So I didn’t do so well this time. Surprisingly there wasn’t much about the computers at all. In fact the Apple Computer even took the time to remove the ‘computer’ part from its name. The key note had two notables; the AppleTV and iPhone.

AppleTV
There was a sneak peak of this at the last Apple Keynote, so this is not much of a surprise. What we have learned is that it will be shipping at the end of February for $299.00 This device will allow you to view music from iTunes, share movies, photos and other media files over B/G/N wireless networks as well as wired networks. 40GB seems to be the only hard drive option right now, but give that some time.
The interface is simply stunning the more I see it. I hope Macintosh’s get the interface in a future release of FrontRow

More here: AppleTV

iPhone
The most heavily anticipated product for the last year. the iPhone is Apple step into the mobile market. Take pieces of OS-X, and full touchscreen, a little iPod and a little bit of Blackberry and its basically the iPhone. 4gb and 8gb will be available in June for $500 and $600. 6 months to wait and guess what all the features will include. It is simply not fair for Apple to tease everyone like this, but it looks amazing.

We know it will feature a full email capabilities, with attachment support for word, pdf, images, excel, etc. A built in Camera phone at 2MB will sync with iPhoto. The phone will utilize your Address book for storing numbers and other contact information. Lastly it running an enhanced version of safari!

Check out the quick tours here: Apple iPhone

Well here are my predictions for MacWorld 07′s Keynote:

There you go. For those that don’t find the Keynote that interesting, try it with the MacWorld Drinking Game.

So now that I’m done with that, it is time for me to curl up next to the fireplace with Clarus, my MacBookPro on my lap and watch last years Keynote.

1. Quick Review of Quarterly Financials - CHECK!
2. Review of Nike+iPod, Mighty Mouse, and MacBooks.- CHECK on MacBooks!
3. Preview of Leopard & Ship Date- CHECK! Spring 07, sucks…
4. MacPro Series of computer (Replace G5 PowerMac Towers) - CHECK! But I love my DualG5 still.
5. MacPro Server like of xServe type servers and RAID.- CHECK!

The best is apple has increased the contrast ratio and dropped the prices. The 24in looks really tempting right now… but the 30in would have a nice home too…

shane

Anyhow… I was browsing sites again… and bam! There Hal is again. This time he’s on the homepage of MacMods. Very Cool!

More Pictures…

Shane

Any like all other MacGeeks, I have my predictions:

1. Quick Review of Quarterly Financials
2. Review of Nike+iPod, Mighty Mouse, and MacBooks.
3. Preview of Leopard & Ship Date
4. MacPro Series of computer (Replace G5 PowerMac Towers)
5. MacPro Server like of xServe type servers and RAID.

Perhaps I’ll be right… perhaps wrong. I’m not buying into the rumors of the iPhone, or new displays. I think the focus will be on Panther (10.5) the Universal Apps and the conversion from IBM to Intel Processors. I will say if they do release new displays with iSight, I will be looking for a used or refurb 24 in. or 30 in. I guess time will tell.

Shane

In my IT days, we couldn’t of survived with out RAdmin. A nice VNC (Virtual Network Computer) server-client software that allowed us to take control of remote computers. This was essential for traveling associates on the road. We also used it to connect with our multiple servers, run updates and mess with people browsing match.com personals. I wanted something similar now that my G5 has become a backup server, and my Mini runs without a keyboard or mouse. Apple has their solution, Remote Desktop 3, but at $300 it was far to pricey for my shoe string budget of nothing.

Enter Chicken of VNC. Chicken of VNC is the Client portion of the Server-Client relationship of this project. The server side of the equation we can use Apple’s Remote Desktop Server, this is free from Apple.

First you need to configure the remote computes. To do this you must set your preferences. System Preferences -> Sharing -> Apple Remote Desktop. This must be enabled. Then enable VNC clients to connect with a password. Provide the password and remember it, you’ll need it later. Close the preferences and your done with the server side.

Install Chicken of VNC, and open a new connection. You should get a screen similar to this. As you can see it searched for computers running VNC. This includes any type of system with VNC enabled, including PC’s. Enter the password you provided earlier, and connect. On my list you can see

Poof! Magically, the screen of the other computer appears on yours. You can now run remote functions, such as software updates, and other tasks. Its a pretty slick set up, especially for people that have multiple computers and don’t want to have monitors and keyboards everywhere.

1. Intel Macs will be running Windows Applications
2. Apple is providing drivers for Windows
3. Stock rose 8% almost immediately.
4. Running Windows XP on aMac still leaves you vulnerable to standard Windows Viruses, spyware, etc.
5. Apple is celebrating its 30th year with a bang!
6. No more… well Windows has more applications arguements
7. No more… well Windows has more games arguements

They raised the price $100 but I believe its justified considering the Mini now includes an Airport/Bluetooth card and iLife ’06.

VG Cats – Updated Mondays

In related website news check out Steve’s Outfit (http://www.stevesoutfit.com/)

A quick and easy website where you can buy steve’s out fit. Perfect for halloween, MUG Meeting or your next Apple Special Announcement Party! Looking beneath the fun, those Amazon Referhal likes must be nice.

Shane

Here we go!

• AtomicParsley
  This application that started it all. It was almost a year ago when AtomicParsley first showed up. It has improved its tagging abilities and its opensource code has brought about many interfaces on both PC and Mac platforms. Now, AtomicParsley was not designed with a user interface and it strictly a command line tagging tool. So if you don’t mind getting dirty in code its a great utility. Downsides is its non-exisiting batch capabilities and GUI. It is however the only utility to be able to overwrite the original document, so you don’t have temp files everywhere and potential duplicates in iTunes.
  
• ID Infiltr8
  This application was designed on AtonicParsley’s MP3 ID3 tagging abilities. Infiltrate’ batch process is great if you want to change individual tags (like track number, song name, etc.) for multiple files. The downside is that you may have to enter common information (such as artist, album) for each. For this reason I would probably recommend iTunes for editing the ID tags, for the common tags. Lastly IDInfiltr8 is designed to work on OS-X 10.4+
• vID Infiltr8
  Brought to you from the fine makers of IDInfiltr8 comes vID Infiltr8 (the v stands for video). This tagger is the compliment to IDInfilitr8; concentrating on the tagging of video files. Once again this tagger allows for the batch editing of individual files. Common tags will be have to be entered manually, as it doesn’t carry common tags from file to file. Another feature missing in other taggers is the artwork. Yes video can have artwork (even though FrontRow ignores it) This application is now my favorite when it comes to tagging files. Its easy to use and I like that I can skip between files, modify their tags, before the actually tagging process begins. This application is also designed for Mac OS X 10.4 +.
• Lostify
  My previous favorite tagger, is awesome. It gives you all the options available for a video file, including the artist and album fields which are important for Music Videos. The lock cell feature is perfect for carrying common data from one file to the other. The downside, while being able to do a batch of files and carry common data, Losity embeds the files one at a time, which can make tagging files a long process. The latest version of Losity 3.2 is up-to-date with the latest built of AtomicPasley, and it eliminated the Overwrite option which was flakey at best in previous version. Another advantage of Lostify is that it will work with Panther(OS-X 10.3.9) however FrontRow will not, so the advantage is trivial on a FrontRow Tips page.
• Parsley Is Atomicly Delicious
  The Best GUI interface goes to this application. The no-nonsense clean PAD is great for modifying individual video files. Selecting the video type bring up the relevant tags for that file, so your not inundated with fields. Streamline to only include present relevant tags, PAD’s only drawbacks is its inability to do batches. The overwrite original option didn’t work for me, but this seems to be a draw back for all the applications.