TidBITS#780/16-May-05
=====================
We're still recovering from our Tiger-related efforts, so this
week brings you a variety of shorter articles. Adam solves a
Tiger-related iPhoto crash, Glenn looks at NetNewsWire 2.0,
the trend toward 2 GB webmail accounts, and what's happened
to Fontographer in the wake of the Adobe/Macromedia merger.
Adam also reviews a GPS-enabled cell phone that provides
spoken driving directions. In the news, Yahoo launches a music
subscription service, and Apple both releases a new video editing
component and settles a lawsuit with rapper Eminem. This week's
DealBITS drawing: 3 months of VPN service from PublicVPN.com!
Topics:
MailBITS/16-May-05
DealBITS Drawing for PublicVPN.com
iPhoto 5.0.2 Freeze on Launch in Tiger
NetNewsWire Lite and Pro 2.0 Released
Yahoo Swaggers Into The Music Subscription Fray
Two Gigabytes or Bust
Fontographer Spun to Fontlab
Instructions from Outer Space: GPS Car Navigation
Take Control News/16-May-05
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/16-May-05
<http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/TidBITS-780.html>
<ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/issues/2005/TidBITS#780_16-May-05.etx>
Copyright 2005 TidBITS: Reuse governed by Creative Commons license
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MailBITS/16-May-05
------------------
**Apple Intermediate Codec 1.0.1 Improves Performance** -- Last
week, Apple posted an update to one of its core video-editing
components, Apple Intermediate Codec 1.0.1. If you use iMovie HD
or Final Cut Express HD, work with HDV-formatted footage, and
are using QuickTime 7, this update is highly recommended. Both
applications are unable to edit HDV footage directly; when you
import it from an HDV camcorder, iMovie or Final Cut Express
convert the HDV video to the Apple Intermediate Codec. (The
forthcoming Final Cut Pro 5 requires no conversion and can edit
HDV natively.) This update improves performance during playback
and when exporting footage, and is a 740K download from the Web
or via Software Update. [JLC]
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/appleintermediatecodec101.html>
<http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/>
<http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/>
<http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/>
**Apple Spreads Some Green for Eminem** -- Last week, the Detroit
Free Press reported that Apple Computer and superstar Eminem have
reached an undisclosed settlement in the rapper's year-old lawsuit
against the computer company. The suit centered on a 2003 Apple
iPod/iTunes Music Store advertisement which featured a 10-year-old
boy singing Eminem's Oscar-winning song "Lose Yourself" from the
film 8 Mile. The ad ran on MTV for three months during the summer
of 2003 and appeared on Apple's Web site, despite the fact that
neither Apple nor ad agency TBWA/Chiat/Day successfully obtained
Eminem's permission to use the song in the campaign. Eminem's
label claimed the use of the song would amount to an endorsement -
for which the rapper would expect fees "possibly in excess of $10
million" - and that Apple's misuse of the material would entitle
him to "exemplary damages." The lawsuit also named MTV parent
company Viacom as a defendant. [GD]
<http://www.freep.com/news/statewire/sw115563_20050510.htm>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07559>
**DealBITS Drawing: Stock WatchTower Winners** -- Congratulations
to Eric Wisti of wisti.com, Galen Mayfield of yahoo.com, J.
Mojsiak of nih.gov, Larry Phelps of uwc.edu, and Rod O'Brien
of sbcglobal.net, whose entries were chosen randomly in last
week's DealBITS drawing and who each will receive a copy of
Stock WatchTower from WillStein Software, worth $49.95. Even if
you didn't win, you can still save 30 percent on Stock WatchTower
through 23-May-05 by entering Tidbits20050409 in the coupon field
when ordering Stock WatchTower from the order form within the
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who entered, 14 of whom entered after being referred to DealBITS.
Keep an eye out for future DealBITS drawings. [ACE]
<http://www.tidbits.com/dealbits/willstein/>
<http://www.willstein.com/stocks/?referrer=DealBITS>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=08097>
DealBITS Drawing for PublicVPN.com
----------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
I've talked in the past about determining how worried you should
be about security with an emphasis on wireless security: it comes
down to determining the likelihood of attack, the liability of
having your network accessed or your data stolen, and the cost
in time and effort of achieving the level of security you'd like
(see "Wireless Security Needs: The Three L's" in TidBITS-725_).
When it comes to security, there is no right answer; it all comes
down to individual situations.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07626>
When using your own wireless network, the simple answer is to
ensure security with WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) and a strong
password. But what about when you're using a public Wi-Fi network
at a coffee shop, hotel, or airport? In such a case, it's easy
for anyone on the network to run a traffic sniffing program that
would watch all the data you send and receive and pull out your
passwords as you check mail, for instance (I've seen someone do
this at a conference as a wakeup call; he warned everyone whose
password he was able to see). One way of protecting not just your
passwords, but all your data, is to use a VPN, or virtual private
network. Normally you need special hardware and software to set
up and run your own VPN, but with a service from TidBITS sponsor
PublicVPN.com, you need nothing more than an account and the
instructions PublicVPN.com provides to configure your VPN settings
in the Internet Connect application. Once it's established, all
your traffic runs through an encrypted tunnel to PublicVPN.com's
servers and from there out onto the Internet. Anyone attempting to
sniff your traffic would see only unintelligible encrypted bits.
<http://www.publicvpn.com/>
So, if you know you need better security while using your laptop
on public Wi-Fi networks, or if you just want a chance to see
if a VPN service would work well for you, be sure to enter this
week's DealBITS drawing. PublicVPN.com is giving away two 3-month
periods of VPN service, each worth $17.85. Those who don't win
will receive a discount too. All information gathered is covered
by our comprehensive privacy policy. Be careful with your spam
filters, since you must be able to receive email from my address
to learn if you've won, and remember to tell your friends about
this DealBITS drawing.
<http://www.tidbits.com/dealbits/publicvpn/>
<http://www.tidbits.com/about/privacy.html>
iPhoto 5.0.2 Freeze on Launch in Tiger
--------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
I recently upgraded to Tiger using the Erase and Install method
that Joe Kissell recommends in Take Control of Upgrading to Tiger;
I wanted the cleanest start with the new operating system. Most
things went fine, except for launching iPhoto 5.0.2 afterwards;
it always hung with the spinning pizza of death. I eventually
solved the problem, but to give you an idea how I troubleshoot -
along with the eventual solution - here's what I tried:
<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/tiger-upgrading.html>
1. I rebuilt the iPhoto Library by holding down Command-Option at
launch. Unfortunately, that didn't help. The goal here was to see
if some sort of repairable corruption in my iPhoto Library folder
was causing the problem.
2. I switched to another iPhoto Library by holding down Option at
launch and choosing a different iPhoto Library folder. This didn't
help, but eliminated the possibility of the problem being in my
main iPhoto Library folder.
3. I created a new, empty iPhoto Library folder (again started by
holding down Option at launch). The goal here was to see if there
could be some problem related to an iPhoto Library folder that had
been used in Panther.
4. I moved the com.apple.iphoto.plist file from the Preferences
folder to the Desktop to see if corruption in that file might be
the culprit.
5. I opened iPhoto's Info window, and in the Plug-ins section,
I deleted all third-party plug-ins that I'd installed. Most were
turned off anyway, but I wanted to make sure none of them could
be the cause of the freezes.
With those five attempts under my belt, I figured the problem was
most likely related to the iPhoto application itself (since I'd
eliminated everything else I could think of). So I trashed the
iPhoto application and reinstalled it from the iLife '05 DVD.
On the next launch, I told iPhoto to create yet another empty
iPhoto Library, and for the first time since installing Tiger, it
continued to run. I then updated it to 5.0.2 using iPhoto's Check
for Update feature and Software Update, and after that, I was able
to load all my iPhoto Library folders.
Since the disk had just been reformatted, I didn't suspect any
sort of directory corruption, but if reinstalling hadn't worked,
I would have used Disk Utility to repair permissions and then,
if that didn't work, to repair the disk itself.
Although I was annoyed at having to work through iPhoto's freezes,
I knew that I had two current backups of my entire hard disk,
so I wasn't particularly concerned about losing any data.
NetNewsWire Lite and Pro 2.0 Released
-------------------------------------
by Glenn Fleishman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The folks at Ranchero Software have released the latest version of
NetNewsWire, an application that aggregates news from Web sites
that use any version of RSS (Really Simple Syndication and other
expansions) and Atom to publish the latest items on a given page
or section. NetNewsWire 2.0 is available in Lite (free) and Pro
(paid) versions.
<http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/>
A news aggregator means that instead of powering up your computer
and loading 50 Web sites to check headlines and blog entries,
you turn to the aggregator, which scours these specially formatted
XML (eXtensible Markup Language) files and turns them into an
organized list of the latest information.
This new version, which I have been using in its beta form
for months, adds a host of features, including Spotlight
searching, podcast support (see "Podcasting: The People's Radio"
in TidBITS-766_), Automator actions, synchronization among
multiple computers of feeds and news items, and scripting support
for creating feeds or controlling the program. There's also an
embedded Web browser that supports tabbed browsing.
<http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/whatsnew/netnewswire20.php>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07986>
Version 2.0 omits the previously included blog-posting
capabilities, externalizing them as MarsEdit 1.0, a separate
program for writing blog entries offline and then posting them
to a variety of blog services and software.
<http://ranchero.com/marsedit/>
NetNewsWire was in interminable beta - although almost always in
good working order - due to Tiger's shipping date. With Tiger out
of the gate, Ranchero was able to unveil its Mac OS 10.4-dependent
features.
While Tiger's Safari 2.0 also handles RSS, and offers some
interesting sorting and display options, it's a rung or two down
from even NetNewsWire Lite. If you're trying to get your feet wet
with RSS, start with Safari, move up to Lite, and then graduate
to Pro.
<http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/safari/>
NetNewsWire 2.0 Pro costs $25 or $40 with MarsEdit, but is free
to all paid users of version 1.x. NetNewsWire Lite remains free,
but is stripped of more-sophisticated features. MarsEdit 1.0 is
$25 when purchased separately.
Yahoo Swaggers Into The Music Subscription Fray
-----------------------------------------------
by Geoff Duncan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Last week, Internet behemoth Yahoo took the wraps off Yahoo Music
Unlimited, its entry into the online music subscription market.
For Mac users, Yahoo Music Unlimited is just another party to
which we aren't invited, since it only supports recent versions of
Windows and, in fact, doesn't even let music from its subscription
service play on iPods. Yahoo Music Unlimited is more interesting
for the pressure it puts on its primary competition - Rhapsody and
the re-born Napster - and, less directly, on MSN Music and Apple's
iTunes Music Store.
<http://music.yahoo.com/unlimited/>
<http://www.rhapsody.com/>
<http://www.napster.com/>
**A (Not So) New Hope** -- Yahoo Music Unlimited is an all-you-can
eat subscription service which provides access to more than
1 million tracks. The service is largely built on Yahoo's
acquisition of MusicMatch last year: users search for and manage
music using the Yahoo Music Engine, an iTunes-like application
based on MusicMatch Jukebox; users can then share songs and
playlists amongst other subscribers using Yahoo Messenger.
Subscribers can play music acquired through the service as long
as they maintain an active subscription, and also transfer tracks
to a selection of portable music players.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07819>
However, because Yahoo's new service relies on Microsoft's WMA
digital rights technology, the list of supported players does
_not_ include Apple's iPod. iPods support only Apple's FairPlay
DRM technology, and to date Apple has unmercifully squelched
efforts to enable support for other DRM systems on the iPod.
But you know what? Other online music subscription services
don't work with iPods either, so Yahoo's offering is basically
more of the same.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07756>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=08013>
**The Revenue Strikes Back** -- What's new about Yahoo Music
Unlimited is its price - $6.99 a month, or annual subscriptions
for $59.88 (which translates to $4.99 a month) - and the fact
that it'll be a component of one of the world's most-trafficked
Internet sites.
Yahoo's prices substantially undercut both RealNetworks' Rhapsody
and Napster, which charge $14.95 a month. Yahoo isn't saying
whether Yahoo Music Unlimited prices are an introductory offer
or how long they might last. However, considering that both
Napster and RealNetworks's music subscription businesses have
been struggling at their current rates and many of the businesses'
costs are similar (music and technology licensing, bandwidth, user
support, staffing, etc.) Yahoo's initial pricing likely means
Yahoo Music Unlimited is making little to no money - or even
taking an upfront loss - on every subscriber.
The real question is the degree to which Yahoo cares. Yahoo has
both deeper pockets and a substantially more diversified business
model than either RealNetworks or Napster, and can probably afford
to subsidize an online music venture longer than its immediate
competition can stay out of a price war. If Yahoo can bring enough
eyeballs - and mouse pointers - to its music service, it may be
able to make up any loss on subscription fees via advertising.
And as one of the most frequently visited sites on the Internet,
Yahoo's high-margin online advertising business is a virtual
juggernaut.
**Return of the FUD-y** -- Right now, Yahoo Music Unlimited
doesn't pose a direct threat to Apple's iTunes Music Store.
For one thing, incompatibility with Apple's iPod makes iTMS the
primary online music store for more than 15 million white earbud-
wearin', head-boppin' iPod aficionados. (In comparison, Napster
has yet to crack half a million subscribers.) For another thing,
the iTMS model of purchasing downloaded music - rather than merely
purchasing _access_ to it for the duration of a subscription -
still seems to hold mind-share: according to Piper Jaffray analyst
Gene Munster, right now only about 15 percent of online music
consumers would prefer to rent music rather than own it outright.
<http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050512/ap_on_hi_te/
online_music_war_13>
Nonetheless, both the online music and wider technology industries
are still setting their sites on Apple and iTMS, if for no other
reason than it's not yet worth the trouble of aiming at other
market players. If Yahoo Music Unlimited succeeds, Apple may have
to offer music subscription services in addition to its paid-
download model. (It's worth noting that all the subscription
services also let subscribers purchase music at prices comparable
to iTMS; of course, those fees are on top of base subscription
costs.) On the other hand, if Yahoo's music subscription service
fizzles or turns in lackluster numbers, it may represent the last
serious effort to redefine the online music space as a renters'
market, rather than a buyers' market.
Perhaps the darker cloud on the horizon of Apple's music business
is, ultimately, whether devices like the iPod or devices like
mobile phones will be the primary means by which consumers
purchase and listen to music. Sure, Apple has sold more than
15 million iPods, but that number is dwarfed by the estimated
500 million cell phones shipped in 2003 alone (75 million of those
were camera phones with substantial on-board memory and processing
capability). Last week in Frankfurt, Germany, Microsoft founder
Bill Gates commented that he felt the current iPod business model
was unsustainable, and he'd bet on mobile phones taking over the
top spot for music listening. (He even drew a parallel between
Apple's current iPod success and its early lead with graphical
user interfaces.) Current mobile phone technologies and business
models are certainly more supportive of a music subscription model
than a purchase model.
<http://insidedsp.eetimes.com/features/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=21100222>
<http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050512/tc_nm/
tech_microsoft_gates_dc>
Nonetheless, it's too early to start writing an epitaph for the
iPod or iTMS. The online music market is still volatile, and
in the last few years it has shown only two constant themes:
1) unexpected success and innovation from Apple, and 2) pundits
and industry leaders claiming Apple can never succeed.
Two Gigabytes or Bust
---------------------
by Glenn Fleishman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
It's all about the Gmail. Google continues to control the vertical
and horizontal for nearly everything they touch, and Gmail's
upgraded capacity of 2 GB of free email storage has set the target
for other companies that want some of that sweet, sweet ad revenue
from people who use webmail instead of their ISP's service. ISPs
must be sweating a little, because unbundling email means that the
pipe to the ISP is really just delivering water, not chicken soup,
coffee, and bisque (to stretch a metaphor).
<http://www.gmail.com/>
AOL is the latest entrant, and a surprising one. They purchased
Mailblocks almost a year ago, a provider that offers challenge-
response based email so that only recipients with human
characteristics wind up in your In box. Mailblocks charges modest
fees for its modest storage service, but AOL used their technology
to build their free, 2 GB, AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) connected
webmail. An AIM account will link to a webmail account. AIM
accounts are free and self-standing and can be used with iChat.
<http://www.aim.com/>
<http://www.mailblocks.com/>
Yahoo upped its mailbox to 1 GB a few months ago, and offers 2 GB
for $20 per year. Apple's .Mac service includes just 250 MB of
storage for $100 per year, with 1 GB total available for $50 extra
per year. Hotmail includes 250 MB - with only 25 MB of that
available in the first 30 days - with 2 GB costing $20 per year.
<http://mail.yahoo.com/>
<http://mac.com/>
<http://hotmail.com/>
Of course, Google is still tweaking their approach. When they
lifted the limit on April Fool's Day from 1 GB to 2 GB, they said
it was only the beginning. And it's true. My mailbox keeps getting
slightly larger. I have about 535 MB of stored mail (it's an
automatic CC'd backup for my main account) and every day the
upper limit rises slightly.
Fontographer Spun to Fontlab
----------------------------
by Glenn Fleishman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Adobe/Macromedia merger isn't even near completion, and
already a product has spun off (see "Adobe Swallows Macromedia"
in TidBITS-777_). The hoary and lovely Fontographer type design
program will be licensed by Macromedia (which acquired it along
with Altsys in 1995) to Fontlab, the software's only real
competitor. Fontlab will offer upgrade paths for users of
Fontographer and their own products. Fontographer 4.1 for
Mac and Windows costs $350; registered TypeTool users can
buy Fontographer for $250.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=08077>
<http://www.fontlab.com/The-News/Announcements/Fontographer-Has-a-New-
Home-at-Fontlab-Ltd./>
<http://www.fontlab.com/Font-tools/Fontographer/>
I have fond feelings for Fontographer, as I used it as a critical
part of my senior project in graphic design at Yale College.
At the suggestion of a mentor, I recreated the Berthold Wolpe
typeface Albertus with some tweaks to make it slightly more modern
and regular. I documented the drawing, scanning, and font-creation
process, and received an A-minus on the project.
<http://www.linotype.com/7-624-7/bertholdwolpe.html>
The font was released as shareware under the name Furioso in
honor of the university printer who had suggested the idea to me,
Roland Hoover. "Orlando Furioso" is an epic poem, which translates
to Roland the Berserker, hence the name. As an early shareware
product in 1990, I wound up receiving nearly $500 in checks from
well-wishers. This was a godsend to someone just graduating from
college.
<http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/Orlando/>
The shareware version was $10 and I released just the titles
for free; I sent a disk out with the full typeface for dollars.
So it was really an early demoware or partialware rather than true
shareware. It's still available for download. In 1994, I let the
font go for free, asking people to donate $10 to NPR in memory of
Berthold Wolpe.
<http://www.erik.co.uk/font/serif.html>
<http://www.npr.org/>
Instructions from Outer Space: GPS Car Navigation
-------------------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Have you ever found yourself driving at high speed or in heavy
traffic in an unfamiliar area while the person in the passenger
seat frantically attempts to read the map and tell you where
to turn next? If you're like me, it's stressful. And if you're
anything like Tonya, trying to figure out the current location
on a map and give coherent directions, all while the car is moving
is equally as stressful, plus a bit nausea-inducing.
Our recent trip to New Mexico was made even more enjoyable by our
decision to spring for the extra $10 per day to rent a GPS-enabled
(global positioning system) cell phone from Alamo that spoke
directions for each upcoming turn. It was brilliant, despite some
notable design flaws. We're not gadget freaks, but we've already
decided to look into buying a similar device for the next time
we have to do any significant driving in unknown parts.
**Driving by Wireless** -- Alamo wasn't forthcoming about what the
device actually was and how it worked, so my apologies in advance
if my deduction and speculation prove somewhat incorrect. From
what I could tell, the GPS device itself was a Motorola i58sr cell
phone with Nextel service; the phone had a relatively small black
& white screen, and Alamo provided a suction cup mount so it could
attach to the windshield.
When turned on, the phone ran some kind of specialized Java
application that asked for your permission (presumably because
you could have been tracked through the device) and then dumped
you into a predictably lousy interface for searching for an
attraction or entering an address. Once you entered the address,
the phone used Nextel's data network to download driving
directions from your current location, determined by the GPS,
and then both read them out loud to you via its speakerphone and
displayed the next turn on the screen, with running countdowns
of how far until your next turn and until you reached the eventual
destination. It always started talking about half a mile away,
and it repeated itself as you got closer, but never so much that
it was annoying. As you came up on a turn, a progress bar showed
you how many meters until the turn; that was great in situations
where there were two turns quite close together.
Although the interface was poor, and it took us longer to figure
out than ideal (remember, we were driving; it's not like you
have time to sit down with the thing beforehand, and Alamo didn't
include any instructions at all), we quickly became addicted
to the driving instructions. With one exception - where the GPS
phone would have had us get off an arterial, cross a road, and
get right back on - the instructions were extremely accurate.
And interestingly, a second pass through the area where it gave
the foolish instructions did not repeat them; it's conceivable
that we were in a different lane and thus triggered different
instructions. If you missed a turn (the mistake was the only
direction we ignored), it detects that you're not on course
and quickly downloads new directions to reroute you.
More problematic, particularly in the rural parts of New Mexico,
was that you had to enter a full address. We were staying with
fellow authors Robin Williams and John Tollett for a few nights,
and although we had directions to their house, and thus had
the final road name, we didn't have their street address handy.
We were able to fool the GPS phone into giving us directions
anyway by guessing that the house number was 1 instead of 2745
or something, and we were lucky, since in some cities, that
difference could have put us entirely across town. A bed and
breakfast we stayed at in Chimayo had only a P.O. box for an
address, and the device's database had never heard of County
Road 0100, so it wasn't much help there.
Although Tonya found a GPS menu in the phone's interface
somewhere, we never managed to see if it would give us a map view
of the area (and my reading of the phone's user's guide afterwards
would seem to indicate not). It would have been helpful to be able
to point at a spot in the map and say "Go there!" It would also
have been useful on at least one occasion to see a map view and
which direction we were traveling; luckily my normal handheld
GPS device showed us that we were headed in entirely the wrong
direction. That was before we'd quite realized how helpful the GPS
phone would be, and we hadn't planned on using it that trip, since
our final destination in Los Alamos didn't have an address (it was
probably classified information, though we were again able to fool
the phone into taking a random address on the final street).
According to the user's guide, the phone can communicate with
a computer to work with mapping software, though it was unclear
if it would really work on the Mac or not.
<http://nextelonline.nextel.com/assets/pdfs/en/support/guides/phones/
i58sr/ug.pdf>
As you might expect, the reliance on Nextel's data network for
instructions proved problematic in several locations, since
Nextel's coverage where we were in Taos and Santa Fe was poor
to non-existent. We were fine getting to those locations, since
the phone downloaded all the instructions it needed initially,
but it couldn't access any new instructions until we were within
range of a Nextel tower again.
**Planning for the Next Trip** -- Such voice-enabled GPS devices
are not new; I've been hearing people talk about them for years.
But they're pricey ($400 to $1,000), and particularly in Ithaca,
where we know the roads well, I couldn't justify the expense
of such a device. But this GPS phone and associated service,
thoroughly mediocre though it may have been, fell squarely into
the category of gadgets that improved our life. Particularly when
I'm under time pressure to arrive somewhere, I'm not one of those
people who is relaxed about potentially getting lost. I hate
not knowing where I am, and I absolutely can't stand the feeling
that I'm going to be late because I took a wrong turn somewhere.
And in turn, Tonya doesn't enjoy reading maps and feeding me
navigation instructions while we're driving. So the clearly
enunciated directions both increased my peace of mind while
driving and Tonya's relaxation level.
I've started to look into other devices that might work better
than the Motorola GPS phone; it's not acceptable to be without
directions just because you can't get cell service. It also sounds
from this PC World article as though it would be fairly expensive:
the cost of a Nextel data plan plus $11 per month for the GPS
service.
<http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,115273,00.asp>
There are a number of dedicated GPS devices that promise features
well beyond what the GPS phone provided, such as multiple map
views, route choices if you don't want to take freeways (or if
you want to take only freeways), and more. Voice instructions
are key, since paying attention to gadget interfaces in the car
is dangerous. A few of the devices I've found and plan to look
into further include:
* Magellan RoadMate 300/500/700
<http://www.magellangps.com/en/gpsAdventures/driving/road.asp>
* Garmin StreetPilot c320/c330/2610/2620
<http://www.garmin.com/mobile/products.html#automotive>
* TomTom GO 300/700/Rider
<http://www.tomtom.com/products/category.php?ID=0&Language=4>
If you've used one of these devices, or another voice-enabled
GPS system for providing navigation, let us know on TidBITS Talk
<[email protected]> what you think.
Take Control News/16-May-05
---------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
**"Take Control of Upgrading to Tiger" Updated to Version 1.0.1** --
When we released the 1.0 version of this ebook simultaneously
with Apple's release of Tiger, we knew that we'd be doing a fast
update - important new information always comes to light during
the first few days after the release of a major operating system.
The new version, now based on 44 test installations of Tiger,
walks readers through installing Mac OS X like never before.
If you own the ebook, click the Check for Updates button, located
in the lower left hand corner of the cover, to find out what's
new and download your free update.
<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/tiger-upgrading.html>
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/16-May-05
------------------------------------
by TidBITS Staff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The second URL below each thread description points to the
discussion on our Web Crossing server, which will be faster.
**'Evil' Widgets in Dashboard** -- Here we go again. It seems that
it may not be entirely safe to download Dashboard widgets; read
on for details. (8 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2593>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/448>
**Moving between base stations under Tiger** -- Moving between
AirPort base stations while using Tiger may not work properly,
but Apple knows about the problem. (1 message)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2598>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/454>
**Tiger's keys and cursors** -- In Tiger, you can remap the Caps
Lock key to be anything you want, and readers share other helpful
suggestions about keys, buttons, and cursors. (2 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2595>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/451>
**Power user features vs. whizz bang features** -- Is Apple
spending too much time on eye-candy features like Dashboard
in favor of things that will make a difference to power users?
And is that a bad thing? (7 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2594>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/450>
**Reading NeXTstep disk** -- What do you do if you have data on
an old NeXTstep disk that you need? (4 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2597>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/453>
**Mounting a Mac OS 9 network volume in Tiger** -- Reports of
problems using AppleShare over AppleTalk networks in Tiger leads
to talk of how the two terms are often confused. (13 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2579>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/436>
**Science applications on the Mac** -- So what are Mac-based
scientists using for experiment programming, publication-quality
charts and graphs, and more? (7 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2592>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/449>
**New File System in Tiger** -- Does Tiger lock files differently
than previous versions of Mac OS X to prevent multiple
applications from changing the same file? Or not? (6 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2583>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/440>
**Old PowerBook SCSI hard drives** -- Can you pull data from an
old SCSI laptop hard disk these days? Finding an adapter proves
challenging. (2 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2581>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/438>
**Spotlight and backups** -- How will Tiger's new search utility
affect the way we back up data? If everything is scattered about
one's hard drive, can backup utilities handle an anticipated
breakdown of hierarchical filing? (2 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2582>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/439>
$$
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