TidBITS#911/21-Jan-08
=====================
Issue link: <http://db.tidbits.com/issue/911>
Apple promised "something in the air" for last week's Macworld Expo
and delivered the MacBook Air, a super-thin (and fairly aerodynamic
if you want to test its moniker) laptop that relies heavily on
wireless networking. We're back from the show and cover the MacBook
Air as well as the new Time Capsule wireless backup device
(including why some Mac users are upset about it), iTunes movie
rentals, the Apple TV 2.0 update, and changes to the iPhone and iPod
touch software. If you weren't in San Francisco, Glenn put together
a podcast interviewing industry notables and friends of TidBITS,
Tonya noticed an increase in women attendees, and Adam looks at how
this year's expo marks a change in how vendors are operating within
the Mac market. We also cover the important QuickTime 7.4 security
update (and how it still needs more work), and the releases of
iMovie 7.1.1 and Front Row 2.1.2. And in non-Expo news, Joe Kissell
offers an AppleScript solution to pasting unformatted text in Word
2008.
Articles
QuickTime 7.4 Improves Security, but Not Enough
iMovie 7.1.1 and Front Row 2.1.2 Released
Taste of Macworld Keynote Day Podcast
DealBITS Drawing: Win a Copy of the MathMagic Equation Editor
MacBook Air Introduced as World's Thinnest Notebook
iTunes Movie Rentals and Apple TV, Take 2
Time Capsule Bundles AirPort Base Station and Backup Disk
Time Capsule and Its Associated Rage Factor
iPhone and iPod touch Become Self-Aware
More Women at Macworld Expo?
Mac Industry Marching to a Different Beat
Word 2008 and the Paste Plain Text Dance
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/21-Jan-08
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QuickTime 7.4 Improves Security, but Not Enough
-----------------------------------------------
by Jeff Carlson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9411>
Apple updated its media workhorse QuickTime to version 7.4 last
week, fixing bugs and adding support for new iTunes features such as
downloadable movie rentals. But the more important news is that this
version squashes a handful of security holes that could allow remote
attacks. However, a serious vulnerability discovered shortly before
Macworld Expo demonstrates that Apple's engineers need to remain
hard at work.
<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=307301>
The QuickTime 7.4 update is available for Leopard (a 55 MB
download), Tiger (a 51 MB download), Panther (a 50 MB download), and
Windows (both XP and Vista, a 22 MB download).
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/quicktime74forleopard.html>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/quicktime74fortiger.html>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/quicktime74forpanther.html>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/quicktime74forwindows.html>
The most recent exploit, not addressed in QuickTime 7.4, takes
advantage of a hole in QuickTime's RTSP (Real Time Streaming
Protocol) that could open a computer to a denial-of-service attack
or possible remote code execution. (RTSP is not a new target; see
"Protect Yourself from the QuickTime RTSP Vulnerability,"
2007-09-07.) Because QuickTime is the underlying technology of
iTunes, Macs and Windows computers running QuickTime are vulnerable.
Anyone who uses iTunes or owns an iPod should update.
<http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/112179>
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/9333>
iMovie 7.1.1 and Front Row 2.1.2 Released
-----------------------------------------
by Jeff Carlson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9410>
While the keynote address at Macworld Expo garners all the
attention, Apple usually pushes out a few other updates at the same
time that aren't as exciting. (The 802.11n AirPort Extreme Base
Station wasn't mentioned at all last year; see "AirPort Extreme
Updated," 2007-09-07.) This year, Front Row and iMovie received the
silent update treatment.
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/8813>
According to Apple, iMovie 7.1.1 "addresses issues when publishing
movies to a .Mac Web Gallery, improves overall stability, and
addresses a number of other minor issues." The update is available
via Software Update or as a 16 MB download.
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/imovie711.html>
Front Row 2.1.2 receives even less description, noting only that the
update includes bug fixes and improved compatibility with iTunes
(presumably to handle movie rentals). The update is also available
via Software Update or as a 16.8 MB download.
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/frontrow212.html>
Taste of Macworld Keynote Day Podcast
-------------------------------------
by Glenn Fleishman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9406>
Have you ever thought of attending Macworld Expo in San Francisco,
but decided that the price of airfare, hotel, and admission (cheap
for the exhibit hall, high for conference tracks) wasn't in your
budget? Our coverage will provide most of the high-level details you
need to know what went on, but it won't give you the feel for what
it's like to be at the show. This year we tried something a little
different, and you can get a taste of what Macworld is like through
the associated podcast - click Listen to hear about 25 minutes of
discussions and jocularity before and after the keynote, as I spoke
to friends and colleagues.
<http://www.tidbits.com/podcasts/9406.mp3>
The list of notables, in order, includes:
* John Moltz, Crazy Apple Rumors Site
<http://www.crazyapplerumors.com/>
* John Gruber, Daring Fireball
<http://daringfireball.net/>
* Rich Mogull, security guru, TidBITS Security Editor
<http://securosis.com/>
* Dan Moren and Derik DeLong, MacUser
<http://www.macuser.com/>
* Dan Lyons, Fake Steve Jobs and Forbes
<http://fakesteve.blogspot.com/>
* Julio Ojeda-Zapata, St. Paul Pioneer Press
<http://yourtech.typepad.com/>
* Randy Newman, a fair-use bit of "You've Got a Friend in Me"
<http://www.randynewman.com/>
* Rich Mogull again with Tonya Engst and Adam Engst, the illustrious
editor in chief and publisher of TidBITS, respectively
* John Nemerovski, MyMac.com
<http://www.mymac.com/>
* John Moltz, again, outside the Macworld Podcast studio
DealBITS Drawing: Win a Copy of the MathMagic Equation Editor
-------------------------------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9412>
Do you need to create equations for papers, reports, or other
publications? If so, you'll want to enter this week's DealBITS
drawing to win one of three copies of InfoLogic's MathMagic Personal
Edition 5.65, which enables you to create complex equations and
export them in TeX, EPS, GIF, JPEG, and PICT format for use with
word processors, presentation programs, and graphics software.
MathMagic Personal Edition (with two years of free upgrades) is a
$119.95 value. Entrants who aren't among our lucky winners will
receive a discount on MathMagic Personal Edition, so be sure to
enter at the DealBITS page. All information gathered is covered by
our comprehensive privacy policy. Remember too, that if someone you
refer to this drawing wins, you'll receive the same prize as a
reward for spreading the word.
<http://www.mathmagic.com/product/pe.html>
<http://www.tidbits.com/dealbits/mathmagic2/>
<http://www.tidbits.com/about/privacy.html>
MacBook Air Introduced as World's Thinnest Notebook
---------------------------------------------------
by TidBITS Staff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9405>
Billing it as the world's thinnest notebook computer, Apple
announced the MacBook Air, a 3-pound Mac that fills out the
company's portable line between the inexpensive MacBook at the low
end and the powerful MacBook Pro at the high end. During his keynote
address at Macworld Expo, Steve Jobs demonstrated the new machine's
slim profile by sliding it out of a standard interoffice manila
envelope (a trick that also appears in a new television ad). The
slightly wedge-shaped computer ranges in thickness from 0.76 inches
(19.3mm) on the hinge side to a mere 0.16 inches (4mm) at the front.
<http://www.apple.com/macbookair/>
<http://www.apple.com/macbookair/#ad>
<http://www.tidbits.com/resources/2008-01/macbookair.jpg>
The MacBook Air offers many whizzy features that you'd expect from a
new Apple laptop: a full-size, backlit keyboard with an ambient
light sensor; a built-in iSight camera; 802.11n and Bluetooth 2.1 +
EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) wireless support; a magnetic latch; and a
45 watt power adapter with a MagSafe connector (note that the
MagSafe connector is slightly different from previous MagSafe
connectors). Its "generously sized" trackpad borrows gesture support
from the iPhone's multi-touch display, meaning that with various
combinations of finger movements you can zoom, pan, rotate photos,
move windows, and perform other actions without having to worry
about the exact location of your mouse pointer or manipulating tiny
on-screen controls. The gestures can be turned off and on in the
Trackpad view of the Keyboard & Mouse preference pane.
Apart from the power connector, the only physical interfaces on the
MacBook Air (all hidden beneath a small flip-down door) are a single
USB 2.0 port, a micro-DVI video port, and a headphone jack. Notably
absent is an Ethernet port, although Apple offers a $29
USB-to-Ethernet adapter as an option. In addition, the MacBook Air
is the first Apple computer since 2000 not to include any form of
FireWire port, and it lacks even a slot for a security cable (a real
pity given how tempting it will be to swipe one of these machines).
Another interesting omission is that of an Apple Remote, though
users can purchase one for an additional $19.
The MacBook Air features a glossy 13.3-inch, 1280-by-800-pixel
display with LED backlighting - the same physical size and
resolution as the existing MacBook's display. At Apple's request,
Intel created a special version of the Core 2 Duo CPU for the
MacBook Air; the processor is 60 percent smaller than those in
Apple's other laptops. It's also slower, with the base model
clocking in at only 1.6 GHz, plus an option to switch to a 1.8 GHz
processor. The computer comes standard with 2 GB of RAM, which is
not upgradeable.
In order to save space, the MacBook Air uses a 1.8 inch hard drive
(the same size found in some iPod models). The standard
configuration features an 80 GB, 4200-rpm drive. However, Apple also
offers, for the first time, a 64 GB solid-state drive, which is
somewhat faster - especially compared to the relatively slow
1.8-inch drive - and enormously more shock-resistant, and has
slightly lower power requirements (though at a significantly higher
price). (Reportedly, the 160 GB drive found in the high-end iPod
Classic - which uses two platters for storage - is too tall to fit
into the MacBook Air's svelte case.)
Apple claims 5 hours of battery life for the MacBook Air, even with
wireless networking active; Apple told us that battery life could be
increased slightly by disabling Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Although one
would suspect that figure would increase with the solid-state drive
option, Apple said in a briefing that the difference is negligible.
It's a good thing the battery life is so long, too, since the
battery is not removable - another first in an Apple laptop. It can
be replaced at an Apple Store for $129 without being sent in for
service, Apple said. The battery, like that of the iPhone, is
expected to retain at least 80 percent of its capacity after
hundreds of complete recharge cycles.
The machine has no optical drive, though an external USB SuperDrive
is available for $99. However, Apple thinks most users won't need
one, thanks to a new technology called Remote Disc, which enables
the MacBook Air to mount CDs and DVDs inserted in other computers -
even Windows PCs - with the permission of the computer's owner. A
preference can also be set to allow automatic mounting.
Remote Disc even allows network-based installation and upgrade of
Mac OS X through a network boot, a feature previously found only in
Mac OS X Server, meant as a tool for network administrators. This
feature requires a choice at startup - probably holding down certain
keys as with the server-based Net Install - that we were unable to
determine by publication time.
Remote Disc can share discs on any Tiger, Leopard, Windows XP, or
Windows Vista system. However, Apple told us that Remote Disc would
work for mounting only on a MacBook Air. We hope Apple expands the
availability of the feature - likely requiring firmware changes in
other models - as an additional option for flexibility and disaster
recovery for other Mac owners.
Steve Jobs made a special point of enumerating the environmentally
friendly features of the MacBook Air. It has a fully recyclable
aluminum case; a mercury-free display with arsenic-free glass;
circuit boards that are BFR-free and PVC-free; and retail packaging
that occupies 56 percent less volume than that of the existing
MacBook. These changes were well-received by the audience, though
Greenpeace is still pushing Apple to go even further, perhaps to a
fully compostable Mac.
<http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/green-apple-not-quite-ripe>
Apple is now accepting pre-orders for the MacBook Air, which Jobs
said would begin shipping two weeks following the announcement. The
base model, with an 80 GB hard drive and a 1.6 GHz processor, costs
$1,799. Swapping the hard drive for the 64 GB solid state drive adds
a whopping $999 to the price, while upgrading to a 1.8 GHz processor
adds $300.
iTunes Movie Rentals and Apple TV, Take 2
-----------------------------------------
by TidBITS Staff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9403>
Furthering Apple's expansion into consumer electronics and
entertainment, Steve Jobs announced at Macworld Expo a significant
change to the iTunes Store business model - movie rentals.
Interestingly, Jobs introduced the movie rentals by talking first
about the iTunes Store successes - 4 billion songs and 125 million
TV shows sold - before admitting that the company wasn't happy about
selling only 7 million movies so far. By adding the movie rental
business to the iTunes Store, Apple was able to sign up all the
major movie studios along with a number of smaller ones, a feat that
had previously eluded the company.
<http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/movies.html>
By the end of February 2008, Apple plans to have 1,000 movies
available for rental in the United States (with an international
release of the program slated for later this year), and new releases
will appear in the iTunes Store for rental 30 days after the DVD
availability. The movies will be available in DVD quality (at
roughly 640 x 480 resolution, depending on the movie's aspect
ratio). Older movies cost $2.99; new releases are $3.99. Once you've
rented a movie, you have 30 days to watch it, and you must finish
watching within 24 hours after you start. (This is comparable to the
viewing restrictions on movies rented via Amazon Unbox, which only
supports TiVo DVRs and Windows computers.) You can still purchase
some movies, but many are available only for rent.
Movies can, of course, be watched on Macs and PCs in iTunes, on the
current generation of iPods, and on the iPhone. But as Jobs noted,
most people watch movies on large screen TVs, and in another burst
of humility, he admitted that the Apple TV has been disappointing,
associating it with failed efforts from numerous other companies.
That served as the springboard for the next announcement, of a
significant software update to the Apple TV that enables users to
rent movies directly from the iTunes Store without the need for any
computer. The Apple TV update, which will be a free software update
available for all owners two weeks following the announcement,
features a redesigned user interface that also provides access to
audio and video podcasts, can display photos from Flickr and .Mac,
plays videos from YouTube, and lets users purchase music and TV
shows from the iTunes Store for direct playback and syncing to
computers.
<http://www.apple.com/appletv/>
The revised Apple TV is also capable of renting high-definition
movies, with Dolby 5.1 surround sound, from the iTunes Store for $1
more than the DVD-quality versions; older movies cost $3.99 and new
releases cost $4.99. Other devices, even Macs running monitors
capable of viewing high-def content, are excluded from HD rentals.
Jobs also announced that the price for the 40 GB Apple TV,
previously $299, would drop to $229; the 160 GB model dropped from
$399 to $329. It would have been more interesting had Apple
seriously slashed the price, say to $99, in an attempt to drive a
vast number of purchases and associated movie rentals.
Time Capsule Bundles AirPort Base Station and Backup Disk
---------------------------------------------------------
by TidBITS Staff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9402>
Time Machine backups from Leopard can now fly through the air with
the greatest of ease, not just over a Wi-Fi network to another Mac
running Leopard, but to a new "backup appliance" called Time
Capsule. According to Steve Jobs, the Time Capsule is a "full
802.11n AirPort Extreme Base Station with all the ports in the
back." Showing a slide with a laptop connected to an external drive,
Jobs bemoaned the annoyance of connecting and disconnecting the
cable.
<http://www.apple.com/timecapsule/>
Time Capsule, which looks like a larger version of the square
AirPort Extreme Base Station shipped in 2007 (7.7 inches or 197mm
versus 6.5 inches or 165mm), is intended to back up multiple Macs -
for instance, all Macs in a household or small office workgroup -
and it includes either 500 GB or 1 TB of storage. The new device
costs $299 or $499, depending on drive capacity, which puts the 1 TB
model at a bit of a premium in comparison to the average prices of
raw drives.
Time Machine currently cannot back up to a NAS (network-attached
storage) drive, such as one that you might attach via USB to an
AirPort Extreme Base Station. Apple originally promised Leopard
would include AirPort Disk backups to AirPort Extreme-connected
drives, but that feature was dropped prior to Leopard's release.
While 802.11n can offer speeds as fast as 90 Mbps when using the
less widely used 5 GHz band, it also supports the slower 802.11g
(roughly 20 Mbps at best) and 802.11b (5 Mbps) standards - supported
by the original AirPort Extreme and the original AirPort. Backing up
over 802.11g or 802.11b could be painfully slow and clog the rest of
the network.
Given that Jobs announced software updates to other hardware
devices, such as Apple TV and the iPod touch, at the keynote, the
lack of an announcement about the existing 802.11n AirPort Extreme
Base Stations would seem to indicate that Apple does not have an
update for them that will enable Time Machine support for NAS
drives. That's strange, since it would seem that the technical
problems that reportedly caused AirPort Disk support to be dropped
from Time Machine would also afflict the Time Capsule, so perhaps a
future update will offer that promised functionality. Apple also
gave no indication when Time Machine will fully support FileVault
encrypted user accounts, another important feature for
security-conscious mobile users.
Time Capsule also works as a NAS volume, along with any additional
drives you attach via USB to Time Capsule.
In the years we've written about backups at TidBITS - starting with
floppies; moving through early, middle, and late tape systems; and
continuing now with hard drives - we've consistently complained
about the lack of a simple, configuration-free software and hardware
offering that would pair with a Mac. Now we have it.
For those who haven't already settled on a serious backup strategy
or invested in backup drives, the Time Capsule may prove to be a
popular device, especially for backing up multiple 802.11n-enabled
Macs on the same network. For a single Mac, if you can cope with the
horror of a cable, a regular external drive is a significantly
cheaper option. Further, Time Capsule seems best for those who don't
already have older gear or an established backup strategy: those who
already have NAS drives and AirPort Extreme base stations may be
frustrated at the apparent lack of an upgrade path, and those
backing up Macs with slower 802.11 standards will likely find that
Time Machine backs up too slowly to be usable. However, in shipping
Time Capsule, Apple has further emphasized how serious they are
about Time Machine as a core feature in Leopard.
Time Capsule and Its Associated Rage Factor
-------------------------------------------
by Glenn Fleishman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9407>
Time Capsule is rather cool. The new hardware device from Apple,
introduced at Macworld Expo last week in San Francisco, combines a
complete AirPort Extreme Base Station with gigabit Ethernet (the
model released late in the second quarter of 2007) and an internal
hard drive at a reasonable price for the combination. That AirPort
Extreme Base Station by itself costs $179, making the $299 price for
500 GB and $499 price for 1 TB a decent deal. (See "Time Capsule
Bundles AirPort Base Station and Backup Disk," 2008-01-15.)
<http://www.apple.com/timecapsule/backup.html>
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/9402>
The Time Capsule is designed to act as a Time Machine backup drive
for a network, offering a capability that otherwise requires a
networked Mac running file sharing in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard to act
as the backup destination. The Time Capsule drive can also be
mounted like a network-attached storage (NAS) server.
(Before you ask: Time Capsule really is just a hard drive in a case
combined with the current AirPort Extreme base station hardware.
There are no extra features, unless you count the absence of a power
brick. Unlike the regular AirPort Extreme, Time Capsule has an
internal AC-to-DC converter and needs only a supplied power cord.)
But this simple device has produced a lot of anger. All week I heard
people asking the question and then getting somewhat mad at the
answer: "Can I now plug a regular drive into an older AirPort
Extreme via USB and use that with Time Machine?" No, dear readers,
no.
I've now heard from many people with connections to Apple engineers
that the Time Machine support for NAS volumes on the AirPort Extreme
was pulled from Leopard before the operating system shipped because
of reliability issues. (Roughly Drafted published email from a
reader explaining this back in November 2007; Joe Kissell discussed
overall Time Machine problems, including this one, in "Time Machine:
The Good, the Bad, and the Missing Features," 2007-10-28.)
<http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2007/11/08/why-leopards-time-machine-doesnt-support-airport-disks/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/9270>
But if Apple can now reliably write backups to a hard drive
connected via Serial ATA, why can't it handle a drive connected via
USB? And what does it say about the NAS support if backups can't be
reliably written?
It's a mystery, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the answer will
be a firmware upgrade for the current AirPort Extreme Base Station
that accompanies the actual release of the Time Capsule next month.
Hopefully that upgrade will be free, because many people bought an
AirPort Extreme for the express purpose of using Time Machine with
it.
iPhone and iPod touch Become Self-Aware
---------------------------------------
by TidBITS Staff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9404>
Last year's Macworld Expo was devoted almost exclusively to the
iPhone, and despite speculation of a hardware refresh to a 3G
iPhone, this year's keynote delivered a few welcome software
improvements available at no cost to the 4 million iPhone owners who
bought one in the first 200 days of sales. The iPod touch was also
brought into greater software parity with the iPhone, but existing
owners must pay $20 to get the goods.
**Google Maps Improvements** -- Google's Maps application is truly one
of the killer apps of the iPhone, but one limitation has been
especially maddening: it doesn't know where you are (even though by
law your iPhone, and all recent cell phones, can roughly determine
your location for emergency calls). We find ourselves having to
enter "espresso seattle" or "cupcakes 98103" to tell Maps where to
narrow the search.
Now, however, the iPhone gains the capability to triangulate its
position using a combination of accessible cellular tower locations
and the locations of recognizable Wi-Fi access points. Apple said
that Google provides the cell tower location data, while Skyhook
Wireless provides the Wi-Fi locations.
<http://skyhookwireless.com/>
Skyhook Wireless has trucks constantly driving the largest cities in
the United States and many cities worldwide, matching the unique
identifiers of all Wi-Fi networks (not just public hotspots) against
coordinates retrieved from a GPS receiver on the truck. Jobs said
that Skyhook has 25 million networks recorded - but Skyhook probably
has billions of snapshots that match each network with a point on
the globe. (For more about Skyhook's service, see "Loki Here,"
2007-06-18, which focused on their Loki toolbar. Also see a
competing approach in "Glimpse of GPS Future in iPhone Hack,"
2007-09-21.)
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/9017>
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/9197>
It's unclear whether the iPhone must be connected to a Wi-Fi network
to find the current location because the iPhone has the EDGE network
for data connections, too. The iPhone could scan the current Wi-Fi
network environment and send a query with those locations over EDGE,
but it's possible you have to be on a Wi-Fi network to obtain a
location via Wi-Fi. Skyhook Wireless had previously told Glenn about
a several megabyte database that could provide cached information
that would be updated over time. The iPod touch, without a cell
radio, clearly has to make a Wi-Fi-based Internet connection, and
may also use a local database.
Once Maps shows you on a map where you are, you can ask it for
directions to where you'd like to go. You can also use a virtual pin
to bookmark locations. The pin is new, too: there was no good way in
previous versions of the iPhone firmware to mark arbitrary locations
(such as where you parked your car, to use Apple's example) in the
Maps application.
**Home Screen Customization** -- In advance of the anticipated
software development kit for the iPhone in "late February," the new
iPhone software allows users to customize the home screens of their
iPhones. Being able to rearrange, add, and subtract icons from the
home screen is welcome: simply tap and hold on the home screen,
which makes the application icons wiggle like kids on a sugar high.
You can then drag the icons to whatever location you like, even
moving them to the iPhone's dock.
Even more welcome is the addition of eight more customizable home
screens - it looks a bit like Spaces on the iPhone. Drag an icon to
the left or right side of the screen to slide into the next space;
the dock remains constant on every screen.
**Web Clips** -- When Web bookmarks aren't good enough, the new Web
Clips feature can jump in. Web Clips lets you save a Web site as a
button on the iPhone or iPod touch home screen. Tap the Plus button
(now relocated to the bottom of the screen) to share the page, and
choose Add to Home Screen.
The advantage of Web Clips, however, is that you can save just a
portion of a Web page as a clip by zooming in and panning to a
particular spot and creating the bookmark. You could zoom in on the
Most Popular Articles sidebar on the TidBITS home page and get back
to just that information in the future, for example.
**SMS for Multiple People** -- With this new feature, you can send a
single SMS message to several people at once. Apple has added a
simple plus-sign button to the To: field of the New Message screen
that enables you to add multiple people from your contact list, just
as you would add people to a mail message.
A cynic would note that SMS is among the most profitable service of
any kind ever developed. The iPhone service plans include 200
messages per month as part of a basic plan, while $10 extra gets you
1,500 messages, and $20 extra gets you unlimited messages. That
extra $10 or $20 per month (or 15 cents per message for exceeding
your monthly limit) is almost entirely profit, and each additional
party to whom you send a message counts against your total.
**Improved iPod** -- Also new in the iPhone 1.1.3 update is support
for chapters, subtitles, and multiple languages in videos, and
support for displaying lyrics on top of cover art when music tracks
are playing.
**Enhanced iPod touch** -- The $20 iPod touch update, available
through the iTunes Store, adds five of the iPhone's core
applications - Mail, Maps, Stocks, Notes, and Weather. The update
also includes Web Clips and home-screen customization, as well as
the iPod features mentioned above. With this update, Apple has moved
the iPod touch much closer to the iPhone, making it less of a
hobbled also-ran. The only things missing are the camera,
microphone, and cellular access (and the monthly phone bill!).
New iPod touches will come with the software update, but if you are
shopping in the near term, make sure you know what you are getting.
There's no word yet on whether Apple is providing a grace period for
devices just purchased, or currently on store shelves, that have the
older firmware installed. (The $20 charge may be due to an
accounting issue, which came up with the 802.11n enabler upgrade for
Macs sold with 802.11n chips in late 2006 and early 2007 that wasn't
enabled; see "Two Bucks for 100 Mbps 802.11n Enabler," 2007-09-07.
Features that are beyond what's promised in a sale have to be
accounted for separately. Apple could have revised its earnings and
eaten the cost, too; that's equally legitimate. That said, the
software update for Apple TV is available for free, even though it
clearly offers new features.)
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/8819>
**Other Changes** -- A few smaller updates have also appeared in the
new software update. Support for IMAP mail via Google is now
incorporated into the Mail application, and you can now purchase
songs from the iTunes Wi-Fi Store using gift codes.
**A Healthy Market** -- Jobs shared some market statistics on the
iPhone, noting that the most recent numbers provided by research
firm Gartner covered only the third quarter of 2007 in the United
States, so this doesn't reflect what were apparently stronger sales
later in the year due to the iPhone's European introduction. The
iPhone had garnered 19.5 percent of the U.S. smartphone market,
behind only RIM's 39 percent share for its BlackBerry series of
devices. The iPhone's share was roughly equivalent to the sum of the
next three vendors - Palm at 9.8 percent, Motorola at 7.4 percent,
and Nokia at 1.3 percent - and to the large "Other" segment at 20.2
percent. (The Windows Mobile OS was part of the Other and Motorola
figure, and not broken out.)
More Women at Macworld Expo?
----------------------------
by Tonya Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9409>
From what I could see, a lot of women attended Macworld Expo this
year. While the wait to use one of the more popular restrooms was
sometimes annoying, it was wonderful to see so many women at the
usually male-dominated Expo. Kathryn Vercillo shared this
observation in her Mac-Forums blog post, "The Women of Macworld,"
where she particularly noted the appearance of more women speaking
in the conference tracks.
<http://www.mac-forums.com/macworldexpo/the-women-of-macworld/>
Paul Kent, General Manager for Macworld Conference & Expo, said that
most of the Macworld Expo staff are taking a few well-deserved days
off after the show, so he didn't yet have statistics on the number
of female show-goers to share. However, he did comment,
"Subjectively, the audience this year seemed particularly energized,
diverse, and enthusiastic. There was a lot of growth (15 to 20
percent more attendees), so I'm thinking we'll be sharing a lot of
'new' participants at the show. I sincerely hope that female
participation maps accordingly."
Strikingly, options for buying laptop bags with more feminine
touches - many from woman-run companies - were also on the upswing,
with choices ranging from classy leathers to light-hearted fabrics
that went far beyond the usual basic black. We'll be running a
photo-infused TidBITS article about bags at the show shortly, so
stay tuned. Regrettably, as is so often the case for us women, form
took the lead over function, and I spotted only one backpack case
with a feminine design.
Women are usually welcomed at Macworld Expo, a sentiment supported
by a recent Joy of Tech poll, where readers were asked, "What
category of Mac celebrity do you like the best?" and the winner - by
a significant margin - was "It's all about the Mac chicks... sure
you might be a geek, you've still got that old need to breed."
However, the people - likely single guys - who responded to the Joy
of Tech survey seem to have missed the memo about the best way to
make women feel welcome. While we women at Macworld Expo do know how
to wield chic-looking laptop bags, whether we're out to hook up with
a Mac geek is another question entirely. When it comes to women in
the industry these days (apologies to ZZ Top), we've got Macs, and
we know how to use them.
<http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/1056poll.html>
Mac Industry Marching to a Different Beat
-----------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9413>
The Macintosh industry continues to grow and gain steam, but it's no
longer purely following in Apple's footsteps, a significant new
trend that became evident at last week's Macworld Expo in San
Francisco. The last few years of the show have all been upbeat,
energetic, and increasingly large, and this year was no exception.
But where this year's Expo diverged was in the extent to which the
exhibitors are capitalizing on the overall success of the Mac and
the iPhone but showing products and services in areas that Apple has
left more or less untouched.
As a starting point, consider Apple's own keynote announcements. The
updates to the iPhone, iPod touch, and Apple TV all underscored
Apple's ever-increasing focus on consumer electronics, and the
addition of movie rentals to the iTunes Store was the latest salvo
in Apple's battle to maintain its position as the dominant provider
of online entertainment. The MacBook Air, on the other hand,
supports Apple's core Macintosh business and may prove more
influential than its somewhat anemic specs would indicate due to the
attraction sub-notebooks have for travelling executives. Time
Capsule is interesting mostly in the way it aids Time Machine
backups; it supports the Apple backup story in ways few third-party
developers have been able to do so far.
But despite the numerous vendors showing iPod and iPhone cases at
Macworld Expo, and a wide variety of iPod-compatible speaker
systems, numerous companies exhibited products that have little to
do with Apple's primary markets.
For instance, there was much speculation before the show that Apple
would announce a tablet Mac or scaled-up iPod touch, but not only
did that not happen, another company - Axiotron - finally shipped
their long-simmering ModBook (announced at last year's Macworld
Expo), which converts a standard MacBook into the much-desired
tablet Mac. Perhaps Apple considers the tablet Mac market too much
of a niche, but the crowds around the Axiotron booth clearly wanted
to get their hands on one.
<http://axiotron.com/index.php?id=modbook>
Enterprise companies like Iron Mountain (organization-wide backup)
and IBM (corporate databases) were out in force at the show, despite
Apple's focus on the consumer world. The Iron Mountain rep told me
that the company didn't have any particular intention of creating a
Macintosh client for their backup system until their enterprise
customers started buying Apple laptops and asking to have them
backed up with the rest of the company's Windows-based computers. In
the past, companies would get into the Macintosh space because they
were passionate about the Mac; now we're seeing companies almost
forced to create Mac products purely because there is a customer
base to satisfy and money to be made.
<http://www.ironmountain.com/>
<http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/idsteam?entry=report_from_macworld>
We even saw companies like Polar Bear Farm showing iPhone
applications in advance of Apple's release of the iPhone software
development kit (SDK). This is a company that can't even use the
iPhone without jailbreaking and unlocking it, since Apple doesn't
sell the iPhone in New Zealand yet. The company was demonstrating
applications that can't be purchased, based on a business model -
how Apple will allow iPhone applications to be sold - that remains
unknown. (And no, there are no polar bears native to New Zealand -
they live only in the northern hemisphere.)
<http://www.polarbearfarm.com/>
Other companies showed products that were even further afield.
CodeFlare's TileStack.com makes it possible to create Web
applications from old HyperCard stacks; the company's HyperTalk
compiler also enables the creation of entirely new Web applications.
(For those who haven't been using the Mac as long as we've been
writing about it, HyperCard was an innovative "software erector set"
created by Bill Atkinson and distributed for a time with every Mac;
we published TidBITS in HyperCard format for the first two years.
Apple never understood the utility and popularity of HyperCard and
let it fade away many years ago despite impassioned pleas from the
HyperCard developer community.) Another company, reQall, was showing
a technology that enables you to create to-dos by voice recognition
on a toll-free telephone number (you could also use a Web site); it
could then remind you of your tasks via email, instant message, SMS,
RSS, or a Web interface. The only connection with Apple was that you
could use reQall on an iPhone - that's pretty tenuous.
<http://www.tilestack.com/>
<http://www.reqall.com/>
The industry's different beat extends to the traditional Macworld
Expo schedule as well. Although the show date has been known for at
least a year and was even a week later than normal this year, a
surprising number of companies were showing products that weren't
shipping. EMC was perhaps the most notable among this group, showing
only screenshots of Retrospect X and promising a public beta for the
third quarter of 2008. There were also plenty of other examples:
Parallels Server and VMware Fusion Server, which enable users to
virtualize multiple copies of Leopard Server, were in beta and
preview releases, respectively. DisplayLink's product for adding up
to four monitors to any Mac via USB 2.0 clearly worked, but was far
too slow for actual usage; the company anticipates a usable release
in the first half of 2008. The iTornado device for easily
transferring data between Macs and PCs (or between two Macs) is
slated to ship in March 2008. Now Software's Nighthawk update to Now
Up-to-Date & Contact is now slated for release by the middle of
2008. Iron Mountain is beta testing their Connected Backup Mac
client. And so on...
<http://forums.dantz.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/105537>
<http://parallelsvirtualization.blogspot.com/2008/01/parallels-server-open-beta-launches.html>
<http://www.displaylink.com/ces08/blog/2008/01/displaylink-mac-ready.html>
<http://www.datadrivethru.com/press/iTornado(01-08-08).pdf>
<http://www.nowsoftware.com/nighthawkSubsite/>
<http://www.ironmountain.com/digital/pc/connected.asp>
Clearly, appearing at Macworld Expo was deemed important enough to
justify the significant cost and effort, but seemingly not
sufficiently important to ensure that the products were ready in
time to be purchased at the show. Perhaps, and I realize I may be
stretching to make a point here, just as we're seeing the Mac
industry exerting an increasing independence from Apple, we're also
seeing the industry treat Macworld Expo more as face time than as
the drop-dead date for shipping new products.
In the end, seeing all these companies extending the Macintosh (and
iPhone) platform in ways that Apple hasn't is indication of the
ever-increasing strength of the industry. It has been many years
since I've seen such a broad representation of companies at
Macworld, and that's good for everyone involved: users, developers,
and even Apple itself.
Word 2008 and the Paste Plain Text Dance
----------------------------------------
by Joe Kissell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9408>
Don't get me started on Word 2008. Suffice it to say that it's about
what I expected, which is not saying much. In any case, one of the
significant changes we all saw coming was the loss of VBA (Visual
Basic for Applications) scripting. I had a few VBA macros, but
wasn't losing any sleep over the change, since I figured I could
always find another way to automate my work, or at worst switch back
to Word 2004 when needed. However, after only a few hours of using
Word 2008 I discovered how much I'd been relying on one particular
macro: a simple script that pastes whatever's on the clipboard as
plain text, without any style information.
<http://alt.cc/jk/2007/08/03/a-few-words-about-the-new-office-2008-ship-date/>
It is, of course, unforgivable that Word lacks a built-in Paste
Plain Text (or Paste and Match Style) command - even TextEdit has
one. What Microsoft expects you to do, in the event that you want
pasted text to adopt the style of the surrounding text, is to choose
Edit > Paste Special, select Unformatted Text, and click OK. If I
had to do that only once a day, it might not be too bad, but it's
something I happen to do very often, and my fingers had become
accustomed to pressing Command-Shift-V to run my little macro. The
code for that VBA macro, for anyone interested, was this:
Sub PastePlainText()
Selection.PasteSpecial Link:=False, DataType:=wdPasteText, Placement:= _
wdInLine, DisplayAsIcon:=False
End Sub
Of course, I never actually learned any VBA; back in 2003, in the
days of Word X, I created my macro simply by telling Word to start
recording my actions, choosing the Paste Special menu command,
selecting Unformatted Text, and clicking the Stop button; I then
assigned a keyboard shortcut to the resulting macro. (Incidentally,
doing the same thing in Word 2004 results in a macro that does not
in fact paste unformatted text, though you can write one that does
or use one created in an older version of Word.)
Now, in Word 2008, my goal was to reproduce that functionality using
AppleScript. Word 2008 does have pretty good AppleScript support,
after all. Unfortunately, it doesn't support recording one's actions
as I'd done previously, so I had to figure out how to write the
actual code. I assumed that wouldn't be a huge problem since I'm a
fair hand (though certainly no expert) at AppleScript, but it took
me an hour of fiddling with Word's odd implementation of this
already odd scripting language to get to the point where I thought
I'd solved the problem. I had a short script that seemed to work,
using the AppleScript command for Word's Paste Special feature, and
I even figured out how to assign a keystroke to it. Then I noticed
that whenever I used the command, it left my insertion point at the
beginning of the pasted text, rather than at the end where it should
be. Ugh. Back to the drawing board.
To make an increasingly long story somewhat shorter, the script I
ended up with after another hour's fiddling, which does in fact work
exactly the way I wanted it to, is this (copy and paste this into
Script Editor, or better yet, just download the completed script):
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/resources/2008-01/PastePlainText.zip>
tell application "Microsoft Word"
tell selection
set theClip to string of (the clipboard as record)
set newPoint to (selection start + (length of theClip))
set content of text object to theClip
set selection start to newPoint
set selection end to newPoint
end tell
end tell
It works around the insertion-point-placement problem, somewhat
awkwardly, by determining where the insertion point is (or where the
selection begins, as the case may be) before you paste, counting the
number of characters on the clipboard, and then moving the insertion
point that number of characters forward after pasting. I have a hard
time believing this is the easiest or most efficient way to
accomplish this task, though, and it could well be the case that a
more elegant solution exists. If you know of one (and have tested it
to make sure it actually works in Word 2008), drop me a line and
I'll update this article accordingly. (And yes, I know there are
oodles of third-party clipboard and macro utilities that can do this
too, but my preference was for a solution that required no extra
software.) Meanwhile, the above macro has functioned perfectly in my
testing so far, and if you're looking for an easy way to paste plain
text in Word 2008, enjoy it with my compliments.
The final step is to get this thing working via a keyboard command.
To do this, I saved the script in ~/Documents/Microsoft User
Data/Word Script Menu Items/ and gave it a name with special
characters on the end to indicate what keyboard shortcut I wanted it
to use (my old favorite, Command-Shift-V). The name I selected was
"Paste Plain Text\smV.scpt". The \s indicates that whatever
characters follow are to be interpreted as a shortcut. The m means
"Command" (I could have used other options, too, like c for
"Control"), and the capital V means Shift-V. Et voilà. Without even
having to restart Word, Command-Shift-V once again pastes plain text
at the insertion point, and I only had to waste two hours of my life
to make it happen! (I'm now wondering how many times I'll have to
use that command in the future so that the cumulative gain turns out
to be worth it. But even if I never actually recoup that investment,
I'll be less irritated every time I use Word, and that counts for
something!)
**Script Suggestions** -- Are there other common, everyday tasks in
Word that you previously accomplished with a VBA script and are
looking to recreate in AppleScript? Whether or not you already have
a solution, let me know (by sending a note to [EMAIL PROTECTED]). I'm
sure that if we put our collective heads together we can solve even
more of these pesky problems.
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/21-Jan-08
------------------------------------
by Jeff Carlson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9414>
**Eudora vs. Mac's Mail** -- A lack of authentication is the likely
culprit for a reader who can't get Eudora to work outside his home
network. (3 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1769/>
**When is a Warranty Not a Warranty?** Mark Anbinder's experience with
a failed hard drive and subsequent frustration leads to a discussion
of warranty repairs (and related horror stories). (7 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1771/>
**Dock Icons Not Default** -- For some reason, icons on a reader's
Dock have shifted. Perhaps the icon caches have become corrupted? (4
messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1772/>
**Monochrome Laser MFC to share Mac/Windows?** Readers share their
experiences with multi-function printers (don't forget to consider
the costs of toner replacements!). (9 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1773/>
**New Mac User (not until I get my Mac)** -- A person interested in
switching to the Mac is contemplating a Mac mini. Has the compact
Mac been abandoned by Apple, or is it still a worthwhile machine?
(22 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1775/>
**Broadband Internet w/o DSL or Cable** -- A reader sets up EVDO
Internet service in a house that is out of range of DSL or cable
service. (2 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1776/>
**Lost Finder sounds in Leopard** -- The sound effects in Leopard's
Finder have disappeared for a few readers. Where did they go? (4
messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1777/>
**multi-touch trackpad** -- The new multi-touch trackpad found on the
MacBook Air is impressive, but will that functionality cross over
into other Mac laptops? Are the features just in software, or does
the new trackpad include special hardware not found in other models?
(7 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1778/>
**MacBook Air** -- The MacBook Air comes with a cleaning cloth,
presumably because it has a glossy screen. Other recent Macs with
glossy screens have also included similar cloths. (14 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1779/>
**An iPod Touch question** -- The new applications available for the
iPod touch could be enough to compel a reader to finally ditch his
Palm handheld. Also, people discuss ways of storing secure passwords
on the iPhone and iPod touch. (14 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1780/>
**So, how is Time Capsule different from an Airport Extreme + Drive?**
Readers discuss Time Capsule's disk mode as well as the lack of
support for Time Machine backup functionality to a hard disk
attached to a regular AirPort Extreme. (11 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1781/>
**iTunes Movie Rentals and Apple TV Take 2** -- A reader disputes our
idea that a $99 Apple TV would be a good idea. (1 message)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1782/>
**Movie rentals** -- Do the new terms of service of iTunes movie
rentals prohibit watching movies stored on an iPod from playing on a
connected television? Or is the Apple TV the only route to the TV?
(1 message)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1783/>
**Folder actions** -- A reader tries to use a folder action to sort a
folder's icons, but the solution may lie in just setting that
folder's view preferences. (2 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1784/>
**Sharing security** -- Are connections made between Macs secure? We
look at AFP and Screen Sharing, and discuss the merits of public key
authentication. (8 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1785/>
**No CableCard for the Apple TV** -- Putting a CableCard into the
Apple TV would convince one reader to ditch his DVR, but Apple
clearly doesn't want to play along with the cable industry. (12
messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1787/>
**Time Capsule and Its Associated Rage Factor** -- Several people
bought AirPort Extreme base stations and external USB hard drives in
anticipation of Time Machine, but that feature was pulled before
Leopard's release. Is Time Capsule a worthy replacement? (5
messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1790/>
**The new Cube?** Stunning design, less power, and a price premium: is
the MacBook Air the next Power Mac G4 Cube? (20 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1792/>
**AVCHD support** -- Final Cut Express 4 can only import AVCHD video
on an Intel-based Mac, but a program called Voltaic can do the
necessary conversion on PowerPC-based Macs as well. (3 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1793/>
**Word 2008 and the Paste Plain Text Dance** -- Readers offer
suggestions for utilities that can paste unformatted text. (4
messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1794/>
$$
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