01:09 PM

I’ve always hated iMovie.

Yeah, it works (quite well, actually). Got a tape filled with footage from a family vacation? Hook up your camera, hit one button and you’ve got it all on your computer, ready to be chopped up and burned onto a DVD. But what if you want to move into more advanced filmmaking? As an educator and professional editor, I’ve found that iMovie isn’t really a proper stepping stone—that is, concepts you use in iMovie don’t carry over to Final Cut Pro. Most students I’ve worked with did a lot skipping right past iMovie and learning Final Cut Pro from the get-go.

I always thought this was iMovie’s biggest weakness, but with the release of iMovie ‘08, that may be its strength—and the student may become the teacher.

The Geezer Effect
There are a ton of professional products that suffer from what I like to call [offensively, perhaps] the Geezer Effect: software that’s built to facilitate the existing knowledge of working professionals at the expense of intuition and innovation.?
Aperture is a great example. It makes a lot of veteran photographers happy because they provide a workflow similar to how they’ve always done their photography (Lightbox mode, anyone?). While this makes experienced photographers feel more at home, the truth is that this is probably not the most efficient way to go about it. Unfortunately for newbies, learning the curve is a slow and unintuitive process.

Case in point: it took me quite a while to realize (or maybe I just never wanted to admit it) that Final Cut Pro is basically the same. Non-linear editing is based on the same basic concepts that have existed since its invention. Perhaps the grandmaster of desktop editing software suffers from the Geezer Effect, too—or at least that’s what the new iMovie suggests.

iMovie ‘08 is the opposite. It is the wake-up call to all of us who thought that by using Final Cut Pro, we were on the cutting edge of editing. The new iMovie is the editing tool for the new generation.

The Advantages
Let’s face it, there’s too many video formats for the consumer to deal with. There are several flavors of SD and HD, several popular frame rates, and a plethora of storage options (tapes, flash memory, hard drives, etc). Lately, one of the biggest issues plaguing new editors is figuring out what the heck kind of footage they’re even dealing with.

Fortunately, l, iMovie ‘08 comes with a feature borrowed from the new Final Cut Pro 6: the ability kick back and let the software to manage all this for you (recliner not included). Shoot part of your movie in 24p and another part in 60i? No problem. Need to mix news footage on HD with some guerilla coverage shot on a little birthday party camera? Piece of cake (birthday cake?). With iMovie ‘08, you don’t have to worry about what type of footage you’re capturing or what kind of device it’s coming from. It just works.

It’s all about speed.
Aside from that, the best part of iMovie ‘08 is undoubtedly its speed. I mean, it’s blazing. I have never in my life seen a piece of editing software capable of editing so quickly.

Final Cut Pro doesn’t stand a chance.

That was very painful for me to type. Moving on…

In iMovie ‘08, you now have the ability to "skim"—simply rolling your mouse over a video clip lets you preview the entire thing as fast or slow as you want. When I first saw the demonstrations of this, I figured it was nothing but eye candy, but the truth is that this feature makes the entire application work. If you’re just doing basic cuts, you don’t need frame-by-frame precision. Just skim a clip to find the part you want to use, select it, and add it to your film—in just a few seconds.

Another awesome feature (borrowed from GarageBand) is automatic ducking. When you record your voice or insert sound over a clip, iMovie instantly lowers the volume of the audio below. While this feature is certainly not a dealbreaker for any editing program, it’s a great feature that will save you the hassle of manually tweaking audio levels so you can hear yourself over any ambient noise.

There’s always a downside
The sad truth is that all the above features still don’t add up to a great piece of software for narrative filmmaking. In fact, iMovie ‘08 is most definitely not the tool I’d recommend for that purpose. Some very basic features for this type of editing are mysteriously absent, including correct timecodes and precise sound-editing features. While there are many things you can do easier in iMovie ‘08 than previous versions, you’ll find it cumbersome for feature-length editing or professional-caliber projects.

We look towards the future
So then, what is iMovie ‘08 good for? I can safely say without a doubt that it is our choice now for event coverage. For anyone needing to edit video extremely quickly, this is a godsend.

And hey, let us not forget that this is effectively version 1.0 of a new product. I expect that in future versions of iMovie, we’ll see additions that tailor to the needs of filmmakers, with updates to effects, sound, and the overall editing workflow. Until then, I’ll still be using Final Cut Pro for everything I edit.

But at least I don’t hate iMovie anymore.

Daniel Hollister is the Editor-in-Chief of Macteens, and has been apart of the Macteens community since 2002. He is a filmmaker, designer, entrepreneur, and Mac enthusiast from Santa Cruz, California. When not arguing in the forums and working 18 hour days, Daniel can be found sleeping. That is it, he has no time for anything else. Daniel currently works and resides in Hollywood, California.

Macteens Podcast: Episode 1

by Daniel Hollister • 09/04/2007 at 02:25 PM

Daniel Hollister is the Editor-in-Chief of Macteens, and has been apart of the Macteens community since 2002. He is a filmmaker, designer, entrepreneur, and Mac enthusiast from Santa Cruz, California. When not arguing in the forums and working 18 hour days, Daniel can be found sleeping. That is it, he has no time for anything else. Daniel currently works and resides in Hollywood, California.

Macteens Bug Tracker

by Daniel Hollister • 09/02/2007 at 07:33 PM

Welcome to the Bug Tracker. On this page, we will keep track of all known, current, and resolved bugs found on the website. We are getting most of this feedback from you, the community, so if you have found any errors or have feature requests, please email me about it.

Current Issues:
- search does not function properly
- styling needs work on the archives and lists

Recently Fixed Issues:
- styling issues on masthead and for blockquotes (09/27/07)
- styling issues when commenting on articles (09/27/07)
- gallery cannot be uploaded to (09/03/07)
- some older entries have incorrect characters in them (09/03/07)
- viewing articles in the archives has an extra step (09/03/07)
- minor interface bug in the gallery header (09/08/07)

Thanks for sticking with us. We appreciate your feedback.

Daniel Hollister is the Editor-in-Chief of Macteens, and has been apart of the Macteens community since 2002. He is a filmmaker, designer, entrepreneur, and Mac enthusiast from Santa Cruz, California. When not arguing in the forums and working 18 hour days, Daniel can be found sleeping. That is it, he has no time for anything else. Daniel currently works and resides in Hollywood, California.

Welcome to the New Macteens

by Dan Pourhadi • 09/02/2007 at 06:47 PM

“I’d love to have you open our relaunch with an article,” Dan Hollister told me last week.

Hmm, relaunch? I click over to Macteens.com. “Meet the New Macteens” reads a headline on the homepage.

Apparently Hollister and his foolish ilk are attempting to resurrect the once-reigning, now-decrepit teen hangout.

“You’re still the name people know on this site in terms of writers,” he continues.

That is true.

“Perhaps this article can be a statement,” he suggests. “A foreword, if you will.

“A virtual toast to our inevitable success!”

I laugh. Right. Too bad it ain’t gonna work.

When I was your age...

I remember The Good Ol’ Days, Macteens’ shining era: the forums were abuzz, the content flow was steady with great articles and columns—I’m particularly fond of that...what was it? the “Perspective”?—and the site itself was widely recognized as The online hangout for teenage Mac users.

The forums were Macteens’ bread and butter, rife with political commentary and heated debates, some posts going up as quick as IMs, some threads hundreds of posts long. I spent hours—2, 5, even 10 straight—arguing, bashing, defending, and attacking everything from the War to politicians to PC users to Apple news to random crap that I swear would make even the most immature single-digit roll his eyes.

Sometimes it was insanely frustrating.

But it was always insanely—sometimes amazingly—fulfilling.

The Socratic method works...

You learn a lot from your peers. Most of my knowledge of technology and politics developed as a result of my participation on Macteens’ forums. When you’re caught in an uphill struggle to prove You’re Right and Everyone Else is Stupid and Therefore Wrong, you want to have your facts straight. So you research. Then you make some stuff up. And you research some more.

Then you post about what you researched.

And you read others’ research and insight rebutting your post.

And then you research some more to rebut their rebuttal.

And before you know it, your heart’s racing, your mind is focused, and you unintentionally learned more about politics in a one-hour thread-battle than you did your entire first semester in Government class.

You meet people from all over the world. Your writing improves. Your argumentative and persuasive skills develop.

And, oddly enough, you have fun in the process.

It’s the content, stupid

Macteens’ forums wouldn’t have developed such a great community without a key feature of the site itself: the content produced by the dedicated, educated, skillful, and talented teen writing staff.

Chris et al spent countless hours managing staff, coding pages, monitoring the server, and making sure respectably-written, enjoyable, and yes, sometimes even informative articles were outputted on a (semi-)regular schedule.

Articles brought readers. Readers went to the forums. The community strengthened.

‘Time is the fire in which we burn’

On September 12th, I turn 20.

If you go ahead and say that aloud, you will notice my age no longer ends with the suffix “teen.”

Viz: The beginning of the end. The teenagers who infested...er, inhabited the once-flourishing Macteens.com are dying off, slowly succumbing to the inevitability of adulthood—to college, to jobs, and, sadly, to Responsibility. The care-free days of high school life, of vandalism, under-age drinking, and late-night 7/11 Slurpee runs, are coming to an abrupt halt.

It’s happened to almost everyone already: Chris Saribay, Clark Mueller, even Hollister himself—all passed the Age of Ascension, all stripped of the “teen” brand.

R.I.P.

If you’ve ever worked on a high school newspaper, you know what every Macteens editor learned in the trenches: keeping and motiving young writers, thus maintaining a regular publishing schedule, is nearly impossible.

There’s always the spark in a newbie writer that motivates him to churn out two or three really great pieces. But after that, the fire dwindles. The kid gets bored, distracted, unreliable.

A Macteens editor’s job is one of the hardest, most time-consuming jobs on the Mac Web. When you’re not badgering a bored writer to please, for the love of God, write SOMETHING, you’re cranking out a hastily-written article of your own to fill a scheduling gap.

When the “dedicated teen management staff” loses the “teen” qualifier and is hurled into the hassles and responsibilities of adult life, they can no longer fill the size-15 shoes necessary to keep content flowing. The exhausted team tries its best to keep things afloat, to keep the site fresh and new. But it’s just too difficult.

So the articles stop. The community shrinks.

Macteens fades.

Charging...clear!....ZAP!

Dan continues to tell me about this “new” Macteens.

“Right now it’s rough,” he says.

Of course. We’ve all been there. Promises of more content, a better design. Yeah, yeah.

“We’re configuring a new dedicated server and moving everything over...”

Wait, a new server?

“...doing a total site redesign...”

Well, sure, but...

“...getting new forum software, moving accounts over to that, inventing a new gallery from scratch...”

Uhm...

“...and, of course, hiring a new teen staff.”

Aha. Bingo.

Enter the New Guard

Fortunately for Macteens, the world’s supply of teenagers isn’t going anywhere.

As Chris, Clark, Dan, and I grow out of teenhood, others are eagerly growing in, ready to pick up where we left off.

The Mac community is ballooning; the iPod “Halo Effect” is real. More and more high school and teen college students are buying Macs—to surf the web, to write papers and, yes, dammit, to play games.

Dan Pourhadi is a freelance technology writer from the northwest suburbs of Chicago. He writes several Mac-focused columns for various publications and has contributed to MacAddict Magazine. Dan is also a contributor to MacUser.

Meet the New Macteens

by Daniel Hollister • 08/15/2007 at 08:29 AM

On September 1st, the main Macteens website will go dark for a couple days while we do some major updates. Macteens has been in need of some major changes for some time now. I am pleased to announce that we are implementing every last one of them.

Dedicated Staff
You’ll notice some big changes to our masthead after the relaunch. I am happy to introduce to you all an entirely new writing staff consisting of the best and brightest teenage Mac writers and bloggers on the internet. We also have a new editorial department and new staff developers. I would like to welcome the following new staff members to Macteens:

• James Bayliss
• Ethan Bodnar
• Jordan Chark
• Anthony Cole
• Enda Crowley
• Conner Downey
• Caitlyn Imburgo
• Justin Laramee
• John Mairs
• Matt Renner
• Blake Treves

Design and Development
Thanks to our new dedicated design and development staff, Macteens will finally have the long-awaited design that was promised. We now have a handful of great and talented guys focusing solely on the form and function of the site. Not only is the design new, but all the systems that run the website have been rebuilt as well.

Regular Content
After the relaunch, we will begin posting content on a very regular and consistent basis. Not only will we offer some of the best articles, reviews and commentary around that Macteens was once known for, but we’ll also be featuring content such as webcast tutorials and a regular podcast. We’re also reopening article submissions from the Macteens community for those who want to write once, or who wish to join our staff.

New Forums
Tired of the bugs and speed issues in the current Macteens forums? So are we. That’s why once we relaunch, we will begin with a fresh start using better, more efficient software. The old forums will be around in a read-only fashion for you to browse, but the Macteens community pushed for a clean slate, and we have given it. You will be notified before the relaunch of when you can sign up for the new forums.

More Features
We’re not stopping there. We have a whole list of features we’re considering implementing after the rest of the site is relaunched. Expect to see a Macteens blog, a film festival, and many other enhancements.

Nothing’s Perfect
We will have a few kinks to work out after the relaunch, the first one being the gallery. We do not expect to have a new gallery solution ready upon relaunch, but we’re working our hardest to have an awesome new solution pretty soon.

Stay Tuned
This is just the tip of the iceberg, folks. This website has thrived because of the community that has built around it. I appreciate all the input you have given us over the years, as well as the fact that you have all stuck with us through the ups and downs. With your continued support and enthusiasm driving the core of this website, we will have a website that not only lives up to your expectations, but exceeds them and enables the community to flourish in ways it never has before.

Daniel Hollister is the Editor-in-Chief of Macteens, and has been apart of the Macteens community since 2002. He is a filmmaker, designer, entrepreneur, and Mac enthusiast from Santa Cruz, California. When not arguing in the forums and working 18 hour days, Daniel can be found sleeping. That is it, he has no time for anything else. Daniel currently works and resides in Hollywood, California.

One Phone to Rule Them All

by Anthony Cole • 07/05/2007 at 10:12 PM

Changing the world isn’t something to talk about, it’s something to do. Apple, Inc. knows that very well. Apple’s done a great amount more than most other companies have in 100 years. And on this past Friday, they did it again and released a third revolutionary product into the market: the iPhone.’, ’xhtml’, ’Changing the world isn’t something to talk about, it’s something to do. Apple, Inc. knows that very well. In 31 years, they have changed the world, as well as the path of computer history. In 1976, they release the first real personal computer. In 1984, they released the world’s first successful computer with a graphical user interface. In October of 2001, they released the iPod, which changed the face of the music industry forever. Apple’s done a great amount more than most other companies have in 100 years. And on this past Friday, they did it again and released a third revolutionary product into the market: the iPhone.
There have been rumors swirling around about the iPhone for a while now. Apple has owned iphone.org since December of 1999. MacRumors first posted an iPhone rumor in August 2002, almost five years prior to the iPhone release. It really started with the news that Apple had teamed up with Motorola to do a phone, eventually released on September 7, 2005 as the Motorola ROKR. But there was “one more thing:” the iPod Nano. Apple took the excitement of the ROKR away from Motorola with the Nano. Motorola’s CEO Ed Zander’s response to the media was, “screw the nano.”
The ROKR was an utter failure in Apple’s eye. Not only did it have a low song capacity, but the phone itself was just crap. It was made out of cheap plastic and didn’t really have the Apple feel to it. They had to have realized that a few months beforehand and started on their own phone. Apple wanted to jump the middleman. The iPod Nano release seems like it was a way to get back at Motorola and make up for what would have been a disaster of a release.
When rumors started flying, things went nuts. The “blogosphere&#8221 and the rest of the internet went crazy. At first, it was thought to be a full-screen iPod, and then things just went all over the place. Then on January 9th, 2007, Steve Jobs walked up onto the stage and did his magic.
Since December of 2006, there have been a total of 150 articles on the AP Wire about the iPhone. A total of 34 of those were published in the week preceding the launch. Here’s a little math for you: subtract the 34 articles, and you’ve got a total of 116 stories on the wire. Divide that by the five months, and you’ve got a total of 24 articles a month. That means that the week preceding the iPhone launch, there were 47.8% more than the monthly average of articles.
We all remember what happened next. There are approximately 184 million results for “iPhone” on Google. There are 224,022 results on Technorati for “iPhone”. When Engadget reported a (false) delay on the iPhone, Apple’s stock plunged 2.2%. Then there was WWDC, where we found out that there wasn’t going to be an iPhone SDK, and Apple’s stock continued to drop.
Fast-forward a few months to June 29th, when I had the privilege of being at the Palo Alto Apple Store for the iPhone release. I got there at around 2 PM, and it was absolutely nuts. There were estimates of around 300 people there, but I thought it looked more like 4 or 5 hundred. Just as I got there, they put the black veil over the windows. There were news crews everywhere, and people continued to line up.
The launch went better than I had expected. At around 5:40, people just started filling in the street, almost stopping traffic. The doors opened at 6, and it was pretty organized. The security guards really did their jobs well, and the line was gone in about an hour or so. Some “punk” tried to cut into the first ten, but was quickly ousted by security and the first few who were there.
I ditched the crowd afterwards and went home. It was still a bit crowded for my liking, and I wasn’t set on buying one. At around 11:30 PM that evening, I decided to take the plunge and found myself inside the Apple store a few minutes later. It was still crowded, but they had it set up really nicely. I just bought my iPhone and left; it was hassle-free.
The iPhone was really worth the wait. Hands down, it’s the best phone to ever hit the market. But how has it held up now that it’s been with an active teenager for a week? Stay tuned for part two of the series to find out.
Update: As one of our readers pointed out, it was iPhone.org, not iPhone.com, which was acquired last week.

Anthony Cole has been a Macintosh user for 6 years. He currently lives in Silicon Valley, and when not busy writing some crazy article, coding some bizarre application, or crashing the macteens server, finds his forte to be varsity football and doing freelance web design on the side, along with his Junior year of high school (well, only sometimes).

Live iPhone Release Coverage

by Anthony Cole • 06/29/2007 at 10:03 AM

2:48 PM: I’m sitting here live in front of the Apple Store at university Avenue in Palo Alto. It seems a bit hectic right now. The windows are blacked out and the crowd is continuing to grow.  Pictures should be coming soon.

3:30 PM: we’re having technical difficulties with our audio equipment, so please bear with us while we try to get things sorted out.

4:33 PM: More news crews are showing up. CBS and NBC and a few unmarked vans are here. Due to uncontrollable circumstances, there will be no audio or video coverage this evening. Sorry guys. We’ll be providing live text updates throughout the evening.

4:48 PM: The line continues to grow here. It’s about three blocks long right now, with everything ranging from snow cone machines to stereos. There’s a variety of people here, from quiet geeks sitting on their macbooks to the intoxicated few singers. Flyers are being held out like crazy. So far we’ve received a user group and insurance flyer.

6:09 PM: The line ended up encompassing the entire store and as far as the visible eye. The Apple Store opened at exactly 6, with Robert Scoble being the first one let in. There were whoops and cheers up to the final countdown, and then everyone was let in.

That about wraps things up. Expect a full write-up of the iPhone launch soon. 

Anthony Cole has been a Macintosh user for 6 years. He currently lives in Silicon Valley, and when not busy writing some crazy article, coding some bizarre application, or crashing the macteens server, finds his forte to be varsity football and doing freelance web design on the side, along with his Junior year of high school (well, only sometimes).

Overlooked Lepoard Features

by Honda Wang • 06/23/2007 at 07:26 PM

Changing the world isn’t something to talk about, it’s something to do. Apple, Inc. knows that very well. Apple’s done a great amount more than most other companies have in 100 years. And on this past Friday, they did it again and released a third revolutionary product into the market: the iPhone.’, ’xhtml’, ’Changing the world isn’t something to talk about, it’s something to do. Apple, Inc. knows that very well. In 31 years, they have changed the world, as well as the path of computer history. In 1976, they release the first real personal computer. In 1984, they released the world’s first successful computer with a graphical user interface. In October of 2001, they released the iPod, which changed the face of the music industry forever. Apple’s done a great amount more than most other companies have in 100 years. And on this past Friday, they did it again and released a third revolutionary product into the market: the iPhone.

There have been rumors swirling around about the iPhone for a while now. Apple has owned iphone.org since December of 1999. MacRumors first posted an iPhone rumor in August 2002, almost five years prior to the iPhone release. It really started with the news that Apple had teamed up with Motorola to do a phone, eventually released on September 7, 2005 as the Motorola ROKR. But there was “one more thing:” the iPod Nano. Apple took the excitement of the ROKR away from Motorola with the Nano. Motorola’s CEO Ed Zander’s response to the media was, “screw the nano.”

The ROKR was an utter failure in Apple’s eye. Not only did it have a low song capacity, but the phone itself was just crap. It was made out of cheap plastic and didn’t really have the Apple feel to it. They had to have realized that a few months beforehand and started on their own phone. Apple wanted to jump the middleman. The iPod Nano release seems like it was a way to get back at Motorola and make up for what would have been a disaster of a release.

When rumors started flying, things went nuts. The “blogosphere&#8221 and the rest of the internet went crazy. At first, it was thought to be a full-screen iPod, and then things just went all over the place. Then on January 9th, 2007, Steve Jobs walked up onto the stage and did his magic.

Since December of 2006, there have been a total of 150 articles on the AP Wire about the iPhone. A total of 34 of those were published in the week preceding the launch. Here’s a little math for you: subtract the 34 articles, and you’ve got a total of 116 stories on the wire. Divide that by the five months, and you’ve got a total of 24 articles a month. That means that the week preceding the iPhone launch, there were 47.8% more than the monthly average of articles.

We all remember what happened next. There are approximately 184 million results for “iPhone” on Google. There are 224,022 results on Technorati for “iPhone”. When Engadget reported a (false) delay on the iPhone, Apple’s stock plunged 2.2%. Then there was WWDC, where we found out that there wasn’t going to be an iPhone SDK, and Apple’s stock continued to drop.

Fast-forward a few months to June 29th, when I had the privilege of being at the Palo Alto Apple Store for the iPhone release. I got there at around 2 PM, and it was absolutely nuts. There were estimates of around 300 people there, but I thought it looked more like 4 or 5 hundred. Just as I got there, they put the black veil over the windows. There were news crews everywhere, and people continued to line up.

The launch went better than I had expected. At around 5:40, people just started filling in the street, almost stopping traffic. The doors opened at 6, and it was pretty organized. The security guards really did their jobs well, and the line was gone in about an hour or so. Some “punk” tried to cut into the first ten, but was quickly ousted by security and the first few who were there.

I ditched the crowd afterwards and went home. It was still a bit crowded for my liking, and I wasn’t set on buying one. At around 11:30 PM that evening, I decided to take the plunge and found myself inside the Apple store a few minutes later. It was still crowded, but they had it set up really nicely. I just bought my iPhone and left; it was hassle-free.

The iPhone was really worth the wait. Hands down, it’s the best phone to ever hit the market. But how has it held up now that it’s been with an active teenager for a week? Stay tuned for part two of the series to find out.

Update: As one of our readers pointed out, it was iPhone.org, not iPhone.com, which was acquired last week.

Honda Wang is a teenager who hails from Iowa. He uses a black MacBook and can usually be found coding away or doing something else tech-related. If not, please contact the police about a missing person.

Safari On Windows? Why?

by Honda Wang • 06/14/2007 at 01:05 PM

With the announcement of Safari 3, the previously Mac-only web browser, for Windows and Mac, Apple has officially released its second foray into Windows software. It features tab organization, a new unified UI, speedier browsing, and that classic Aqua/Cocoa look for Windows XP and Vista. The big question here is: Why?
‘, ‘xhtml’, ‘With the announcement of Safari 3, the previously Mac-only web browser, for Windows and Mac, Apple has officially released its second foray into Windows software. It features tab organization, a new unified UI, speedier browsing, and that classic Aqua/Cocoa look for Windows XP and Vista. The big question here is: Why?
The obvious answer may seem to be that Apple just wants to expand its market share of Safari, but this decision just doesn’t seem to have any real business reasoning behind it. It seems as though this is just a mere gesture saying, “We can take down any Microsoft product, from Windows Media Player to Internet Explorer.” Aside from the “We’re better.” statement, Safari 3 doesn’t really offer anything new to web browsers on the Windows platform besides an purported speed gain.
“...over twice as fast as IE. What we’ve got here is the most innovative browser in the world, and the fastest browser on Windows. 1.6x faster than Firefox, twice as fast as IE, Google and Yahoo search built-in...”
- Steve Jobs
It made sense to expand iTunes to the PC, because that would mean way more iPods could be sold, and way more songs could be sold. But, with Safari, Apple isn’t going to sell any new Macs, iPods, or iPhones. Safari is just a free piece of software that doesn’t make any money at all. It just doesn’t make any business sense. The only victory Apple will get if Safari becomes popular is that warm fuzzy feeling of seeing the market share of a free web browser go up.
The point is that Safari won’t make people switch over to Macs. In fact, it makes it even less likely that people will switch over. One particular web designer on Digg commented that the release of Safari for Windows saved him money from buying a Mac in order to test his sites on Safari. Even if Safari is the “world’s best browser” according to Apple, being twice as fast as Internet Explorer, porting it to Windows only gives more reason for Windows users to stay with Windows. And for those who claim that the sexy eye-candy will have people switch over, if that was true, Mac market share would have been much higher by now.
What we all really have to think about is not whether Apple is going to release some fancy new hardware product, but why Apple is making all of this software for Windows. What can we expect in the future? Will Apple be porting professional applications like Final Cut Pro to Windows? What is the method behind all this madness?
Feel free to add your opinion at the Macteens forums.

Honda Wang is a teenager who hails from Iowa. He uses a black MacBook and can usually be found coding away or doing something else tech-related. If not, please contact the police about a missing person.

Macteens Podcast: Pilot Episode

by Daniel Hollister • 05/10/2007 at 06:33 PM

Join Daniel Hollister, Dan Pourhadi, Glenn Wolsey, and Blake Treves in the very first Macteens Podcast. This episode is the pilot, and is here for your entertainment as well as your feedback. The podcast will begin officially with our next installment. Give it a listen!



Download MP3

Daniel Hollister is the Editor-in-Chief of Macteens, and has been apart of the Macteens community since 2002. He is a filmmaker, designer, entrepreneur, and Mac enthusiast from Santa Cruz, California. When not arguing in the forums and working 18 hour days, Daniel can be found sleeping. That is it, he has no time for anything else. Daniel currently works and resides in Hollywood, California.

Apple Unveils 8-core Mac Pro, Cinema Display Prices Lower

by Judson Collier • 04/04/2007 at 06:33 AM

The much anticipated and oft-rumored 8-core Mac Pro was unveiled by Apple today. Leaked multiple times through Apple’s online advertising, the model was long awaited.

Apple’s new 8-core Mac Pro is composed of two 3.0 Ghz Quad Intel Xeon processors, code named “Clovertown.” The base configuration of the 8-core Mac Pro debuts at almost US$4,000. This release may be in light of the special event Apple has announced for NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) where a special announcement, supposedly dealing with Final Cut or video production, is expected.

As well, Apple lowered the cost of their Cinema Display line. This could be because of recent competition with Dell Displays.

The prices are as follows:
20” Display: $599;
23” Display: $899;
30” Display: $1799;

Judson Collier is relatively busy, so he doesn't currently have a biography.

Apple Announces DRM-Free Music with EMI

by Judson Collier • 04/02/2007 at 05:31 AM

Today at a press conference in London,Apple and EMI announced the availability of DRM-free music sold through the iTunes Store. Songs will be available in May for US $1.29, thirty cents more than tracks with DRM. A recent essay by Steve Jobs about the state of online music, found here preceded this announcement, calling on music labels to provide DRM-free music.

Not only will the songs lack DRM, but will also have 2x the song quality (256 kbps AAC). EMI made a major commitement, announcing that all their albums, and music videos are to be sold without DRM.

Apple and EMI have unveiled a pricing system for all the media EMI sells on the iTunes Store:
Songs: 99 cents per song with DRM; $1.29 without DRM;
Albums: $9.99- All EMI Albums without DRM, with no surplus.
Videos: $1.99- All EMI Videos without DRM, also with no surplus.

Apple will be providing a 1-click way to upgrade all your songs purchased through the iTunes store for only 30 cents per song. You can also individually upgrade your songs for 30 cents a piece. By the end of the year, Apple is projecting half of iTunes songs to be available without DRM.

There is no word on if iTunes intends to make syncing between third-party players capable, one of the many benefits of being without DRM.

Judson Collier is relatively busy, so he doesn't currently have a biography.

4 Apps to Mod Your Desktop

by Judson Collier • 03/15/2007 at 05:50 PM

Apple’s Aqua user interface is probably one of the best user interfaces there is when it comes to looks. But, just like your favorite movies and stupid jokes, things get old and boring. In light of that, there are quite a few options to change the look and feel of your Mac, from changing the look to completely changing how your desktop acts.
Uno
The bare minimum for changing your desktop is Uno. If you haven’t noticed already, Apple has quite a few different interfaces for their apps (four actually, not counting the dashboard “Cheese Grater” bottom bar). Uno modifies Aqua, making a unified interface for the entire system. You can choose between Uno shade (like iPhoto or iMovie), or just plain Uno (a lighter shade). Uno is absolutely free.
Uno
CandyBar
Next is CandyBar. CandyBar is a great application by Panic that changes any icon you want. Icons come in iContainers (a zip-like file for icons) and when opened, CandyBar automatically replaces your current icons with those in the icon pack. You can also use standard .ICNS files, but you have to specify which icon you want to replace. Pixadex, an app that goes hand-in-hand with Candybar, lets you store and search loads of icons. You can buy them both in a pack for $24.99 or separately for $12.95 (Candybar) and $18.95(Pixadex).
Candybar
Pixadex
ShapeShifter
ShapeShifter is the flagship of Mac UI modding application; it can change Mac OS X’’s interface to whatever you’’d like it to be. There are tons of user-uploaded themes for ShapeShifter on sites like Interfacelift and MacThemes and from themes with sleek metallic looks to Windows XP themes, you should be able to find something that pleases you. If you’ve got the skill, you can even make your own! Unsanity just released ShapeShifter as a Universal Binary, but unfortunately it will only work on Mac OS X Tiger. It costs a mere $20.
ShapeShifter
Virtue Desktops
At the heart of Virtue Desktops is a well-known and popular concept, one so well-known that Apple is implementing it in into the next version of its operating system. The concept of Virtue Desktops is hard to explain without a real-life demonstration, but it is basically an application that provides multiple “virtual desktops” or workspaces that you can switch between on the fly, using special keyboard triggers or a command-tab like switcher. Virtue Desktops (no longer under development) is available for free.
Virtue Desktops
That’’s it! These four applications will hopefully tide you over until Apple gets around to tidying up Mac OS X’’s user interface.

Judson Collier is relatively busy, so he doesn't currently have a biography.

Review: Sidenote

by Andrew Spangler • 02/17/2007 at 06:58 AM

Although both Windows and OS X have free applications, I have found that most free (and even the ?not free?) OS X apps tend to be much more useful, significantly better looking and simply put, quite a bit cooler than most Windows applications you will find. 

I?d like you to say hello to my little friend who has found a way into my applications folder, and in a way, my heart.  Just kidding!  But in a very real way, the apps you choose to use become an extension of yourself, and (obviously) serve to personalize your Mac.

Our app for this article is Sidenote.  Sidenote is a handy little app that functions a bit like a drawer for your Stickies.  I use it to help keep track of miscellaneous tidbits of information that I don?t want to put in a Word doc, but want a little more security than a Stickie.  Sidenote will automatically save your notes before you close (or hide) the drawer, ensuring that your data will be there the next time you pull it back open. 

Offering color coordination to help keep your notes organized is another plus to Sidenote.  You might use, say, white for normal or low priority notes, yellow for school related notes, red for handling more important notes, or grey to remind you of those homework assignments you are loathe to complete. 

Sidenote also supports pictures, which comes in handy if you see a cool avatar you want to steal, or a thumbnail that would go perfectly on your blog.  Simply open the sidenote drawer, drag the image (or copy/paste) over to the blank note, and voila!  Saved image.

You can assign sidenote to either side of your screen, and set it to pop out at the touch of a button (or two).  I have mine set to the right side of my screen, and set to pop open at Cmd+\.  You also have the option to pin the drawer open, but since it has the ?always on top? behavior, it gets a little annoying to keep moving your windows around it (and a little foolish, since you can so easily retract it).

Let?s say you have compiled quite a note? In fact, it would be nice to be able to edit all that text in a little larger window, and maybe add some more formatting.  Sidenote has a handy little feature under the ?Utilities? menu titled ?Export?.  With this option, you can export your current note to a Rich Text Document, which then can be opened with your favorite text editor or word processor. 

Of course, you can change some of the basics (font, size, color, background color, etc) from inside sidenote, but it?s not designed for super-heavy use (read: don?t try and write a book or animate a presentation in it). 

All in all, Sidenote is a great little app and merits at least a trial run from Mac users looking to enhance their productivity by having important data available at the touch of a button. 

Pros:
-Free
-Convenient drawer action hides sidenote when not in use
-Auto Save

Cons:
-Somewhat limited compared to StickyBrain
-Occasionally has frozen up on my iBook

4/5 Stars

System Requirements:

Mac OS X 10.3.8 or higher
Freeware
1.7 is newest version

Link to download: Here.

Andrew Spangler is one of Macteens' resident eclectic eccentrics. His interests include travel, computers, music, and disagreeing with you just for fun.

Review: Targus Podium CoolPad

by Daniel Hollister • 02/13/2007 at 01:17 PM

As we all know, computers get hot. It seems Apple’s computers get very hot. As talk of performance per watt in the new Intel chips swirled around us months ago, many were to believe Apple’s notebooks would finally cool down a little. While there may be a change, the MacBook Pro in front of me is still too hot for my taste. 

Enter Targus’ Podium CoolPad.

I’ve heard enough of my mother telling me to take my computer off of my lap, because it’s too hot. To fix this, I usually grab the closest thing to put in between the computer and my legs, typically (and stupidly) a small pillow. Using a pillow completely covers the bottom of my computer, forcing all of the heat through the keyboard towards my face...and that’s when I start to sweat. The CoolPad, however, presents a far better solution. Little legs (which are used to adjust the height) raise the notebook so that nearly the entire bottom of the computer is open to airflow. This has a surprising effect on the heat coming towards the user. I couldn’t believe how much cooler I was. I’ve gotten used to my eyes drying out as I spend the evening in front of my computer basking in my nerd-glow, but since I got the CoolPad I haven’t experienced anything quite like that.

The CoolPad (which I bought at Staples for $29, although I have since seen it cheaper on the internet) is constructed extremely well. It’s built out of nice, tough plastic with reliable rubber grips on the bottom surface, as well as on the legs on which your notebook is perched. The CoolPad weighs a bit under 20 oz., so carrying it around with your laptop is no big deal. It’s also small enough to fit in your case, although probably not one of those new-fangled, form fitting sleeves they are selling these days.

One of the things that I like most about the CoolPad is how simple it is. It does what it is supposed to do and it does it well. The CoolPad keeps my laptop...cool. It is solid in build. It doesn’t have a bunch of extraneous bells and whistles. It is the ultimate in utilitarian. When I was looking for a laptop stand, I came across the iBreeze and iLap among others. I passed on the iBreeze for many reasons. It was too complicated. It takes up one of your USB plugs so that it can power its fans. It weighs more than the CoolPad. It would create more noise. No thanks! The main reason that I passed on the iLap was that it isn’t nearly as portable as the CoolPad. I’m sure it’s quite comfortable when you’ve got it on your lap, likely more so than the CoolPad, but I certainly couldn’t take it to the library with me.

The CoolPad has a few other features I haven’t mentioned. It rotates a full 360 degrees which makes showing someone nearby your display very easy. Still, it doesn’t turn so easily that it moves around while you’re typing. I’d venture to say it requires the perfect amount of force to move. Not too much. Not too little. For adjusting the height, the CoolPad features these Lego-like pieces that stack on top of each other to make 4 individual tilt heights (only three for my clumsy self...I seem to have lost a few of the pieces). Personally, I like the lowest, although my uncle, the one who pointed me in the direction of the CoolPad, prefers the 3rd level up. It’s all about personal preference here. The CoolPad also includes an extension bar to support larger notebooks. It is compatible with pretty much any laptop, probably over 17”. The packaging even makes a point to say that it is “PC/Mac”. Yes. I was impressed myself.

I’ve been using the CoolPad mostly on my desk (I don’t like to leave my speaker system and haven’t gotten around to buying an AirPort Express for AirTunes). When I do take my computer away from the desk the CoolPad comes with it and is very comfortable on my lap. It’s much better than that scalding hot processor burning my leg anyway. What I really liked was when I went to Starbucks I didn’t have to put my computer directly on the only-God-knows-what’s-been-on-this table. It was nice to know I wasn’t harming my new computer with residue from those blasted frappuccinos. I also had a very attractive lady (with a MacBook, mind you) ask me what I had underneath my MBP. She was anxious to look for the CoolPad on Google.

Overall: Like I said before, the CoolPad does what it is supposed to do well. Because it doesn’t include a bunch of crazy features there isn’t much to complain about. It allows the air to circulate underneath my laptop keeping it cooler than it was before I bought it. I am very happy with this purchase.

Daniel Hollister is the Editor-in-Chief of Macteens, and has been apart of the Macteens community since 2002. He is a filmmaker, designer, entrepreneur, and Mac enthusiast from Santa Cruz, California. When not arguing in the forums and working 18 hour days, Daniel can be found sleeping. That is it, he has no time for anything else. Daniel currently works and resides in Hollywood, California.

Replay Issue 2

by Seth Hover • 02/08/2007 at 03:56 PM

Replay 2: Badass

Welcome to the second installment of Replay, Macteens’ music blog. This week we’ve got 10 more songs for you to listen to and enjoy. The theme? Every song on the list is gritty, dirty and badass. Sounds cheesy, but the songs don’t.

FEDERATION X- Song About The Sweet Lovin’ Woman
I take any chance I get to promote local or formerly local bands from my area, and there are few bands I’d recommend above Federation X. Almost like a cross between rockabilly, punk and country, they manage to sound nothing like those genres on their own. Song About The Sweet Lovin’ Woman has one of the greatest intros to a song ever (even if they screwed it up the first time) and the rest of the song dredges on with the same loud and raw grind.

ZEN GUERILLA- Black Eyed Boogie
Zen Guerilla has a more bluesy-rock sound than the other bands on this list. With a 12-bar chord structure and simple-but-powerful drumming, this song is nearly three minutes of nonstop overdriven guitar and singer Marcus’ trademark howling.

THE VANDALS- I’m The Boss Of Me
While the feeling behind this song is definitely more tongue-in-cheek than badass, the music speaks for itself. The Vandals are one of the most talented punk groups still around, and this is one of their heaviest songs. Drummer Josh Frese keeps a solid beat while throwing in great tech fills; the guitar and bass combo of Warren Fitzgerald and Joe Escalante never cease to amaze and Dave Quackenbush has one of the most versatile voices in punk rock.

TURBONEGRO- All My Friends Are Dead
Turbonegro is such a ridiculous band that I couldn’t not include them- just look at the title of the song. With metal, punk and progressive influences, they blend all the best elements of badass songs (loud drums, loud guitar solos, loud everything) and they make their songs fun to boot. With a great singalong and tight playing all around this song deserves a spot on the list and a good listening-to.

SCHOOLYARD HEROES- Panic In The Year Zero
This is another (semi)local band that I love to recommend. Everything about this band screams horror-movie,creepy melodies, the big drum sounds and Ryann Donnelly’s opera-like vocals. The song shifts from a loud instrumental to a spooky-sounding thin verse to one of the greatest bridge/solo combos I have ever heard. If you can stand the vocals, you’ll love this song.

ROCKET FROM THE CRYPT- Savoir Faire
The definition of the term ’savoir faire’ is “the ability to say or do the right or graceful thing” which RFTC does well in all of their songs. No note sounds out of place, no part of the song seems ill-fitting; my only complaint is that this song is too short. With heavy guitars blazing, Savoir Faire is a two minute exercise in pure horror rock.

MARILYN MANSON- Rock And Roll N*****
No, I’m not some neo-Nazi, white pride racist, but hopefully you know that already. This song is a departure from a lot of Manson’s work,rather than drum machines and creepy synthesizers, RARN opts for distorted drums and bass and loud, overdriven guitars, while Manson screams about how he’s got it off so bad through a fuzzbox. The song is, dare I say it, almost silly, but it rocks harder than any other shock-rocker can.

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE- Bulls On Parade
It would be stupid of me not to include this song. I hope I don’t have to explain why Rage belongs on this list, but just in case you’ve never heard them, give this a listen and tell me you don’t like it. Bulls On Parade begins with the heaviest intro this side of southern Mexico (read into the band’s sympathies if you don’t get it) and smoothly flows from part to part all the way through. Add in Tom Morello’s creative soloing (forget notes- he just makes the weirdest sounds he can) and you just can’t refuse.

QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE- Six Shooter
I really, really wanted to include the first track from Songs For The Deaf, but for some reason it’s not available on iTunes. Go figure. I hate to say I ’settled’ for this song, though. With the same bloody-throat screaming by Nick Oliveri and frantic pace of Millionaire, Six Shooter is a short (too short) blast of hard rock.

SUPERSUCKERS- Born With A Tail
Fact: Singer Eddie Spaghetti was, in fact, born with a tail. Really.
Anyway. If I was numbering the songs in order of preference in Replay, this song would stay at the top of any list. Hip hop list? Born With A Tail. Mellow list? Born With A Tail. Synth-pop list? You guessed it- this happens to be one of my favorite songs ever. The common subtitle for the Supersuckers is “the greatest band you’ve never heard of” and risking hyperbole, it’s a damn shame. Give this song a listen and then go buy all of their music. THAT’S AN ORDER.

Okay, that’s ten songs. By now you should feel like you could take on Mike Tyson and drive a truck off a cliff (and survive) at the same time. If not, you should probably talk to your parents about your hearing. See you next week.

Seth Hover , Macteens' Senior Editor and forum urchin-at-large, favors sleep and slack to work and productivity. It shows.

Apple and DRM

by Honda Wang • 02/07/2007 at 08:56 AM

Finally, Steve Jobs made the best announcement to come to music ever since it went digital, calling for the end of DRM.
To those unfamiliar with the situation, DRM (or, Digital Rights Management) is pretty much software made to restrict your freedom to use media that you buy. The iTunes store currently has Apple’s own FairPlay DRM in every song sold, which means that you can only play songs you buy from iTunes on your iPod. It’s the same with Microsoft’s Zune Market Place and Sony’s Connect store, you can only play their music on their respective MP3 players.
Now before all you Microsoft fan-boys complain that Bill Gates said that he hated DRM way before Steve Jobs, I concede that point, but that doesn’t change the fact that the iTunes Music Store is the largest online retailer of digital music. Bill Gates didn’t quite call for the end of DRM, but when Steve Jobs does so, he really means it.

"Convincing them to license their music to Apple and others DRM-free will create a truly interoperable music marketplace.  Apple will embrace this wholeheartedly."
-Steve Jobs

I’m positive it took some guts to rally against the "Big Four" of the music companies, because you usually don’t mess with the big bad bullies in the room, unless you’re a rebel. Jobs has gone against the formulaic "solution" to piracy, DRM, saying that he is in favor for a DRM-free market where somebody can buy a song and play it whenever, wherever and however they want it.
Let’s face it, DRM has already been proven useless. Jobs has even said it himself, "...there are many smart people in the world...who love to discover such secrets and publish a way for everyone to get free (and stolen) music. They are often successful in doing just that..." Another interesting fact: there were over 20 billion songs sold last year...without DRM. You know how you can get them? They’re called CDs. Music CDs are completely legal, and this DRM-free way of purchasing music surely isn’t bringing the music industry down to its knees from piracy.
If we look at the facts, it’s probably not piracy that is costing companies millions of dollars in losses. In fact, it’s probably DRM. The software used to power DRM and control media is expensive and needs to be frequently updated and, even then, it’s cracked over and over and over again. As long as there are crackers, as long as there is a "DVD Jon," DRM will be fought against and DRM will lose.
So what are we going to do now? We’re going to wait and hear if the big players of the music industry will listen. We’re going to wait and see if Warner, Sony BMG, Universal, and EMI have seen the light. We’re just going to have to wait and pray that these "Big Four" have heard the industry leaders’ calls against DRM.
In the end, it’s all too much of a shame that the final decision is left to these corporate monoliths that have been in power long past their expiration date. Even though the words of Steve Jobs are strong, the ultimate decision goes to those who demanded DRM in the first place, those people in charge of the music.
Read what Steve has to say here. Then, discuss it in the Macteens forums!

Honda Wang is a teenager who hails from Iowa. He uses a black MacBook and can usually be found coding away or doing something else tech-related. If not, please contact the police about a missing person.

Apple (Product)RED

by Andrew Spangler • 02/05/2007 at 05:57 PM

It?s always interesting to observe different stereotypes. You?ve got your jocks, nerds, geeks, preppies, techies, goths, and more recently ? the emo. Regardless of what social box people try to fit you in, it seems that we often gravitate to the stereotype we wish we fit in, right?  Sometimes you fit really well into that little group, and sometimes you?ve got a Twinkie?s chance at fat camp. There are different kinds of stereotypes, people groups, cliques...I think Apple users fall broadly into the category of a sodality.  Basically, a sodality is a group you have to earn acceptance into ? as opposed to a modality, which you are born into (your family). 

I think Apple knows the kind of people that tend to be drawn into its fold (or clutches, depending on what OS you use), and markets their products specifically towards that demographic. 

No duh, right? 

What if Apple is using your sense of pity to get you to buy their products?

No doubt you?ve noticed the little red nano alongside the now classic black and white.  Have you taken a closer look?  Those little beauties are in conjunction with Bono?s (Product)RED ? an attempt to further the fight against AIDS. 

Now, I?m definitely all for eliminating HIV/AIDS.  According to Avert (a leading researcher in the fight against the disease), almost 40 million people are living with AIDS today and that figure includes up to 3.5 million children.  Friends and family have told me about AIDS orphanages in Africa. I?ve seen pictures - I?ve seen the results of HIV/AIDS. 

But the question remains, is it right for Apple to sell (Product)RED iPods?  Let me share a little more of where I?m coming from.  The (RED) movement is a conglomeration of high-end companies who have made a commitment to donate a certain percentage/amount of their profit off specific products to (RED).  According to the almighty Wikipedia, the Gap is donating 50% of profits from (RED) items.  Armani is donating 40% of sales from their (RED) products. And Apple is giving...10 bucks? That?s right, Apple has committed to give $10 from the sale of each 4 and 8 GB nano stamped with the (RED) logo.  I was disappointed when I saw the dollar amount to be donated per pod; isn?t Apple capable of doing more?  I would have liked to see something radical like 50% of each (RED) iPod sale ? you would end up with the same situation as the U2 iPods:  only the truely interested make the effort. 

I think Apple makes an attempt to offer products to the kind of people who like to call themselves ?non-conformists?.  Those who would prefer to stand out in the crowd.  You know who you are ? deep down you know you do some things just because everyone else says it?s dumb.  Dirty conformists.

Interestingly, those kind of people also tend to be more globally conscious.  When your teacher talks about Darfur, you don?t think of a Muppet.  You watched Hotel Rwanda and An Inconvenient Truth because you are actually interested in that kind of thing.  You might buy a VW, and probably are a pacifist.  Getting warmer? Apple?s decision to ?support? (RED) seems to me to be a shrewd business move.  Use their marketing power to raise a couple bucks for ol Bono, release a limited edition color for the nano, and generate even more interest among the faithful and those-yet-to-convert. 

My question is:  as the consumer, do we have an obligation to these products?  If you are going to buy an iPod, should you buy a Red nano? How should we gauge our decisions as responsible consumers and concerned citizens? 

Also, how do you feel about Apple supporting (Product)RED?  Do you think they really care about AIDS, or are they just trying to sell iPods?  Should motive even be a huge concern? 

I think this has huge potential for Apple and for us as their loyal sodality.  What will the verdict be for social justice ?themed? products?  What about a (RED) MacBook? 

Let?s talk about it.  What should consumers do in response to things like (Product)RED? Where does the money actually go?  Should we all buy a (RED) nano for our next iPod?  Share your opinion in the Macteens forums!

Andrew Spangler is one of Macteens' resident eclectic eccentrics. His interests include travel, computers, music, and disagreeing with you just for fun.

Review: Grado SR60 Headphones

by Steve Pan • 01/31/2007 at 07:17 AM

A major problem with Apple’s iPod does not lie with its hardware. Nay, the most glaring issue is that most users won’t get the full rich sound with the high quality sound chipsets, due to the craptacular nature of the bundled, iconic-yet-useless-and theft enticing earphones. It’s like buying expensive organic food for a sumptuous dinner at Trader Joe’s and heating your ingredients with a $25 toaster oven from K-Mart with Morton’s on the side as seasoning. Quality audiophile gear tends to be exorbitantly expensive, however, often leaving price-conscious shoppers without a midrange product between $5000 dollar headphones made of sub-Saharan rain forest wood or the $25 Compuhut crap brand “Noise Cancelling” clams.
Enter the 70 dollar SR60’s, the entry range headphone of Grado’s Prestige series, marketed to many perspective buyers as a gateway drug of sorts into the audiophile world, where a “good” pair of headphones might run you up a few hundred dollars. For years after it’s 1994 introduction the SR60 line has garnered rave reviews from both serious audiophiles and more debt-free casual listeners, but does it live up to its hype?

Unlike today’s obnoxious and possibly life threatening blister packs that encase most headphones, the SR60 ships in a nice paper and plastic box that slips open to reveal its contents quickly to the user. It’s not an Apple style eye popping origami job, but at least no limbs were exposed to sharp, serrated edges that could possibly hack the skin from your fingers after a careless cutting job. The SR60s sport a noteworthy retro look; it’s 50’s styling harkens back to a day when the common recording format was on a big vinyl discs and computers were 5 ton vacuum tube powered giants that did little but play Pong and tabulate big numbers. As an added bonus, the headphones come with an ?Ǭº” stereo jack plug adapter that allows you to use an electric guitar and other assorted electronics with the SR60’s.
If you’re accustomed to listening to music with the standard iPod earbuds, the difference, especially with well encoded high bit rate files, is startling. What was once just one “blur noise,” a haphazard collection of sounds from various instruments blended together and pureed into an overcooked musical mush, sounds concert-hall style clear with the SR60s. Unlike many other headphones, where some instruments are emphasized at the expense of others, the SR60s maintain a distinct neutrality. Hi-hats and other percussion instruments are distinct and hard-hitting. Listening to an electronic recording of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony by the Philadelphia Orchestra encoded at 256 kbps VBR might have possibly been the best classical recording I’ve ever heard. The clarity in audio was unmatched by anything else I’ve used before to play audio. I could pick up people sneezing during the recording. The only sound related issue that I had was with bass response. In a few songs they lacked oomph, even with the bass booster equalizer setting enabled in iTunes. The same was true for another song where bass felt watered down, where it should have been blowing my contacts off. After some googling, the audiophile consensus is that the SR80s, which are one notch above the 60s, have better bass for an extra 25 bucks. However, be aware that a pocket amp is “strongly recommended” for the 80s, which are used to produce a “fuller” sound. Also, given the audiophile fascination with burning in headphones for the full effect (e.g. listening to them for 100 hours or more), it’s quite possible that the dynamic drivers on the headphones are not stretched out to their intended, thus affecting sound quality adversely.
There main issue with the Grados are comfort. Though sound quality is excellent, it tends to get hot and stuffy on the ears after an extended listening period. Additionally, the weight might take a while to get used to, especially if you’ve been one to listen to speakers and use earbuds instead of full-sized headphones. Lastly, the cord is long. I don’t mean conveniently long, it’s somewhere around 10 feet long, easily capable of strangling you in your sleep if you aren’t too careful with it, but more realistically, could be a gigantic hassle if you’re planning on using these on-the-go. All in all, it’s a great pair of headphones for the cash value.

Steve Pan reminds you that Windows isn't evil, just bad. Mr. Pan doesn't mind incessantly bugging editors to publish his articles, just to be faced with photos that are... let's just say less than eye-pleasing.

Review: JVC HR-FX55 Earbuds

by Seth Hover • 01/24/2007 at 05:21 PM

I?m going to assume you own an iPod of some sort. I?m also going to assume you own a pair of those god-awful earbuds that Apple insists on including with the iPod. Sure, they look cool and all, but they sound terrible. Really. Trust me, if you think they don?t, you need to see an ear? doctor? guy. My lack of intelligence regarding aural medicine aside, I?ve found an inexpensive and stylish upgrade to those worthless white trinkets in the JVC HR-FX55.

Design
The HR-FX55s come in two color schemes: a classy black/grey and a hideous blue/white combo (think G3s in your ears). I opted for the blacks. As you can see, they?re a little different from the iPod earbuds; rather than sitting in the opening of your ear and irritating the heck out of you, they fit into your ear canal. There are three different rubber ?heads? included to give you a relatively good fit?as long as your earholes aren?t the size of dimes, you?re covered. The soft rubber also makes for a comfortable and barely noticeable fit. The cord is a ?J? style- rather than two equal-length cords coming from each earbud, the left side is about 4 inches and the right side is about 10 inches. Basically, only the right earbud has a noticeable cable that sits under your chin (owners of the PSP know what I mean). I thought this would be annoying, but I barely notice the difference after using it for a little while.

Sound
Simply put, these blew me away. You really can?t get better earbuds for $30USD. Out of the box, the highs were clear (if a little harsh, but that diminishes after a bit of use), the mids were thick and pleasant (but not mushy) and the bass? Astounding! Hip hop fans won?t be let down?these buds really kick. Bass and drums sound so good that you?ll wonder if you could even hear them on the iPod buds. They?re definitely good all-around earbuds that shine in the low end. Acoustic, pop-rock, rap, electronica and more are all delivered surprisingly well. The isolation is great, too. I normally use the smallest of the earbud pads for regular listening, but it?s easy to block out the rest of the world by moving up one size- I couldn?t even hear someone snapping their fingers in front of my face with the medium ones in.


Conclusion
You really owe it to yourself to check these out?with such a low price and sound far beyond my expectations, there?s nobody I wouldn?t recommend these to, either as a step up from the Great Whites or as a cheap backup/travel pair.
Pros: Great fit, great sound, very light, and a good all-around cord length make these a steal.
Cons: Figuring out how to put them in my ears was a hassle, but hardly an issue now. I?m also not partial to the bent minijack?that?s one thing I prefer about the iPod headphones.

Rating: 5/5

Seth Hover , Macteens' Senior Editor and forum urchin-at-large, favors sleep and slack to work and productivity. It shows.

Live from Macworld 2007: Keynote Coverage

by Daniel Hollister • 01/09/2007 at 01:31 PM

Welcome to Macteens special event coverage of the Macworld 2007 keynote. Updates are listed in chronigical order, with new items being at the bottom of the list. Due to unforseen technical difficulties, there may or may not be gaps in coverage for today’s event.

Jan 8 - 6:13 AM PST: The keynote will begin in a little less than two hours from now.

Jan 8 - 9:24 AM PST:
Steve is already up, and has announced that Paramount will now be selling movies on ituens along with Disney. The zune has a 2% market share according to Steve. He shows a new iPod ad.

Jan 8 - 9:27 AM PST:
Steve has announced that the iTV is now officially named Apple TV.

Jan 8 - 9:28 AM PST:

Apple TV will present video in 720P high-definition and has a 40GB hard drive built in. It also has 802.11 b, g, and n wireless networking.It also contains an Intel processor.

Jan 8 - 9:29 AM PST: Content for the Apple TV will autosync from one computer, and you can stream content from 5 computers.

Jan 9 - 9:31 AM PST: Steve is demoing Apple TV. The interface has been noticeably revamped.

Jan 8 - 9:32 AM PST: Steve is demonstrating how Apple TV handles a variety of movies, television shows, and photos.

Jan 9 - 9:32 AM PST: Apple TV will also allow you to stream your iTunes music to your home theater system.

Jan 9 - 9:38 AM PST: Phil Schiller has joined Steve on stage with a MacBook Pro to demonstrate how Apple TV can stream content from a guests computer.

Jan 9 - 9:39 AM PST: After showing a scene from 30 Rock, Phil has left the stage.

Jan 9 - 9:40 AM PST: Apple TV is going to be priced at $299 and will begin shipping next month. Orders will be taken starting today.

Jan 9 - 9:41 AM PST: Steve is speaking about Apple’s history as a revolutionary company. Slides are appearing showing things such as the first Macintosh and iPod.

Jan 9 - 9:41 AM PST: Today Apple will release 3 revolutionary projects of this caliber.Steve has revealed that the first one is a widescreen iPod, The second is a revolutionary mobile phone, The third is a breakthrough Internet communications device

Jan 9 - 9:43 AM PST: He has now revealed that they are not three separate devices. it is one, and it is called the iPhone.

Jan 9 - 9:44 AM PST: Steve has put up a hilarious looking fake mock-up of what the phone would look like. He is now talking about the pros and cons of current phones and smartphones.

Jan 9 - 9:45 AM PST: The iPhone is going to be smarter and easier to use than any phone on the market. It will start with a revolutionary interface.

Jan 9 - 9:45 AM PST: The iPhone is going to have no buttons, it is just a giant screen. Steve jokes about how you won’t use a stylus—you will use a new technology called multitouch.

Jan 9 - 9:45 AM PST: No stylus, far more accurate than any touchpad, ignores unintended touches, allows for multi-finger gestures, and as Steve says, “Boy, have we patented it!”

Jan 9 - 9:50 AM PST: The iPhone runs OS X.

Jan 9 - 9:50 AM PST: All features of OS X including Cocoa, Core Image...It will have desktop-class applications and networking.

Jan 9 - 9:51 AM PST: The iPhone will sync with your desktop like an iPod, except documents, apps, calendars, and other data will sync as well.

Jan 9 - 9:52 AM PST: The screen is 3.5” and is 160dpi, making it the highest-resolution display Apple has ever shipped.

Jan 9 - 9:53 AM PST: It has a 2 megapixel camera built-in and the phone itself is thinner than all other current smartphones.

Jan 9 - 9:54 AM PST: The phone has the ambient light sensor and a proximity sensor that knows when the phone is close to your ear. It also has an accelerometer to tell whether it is being held in portrait or landscape mode

Jan 9 - 9:55 AM PST: Steve is demoing the iPhone.

Jan 9 - 10:00 AM PST: Content can be played in both widescreen and fullscreen. Simply tilting the iPhone will change the perspective in real-time. It is of note that the iPhone has the Cingular logo at the top of it.

Jan 9 - 10:03 AM PST: Now is is demoing the phone features. “The killer app is making calls.”

Jan 9 - 10:05 AM PST: The iPhone will have visual voicemail. You will be able to access any voicemail without listening to the newest ones first. It will be a quad-band GSM + EDGE phone. Wi-fi and Bluetooth 2.0 are built in.

Jan 9 - 10:05 AM PST: Steve is now demoing other features of the phone.

Jan 9 - 10:06 AM PST: Steve has called Jonathan Ive. Phil Schiller has called at the same time, and Steve is demonstrating how easy it is to put people on hold and bring them back. You can also press a button to merge the two calls and have a conference call.

Jan 9 - 10:09 AM PST: He is now demonstrating Visual Voicemail.

Jan 9 - 10:11 AM PST: He has moved onto demoing SMS messaging. You can have “sessions” that look very close to iChat windows.

Jan 9 - 10:13 AM PST: Steve is now showing the mobile version of iPhoto. Same things apply—you can scroll through them with your fingers. You can also “pinch” a photo using your fingers to make it bigger or smaller.

Jan 9 - 10:16 AM PST: Steve is now about to explore the “Internet communications device” portion of the iPhone.

Jan 9 - 10:16 AM PST: It will have rich HTML email and will work with any IMAP or POP3 email service. A fully usable version of Safari will be there as well.

Jan 9 - 10:17 AM PST: Google Maps will also be built in, as will Widgets. It also has both EDGE and WiFi, and when you are in a WiFi network, it will automatically switch over to that to avoid using the wireless network.

Jan 9 - 10:18 AM PST: Yahoo! Mail will provide free IMAP email to all iPhone customers.

Jan 9 - 10:22 AM PST: Steve is demoing Safari. It gives you the full page, not just a WAP version. Again, pinching using your fingers will make things bigger. Also you can just double-tap to zoom in on anything.

Jan 9 - 10:25 AM PST: The mobile version of Safari supports tabbed browsing. Each tab is visual, showing you a preview of the page. Steve is now demoing widgets, currently showing the stock market. Revealed of course is how well Apple is doing.

Jan 9 - 10:27 AM PST: Google Maps is now being demoed. it is extremely fast. Steve has just prank called an actual Starbucks in the area using the iPhone.

Jan 9 - 10:29 AM PST: You can hit a “Satellite” button on the iPhone and Google Maps will show the satellite views of all maps. It is still incredibly fast.

Jan 9 - 10:30 AM PST: “Internet in your pocket.”

Jan 9 - 10:31 AM PST: Google CEO Dr. Eric Schmidt is being welcomed to the stage.

Jan 9 - 10:32 AM PST: He is giving a speech about how they partnered with Apple on this iPhone.

Jan 9 - 10:34 AM PST: Steve has returned to the stage.

Jan 9 - 10:34 AM PST: Jerry Yang, Yahoo! co-founder, is now being welcomed to the stage as well.As many Yahoo! products are integrated with the iPhone, he is giving a speech as well about their partnership with Apple.

Jan 9 - 10:36 AM PST: Jerry has left the stage and Steve has returned.

Jan 9 - 10:37 AM PST: Steve is now demoing how the iPhone might be used in real-world scenarios. He is listening to the Red Hot Chili Peppers and receives a call from Phil Schiller. Phil wants a photo from Steve, and Steve demonstrates how while the call is still active, he can email a photo. While still on the call, Steve is demonstrating going online using Safari to check movie listings. Switching between the call and different apps is seamless. After the call is ended, the music automatically fades back up again.

Jan 9 - 10:37 AM PST: Accessories available for the iPhone will include headphones with a microphone built in, as well as a Bluetooth headset. The iPhone will have 5 hours of talk time and 16 hours of audio playback.

Jan 9 - 10:45 AM PST: Over 200 patents have been filed for inventions found in the iPhone.

Jan 9 - 10:45 AM PST: The iPhone is going to cost $499 for a 4GB model and an 8GB model for $599.Cingular will be the exclusive partner for the iPhone in the United States.

Jan 9 - 10:50 AM PST: The iPhone will sell in both Apple and Cingular stores. iPhone in the United States.

Jan 9 - 10:50 AM PST: Stan Sigman, CEO of Cingular, has been welcomed to the stage. He is giving a speech about how this has been in progress for two years and how honored he is to have partnered with Apple. This writer notes a lack of enthusiasm on the part of Mr. Singman.

Jan 9 - 10:55 AM PST: Stan has completed his speech and Steve has returned to the stage.

Jan 9 - 10:56 AM PST: Steve’s clicker is not working and the presentation is having technical difficulties.

Jan 9 - 10:56 AM PST: While the technical difficulties are being fixed, he is speaking about the TV jammer he and Woz created in high school. The presentation seems to be functional now. He is exploring the size of the market for the iPhone.

Jan 9 - 10:57 AM PST: There are almost 1 billion mobile phones in the world, making it their biggest market.They are aiming to have 1% market share in one year, which would mean 10 million units.

Jan 9 - 10:58 AM PST: Apple has changed their company name from Apple Computer, Inc. to simply Apple, Inc.

Jan 9 - 10:59 AM PST: Steve is now pointing out all the people involved in the creation of the iPhone. This concludes todays keynote, check back for more news at macteens!

Jan 9 - 11:02 AM PST: John Mayer is coming up to perform.

Daniel Hollister is the Editor-in-Chief of Macteens, and has been apart of the Macteens community since 2002. He is a filmmaker, designer, entrepreneur, and Mac enthusiast from Santa Cruz, California. When not arguing in the forums and working 18 hour days, Daniel can be found sleeping. That is it, he has no time for anything else. Daniel currently works and resides in Hollywood, California.

Macteens to cover Macworld 2007

by Chris Saribay • 01/04/2007 at 12:45 PM

We are proud to announce that we will be providing extensive coverage of Macworld Conference and Expo 2007 from January 7th to 12th. We?re sending a crack squad of Macteens editors and videographers as registered media to cover the event.

Redirecting to coverage page… click here if you are not redirected.

Chris Saribay resurrected Macteens back in December 2001. Serving as Editor Emeritus six years later, Chris is still as ever interested in Mac and iPod as ever before. He'll also have you note that his MacBook Pro practically smokes his Power Mac G5 Dual 2.7 GHz tower.

A Pourhadi Perspective for the New Year

by Dan Pourhadi • 01/01/2007 at 04:12 PM

When Judson Collier, Macteens’ new Senior Editor in charge of content, asked me to write this piece for January 1st, I almost declined.

I am, after all, me, and as such I’m entitled to decline various offers from time to time just to keep editors on their toes. It also gives the illusion that I’m far more important than I really am—a huge plus when setting article prices and deciding who gets the last piece of pie at dinner.

But my sense of obligation got to me: I was voted TIME’s Person of the Year for 2006, and carrying that title compels me to ruminate on this great year that has so elegantly passed—on its up, its downs, its lefts and rights, and, of course, my impact on the world and how it’s a far better place because of me.

Oh, you won too...

I guess the “real” (cough) reason I’m writing this piece, however, is not me—though realistically that’s Pulitzer Prize-worthy as it is. The real reason, dear reader, is you—the Mac teen, the social-network-using, money-spending, internet-hoarding individuals who dictate the trends, embrace new technologies and, most importantly of all, decide the future of the entire planet.

Am I exaggerating? Not one bit.

Just ask TIME.

They stole my idea

A few months ago I was talking with my friend Kim, pondering the question every teen battles while flipping through TV channels at 1 a.m.: Who is the voice of our generation?

“No one reads anymore,” she said, emotionless, as if that fact was so obvious it didn’t merit expression.

I paused, millions of tiny synaptic connections exploding in my head.

That’s true, few people really truly read—especially work relating to the present day, literature reflective of our beliefs and attitudes towards the world. We do watch TV. A whole lot of it.

And we use the internet. In fact, that’s pretty much all we do to stay connected with the world.

“Maybe there is no one voice of our generation,” I said, scratching my chin as if I’d made a dramatic breakthrough. “For the first time ever, almost everyone can speak for themselves.”

“What do you mean?” asked Kim, now focused too much on the TV and less on my burst of genius.

“As long as you have an internet connection and something to say, you can make your own voice heard: through blogs or podcasts or homemade videos or whatever. When the public wants to speak, it can, and it has, and it isn’t filtered through some single voice or corporate PR firm. The internet has given all of us a voice. We speak for ourselves.”

“That’s true,” said agreed. “Well, question answered. You should write an article about it.”

I thought about it for a second.

“Nah. Who’d want to read that?”

Woops

TIME’s article was nothing more than a publicity stunt. Then again, that is the whole point of the Person of the Year feature, anyway.

But no one can deny the fact that the internet is really changing the way we impact the world. There will always be a few, notable individuals—Bush, Kim Jong Il, Gates, etc.—who dominate the news, who influence world attitude. But now more than ever, we, the common ilk, have a say; now we can not only dominate the news, we make the news, we dictate what is—and what isn’t—news in the first place.

Have our YouTube/MySpace exploits surpassed the influences of the world leaders? Not quite, not yet. But we’re getting there.

A Year of Obsessions

2006 was unquestionably the Year of Obsessions, especially among the teen community. Here are a few that definitely stood out.

MySpace - Hate it or love it, MySpace is here to stay, and 2006 solidified its place in the public mind as *the* teen online hangout. And even if you do hate it, there’s a good chance you probably have one, and check it every day, if for nothing more than to keep in touch with your friends. “What’s your MySpace?” is a far more common question than “Do you have one?” Hell, one day after meeting a girl she gave me a note, not with her phone number—but her MySpace name. (That was a definite Turn Off, but it certainly opened my eyes to MySpace’s growing dominance.)

Facebook - MySpace’s less bratty and significantly more mature brother, who worries less about flash and mass appeal and more about streamlined efficiency. It still Sucks A Whole Lot in the grand scheme of things, but at least it does so elegantly (though slightly more evasively). Facebook made headlines by enabling the infamous News feed—garnering a backlash of public resentment, but opening the users’ eyes to the fact that, online, everything is public knowledge.

Digg - If there’s one more post on Macteens’ forums about Digg, I can’t be responsible for the virus-laden e-mail sent to the poster. Curiously, it’s inhabited by most of the same people who hate MySpace, yet it’s just as pointless—and insidious—as its social brethren. No one can argue that Rose scored big, and Digg is a good way to learn about news otherwise ignored by the public—but like MySpace, its novelty will wear off. Eventually. Hopefully.

YouTube - YouTube is great. And its primary appeal may not be its social, anyone-can-be-famous design—but rather the professionally-produced video content (ie, TV shows, commercials, etc.) uploaded on a daily basis. And the world’s obsession with the concept spawned an army of competitors, eager to make the experience better for everyone. (Even the content industries are starting to see how important it truly is, evidenced by their agreeing to license content to users for free—asking, in exchange, for a cut of YouTube’s ad revenue.)

iPhone rumors - I’ll be honest: Unlike many of my writerly colleagues, I’m not sick of the constant barrage of iPhone rumors springing up almost daily. Phones today suck. Some are “decent,” but very few do anything really, genuinely well. That was the problem with MP3 players before Apple got on the scene: they existed, and some were happy with how they performed. But for the most part they were lacking—elegance, functionality, everything. The iPod changed that. And in 2007, I’m hoping the ApplePhone will change the cell phone industry the same way.

The Year Ahead

The coming year will undoubtedly be an exciting one, especially for teen members of the Mac elite, for two very specific reasons.

1. The Mac is back, baby!

Yup, even the PC folk are starting to accept it: The Mac is once again thriving—the iPod “halo” effect has taken form, and Apple’s Get a Mac campaign is wildly successful. Mac sales are skyrocketing, and everybody who’s anybody (and even a few who aren’t) are buying Macs, if not for the functionality, then for the ever-increasing “cool” factor associated with the venerable Apple logo.

Apple struck gold with the iPod, and the MacBook has thrown the Mac back into the mainstream, particularly for youth going to school, looking for an inexpensive—yet powerful—virus-free, software-abundant computer.

Boot Camp opened the door for Windowites looking for a way to take advantage of the Power of the Mac without sacrificing the software and routine to which they’ve become accustomed. The Mac is now hands-down the most software-compatible computer on the market, capable of running Windows, Linux, and OS X.

Adobe just pushed out a beta of Photoshop CS3, which screams on Intel-based Macs, removing the bottleneck that prevented so many pros from upgrading to the new machines when they were first announced.

And the mainstream media is finally recognizing the Mac as the brilliant platform that it is: Almost every Mac review is overwhelmingly positive, and few suggest anything less than a forceful “Toss out the PC and buy a Mac NOW!”

Buying a PC has gone on the scale from “Economical” to “Stupid,” with few exceptions. Developers are tapping into that, and taking advantage of Apple’s newfound prominence. And things will only get better.

2. Macteens is back, baby!

If you’ve been a long-time Macteens fan (or at least reader), you know this site has a sketchy history of keeping a publishing momentum. There’ll be a streak of really great content (like when the “Pourhadi Perspective” was regular, for example) and then it would eventually fizzle out, when the staff had to once again grudgingly return to their own school-filled lives.

Add to that our constant aging: most of the Macteens staff has almost passed “teen” status. I’m 19, and despite my endless struggle to re-define the laws of temporal reality, I can’t seem to stop getting older. Ditto for the rest of the team.

Anyone who has ever edited a high school newspaper will tell you it’s hard to maintain a teen-run publication. Writers lose motivation, editors get distracted. It comes with the territory—and it certainly doesn’t help that most of this is funded out of the staff’s own pockets.

But there is hope, and thy name is Judson Collier. Macteens is reorganizing its editorial and management staff, and Judson has—on a trial basis—assumed editorial control of Macteens content. And from what I’ve seen, Macteens is about to get a burst of new life.

He’s dedicated and filled with vision, and he’s one of the few people I’ve met who I trust to maintain the site, to beat the motivation woes that typically engulf those slated with such an abundance of responsibility. Like our venerated Chris Saribay, he’s willing to put in the effort required to make this site great. And with support from the experienced MT staff, he will.

I’m incredibly excited for Macteens. The future possibilities are endless, and with a new, energized staff behind the wheel, this site is once again ready for greatness.

***

As TIME’s Person of the Year, I’d like to bid 2006 adieu, and express my excitement for the year ahead.

Being a Mac teen has never been so exciting. And I only get to enjoy it for nine more months.

Damn you, time! Damn you!!!

We at Macteens wish you all a happy New Year!

Dan Pourhadi is a freelance technology writer from the northwest suburbs of Chicago. He writes several Mac-focused columns for various publications and has contributed to MacAddict Magazine. Dan is also a contributor to MacUser.

Phenomenon Jon: A feature length comedy

by Daniel Hollister • 12/30/2006 at 01:47 AM

Redirecting to explicit content warning, click here if you are not redirected…

Daniel Hollister is the Editor-in-Chief of Macteens, and has been apart of the Macteens community since 2002. He is a filmmaker, designer, entrepreneur, and Mac enthusiast from Santa Cruz, California. When not arguing in the forums and working 18 hour days, Daniel can be found sleeping. That is it, he has no time for anything else. Daniel currently works and resides in Hollywood, California.

Happy Holidays from Macteens

by Chris Saribay • 12/24/2006 at 07:55 PM

As another year passes (and as we celebrate our fifth anniversary), Macteens would like to wish all of our readers and supporters warm wishes for this holiday season, and bid all of you a wondrously successful new year. We pause here today, as we spend time with our own families and prepare for Macworld Conference and Expo 2007 in January- as always, offering the best coverage with our up to the second keynote coverage, videos and articles from the show floor everyday. May your holiday and new year be happy and safe.

Macteens will continue normal publication on Monday, January 1 2007.

Chris Saribay resurrected Macteens back in December 2001. Serving as Editor Emeritus six years later, Chris is still as ever interested in Mac and iPod as ever before. He'll also have you note that his MacBook Pro practically smokes his Power Mac G5 Dual 2.7 GHz tower.

Replay: Week 1

by Seth Hover • 12/21/2006 at 06:17 PM

You: “What? A new weekly article?”
Me: “Yes. Now shut up and listen.”
Okay, so I’m no Dan Pourhadi, and this isn’t an opinion piece in the strictest sense of the word. Nevertheless, welcome to Replay, Macteens’ new audio blog. What is Replay, you ask? Well, to put it bluntly, it’s a list of awesome songs that you’d better listen to right now. To make it easier on you (and to provide a legal way of acquiring said songs), I’ll ever-so-graciously create an iMix of the week’s Playlist. I suppose I’m morally obligated to warn you against stealing music, so...uh...don’t. Don’t do it.
...Or you gonna get sued (famous last words).
The Songs
Jedi Mind Tricks - Heavenly Divine
The instrumentals in this song are good enough alone to put on the list, but Ikon’s vocals are amazing. He has a distinctly angry voice but he still delivers quick rhymes with diction that an English professor would have a hard time matching. Just Allah’s part is good too-he almost sounds like a younger-brother version of Ikon. That’s definitely not a bad thing, especially when they go into the final, line-to-line verse.
Lateef The Truthsayer - The Wreckoning
This song comes courtesy of MT forum moderator Wyatt (ikari). With DJ Shadow on production, I knew it’d be good-Lateef’s vocal style and lyrics provide an odd contrast to the post-apocalyptic, sparse beats. It almost seems like someone combined an already great-sounding instrumental and a complex battle rap out of boredom and accidentally created a great song.
A Tribe Called Quest - Buggin’ Out
Oh, come on. If you already listen to hip hop, I don’t need to justify this, but for those of you who don’t, just take a listen. A sweet bassline + Q-tip and Phife = classic song that’s aged well.
Mr. Lif f/ Murs - Murs Iz My Manager
It seems like people either love Def Jux (the record label that Mr. Lif is on) or hate it. Lif is one of my favorite MCs, and labelmates like Aesop Rock and Cannibal Ox don’t hurt...so if you don’t like Jux...shut up.
Anyway-like I said, Lif is awesome. Murs is awesome. Edan’s production is even better than his rhyming (which is no joke). It’s funky, it’s funny, it’s great. It’s also very Def Jux, so keep that in mind. If you like this, you’ll like other Jukies (see above).
Wyclef Jean - Apocalypse
Wyclef will always have a special place in my library...The Carnival was my first hip-hop album, but that’s not the only reason I like the album. It’s just really, really good. Apocalypse is a prime example of Clef’s great storytelling abilities-listen to Bubblegoose from the same album for more of the same excellent production and rhymes.
Aesop Rock - Save Yourself
Yes-more Def Jux. Aesop Rock has a different method of rhyme delivery than most-it’s more of a flowing ramble than a structured verse-chorus-repeat form. His verses stretch on to allow his thoughts to keep changing and moving. He’s got great lines ("Aesop Rock’s 12 Steps To Shut The Fuck Up Seminar” stuck) that keep you hooked in and make you want to listen to his songs over and over to catch every little detail he throws in.
If you like his style, you might also be partial to Kool Keith. I didn’t put him on the list because iTunes has a poor selection of his work. That and the fact that suggesting songs like “Girls Would U F*** Tonite” would get this column canned…
Eyedea & Abilities - Big Shots
Oh man! That song was in Tony Hawk! Yep, if you bought a consumer-level G4, this song might sound familiar. Now, listen to it-no pretending you can skate now. DJ Abilities lays down an awesome beat and a fat bassline for Eyedea to complain about ‘big shots’ and then flip-flops right into calling himself the same. Then it’s a good thing!
Gang Starr - Moment Of Truth
The Guru: Man. Legend. Killer MC. DJ Premier: Man. Legend. Killer producer. Combine the two and magic happens. ‘Nuff said.
Haiku D’Etat - Slower Traffic To The Right
Haiku D’Etat just never made it big. It’s too bad, because this album is great. Slower Traffic has a fun (if dumb) hook and great rhyming from every member, plus a cool jangly beat that carries it all the way through without getting stale.
Souls Of Mischief - ‘93 ‘Til Infinity
Yes, Souls Of Mischief. Why did I add this song? Because, duh! It’s awesome! It’s Souls Of Mischief! So what if all of their beats sound the same? The Hieroglyphics core crew is all here (except maybe Del) and they spit nonstop. You cannot dislike this song. Don’t even think about it.
Get the iMix on iTunes: Macteens presents: Replay Week 1 That about wraps up this week’s Replay. Next week, be prepared for something a little different. No hints!

Seth Hover , Macteens' Senior Editor and forum urchin-at-large, favors sleep and slack to work and productivity. It shows.

Hallon

by Aaron Plane • 12/14/2006 at 01:51 PM

I’m willing to be bold and say that most of you have many, many bookmarks in your browser. Whether it’s a video of Diet Coke and Mentos, or a link to the (all-mighty) mothership of Apple.com, we all have them. And they sit nicely in a toolbar or bookmark area of Safari, Camino, Firefox, etc. The one limitation of this is that these bookmarks can only be applied to websites, and nothing more.
Enter Hallon. Written by the same developer as the open source Smultron text editor, this open source app takes bookmarking to a whole new level - system wide. Now, not only can you bookmark a page in your browser, but you can also bookmark a certain part of your computer. All of this can be yours in a small 0.7 MB package.

There are 7 applications that Hallon currently supports natively. These are: Address Book, Finder, iPhoto, iTunes, Mail, Safari, and the Terminal. You can also download additional modules from the website. These include: iPhoto 4, iPhoto 5, Firefox, Microsoft Entourage, Camino, BibDesk, Shiira, and NetNewsWire. The website even has instructions for developers about how to add their app!
My favourite overall feature of Hallon has to be the iTunes capability. I can select my favourite songs and refer back to them without performing a search in iTunes. The Finder capability is also refreshing: now, if I want to find a file, folder or app quickly, or if I have trouble remembering where a certain file is, I can easily refer to that little, friendly berry in my system tray.
Of course, you could also use Hallon to replace your browser’s bookmarks; if you want to open a bookmark right away, you can do so without even opening your browser first. Many browsers, however, already do a sufficient job of loading and serving your bookmarks.

One of the strong points of this app is the ability to use and set different keyboard shortcuts. Currently, I use Option-Space to add bookmarks on the fly (it fits nicely with Quicksilver being Ctrl-Space and Spotlight being Command-Space), although different key combinations can be selected at will in the Preferences.
A very interesting feature of Hallon is the ability to open a bookmark “silently”. In Finder, for example, this means just showing the file and not opening it. In iTunes, it means showing the song, but not playing it.

Now that you have all your bookmarks, the menus may begin to look messy. Using the Organizer, you can also set an expiry date on certain bookmarks (and even set an alarm to notify you). This is handy for bookmarks that you don’t need to keep forever, but might want for a month or a week, et cetera.
All in all, Hallon is an excellent way to quickly access your favorite collections, whether it be URLs, songs or files. Hallon is released under an open source license, and it is free (as in freedom) to use and to tinker with the source.

Aaron Plane is trying his absolute best to hold back tears for his beloved 12" PB, who is beginning to develop an acute inferiority complex (Is that a good thing?). Aaron is also partially responsible for our sister site, LinuxTeens, and when not busy, can be found trying to better his Mac (and Linux) experience.

Adobe to release beta version of Photoshop CS 3

by Chris Saribay • 12/14/2006 at 12:45 PM

In a widely anticipated move, Adobe will release a beta version of Photoshop CS 3 to licensed customers of Photoshop CS 2 (or Creative Suite 2 bundles) on Friday, December 15th. Adobe is delivering the beta to help customers ease the transition between Apple’s latest Intel based hardware offerings, in anticipation for commercial release in the spring quarter of 2007. The beta of Photoshop 3 will be released for both Mac and Windows at the Adobe Labs development website.

“This is an exciting time for the Mac, and Adobe wanted to ease the move to new Intel-based systems with a preview release of Photoshop CS3,” said John Loiacono, senior vice president of Creative Solutions Business Unit at Adobe. “We didn’t want to leave Windows customers out of the party, so the beta is available to everyone in the creative industry’s most passionate user community,no matter what their platform choice. We still have some surprises in store, but this beta gives customers an early chance to see the power of another great Photoshop release, optimized and tuned to run natively on the latest hardware and operating systems.”

Packed with new features, Photoshop CS3 beta also includes a pre-release version of a major upgrade to Adobe Bridge, as well as a preview release of the all-new Adobe Device Central. Photoshop customers can use Adobe Device Central to design, preview, and test compelling mobile content, created specifically for smaller screens. This new tool, integrated in the Photoshop CS3 beta, simplifies and accelerates the creation of mobile content through a preview environment and built-in device profiles.

Chris Saribay resurrected Macteens back in December 2001. Serving as Editor Emeritus six years later, Chris is still as ever interested in Mac and iPod as ever before. He'll also have you note that his MacBook Pro practically smokes his Power Mac G5 Dual 2.7 GHz tower.

MacHeist Raises $50,000 for Charity

by Glenn Wolsey • 12/14/2006 at 11:40 AM

Touting this week as “The Week of the Independent Mac Developer,” MacHeist began selling a software bundle of some of the hottest apps for OS X on Monday in the hopes of increasing the profile of the Mac shareware development community as well as raising $100,000 for charity before the holiday season.

The bundle retails for $49 USD and includes such best-of-class applications as media-cataloguer Delicious Library and RSS aggregator NewsFire. MacHeist is donating 25% of each sale to participating charities, which include The United Way International, Direct Relief International, AIDS Research Alliance, PreventCancer.org, The Nature Conservancy, The World Wildlife Fund, The Hunger Project, and Save the Children.

Originally, MacHeist announced that if $100,000 were raised before the end of the week, the award-winning text editor TextMate would be distributed to all customers. Today, however, MacHeist conceded that $100,000 may not be reachable in time. “Right now, it looks like the charity plateau may not be a realistic goal. So, we’ve decided that it benefits everyone involved here if we unlock TextMate now, and we’ll be donating anything extra necessary to guarantee a $100,000 donation from the Mac community,” said event co-founder Phill Ryu.

Therefore, MacHeist has decided to release licenses of TextMate to all customers. If customers are unable to drive donations past the $100,000 mark, MacHeist has pledged to make up the difference.

The sale ends at 11:59 p.m. EST on Dec. 17.

Glenn Wolsey {abio}

The Rules of Photography

by Daniel Hollister • 12/12/2006 at 01:00 AM

At this point, you’re getting pretty comfortable with your camera. You know how to operate it and you know how to make use of some of those newfangled professional features such as manual focus, shutter, aperture, and ISO. But you aren’t quite done yet. You’re now at the Point of No Return, the Twilight Zone, or where the magic happens otherwise known as the place that separates the good photographers from the great photographers. You’re ready to start taking pictures that are not only technically adept but, well, interesting.

What makes a picture interesting? How do you go about taking these pictures? How do you use the things you learned in the last article to your advantage when trying to take a beautiful photograph? That’s what this segment is going to be all about.

The Rules Myth
Something I commonly hear from new photographers and filmmakers who don’t want to learn the basics is that there are no rules. I always hear people say that in art, there’s no such thing as a rule ‘ you just go out there and take a picture and make a movie and it doesn’t really matter how. In reality, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. A seasoned professional who has been taking pictures for years can break all the rules on the planet. Why? Because they know what they’re doing. They have the experience that teaches them what looks good and what doesn’t, even if it is counter-cultural or uncommon.

Beginners don’t have this experience, and it is for this reason that I present in this article some proven methods that you can use to take interesting pictures. You may choose not to use them, but keep in mind that they are just stepping stones. Use them now until you feel you understand why they are important, and then go nuts with your own angles, framing, and whatever else. But for now, do yourself a favor and follow the guidelines. Your pictures will improve dramatically just by using them.

[bKnow Your Subject
The most important thing to know before you take a picture is what exactly you are taking a picture of. Is it an object? A person? Why is it that person? Do they have an interesting haircut or gorgeous eyes or does their face just have a certain look to it?

You are never just taking a picture of ‘a person’ or ‘a thing.’ You are taking a picture of a very specific part. Know what you are taking a picture of, and know why. This is because taking a picture of a person because their eyes are pretty could be framed completely differently with the same person standing in the same position if you wanted to, say, accentuate their hair instead. Or their smile. So be sure you know what exactly your subject is.

The Rule of Thirds
Look at this picture:

This might be a typical picture someone might take of a friend of his or hers. The subject is almost dead center, with a lot of wasted room on just about all sides. While this may be one of the most common ways to take a portrait, it’s also the most common way to take an uninteresting photo.

Now consider the same subject, but framed differently:

This is much more interesting. There is not as much wasted room, the person’s head is at the top of the frame, and thus more of the person can be seen. It also gives a sense of height. The subject is off-center, which not only adds a significant amount of interest and mystique, but directs your attention very clearly to him, as well as allowing you to see the background. This photo was taken using what we call the Rule of Thirds.

The basis of the ages-old Rule of Thirds is that if you were to divide a frame into thirds, both ways, the points of intersection are the points where your subject should be placed in order to be most interesting. For example:

That’s what a typical frame would look like when folded into thirds both ways. The circled points of intersection are the areas deemed most interesting. Let’s see how that plays out with the picture I just used as an interesting example:

Perfect! The subject’s eyes are directly lined up with the intersecting points. Any one of those four points is a great place to frame your subject. Check out these other examples that have all been improved using the Rule of Thirds:

As you can see, the Rule of Thirds can make things look interesting that normally are not. This rule is a fundamental rule of composition, and as such, you can apply it to just about anything ‘ any object, any subject, any location. But it also works in other arts, such as filmmaking, painting, or just about anything else. Any type of art that has a subject bound within a frame is benefited by the Rule of Thirds.

You may notice that the photo above of the subject has his hair partially cut out. Was that a mistake? Hardly. Remember the first section of this article ‘ know your subject. The subject was not my friend’s hair, but his eyes and expression, and thus it does not particularly matter if part of his hair was cut out. You can still see he has hair, and you probably aren’t left wondering what the other inch of it looks like. However, had I moved the shot up a tiny bit to allow room for his hair, his eyes no longer would have been in the point of intersection and you would no longer be as drawn to face.

Depth of Field
Another powerful tool at your disposal is depth of field. This is another way you show what your subject is and where it is. It also lets you see, well, depth. Depth of field (or DOF, for short) is most commonly demonstrated in photography by what objects are in focus and what objects are not. Take the following picture, for example:

What is the subject of this picture? Obviously the person is right in front of the camera, but he is so blurry that you can’t see him. The background, however, is razor-sharp, suggesting that it is the object you are supposed to be looking at in this picture. Look at the following picture:

This is exactly the opposite. The subject is clearly the person, and the background is obviously of no real interest, since it is completely blurry. This is just one use of DOF, however there are several. Check out this picture:

In this photo, despite the background being blurry, it almost appears as if it is the subject because of the framing. The blur mixes the colors of the background, giving it a very surreal and interesting look, even though it’s just a picture of a park bench at a college. This was the intent, and is a good demonstration of how framing and DOF can drastically alter the way an image is perceived.

The amount of DOF you have is defined by two terms ‘ shallow and deep. A shallow depth of field means the photo has a lot of blur in it, whereas deep depth of field means that there isn’t a lot of focus as all ‘ nearly everything in the picture looks the same. For example:

This would be an example of a photo with a shallow depth of field. The background is almost entirely blurry, whereas the foreground is completely, totally, 100% razor-sharp. However

this photo is sharp pretty much everywhere. Nothing in the picture is really sharper or blurrier than anything else. Nearly everything is in focus. This would be described as a deep depth of field.

You can manipulate depth of field using two things: focus and aperture, as you may have learned from the previous article. Obviously you would use the focus ring to decide what is in or out of focus. However, differentiating between a shallow and deep depth of field is done with the iris. The more opened an iris is (or the lower the ‘stop’ is, for example f/1.8) the more shallow the depth of field will be. The more closed the iris is (such as f/11) the deeper the depth of field will be. This will be demonstrated using different lenses in the next segment.

Go Take Over the World!
And there you have it ‘ a few easy ways to turn your good pictures into great pictures. Use these techniques and use them often, as you will not only take better pictures but you’ll learn all sorts of other tips and tricks down the road.

You’ve made it. You’ve gotten beyond the Twilight Zone. You know how the magic happens. You now know not only the basics of the technology, but the basics of the artistic side as well. Now go out and take some pictures!

Daniel Hollister is the Editor-in-Chief of Macteens, and has been apart of the Macteens community since 2002. He is a filmmaker, designer, entrepreneur, and Mac enthusiast from Santa Cruz, California. When not arguing in the forums and working 18 hour days, Daniel can be found sleeping. That is it, he has no time for anything else. Daniel currently works and resides in Hollywood, California.

Interview with teen developer Martin Pilkington

by Judson Collier • 12/08/2006 at 02:00 PM

M Cubed Software recently released their new application, Minim- a music manager exclusively for Mac OS X. It lets composers store all their information about their songs and albums, from meta data to GarageBand files.  Minim is a management app for musicians. Music listeners have iTunes and Minim is there to fill the void for those who make music. It can also be the basis for collaborating on and sharing your music with others. Judson Collier recently talked with teen-age developer Martin Pilkington about Minim’’s creation, and his experience developing the software.
Where did the inspiration come from to create Minim?
Well, I write a lot of music, and I mean a LOT. Up until now I’ve just been managing it all in the Finder, which is far from ideal. Having folders of GarageBand files, text files with lyrics in and various different scores and MIDI files is not a great way to store music, and when I want to group them together I get duplicates. So I decided to write an application to handle all that.
Originally I wasn’t planning to make Minim, it was just a small idea in the back of my mind, quite different from the Minim I’ve released. I was working on a back up application, but of course with Time Machine coming in Leopard I figured I couldn’t compete and so I switched projects. That is a moral to all developers, have lots of ideas!
What are some of your favorite features in Minim?
That’s a very good question. The ability to group my songs by Albums was very important to me because it got rid of the whole duplication problem. Being able to keep track of the date I wrote a song is also something I wanted a lot. It’s a very small feature but I like to track how my music has progressed over time.
How does Minim integrate with other apps and sites?
Minim integrates with a website called iCompositions, which is a great site with lots of very talented artists who use using GarageBand and a few other apps to make music to share with the world. As I upload my songs there, I thought it’d be great if I could ease that process. You can store a lot of metadata about your songs in Minim so we thought, “Why not use that?”, and so, with the click of a button, you can be taken to the iCompositions upload page with most of the forms already filled in for you.
Minim also integrates with iChat, so you can add anyone else working on your song to the collaborators panel and see when they’re online. As for GarageBand integration, it’s an obvious avenue and we are most definitely looking into it
What are your plans for the future, if you’d like to reveal some to us?
Well, we want Minim to become your first stop when you start writing music. At the moment Minim is where you keep everything once you have finished, but we would like it to be where you formulate ideas and start getting the foundation of your song down. We’d also like to expand the collaboration and sharing features, as applications are moving away from being single entities and becoming connected. iChat in Leopard is a great example of this with iChat Theatre and Screen Sharing.
How did Mcubed Software get started?
Depends how far back you want to go? When I was 8 I started making simple games using Appleworks and Apple Media Tool on my Performa 5200. As I got older I created M Cubed Games, but as my games all sucked and I got into programming it became M Cubed Software. I’ve greatly admired companies like Panic and Rogue Amoeba and the idea of working for myself, making software that I enjoy and that others enjoy is just very appealing to me.
How many staffers are at M Cubed? Are they all teenagers?
There’s just the two of us, Joseph being the other half. I’m the only teenager, Joseph used to be one but grew tired of it when he turned 20. We pretty much handle everything between us. I do most of the application design and coding and Joseph handles the UI design and tech support as well as a few other bits and bobs (he made the rather nice Code Collector and Transceiver icons).
What other software does M Cubed offer?
We also offer two freeware apps, Code Collector and Transceiver. Code Collector is a simple app to store code snippets. I got tired of scrolling through hundreds of lines of code just to find a small bit I wanted to use again. Transceiver pretty much sends the contents of an iTunes playlist to a webscript. I wanted to have my recent tunes on my blog but my script to get it from Last.fm kind of messed up so I wrote Transceiver to do it instead.
We also have Helping Hand which we’re hoping to get out Early 2007, which is going to help reduce the amount of work developers have to do to create good looking help files for their applications but it’s still under development so we can’t say any more than is already on our site.
That’s it for now. Thanks for your time!
My pleasure.
Minim is available for $25.00 at http://www.mcubedsw.com/software/minim.php.

Judson Collier is relatively busy, so he doesn't currently have a biography.

James Kim, 1971 - 2006

by Chris Saribay • 12/07/2006 at 09:00 PM

Departing briefly from Macteens? normal publication criteria, I want to take a moment to reflect on the tremendous loss that our community experienced Wednesday afternoon. Not only a respected expert of the very face of technology, CNet editor James Kim was a husband and father to two daughters. In a story that will not come as new to many of you, Kim and his family (his wife Kati, his two daughters Penelope [four] and Sabine [seven months old]) were returning home on November 25th and missed a turn-off on their route. The family, unfazed, mapped out an alternative route that would take them along the snowed-in Bear Camp Road in Oregon, and unfortunately, eventually strain the family vehicle to a point where it could move no farther. They were effectively stuck in the middle of nowhere, with minimal provisions and no means of contact with outside world.

Remarkably, they survived many nights in the vehicle, much in part to James Kim?s resourcefulness and ingenuity. After running out of gas from periodically warming their car, he burnt car tires for warmth. Kim was a true problem solver. It was nothing short of a miracle that they remained alive, that miracle being the truely heroic James Kim. Indeed, his actions led to his family?s safe return, and his personal sacrifice will continue to encourage and empower those whose lives he has touched, none more so than his family. After several days of survival in the family vehicle, James Kim left in search of help on December 2nd, and tragically did not survive long enough in the brutal environment to meet those who were so passionate in finding him alive. His body was found a mile away from the car on December 6th.

James Kim was devoted to his work- it was clear to all of us who saw him on TechTV and CNet. He was dedicated to bringing the gadgety goodness that we thrive upon, and it should come as no surprise that he was considered a rising star by his peers, supervisors and the community at large.  A self-implied geek James Kim was, but also so much more. As evident in his heroic story, he was also deeply devoted to his family, and it surely would have been one of his last thoughts before he left this world for the next.

Those of us at Macteens will not forget James, and will keep him and his family in our thoughts and prayers for a long time to come. We pause here to reflect, remember and celebrate what James Kim accomplished in this life.

You will be missed James. May you rest in peace.

Chris Saribay resurrected Macteens back in December 2001. Serving as Editor Emeritus six years later, Chris is still as ever interested in Mac and iPod as ever before. He'll also have you note that his MacBook Pro practically smokes his Power Mac G5 Dual 2.7 GHz tower.

London Apple Store Reopening

by Chris Saribay • 12/02/2006 at 09:16 AM

Click here to view the photo gallery.

Apple yesterday re-opened the previously closed off sections of its UK flagship Regent Street (London) Apple Store, now reclaiming the title of the largest Apple Store- having expanded into back storage areas. The new retail space, totaling over 9,500 additional square feet, will be used to show off 50 percent more CPU test points (demo Macs/iPods) and up to 75 percent more in-store products, as compared to the store’s opening configuration. The Regent Street store now also includes a self inclosed glass elevator, Studio Bar, iPod Bar and a re-developed Genius Bar, harkening to the companies’ Fifth Street Avenue (New York City) store. The store’s reopening coincides with a holiday-season discount day taking place in the store.

Speaking to IDG’s Macworld UK, Apple Senior Director of International Retail Steve Cano said “We now have the iPod Bar, the Genius Bar, as well as personalized training in the studio - all free to customers that buy a Mac. It’s above and beyond what you’d normally see in a retail environment.” The newly re-opened Regent Store also utilizes “chip and pin” devices to facilitate portable check-out, much like its US counterparts.

In related news, Macteens editors in London on Friday noted a large advertisement for the new iPod nano, on what appears to be an IMAX theater.

More Info: Apple Store, Regent Street

Macteens Editor Thomas Jansen contributed to this report.

Chris Saribay resurrected Macteens back in December 2001. Serving as Editor Emeritus six years later, Chris is still as ever interested in Mac and iPod as ever before. He'll also have you note that his MacBook Pro practically smokes his Power Mac G5 Dual 2.7 GHz tower.

Façade: The future of gaming?

by Steve Pan • 11/29/2006 at 04:12 PM

I?m an artistic guy. I love poetry, photography, and a good discussion over existentialism over a cup of Soy Mint Mocha Cinnamon Frappuccino. Unfortunately what I mostly do to entertain myself could be best summarized as shooting, stabbing, and blowing up people while yelling ?suck it down” into a microphone. The entire culture of videogames is centered around conflicts, either player vs. player (BF1942) or player vs.  computer (Doom, etc.). Sure, once in a while we get oddballs like the Sims that defy genrefication and sometimes they even sell well (the franchise has sold 58 million copies worldwide so far), but the bread and butter gameplay usually involves shooting or maiming characters of some sort. Enter Façade, a grandiose experiment in fusing traditional first person gameplay with the story telling aspects of ye olde interactive fiction ?adventure games” that promises to be the ?future of video games,” according to the New York Times.

The first thing most people will notice about Façade is the stark art direction that the game takes. Eschewing the traditional hyperrealistic graphics that many games feature today for Cel Shading gives the game an unique and graphic novel look that is not often used outside Anime flavored games. In addition to the unique look, the abstract Cel shading fits well with the game?s turbulent and often times depressing storyline.

Unlike many other games that begin with a cinematic introduction or a quick tutorial of gameplay basics, Façade drops you right into the action, that is, if you consider acting as an mediator between an angry and divorce prone couple ?action.” Trip and Grace are two generic high net worth yuppies who are going through a period of ?marital dispute.” The player fills the role as the poor bastard who introduced the two together during your senior year of college. Throughout the game you are reminded of that constantly, and the two attempt to manipulate you in joining their side. ?Gonzalo, why don?t we focus now on Trip? Gonzalo, why don?t we stop talking about me and start talking about our relationship?” The endless amount of whining is definitely not one of this game?s strong suits. The massive amount of dialogue files recorded during production (almost 800MB uncompressed!) gives the game some replay value, as the situations and crises that test the bonds of Grace and Trip?s matrimony are shuffled every time you start a new game. If you?re some sort of soap opera nut that has a 500 GB TiVo filled with Days of Our Lives or General Hospital episodes, this sort of stuff could possibly be considered fun and exciting. For the red meat brigade and shooter junkies it?s simply a yawn to sift through the dialogue without dismembering somebody in the process. The real attraction of Façade, however, is not its unorthodox approach towards graphics or story, it?s the amazing sense of interactivity.

Traditionally adventure and RPG titles handed NPC interaction with dialogue trees and other semi-interactive devices. If a particular player was bored out of his mind and wanted to scream, ?Enough Already!” and blast the character into oblivion he couldn?t. At most developers would leave in an option to insult the NPC and alter the course of the storyline. In Façade, directly or indirectly, the player controls what he wants to say and what happens after.  One great example would be when Trip offers you a drink. The player then has enormous freedom to do whatever they feel like here. You can either accept it graciously (?Why thanks Trip!”, rebuff him (?Screw you Trip, I don?t want a drink.") completely, or suggest him that you would like something else (?How about some mineral water?"). In addition, each run through the game is summarized in a text document generated to look like a script from a television soap opera. The possibilities are almost endless and the gameplay fresh and unique, if it wasn?t for a few major flaws in design.

First of all, this game is simply a behemoth of code.  A 2.0 GHz G4 or G5 Macintosh computer is required. Considering that Apple shipped computers with G4 processors topped off at 1.67 GHz (A 3rd party addon for PowerBooks upgrades the chip to run at a cool 2.0 GHz) this limits the market to those with heavily modded G4 and folks with 2.0+ GHz G5 computers. A 1.1 patch to the game removed the extra stringent system requirement that prevented the game from being installed on unfit computers, but it also came with a a firm insistence from the developers that it would run like ass on anything other than the recommended minimum requirements. This can be attributed not only to the game?s power hungry Java underpinnings, but could also be blamed on advanced text parser that apparently sucks CPU cycles the same way a Ford Explorer sucks gasoline.  This system requirement would obviously be justified for a ported next generation title like Halo 3 or Crysis featuring luscious, high definition visuals. But judging from the screenshots, the graphical quality of Façade is not proportional to the amount of computing horsepower it needs. To buy a new computer just to play this game would be the real world equivalent of purchasing a Ferrari to haul garbage.  Another beef. For a game that takes around a minute to load and a few more to get into the action, it is simply inexcusable that the developers force you to manually quit and restart the game each time to have another crack at it. It potentially limits the replayability value when people screw up on typing out the responses they want due to typos or speed issues (conversation items are timed, so don?t dwell too long on a thought) and want to start over, but are forced to jump through the same monotonous hoops again.

Façade as a free product comes together as a rough and unpolished diamond. Part of the problem stems from mainstream modern hardware. It?s just not beefy enough to handle real time text interpretation and amazing graphics at the same time. Dual core processing can alleviate this thorny issue though. With enough technical wizardry, the entire text parser can be offloaded to one core while the second core handles other mundane chores. Other than that, Façade might be heralding a new era of unprecedented communication between players and NPCs.  In ten years or so, I look forward to actively communicating verbally with AI controlled characters as I shoot, stab, and blow people up on the internet.

Steve Pan reminds you that Windows isn't evil, just bad. Mr. Pan doesn't mind incessantly bugging editors to publish his articles, just to be faced with photos that are... let's just say less than eye-pleasing.

Macworld Expo announces new conference tracks

by Chris Saribay • 11/29/2006 at 08:50 AM

IDG World Expo, producer of Macworld Conference and Expo has today announced that several new conference tracks and sessions will be brought onboard for January’s Mac-gathering. Two new tracks of note include the Inspire and Vision tracks. The Users Conference takes place on Wednesday, January 10th and Thursday, January 11th, 2007 at San Francisco?s Moscone Center.

?Macworld?s User Conference continues to be one of the most popular events at Macworld, training over 3000 attendees,” said Paul Kent, vice president, Macworld Conference & Expo.  ?We?re excited to add a visionary component to our already successful tactical agenda. The opportunity to hear from technology luminaries as to how markets and tools are advancing provides a powerful and useful added value to their conference experience.”

Users Conference attendees can choose from 30 new conference sessions over two days. The sessions are 75 minutes each and cover a wide variety of topics.  Highlights include:

? ?TikiBar TV Serves Podcasting Secrets.” Sorry, no Mai Tai?s or Pina Colada?s here, but attendees won?t want to miss Dr. Tiki and Johnny Johnny from TikiBarTV.com as they reveal the ingredients that helped them concoct one of the most popular video podcasts since the launch of the video iPod.

? ?iPod: Fully Loaded.” Even Neo would be blown away by this session!  Ever thought about ripping a DVD onto your iPod or recording TV Shows?  How about running an entire keynote presentation or PowerPoint presentation straight from an iPod? Why lug a notebook around when you have an iPod?  Join Andy Ihnatko, America?s 42nd Most Beloved Columnist as he talks about tricks and techniques from his new book and find ways to ensure that every last megabyte of your iPod is crammed with more than just Abba?s Greatest Hits!

? ?Enhance Your Business Image Through iWork and iWeb.” Why not give your business image a makeover?  Join Alan Eyzaguirre from Apple as he illustrates techniques, as well as teaching attendees how to use iWork and iWeb?s vast range of templates and features, to help personalize your business.

? ?Give Your Mac A Tune-Up!” You take your car into the repair shop regularly to have it “tuned up” and have other preventative maintenance performed-even if your car is running smoothly at the time. You should do the same with your Mac. This session covers all you need to know to keep your Mac in tip-top condition. Learn what you really should be doing vs. what is really a waste of time (despite what the conventional wisdom might say).

? ?The Digital Camera Of 2015.” Go beyond ?how many megapixels” with David Pogue, tech columnist for The New York Times and hear about the liquid lenses, touch screens, hydrogen batteries, massive storage devices, and smile-recognition software of the next decade’s digital camera, including which current annoyances will go away and which will only get worse. 

Chris Saribay resurrected Macteens back in December 2001. Serving as Editor Emeritus six years later, Chris is still as ever interested in Mac and iPod as ever before. He'll also have you note that his MacBook Pro practically smokes his Power Mac G5 Dual 2.7 GHz tower.

Review: Schoolhouse

by Judson Collier • 11/28/2006 at 03:30 PM

Ah, it feels like summer was here just yesterday. It?s almost half way into the school year, and you’re finally getting comfortable with the idea of school again- then, the teachers begin to flood you with study guides, homework and projects! So how do you get this all organized? The answer is easy: SchoolHouse.app.

Schoolhouse is an application that helps organize your entire life? or at least your life from Monday to Friday. It manages any assignments, projects, tests and classes. You can add your assignments to Schoolhouse, set priority, due date, grade, and more. Schoolhouse also lets you add on some other nifty things like URLs, notes, files, and the type of assignment to keep you organized.

SchoolHouse interacts with a lot of different applications, allowing it to Export to iCal and your iPod. You can publish an RSS feed (or what they call a ClassCast), using .Mac to share with your friends. You can also send assignments to email, and even directly email your instructor to ask questions. One of my favorite features is School House’s ability to calculate your grade if enter your scores after completing each assignment. It can also calculate your GPA, but the application requires you to type in every single grade you make, rather than pulling them from the grades you have put in after you complete an assignment.

The interface is very clean; think of it as a cross between iCal and Mail. However, there are some issues. For instance, there are multiple ?Add” buttons on the interface, which is confusing. Also, the ?Ask Instructor” button is too simple. The only two options given are ?Subject” and ?Text”. This makes life harder as you can?t attach files and the program doesn’t have the overall flexibility of Mail. It would probably be a better idea to just launch a new window in Mail. Finally, when creating ClassCasts, there?s no easy way to manually update your feed.

Schoolhouse is a free, feature-rich app, and although it has its flaws, I would recommend it to anyone who needs a boost in organizing.

Judson Collier is relatively busy, so he doesn't currently have a biography.

Apple teams up with airlines for iPod integration

by Chris Saribay • 11/14/2006 at 05:45 AM

Apple today announced it is teaming up with Air France, Continental, Delta, Emirates, KLM and United to deliver the first seamless integration between iPod and in-flight entertainment systems. These six airlines will begin offering their passengers iPod seat connections which power and charge their iPods during flight and allow the video content on their iPods to be viewed on the their seat back displays.
“There is no better traveling companion than an iPod, and now travelers can power their iPods during flight and even watch their iPod movies and TV shows on their seat back displays,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide iPod Product Marketing. “We’re excited to work with Air France, Continental, Delta, Emirates, KLM and United to offer iPod users an even better in-flight experience.”
In-flight iPod connectivity will be available to Air France, Continental, Delta, Emirates, KLM and United passengers beginning in mid 2007. Additionally, Apple is working with Panasonic Avionics Corporation to bring even more leading airlines in-flight iPod connectivity in the future.

Chris Saribay resurrected Macteens back in December 2001. Serving as Editor Emeritus six years later, Chris is still as ever interested in Mac and iPod as ever before. He'll also have you note that his MacBook Pro practically smokes his Power Mac G5 Dual 2.7 GHz tower.

New iPod Shuffle Now Shipping

by Seth Hover • 11/03/2006 at 05:47 AM

After a long wait, Apple is now shipping orders for the new iPod shuffle. About the size of a matchbook, the new shuffle holds up to 240 songs (at 128kbps) with its built-in 1GB of memory. It also has a belt clip to keep it attached to your pants/belt/corset/backpack/what have you.

Retail price is $79.

Seth Hover , Macteens' Senior Editor and forum urchin-at-large, favors sleep and slack to work and productivity. It shows.

New .Mac webmail launches

by Chris Saribay • 10/26/2006 at 04:21 PM

With little fan-fare, Apple today launched the previously announced new version of .Mac mail. Filled with all sorts of web 2.0 goodies, the new .Mac webmail closely resembles Apple’s desktop email application in Mac OS X Tiger, Mail.app.

New features of .Mac webmail include:

A new look
Everything is within easy reach. Your mail folders are next to the Inbox, and you can read full messages and access your contact info without leaving the page.

Drag-and-drop
Manage your Inbox easily, by dragging and dropping messages, just like you do on your desktop ? even multiple messages at the same time.

Message pane
Read entire messages in a pane located right below your message list, just like you do on your desktop Mail application.

Smart Refreshes
.Mac webmail keeps page reloads to a minimum, by refreshing only the portion of the page that needs updating, instead of reloading the entire page.

Quick Reply
A .Mac webmail exclusive. Dash off a response without leaving your Inbox, by clicking the Quick Reply button next to the message to which you’re responding.

Built-in Address Book
It’s fully integrated, so you can quickly access and search your contact info. Start typing in a name, and all your matching Address Book contacts appear in the address field.

Message previews
The .Mac webmail Inbox displays the beginning of every message, so you can quickly scan your messages without opening them.

Message flagging
Flag and unflag messages with a single click, just like you do on your Mac Mail application.

Keyboard shortcuts
Save time with keyboard shortcuts for common operations like composing new messages and searching your mailboxes.

Chris Saribay resurrected Macteens back in December 2001. Serving as Editor Emeritus six years later, Chris is still as ever interested in Mac and iPod as ever before. He'll also have you note that his MacBook Pro practically smokes his Power Mac G5 Dual 2.7 GHz tower.

MacBook Pro updated with Intel Core 2 Duo Processors

by Chris Saribay • 10/24/2006 at 07:46 AM

Apple today announced that its entire MacBook Pro line of notebooks now includes the new Intel Core 2 Duo processor and delivers performance that is up to 39 percent faster than the previous generation.  All MacBook Pro models now offer double the memory and greater storage capacity than the previous generation, as well as a FireWire?Ç¬Æ 800 port for connecting to high-speed peripherals. The new MacBook Pro’s stunning, lightweight, aluminum enclosure is just one-inch thin, available in 15- and 17-inch models, and features a built-in iSight video camera for video conferencing on-the-go.
“With an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, greater storage capacity and FireWire 800 connectivity, the new MacBook Pro delivers unprecedented performance and mobility in an incredibly thin and light design,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “We are thrilled that our notebook sales are growing twice as fast as the overall notebook market, and we hope these new MacBook Pro models continue that success.”
The 2.16 GHz, 15-inch MacBook Pro, for a suggested retail price of $1,999 (US), includes:

• 15.4-inch widescreen 1440 x 900 LCD display with 300 cd/m2 brightness;


• 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor;


• 1GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, expandable to 3GB;


• 120GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor;


• a slot-load 6x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW) optical drive;


• PCI Express-based ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 with 128MB GDDR3 memory;


• DVI-out port for external display (VGA-out adapter included, Composite/S-
• Video out adapter sold separately);


• built-in Dual Link support for driving Apple 30-inch Cinema HD Display;


• built-in iSight video camera;


• Gigabit Ethernet port;


• built-in AirPort Extreme wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR;


• ExpressCard/34 expansion card slot;


• two USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 800 port, and one FireWire 400 port;


• one audio line in and one headphone out port, each supporting optical digital audio;


• Scrolling TrackPad and illuminated keyboard;


• the infrared Apple Remote; and


• 85 Watt Apple MagSafe Power Adapter.

The 2.33 GHz, 15-inch MacBook Pro, for a suggested retail price of $2,499 (US), includes:

• 15.4-inch widescreen 1440 x 900 LCD display with 300 cd/m2 brightness;


• 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2Duo processor;


• 2GB of 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM, expandable to 3GB;


• 120GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor;


• a slot-load 6x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+R DL/DVD?Ǭ±RW/CD-RW) optical drive;


• PCI Express-based ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 with 256MB GDDR3 memory;


• DVI-out port for external display (VGA-out adapter included, Composite/S-
• Video out adapter sold separately);


• built-in Dual Link support for driving Apple 30-inch Cinema HD Display;


• built-in iSight video camera;


• Gigabit Ethernet port;


• built-in Airport Extreme wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR;


• ExpressCard/34 expansion card slot;


• two USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 800 port, and one FireWire 400 port;


• one audio line in and one headphone out port, each supporting optical digital audio;


• Scrolling TrackPad and illuminated keyboard;


• the infrared Apple Remote; and


• 85 Watt Apple MagSafe Power Adapter.

The 2.33 GHz, 17-inch MacBook Pro, for a suggested retail price of $2,799 (US), includes:

• 17-inch widescreen 1680 x 1050 LCD display with 300 cd/m2 brightness;


• 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor;


• 2GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, expandable to 3GB;


• 160GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor;
  
• a slot-load 8x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+R DL/DVD?Ǭ±RW/CD-RW) optical drive;


• PCI Express-based ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 with 256MB GDDR3 memory;


• DVI-out port for external display (VGA-out adapter included, Composite/S-Video out adapter sold separately);


• built-in Dual Link support for driving Apple 30-inch Cinema HD Display;


• built-in iSight video camera;


• Gigabit Ethernet port;


• built-in AirPort Extreme wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR;


• ExpressCard/34 expansion card slot;


• three USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 800 port, and one FireWire 400 port;


• one audio line in and one headphone out port, each supporting optical digital audio;


• Scrolling TrackPad and illuminated keyboard with ambient light sensor;


• the infrared Apple Remote; and


• 85 Watt Apple MagSafe Power Adapter.

Chris Saribay resurrected Macteens back in December 2001. Serving as Editor Emeritus six years later, Chris is still as ever interested in Mac and iPod as ever before. He'll also have you note that his MacBook Pro practically smokes his Power Mac G5 Dual 2.7 GHz tower.

IDG announces feature presentations for Macworld 2007

by Chris Saribay • 10/19/2006 at 09:26 AM

IDG World Expo, the conference organizer for Macworld Expo and several other industry events, today announced the Feature Presentations lineup for Macworld Conference & Expo, scheduled to take place January 8-12, 2007 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.  Acclaimed actor, writer and film producer Kevin Smith; world-renowned photographer and digital photography pioneer Joel Meyerowitz; and New York Times technology columnist and Mac luminary David Pogue, will all be participating in this year’s event as feature presenters.

Feature Presentations are open to all registered Macworld Conference & Expo attendees.

Feature Presentations include:

• Q&A With Kevin Smith, January 9, 2007, at 2:00 p.m.  In the few years since his entry into the indie film community - starting with the surprise critical and commercial success he received for his debut film Clerks - Kevin Smith has seen it all. Now, several films later, Kevin comes to Macworld Conference & Expo to share his wry perspective on the film business, its quirks, and what it takes to stick with it. Hear Kevin’s story, get a few tips along with some sage advice and a few good laughs out of what promises to be an entertaining and witty session.
• Photography And The Digital Experience, January 11, 2007, at 2:45 p.m. presented by world-renowned color photography and digital printing pioneer, Joel Meyerowitz.  Join Joel as he shares the images and experiences of his amazing 40-year career. Joel has works in the Museum of Modern Art and has been featured on Nightline, CBS and MSNBC. He has published 15 books, including AFTERMATH: World Trade Center Archive (Phaidon), the only existing photographic record of the Ground Zero recovery effort.
• Macworld Live! with David Pogue, January 10, 2007, at 9:00 a.m. Move over Letterman, Leno and Conan - New York Times technology columnist and Mac industry luminary David Pogue returns to Macworld to host this entertaining and informative talk show. Always a crowd favorite, Macworld Live! With David Pogue includes the news of the day, exciting guests, David’s famous song parodies and plenty of surprises.
• Macworld Best Of Show 2007, January 10, 2007, at 2:45 p.m.  Live for the very first time on the Macworld Feature Presentation stage. Come and see the very best products that Macworld Conference & Expo has to offer, all in one place.  Macworld’s team of Mac experts will present and demonstrate the most exciting and innovative products at Macworld Expo.
• MacBrainiac Challenge, January 11, 2007, at 9:00 a.m.  Come see the Macworld Conference & Expo’s MacBrainiac Challenge for an entertaining presentation of OS X, Mac and other geek trivia.  After two years of consecutive wins, Jason Snell’s Macworld Magazine team may be on their way to a dynasty.  Be in the audience as industry luminary and Macworld senior editor Chris Breen hosts this zany, live quiz show.

Chris Saribay resurrected Macteens back in December 2001. Serving as Editor Emeritus six years later, Chris is still as ever interested in Mac and iPod as ever before. He'll also have you note that his MacBook Pro practically smokes his Power Mac G5 Dual 2.7 GHz tower.

Apple reports record quarter, 1.61 million Macs shipped

by Chris Saribay • 10/18/2006 at 02:15 PM

Apple today announced preliminary financial results for its fiscal 2006 fourth quarter ended September 30, 2006. These preliminary results may be subject to significant adjustment as a result of a likely restatement of historical results.

The company posted revenue of $4.84 billion and net quarterly profit of $546 million, or $.62 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $3.68 billion and net profit of $430 million, or $.50 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 29.2 percent, up from 28.1 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 40 percent of the quarter’s revenue. During the quarter, Apple shipped 1,610,000 Macs and 8,729,000 iPods.

“This strong quarter caps an extraordinary year for Apple. Selling more than 39 million iPods and 5.3 million Macs while performing an incredibly complex architecture transition is something we are all very proud of,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Looking forward, 2007 is likely to be one of the most exciting new product years in Apple’s history.”

Chris Saribay resurrected Macteens back in December 2001. Serving as Editor Emeritus six years later, Chris is still as ever interested in Mac and iPod as ever before. He'll also have you note that his MacBook Pro practically smokes his Power Mac G5 Dual 2.7 GHz tower.

Apple releases Mac OS X 10.4.8 Update

by Chris Saribay • 09/29/2006 at 11:01 AM

Apple today has released an update to the Mac OS X Tiger (10.4.8) operating system, and has recommended it for all users. Fixes and new features include:

• connecting to wireless networks using the EAP-FAST protocol
• Apple USB modem reliability
• using OpenType fonts in Microsoft Word
• compatibility with 3rd party USB hubs
• scanner performance
• RAW camera support
• printing documents with Asian language names
• performance of the Translation widget
• broadband network performance
• security updates

For more information on the update, see the information page on Apple’s Support website.

Chris Saribay resurrected Macteens back in December 2001. Serving as Editor Emeritus six years later, Chris is still as ever interested in Mac and iPod as ever before. He'll also have you note that his MacBook Pro practically smokes his Power Mac G5 Dual 2.7 GHz tower.

Apple’s Showtime: iTunes 7, new iPod family, iTV

by Chris Saribay • 09/12/2006 at 11:08 AM

As widely expected, today Apple has made several announcements related to the up and coming iTunes Movie Store. Included in today’s announcements are iTunes 7, a new and improved iPod family and a product still under development named iTV.

iTunes 7

iTunes 7 delivers stunning new features such as the new album and Cover Flow views of music, TV shows and movies, enabling users to quickly find titles in their library as well as casually browse through and re-discover titles they already own. In addition, the iTunes Store (http://www.itunes.com) is now offering over 75 movies from Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar, Touchstone Pictures and Miramax Films, that customers can purchase and download to watch on their computers and iPods, and soon on their flat screen televisions with Apple’s upcoming iTV* player. Movies will become available on the iTunes Store the same day they are released on DVD, with new releases priced at $12.99 when pre-ordered and during their first week of availability, and $14.99 thereafter, and library titles available for just $9.99 every day.

“Here we go again! First music, then TV shows, and now movies,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “In less than one year we’ve grown from offering just five TV shows to offering over 220 TV shows, and we hope to do the same with movies. iTunes is selling over one million videos a week, and we hope to match this with movies in less than a year.”

The iTunes Movie Store currently offers titles from Disney owned and operated studios.

iTunes 7 is available today.

New iPod Family

1. iPod
The new iPod features a 60 percent brighter and more vibrant 2.5-inch color display perfect for watching TV shows and now Hollywood movies right in the palm of your hand. The new iPod features seamless integration with iTunes® 7 and the iTunes Store (http://www.itunes.com) which now includes over 75 Hollywood movies, 220 television shows and popular video games designed specifically for the fifth generation iPod. The new iPod is available in a 30GB model at the new low price of $249 and an 80GB model, which holds up to 20,000 songs or 100 hours of video, for $349.

2. iPod nano
Apple also introduced the all-new iPod nano with a new aluminum body, an incredible 24 hours of battery life and more than twice (2GB, 4GB, 8GB) the music capacity for the same price as the previous generation. The new iPod nano features Apple’s innovative Click Wheel and an even smaller, thinner and lighter design available in silver, pink, green, blue and black.

3. iPod shuffle
At nearly half the size of the original, the new iPod shuffle is just half a cubic inch in volume, weighs just half an ounce and features a stunning all-new aluminum design and a built-in clip which makes it the most wearable iPod ever. The new iPod shuffle contains one gigabyte of flash memory which holds up to 240 songs, and is more affordable than ever at just $79.

iTV* (under development)

While little information is currently available about iTV, Apple also announced it today at their media event. Purportedly, the device will be a conduit between a Mac and your TV- all in a slim package taking homage to the Mac mini.

Chris Saribay resurrected Macteens back in December 2001. Serving as Editor Emeritus six years later, Chris is still as ever interested in Mac and iPod as ever before. He'll also have you note that his MacBook Pro practically smokes his Power Mac G5 Dual 2.7 GHz tower.

Apple’s iMac line updated with Merom processors, 24” model added

by Chris Saribay • 09/06/2006 at 02:08 AM

In a widely expected move, Apple has updated its iMac line with newer Intel Merom processors, and has introduced a new 24” model.

Apple today announced that its entire iMac line now features the new Intel Core 2 Duo processor in every model, delivering up to 50 percent faster performance than the previous iMac. A new 24-inch iMac with a brilliant 24-inch widescreen display joins the 17- and 20-inch models, and iMac prices now start at just $999. Every new iMac includes a built-in iSight? video camera for video conferencing out-of-the-box; Apple’s breakthrough Front Row media experience; and iLife ‘06, the next generation of Apple’s award-winning suite of digital lifestyle applications.

“Every iMac-from the $999 model up through the new dazzling 24-inch widescreen model-now features blazing Core 2 Duo performance,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “And the new 24-inch widescreen iMac is the fastest, biggest and brightest iMac we’ve ever made.”

New Specifications

The new 24-inch 2.16 GHz iMac, for a suggested retail price of $1,999 (US), includes:

• 24-inch widescreen LCD display;
• 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor;
• 1GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM expandable to 3GB;
• 8x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW);
• PCI Express-based NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT with 128MB GDDR3 memory;
• built-in iSight video camera;
• built-in AirPort Extreme wireless networking & Bluetooth 2.0+EDR;
• 250GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
• mini-DVI out (adapters for DVI, VGA and Composite/S-Video sold separately);
• built-in stereo speakers and microphone; and
• the infrared Apple Remote, Mighty Mouse and Apple Keyboard.

The new 20-inch 2.16 GHz iMac, for a suggested retail price of $1,499 (US), includes:

• 20-inch widescreen LCD display;
• 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor;
• 1GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM expandable to 3GB;
• 8x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW);
• PCI Express-based ATI Radeon X1600 with 128MB GDDR3 memory;
• built-in iSight video camera;
• built-in AirPort Extreme wireless networking & Bluetooth 2.0+EDR;
• 250GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
• mini-DVI out (adapters for DVI, VGA and Composite/S-Video sold separately);
• built-in stereo speakers and microphone; and
• the infrared Apple Remote, Mighty Mouse and Apple Keyboard.

The new 17-inch 2.0 GHz iMac, for a suggested retail price of $1,199 (US), includes:

• 17-inch widescreen LCD display;
• 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor;
• 1GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM expandable to 3GB;
• 8x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW);
• PCI Express-based ATI Radeon X1600 with 128MB GDDR3 memory;
• built-in iSight video camera;
• built-in AirPort Extreme wireless networking & Bluetooth 2.0+EDR;
• 160GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
• mini-DVI out (adapters for DVI, VGA and Composite/S-Video sold separately);
• built-in stereo speakers and microphone; and
• the infrared Apple Remote, Mighty Mouse and Apple Keyboard.

The 17-inch 1.83 GHz iMac, for a suggested retail price of $999 (US), includes:

• 17-inch widescreen LCD display;
• 1.83 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor;
• 512MB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM expandable to 2GB;
• 24x Combo drive;
• Intel GMA 950 graphics;
• built-in iSight video camera;
• built-in AirPort Extreme wireless networking;
• 160GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
• mini-DVI out (adapters for DVI, VGA and Composite/S-Video sold separately);
• built-in stereo speakers and microphone; and
• Mighty Mouse and Apple Keyboard.

Chris Saribay resurrected Macteens back in December 2001. Serving as Editor Emeritus six years later, Chris is still as ever interested in Mac and iPod as ever before. He'll also have you note that his MacBook Pro practically smokes his Power Mac G5 Dual 2.7 GHz tower.

Apple recalls 1.1 million PowerBook G4 and iBook G4 batteries

by Chris Saribay • 08/24/2006 at 09:41 AM

In cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and other international safety authorities, Apple is voluntarily recalling certain lithium ion rechargeable batteries that were sold worldwide from October 2004 through May 2005 for use with the following notebook computers: 12-inch iBook G4, 12-inch PowerBook G4 and 15-inch PowerBook G4. These batteries were manufactured by LG Chem, Ltd. of South Korea.

The affected batteries could overheat, posing a fire hazard to consumers. Apple has received six consumer reports of these batteries overheating. If you have a recalled battery, Apple advises consumers to stop using it and order a replacement battery immediately. Once you have removed the battery, plug in the AC adapter to power the computer. If you must temporarily use your computer with the battery, do not leave it unattended and check for signs of overheating.

Recalled batteries

12-inch iBook G4
Battery Model: A1061
Serial Numbers:
ZZ338 through ZZ427
3K429 through 3K611
6C510 through 6C626

12-inch PowerBook G4
Battery Model: A1079
Serial Numbers:
ZZ411 through ZZ427
3K428 through 3K611

15-inch PowerBook G4
Battery Model: A1078 and A1148
Serial Numbers:
3K425 through 3K601
6N530 through 6N551
6N601

If you are one of the million consumers affected, you may order a replacement battery free of charge on Apple’s recall website. More information is available from the Consumer Product Safety Commission website.

Chris Saribay resurrected Macteens back in December 2001. Serving as Editor Emeritus six years later, Chris is still as ever interested in Mac and iPod as ever before. He'll also have you note that his MacBook Pro practically smokes his Power Mac G5 Dual 2.7 GHz tower.

Apple To Pay Creative $100m in Licensing Fees

by Seth Hover • 08/24/2006 at 05:37 AM

Following the dispute between Apple and Creative over the iPod?s interface (and Creative?s recently awarded patent on said interface), the two companies have agreed upon a settlement. Apple is to pay a one-time fee of $100m to Creative for use of the interface in the iPod and in fact ?all Apple products

Seth Hover , Macteens' Senior Editor and forum urchin-at-large, favors sleep and slack to work and productivity. It shows.

WWDC 2006 - Exclusive Glimpses

by Daniel Hollister • 08/08/2006 at 05:11 PM

Daniel Hollister is the Editor-in-Chief of Macteens, and has been apart of the Macteens community since 2002. He is a filmmaker, designer, entrepreneur, and Mac enthusiast from Santa Cruz, California. When not arguing in the forums and working 18 hour days, Daniel can be found sleeping. That is it, he has no time for anything else. Daniel currently works and resides in Hollywood, California.

Apple Releases Mac Pro, Unveils Leopard

by Seth Hover • 08/07/2006 at 08:28 PM

At long last, Apple has released its newest professional-grade machine, completing the PowerPC-to-Intel transition. Announced at WWDC ‘06, the Mac Pro features dual-core processor speeds reaching 3GHz using the Intel Xeon (codenamed Woodcrest). The new CPU allows users to run 64-bit and 32-bit applications simultaneously without need for emulation or translation. Among its other features, the Mac Pro also sports two optical drives, new videocard support and the ability to handle 2TB of internal storage.

The other major announcement of the day was the unveiling of OS X 10.5, code-named Leopard. Notable features include updates to iChat, Spotlight, Mail and Dashboard. Three major new features were also demonstrated: Time Machine (an extremely deep back-up and file retrieval program), Spaces (Apple’s name for virtual desktop support) and Core Animation (which combines media to create high-quality animations used in real-time on the desktop). 

Seth Hover , Macteens' Senior Editor and forum urchin-at-large, favors sleep and slack to work and productivity. It shows.

MWSF 06: Expo Photos (Tuesday)

by Chris Saribay • 01/13/2006 at 12:54 AM

Just in from the hustle and bustle of Macworld Expo, senior editor Kevin Lindeman has this set of exhibition hall photos- straight from Macworld Conference and Expo in San Francisco. More photos coming up later today.

Expo Day 1 (Tuesday)

Chris Saribay resurrected Macteens back in December 2001. Serving as Editor Emeritus six years later, Chris is still as ever interested in Mac and iPod as ever before. He'll also have you note that his MacBook Pro practically smokes his Power Mac G5 Dual 2.7 GHz tower.

MacBook Pro Notes

by Dan Pourhadi • 01/12/2006 at 09:39 PM

Dan Pourhadi is a freelance technology writer from the northwest suburbs of Chicago. He writes several Mac-focused columns for various publications and has contributed to MacAddict Magazine. Dan is also a contributor to MacUser.

MacBrainiac Challenge V: A New Beginning

by Dan Pourhadi • 01/12/2006 at 11:43 AM

Dan Pourhadi is a freelance technology writer from the northwest suburbs of Chicago. He writes several Mac-focused columns for various publications and has contributed to MacAddict Magazine. Dan is also a contributor to MacUser.

MWSF 06: Keynote Photos

by Chris Saribay • 01/12/2006 at 10:55 AM

Just in from the hustle and bustle of Macworld Expo, senior editor Kevin Lindeman has sent in our first batch of photos- straight from the Keynote of Macworld Conference and Expo. All 236 photos are now online, and are availble at addresses below. More photos coming up later today.

Keynote Gallery 1 | Keynote Gallery 2 | Keynote Gallery 3

Chris Saribay resurrected Macteens back in December 2001. Serving as Editor Emeritus six years later, Chris is still as ever interested in Mac and iPod as ever before. He'll also have you note that his MacBook Pro practically smokes his Power Mac G5 Dual 2.7 GHz tower.

iWeb Review Express

by Matt Gardner • 01/11/2006 at 11:32 PM

Matt Gardner aka 'iWaffles', is just your average geek -- besides the fact that he can crush ice with his bear hands and cook thirty-minute brownies in twenty-minutes. Matt prides himself on having a much, much faster "Ferrari" than another unnamed editor... and a laptop nicknamed "Bender" due to its appearance.

The Missing…Something

by Dan Pourhadi • 01/11/2006 at 09:35 PM

Dan Pourhadi is a freelance technology writer from the northwest suburbs of Chicago. He writes several Mac-focused columns for various publications and has contributed to MacAddict Magazine. Dan is also a contributor to MacUser.

New books’ name confusing and lame

by Matt Gardner • 01/11/2006 at 01:37 PM

Matt Gardner aka 'iWaffles', is just your average geek -- besides the fact that he can crush ice with his bear hands and cook thirty-minute brownies in twenty-minutes. Matt prides himself on having a much, much faster "Ferrari" than another unnamed editor... and a laptop nicknamed "Bender" due to its appearance.

We’re just getting started…

by Chris Saribay • 01/11/2006 at 03:45 AM

Chris Saribay resurrected Macteens back in December 2001. Serving as Editor Emeritus six years later, Chris is still as ever interested in Mac and iPod as ever before. He'll also have you note that his MacBook Pro practically smokes his Power Mac G5 Dual 2.7 GHz tower.

Macworld 2006 Keynote Coverage

by Chris Saribay • 01/10/2006 at 10:00 AM

Live (archived) coverage of the Macworld Expo 2006 keynote, delivered by Apple CEO Steve Jobs
Coverage starts at 9 AM PST on Tuesday 01/10/06.

Updates appear in chronological order (newest items are near the bottom of this page).

4:02:44 AM US/Pacific - We're now preparing our systems for this morning's keynote coverage of Steve Jobs' highly anticipated address to Macworld attendees. To meet higher than expected traffic demand, Macteens Magazine has temporarily been converted to Macteens Lite. Stand by for our keynote coverage, starting at 9 AM PST.

7:15:38 AM US/Pacific - T-minus two hours: Macteens staffers Daniel Pourhadi, Kevin Lindeman, Matthew Gardner and myself, Chris Saribay are in the press queing area waiting to bring you live coverage of the Keynote.

9:02:43 AM US/Pacific - We are now inside the Moscone Epslandae and are awaiting for everyone to get seated for the keynote. It appears that the presentation is running slightly behind schedule, as conference attendees are just beginning to be seated.

9:09:37 AM US/Pacific - "Good morning and welcome to Macworld" Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer states as he makes his way to the middle of the stage. Wasting no time, he leads into the a retail store update, discussing their 135 stores. 26 Million visitors, 1 Billion in revenues in holiday 2005.

9:10:14 AM US/Pacific - Jobs continues by noting he will for the first time report revenues- $5.7 billion dollars in the holiday quarter.

9:19:47 AM US/Pacific - Many updates, minor delay due to a KP restart. 14 million iPods were sold during the quarter, and continuing on, content from NBC's SNL will be added to the iTMS. Jobs also notes the addition of a new accessory; a wireless remote controller that will allow you control FM radio on your iPod. A new iPod ad is shown as well, with Winton Marcellous featured. Jobs concludes his music segment. The rest of the keynote is to remain squarely on the Mac.

9:21:35 AM US/Pacific - Steve begins by noting the importance of Aperture- he introduces a promotional video that outlines the primary features of the application.

9:25:50 AM US/Pacific - Jobs segways onto widgets, over 1500 now available. Apple will be releasing new widgets, including updates for calendar and weather, a new Google search widget and various sport widgets. These will be included in a software update today, Mac OS X 10.4.4.

9:26:32 AM US/Pacific - Steve now announces the obligatory iLife 06, introducing the entire concept of iLife. "Giant new release" pronounces Jobs.

9:28:47 AM US/Pacific - iPhoto is the first mentioned- notably increased speed, capacity for 250,000 photos, new application interface (similar to the latest iTunes), full screen editing, one-click effects (B&W, Sepia, Antique, Fade Color, Current and more)

9:30:08 AM US/Pacific - Continuing, he notes a all new greeting/invitation cards, books and calendars. Jobs notes that the books and other printed products will see great increases in printed quality.

9:31:53 AM US/Pacific - Finally, Photocasting: podcasting for photos. Simply by selecting a an album and clicking a button, a feed is created and all the photos are placed on the web via .Mac.

9:33:50 AM US/Pacific - Jobs notes you must be a .Mac member to photocast, but anyone can subscribe- photocasting uses industry standard RSS feeds. He continues with a demo.

9:37:38 AM US/Pacific - The calendar additions to iPhoto appear to be particularly well executed, with the ability to drag and drop photos into dropzones within the calendar templates, in addition to the actual calendar blocks (useful for birthdays and alike)

9:39:09 AM US/Pacific - Photocasting has the ability to send emails to recipients of a photocast, and in one click, a person is automatically subscribed (iPhoto and technical processes are completed automatically.)

9:41:40 AM US/Pacific - Jobs wraps up his iPhoto demo and continues to announce updates to iMovie. Animated themes for movies, real-time effects & titles, new audio features & effects and the ability to automatically create video podcasts.

9:42:45 AM US/Pacific - Jobs continues with a demo, outlining the animated themes. These seem to be simplified animated motion templates, similar to what one could create in Apple's professional application, Motion.

9:44:32 AM US/Pacific - The animated themes are indeed quite incredible, offering great flexibility and professional production values to videos that would otherwise have none.

9:47:38 AM US/Pacific - Jobs concludes his iMovie demo, moving onto iDVD, with new features including Widescreen DVDs, (quick creation) Magic iDVD, New themes, Improved slideshows, enhanced movie views and compatibility with third party drives. He skips a demo on iDVD to move onto Garageband, making note of one key new feature: Podcast studio.

9:49:25 AM US/Pacific - Features of this include, podcast artwork, 200+ royalty free audio clips, speech enhancer and the ability to conduct interviews: simply via iChat- the work is done for you. Steve continues with a demo- "Hi, I'm Steve and this is my weekly podcast: super secret Apple rumors." The crowd is roaring.

9:50:34 AM US/Pacific - Episode time coding and artwork is also built in, with Steve demoing by adding in a photo of an eight pound iPod.

9:52:06 AM US/Pacific - Adding a jingle and background music are simple just as simple, by using the modified standard Garageband interface.

9:53:26 AM US/Pacific - Apple will be re-releasing jam packs to be compatible with the new version of Garageband.

9:54:40 AM US/Pacific - Jobs notes how the suite is all about sharing: and increasingly, people want to do this over the internet. The sixth application in the suite is here: allowing you to share photos, movies, music, blogs, podcasts and more. This application? iWeb.

9:56:43 AM US/Pacific - It's all about "making it super easy to use" in iLife, and this continues today. Apple designed templates will offer elegant designs that you can fill out simply and easily. The iLife media browser is present in this application, as predicted. RSS (XML) feeds are automatically generated, depending on the content being published.

9:57:19 AM US/Pacific - "Modern browsers" will also benefit with a great slideshow viewer, making use of AJAX technology.

9:59:35 AM US/Pacific - Jobs continues with a demo; "let's build a website." Drag and drop zones are available throughout the application, along with auto alignment guides if you want drop your own photos in. Have songs you want to share with others? Apple will allow you to select songs in your library and link to them in the iTunes music store.

10:03:56 AM US/Pacific - The website, once completed, is uploaded to .Mac in a few mere clicks- looks like a perfect replication to a website from the software interface. Of note here is that these pages are accessed via web.mac.com.

10:16:03 AM US/Pacific - Now, on to the Macs. Jobs works his way into the Macs by noting success of Macs currently, and how well the conversion to Intel is going. Suddenly, the CEO of Intel comes out of a smoke filled area of the stage in an Intel "bunnyman" suit, with a chip in hand "Intel is ready." Jobs' reply: "Apple is ready too." "A little ahead of schedule..." notes Jobs- the first Mac with an Intel processor will be announced today, and contrary to rumors, it will be the iMac.

10:18:32 AM US/Pacific - iMacs will be 2-3 times faster, making use of Intel's latest core duo processor. Prices will remain the same: and Mac OS X 10.4.4 will run natively on these iMacs. All applications noted today are also universal binaries, with professional apps being fully updated in March- with an upgrade program being available at $49.

10:20:19 AM US/Pacific - Rosetta will enable most applications to run extremely well with most applications, with Microsoft Office being no exception. Roz Ho is invited on stage to speak about Rosetta.

10:23:00 AM US/Pacific - Roz Ho notes that Microsoft will be continuing a relationship with Apple in the long term, and as proof, have been finalizing an agreement to keep developing applications to the Mac for at least another five years.

10:25:09 AM US/Pacific - Jobs thanks Roz Ho, and continues with a demo of how well Rosetta is functioning. It seems that graphics performance (such as scrolling) may be inhibited a bit, but overall speed is fairly comparable to PPC Macs currently shipping.

10:27:10 AM US/Pacific - Two models will be made available: 17 inch and 20 inch. 1.83 GHz core duo in the lower model, with higher specifications available in the 20 inch model. These machines are available today.

10:29:44 AM US/Pacific - Ahead of schedule, all Macs will be converted to Intel by the end of the year. A new ad is debuted to market the Mac and Intel, noting that Intel processors will finally be released from dull PCs and "set free" in their rebirth in the Macintosh. The ad is beautiful, and the crowd could be no more pleased. There's one more thing, though. Pesky little problem: PowerBooks

10:34:45 AM US/Pacific - So much as Apple's engineers have done (insert photo of the Pope), they could not get reasonable speeds eaked out of the Powerbooks. Apple's done with the Powerbook though, instead, MacBook Pro is their new name, and they ship intel core duo processors: that's two processors 4-5 times faster. It's the thinnest Mac portable yet, while packing in a display as bright as Apple's cinema displays and a camera built into the upper bezel. This feature is demoed, with Phil Schiller in the audience doing a video chat with Jobs.

10:36:45 AM US/Pacific - Front row is built into the new PowerBook, with an IR censor built-in the near the latch and an Apple remote shipping with the unit. MagSafe is a new feature announced, that prevents you from accidentally pulling a machine off your desk by tugging on a power adapter cord. The cord simply detaches if such a case were to happen.

10:38:39 AM US/Pacific - 1.67/1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo processors are included in the sole 15" . Steve continues to show the Intel ad once more.

10:39:52 AM US/Pacific - The new Powerbooks will be available in February. Jobs seems to wrapping up the keynote now, thanking various product teams for their hard-work.

10:41:25 AM US/Pacific - One last thing: a photo of the Woz and Steve Jobs are shown and notes 30 years of making the best computers in the world.

Chris Saribay resurrected Macteens back in December 2001. Serving as Editor Emeritus six years later, Chris is still as ever interested in Mac and iPod as ever before. He'll also have you note that his MacBook Pro practically smokes his Power Mac G5 Dual 2.7 GHz tower.

Seashore

by Aaron Plane • 01/07/2006 at 11:20 AM

You probably have toyed with a program like Microsoft Paint in the past. You also may have used a commercial piece of software, like Adobe Photoshop and Fireworks. You also may have seen the relatively large price tag on these two solutions, and have avoided this by not buying them or pirating them (I hope you got coal this holiday). What if you wanted a powerful and free solution? You could always try The GIMP, but running on Mac OS X can be awkward. The GIMP is not a native Mac app, requiring you have the X11 libraries installed on your computer. It’s also a large file to download (for all you dial-up users), and loads relatively slow. Enter Seashore, the fast, lightweight, somewhat powerful image editor/creator that’s open source and free (as in beer, or an alternative, if you’re underage).

Seashore is a variant of The GIMP, but is completely native to Mac OS X. Once you run the application for the first time, you can clearly see the resemblance to The GIMP, although it does use a more Panther/Tiger interface. Most of the tools from The GIMP are also included in the package, with the ability to add more effects in the future. The popular tools, such as shading, colour adjustment, levels, gradients, text, etc. are included with the application. The anti-aliasinf for text and brush strokes is also a nice feature in the application. Although it does include some power tools from The GIMP, it’s not quite a Photoshop killer (yet). Seashore might remind you of more a beefed up Paint for Mac (with the source open), and is great for beginners to learn graphic editing because of it’s simplified interface.

Seashore is very stable, and didn’t crash when I opened multiple files at a time. It’s much quicker at starting up than any other image editor out there, including The GIMP. In fact, I also tested this. Seashore took a whole 1.94 seconds to start up on my Powerbook, while GIMP.app took 52.2 seconds. The binary file was only 3.7 MB big, as compared to GIMP.app’s 57.7 MB file. Seashore uses the same file format as The GIMP, xcf, and can save, open, and edit these files without hiccuping. It also supports Mac shortcuts better by using the Command key for keyboard shortcuts, instead of the Control key.

The source code is also available to anyone who wants it. It’s built in Xcode, and therefore it’s familiar to many Mac developers (if anyone wants to make it better).

With all this good talk about Seashore, I must warn you: it’s not a completely flaw-free product. There are some minor quirks, which hopefully will get ironed out in the upcoming versions. First of all, Seashore doesn’t have many of The GIMP’s advanced features, which make The GIMP a Photoshop competitor. Another quirk is the fact that, at least with my experiences, I could not edit text after I inputted it. The way around this is to make text it’s own layer, which brings me to another oddity. In Photoshop or Fireworks, when you create a new object or text, it makes a layer automatically. This is not the case in Seashore, but I believe it’s just an oddity and not a mistake. Another minor quirk is when you start up the program, it automatically asks you to create a new image, but doesn’t give you the option to open one.

All in all, Seashore is a good investment for those who want to get into graphic editing, but were afraid to shell out hundreds of dollars (or risk getting in trouble with the law). Seashore is fast, free, and pretty well-rounded already (surprising for the very early stages of an open source application at version 0.1.8 at time of writing). My best advice to you, before you prejudge Seashore, go and download a copy for yourself, and see what you think about it. As for me, I think it does the job (and does it right).

Aaron Plane is trying his absolute best to hold back tears for his beloved 12" PB, who is beginning to develop an acute inferiority complex (Is that a good thing?). Aaron is also partially responsible for our sister site, LinuxTeens, and when not busy, can be found trying to better his Mac (and Linux) experience.

Putting DVDs onto your iPod

by Daniel Hollister • 12/31/2005 at 05:08 PM

Now that the holidays are all up ons, and with a good deal of us probably finding iPods with video under the tree, we’re all looking for some content to enjoy, and more imporantly, show off. Problem is, video is much harder to acquire without breaking society’s precious copyright laws. So where can one get content other than the limited and pricey selection of iTunes? Simply from your DVDs. The process of ripping DVDs is easy once you get into to groove of it; just remember a few settings, and it’s almost as easy as ripping CDs.

First, download HandBrake for Mac OS X. HandBrake is a nice little open source app which is pretty straight forward and doesn’t require any installation. So once it’s downloaded, open it up, and a little window will appear:

If you haven’t already, insert your DVD of choice. After doing so, HandBrake should have selected for you (if not, select the DVD manually by choosing “DVD Folder / image) and clicking “Browse"). Hit Enter and the HandBrake window should become available. Give the file the appropriate name and desitnation and applying these settings:

• Destination
• File Format: MP4 file
• Codecs: AVC/H.264 / AAC Audio
• Video
• Framerate (fps): 15
• Encoder: x264 (Baseline profile)
• Quality:
• Average bitrate (kbps): 192
• Audio
• Sample Rate (Hz): 44100
• Bitrate (kbps): 80

192 and 80 kbps for video and audio are what I believe to be the minimum while still looking and sounding very decent. You may make them both higher for higher quality, but that makes for a higher file size. You may raise them until they add up to 768.

Now click the “Picture settings” button. This part is pretty straightforward, just click the down button on one of the dimensions until both dimensions are less than or equal to 320 and 240, respectively. That’s all; close the window.

If you are ripping a film DVD with only one title, you’re done at this point. Go ahead and click the “Rip” button. However, if you’re ripping something with several titles such as episodes of a TV show, you need to take an extra step to rip them all at once.

Check the “Enable queue” checkbox at the bottom left of the window. Then repeat the entire process above (specifically the “Picture settings” one) while each time selecting a different title from the Title menu (in the Source section), excluding the small minute long ones. Instead of clicking the “Rip” button after each one, click the “Add to queue” button. When you’ve done this for all the titles, then you can click the Rip button (but still click the “Add to queue” button after the last one). Voila!

Daniel Hollister is the Editor-in-Chief of Macteens, and has been apart of the Macteens community since 2002. He is a filmmaker, designer, entrepreneur, and Mac enthusiast from Santa Cruz, California. When not arguing in the forums and working 18 hour days, Daniel can be found sleeping. That is it, he has no time for anything else. Daniel currently works and resides in Hollywood, California.

Pourhadi Perspective: I’m baacckk

by Dan Pourhadi • 12/29/2005 at 09:00 PM

Macworld’s right around the proverbial corner, and that means I get to put on my fancy reporter hat—the one with the PRESS paper sticking out of the band—and play dress-up. This year, I’ll be covering the event for Macteens, Macsimum News, a MUG newsletter, and maybe even a radio station here in Chicago.

“I’m starting to think you’re spreading yourself thin...” said Chris Saribay, Macteens’ valiant commander-in-chief, after I informed him of my reporterness.

No way. I’m so on top of it.

“Okay,” he responded. “Where’s your writing, sir?”

My column? Oh, it’s, uh...well, you know....

I’m baaaack...

There are some advantages to taking a Bush-vacation-lengthed sabbatical from column-writing.

For one, I have a whole lotta topics to cover. My Pourhadi Perspective OmniOutliner doc is filled with mouth-watering writeables. It’s exciting, really.

“Not to me,” replied the venerated Chris, obviously trying to kill the mood.

Well, it should be exciting.

“You live in a perverted world, Dan Pourhadi.”

Why does everyone say that?

Up, up, and away!

The Music Industry—or, as I like to call it, [censored]—is hell-bent on setting variable pricing for music downloads.

Why? Well, the Mac world’s tape worm, Paul “The media is so anti-Microsoft” Thurrott, explains it this way: “...new songs should cost more than 99 cents, and ... the vast majority of each record company’s catalog should be available for as little as 49 cents a song. Fixed pricing isn’t just potentially illegal, it’s impossible in an open market. And it’s bad for consumers.”

Fine, variable pricing it is.

My question: Why does it have to be more than 99 cents? Why can’t older songs be, say, between 50 and 70 cents, and newer songs have a “premium” price of 99 cents?

The [censored] already makes more dough per-song with downloads than they do with CDs. So why the greediness?

Wanna touch my iPod?

If you’re reading this column, I think I can safely assume a few things about you: (1) You’re probably young—a teen, perhaps?—or you recall what it’s like to be young, and (2) you’re a fan of technology—whether you’re a l33t hax0r, a graphics nerd, a network geek, etc.

And while a most of your friends may share your love for electrons, there’s a good chance a few of them respond to technology the same way you respond to American Idol—ie, horrified gasps and extended prayer sessions begging for mercy.

The same could be said about me. I have some friends who are the mental equivalent of a computer science major —“Ah, looks like you got a DNS error; don’t worry, I’ll reset your DHCP settings and make sure TCP/IP is running”—and some that are, uh, not—“What the hell is ‘reboot’? I didn’t know computers had boots!” The latter of which are typically the most common.

Being the most nerdy of my Circle of Friends, I’m obviously the butt of many “poke fun at the computery kid!” jokes. Not that I have a problem with it. They’re funny, after all.

One such joke plays on the social ineptitude of the typical nerd stereotype. My friends would say that I used my nerdyness to attract girls; that my geeketry was obviously my—shall we say—sexiest characteristic.

I imagine this to be the typical scenario:

I approach a cute girl sitting at her computer—how else would it start?—and begin my trademark pickup.

“So,” I say, slowly nodding my head with my devilishly cute smile. “That’s quite a machine you’ve got there. A Dell, Opteron, huh? Yeah”—I continue nodding, lowering and raising my eyebrows—“those are sweet.”

She pauses and angles her head in my direction, a puzzled—yet obviously intrigued—look painting her face.

“I have a Mac,” I continue confidently. “A PowerBook. 1.25 blazin’ gigahertz.

“And...upgraded RAM.”

She bites her lip, my snake-like insidiousness obviously too much for her to handle. I move in the for the kill.

“Wanna go back to my car and”—I pause, half a smile, slowly licking my lips—“touch my iPod?”

I wake up twenty minutes later on the floor with a blasting headache, surrounded by a throng of people asking if I’m OK or if I need to see a doctor.

Seriously, though

The above piece is obviously just meant for entertainment, and doesn’t reflect my true social nature at all.

In fact, I’m dealing with a problem right now where I’m actually trying to avoid a girl who seems to have an unhealthy—though totally understandable—obsession with me.

“Why don’t you write about that in your column?” asked my friend Tim when I told him of my troubles.

Write about what?

“How to get girls off your back,” he replied.

No, no. I can’t do that. That’s not what this column’s for.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” he agreed. “Mac teens don’t have too many problems with that.”

Ouch.

Ed Note: Dan’s writing is exciting and compelling. For the record however, his unexecuted ideas stink, and will continue to have such properties until they have been put to paper. Sorry, Dan. - Ed

Dan Pourhadi is a freelance technology writer from the northwest suburbs of Chicago. He writes several Mac-focused columns for various publications and has contributed to MacAddict Magazine. Dan is also a contributor to MacUser.

NuPower Battery

by Chris Saribay • 12/29/2005 at 10:34 AM

As most already know, computing on the go is a great thing. Being productive where ever you are is indeed a quite powerful attribute, but as your laptop ages, you soon find you’re only as good as your battery. As such, you can probably tell that this editor’s 12” PowerBook battery was on the severe recline decline, or rather, barely even held a charge.

Not to fear, however. Newer Technology and Other World Computing have come together and created a series of replacement batteries, notably, those that offer the prospect of longer battery life. Apple’s batteries fresh from the factory are good and well enough, but to say that they retain a strong charge is not exactly an accurate statement. In this review, we’ll be testing Newer Technology’s NuPower High Capacity Battery for 12” Aluminum Powerbooks, but the company also offers similar replacement batteries for other Apple products.

The NuPower battery mimics Apple’s batteries in most aspects, for the most part, matching the fit and finish of the unit. Build quality presented well, for the exception of the status monitor on the bottom of the battery. Unlike Apple’s equivalents, the button to access the LED charge monitor is lodged deeper within the casing, making it more difficult to press down. This could be interpreted as a good thing or a bad thing, but for me, it proved to be a challenge to check the charge of the battery. Thankfully, this is the only real issue with the battery.  While not a problem, another notable thing to point out is the use of a black foam foot instead of bucking the trend Apple’s grey plastic ones. This foam foot seems much more stable than Apple’s, and much less prone to fall off. While I would have preferred to see grey foam instead of black, the use of (any color) foam greatly increases the unit’s physical stability, which is never a bad thing.

Now to the batteries’ performance. Out of the box, Newer Technology and OWC carefully warn you to correctly calibrate your battery, more less stating to leave the battery charging for several hours (uninterrupted) and then fully running down the battery at least once (again, uninterrupted). Following these instruction is vital to eeking out the best performance, and not doing so could lead to you having a battery worse for wear.

Now, let’s get this out of the way: there is no scientific way to clearly define how long a full charge on this battery will last. Many different factors have an impact on endurance, and my own computer usage will likely not mimic yours. In our testing, we used our demo machine in fairly intensive, resource heavy ways. This testing notably called for constant paging of the swap file and consistently high use of the processor. That said, Newer Technology promises up to a 13% increase in battery capacity, and this battery delivers exceedingly well. Depending on usage, we were able to get 32 to 40 minutes more battery life, actually exceeding Newer Technology’s specifications. This may not seem significant, but when you’re on the road, every minute matters. This 4800 mAh battery works very, very well.

As an added benefit, over a longer period of time we’ve noticed that the Newer Technology battery seems to age much more gracefully than Apple’s does. This is great news for this editor, who sees this battery lasting very long into the future.

Buying Advice: If you demand the longest charge out of your batteries, Newer Technology’s NuPower High Capacity batteries seem like a good fit. On the other hand, if you prefer Apple products exclusively, prices are comparable and if satisfied with Apple’s batteries, you could go either way.

Chris Saribay resurrected Macteens back in December 2001. Serving as Editor Emeritus six years later, Chris is still as ever interested in Mac and iPod as ever before. He'll also have you note that his MacBook Pro practically smokes his Power Mac G5 Dual 2.7 GHz tower.

What’s Next for iTunes?

by Daniel Hollister • 12/23/2005 at 01:00 PM

Two months ago, Apple took its first significant step towards complete digital media dominance with the release of the new iMac G5 and video-enabled iPod, but more importantly, the addition of TV shows and video in iTunes. These products bring the subject of home-entertainment to the forefront at Apple and make evident Steve Jobs’ twenty-year take-over-the-world plan. So, what’s next on Mr. Jobs’ recipe? Well, I don’t have the twenty-year outlook, but I do have an idea of what the next several years will be like.

Home-entertainment, at least in one aspect, is hinged on the structure of digital video. Now, at the beginning of this year Steve Jobs proclaimed this ?

Daniel Hollister is the Editor-in-Chief of Macteens, and has been apart of the Macteens community since 2002. He is a filmmaker, designer, entrepreneur, and Mac enthusiast from Santa Cruz, California. When not arguing in the forums and working 18 hour days, Daniel can be found sleeping. That is it, he has no time for anything else. Daniel currently works and resides in Hollywood, California.

Take Control of Your Computer (with PHP): Part 4

by Robert Bieber • 12/21/2005 at 01:00 PM

“Take Control of Your Computer (with PHP)” is a multipart series. Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

It’s been a while since we’ve last had a chance to take control of our computers using PHP, thanks to school and the like, but with our itching and scratching for the latest code (that and a few spare hours), we’re going to take you up on the next part of our tutorial series. So, with that said, lets move on to the tutorial.

I’m assuming everyone here knows how to use the SMS system I had you set up in the second tutorial. If you don’t, go back and read the other tutorials before continuing (you can find links to them at the top of this page).

What I’m going to teach you today is how to control how your script runs. Sometimes, well, actually, almost always, you don’t want your script to do the exact same thing every time it runs. Rather, you will want it to do different things depending on its input. For instance, suppose I’m giving you instructions for cooking hotpockets in the microwave. I might tell you something to the effect of “If there’s only one, cook it for two minutes. Otherwise, cook it for five minutes.” Of course, we’ll be dealing with different situations when using computers. We might want to tell it something more like “If the value stored in $a is less than three, then divide it by two. Otherwise, increment it.” Not something you’d ever likely want to do, but you get the idea. So, the question now is “How do we actually do this?.”

“The answer: one of the most useful in any language, if.”

The if statement allows you to test for a condition, and then execute a certain section of code if that statement is true. You can also set a block of code to be executed if that statement is not true, using the else statement. Before we get into this, I need to make a note on the = operator. In the last article, we used the = operator to store a value in a variable. Now, logically, one would think that it could also be used to check for equality, i.e., you’d probably think that “if($a=$b)” would mean to do something if $a and $b are equal. This is not true! The = operator can only be used to assign a value to a variable. To check for equality, we must use the == operator. So, instead of “if($a=$b)”, you would write “if($a==$b)”. Here’s a small script that would execute the instructions I laid out above ("If the value stored in $a is less than three, then divide it by two. Otherwise, increment it.") There’s also one more thing I must mention before we get into this. Any line that starts with // is considered a comment, it’s ignored when the script is run. You can use these lines to describe what’s happening in the script, without interfering with it in any way. Now on to the code.

<?php
//Assign a value of two to $a
$a=2;
//Do the following block of code if $a<3
if($a<3){
$a=$a/2;
//If the condition isn't met, do the following block of code
} else {
$a++;
}
echo $a;
?>

The output of this script should be 1. Because $a is less than 3, it will be divided by two, which leaves 1. The first line, “$a=2;”, you should recognize. It just assigns the value 1 to the variable $a. The next one, “if($a<3){" likely isn't so familiar looking. Basically, it just tells the server to execute the following block of code if the statement in the parentheses is true. The code to be executed is between the "{" and the "}" that you see a few lines down. Any statement that can evaluate to TRUE or FALSE can go in the parentheses. There are a number of operators you can use to test for equality and inequality. Here's a table with the most common.

Op.	Description
==	This is one of the most common, it tests to see if the two things it connects are equal
!=	This tests to see if the two things are not equal
<	This tests to see if the first thing is less than the second
>	This tests to see if the first thing is greater than the second
<=	This tests to see if the first thing is equal to or greater than the second
>=	This tests to see if the first thing is greater than or equal to the second

And finally, you have the line “} else {”. This line ends the block of code that was to be executed if the condition was true, and starts a new block of code to be executed if the condition wasn’t true. The rest is just what to do if the condition isn’t true, and “echo $a;”, to print the output.

And that concludes this part. Now you know how to control the execution of your script. In part five, I’ll show you how to loop a section of code a given number of times, at which point we’ll be ready for a real world example. As usual, if you have any questions or problems, feel free to post a comment or email me.

Robert Bieber says he's not going to live in fear and hoard any and all information about himself for fear of such a thing happening. Reportedly, he has a house in Bradenton, Florida, where he attends Manatee High School. As someone who regularly participates in, and occasionally contributes to online society, he wants to be known as the person he is, not as some ridiculous "handle" or "screenname".

El Ballo

by Daniel Hollister • 11/25/2005 at 01:44 AM

Our infamous friend Jack Thompson will probably have a heyday when he first notices El Ballo. If he attacks The Sims 2 for absolutely no nudity at all, then this should certainly be higher on his list! A first for Ambrosia Software, El Ballo has a slightly more adult theme than your average side scroller. The Adventures of El Ballo takes place in the solar system “Circular Assmosphere”. Doctor Cough, a very evil doctor, is currently attempting to give the planet of Testicular a world-wide physical. You are a denizen of Testicular. You are El Ballo.

Now, a couple of dirty references may not be so bad to little kids trying to play this Mario-like platformer. El Ballo also features what the developers call “mild cartoon nudity”. When I first saw this, I was curious. These characters in the game seem almost alien-like, what can this mean. The first cut-scene made me spit out my Mountain Dew. Right in front of me was El Ballo and his girlfriend Butts, completely and utterly naked. You could see everything. You might be able to pass Butts and Boobs off as just having a very small bikini, but there was no getting past what the main character was showing off.

How can Ambrosia sell this game you might ask? Well, they do offer a Parental Control option, that lets you set a password to unlock the nude content when the children are sleeping (we know that you want to). This also renames some of the characters and places, so that it isn’t as dirty. The only problem with this is that if your child knows anything about Mac OS X, such as how Preferences work, they can simply delete the preferences while still retaining their game saves in order to gain access to the “exclusive” content. Really though, all the seemingly “adult” content is more humorous than dirty. Being what some might call a “fickle youngster”, I absolutely see no problem in someone over the age of 12 or 13 playing this game. I saw much worse than this in Nintendo Power or National Geographic when I was 10. I didn’t ask my parents any awkward questions.

Onto the game play. El Ballo pretty much plays like your typical Mario or Metroid. There are many times when I wish I could shoot Up, Down, or even at an angle. Unfortunatly, you are only able to shoot to the left or right. This can make it sometimes difficult to kill some enemies that make it particularly difficult to get up a ladder. You start off with a simple freeze gun, which is cool because it allows you to grab onto and use the frozen enemies to gain access to secrets.

Later on you do gain access to other weapons, and even power ups that change how it acts. For example, there is one that makes it angle down slightly, and one that acts like a sin wave. Most of the game is fairly easy. You can usually just run straight while shooting and jumping. There are some jumping puzzles, and the occasional boss fight, but those are not too difficult. Because of this, the game play is often very slow.

In conclusion, El Ballo is a fun, yet fairly short 2D platformer. Meant to inspire some fits of laughter, as long as you have an open mind you will love it. The soundtrack is amazing, I just wish they would make it available for purchase.

Daniel Hollister is the Editor-in-Chief of Macteens, and has been apart of the Macteens community since 2002. He is a filmmaker, designer, entrepreneur, and Mac enthusiast from Santa Cruz, California. When not arguing in the forums and working 18 hour days, Daniel can be found sleeping. That is it, he has no time for anything else. Daniel currently works and resides in Hollywood, California.

TuneBox

by Chris Saribay • 11/10/2005 at 12:08 PM

To be sure, there are many different portable iPod speakers available today- from a myriad of different vendors. However, these units all tend to have the same limitation: they?

Chris Saribay resurrected Macteens back in December 2001. Serving as Editor Emeritus six years later, Chris is still as ever interested in Mac and iPod as ever before. He'll also have you note that his MacBook Pro practically smokes his Power Mac G5 Dual 2.7 GHz tower.

User Groups: a Fading Base

by Dan Pourhadi • 11/09/2005 at 05:00 AM

When I joined the Mac community, oh, some thirty-thousand years ago, things were a lot different than they are today. Apple was a wee lil’ Jetta in the metropolitan highway known as the Tech Biz, and the only media attention it ever got - that is, when it got media attention at all - was fearful predictions of its inevitable demise. Mac users were huddled in a secluded world of microscopic marketshare and public indifference.

We weren’t highly regarded - no, quite the opposite, really. “Ha, ha!” PC-using misanthropes would shout. “You Mac users are so stoooopid! Can your Mac play games? I didn’t think so!”

We’d attempt to respond, often in vein. “Actually, Macs can play -”

“Ha, ha! Your Mac can’t play games! It’s such a toy!”

At that point, we’d realize an argument was futile - “Don’t argue with an idiot, the rest of us won’t be able to tell who’s who” - and move on, shaking our heads, knowing our platform was unquestionably superior, but unable to prove it without hollow threats of physical pain and/or slightly-modified Jedi mind tricks.

But in this world of Windows-only software, media snubbing, and PC user smugness, there was one thing that kept our little community together; the Mead-Hall of the Mac world that binded us in ways no Windows-using ubergeek could break. That thing, my friends, was the concept of Mac User Groups.

Every month or every week - or even every day, for some jobless Macophiles - a group of diehard Mac junkies would meet and discuss the Issues Of The Day, from the latest and greatest in Mac software to Apple’s most recent hardware fumble. Newbies would show up in droves, tapping the on-site Super Nerds for help with everything from faulty printers to those bloody extensions that never seemed to work right, no matter what you downloaded or deleted or moved around or kicked or threw out the window or yelled at or…

You get the point.

Mac-focused vendors would demo their spiffy new products to the MUGs, and then offer discounted goodies and raffle away boxes full of really-cool-but-probably-too-costly-to-buy stuffs. Mac celebs would travel far and wide to get up on stage and offer helpful and entertaining advice to the throngs of captivated attendees. Groups themselves would often host special super-secret get-togethers, where their most dedicated members would plan violent raids on neighboring PC user groups, which were often scantily attended and poorly defended.

MUGs were a bastion of Mac userness, offering stray and confused Apple fans of the world a place to get together and network; to discuss topics of mutual interest, to learn about the Latest and Greatest, and to befriend people of unlimited diversity.

Owning a Mac meant more than simply being a “Mac user”; it meant being a member of a tightly-knit and welcoming community; it meant having the opportunity to meet folks who were able - and willing - to help you in your time(s) of need. It was a great thing.

Today...well, today, things are different. Mac user groups are still around, ready and eager to help the Mac Masses. But they lack one key component that keeps them alive and kickin’, the one thing that drives these groups to be as helpful and as effectual as they once were - they lack members.

Across the board, user group member numbers are declining - old members aren’t renewing and prospective members are nowhere to be found. Groups are being forced to cut benefits or close up (raising member fees is a big no-no), and the continually decreasing incentives lead to further member erosion.

To put that in terms that don’t sound like Greenspan’s jargon-filled market reports: User groups are dying.

Even while the Macintosh user base grows, Mac-related groups and activities are slowly fizzling out. Recently, IDG announced that Macworld Boston 2006 was cancelled. Reason? Not enough interest. Over the summer, the organizers of the MacHack/ADHOC conference announced that it, too, would be cancelled. Reason? Again, not enough interest.

A Mac user group I’m very close to is facing a major financial crisis. Membership numbers have dropped dramatically, volunteer numbers are dropping off just as fast, and the benefits the group once proudly boasted on handout-sized flyers distributed to Mac fans eagerly awaiting an Apple Store opening are now almost impossible to deliver.

I can hear you now, furiously working to swallow that piece of cheesecake that you just had to eat because, after all, there are people starving all over the world. “Oh Dan,” you say, covering your mouth so as to avoid spewing crumbs in my face. “Why are the beloved MUGs dying, Dan, why are they dying?”

They are dying not because of lessened importance or a declining Mac user base (we already established that the opposite is actually true), they are dying because people fail to recognize their significance. Mac users these days don’t realize how truly helpful and caring a Mac user group can be. They don’t understand the joy that comes from spending an hour or two each month with people who share their interests, people part of a community, eager to spread their knowledge and discuss things the group wants to discuss.

I’ve seen many a friend brought to group meetings - souls who’d typically never be caught dead or dying in such situations - who immediately took to the camaraderie and companionship (and free stuff), and started returning to meeting after meeting, slowly becoming more involved in the group they came to love.

Want to help these groups - these landmarks of the Mac community - stay alive? Just join one. See how great they really are. Bring an old gadget to give away; bring advice to help your fellow users; bring a problem *you* need help with. Volunteer to help the group with promotion, with membership, with organization. Tell your friends how fun the last meeting was and how they should really, really come to one, or risk missing out on a life-changing experience that they’ll regret until their dying day.

Remember, most MUGs don’t only offer networking and support. Many groups have regular prize raffles (free stuff!), a wide-array of discount offers (cheap stuff!), and even organization-sponsored giveaways like shareware CDs and mousepads (cool stuff!). Before you know it, the MUG membership will have paid for itself - ten times over.

To find a group near you, visit Apple’s User Group locator page. No group within biking, driving, or hang-gliding distance? No problem - start one of your own! Learn more about User Groups from Apple’s website.

Get involved. Trust me, you won’t regret it.

This article on Apple User Groups has been syndicated by multiple outlets in the Mac web.

Dan Pourhadi is a freelance technology writer from the northwest suburbs of Chicago. He writes several Mac-focused columns for various publications and has contributed to MacAddict Magazine. Dan is also a contributor to MacUser.

AirClick USB

by Chris Saribay • 10/31/2005 at 05:30 AM

Controlling your Mac from a distance is nothing new to the marketplace, with multimedia remotes and cell phones capturing many users these days. While these solutions for a ten-foot operating environment all work well, Griffin Technology has come to the plate their own multimedia remote: notably, one that mimics Apple’s Front Row remote for its simplicity.

Wireless Freedom

Griffin’s AirClick USB is a packaged set that allows you to control your Mac wirelessly...er...well… sort of. More on this in a moment, but the package includes a very minimalist five button remote, a USB RF receiver and related software that makes the whole unit tick in unison. Like other Griffin products, installation and setup is a snap: simply connecting the receiver into a free USB port and installing the bundled software will get you on the road to wireless freedom. All that need be done now is to launch the AirClick application, which is conveniently found in your Applications folder.

Using the unit is surely easy enough, with the software and hardware coordinating in harmony. Nice. Although oddly positioned, the five buttons; Play/Pause, Fast Forward, Rewind, Volume Up and Volume Down are logical choices and work well with almost any application. The remote’s range in our testing, almost 60 feet, is also mighty impressive.

In addition, the remote itself has a useful hold switch on the side of the unit, allowing you to put the remote in your pocket without having to worry about accidentally sending any signals to your Mac. No pockets? No problem, the unit also features a belt clip on the back of the unit.

Freedom Inhibited by Bits and Bytes

However, this is where our major gripe lies: the included software works, but not nearly as well as Griffin’s nearest competitor, Keyspan. While the Griffin software includes a good selection of applications to control by default, (DVD Player, iChat/Mail, iPhoto, iTunes, Keynote, Preview, PowerPoint, QuickTime, radioSHARK Safari and VLC) it’s not nearly as easy customized to add additional applications. One could create custom Apple Scripts and modify the software to accomplish this, but it’s a serious hassle when compared to Keyspan’s much easier GUI based additions. Even more, unlike the Keyspan software, the AirClick does not automatically detect the application you’re in; causing the addition of another step: selecting the Application from the software menu each time you need to use the remote. It’s just not convenient enough for us.

The software clearly needs some work. We would like to see two notable features added notably; automatic application detection, and easier application/function addition, in future updates. Without the software being improved, we can’t get the most out of the unit, which is a shame.

Nice Touches

Moving forward though, Griffin’s AirClick USB has some nice gems that are quite useful.

Using visual notifications, akin to the System UI for changing the speaker volume, the AirClick’s software makes clear of the actions you’re taking, where appropriate. This is a nice touch that is unexpected. As expected, these notifications don’t get in your way, and are missing in presentation applications such as Keynote and PowerPoint.

More importantly, what distinguishes the AirClick USB from the competition has to do squarely on how it transmits its signal to the receiver. Instead of using Infrared technology that requires line of sight, the remote uses RF: which means easier operation and greater operating lengths. Instead of the necessity of having to point the remote at the receiver, the AirClick can be pointed in the opposite direction, through a wall (or two) or through any other barriers. This is incredibly useful if you’re using an Airport Express and want to control the music streaming from your Mac in the other room.

Time to Unplug

All in all, the AirClick USB delivers performance as advertised in a very elegant way, albeit with limiting software. Its use of RF and extended range are true winners. There’s little doubt that the AirClick USB is a good product that we can recommend here, but that’s not saying we wouldn’t love to see some very important feature additions made to the software Griffin includes.

Chris Saribay resurrected Macteens back in December 2001. Serving as Editor Emeritus six years later, Chris is still as ever interested in Mac and iPod as ever before. He'll also have you note that his MacBook Pro practically smokes his Power Mac G5 Dual 2.7 GHz tower.

Evening@Adler Recap (Part I)

by Dan Pourhadi • 10/23/2005 at 01:19 PM

(Note: I’ll be posting more information at a later date; this is Part I of the Evening@Adler recap.)

Last Friday, the man behind DrunkenBlog.com hosted “Evening@Adler,” an event designed to get the biggest names in Mac shareware development on a panel to discuss developing great programs for the Mac.

I was there in full-force, sporting a variant of The Pourhadi Port-O-Office and a semi-pro digicam (the “semi” part being my ability to shoot any sort of decent photograph).

Ah, the first picture. The beginning. The commencement. The...uh, start...thing.

That’s the beautiful Chicago skyline, which is a lot more beautiful when someone who’s worked a camera once or twice in his life is snapping the pic. Alas, my photo-taking ability is pretty much the equivalent of Adam Corolla’s ability to tell jokes: aim at a target and just start spewing (or, in my case, pressing the little button that makes the light thingy flash).

To suit the title “Evening@Adler,” DrunkenBatman (sir DrunkenBlog.com) aptly chose the Adler Planetarium for the event venue. It’s a nice place, but a pain to get there: I got lost looking for it. Sure, I live near Chicago and visit virtually every week, but no one told me that there are two streets called “Lake Shore Drive” parallel to each other, and one bypasses the planetarium completely, taking you to the totally opposite side of Chicago. Had I been blessed with knowledge of this little detail, my trip there would have invariably been a good deal shorter—and random folks in my cell phone’s contact list wouldn’t have been inundated with scary calls of me panicking in a toddler-like fashion. (Let me warn you: Calling random “friends” in hopes of finding help is a bad idea. Instead of giving you proper directions, they’ll simply make stupid and pointless remarks like “Who are you again?”, “How did you get my number?” and “Leave me alone or I’ll call the cops.")

This is the theater in which the event took place. There was a panel of folks (who I like to call The Smart Guyz) up front, and a big screen with a picture of a cow on a couch. The picture of the cow remained throughout the entire event, only changing once to inform us where the after-party would be.

As you can tell, my uber l33t photography skillz adequately captured the mood of the room.

This man is readying his laser-cannon to vaporize any of the panelists who may try to escape.

That would be the panel. From left to right:  Rosyna (don’t ask, that’s the only name i was given), Gus Mueller, Jason Harrison (the man behind apps like ShapeShifter and Chicken of the VNC), Paul Kafasis (co-founder of Rogue Amoeba), DrunkenBatman (when the discussion begins, Wil Shipley, formerly of The Omni Group and now of Delicious Monster, will be sitting here instead, and DB will be at the far right), Brent Simons (developer of NetNewsWire), Jon Rentzsch (personal friend of mine and the genius behind mach_*), Nick Jitkoff (developer of Quicksilver), Bob Frank, and Eric Peyton (developer of Fire and current Apple employee).

Another sweet panel photo, compliments of Yours Truly.

Brent Simmons and Jon Rentzsch laughing it up, probably at my expense. (What do you mean everything isn’t always about me?)

Everyone’s got out their PBs and iBooks and…

What...what’s that?

That’s not a Mac.

I...I can’t believe I took this picture.

Turn away. Just, turn away.

Rosyna, Gus Mueller, and Jason Harrison.

Paul Kafasis looking like he’s possessed.

Wil Shipley has entered the building!

I felt it necessary to snap more than one picture of Mr. Shipley. He is by far one of the most interesting people I have ever had the opportunity to witness in person, even if it was a hundred or so feet away.

His obvious success—first with the amazing products that came out of The Omni Group then Delicious Monster—has inspired within him an unarguable sense of confidence. Everything he said he said with a tone that, if you wanted to argue, made you feel like you were arguing with the Divine Word and you were undoubtedly wrong, even if you were right. He had an eloquent and creative way with words, and always provided a powerful example to back up his arguments.

Some notable quotes from Mr. Shipley:

• “It’s never wasted effort to just do stuff, to just get your stuff out there,” he said when referring to small developers looking to make a name for themselves.
• When talking about blogs, Mr. Shipley stressed their importance, but noted that they weren’t the end-all to end all. If making a blog post dramatically increased sales, he said, “I’d post, ‘yeah...I had sex with Paris Hilton’ all the time.”
• “You can’t survive in the Windows market,” said Shipley, referring to the massive number of identical apps on Windows software shelves. The Mac market, on the other hand, is just waiting for a good idea.
• The panel began discussing UI guidelines and how Apple keeps breaking them. Shipley and most of the panel thought breaking the guidelines can sometimes be necessary or prudent to better the interface. Said Shipley: “I push to break the UI for the better.”
• And the final quote, the quote I think defined his attitude on the panel: When referring to user interface guidelines: “People publish books blah-bladdy-blah and I think they’re wrong.”

That would be DrunkenBatman. Thick, black-rimmed glasses, a goateeish type thing, and the fancy artist hat. Not at all how I imagined him, yet a look that totally fits.

A young Mac user spotted in the wild. Didn’t get a chance to speak with him, but he certainly fits the profile of a Mac Teen.

Dude, if you’re reading this, drop us a line, k?

Intermission.

Da-da-da-da-la-la-la, dum-du-duh-duh-dum-dum-dum.

Oh, that guy in the red: Scott McNulty of The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW).

An audience member querying the panel. Most of the discussion was based around audience questions, which was nice. But unfortunately it kept a lot of the discussion at a stand-still when people kept asking for clarification or arguing themselves.

Quicksilver developer, contemplating open sourcing his app’s neato graphic effects after an audience member asked really, really nicely.

Ah, the location of the after-party. After giving a ride to some developers (who later cornered me and briefed me on their soon-to-be-available really super-double-plus awesome product that I just had to hear—and subsequently write—about. In truth: the software is neat and I will be writing about it soon), I headed into the bar, camera-in-hand, and readied myself for an experience of a lifetime.

Honestly...a bunch of software developers in a room drinking themselves silly? Imagine the possibilities…

I do regret the fact that there were many folks with the name “Dan,” thus prohibiting my cheeseburger order from ever making it to a point where I was able to grasp the fluffy bun and put an end to my debilitating hunger. I was inadvertently given a chicken sandwich, though I was kind enough to track down its rightful owner and surrender custody...a decision I began to regret when table scraps started looking appetizing.

More tomorrow…

Dan Pourhadi is a freelance technology writer from the northwest suburbs of Chicago. He writes several Mac-focused columns for various publications and has contributed to MacAddict Magazine. Dan is also a contributor to MacUser.

Take Control of Your Computer (with PHP): Part 3

by Robert Bieber • 10/04/2005 at 07:00 PM

Take Control of Your Computer (with PHP), Part 1
Take Control of Your Computer (with PHP), Part 2

In the last two tutorials, I showed you how to set up your computer to write and execute PHP scripts, which will allow you to automate repetitive tasks easily (and yes, they’re even better than that new fangled Automator thing.  You can trust me on that.) I’ve gone and made an update for the scripting system I had you install last time.  You can download the update package here.  Simply drop all the files in it into your htdocs folder, overwriting the ones that were there before.  If you want to do a clean install, you can get the whole package here. Just follow the installation instructions from my last article.  With all that out of the way, now we can get on to the fun part, the actual coding.

Oops.  I used the ‘C’ word.  Didn’t scare you away, did I?  Good.  Anyhow, all humor aside, you will need to learn some coding now.  Like I’ve said, it’s not difficult.  Programming has been compared to learning a new language, but it really isn’t anything like that.  It’s much, much easier.  It’s more like learning a shorthand for writing instructions.  So, bring up your browser, head on over to SMS (http://localhost after you’ve started up XAMPP) and type the following in the “Type Script Here” box.

<?php
$a=1;
$b=2;
$a++;
$b--;
$a=$b+$a;
echo $a;
?>

Type whatever you want in the description box.  I’d reccomend something to the effect of my first script.  Now click the “Run Script” link in the “Available Scripts” table by the script you just created.  You should be taken to a new page, and that page should say “3” and nothing else.  It’s generally customary to start beginners out with a script that displays “Hello World”, but I decided on this because it demonstrates something useful.  Lets take a more in depth look at the script you just executed, the way the computer would go through it.

The first line of your script was “<?php".  That's simply what you use to tell the server that what comes next is PHP code.  Nothing to talk about, really.  The next line is "$a=1;".  This line, on the other hand, is very important, as it demonstrates a very important part of programming.  This is a command that creates what we call a variable.  A variable is simply a place in the computer's memory where it stores something you want it to remember.  In this case, we told the computer to store the value 1 in a variable named $a.  A variable can hold just about anything, and you can name it just about anything, as long as the name always starts with the $ sign.  The line ends with a semicolon.  The semicolon is there to tell the computer that the line has ended, and it's time to move on to the next command.  The semicolon must be there, or else your scripts won't work.

The second line, "$b=2" creates another variable, called $b, which holds the value 2.  Not much to it.  Now lets move on to the next line, "$a++;".  You should recognize $a, it's the variable we created ("declared" is the proper word to use) in the first line.  But now, instead of an equals sign, there's a "++" after it.  That "++" is what we call an operator.  An operator is a character or a sequence of characters that does something to a variable.  In this case, it's the "++" operator.  When there's a variable and the "++" operator all alone on a line, it tells the computer to add one to whatever value is currently in $a.  So, before $a contained the value 1.  Now we've added one, and it contains the value 2.  In the next line, we see another operator, the "--" operator.  It's the opposite of "++" and subtracts one from whatever value is in the variable.  Before, $b contained the value 2.  Now it will contain the value 1.

So, the computer created two variables, named $a and $b, and stored the values 1 and 2 in them, respectively.  Then it added one to $a and subtracted one from $b.  So now $a and $b hold the values 2 and 1, respectively.  The next line in our script is "$a=$b+$a;".  This probably looks like a math statement, mostly because it is.  This is normally how you'll do math.  You simply declare one variable to be equal to any other number of variables (or values, but we'll get into that later) with assorted math operations applied to them.  In this case, we tell the computer that $a now equals $a+$b.  The "+" operator does exactly what it looks like it does, it adds two variables together.  So the value in $a is now 5.

Finally, our script has to display the result of all this to the user.  So we have the final line of it, "echo $a;".  "echo" is what we call a function.  It's some code somewhere else that does something for you.  You use it ("calling it" is the technical term") by putting its name on a line followed by whatever it might need to work with.  Here, we're using the "echo" function, and it needs the value stored in $a.  And what does the "echo" function do?  It just puts whatever you give it on the screen.  So, since 5 is now stored in $a, it puts "5" on the screen.  Finally, we put in "?>”, which just tells the server that the script is over.

And there you have it, your first PHP script.  Feel free to play around with it, change the values, add variables, etc.  Next tutorial, I’ll have you do something useful with math.  In the meantime, make sure you got all that down good.  If you don’t quite understand what’s happening with the above code, go away, and come back and read it again in a day or two.  If things still don’t seem to make sense, or you have a specific question, feel free to leave a comment.

Robert Bieber says he's not going to live in fear and hoard any and all information about himself for fear of such a thing happening. Reportedly, he has a house in Bradenton, Florida, where he attends Manatee High School. As someone who regularly participates in, and occasionally contributes to online society, he wants to be known as the person he is, not as some ridiculous "handle" or "screenname".

How To Make Widgets, Part 2

by Daniel Hollister • 10/04/2005 at 12:00 AM

Well, after quite a long hiatus, due mainly to school (@#$%!!!! school!!!), Ari Smith is back. Anyway, if you’re new, this tutorial is Part II in a series designed to teach you how to make widgets. Hopefully, you’ve read Ari’s first tutorial; he’ll be basing this one on that assumption. You’ll also need the code from the prior sample widget???

Daniel Hollister is the Editor-in-Chief of Macteens, and has been apart of the Macteens community since 2002. He is a filmmaker, designer, entrepreneur, and Mac enthusiast from Santa Cruz, California. When not arguing in the forums and working 18 hour days, Daniel can be found sleeping. That is it, he has no time for anything else. Daniel currently works and resides in Hollywood, California.

Pourhadi Perspective: iPods & Dogs

by Dan Pourhadi • 09/27/2005 at 07:00 PM

iPod: Better than a dog

I felt a tap on my shoulder.

“What?” I asked as I leaned around, seeing my friend in the seat behind me.

Without saying a word, she handed me a note.

My Calc teacher continued to lecture, educating the half-concious class on the intricacies of derivatives and the wonders of anti-derivatives. I took the note and placed it on my desk, nervous of what may lurk inside.

Taking a deep breath, I slowly opened the folded piece of paper, identifying a drawing of a cat at the top, with the word “Kitty” and an arrow pointing at the picture.

I began to read the hand-scratched message.

“So, that iPod nano,” it began.

I exhaled.

“It’s really small! It’s like it doesn’t even exist!”

I let out a sigh and began to transcribe my response.

For reasons I can’t fathom, I drew a circle with a squiggly line, and wrote the word “balloon” adjacent to it.

“It’s not that small ” I wrote, adding the emoticon to reflect the semi-joking nature of the comment. “It works really well,” I continued. “The clickwheel is great and it even shows pictures.”

I lifted the note above my shoulder and let out a fake cough, attempting to avoid teacher attention. The note was pulled from my hand and a mild chuckle emanated from behind me.

I decided it was imperative for me to demo the beauty of the nano, alleviating fears that the device was too small. The next day, I walked into class and pulled a black nano out of my pocket, handing it to the friend who had originally handed me the note.

“See,” I grinned, “isn’t it great?”

“Wow!” she shouted, drawing the attention of the whole class.

“Oh my God!” said a girl in the next row. “Is that the nano!?”

“Awww!” screeched another. “It’s so cute!”

“Can I see it?” begged yet another.

“Um, sure,” I replied, a bit startled by the euphoric reaction. I began passing the lil’ black iPod across the room, where it was met with vocal revelations of the device’s true beauty.

For the next few minutes, I conversed with giddy girls about the iPod’s slick design, its price points, and the great concept of iPods in general.

“Here you go,” said one of them as she handed back the nano. “Thanks! It’s really cute!”

I smiled and gave a quick nod, then headed back to my seat, puzzled, but simultaneously elated at what had just transpired.

They say a dog is the best way to attract girls. But in this day-and-age, an iPod seems to get the job done just as well.

And they don’t crap on the carpet.

---

I tried to write that last piece without sounding pathetic.

I swear I’m not that desperate for Female Companionship.

(...)

Has anyone seen my nano? I want to bring it to school tomorrow.

Dan Pourhadi is a freelance technology writer from the northwest suburbs of Chicago. He writes several Mac-focused columns for various publications and has contributed to MacAddict Magazine. Dan is also a contributor to MacUser.

RocketFM

by Chris Saribay • 09/23/2005 at 01:00 PM

These days, it seems that stepping a mere five feet away from your entire music collection could be the death of you. Sure, there’s small nifty devices like the iPod that allow you to take your music with you, albeit with weak yielding headphones, but what if you just want to use your rockin’ home stereo to listen to your music? Or, what if you wanted to negate the high cost of speakers for your Mac, and use your existing setup? Up until now there’s been a few (rather inconvenient) options, but Griffin Technology’s latest solution, RocketFM, is head and shoulders above the rest.

Wickedly Cool Design

Taking a note from the companies’ own robust iPod portable FM transmitting catalog, the RocketFM does exactly what it promises: it turns your Mac into a virtual radio station, and does so inside of a wickedly cool designed small device. Taking the shape of a hybrid rocket/surf board, the mostly-plastic RocketFM is constructed well, with a blue LED running down the center of the device, letting you know when it is on and operational.

Setup is easy, simply installing the included software package, and plugging the RocketFM into a USB port on your machine. Using USB audio technology, the RocketFM uses USB instead of standard analog audio, allowing the juice required to run the device and the actual audio signals to travel through just one single cable. From that point, one only need select any available FM frequency from RocketFM’s software dial in System Preferences and tune their stereo in.

So how does it sound?

The RocketFM works much like a set of external speakers- in that it transmits all the sound your Mac makes. Not only will the music you’re playing in iTunes be broadcast over FM, but also audio from DVDs, Garageband songs and that iChat audio conversation with your friends will as well.

Due to some rather restrictive FCC regulations, the RocketFM promises a range of around 10-30 feet, depending on the receiver (your stereo) and any obstacles that may be in the way. In our testing, we were able to go about 25 feet away from the RocketFM (through a concrete wall) before the signal started to cut out, quite a bit better than we had expected. As for actual sound quality, the RocketFM delivered a fair level of sound quality, though a few pops and hisses were audible occasionally, as is the nature with FM radio.

Our only real complaint here is that Griffin’s software should have included an EQ, allowing one to customize and for that matter, optimize the sound being broadcasted from the device. It’s a task to optimize audio on each stereo you use with your RocketFM, just to have to reset it when you want to listen to a different source.

Overall, the RocketFM easily solves the problem of using your existing stereo in conjunction with your Mac, and does so with a sense of style. The unit does have a higher ticket price, coming in at about $40, but we can easily look past that and recommend the RocketFM to anyone wanting to use their stereo with their Mac.

Chris Saribay resurrected Macteens back in December 2001. Serving as Editor Emeritus six years later, Chris is still as ever interested in Mac and iPod as ever before. He'll also have you note that his MacBook Pro practically smokes his Power Mac G5 Dual 2.7 GHz tower.

Pourhadi Perspective: Odds And Ends

by Dan Pourhadi • 09/20/2005 at 07:00 PM

A short Odds and Ends column today, folks.

Where’s the Search?

Apple seems to have some sort of unhealthy obsession with software-based searching. Jobs’ friends have talked quietly about holding an intervention, and stoutly men in white suits were seen congregating outside of his house—prior to being chased away by vicious, blood-lusting pit-bulls, of course.

Tiger’s most boast-about new feature was Spotlight; Mail 2.0’s greatest doohickey is the life/time-saving integrated search; Jobs was all giddy when he mentioned iTunes 5.0’s new what’s-the-big-deal “search bar”—clearly search is The Future Of Things and Apple’s trying to be The Company That Tries To Be All Future-y.

So I’m waiting for someone at Apple to kindly explain to me...why the heck does the Music Video section of the iTMS not have a freakin search!?

There are 596 videos in the Music Video section as of this writing, and the only way to wade through them is by sorting and clicking, clicking, clicking. Sure, sure, sure, you can run an iTMS search for the video’s artist, scour the Artist Page, and see if they have a video listed—but come on, that’s so pass???

Dan Pourhadi is a freelance technology writer from the northwest suburbs of Chicago. He writes several Mac-focused columns for various publications and has contributed to MacAddict Magazine. Dan is also a contributor to MacUser.

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