TDL Live This Week: 12/8-12/15

In case you missed it live, here's a look at our weekly roundup of Apple news, presented, as always, in a serious fashion:


Apple deletes Mac antivirus suggestion

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10111958-83.html?tag=mncol;txt

Apple removed an old item from its support site late Tuesday that urged Mac customers to use multiple antivirus utilities and now says the Mac is safe "out of the box."
"We have removed the KnowledgeBase article because it was old and inaccurate," Apple spokesperson Bill Evans said.
"The Mac is designed with built-in technologies that provide protection against malicious software and security threats right out of the box," he said. "However, since no system can be 100 percent immune from every threat, running antivirus software may offer additional protection."
Apple's previous security message in its KnowledgeBase, which serves as a tutorial for Mac users, was: "Apple encourages the widespread use of multiple antivirus utilities so that virus programmers have more than one application to circumvent, thus making the whole virus writing process more difficult."
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Confirmed: iPhone Coming to Walmart By the End of December, Regularly Priced
http://gizmodo.com/5103986/confirmed-iphone-coming-to-walmart-by-the-end-of-december-regularly-priced
Store representatives at multiple locations confirmed to the publication that employees are training to sell the handset, which will hit shelves by the end of the month. This will make Walmart the second non-mothership retail chain to sell the iPhone, and by far the largest. But what about all the $99 4GB model nonsense? It hasn't been confirmed, and still doesn't sound that likely.

Some analysts still say that the $99 iPhone will probably happen eventually, but others are specific enough to claim that a Bentonville, Arkansas location will sell the discontinued 4GB model in addition to the 8GB and 16GB versions, which have been confirmed at their normal $199 and $299 prices.

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Google Earth Browser Plugin for Mac OS X

http://db.tidbits.com/article/9918?rss

Mac users now have access to the Google Earth Browser Plugin. Some Mac users have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the plug-in since it was introduced for Windows in May 2008 and for the iPhone in October 2008. The plug-in is compatible with both PowerPC and Intel-based Macs, and works in both Safari 3.1 and later and Firefox 3.0 and later.

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Microsoft to release 'Softwear' retro clothing line

http://www.macworld.com/article/137391/2008/12/microsoft_softwear.html?lsrc=rss_main

Microsoft says it’s a “clothing line that taps the nostalgia of when PCs were just starting to change our lives,” and that it aims to “showcase the DOS days of the software company that now connects over a billion people.”

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Argentina-based OpeniMac now selling Mac clones

http://www.macworld.com/article/137388/2008/12/openimac.html?lsrc=rss_weblogs_macuser


Mmeet Argentina-based OpeniMacwho, besides clearly angling for a trademark lawsuit, is also going ahead and selling Mac OS X-based computers at prices that undercut Apple's own offerings.
Well, in Argentina, anyway, as the country doesn't have its own Apple Store, online or brick-and-mortar. But if you live in the U.S., the prices aren't really cheaper than buying a comparable Mac.
The company bills its product line with the tag “Benefits of a Mac. Price of a PC.” Two models are available: the "OpeniMac" is a $990 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo machine that also sports 2GB of memory, a 320GB SATA drive, SuperDrive, ATI Radeon HD PRO, and even a 6-in-1 memory card reader.
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Apple was 5th busiest retail site on Cyber Monday

http://apple20.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/12/07/apple-was-5th-busiest-retail-site-on-cyber-monday/


While its competitors were offering deep discounts to pull in recession-battered customers, Apple (AAPL) had already ended its Black Friday sale and by Monday was back to charging its usual premium prices for laptops, desktops and MP3 players.
Yet its online store still managed to grab the No. 5 spot in comScore’s ranking of the top 20 most visited retail sites on Monday Dec. 1, handily beating not only Dell (DELL) and Hewlett Packard (HPQ), but such full-fledged retail outlets as Best Buy (BBY), Toys “R” Us and Circuit City .

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LEARN SPANISH IN ITUNES U

From Portales: beginner’s Spanish to the advanced A Buen Puerto: Fast Forward in Spanish, you’ll find a variety of Spanish course material from the Open University on iTunes U. And once you’re conversant in Spanish, you could sample the German and French language courses, as well.

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Grey Lines Mar MacBook Air Displays

http://db.tidbits.com/article/9910?rss

Some MacBook Air users have been reporting the appearance of grey horizontal lines across the screens of their late 2008 models. Discussion threads on the issue began in early November 2008 on both Apple's discussion forums and the MacRumors forums. There have been slight variations in the description of the issue, but most accounts agree the lines are grey or white, horizontal or slightly angled, granulated or pixelated in appearance, and are very subtle. Overall the lines are said to give the screen the appearance of a piece of parchment or recycled paper. Also, the lines are said to appear at the initial boot; they do not develop over time.

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Rosetta Becomes Optional in Snow Leopard?

http://www.macrumors.com/2008/12/08/latest-mac-os-x-10-5-6-seed;-rosetta-becomes-optional-in-snow-leopard/

Separately, we've heard that the newest version of Snow Leopard makes Rosetta an optional installation. Rosetta is Apple's PowerPC emulator for their Intel Macs, allowing Intel Mac owners to run legacy software that has not been upgraded for the Intel platform. This news comes shortly after an announcement that IBM had purchased Transitive, the company behind Rosetta's technology. The final release of Snow Leopard is also rumored to require an Intel Mac, thereby being the first version of Mac OS X to drop PowerPC support.

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Three Apps Define Apple's Mobile Platform
http://blogs.eweek.com/applewatch/content/app_store/three_apps_define_apples_mobile_platform.html

News Commentary. Last week, Apple announced that the App Store had 300 million downloads and 10,000 applications. Three apps matter more.
It's not so much what they do but what they mean. These three applications define App Store, supported by _oc="null">iPhone and iPod Touch, as an emerging mobile platform. Right now, Apple has created the leading contender to replace the PC as the platform people use most.

The apps:
Amazon Mobile

Google Mobile App

Obama `08

Number of applications does not a successful platform make. Volume is important, but the sticky quality of applications/services and the ability to make real money matter more.
All successful platforms share a few common traits:
They have at least one killer application people really want

They make available a breadth of useful applications

Development tools and APIs make it easy to create good applications

Third parties make lots of money
There is a fifth attribute not common to all successful platforms, but unique to some: They make customer engagement easier, a quality that some connected gaming devices/software and some Web 2.0 platforms imbue.

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Steve Jobs participating in ad song selection
http://www.macnn.com/articles/08/12/08/jobs.picking.ad.songs/
Apple CEO Steve Jobs is himself involved in picking the songs used incompanyadvertising, a musician claims. Lars Iversen, a member of The Asteroids Galaxy Tour, notes that when "Around the Bend" was chosen for an iPod touch TV ad, a company representing the band -- Synch -- first got in touch with Apple, and then participated in a direct meeting with Jobs. The executive is said to have picked the song to use at this meeting, expressing particular enthusiasm for the music.

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HERE WE GO AGAIN... APPLE TABLET IN 2009?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10118470-37.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=News-Apple
Earlier this year CEO Steve Jobs implied Apple was watching small-device categories like tablets and Netbooks to see if they actually take off as a mega-trend, but in the meantime the company had other priorities. Mac tablet rumors stretch back for years, and in the past Jobs has quickly shot down talk of an Apple-produced competitor to Amazon's Kindle, which has been interpreted as a sign Apple was doing just that.

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Adobe and Belkin back out of Macworld, IDG not concerned
http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/12/08/adobe-and-belkin-back-out-macworld-idg-not-concerned
IDG World Expo isn't too concerned, or so it claims. A spokesperson issued this statement:

While Adobe has decided to shift its focus at for Macworld this year, the company will still be actively participating in the event -- several members of the company's product team will be involved in Macworld tracks, including a full day of CS4 demo sessions with Adobe evangelists on Wednesday, January 7.

Every year we see a certain percentage of exhibitors pull out of the event for their own business reasons. In this economic climate, it shouldn’t be a surprise to see this. The important thing to understand is that Macworld Conference & Expo 2009 will be similar in size to last year’s event and attendees will continue to visit nearly 500 great Mac product vendors on our exhibit floors.

TDL Live This week: (7/28)

It's a busy week in Apple news and rumors. TDL Live has you covered:

Something that maybe the Zune did right

As iPod touch and iPhone users stare at the wonders in the new app store, I can't help but wonder if maybe the masterminds behind the Zune may have been onto something.. Hear me out...

One of the most panned features of the Zune is the ability to "squirt" songs (up to three) to another user. They can then listen to those songs in a limited fashion (very limited). Now that the iTunes App store is open, I can't help but notice one major flaw: there's no way to preview apps before buying.

What if a friend downloaded a program they said you had to buy, and you could try it on your iPod/iPhone for a limited time first? It would be a way for app developers and Apple to generate more interest(and revenue) in good apps, and give users a "social" way to try programs before buying them.

So whattya say.. Let's join "the social."

TDL Live This week: (6/30)

After a week off, last night's edition of TDL was particularly ridiculous, but we managed to cover all the important Apple news and rumors too:

If Apple didn't exist...

I know, I know, it's a broad title, and could go in a million different directions, so let's just think about portable devices today. Wipe Apple off the map. Would we be living in an alternative universe where the Zune is the top music player? Or would we still be going along buying CDs? Would anyone be manufacturing mp3 players or phones with sealed batteries (and thinking about it, does anyone else do this now?). Who would have the most talked about cell phone right now, and would it have a touch screen? Would Sony have remained the dominant name in portable music? Would minidiscs become the next big format?
Just some food for thought to start your Wednesday.

Zune juggernaut breaks into more DRM, NBC hot to trot

How do you make the Zune better? Well, naturally you add the ability for it to police your content for anything pirated. What's so wrong with that? You shouldn't be pirating music or videos, has the RIAA not taught you anything!?!

The story goes that NBC abandoned ship because of Apples tight leash on pricing and their unwillingness to police pirated material. Apparently Microsoft is okay with NBC selling their content for the same price as Apple would have just as long as Microsoft absorbs the difference in cost between that price and the price NBC wants to sell it for. Lets look at that for a moment. If Apple was going to sell an episode of Heroes for $1.99, and NBC wanted to sell that same episode for $6.99 then Microsoft is basically paying NBC $5.00 for each download. I really can't imagine why Apple wouldn't want to do that . . . seems like a GREAT business deal.

As if that decision wasn't confusing enough, Microsoft is working on what I can only assume will be an update to it's desktop software, to detect bootleg media and disallow it from being transfered to the device.

My question: How does it know? This is the age old question of the thermos. The thermos keeps hot stuff hot and cold stuff cold . . . but how does it know? When I go out and purchase a DVD and use good old handbrake to make a legitimate backup how is the software going to recognize this as being legitimate and allow me to put it on my Zune (DISCLAIMER: I don't have a Zune, don't want a Zune, and this whole thing seems like a giant disaster)?

As you can see the move to police your library raises all kinds of concerns. I don't see how this approach really sells more of anything for Microsoft. It seems like they're going to lose money on each download AND push the Zune in a less desirable direction (as if poop brown wasn't enough). I think I'll just keep my iPod.

Is/Was Microsoft Ever Serious With The Zune?

Via engadget comes word of a shocking development in the mp3 player world. Microsoft is bringing the Zune to Canada. More than a year after its release in America, the Zune is headed north.

This news came as I surprise to me, as I had assumed Microsoft's "iPod killer" was already available everywhere. After all, if you had more cash in the bank than any other computer company, (Apple's gaining fast though) an installed userbase of your operating system in the hundreds of millions, and you wanted to obliterate Apple, wouldn't you at least make your product widely available? You would, unless you're really not that serious.

It seems like the Zune has done more harm to marketshare of iPod competitors, than the iPod itself. Where Microsoft's "Plays for Sure" plan was aimed at creating an army of tech companies to take on Apple, it seems now Microsoft is content to cannibalize those partners' sales. This is the Zune we're talking about. It would be one thing if it were a revolutionary device, like the iPhone. Something like that can take time, and can require a slow roll-out to get it right. But to have the most engineers, the most money, and the most PC marketshare, and to still take 18 months to get your product to Canada? Clearly someone's not really trying.