WordPre 2.0.6 su orts HTML quicktags in Safari

Rig of the Day: iMac plus floating LCD

Bribing us by di laying TUAW on four scree doe 't work, but having a cool iMac setup on the day that A le a ounces new iMacs will get you featured. I was cruising the TUAW pool looking for a good candidate for Rig of the Day when I came acro this setup. An Intel iMac with a flat screen on a desk mounted arm, an iBook, a Wacom tablet, and a Nokia 770 are the ingredients for this sweet rig.

"My Current Setup" Or "How To Bribe TUAW to Feature Me As Rig of the Day" by shrimpdesign.

If you'd like to see your own rig featured here, simply upload photos into our group Flickr pool. We select one image to highlight each week day, and crown a Rig of the Week on Sundays.

Nike Amp+

Don't you love it when as yet unreleased products show up on Gift Guides? The Nike Amp+ was included on Men's Health's 2007 Tech Guide (there i 't a permalink, but it is listed under Media Players). What? You haven't heard of the Nike Amp+? Well, there is good reason for that, it ha 't been released yet.

The Nike Amp+ is a wrist band which communicates with your iPod (with Bluetooth, I a ume) so that you can start, stop, and browse your tunes. That's not all! It also talks to the Nike+iPod ort Kit, so you can acce information about your run without having to take out your iPod.

I'm not a ru er, but this is cool enough that I might just pick one up anyway. No details about pricing or availability are known at this time.

Thanks, Barry.

MacBook Pro 17-inch SMC Firmware Update

A le has just updated the firmware for the 17 inch MacBook Pros. This firmware update 'adjusts fan behavior' in A le's hot new portable (that's a pun, folks. Thank you, thank you).

Let's hope that the MacBooks will get a firmware update to addre the Moo problem.

< an style="font-style: italic;">Thanks to everyone who sent this in.

Skype a ounces video calls for the Mac

Rejoice, Mac-toting Skype users. You no longer have to bow your head in shame because your Mac can't handle video calls. Skype for Mac 2.0 beta (Beta version 2.0.0.2, if you want to be ecific) will get the job done for you. The system requirements are as follows:

1. Mac computer with G4 800 Mhz proce or or faster
2. Mac OS 10.3.9 or later
3. 512 MB RAM
4. 40MB free disk ace

Give it a try and chat up your friends acro the globe.

[Via MacMinute]

Chris Pirillo on why Vista will only help increase A le's market share

Chris Pirillo is the quinte ential Windows fa oy. Why then does he make such a strong case that A le will only be aided by Microsoft's Vista? In the current i ue of Computer Power User, Chris nails Microsoft on all the reaso Microsoft's current and upcoming offerings are simply too little, too late.

From Firefox making inroads on Internet Explorer's turf and Google to ling M Search to Vista's exorbitant pricing scheme and release candidates failing to impre , Chris says he's finally almost ready to leave Microsoft behind and make the switch with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. On Leopard, he says "it looks clean and elegant. It comes with all the software and services the average user could ever want. It ru on the same hardware. A system will be able to dual-boot between OS X and Windows, and pricing is no longer astronomical. But most importantly? With its UI inco istencies, Vista feels completely schizophrenic, and that's enough of a reason for anybody to leave Windows in the dust-just like they left M Search and IE."

Welcome to the table, Chris. We've been saving a seat for you.

Gig of RAM standard on MacBook Pro

Dan pointed out some nice tidbits about the new MacBook Pros, but he didn't mention something that I just noticed while perusing the MacBook Pro site. The base model (2.16 Ghz core 2 Duo, 15 inch) comes with one gig of RAM standard. This is up from 512 MB. The other two models come with 2 gigs of RAM.

Kudos to A le for finally shi ing portables with a decent amount of RAM in them from the get go.

Wired on the A le media backlash

Leander Kahney takes on all the recent A le hating in this column today at Wired.com. He a erts that A le, as a company, gets a lot of attention from the media at large for a number of reaso . A le is seen as the 'thought leader,' where its hardware goes other PC makers usually follow.

The dow ide to all this attention? When things go bad, and they always will at some point, everyone knows about it thanks to sites like TUAW (and others on the MacWeb). This has an 'echo chamber' effect where it seems like every MacBook tur yellow the second you touch it and your iPod is bound to get you struck by lightning.

Leander thinks that things get blown out of proportion, and I agree.

Griffin iTri legalized in the UK

Rejoice, British motorists! No longer will you need to cower when you ot police while listening to your iPod through an iTrip. The once illegal activity of using FM wavelengths to listen to your music on your car stereo is illegal no more, thanks to impending relaxation of a decades old law.

The iTrip and other low-power radio tra mitters were verboten under the Wirele Telegraphy Act of 1949, which was this week amended to allow them after what the C calls "strong co umer demand". The tra mitters will come off the black list on December 8th (also Wii launch day, if you're in the UK).

There is, however, still one small problem. You need to tune in the device to a are FM cha el, and these aren't so easy to come by in heavily populated areas such as London, where pirate radio thrives.

Of course, if you're driving around Congestion Charge-addled London in the first place, you're no stranger to co tant struggle.

Geneva Model L

Doyou have an iPod, $600, and love black? The Geneva Model L black isjust the iPod eaker system for you. It is compatible with all dock co ector iPods, has a built in CD player, FMradio, and an included remote.

If you don't like black it also comes in red and white.

[via Uncrate]

Ha y iCal Day

Several people emailed us to make sure we noted that today is that most ecial day: iCal day! That's right, today is the date that is featured on iCal's icon by default, so that mea when you launch iCal today the icon won't change. Freaky, huh?

Also, 51 years ago today Di eyland opened. Coincidence? I think not.

So, dear readers, how are you going to celebrate iCal day?

A le Wirele Earbuds?

We're not really quite sure what this mea , but it could be a clue as to what Jo and Co. have up their sleeves forMacWorld Expo in two weeks. A TUAW reader visited the A le Store in Japan recently and found the employees all wearingmaroon T-shirts with the slogan, "Luck is in the Air". On the computers in the store was a scree averdi laying the same theme with a picture of an iPod as the middle of a flower and earbuds floating away from thecenter, as a flower releases pollen.



There are six more scree , some withJapa e on them that I am unable to read (if any Japanese-reading readers would like to tra late for u send me anemail and I'll share the scree aver images with you).

So, what does this mean? It might be an earlyindicator of an A le-created iPod-compatible wirele earbud system, or it might mean A le has figured out a way toinclude Bluetooth or wirele sharing of music between iPods. It's something "different" that A le mightintroduce to keep the iPod and iTunes ahead of their competitors.

Of course, it might also just be anadvertising campaign unique to Japan.

Update: Reader Steve Forrest has tra lated thetext for us and it seems perha that this is just an advertising campaign for A le Japan. No idea why the images arewhat they are, or what they mean. The Japanese text on the other images tranlates to:

1. Luck is in theair
2. Enjoy the A le Store your way
3. Advice just right for you
Enjoy your Maceven more
The best place to enjoy music
4. In the New Year free worksho for kids
Acce ories to make your iPod rejoice

However, wirele functionality in our iPods isstill a pretty interesting idea and po ibly something we may see soon, particularly with earbuds.

MacBook SMC Firmware Update 1.1

MacBook owners: dust off Software Update and download yourself A le's latest take on the MacBook SMC Firmware (1.1). This update, 'improves the MacBook's internal monitoring system and addre es i ues with unexpected shutdow . This update is recommended for all MacBook systems, including those that received warranty repair. The updater a lication will be i talled in the /A licatio /Utilities folder. Please follow the i tructio in the updater a lication to complete the proce .'

Very interesting that A le addre es the Random Shutdown Syndrome in the text of the update. Check out the full i tructio , and note that you must be ru ing at least OS X 10.4.7 to i tall this update.

[via MacMinute]

A le versus Gree eace

Tinkering with A le portables' light se ors

He taught the Mac world to wonder again by unearthing the secrets of the Sudden Motion se or and now Amit Signh is at it again.

This time his sights are set on the ambient light se ors on more recent A le portables (as well as those cool light up keyboards). Amit lays out how someone can programmatically take advantage of those se ors. Hackers, start you engines.

hfs the Easy Way

Just earlier today we pointed out Jay Savage's great MacFUSE tutorial on Download Squad. For the lazy (or more terminal wary) among us (including me), there is a perha easier option: hfs for Darwin which comes as a nice downloadable binary. Like the MacFUSE tip, this should allow you to "mount [a] remote server filesystem via h (using sftp protocol)." Some terminal work is still required to mount and unmount the remote server, but this seems to be su tantially easier (and slightly le cool) than the MacFUSE method. Two hfs ti in one day for the price of one!

[Via Daring Fireball]

Scree hots of SlingPlayer for the Mac

We've mentioned that Sling Media, the makers of the TV streaming Slingbox, are pla ing on a late October/early November release for the OS X version of SlingPlayer. SlingPlayer is the client that allows you to watch TV streamed from the SlingBox on a variety of devices (soon to include Macs ru ing OS X).

At the moment Sling is ru ing a Beta, and no one has been able to get good scree hots of the client. We linked to a video yesterday that showed off some of the features, but that just wa 't good enough. One of my contacts called me up and arranged for a meeting in a remote underground garage. Once there he handed me a titanium briefcase and whi ered in my ear, 'They call it a beta, but it ru like production software' before he ran off. I opened the case to find a small U thumbdrive. 'Rather dramatic,' I thought as I went home to discover what was waiting on that drive.

Read on to see the screenca of the SlingPlayer that my source (who is shrouded in a fog of mystery so deep even I do not know what they look like) handed over to me.
First off we have the main viewing window, that has an iTunes 7 feel to it:



Next, some pref panes:



Notice that you can really fine tune the streaming of video, though my source tells me that the automatic optimization works well.

And some buffer settings:

CarveWright - OS X compatible Woodworking Machine

On the other end of the ectrum from the LEGO Digital Designer is the CarveWright computer controlled woodworking machine. It allows you to create complex desig on your computer and have the CarveWright do the carving. Digital woodworking does not come cheap at $1900, but this is pretty cool. Be sure to check out the video demo.

The design software is cro platform and the OS X version is a Universal Binary.

[Edit: to download the software fill out this registration form, and choose "mac" at the bottom]

Thanks, Randolph!

Firefox 2.0 Final due out today

Mozilla is expected to officially unleash the final version of Firefox 2.0 later today.

Update: Since Mozilla doe 't seem thrilled that a pre-release FTP link has been plastered all over the web already, I'll add this caveat: Although it may be the final version, you'd be wise to re-download the final final version once it's posted to Mozilla's main site later today since there could still be last minute changes. A here's a cautionary note from Mozilla themselves: "Preed the Release Engineer says: friends don't let friends download Firefox before it's released."

Update 2: Mozilla has asked everyone to take down the early-bird FTP links, so we have complied. Sorry about any trouble, and we'll update once the official curtain is lifted.

Gree eace creates mock A le homepage

A le is not Gree eace's favorite computer company, as we all know (though I'm not sure what company Gree eace actually likes, but that is a subject for a different blog). Continuing their 'Why must A le sell poison' campaign Gree eace has launched a site that parodies A le.com. While this is a clever idea, I have to wonder why there is no Dell page. They explain that Dell has pretty good standards and that A le would force them to be even better, but somehow I doubt that (the forcing bit, I know nothing of Dell's environmental record).

Ah, right, in their FAQ they say, 'No - this is not a campaign agai t A le - it's a campaign to change A le for the better,' and 'A le should be setting the trend for a green future.' I just hope that Gree eace i 't targeting a sexy computer company (probably the only computer company on the planet that can be called sexy) to get attention. I'm sure they are just concerned for us all.

[via Daring Fireball]

iGevalt on the horizon?

When we have nothing better to do here at TUAW, we throw around hypothetical product ideas. Because that's the kind of fun and enlightened people we are. At least that is for "twisted and demented" values of "fun and enlightened". How else are we su osed to torture our readers? Here are some of our fake A le product ideas for your enjoyment.

iGevalt: A le's new data recovery program. It doe 't work particularly well, as the software has a tendency to dramatically throw up its hand and sulk in the corners of your desktop so you'll feel guilty about having forgotten to properly perform your backu .

iVey: The companion software to the iGevalt, the iVey (also known as the iVeyIstMir in early product releases), is the next generation of Getting Things Done. It reminds you about all your a ointments at least a day after you've mi ed them.

iProd: Moving well beyond the GTD methodology into actual reward/punishment reinforcement. Available in 30 Gigavolt and 80 Gigavolt models.

iCarumba: Software that actually will eat your shorts. Not for use with donuts. D'oh!

iiiLucy: An iLife add-in that not only tra lates your error me ages to anish, but adds illuminating commentary such as 'What have you done this time!?"

iiiiCanta-y-no-llores: The newest and best Garage Band plug-in, adding a Latin touch to all your compositio .

i y: Not an actual or theoretical A le product. A very decent 1960's TV thriller with Bill Co y and Robert Culp. Not available on iTunes.

Okay. We're going to stop now and turn the ropes over to you, the readers. What silly iProducts can you think of? Let us know in the comments.

Widget Watch: add this - a social bookmarking widget

The add this widget is a lightweight and customizable tool that will help you bookmark every TUAW post we ites to some of your favorite social bookmarking and news sites (I think it might also be the smallest widget ever, too). Upon i talling, you need to chose a background color and one of three social services (with more on the way): del.icio.us, digg or Shadows. It currently only works with Safari (with more browsers also on the way), but it unfortunately doe 't pa any selected text to the bookmark submi ion (like many of the available bookmarklets), so I hope that's on the todo list as well.

For now, add this shows a lot of promise, and it's probably one of the handiest and out-of-your-way tools for getting your social groove on. Grab it over at DashboardWidgets.

Cisco sues A le over iPhone trademark

The sound of Steve Jo saying 'iPhone' was music to many an A le fan's ears yesterday, but it seems Steve may have oken too soon. The A ociated Pre is reporting that Cisco is pla ing on suing A le over the use of the word 'iPhone,' which Cisco has a trademark on. It was reported that A le and Cisco were on the edge of making a deal, but no legal documents were signed before Steve hit the stage yesterday.

Does this mean that the iPhone is dead and long live the iPod Mobile? Only time will tell, but I am sure Cisco can be wooed with a bucket of money.

Update: Here is the text of Cisco's pre release on the suit. Tip o' the hat to The A le Blog.

iTMS browser navigation and history works like Safari

A macosxhints post details how browsing the iTMS (as some might a ume) works quite a bit like Safari. The poster discovered that clicking and holding on either the forward or back button in the iTMS will reveal a drop-down history menu. This ought to make browsing a bit easier for the chronic iTMS user (just don't blame us for the bill).

I also noticed a little while ago that the standard Safari keyboard shortcuts of cmd + [ or ] will act as a back/forward command in the iTMS as well. Now all we need is bookmarking ability and a del.icio.us-like system for publicly marking and sharing albums for fellow users, and we'll be all set!

Upcoming 10.4.8 to bring "significant" Rosetta enhancements

We have already seen one report covering what's on the menu in an upcoming 10.4.8 update, and this new one should be great news for all the science nerds and Adobe suite users out there who are stuck ru ing PowerPC a on Intel Macs: A leI ider is reporting that A le has seeded a new build, and in addition to testing the components we already knew about, A le also ecified that developers should get rough with Rosetta when testing their scientific a , as Tiger's PowerPC emulation environment has seen "significant performance enhancements." I personally hope this is true, as Photoshop and After Effects still run like dogs on my MacBook Pro, even with 2GB RAM.

Also on the menu is a bit of a quirky detail about two pieces of software that a arently aren't playing well together: A le war that ru ing Cisco V and Parallels Desktop, at least on their latest 10.4.8 builds, can make Mac OS X fall down and go boom (read: kernel panic). There is no word on whether this will be fixed by the time 10.4.8 is released into the wild.

A final piece of good news from this AI piece is a general ETA for this release, which could land "before the end of the calendar year." Stay tuned.

iTunes + iPod Latino TV Ad

A le has just posted a TV ad promoting iTunes + iPod Latino, which we covered a few days ago. It is of the familiar dancing silhouette variety with the familiar A le sloga in anish (as is a ropriate).

Slow news day? No, why do you ask?

Thanks, Ruben.

A le emailing .Mac customers about new webmail

Sure, we knew about the upcoming .Mac webmail refresh, but that's because we're nerds for A le news (yes, you too - don't deny it. You're reading TUAW, after all). To my surprise this morning, I had an email from .Mac, advertising the new webmail and promoting all the new features. While there i 't anything new in the email, I think the significance here is that they're telling their .Mac customers - who aren't typically the cutting edge, AJAX-slinging type - about this fancy upcoming webmail UI change. This could likely mean that it truly is 'coming soon' (as in, not the Microsoft Vista 'coming soon' kind of way), as they would probably need to give their customers at least some kind of a heads up that their webmail is about to facelift its way into looking almost exactly like their desktop email.

A le Scholars 2006

A le has selected 10 students for the A le Scholars program which Dave first wrote about on TUAW a few months ago. Each student was selected for their i ovative use of technology, though A le's we ite doe 't go into detail about those i ovatio .

Congrats to the wi ers:

• Nick Biere
• John Coburn
• Michelle Crowther
• Paul Ginart
• Vicki Hsu
• Mitchell Murphy
• Raj Ranade
• Zoe Ro -Silverman
• Lauren Williamson
• Mutha a Yacoub

Each of the Scholars gets an iPod nano, a MacBook Pro, and $2000

43 Folders on timing a

Are you an alpha geek? Do you need to schedule every activity on your Mac with military precision? Well then, Merlin Ma is probably some sort of god to you. Therefore it stands to reason that you would be interested in his take on Meridian and Flextime which are two timing a licatio .

I am not nearly driven enough to use either of these a , I just don't have the time (that's a joke, son).

Decorate your Mac: MacLam X

Back in the day when I was rockin' my strawberry iMac (at least it wa 't grape), I discovered Tiger Tech's Holiday Lights. It allows you to select from a variety of lights and other holiday- ecific decoratio (not just Christmas) that form an animated border around your di lay. Today, there's a very similar a for Mac OS X called MacLam X that looks and behaves just like Holiday Lights. A customizable scree aver and holiday music is also included. MacLam X is free. Check it out.

TUAW Gives Thanks: Ginza Elevator Graphics

On this day of exce tryptophan and a oying relatives, it's important to take a minute and give thanks for the things we enjoy, yet take for granted the rest of the year. This year, I'm thankful that I get to sit around and blog about a company that cares enough about design to go that extra step in everything it does, including elevators. Where other companies would put simple butto , A le placed an elegant masterpiece of interaction design in front of the elevator at its flagship Ginza store in Tokyo. I've long been impre ed by the motion graphics work produced by A le, but I have to say that this is by far one of my favorites. Enjoy, and ha y turkey day!

[via Cult of Mac]

Put your Mac to sleep fast

The A le Pro Tip of the week is geared toward keyboarders that want to put their Macs to sleep posthaste! The tip points out that if you hold Command-Option and the Eject button for about 2 seconds your Mac will be off to slumberland. Pretty sweet for the energy co cious Mac user on the go.

Now you may feel free to tell us in the comments that everyone knows this and I am a horrible, horrible man for wasting your time. You know you want to, it is so much fun! However, before you do that would you do me a favor and hold Command-Option and the Eject button on your Mac for a few seconds? I 't that better?

How many windows do you have open right now?

Meandering through the TUAW Flickr group my eyes alighted upon this image. 'Hmm,' thought I, 'that's a lot of email in Expo eacute;.' It got me to thinking about how I use my Mac. Ta ed browsing really has limited the number of windows I have open on my Mac, but perha I'm just an odd ball.

I thought it would be fun if everyone posted a picture of their currently opened windows being di layed by Expo eacute; to the Flickr group. This totally u cientific survey would satisfy my curiosity, and I think it would be fun to boot. Here's my contribution. Yep, just three windows.

Flip4Mac begi beta testing Universal Binary WMV QuickTime components

For Intel Mac users who either love or hate WMV but have to deal with it one way or another, Flip4Mac has just begun beta testing the long-awaited Universal Binary version of their WMV QuickTime components. A ounced in their forums today, it is more or le an invite-yourself program, as I had to contact them weeks ago to get on their email a ouncement list.

After briefly testing on my MacBook Pro, it seems like everything is working just fine. I'm able to play embedded WMV files with no problem, but I unfortunately don't have any locally saved WMV's to try at the moment. So far, the beta seems like a succe , and while I hate the WMV format just as much as the next Mac user, it's nice to no longer receive that 'plug-in not found' error.

5 A le products that never made it

The A leGazette has compiled a list of 5 A le products that were prototyped but never made it into ma production. I'm sure the basement at Cupertino is just filled to the gills with prototype iPhones and Mac Tablets that were never meant to be.

The five prototypes highlighted are the A le PowerBop, A le Paladin, W.A.L.T, A le Videophone PDA, and A le PenLite (pictured to the right). More info about all of these prototypes, and more, can be found at the A le Museum.

A le cheaper than Dell?

In yet another A le/Dell pricing smackdown, ZDNet's Ed Burnette priced out a Dell X M1710 versus the A le 17-inch MacBook Pro. After matching the following components, the A le MacBook came out on top, shi ing for $2,699 before taxes versus the Dell's $3,222 price tag:

Intel%26reg; Core%26trade; 2 Duo T7600 (2.33GHz, 4MB L2 Cache, 667 MHz F ) proce or, 17-inch wide screen di lay, 256MB dedicated 3D graphics card, 2GB DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHZ (2 DIMM), 100GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive, CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW), Integrated Audio, Standard battery, Internal Bluetooth (2.0 + Enhanced Data Rate), Internal 802.11g wirele , DVD and movie editing software, 1Yr Ltd Warranty, and Customer su ort (at least 30 days).

The Dell offered a higher screen resolution but the A le has the built-in iSight and back-lit keyboard. Follow the read link to read the entire post.

Adobe Releases Flash Player 9 ( C)

Adobe released Flash Player version 9 today but it's only for C Macs. There's no version for Intel Macs yet. Anyone with an Intel Mac who wants native Flash components should use the preview version of version 8.x available here.

You might want to take a look at the emerging i ues being identified with Flash Player 9 before i talling on your system(s).

TUAW Best of the Week

Man. How the time pa es. Sometimes the TUAW posts flick by so fast that it's just too easy to mi a gem or two. Here's our favorite posts of the week brought together for your enjoyment. If you're looking for a nice post to read as you kick back and enjoy your early Sunday ca uccino, co ider these offerings. Try not to ill the ca uccino on your A le keyboard.

Rumor: A le iPhone could be sold unlocked?
David co iders competition in the mobile phone market and suggests that your A le iPhone service might just be a SIM card away.

iPod's glow hel rescue lost mushroom picker
Once again we learn that iPods save lives. Don't go out without one.

Most. Effusive. MacBook Pro. Review. Ever.
Laurie tracked down a very amusing review.

New Mac OS X Exploit?
A po ible Safari/Denial-of-Service exploit surfaced this week. Or not. The debate rages on.

Is A le Doomed?
Check out the "humor" tag on this one, dudes.

Five blogging a I'm thankful for
It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without a TUAW thankful post. Here's Scott's post about his favorite blogging a . Me? I'm thankful for plentiful antacids and the ability to return home safely after family reunio .

MacBook Marionette
Dan tracked down this super-cool video of an animated figure controlled by a PowerBook's motion se or.

Skype for Mac 2.0 (with video)

Attention Skype users, Skype for Mac 2.0 has just been released. Why should you care? Well, this is the first official release that su orts video chat, so that is pretty big. You can now video chat with other Skype users (no matter the platform).

Read on to see the new video prefs in Skype for Mac 2.0.

Thanks, Nik.


That is little old me via my iSight in Skype's video preferences. Ladies, I am single.

Microsoft copied the only iPod they could

John Gruber has pe ed an interesting o ervation of how Microsoft might very well have mi ed the mark from the get-go when they made the strange decision to take on the iPod and iTunes. Since the player's initial wiz-bang sales period is e entially over (as in: it more or le set a decent sales barometer, at least for now), John wrangles some interesting statistics from Amazon's charts on exactly where the Zune stands in comparison to A le's players (including year-old models), as well as its ranking in the overall electronics category. To oil the surprise: the Zune i 't doing so well. We've looked at Amazon's charts before, but as of this writing, a record player is beating out the best selling Zune on the electronics list, while iPods - ecifically the small, flash-based nano and shuffle - dominate most of the top 10 ots.

John then uses this data and good ol' fashioned people watching to conclude that Microsoft shouldn't have taken what could be their only swing at the plate in producing a hard drive-based iPod; they should have cranked out a flash memory model to go head-on with the nano - inarguably the home run slugger in A le's lineup. While I tend to agree with John, I also see a problem with going down this road: Microsoft would likely have had even le room to maneuver, and even fewer things to market ('Beam your tunes') and invent lame, dead-end lingo for - they actually refer to sharing your music wirele ly as 'squirting'. Who wants to bet how excited Steve Ballmer's kids are to 'squirt' at school?

Sure, when you look at what you're up agai t in the DAP market, A le's iPod nano and SanDisk's re ectable 2GB Sa a player (expandable via an SD slot, and at #11 on Amazon as of this writing) are the top dogs to beat - but what could they have offered? I highly doubt they could have fit their DRM-cri led and arguably worthle (though admittedly buzz-worthy) Wi-Fi sharing feature into a nano-sized player, even if they made it slightly larger and uglier like the Zune is to its 30GB iPod rival. A 'Zune nano' with nothing unique to offer would dry up on its own in a market already dominated by A le, SanDisk and Creative, and Microsoft's exclusive, 3rd party bitch-slap of a music store would have even le of a leg to stand on.

In summary: I think John's right - Microsoft made a bad move in copying the 30GB hard drive-based iPod, but it was the only move they had. In this light, it kinda makes you wonder why they bothered in the first place.

Bluetooth Firmware Update 1.2.1 available

This one is C only, so Mactel owners may look away. A le has released Bluetooth Firmware Update 1.2.1 which, according to A le:

"...improves Bluetooth performance and reliability i ues."

Don't you love the detailed descriptio ?

TUAW podcast #14

I bought myself a new iPod shuffle on Friday, and I thought what better way to share this with TUAW readers than to film the u acking? That's just want I did. A more comprehe ive review is in the works, but for now check out what $79 will get you.

As usual, you can grab the podcast via a direct link (69megs), our podcast R feed or in the iTunes Store podcast directory. Enjoy the show.

Let me know if you enjoyed this video podcast.

Ask TUAW: Gmail, Java, and G4s

Okay folks, it's time once again for Ask TUAW a wers. As before, I'll be offering a wers to several reader questio from last week. I encourage other readers to offer their thoughts, and e ecially to pose more questio for next week. This week we'll be tackling questio about Gmail, A le's Java su ort and more. So without further ado, let's turn to the questio .

Ha y Mac cro stitch

TUAW reader Benjamin White sends in this photo of a cro stitch project he recently crafted. After weighing the merits of OS X and OS 9 art, he decided to go with the OS 9 Ha y Mac startup face. The project is about 2-by-3-inches in real life and came out beautifully. White thinks he should have left more white ace around the edges of the icon, but I think it looks great. I particularly love the gradation of the shadow under the main unit with the different colors of gray. The A le logo is just suggestive enough to remind us of what it is su osed to be without going into too much detail. Kudos!

A le "genius" eaks out

Po yndicate has an article today detailing the "Confe io " of a Mac Genius, aka a guy who worked at an A le Store doing tech su ort. The guy had quite a lot to say. Here are a few highlights:

• Make your su ort a ointments in advance. "Get a clue. Make your Genius Bar a ointment in advance so that you're at least guaranteed a seat, even if it is an hour past your a ointment time."
• Don't brag. "Don't come in here bragging about how long you've been using Mac's, or that you're a Mac tech at your company, or anything like that. It doe 't impre us and it makes you look stupid when you don't know how to do something simple, like reset your PRAM. We're only going to make fun of you, behind your back."
• Don't fall in love with your data. "[There is] a situation where a customers HD is failing and there's a high likelihood they will lose all their data. I would say something like 'Well, at least you can start over with a clean slate. How many people get that kind of o ortunity in their lives?' Naturally, it is purely a case by case basis as there have literally been times we've had to break out a box of Kleenex at the bar."

So how typical is this guy and his attitude? The in on the article seems to be that being a Genius is a low-wage, thankle job and that tools like sarcasm and making fun of your clients can get you through a day with crybaby customers, with the occasional "good customer" bringing out one's bright side. I've worked in the service industry. I know how difficult and entitled people can be, but the attitude put forth by this article just strikes the wrong note with me.

Pop over and read the whole thing. It's...illuminating.

Why Sony Co ect failed

Cnet has a great article up detailing how Sony's Co ect (their a wer to iTunes) failed so miserably. Sony, by all rights, should have the position in digital music that A le has, but a series of mi te e ured that Sony would be... well not so succe ful.

They tried, they really did. They hired a former A le employee, they wanted to use the Walkman brand, but it never worked out. Read the gory details, if you dare.

The I-Deck brings some old school to the iPod

Feeling like something's mi ing from the digital age of music, with our lists of albums and artists in iTunes and tiny deck-of-cards sized iPods that fit our entire music collectio in our pockets? The I-Deck might just be the fusion of old and new school for you. The album art you see is actually a touch screen that allows you to browse your library, right down to flicking the screen to skip a song, and i ing it to fast-forward - all while giving your music's album art the face time (and ace) it deserves.

We received ti of this at the cool hunter, but there aren't any details on this being an actual product for sale; they simply end their post with "contact us if you require designer's contact details", so we have no idea if the I-Deck will a ear in A le Stores and Targets near you.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in