Saturday, Jun 23, 2007

Apple Universe Episode #19- Only 6 Days Left Till The iPhone Comes Out!

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As we all know, Safari is now on Windows. Apple has updated the BETA version of Safari to 3.0.2. There is more chatter about the iPhone than I expected! I wonder how much I was expecting. Imagine paying $175 just to cancel your 2 year subscription! That is a lot of money, but seriously, how many people are going to cancel the iPhone? All of this and much more on Apple Universe!

Posted by Daniel Brusilovsky at 6:56 PM |  1 comments  

Saturday, Jun 16, 2007

Apple Universe Episode #18- Welcome Safari

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Well as we all know, Safari is on Windows. Imagine getting 1 Million Downloads in just 48 hours! That is amazing. AT&T and Apple are getting ready to launch the iPhone in at least 1,800 stores of AT&T, but what about all those other chains that AT&T supports? We all wanted for a new version of iLife to come out, but that didn't happen. But what did happen is a new job posting posted by Apple on June 13th 2007 reveals that Apple is seeking software engineers for the "next generation of iWork". Specifically, they are looking for a programmer to work on 3D specific features with experience in "openGL and other 3d technologies". What do you know! During the WWDC Keynote, Steve Jobs talked about the new features of Mac OS X Leopard 10.5. He said that there will be a new version of iChat, a much needed upgrade! So is there going to be a iChat app on the iPhone that supports all the new features? All of this and a bunch more on Apple Universe Episode #18!

Posted by Daniel Brusilovsky at 7:32 PM |  MAKE A COMMENT  

Tuesday, Jun 12, 2007

Apple Universe Episode #17- WWDC Coverage

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I am at my podcasting friend Douglas Bell's house, and we are going to go crazy about WWDC! We start of the show by talking about the World Wide Developers Conference. I wonder how many international folks were there? There is more and more hype about the iPhone, and we cover all of the new features announced in Leopard. It is now official that the iPhone will be released on June 29th at 6 PM. Better get there early, folks! Believe it or not, Safari is now on Windows! Is Apple's moving forward on its plot to bring more Windows users over to the light? Among the new features, iChat gains much better audio quality, Time Machine will reinvent the term "backup", and Leopard will have full 64-bit support. But after the keynote, Apple's shares fell $4.30 per share (3.5%) due to an underwhelming keynote. If you missed the WWDC Keynote, Apple Universe is the place to listen in! I just want to thank Douglas Bell for helping me edit this amazing episode!

Posted by Daniel Brusilovsky at 11:34 PM |  2 comments  

Friday, Jun 08, 2007

Apple Universe Episode #16- Steve and Bill Re-United!

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After the unexpected redo of Apple Universe, we are rolling again! Parallels 3 is announced. Doug, you should have waited! Now Parallels supports 3D games, and has a new feature called "SmartSelect." The Apple TV just got bigger with their new version. Can I hear 160GB? Speaking of Apple TV, you might want YouTube on their, because now it can! The All Things Digital Conference is a great time for rivals Steve Jobs and Bill Gates to rekindle their furry! Or did they? They were asked to complement each other! That is really weird. What could Steve Jobs have said nicely about Microsoft? I can't say anything! Apple, the S&P 100 is calling you. Can you guess how much Apple is worth right now? Can you say 100 BILLION! With all that hype about the iPhone, how many are there going to be per store? Only 40! iTunes 7.2 is released with special feature iTunes Plus, which offers DRM free music! Yes I said it, DRM FREE! The Apple MacBook is getting a lot of praise, so let’s do a review! All of this and more on Apple Universe!

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Thursday, Jun 07, 2007

Apple Universe Episode #15 Part 3- Bye, Bye Mac Mini

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The Travelstar 5K160 Upgrade Kit is actually Hitachi’s Travelstar 5K160 HTS541616J9SA00 2.5-inch SATA hard drive—which uses newer perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology—combined with a USB 2.0 drive enclosure and backup software. Although not the largest laptop drive out there—in the short time since I received this kit, Fujitsu and Western Digital have announced 250GB laptop drives compatible with the MacBook Pro—the 5K160 is a nice upgrade for those whose MacBook Pro (or MacBook) shipped with a much smaller drive.

Before you install the drive, you’ll need to copy the data from your original hard drive to the new one using the included USB drive enclosure. Putting the new drive in the enclosure—it doesn’t come pre-installed—is a simple process involving five Phillips screws, four to mount the drive in the enclosure and one to secure the case. The drive connects to your laptop using two USB cables, one for data and one for additional power. I’m a big fan of hard-drive kits that include such an enclosure, as it makes the process of copying your data before the swap much simpler (and faster)—otherwise, you’d need to use another Mac or a separate hard drive to temporarily host your data. And the enclosure lets you use your old hard drive for backups or other data storage afterwards. Hoping to tackle the growing problem of pump-and-dump stock scams Microsoft has quietly filed lawsuits against at least three alleged perpetrators who it says used its MSN Hotmail networks to promote stocks. Hotmail has “received large volumes of unsolicited commercial e-mail messages” promoting stocks for companies such as Distributed Power, TGC Ventures, China Biolife Enterprises, and Irwin Resources, according to court documents filed during April and May in King County Superior Court in Seattle. Verizon Wireless is plotting a response to AT&T’s widely-anticipated Apple iPhone offering, according to published reports. Apple previewed iPhone at the Macworld conference in January. It will feature a 3.5-inch, 160 dot-per-inch color screen, a 2 megapixel digital camera and a touchscreen Apple calls “Multitouch,” which is designed to enhance accuracy by ignoring unintended touches. iPhone will be 11.6 millimeters thick — thinner than typical smartphones, according to Apple CEO Steve Jobs. AT&T has exclusive rights to offer iPhone for five years. It will be available from the carrier next month. Verizon Wireless’ counter is the LG Prada, or KE850, according to TheStreet.com. Prada is a sleek handset similar in look to the iPhone, the Web site reports. It includes a camera, and can play music and videos and allow for document viewing. Microsoft Zune team invited to give up iPods. Sony 'micro home theater system' features iPod option. A number of reader reports and a Google Groups message board posting indicate that CNBC is reporting that the iPhone will be released on the 20th of June. According to CNBC, the iPhone will be "in stores" on that date. Apple's iPhone had been officially targeted for "late June". iPhone sales/support training runs from May 30th - June 20th, giving more credibility to the June 20th date. Businessweek profiles "Metro" -- a prototype laptop designed by Intel and Ziba Design. The 0.7 inch thick laptop is the world's thinnest notebook and weighs only 2.25 pounds.
Unlike other prototype designs, this design is to go into production later this year with an unspecified manufacturer, according to Businessweek. BoyGeniusReport.com has posted screenshots from AT&T's accounting system revealing new account codes for three versions of iPhone sales:

- iPhone PostPaid
- iPhone PrePaid (Pay As You Go)
- iPhone Hybrid (Pick Your Plan)

"PostPaid" is the traditional 2 year contract sign up method that most cellular customers, while PrePaid and Hybrid represent different PrePaid (no contract) plans that Cingular currently offers. Adobe's CS3 icon branding taken to the next level - the rest of your apps. he new branding Adobe conceived for the new CS3 suite hasn't quite caught on with everyone just yet. Some say the icons are too bland and boring, while others like my friend John decided to take Adobe's 'periodic table of apps' concept to the next level. Via some icons found at sites like InterfaceLIFT and designing a few of his own, John has completely element-ized his entire Dock. In fact, I couldn't fit a decent picture that could display all the icons in this post, so head over to a TUAW gallery pic to take in the entire work of art - or monstrosity - depending on which side of the fence you sit on. Knock yourselves out if you feel like guessing each app - I have the entire list, but it won't be easy to nail 'em all.

Posted by Daniel Brusilovsky at 1:14 PM |  MAKE A COMMENT  

Thursday, Jun 07, 2007

Apple Universe Episode #15 Part 2- Bye, Bye Mac Mini

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Mini-Review: Power Support Track Pad Film. When a leading computer publication has a revolving-door editor-in-chief hiring policy, it can make other weird editorial decisions look sane and prudent by comparison. Exhibit A: the annual PC World "100 Best" feature, which presents the 100 best products of 2007... online in May, and in print for July. Not even half the year has gone by, but the farsighted crew at PCW has already figured out the best of the bunch! Might as well take the rest of the year off, then...The real reasons that the 100 Best comes out mid-year (covering the end of 2006 and the start of 2007) are detailed in a post from once-and-current big kahuna Harry McCracken. It comes down to legacy scheduling of the product awards around the June date of the no-longer-extant PC Expo trade show. That's a relief; I was worried that we were changing the calendar again. Anyway, more to the point: the list is top-heavy with some big Mac products, including TUAW darling Parallels Desktop at #6 (the top-ranked application on any desktop platform, not counting #1 Google Apps Premier Edition), Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger at #9 and AppleTV at #11. The Intel Core 2 Duo processor that powers new Macs is a top pick at #2. Noticeably absent from the top 100 was the latest hotness from Redmond, which may correlate with PC World's comment on the Tiger ranking: "Name a good Vista feature that goes beyond what's in Tiger. Yeah, we can't either." This one has been climbing up the bloggeist for a few weeks, and it's a fine apertif for the start of the holiday weekend. Copywriter Laurie McGuinness, moonlighting as a commercial parody director, made a series of four Mac/PC ad spoofs in early 2007, with PC as the businesslike, successful protagonist and Mac as the geeky, freelance hand-to-mouth sidekick. (Is it just me, or does the guy playing PC look like a thinner, less crazy version of John Dvorak?) All four ads are viewable on McGuinness' site or on YouTube, and they're mostly moderately funny; one exception is the 'Music' spot, which suggests that iPod users are selfish goobers who don't like to share music. Poor form! If you've got a favorite Mac/PC ad parody, let me know in the comments and I'll highlight the top choices in a weekend post. Found Footage: Possible video taken by iPhone? Tide is teaming up with the St. Bernard Project in New Orleans to help rebuild 10 homes in the St. Bernard parish by selling T-shirts. Everyone who buys a tee also gets entered in a contest to win this funky custom iPod and a $50 iTunes gift card. They're giving away one of these iPods a week until the contest finishes on June 25. I love the way they overlaid the scroll wheel with the Tide logo, but what I want to know is how that scroll wheel feels like after the customized art has been applied. Is it possible to do a custom mod like that but retain the feel and response of the original scroll wheel material? A while back we mentioned some ways to develop a meta-data tagging system for your files to be used together with, or even as a replacement for, standard hierarchical organization. TagBot is another tool designed to help make tagging easy. Basically it allows you to tag files either by dragging and dropping them onto the appropriate tag in a "Tag Palette" or by selecting the tag from a contextual menu. The tags themselves are added to the Spotlight comments of the files for searching, etc. Nick Santilli over at The Apple Blog has a nice little screencast that gives a good sense of how it works.

TagBot is $20 and a demo (limited to six tags) is available for download. Attention, residents of the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania. It looks like there's an Apple Store in your future. According to Mcall.com, Apple is scheduled to install a store in the soon-to-be-built addition to the Whitehall Township Mall. Sure enough, a quick look at Apple's jobs page revealed several retail positions are available for that location. Since the mall's addition hasn't been built yet, we won't ask our operatives in Pennsylvania to start scouring the area for spyshots just yet. But still...be ready. RubyCocoa is a nifty "bridge" between Ruby and Objective-C (the language of Cocoa), that allows developers to "write full-stack Cocoa applications in Ruby" or a "Cocoa application that mixes Ruby and Objective-C code." It has just received a major update to version 0.11.0. The release notes list the considerable changes; these include compatibility with Ruby 1.9, support for Quartz Composer, support for 64-bit applications and much more. As it happens, I've been slowly learning Ruby, so I'm looking forward to learning how to use RubyCocoa to build Mac applications with Ruby on the back-end. We recently mentioned a concept from Arriva for iPod Shuffle headphones that integrate the Shuffle into the 'phones themselves. Well Monster Cable (of way-too-expensive-cables fame) has apparently beaten them to the punch with these foldable iFreePlay headphones. As you can see the Shuffle fits into the top of the left can for a "cordless" experience, while still giving access to the controls, etc. While you're certainly not going to be a paragon of fashion walking down the street with these, I could imagine that they might be useful for the gym or a run. The iFreePlay headphones are available now for $49.95. Gene Munster, a PiperJaffray analyst, is predicting the debut of a widescreen 6G iPod early this autumn, possibly at a $399 price point according to this article at the UK's PC Advisor. While many of us would love a 6G widescreen iPod, would it make sense for the iPod to appear so soon after the introduction of the iPhone? Munster thinks the iPhone will sell a million units in just the first three months after launch. That's a lot of iPhones to move in such a short time. I think a 6G iPod would cut into iPhone sales. If you had the choice between a 6G iPod and an iPhone, would you still get the iPhone? Apple has just posted its latest security update. This update addresses a boatload of possible vulnerabilities including a number of core unix utilities as well as iChat and VPN.

Posted by Daniel Brusilovsky at 12:52 PM |  MAKE A COMMENT  

Thursday, Jun 07, 2007

Apple Universe Episode #15 Part 1- Bye, Bye mac Mini!

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Even while at the top of its game, Apple Inc. can seemingly find faults with just about anything, including a bit of itself. The Mac maker is constantly evaluating the market segments in which it wishes to participate and those which it does not. It's an application of love-hate methodology that inevitably produces its share of casualties.

Take, for instance, the firm's petite line of headless desktop computers known as Mac minis. They retail between $599 and $799, catering to the once critical sub-$800 PC market. Conspicuously, it was that precise market segment in which Apple executives asserted little interest just months before introducing the first Mac mini at the Macworld trade show in January of 2005. Maybe management wasn't fibbing after all. Apple TV offers a way for consumers to unlock the videos, music, and photos on their computer for use in the living room on TV. The new device competes against a series of other products, including the least expensive option of simply running a long video cable from the computer to the television. Whether Apple TV is worth the price will depend a lot upon on how much users like iTunes already, and how they plan to make use of the Apple TV. Mac maker Apple Inc. saw retail sales of Mac units grow a solid 62 percent year-over-year for the month of April, which included a 94 percent spike in notebook sales thanks to solid MacBook and MacBook Pro momentum, as well as increased distribution. A fresh class action lawsuit charges Apple's iTunes, major online music shops, and top record labels with performing an end-run around a musician's permission and his royalty payments. An analysis of April unit data from market research firm NPD leads researchers at PiperJaffray to believe that iPod shipments for Apple's June quarter could come in around 9.5 million units, slightly below Street estimates of 9.8 million units. Apple seen unloading new MacBook Pros and (possibly) iMacs at WWDC! Being the exclusive U.S. provider for Apple's iPhone means that wireless carrier AT&T won't have to worry about a competing version of the device for rival cellular networks for at least half a decade. Apple's much heralded iPhone device may be made available as a prepaid handset, according to data recently culled from wireless carrier AT&T's internal account database. IBM has helped the PowerPC architecture regain some ground lost to Intel with the advent of a new supercomputer-class chip. Meanwhile, new anti-DRM advocate and iTunes partner EMI has agreed to be bought out by a private group. And hobbyists have put YouTube on Apple's network media device. AT&T on Monday confirmed plans to accelerate the re-branding of Cingular wireless stores under the AT&T umbrella ahead of Apple's iPhone roll-out, which the carrier is billing as "one of the most highly anticipated wireless products in recent history." Apple's exclusive CPU supplier has been busy prepping quad-core processor cost cuts, clearing lead from its next-generation architecture, and establishing a new flash partnership that could help future iPhones, iPods, and Macs. Apple's revised AirPort Extreme, introduced at Macworld Expo in January, offers several new features and significant improvements in wireless networking speed and reliability. Whether it is worth the upgrade price to move on up to the new 802.11n wireless technology depends upon the specific needs of potential buyers. Read all about it in our 4-page in-depth review. 2 reviews in just the first part is amazing!

Posted by Daniel Brusilovsky at 11:52 AM |  MAKE A COMMENT  

Wednesday, Jun 06, 2007

Apple Universe Episode #14 Part 3- LIVE at Aragon High School

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Apple Inc. on Thursday received the official go-ahead on its first ever mobile handset, as regulators for the Federal Communications Commission gave the iPod maker the green light to commence sales of the device in the United States.. According to FCC documents obtained by AppleInsider, the "GSM Cellular Telephone with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi" carries model number A1203 and FCC ID: BCGA1203. Exclusive: With the release of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard pushed back to October, Apple has bought itself more time to tie loose ends in the current Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger operating system and will put forth those fixes via its first "dot ten" software update in quite some time, AppleInsider has learned. According to those people familiar with the matter, the first pre-release builds of Mac OS X 10.4.10 began making the rounds in Cupertino earlier this month.

The Mac maker hopes to stabilize the software to the point where it can begin seeding copies of the software update externally to its thousands of Apple Developer Connection members as early as next week, those same people say. In keeping up with the trend towards thinner and lighter notebook models, Apple in a recent filing discloses methods for improving enclosure designs through parts that are structurally and electrically bonded together during the manufacturing process.

The technique, notes the Mac maker in a December 2006 continuation patent filing, offers an alternative approach to most existing notebook enclosures, which tend to be bogged down by weighty mechanical assemblies having parts that are screwed, riveted, snapped or otherwise fastened together at discrete points. Amazon offering discounts on old, new MacBook models. Amazon.com said Wednesday it plans to launch an online music store that will sell only DRM-free music tracks, a move experts are dismissing as a second-rate effort aimed at shadowing Apple's iTunes service. Apple Inc. has successfully patented an anti-theft safeguard for notebooks, phones, and other portable electronics that offers protection simply by sensing the outside world. An updated to Apple's MacBook line on Tuesday came bearing price reductions for Europeans. Meanwhile, Apple appears as if it will miss a self-imposed ship deadline for the new Final Cut Studio 2 software suite. And separately, the company has promised a software update to patch a chronic speaker glitch in Mac OS X. Apple said Tuesday that thirteen-time Grammy award winner Paul McCartney's new album, "Memory Almost Full" is available for digital pre-order beginning today exclusively on the iTunes Store. AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA have all in the past several days launched a new generation of video hardware, some of which will undoubtedly make its way into future Macs. Here's a brief run-through of the chipsets and what they bring to the table.

Posted by Daniel Brusilovsky at 3:20 PM |  MAKE A COMMENT  

Wednesday, Jun 06, 2007

Apple Universe Episode #14 Part 2- LIVE at Aragon High School

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In a pre-launch channel communications sales brief to its retail stores, wireless carrier AT&T has instructed employees not to form wait lists or conduct pre-sales for Apple's upcoming iPhone.
According to the internal document published at the BoyGeniusReport blog, the world's largest wireless carrier will soon provide its staffers with web based training, workbooks and other iPhone product overviews to help in preparation for next month's launch.
The memo also includes the following notes of interest:
* "The exact date has not been announced, specific dates should not be provided to customers."
* "Sales for the iPhone will be on a first come, first served basis.
* No wait lists of names will be taken and NO pre-selling is allowed."
* Two models of the iPhone will be available, a 4GB will retail at $499 and an 8GB will retail at $599."
* "If asked what the price will be, answer that the prices have been announced as $499 for the 4G and $599 for the 8G, respectively."
* "There should NOT be any additional speculation/discusson about pricing."
* "AT&T will be the only wireless carrier in the U.S. launching the iPhone and will have exclusivity for the foreseeable future." Vodafone may not be the only European wireless carrier under consideration for Apple's iPhone contract in Europe. Meanwhile, a prominent market research firm says video services like iTunes are just a "temporary flash" along the way to better alternatives. And it's official -- one Beatle is on his way to iTunes. Apple Inc.'s next big step into wireless may well be an integrated cellular broadband module, says one source -- but would have a unique spin on an established formula.
An unproven but seemingly credible source has told AppleInsider that a new wireless module is allegedly in the works for Apple that will deliver third-generation cellular Internet access in a future Mac notebook model. A DRM software firm has sent cease and desist letters to Apple Inc. as well as other top media software providers, accusing them of copyright violations by choosing not to run proprietary anti-ripping tools. At Apple's annual shareholders meeting on Thursday, chief executive Steve Jobs ran into some fresh sources of criticism and also commented on some new products and strategies, such as third-party iPhone application development and the future of the company's .Mac online services. Apple Inc.'s line of MacBook and MacBook Pro notebooks combined for nearly 10 percent of all notebook sales at U.S.-based retail stores during the month of March, while sales of iMacs also helped the Mac maker rank amongst the top five desktop manufacturers for the first time this year, according to just-released data from NPD Group. After being put on guard at his company's shareholders meeting, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs fired back with a defense of his controversial stock options. Apple Inc. strayed from making any material announcements during its shareholders meeting on Thursday, but did hint that it will offer video rentals through iTunes at some point in the future. Apple has released Pro Application Support 4.0 just as Hitachi hits a new storage capacity milestone with its 7200 RPM notebook drives. Meanwhile, Apple has confirmed plans for two more UK-based retail outlets. And one of Britain's Fab Four is said to be on his way to iTunes. Rumor: TBWA to create Apple's iPhone ad launch! Cooper-Hewitt, the design museum in New York, has just announced the winners of this year's Nation Design Awards and you might recognize a name of the list. Jonathan Ive, designer of such items as the iPod, the iMac, and the iPhone, has won this year's award for 'Product Design.' The designs for the iPod nano, Apple TV, the MacBook, and the iPhone seem to have cinched the win for him.
Kudos to you, Jonathan , and the whole team of designers at Apple. Apple Updates Popular MacBook:
Faster Intel Core 2 Duo Processors, 1GB of Memory and Larger Hard Drives Across the Line

Posted by Daniel Brusilovsky at 9:33 AM |  MAKE A COMMENT  

Tuesday, Jun 05, 2007

Apple Universe Episode #14 Part 1- LIVE at Aragon High School

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As an Apple blogger I have seen my fair share of rumors, it is my job to read and report about them after all, though I must admit that I am tired of them. The endless rumormongering is getting a little old, and a little ridiculous. That's why I enjoyed this list of the 10 Biggest Apple Rumors that never came true over at the Apple Blog. All your favorites are there:

* Disney to buy Apple (any day now!)
* Tablet Mac (not going to happen any time soon)
* Apple PDA (the iPhone will have to do)

The list goes on to list seven more perennial favorites on the rumor mill. Let us know your favorite Apple rumor in the comments, and tell us if you enjoy reading these rumors or not. We'd really like to know. Have you heard of Macitt? It is a Digg-like site that concentrates on Apple news only, none of that wacky Linux stuff or distasteful Windows tips to clutter up the site. Our friends at Macitt let us know that they are giving away a MacBook this month, and all you have to do is participate on the site. 3 stories, 3 comments, and 3 Macitts is your formula for getting a new MacBook (or at least being entered into the contest). The contest ends June 30th, so get Macitting while the getting is good.

Don't forget that TUAW is a great source for submissions to a variety of social news sites. I'm just saying. It is an interesting time to be a Mac user. More and more folks are seeing the light and picking up a Mac, perhaps to go with their iPods, and now you can even run Windows on a Mac. Boot Camp is great, but Boot Camp plus AppleScript plus Quicksilver is even better! This tutorial over at MacInstruct (love the logo by the way) shows you how to reboot your Mac into Windows using the awesomeness that is Quicksilver. I thought it only appropriate to feature the MLB Schedule widget. This widget gives you an at a glance look at your favorite team's schedule with a 5 day period. If the game has already played it shows you the score, otherwise you get the start time, the opponent, the location, and who is pitching.

MLB Schedule is a free download (and remember if you like to follow more than one ball club you can run multiple versions of the widget). This news may not excite too many folks out there, but I imagine one or two of you are interested in using a PowerMac or Mac Pro as a server. Doing that correctly means you need at least 2 ethernet ports but sometimes even that isn't enough. Luckily for our server wanting friends Small Tree Communications has just released their Single Port Copper Gigabit Ethernet Desktop Card for PCI Express Power Macs and the Mac Pro. This $99 PCI express card adds a single 10/100/1000 baseT ethernet port to your Power Mac or Mac Pro. Not too shabby. Not long ago Fortune let us know that Apple was the 6th most desirable place for MBAs to work. It would seem that undergrads have the same good taste that their graduate level brethren have. Universum conducted a poll asking undergraduates where they wanted to work after graduation and our favorite computer/electronics company came in at number 3.

Other companies on the top 25 include Google, Disney, and the Peace Corps. Have you ever opened up a Finder window in column view and found yourself confronted with truncated file names? It's quite annoying. Here's a quick fix.

At the bottom of the column, you'll see two short, vertical "pipes" (pictured above). Double click the pipes, and the window will instantly expand to accommodate the longest file name in the window. Hooray!

This is another one of those “secret, buried-in-a-vault” killer tips that addresses something Mac OS X users have complained about: The file sizes of PDFs that Mac OS X creates are sometimes too big (vs. Adobe’s Acrobat PDFs). believe it or not, there’s a way to get smaller PDFs. Here’s how: launch TextEdit, then choose Print from the File menu. From the PDF pop-up menu in the bottom-left corner of the dialog, choose Compress PDF. That’s it. It’ll compress the PDF and call it a day.

However, if you’re charging by the hour, and let’s pretend you are, you have a wonderful time-consuming option: Choose Print from the File menu, and from the second Presets pop-up menu choose ColorSync. From the Quartz Filter menu that appears, choose Add Filters. Click on the three-oval icon in the top-left corner of the dialog that appears, click on the filter named Reduce File Size, and then click-and-hold on the arrow button to the right of the filter and choose Duplicate Filter. This creates an unlocked filter you can edit.

Now click on the triangle to the left of the duplicate filter to show its options; this is where you choose what you want. I recommend clicking on the arrow to the left of Image Compression and dragging the magic slider that lets you control the amount of JPEG compression your PDF images receive. For smaller file sizes, drag the Quality Slider toward Minimum. Now go back to TextEdit and in the Print dialog, choose Colorsync from the second Presets pop-up menu, choose your new filter from the Quartz Filter pop-up menu and click Print. Apple Inc. is looking to patent a design for a handheld device (or iPod) that displays its output on a small front-side display screen but receives input through a larger touch- and force-sensitive back-side interface, I have discovered. Apple Inc. may be faced with an uphill battle in its patent litigation with Burst.com after the courts issued a Markman Claim Construction Memorandum that largely sided with its opponent.

Posted by Daniel Brusilovsky at 1:29 PM |  1 comments