TidBITS#712/12-Jan-04
=====================
We're back from Macworld Expo 2004 San Francisco, with news
of software and a bit of hardware. Adam relays his overall
impressions of the show, and examines how Apple's musical forays
are a Trojan Horse into the rest of the computing world. We also
look at iLife '04 and its newest application, GarageBand, plus
note the releases of the G5 Xserve and the Xserve RAID, Final Cut
Express 2, and news of Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac OS X. Lastly,
Tristan turns five!
Topics:
MailBITS/12-Jan-04
Macworld Expo SF 2004: Enter the Musical Trojan Horse
iLife '04 Gains a New Member
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/12-Jan-04
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MailBITS/12-Jan-04
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**Apple Unveils G5 Xserve, new Xserve RAID** -- Apple last week
lifted the cover on a significant upgrade to the Xserve, its line
of 1U (one-unit high) rack-mount Mac OS X-based servers. The
Xserve G5 features single or dual 2 GHz G5 processors, a 1 GHz
frontside bus for each processor, an 8 GB RAM ceiling, an 80 GB
Serial ATA drive with support for up to 750 GB in three drive
bays, and an optional slot-loading CD-ROM or DVD-ROM/CD-RW Combo
drive. In addition, the Xserve G5 offers two built-in Gigabit
Ethernet interfaces, two FireWire 800 ports, one FireWire 400
port, two USB 2.0 ports, and two full-length PCI-X expansion slots
on independent buses. (PCI expansion options include video and
SCSI support, additional Ethernet interfaces, an Apple Fibre
Channel card, or third-party RAID support). Three configurations
are available: a stripped-down Cluster Node version (for
distributed applications such as video rendering) with dual
2 GHz processors and a 10-client Mac OS X Server license,
as well as more traditional Single Processor and Dual Processor
configurations with unlimited client versions of Mac OS X Server.
Prices start at $3,000.
<http://www.apple.com/xserve/>
Apple also revamped the $6,000 Xserve RAID, a 3U (three-unit high)
rack-mount system which offers up to 3.5 TB (terabytes) of storage
in 14 hot-swappable drive bays. The Xserve RAID connects to
Xserves using a 2 Gb Fibre Channel interface. The new Xserve
RAID sports throughputs of up to 210 MB/second, and Apple also
unveiled support for using the Xserve RAID with Linux and Windows
systems. [GD]
<http://www.apple.com/xserve/raid/>
**Apple Releases Final Cut Express 2** -- Apple announced Final
Cut Express 2 at Macworld Expo, an updated version of its mid-
range video editing software originally introduced in January
2003. Final Cut Express 2 enhances its RT Extreme capability of
playing back video layers, transitions, and effects without having
to render them first, and is also optimized for the Power Mac G5
and Mac OS X 10.3 Panther. Audio improvements include real-time
volume and filter adjustment, automated audio keyframe recording,
support for Audio Units (the Apple audio plug-in format for Mac OS
X applications), and the capability to export markers for Apple's
Soundtrack application. You can now also capture footage across
timecode breaks (a common issue encountered with consumer DV
camcorders). Since it's built from the code base of Final Cut
Pro 4, Final Cut Express 2 features a customizable interface
for creating shortcut buttons to favorite functions and tweaking
the appearance of many interface elements. Final Cut Express 2
is available now for $300; upgrades from Final Cut Express 1.0
cost $100. [JLC]
<http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/>
**Microsoft Announces Office 2004 for Mac OS X** -- Microsoft last
week announced the upcoming release (sometime in the first half of
this year) of Office 2004 for Macintosh. The first major revision
to Office since the release of Office X in fall 2001, the new
Office suite offers a new Project Center feature in Entourage to
link related bits of project data and allow collaboration with
shared material on a file server or an iDisk.
<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/officex/officex.aspx>
Other Mac-first features demonstrated at Macworld Expo included
section tabs and a notebook view in Word 2004, and a new page
layout view in Excel 2004. Microsoft's Technology Guarantee
Program offers a free upgrade to Office 2004 when it becomes
available, to anyone purchasing Office X between 06-Jan-04 and
30-Jun-04. Microsoft says this spring's release will offer three
editions of Office; Office X is currently available in Standard
Edition, Professional Edition (which includes Virtual PC), and
a discounted Student and Teacher Edition. [MHA]
<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/default.aspx?pid=office2004tg>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07325>
**Tristan Turns Five** -- At Macworld Expo in San Francisco five
years ago, I had to leave a day earlier than planned to make it
home in time for Tristan to be born. When we announced the happy
event in TidBITS-463_, I asked readers to send Tristan email with
your thoughts on what the world is like today, what you think of
our collective future, the most important lessons you've learned,
and what you think of Tonya and me and the work we've accomplished
over the years. More than 600 of you sent truly fabulous notes
that I'm sure Tristan will be fascinated to read in ten years (at
least if there isn't a member of the opposite sex in the room). In
honor of his fifth birthday, which he enjoyed immensely with my
sister Jennifer while we went to Macworld Expo, I'd like to ask
that you once again send him email at <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> with
whatever thoughts you feel he'll find interesting or important
later on in life. Who knows, maybe he'll write a book about the
experience some day. Thanks! [ACE]
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05244>
Macworld Expo SF 2004: Enter the Musical Trojan Horse
-----------------------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Before last July's Macworld Expo in New York City, everyone was
wondering what sort of a show it would be without a Steve Jobs
keynote and without many of the high-profile exhibitors who pulled
out. Although there was no debating that there were many fewer
exhibitors and attendees, the overall tenor of the show was
positive, both from people manning the booths and those folks
walking the floor.
That sense of uncertainty was less pointed for this year's
Macworld Expo in San Francisco, though one friend from Seattle
decided that he couldn't justify the cost and time necessary for
the trip, writing in email, "Besides, my biggest fear is the show
will be such a shadow of its former self that I'll be sent into
a downward nostalgia spiral from which I may never recover.
('He was found wandering the empty aisles, sobbing quietly,
searching in vain for the WordPerfect booth, wearing only a
Power Computing vest, a Casady & Greene blinking light, and
carrying a Wingz bag.')"
The good news is that my friend's worry was unfounded; the bad
news is that there's no question the show was distinctly smaller
than in previous years. Most obvious was the reduced floor space.
In the old days, Macworld Expo occupied almost all the space in
both the South and North halls of Moscone Center. This year, the
curtains in the South Hall (which traditionally holds the larger
vendors) could have been moved out to accommodate most, if not
all, of the North Hall vendors as well. Despite the smaller space,
the number of exhibitors, though down from last year, didn't drop
as precipitously. The floor space suffered more than the exhibitor
count because many exhibitors opted for small stands in the
special interest pavilions in the North Hall (and as usual,
they had some of the most interesting products).
The big question remains attendance, and despite the crowded
aisles, the general consensus among exhibitors was that traffic
was down from last year. We won't know the real numbers there
until IDG World Expo releases them, along with details about how
they've chosen to count attendees this year. Nevertheless, the
mood among attendees was extremely positive, and we saw none of
the moroseness that marked the (much larger) Macworld Expos during
Apple's death spiral days of 1996 and 1997. (Unfortunately,
Tonya's impressions of the first Macworld Expo she's been able to
attend in five years were rather limited. In the continuing saga
of "Life's Not Fair," she succumbed to the flu on the second
afternoon and has spent the time since then in bed, though she
finally recovered enough to brave the flight home today.)
**Apple Makes Music** -- So what was the difference between then
and now? Apple's sense of direction. Apple bought NeXT in 1996 in
order to use NeXTstep as the foundation of Mac OS X, but far more
valuable than NeXT's code and engineering talent for Apple's
survival as a company was the addition of Steve Jobs and his
vision for what Apple could become. It took some time, but Jobs
put Apple back on track, creating innovative products and
reestablishing Apple's role as the computer industry's design
leader. Even the energy from Power Computing's "Fight Back for
the Mac" campaign didn't amount to much when Apple was in the
doldrums.
Now, however, we're seeing a revitalized Apple that, despite a
smaller market share, is once again pushing the industry envelope
in technology, design, and focus. That's why attendees at today's
smaller Macworld Expos tend to be so upbeat and positive. The
economy might be weak, causing many companies to question the
value of an expensive booth at a trade show, but as long as Apple
continues to keep moving forward and other Macintosh developers
support that forward momentum, individual attendees will be happy
roaming the aisles at Macworld.
What's interesting about Apple's recent successes is that many of
them are only ancillary to the traditional uses of computers. In
particular, with the iPod and the iTunes Music Store, Apple has
sidestepped into the music industry, and the release of GarageBand
and the iPod mini show that the company plans to keep marching
along that path.
Not all Mac users are ecstatic about this direction. Many feel
they have no use for an iPod, and don't buy enough recorded music
to care much about the iTunes Music Store. Also, although Steve
Jobs claimed that over half of the households in the United States
have one person who plays a musical instrument, I can't but help
think that GarageBand's potential audience is much smaller than
the audiences of iTunes, or even the iTunes Music Store. One
TidBITS reader wrote to me after the Macworld keynote to say that
this is the first time in four years the keynote hasn't inspired
him to buy something from Apple, and another wrote to wonder if
Apple would be paying more attention to the traditional publishing
market again in the future.
**Those Sneaky Greeks** -- Nevertheless, it's still worth
supporting Apple's emphasis on the music world, even if it doesn't
seem to benefit you directly, because media attention, revenue,
and overall success with the iPod, iTunes Music Store, and even
GarageBand will aid Apple's other efforts, particularly in the
longer term. That's because the iPod and iTunes Music Store are
essentially Apple's Trojan Horse into the Windows world. "Sure,"
Apple says, "you can use an iPod with your Windows PC, and you can
buy music for it from the iTunes Music Store." The iPod and iTunes
Music Store are Apple's foot in the door; Windows users are buying
them not because they're the cheapest, but because they offer the
best industrial design, the best user interface, and the best
overall user experience. Apple's happy with selling iPods and
songs to Windows users today, but you have to expect that those
users will have been infected with the Apple ethos, and when it
comes time for their next purchase, a Mac is far more likely to
be considered. After all, the Mac has a better industrial design,
user interface, and overall user experience too, just like the
iPod.
The benefits of this musical Trojan Horse don't stop there. With
the iPod and iTunes Music Store and some of Steve Jobs's patented
Reality Distortion Field making him as close to a rock star as a
computer industry CEO can be, Apple has achieved something that
may be unique: the company's products are equally as hip to
teenagers and their parents. A kid may have nothing but teenage
contempt for her parents' choice of music, but you don't see teens
avoiding the iPod just because adults like it too. And just look
at the Apple Stores for a near-perfect example of adult hip;
everything about the stores says they're patronized only by the
most fashionable. I can't think of another company that has
attained such cross-generational coolness, even when their
products (such as Sony's) are used by people of different ages.
Now you have to think really long term - the kids who are lusting
after iPods today are the Mac users of tomorrow. Apple may no
longer have the stronghold in education they once had, but this
emphasis on music makes Apple products desirable to the young,
who then grow up to be the next generation of consumers. It's a
brilliant move, and one that only a company with a strong vision
for the future, the distant future, could execute. Nothing Apple
could do would increase the Mac's market share significantly in
the near term, so Steve Jobs has set the company's sights a bit
further out.
**Other Musings** -- With this realization in mind, other things
start to make more sense. Apple's recent licensing of the iPod to
HP, for instance, might seem odd, but if you consider the level to
which Apple wants to bring Windows users into the fold for later
conversion to Mac users, it's a big win. That's especially true
because the iPod is iconic; it doesn't need the Apple logo or be
white (HP's will be light blue) for people to know it's really
an Apple product. The licensing also makes sense from HP's
standpoint, since Apple and HP don't really compete directly, thus
making that alliance a powerful one against the companies HP does
worry about, like Dell and Sony (both of whom are trying to take
on the iPod and iTunes Music Store with homegrown products).
<http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2004/jan/08hp.html>
Apple's desire to focus on this musical Trojan Horse also explains
why we haven't seen an Apple-designed cell phone or PDA or tablet
computer or television. As Phil Schiller, Apple's VP of Marketing,
said in our press briefing, Apple realized they had a chance to
rethink the entire way music was sold, and at the same time invent
the next Walkman. That's changing the world, which remains at the
heart of everything Steve Jobs does. Apple could create any given
product, but without a clear vision of how the product would both
be enough more compelling than the competition and would help the
fortunes of Apple's core products - in short, how it would change
the world - it won't happen.
Lastly, think about the iPod mini. Some have been confused by its
$250 price point, only $50 less than the low-end 15 GB iPod. Why
not price the iPod mini at $100 so there's no competition with the
iPod? Apple doesn't like to compete with commodity products, since
the only differentiation between manufacturers is on price, but
everything that Apple is known for - ease of use and industrial
design - adds to the price. Apple could create a $100 MP3 player,
but it wouldn't be enough better than the competition to sell
well, and without being better, it wouldn't help attract customers
to Apple's other products. In the end, the $250 price point makes
sense. If you're thinking about buying a $200 MP3 player with 256
MB of RAM, an extra $50 for 4 GB of storage is an easy upsell. And
as far as the choice between the iPod mini and the low-end iPod...
Apple doesn't care which you find more attractive at all, since
either way it's a sale for Apple. Also remember that everyone
balked at the original 5 GB iPod's $400 price tag, which didn't
appear to be a major deterrent to actual sales.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06608>
So, with another Macworld Expo under our belts, it's time to get
back to the day-to-day work (or entertainment, depending on your
perspective) of watching the Macintosh world, and even if you're
not a music aficionado, I encourage you to keep an eye on the
large wooden horse with Apple logo emblazoned on its side that
was just wheeled into the center of the computer industry.
iLife '04 Gains a New Member
----------------------------
by Jeff Carlson and Mark H. Anbinder <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
For the first time in recent memory, Apple's announcements at the
latest Macworld Expo didn't involve any new consumer Mac hardware,
instead focusing primarily on software improvements and the iPod
mini. The star of the show was iLife '04, an upgrade to Apple's
iLife suite of digital hub applications, which now includes the
music-creation tool GarageBand as well as improvements to iPhoto,
iMovie, iDVD, and iTunes.
<http://www.apple.com/ilife/>
Attendees were able to get only a taste of iLife '04 on the show
floor. In contrast with the initial version of iLife released at
last year's San Francisco expo, iLife '04's individual
applications, other than iTunes 4, are not available for free
download. Until last week, you could download iPhoto 2 and iMovie
3 for free, but you had to buy the suite to get iDVD 3, which
was too large to download. This change, designed to make the
iApps into a revenue center rather than a significant financial
drain, is likely to engender significant grousing among existing
Mac owners.
The iApps do remain a reason to buy a Mac, since purchasers
of new Macintosh models receive iLife for free. If you bought a
qualifying Mac on or after 06-Jan-04 that does not include iLife
'04, you can get it for $20 (see Apple's iLife Up-To-Date Program
page for details). Also, an iLife '04 Family Pack, which licenses
up to five Macintosh computers for household use only, is
available for $80.
<http://www.apple.com/ilife/uptodate/>
<http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore?productLearnMore=M9466LL/A>
Apple dubbed iLife '04 as being "like Microsoft Office for the
rest of your life" (which sounds more like a curse if you read
it as "until the end of your life" instead of as "the time when
you're not working"). Is the new package worth the upgrade price?
Here are details on what's new based on Apple's information and
our hands-on experience from the show floor.
**GarageBand** -- According to Apple, about half of U.S.
households include someone who can play a musical instrument.
While several of us attending the keynote tried to determine how
all of those people manage to hide their talents, Apple announced
GarageBand, a program that enables even the casual musician to
play over 50 software-based instruments (such as pianos, drum
kits, basses, organs, and UFOs from outer space) using any USB or
MIDI keyboard or controller, digitally mix up to 64 tracks, and
integrate live audio, whether recorded from a microphone or an
electric instrument plugged in to the Macintosh. In traditional
Apple fashion, GarageBand's interface is fairly simple to
understand and use. Like iTunes's playlists or iPhoto's albums,
you click a plus-sign icon to add new instruments, then customize
their specific sounds (such as adding distortion or using a
British Invasion guitar sound).
<http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/>
The software offers over 1,000 music loops (professionally
produced drum beats and backing tracks), 200 pro-quality audio
effects (from traditional echoes and phasing to wacky filters),
plus a small collection of vintage and modern guitar amplifier
emulations to intrigue the Hendrix wanna-be in your household.
When you've recorded and tweaked your next chart-topping hit to
your satisfaction, GarageBand offers one-click export to iTunes;
from there, you can share your work with other iTunes users and
other iLife applications, transfer it to an iPod, or burn your
magnum opus to CD. (During the keynote we were commenting that the
only thing missing is a "Sell my song on iTunes" button that would
upload it to the iTunes Music Store.)
<http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/accessories.html>
In addition to GarageBand's default sounds and tones, Apple also
offers the $100 GarageBand Jam Pack with 2,000 additional loops
and over 100 additional software instruments. Apple is also
selling an M-Audio 49-key USB keyboard (like a piano keyboard,
not a typewriter keyboard!) for playing software instruments.
<http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore?
productLearnMore=M9428Z/A>
We're curious to see how GarageBand is embraced. Adam and Jeff,
for example, have little musical inclination, but we can easily
envision budding 14-year-old musicians adopting it immediately.
Apple also pointed out several times that GarageBand is great for
practicing one's guitar or keyboard with background instruments.
Your kid's next Battle of the Bands competition at school may
be just a single lad onstage with a guitar, PowerBook, and
GarageBand. By the way: Apple licensed use of the name from
GarageBand.com, which (with the demise of MP3.com) now claims to
be the largest online musicians community. With the debut of the
GarageBand application, even more aspiring artists are sure to
join GarageBand.com's ranks.
<http://www.garageband.com/>
**iPhoto 4** -- Apple claims that the latest iPhoto now supports
up to 25,000 photos in the browser with no display delays, time-
based organization features and "smart" albums (similar to smart
playlists in iTunes), and network photo sharing via Rendezvous.
The previously U.S.-only photo book and print ordering feature of
iPhoto will expand to Japan later this month, and to Europe in
March. Unfortunately, Apple said nothing about Australia, New
Zealand, or other parts of the world.
<http://www.apple.com/ilife/iphoto/>
Other new features in iPhoto 4 include a keyboard control overlay
on slideshows that helps users quickly rotate photos and cull bad
ones from the last import, star ratings like those in iTunes, new
slideshow transitions, a new Sepia button for making photos look
old, and batch processing of photo titles and comments.
Those frustrated with iPhoto 2's limitations may still have
issues. You still can't create hierarchical albums (Apple feels
the new smart albums and time-based albums will "scratch that
itch," to quote Phil Schiller). There's still no provision for
sharing photos among multiple users on the same Mac (something we
provide instructions for doing in Kirk McElhearn's "Take Control
of Users & Accounts in Panther" ebook). And as far as we know
currently, iPhoto still lacks Image Capture's capability to
import selected photos from a camera or memory card.
<http://www.tidbits.com/takecontrol/panther/users.html>
**iMovie 4** -- On the surface, iMovie 4 doesn't seem like much of
a change over iMovie 3, but two improvements are particularly
welcome. Apple boasts improved performance, specifically when
rendering titles, transitions, and effects. Copies running on demo
models on the show floor seemed snappier than iMovie 3 (which
initially had terrible performance issues; see "iMovie, Take 3"
in TidBITS-665_), but we won't know if that was just due to beefy
hardware until iLife '04 ships.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07059>
<http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/>
The second major improvement is that iMovie has implemented non-
destructive editing. Previously, trimming away a section of a clip
threw it in the Trash, and the only ways to get those frames back
were by using Undo or restoring the entire clip. Now, you can
simply drag the edges of a clip to hide the frames you don't want
to use; dragging them back makes the frames reappear. This is the
method used by professional video editing programs such as Final
Cut Pro, and promises to make the editing process much easier for
iMovie editors. Other improvements include a keyboard shortcut
(Command-E) for switching between the Clip Viewer and Timeline
Viewer, bookmarks for marking spots you want to return to easily
(and which are separate from iDVD Chapter Markers), and the
capability to insert Color Clips, which are the same as earlier
versions' black placeholder clips but with the option of choosing
solid colors.
iMovie 4 also offers new and enhanced title options, such as
clipped image or video showing through a title, and an angled
vertical scroll that drew cheers from the Star Wars fans in the
Macworld keynote audience. The new version can also import video
directly from Apple's iSight camera, easily share movies (either
full movies or single clips) to a .Mac account's Web space, and
scrub audio (i.e., hear the sound as you scroll) by Option-
dragging the playhead. To bone up on some of the new features,
in addition to some existing ones, check out Apple's new iMovie 4
Hot Tips page.
<http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/hottips/>
**iDVD 4** -- Like iMovie 4, iDVD 4 appears unchanged at first
viewing, but several things have changed in the latest
incarnation. In addition to adding 20 new "Hollywood-quality"
themes, iDVD 4 adds a navigation map and enhanced menu
capabilities (including one of Jeff's favorites, the capability
to create multi-line chapter titles). iDVD 4 runs on Macs without
built-in SuperDrive DVD burners, so owners of older Macs can work
on an iDVD project and archive it to be burned later on another
Mac (this feature was quietly added to iDVD 3.0.1; see "Using iDVD
3.0.1 on Non-SuperDrive Macs" in TidBITS-690_).
<http://www.apple.com/ilife/idvd/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07287>
Most exciting for iDVD users is the capability to create projects
up to two hours in length. Previous versions were limited to 60
minutes at good quality, or 90 minutes with added compression
and decreased visual quality. We don't know yet what a two-hour
project will look like, but Apple's implementation - the same used
in Final Cut Pro, according to Steve Jobs in his keynote - sounds
smart. By default, projects are still set to 60 minutes and can be
rendered in the background. If you switch to a manual mode, you
lose the capability to render projects in the background, but iDVD
determines the amount of compression to use based on the length
of your project; so, a 30-minute project will be rendered at very
high quality, while a 100-minute project will be rendered at lower
quality - but both occupy the same amount of disc space.
**iTunes 4** -- iTunes 4 didn't receive an update in iLife '04,
but Apple did improve the iTunes Music Store slightly by adding
Billboard charts from 1946 to the present, collections of classic
songs labeled iTunes Essentials, 12,000 new classical music
tracks. Apple now boasts that the iTunes Music Store contains
a total of 500,000 tracks, including an increasing number of
independent musicians, although Apple executives said they're
still working on the necessary infrastructure for the indie
labels to submit songs and metadata to the iTunes Music Store.
Apple claims that the iTunes Music Store, which has now topped 30
million tracks sold, currently has a 70 percent market share of
the online music market, prompting Steve Jobs to note drily,
"Feels great to get above that 5 percent, doesn't it?" Apple also
announced that one person, whose identity wasn't revealed, has
spent $29,500 on the iTunes Music Store - now that's pent-up
demand.
**Add It Up** -- As with nearly every Apple software release,
some people were annoyed that Apple would charge for the iLife
'04 update, while others were quick to point out that single
improvements - such as iDVD's capability to store two-hour
projects, or GarageBand's 1,000 professional musical loops - were
more than enough to justify the $50 upgrade price. Steve Jobs
illustrated in his keynote that buying Windows applications that
approximated the same features of iLife '04 would cost $306. We
prefer to think of iLife as a collection of five $10 programs,
making the bundle worthwhile even if you don't end up using
one or two.
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/12-Jan-04
------------------------------------
by TidBITS Staff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
**GarageBand impressions** -- TidBITS Talk readers voice their
initial opinions of GarageBand and its user interface, and
also clear up differences between it and Apple's Soundtrack.
(9 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2137>
**Macworld SF 2004 keynote notes** -- Adam, Tonya, and Jeff took
notes on the Macworld Expo keynote in a collaborative SubEthaEdit
document (along with some Mac friends who joined in via
Rendezvous), then posted it to TidBITS Talk. Read the notes
here, as well as other people's responses to them and the keynote
in general. (18 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2136>
**One-ear headphones** -- Dan Frakes's article on iPod headphones
in December prompts the question of how to pipe stereo audio into
one headphone. (3 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2134>
$$
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