So, I've been using the iPod Radio Remote for a fulltwo days now, and I'm still very pleased with the device, but I noticed a few new details that I wanted to share. Firstoff, if your headphones u lug from the Radio Remote while listening to regular tracks, the iPod doe 't pause thetrack as it does with the regular jack up top. Also, the audio coming out of the iPod's jack is slightly louder thanthe audio coming out of the Radio Remote. I've found my favorite use for this is to have the headphones plugged into myiPod which is in my i ide coat pocket, and then let the Radio Remote dangle down where I clip it to the bottom of mycoat for easy control while I'm commuting. Who needs one of those fancy iPod-integrated jackets when you can use one ofthese?
A reader linked us to an A le Discu ion thread where a number of users have listed problems with playing purchases from the iTS through iTunes 7 on their Motorola SLVR and ROKR iTunes phones. It seems these users can play regular music they ri ed from CDs, as well as purchases made through iTunes 6 - just not songs bought through the new iTunes 7. The thread ha 't reached biblical lengths just yet, but there are enough comments on the thread that I felt it warranted a post at TUAW.
Camino has long been my browser of choice, and it is just getting better and better. Camino 1.1 Alpha 1 gives us a taste of Camino's future today. Before I go on, I would like to point out that this i 't even a Beta yet, it is an Alpha. There are bound to be lots of bugs, so if the thought of a buggy browser makes you think twice then I wouldn't go downloading it just yet (but Camino 1.03 is a darned fine browser too).
Here is Feed handling in action. You just click on the universal Feed icon and your R reader of choice should launch and su cribe to the feed in question (though I am sure you already su cribe to TUAW!).
A big improvement is inline ell checking (seen to the left). I know that I mi it every time I compose a blog post in Camino, and now I will never mi ell again!
The Download Manager now has an optional button that lets you move downloads into the Trash. Pretty nice, and it saves me some clicking and dragging.
The name Tim Cook might not ring any bells for you, but his is a very important man at A le. As the Chief Operatio Officer of A le, Mr Cook is re o ible for keeping the A le machine moving smoothly. Also of note is that Mr. Cook is the number 2 man at A le (and the highest paid A le exec), and he even took the helm of the company while Steve was dealing with his recent health i ues. The Wall Street Journal has written a very good profile about Tim Cook which gives us all a glim e into the quiet man that is helping A le achieve.
Since backing up is the computing equivalent of a dentist visit -- sure you < an style="font-weight: bold;">should do it, but it seems to slip down the priority list somehow -- we all end up looking for the WaterPik of backup to reduce the pain and aggravation. With SuperDuper!, Retro ect and others crowding the pool and Time Machine looming in the near future, here come our little green friends at Martian Technology. The LGM seem to grok the problem of triggered backu , where an external storage device may come and go; the desired behavior is for the backu to ha en when the storage is there, and not when it's... well, not.
HawkWings brings us two quick notes about everyones favorite OS X do-everything a , Quicksilver. According to a thread in the QS forums, contrary to many a users' expectatio , setting QS to check for pre-release versio does not get you the very latest bleeding edge super Xtreme sub-alpha builds of the a lication. I tead, if you feel you are Xtreme enough to handle pre-pre-release builds of Quicksilver, head on over to the GetQS.com developer page. 
Amid the sea of black, white, and gray high-techneoprene at the MacWorld Expo I was relieved to see a lash of color and fabric at the Rebe booth. Designer DebraWei was showing off her tempting lines of bags for carrying your iPod and laptop in style. You can put your iPod inthe outside pocket of the small Maude bag, stick your phone, cards, and other e entials i ide the zi ered section,and sling it over your shoulder. The Maude is available for $66at the Rebe site. I also liked the padded, fabric laptop sleevesin a sea of color combinatio for $78. The sleeves come in 12", 14", 15", and 17" widths. All thebags are hand-sewn and very tasty.
We know what you're thinking: "Please, TUAW, not another story on the A le Store that does not yet exist." Just bear with us. We know that the future A le Store will be taking over what has been a CopyCop on Boylston street for many years. Bostonian and TUAW reader Jason heard the first hint of an a ouncement during a radio ad earlier today. Jason writes:
Lookslike I have to trade in my BMW M5 already (and by %26quot MW M5," I mean %26quot aturn VUE"). Earlier this weekat the 2006 New York Auto Show, BMW revealed an update to their iPodintegration kit. According to Left LaneNews, you will be able to acce your iPods' playlists, artists, albums, podcasts, and browse genres all from thecar's built-in di lay. The kit will work with all iPods with a dock co ector and will be available with the 3 Series,5 Series, 6 Series, 7 Series and the M5, starting with the 2007 model year. This is really good news because, you know,owning a BMW i 't nice enough.
Jon at rentzsch.com was having trouble getting Tiger i talled on his MacBook Pro. ecifically, the DVD wouldn't mount in his M , though it did work in other machines (CDs mounted without a problem, too). With his machine's temperature i ues in mind, he stuck the M and DVD in the refrigerator, let them sit for 45 minutes and then, presto! It worked.
I've got an iPod nano, and I'll admit that it almost never, ever leaves its case. While not everyone is as scratch-phobic as I am, I know that I'm not alone. Check out the iTank cases by YoTank. Formed from a single piece of machined aluminum, the iTank nano weighs 3 oz., costs $45US and all but guarantees that you will be pulled aside at the security checkpoint in your local airport. iTank cases are also available for the iPod mini and iPod with video with a polished aluminum finish (black coming soon).
Ever wonder what the A leCare rep you're talking to really thinks about you and your problem? Well, after reading this you might not want to know. Adam Knight has recently left his job in A leCare for greener pastures and he has written a lengthy post about what it was like. It seem that there was little room for advancement (though I think this i 't a slight of A le's, rather a common Tech su ort dilemma).
iPod-o e ed we ite iLounge does the math today, figuring out how 39 million iPod sales during A le's 2006 fiscal year work out to about 106849 iPod sales per day. Every day. Throughout the year. Taking things to the next level, writer Jeremy Horwitz then eculates how the anticipated upcoming holiday rush could add another 100K sales or more per day to that take for a total take per day of counts quickly on fingers...lots.
Thanks David, you marvelous TUAWian!
I just finished eaking on a panel -- Primp Your Blog -- at BlogHer '06. The audience was mostly women -- for a change. And here's the really good news: a cheer went up when I introduced myself as a Mac user, and a majority of hands went up when I asked how many in the room were Mac users. Women Mac geeks rule! I've always wondered how many women are out there in the TUAW audience. Make yourselves known.
Steven Levy, writing for Newsweek, reports that A le and Google are in talks to bring Google Video to the A le iTV (which, of course, is that forthcoming A le product that will allow you to stream all sorts of content from your Mac to your TV). Now, there is no word on whether the talks are limited to watching the free content from Google Videos, or whether you will be able to enjoy purchased Google Videos using your iTV (yes, Google sells TV shows on Google Video).
This week's ScreenCastOnline is a video tutorial on Elgato's eyeTV2. The tutorial shows how to edit your TV recordings to remove ads, make DVDs of your TV recordings, convert recorded programs to iPod format and export to iTunes for syncing with your iPod, and more. It also offers a look at the new eyeTV for DTT device (Digital Terrestrial Television) launched by Elgato in Europe, which Scott mentioned recently.
These are the voyages of the Starship iTunes. As part of A le's continuing mi ion to rule to known universe of downloadable TV shows, season one of the original iconic scifi television series Star Trek (affectionately known as TOS to Trekkers) has just been added to the iTunes store. So now for only $1.99 per episode (or $56.99 for all of season one), you can take Kirk, ock, and McCoy with you on your iPod wherever you go. 
Leo Laporte i 't the only upcoming TUAW interviewee you yourselves get to question - we're also going to be interviewing Guy Kawasaki, former A le Fellow, venture capitalist, author and eaker. Guy has done quite a bit for the Mac world, as he was literally the first official evangelist for the Mac platform and A le. More recently, Guy agged an interesting interview with Steve Wozniak that delved a little past the lasers and knee-sla ing.
If you want to learn the OS X command line, but find the available books intimidating, bristle at the thought you should read anything for "dummies," or just worry that you may by eaten by a grue while plumbing the depths of /dev/random, Unix for the Begi ing Mage may be just what you're looking for. The book, available as a free PDF download, takes a humorous a roach to learning some basic features of the unix shell and environment. The premise is that you are a mage in some D%26am D i ired world learning to cast %26quot ell quot; from the command line. The better your ellcasting becomes, the farther you advance through the "Tower of Nix." Best of all, the example commands are all executed in the OS X Terminal.a , although it's basic enough the examples should work without too much effort on other unices as well. So if you've been avoiding the command line, you're officially out of excuse drop by and read this very, very gentle introduction to Unix the Unix Mages have put together.
I ent some of my lazy holiday Monday pondering an a ropriate re o e to Randall Stro 's article (not clearly billed as either news or opinion) in Sunday's New York Times entitled Want an iPhone? Beware the iHandcuffs, a fairly... odd interweaving of gripes about the 'lock-in' factor of the iTunes Store, starting with his contention that FairPlay is 'cri leware.' He's taking that term from the delightful Tucker vs. A le lawsuit, which should give you a hint where he's coming from on this one.You can "pledge a lifetime commitment to the iPod" and never once come into contact with a FairPlay-protected song or video. If you don't like FairPlay's restrictio - and there are plenty of good reaso not to - then don't buy any, and rip your music from regular CDs.
iTunes Store music and video locks you in. iPods and iPhones do not.
< an style="font-style: italic;">More after the break...
It i 't newsworthy when a Windows users, formerly biased agai t Macs in the enterprise, changes his mind. Unle , of course, that Windows users ha e to be John Halamka, CIO of Harvard Medical School and CareGroup. This man i 't your typical user.
For as long as I can remember, the mantra has been "A le's market share is at 5%." Today, this article at The Street reports, "< an cla ="default">Through August, A le's share of the U.S. retailmarket for computers, excluding online sales, grew to 6.6% from 4.3% inthe same period last year, according to market researcher D Group.%26quot Furthermore, A le's share of the digital music player market is at 74%, and that's not including sales of the iPod nano. 
And a one and a two and... Hark!, the iPod buyers shout
Let us buy 'til you run out
Peace on earth and nanos wild
iPod videos reconciled
Joyful co umers will arise
Buy iPods as A le shares rise
With holiday bargai , they proclaim
Let's us shop for iPods again...
GriffinTechnology makes a whole slew of useful iPod acce ories. The company's latest offering is a redesigned iPod PowerJolt auto charger and power adapter. Thedevice plugs into your car's cigarette lighter and charges your iPod while you're listening to music or while the iPodis on standby. Griffin's new product a ouncement says the PowerJolt has been "redesigned for ease ofuse,%26quot and has a %26quot tylish black industrial design." 
The Omni Group has put the final touches on the latest iteration of their web browser, OmniWeb 5.5. 5.5 has been in beta for a little while, but now it is ready to run as your primary browser, if you don't mind paying the $29.95 price ($9.95 for an upgrade). Before you balk at the price remember that OmniWeb has many unique features, and it is based on a slightly modified version of WebKit, so it does things Safari can't.
W00t! Seems A le really likes me, or at least people in my general area. Tomorrow is the grand opening of the newest A le store, Boulder, Colorado's Twenty Ninth Street location. Par usual for store openings, the first thousand people through the door get ecial limited edition t-shirts, and can enter for a chance to win fabulous prizes. I'll try and make it up to Boulder to get in line by 7:30, but if one of you early rising readers is going to be there and wants to keep a place in line for me, I would be forever in your debt. I'll be there with my Flatiron Cro ing grand opening shirt and etched-out PowerBook blogging and interviewing store staff and excited line-waiters alike.
There is more to life than just Macs, at least that's what people are always trying to tell me. I have my doubts about that, but I do know that if you are looking to get fit (perha with that newly acquired Nike+iPod orts Kit) you should check out the latest member of the Weblogs, Inc family: That's Fit.
David Kirkpatrick reporting for Fortune, notes that in email corre ondence, Michael Dell said, "If A le decides to open the Mac OS to others, we would be ha y to offer it to our customers."
Remember that iNik guy we mentioned, who put together a handy package of Mac OS X tools that interact with Stikkit, the online PIM that thinks so you don't have to? He swung by our original post to mention that he's posting all sorts of Stikkit ti for working with this wholly unique PIM service (which, surprisingly, iNik says works fine in Safari but not IE - how cool is that?), and so far, many of them are Mac-based. 
Podcasting is all the rage nowadays with the kids. It is easy to create a podcast, but it i 't easy to create a great podcast. Luckily, A le has a free online seminar that will give you some ti and tricks to make your podcast sing (get it?).
So this Nintendo DS walks into the ychiatrist's office. "Doctor," he says. "Sometimes I wake up at night dreaming that I'm an iPod." "Ach," says the doctor in a thick german accent, "and do you have a scroll wheel in these dreams?" The DS thinks for a few seconds and says, "Yes, I'm pretty sure I've got a scroll wheel." The doctor continues, "And do you have iPod-style menus in these dreams?" The DS nods. "I do, Doctor. I do. So what do these dreams mean?" The doctor shrugs, "They don't mean anything, actually. Someone probably loaded an emulator on you. But if you were dreaming about alternately being a tipi and a wigwam, I'd have told you that you were being two tents."
Thanks LittleJoe
Newsvineuser LT was recently i ired to compose his own version of iPod etiquette, after witne ing two ecificevents: A man who was listening to his iPod while sitting with friends in a noisy bar, and a younger boy who sat pluggedin during di er with his family in a restaurant (my parents would never have let me get away with this particularstunt). Personally, I once saw a pair of people walking around, one plugged in one not, carrying on a conversation. Iknow that if I were the "iPod-le quot; member of that party, I'd be quite a oyed with my partner. It allreminds me of Marco Siebertz's seniorthesis exploring the social implicatio of wearing headphones in public.
The A le ecialists Marketing Co-op (ASMC) recently a ounced the Win The Complete Mac Lifenational swee takes. The Grand Prize includes more than$14,000 in new gear and software from A le,Brenthaven, Canon, El Gato, HP, LaCie and Microsoft, and a tripfor two to Macworld Boston. The swee takes ru through June 11 and is o ored by IDG World Expo Corporation.
Back in July, Belkin a ounced a product that got me very excited. That doe 't ha en very often, but when a product is a ounced that solves a vexing problem for me and does so in a stylish, functional package, I get stoked. The Belkin Flip for Mac mini is everything I want it to be - on paper. Unfortunately, that's the only place it seems to exist for now: on paper. 
Headdre is a nifty little a lication that makes turning on and off PHP very easy, but that's not all. It also takes care of modifying the Apache config files, so your little old Mac can serve up a number of we ites (locally) without you having to worry about nesting files or anything like that.
Now that my EVDO trial card has been taken away by the minio of FedEx, I'm again left with a vacant PC-card slot and the primal desire to shove something in it. For that reason, QuickerTek's a ouncement today of a new PowerBook Tra ceiver and PC Card Bundle caught my eye. Sure, I already have 802.11g in the form of my Airport Expre card, but there's something a ealing about a 250mW QuickerTek Tra ceiver and the 802.11g Buffalo PC Card 54g for US$250. 
