iPod Nano 2G 1.1.1 Update Released

The update can be obtained via iTunes.

From digg:
"Notes for the firmware say bug fixes and support for additional Nike+iPod voice packs."

XCode 2.4.1 Released

XCode is available for download on the ADC Member Site Downloads section.

Changelog:
Xcode 2.4.1 addresses several issues in DWARF debugging and improves overall stability and security. It is recommended that all Xcode users install this update.

iTunes 7.0.2 Released

Download here, or through Software Update.

What’s New in this Version
iTunes 7.0.2 adds support for the Second Generation iPod shuffle and addresses a variety of stability and performance issues found in iTunes 7 and 7.0.1.

Boot Camp Public Beta 1.1.2 Update

Get the update here.

Changelog:

Changes in Boot Camp 1.1.2 beta

Boot Camp 1.1.2 beta contains several updates and is intended for all new and previous Boot Camp beta users.

Boot Camp 1.1.2 beta includes:

* Support for the latest Intel-based Macintosh computers
* Easier partitioning using presets for popular sizes
* Ability to install Windows XP on any internal disk
* Support for built-in iSight cameras
* Support for built-in microphones
* Support for the Apple USB Modem
* Trackpad scrolling and right-click support on Apple Laptops
* Improved Apple keyboard support including Delete, PrintScreen, NumLock, and ScrollLock keys
* Improved International Apple keyboard support

iSight is End Of Life

The guys over a Hardmac have discovered that the iSight is end of life. They claim that the revised iSight will be a USB 2.0 version that may contain an integrated IR receiver and be bundled with an Apple Remote. This would make a lot of sense considering that both a webcam and an IR receiver are required to run Photo Booth and Front Row respectively. They claim a January 2007 release; however, I would like to see a release in time for the holidays. Another product I'd like to see updated is the Airport Express. With so many of these failing and the (soon-to-be-official) N standard, it's about time they get a refresh as well.

FairPlay DRM Hack Being Sold

I appears that DVD Jon has broken Apple's FairPlay DRM encryption again. Not only that, but he is apparently marketing this code that circumvents FairPlay to other companies.

What does this mean? Using the code that DVD Jon has developed will enable people to load music they have purchased from the iTunes Store on as many computers as they want. Also, music purchased from the iTunes Store will not only be limited to use on iTunes and iPods, but will extend to other MP3 devices as well.

Thus, this is good news for companies who produce other MP3 devices, their users, and possibly even Apple. Many users do not want DRM-laden music, and this "hack" enables people without an iPod to utilize the iTunes Store. The best idea for Apple in my opinion would be to turn a blind eye to this, and not release iTunes updates that renders this new development moot.

Japan's Softbank offering free iPods

Much thanks to John for the welcome. I'm currently studying in Tokyo, Japan. My 17" MacBook Pro is currently my only computer while I'm in Japan, and I'm very happy with it - being a "switcher" after using PCs for most of my life.

I will say that the Apple scene isn't as big in Japan as it is in the US or Europe, but in Tokyo it is indeed accessible, and there are Japanese magazines dedicated to Macs. The iPod, of course, is the most well-known Apple product here in Japan.

Anyway, Softbank (formerly Vodafone) has started to offer free iPods to people who sign up with Softbank for more than 26 months. In addition, Softbank has offered free calls to other Softbank subscribers in a push to gain market share in the very competitive cellphone market of Japan.

Personally, I have have AU by KDDI, and their "Lismo" music service has no support for Macs, despite being the first cell-phone music service in Japan. Also my W41CA cellphone has no driver (or anything else) support in OSX.

Welcome New Author

Shambler (a good friend of mine) will be helping around mactastic starting today. He is currently in Japan and will be posting mac news from Japan (but not limited to Japanese news). Welcome aboard Shambler.

On another note, I'll be out of town Thursday through Sunday. I'll be attending a National Conference in Tampa, FL (I'm from Irvine/Los Angeles). I may or may not update the site depending on how busy I am on those days.

MacBook Pro (Core 2 Duo) Released

Predictions on this release were finally accurate. Order your 64-bit Core 2 Duo MacBook Pros!

Firefox 2.0 Final

Firefox 2.0 is now final on OS X (or so claims a member on digg.com).

Here is the download link.

I have yet to download this build. If someone has time to download and check the build information, please post a comment. Thanks!

Skype 2.0 Final (Gold)...worth the update?

Good and bad news from the folks over at Skype. Skype has now been updated to version 2.0.0.6. However, this was done at the expense of video quality. If you notice in the changelog below, video was reduced to 160x120 on ALL PowerPC machines. This includes older G3s, the now obsolete G4s, and the recently replaced G5s. This is terrible news. Numerous people are complaining on the forums (with reason). A PPC G3 cannot be compared to the power of a G5. There is no need to reduce the video quality on ALL PPC machines simply because a few older macs are unable to handle the video quality. My iBook G4 (1.33 GHz) has never had trouble with any of the Skype with Video Betas. This is a a very lazy move on Skype's part. They should have included an "enable/disable high quality video" option.

Changelog:

23.10.2006: Skype for Mac version 2.0.0.6

* change: Resolution of outgoing Video calls on PowerPC reduced to 160x120 (Reducing CPU load on these machines)
* improvement: Updated Video Engine codecs

In Search of Contributors

Firstly, I'd like to thank everyone who has visited my site for, well, visiting my site. I never imagined I would get as many visitors as I have these past 5 months. I originally started this site to inform my friends when mac-related software updates were available and to share some cool findings with them. However, mactastic soon became listed as a top search result on google for various search terms. This plus some minor diggs on digg.com for news on my site helped spread the word. Some "collaboration" (by means of comment-posting) with Andrew Escobar regarding Front Row also brought in a lot of traffic. In any case, thanks again everybody!

Now, onto the main purpose of this post. I'm a 4th-year Computer Engineering major, and I'm becoming increasingly busy these days. I'm looking for a contributor or co-author for mactastic. If you feel that you can contribute quality posts on a weekly basis, please contact me. I'll continue to post on mactastic, but it would be nice if somebody would like to join. Obviously, I don't have the time to make a fancy Web 2.0-ish website (hence blogger). But if you'd like to udpate the site look, feel free to contact me about that as well.

Also, I'm looking for somebody who'd like to translate my site into Japanese. I can do this myself, but I really do not have the time to go through all my posts and translate them. This isn't a major necessity, but I would like to extend my reach into the Japanese Mac community. Perhaps mactastic:Japan? Looking forward to the emails! Thanks, guys!

AndrewEscobar.com Down

As two people on mactastic have mentioned already, AndrewEscobar.com is currently down. The site has been down this past week and posisbly longer than that. The cached version of his site on google is not current, either. In the meantime, my instructions on how to install Front Row on 10.4.8 are still available. I have not checked the links to the latest enabler, but I will assume they are not working (as the enabler is located on Andrew Escobar's site). I have not received any word from Andrew explaining why is site is down nor when it will be back up. Fear, not! (soft of) I have uploaded Front Row Enabler 1.3.5 (along with several apps constantly being requested via email).

So here they are:

Front Row Enabler 1.3.5
Photo Booth 1.2
iSync 3.0

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact me.

Enjoy!

Screenshots of latest Leopard Build

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (tuaw) has posted screenshots of the latest leopard build. Screen shots include the updated iCal interface (brushed metal is GONE!), parental controls, icon previews, and anti-phishing capabilities of Safari.

Camino 1.1 Alpha 1 Released for testing

"Camino 1.1 Alpha 1 is a preview release of what will become Camino 1.1."

Known Issues

* All known issues in Camino 1.0.3 also exist in Camino 1.1 Alpha 1.
* Some users have reported that their bookmarks have disappeared when relaunching Camino and that Camino’s bookmarks backup file is corrupted. Users are advised to make regular copies of their bookmarks.
* Some users have experienced a situation where pages would appear not to load after clicking on a link. In this case, resizing the browser window will cause the page to display properly.

Note: Before using this alpha version of Camino, create a backup copy of your profile folder (~/Library/Application Support/Camino/).

Major New Features

The following major features have been added to Camino 1.1 Alpha 1 and will be in Camino 1.1 when it is released. The full release notes are also available.

Note: Some of these features are not yet completely implemented.

* OS Support: Camino now only supports Mac OS X 10.3 and above.
* Feed handoff: Camino now puts a feed icon in the location bar, allowing users to hand off RSS/Atom feeds to their default feed reader.
* Spell-checking: Camino now has built-in spell-checking, which is on by default for multi-line text fields.
* Pop-up Blocking: Camino now blocks pop-ups by default. In addition, Camino has a brand new pop-up blocking notification which is more visible to users.
* Single Window Mode: Camino can now force links that would open in new windows to open in new tabs instead.
* Tab Jumpback: When closing a newly created foreground tab, Camino now jumps back to the previously selected tab if the user has not manually changed tabs.
* Download Manager: A new optional toolbar icon allows users to send the selected download to the trash. In addition, two new preferences were added: one to remove successfully completed downloads automatically and one to clear the download list upon quitting Camino.
* Search: Users can now resize the toolbar search field. In addition, Camino now has a new context menu option that performs a search with the selected text using the default search engine.
* Menus: Camino’s menu layout has been refined, and the “Go” menu has been renamed to “History.”
* Portable: Users can now specify a custom profile location, allowing Camino to be run with a profile stored on memory sticks or other portable devices.
* Bookmar Bar Access: Cmd-1 through Cmd-9 are now shortcuts for opening the first 9 bookmarks or tab groups in the Bookmark Bar.

Firefox 2.0 RC 3 Released

The new release candidate can be obtained on Mozilla's Firefox Developer page. Release notes are available as well.

Chax 1.4.6 Released and Now Open Source

The final version of Chax 1.4.6 has been released. Moreover, Chax is now open source under the MIT license.

Changelog:
* (New) Tear-off tabs allow for quick separation of chats through drag-and-drop
* (New) Options to show the AIM/Jabber/Bonjour contact lists when clicking the iChat dock icon
* (New) Activity log data can now be exported as an HTML table
* (Feature improvement) Tab overflow menu now animates when a new message has been received that is not visible
* (New) Polish localization, thanks to Piotr Chyliński
* (Feature improvement) Activity log now periodically saves to disk every hour
* (Bug) Log search results now sort properly
* (Bug) Using nicknames while sorting by availability and first name now works properly
* (Bug) Tabs now close in the correct order after being rearranged
* (Bug) Fixed visual problems when disabling close buttons on tabs
* (Bug) Improved iChat quit speed
* (Preference change) Confirm quit option moved from the General preferences tab to the Chats tab
* (Removed) “Move to Window” and “Move to Tab” options removed in favor of tear-off tabs

Apple Remote + KeySpan DMR IR Receiver

jon doe over at AndrewEscobar.com posted an interesting link on how to use the Apple Remote + the KeySpan DMR IR Receiver on a mac with no built-in receiver to control Front Row. Instructions can be found at IBALL.

Front Row on Mac Pro

Edward (AndrewEscobar.com visitor) posted instructions on how to install Front Row on a Mac Pro. I'm not sure if anybody reading this site actually owns a Mac Pro, but I figured I should share my find nonetheless. Front Row is actually already installed on Mac Pros; Edwards instructions show you how to enable the already-installed software. See his instructions here. Good job, Edward! I'm sure many Mac Pro users will be happy to enable Front Row on their machines thanks to your fix!

Microsoft Messenger for Mac 6.0.1 Update

There are no release notes with this update, but it's safe to assume that it just contains security and/or bug fixes. The udpate is available on Microsoft's Mactopia site.

Microsoft Office 2004 Update

A new update (~59MB) has been released by Microsoft for Office 2004. The update features bugfixes:

"This update contains several updates to enhance security and stability, including fixes for vulnerabilities that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer's memory with malicious code. In addition, this update includes all of the improvements released in all previous Office 2004 updates."

The update can be obtained via Microsoft's "Microsoft AutoUpdate" utility, which is installed alongside Office 2004. Alternatively, the update can be downloaded from Microsoft's Mactopia site.

Chax 1.4.6 beta 3

Chax is currently at version 1.4.6 beta 3. I was unaware that version 1.4.6 was already in beta stages. This version brings great new features and bugfixes to iChat.

Changelog:
(Bug) Sheets now display properly after a tab is torn off
(Bug) Fixed more crashes related to tear-off tabs
(Bug) Fixed more minor cosmetic issues with disabling close buttons on tabs
(Bug) Quitting iChat should now be much faster
(New) Added an option to disable tear-off tabs
“Move to Window” and “Move to Tab” options removed in favor of tear-off tabs

Firefox 2 RC2 Out!

Get the new Release Candidate here.

Release notes are available here.

Skype 2.0.0.3 Beta Released

A minor update (bugfix) to Skype 2.0 Beta has been released. Get version 2.0.0.3 here.

Changelog:
bugfix: Improper handling of URI arguments Skype Security Bulletin SKYPE-SB/2006-002

How to Install Front Row 1.3 on OS X 10.4.8 + Wirless Mighty Mouse (UPDATED)

According to James, who submiited a comment over at Andrew Escobar's blog, when you install the updated Mighty Mouse drivers, it changes the bezel files in the following two folders, which are not common to ANY version of OS X 10.4.X:

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/BezelServices.framework/
/System/Library/LoginPlugins/BezelServices.loginPlugin/

So why the change with the new drivers? And why do the new drivers still work after reverting these files back to the standard OS X 10.4.8 versions? James states that it simply adds bezels that activate when your Wireless Mighty Mouse is connected or disconnected. That's it! So that would explain why Andrew Escobar's patch has been corrupting these files! Of course, Andrew Escobar will be working on a patch to support the newer bezel services for the Wireless Mighty Mouse. Until then, the fix will have your system working nearly perfectly! The only thing missing will be a "Mouse Connected" Bezel when you connect the Wireless Mighty Mouse. The "Disconncted" bezel is still working, though. (What is a bezel? It's that white overlay when something happens to your system. i.e. indicator when adjusting volume).

So how do I get this working?

This will work for users with AND without previous versions of Front Row installed. Just follow it exactly. Mixing up some steps actually MAY DAMAGE YOUR SYSTEM and give you a system hang. Trust me. So follow them exactly.

1. (If you have a Wireless Mighty Mouse) Go ahead and install the drivers included on the CD.
2. (Borrowed/Adapted from Andrew Escobar. Original location here).
a. Download Mac OS X Update 10.4.8 Combo PPC from Apple.
b. Open the disk image
c. Download Pacifist and copy application to the Application folder.
d. Use Pacifist to open the Mac OS X Update Installer package file (which ends in .pkg)
e. Search for “bezel” and install only these two specific files folders:
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/BezelServices.framework/
/System/Library/LoginPlugins/BezelServices.loginPlugin/
f. Restart.
3. Download Front Row Update 1.3
4. Download Front Row Enabler 1.3.5
5. Open Front Row Enabler and Enable Installation
6. Open Front Row 1.3.5 Disk Image and place the package on your DESKTOP and install
7. Open Front Row Enabler and select Enable
8. Restart and Enjoy Front Row 1.3 with the new blue iTunes icon (Don't forget to enable the Front Row keyboard shortcut and Sound Preference in their respective preferences panes)

Any questions or comments, feel free to leave a comment or email me.

Front Row Enabler for OS X 10.4.8

Andrew Escobar has released an updated Enabler (1.3.5) that supports only the latest update to OS X, 10.4.8, but not the updated Wireless Mighty Mouse drivers. There's not much to say about this Enabler other than it works great and enables the installation of Front Row 1.3 on unsupported Macs running OS X 10.4.8.

-EDIT-
From what I've seen in the comments on Andrew's Site regarding the updated Enabler, this enabler still suffers from not supporting the updated BezelServices files added by the Wireless Mighty Mouse drivers. So the fix I posted a while back (see here) still applies to this enabler. Except, you will have to use 10.4.8 instead of 10.4.7 and enabler 1.3.5 instead of 1.3. I'll re-post the ammended instructions.

Nic over at Andrew Escobar's site provided this information (which I previously mentioned in my fix as well): " Only side effect if you are a Bluetooth MM user is that the Bluetooth MM connected bezel no longer shows up though the disconnected one still does (thats the important one right :D)."

OS X 10.4.8 Update Breaks Front Row on Unsupported Macs

The update breaks Front Row on unsupported Macs (i.e. those that have used Andrew Escobar's Front Row Enabler). The reason being is that it appears that the files that were updated by the Wireless Mighty Mouse driver are updated by the 10.4.8 update as well. Andrew is now working on patching these updated files so that Front Row can be installed on 10.4.8 machines. In the meantime, DO NOT use the Front Row Enabler NOR my fix if you have updated to 10.4.8. You have been warned. Here's to hoping for a quick release of an updated Enabler! Good luck Andrew!