Beatles May Soon Appear on iTunes

Fortune Magazone and CNN are reporting that iTunes is close to a deal to bring the Beatles catalog online. While the details are still in the works, the plans are to have the Beatles exclusivley on iTunes for some period of time and possibly a Beatles branded iPod and iTunes commercials are in the works. Apple is said to be fronting Apple Corps significant capital for a marketing campaign when the catalog goes live.Fortune is reporting that Steve Jobs, a long time Beatle fan is personally involved in the negotiations.

MacWorld: Core 2 Duo Switch Cools MacBooks

www.macworld.com—index.php

Testing by Macworld Lab found that the move from a Core Duo chip to a next-generation Core 2 Duo processor decreased the MacBook’s external temperature by about 5 degrees,

Using an infrared thermometer to measure each of the Core 2 Duo-powered MacBooks in two “hot spots”—the bar above the F-keys and the area surrounding the battery. The black 13-inch 2GHz MacBook peaked at 95 degrees in the area near the battery and 100.7 degrees above the keyboard. The white 2GHz MacBook got a little hotter, with high temperatures of 95.4 and 101.5 degrees, respectively

iPod-Airline Integration?

www.apple.com—14ipod.html

Last week Apple announced it was teaming up with Air France, Continental, Delta, Emirates, KLM and United to deliver the first seamless integration between iPod® and in-flight entertainment systems. These six airlines will begin offering their passengers iPod seat connections which power and charge their iPods during flight and allow the video content on their iPods to be viewed on the seat back displays. The service was to be available starting in mid-07.

However, Reuters reports that that Air France is, at least partially, denying Apple's announcement stating: "Apple is a partner of Air France but it is completely premature on this date of speaking about such a project"

translate.google.com—translate

New Shuffle Sales Exceeding Supply Black Nanos Trailing

www.appleinsider.com—article.php

Apple Computer's second-generation iPod shuffle is in extremely high demand this month with sales tracking in excess of 5 million for the quarter according to Apple Insider. In fact, the Shuffle has recently eclipsed the iPod nano by rising to the forefront of the company's top seller list.

Apple Releases New Ad for iPod Shuffle "Put Some Music On" features the shuffle's wearability.

www.apple.com—ads

Based on a series of checks, Apple's most popular second-generation iPod nano is its $199 silver 4GB model, followed closely by the similarly colored 2GB player at $149. Next in line at the checkout counters are $199 blue and green 4GB nanos, which consumers are pocketing at a comparable rate.
Apple's $199 pink 4GB iPod nano is the least popular candy-colored model, while sales of the 8GB black player trail all other second-generation iPod nano

Apple's New Retail Strageties

www.appleinsider.com—article.php

Help Me, Rhonda

mong the many enhancements is a new software assistant called "Rhonda" -- reportedly inspired by the Beach Boy's hit track "Help Me, Rhonda" -- that will be installed on the desktop of all Mac computers on display at Apple retail stores.
While exploring a Mac on display, customers will be able to click on a portion of screen to summons help from an authorized Apple sales person on the retail store floor. The Rhonda software will illuminate the Mac's display screen in bright green, attracting the attention of the nearest Mac specialist who will then greet the shopper.

Two Minute Test-Drive

Apple is also introducing a new retail process called a "Two-minute Test Drive." The concise overview will help facilitate to potential Mac customers the many strong points of the Mac platform, including such aspects as a quick Microsoft Word demo.

Talk Mac

Talk Mac offers shoppers the opportunity to schedule up to a one hour appointment with an in-store Mac specialist to learn about the Mac platform before making their computer purchases. Customers interested in the service can simply swing by their local Apple retail store and request a Talk Mac Card that will allow them to schedule the free consultation.

Taking Talk Mac a step further, Apple early next year will extend upon the concept by allowing customers to schedule a one-on-one appointment with a Mac specialist before the store even opens for business, people familiar with the service say. The Mac specialist will act as the customer's 'personal shopper,' touring the traffic-free retail store, answering questions and offering buying advice to meet the customer's needs, those same people say.

3 New 'Get a Mac Ads"

www.apple.com—getamac

Gift Exchange

Sales Pitch

Meant for Work

Wal-Mart Launches Digital Movie Downloads

Wal-Mart Stores on Tuesday announced the launch its own video downloads service beginning with an exclusive "Superman Returns" DVD bundle containing a video download option with purchase of the physical DVD. With the purchase of the "Superman Returns" physical DVD, Wal-Mart said customers can also choose from three video download format options -- $1.97 for portable devices, $2.97 for PCs/laptops, and $3.97 for both portable players and PC/laptops.

Wal-Mart said it will also test additional DVD bundles as well as offer a beta version of a video downloads service. The beta launch will feature both movie and television content from a number of studios and TV networks.

Movie Studios Seek To Stop Loading DVD Content on iPods

www.macworld.co.uk—index.cfm

group of movie studios has filed a lawsuit against tiny iPod service firm Load 'N Go Video, demanding that the latter party stops loading DVDs onto iPods.
Load 'N Go Video sells DVDs and iPods and loads the movies onto the iPods for customers for an extra fee. Customers then receive the iPod and the DVD they then legally own in a package through the mail.
Paramount Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Studios, Warner Bros Entertainment, Disney Enterprises, Columbia TriStar Television and Columbia Pictures are claiming that ripping the DVD to the iPod is a case of copyright infringement.

A movie studio spokesperson denied this, saying the suit isn't against consumers, but against a business that is offering unlawful DVD-ripping services.

www.hollywoodreporter.com—e3id7ffa77ebb44dca95545a8046f013a50

The Hollywood Reporter, it seems "the U.S. Copyright Office has rejected an exemption that would have allowed owners of DVDs to legally copy movies for use on Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod and other music players." However, film professors can "copy snippets from DVDs for educational compilations, the Copyright Office said Wednesday."

These rules will go into effect Monday, November 27 and last for 3 years.

Quark 7 Offers Cross-Platform Licensing

www.macnn.com—quark.7.licensing.changes

“In an effort to provide our customers with the most efficient and effective way to use QuarkXPress at home and at work, we are providing platform-independent licensing,” said Jürgen Kurz, Quark senior vice president of desktop products.

Because of another recent change regarding Quark licenses, previous versions of QuarkXPress can run under the same license when users are upgrading to QuarkXPress 7. In connection with the change, separate part numbers for the Mac OS and Windows versions of QuarkXPress 7 and the part codes for platform cross-grades are no longer required and will be phased out.

More Rumors of Apple Tablet

www.smarthouse.com.au—Display_Panels

Smarthouse.com.au claims that Apple has a full working prototype of a Mac tablet PC within their labs with plans for a 2007 launch.

According to sources in Taiwan, the targets for this unreleased Mac tablet are expected to be home and education markets rather than the enterprise market.
The Mac tablet has been designed to handle third party applications such as home automation software that will allow users to control lighting, audio, entertainment devices and security feeds. It also acts as a full blown PC has wireless linking for a new generation of Wireless Hi Fi speakers that are currently being tested by Apple.
The Intel-based Tablet Mac would also offer a docking station to provide HDMI output to the appropriate screen. Beyond using the technology documented in Apple's recent patent applications for touch-screen/tablet Macs, Apple is reportedly licensing at least three patents from 3rd party companies.

More on iPhone

iPod Manufacturer Reportedly Wins "iPhone" Contract

www.thinksecret.com—0611honhaiphone.html

Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision, which has long manufactured a number of Apple products including the iPod, has reportedly won a contract to manufacture 12 million mobile phone handsets for Apple

Apple Insider reports the phone has been released to manufacturing and a second "iChat phone" is coming in the near future. Research analyst Shaw Wu told clients on Monday. "We believe it will focus initially on mobile IM as opposed to e-mail." Wu said it's his belief that Apple is fast approaching a resolution to its market strategy and the he remains high that the company's first cell phone will be released in 2007.

www.appleinsider.com—article.php

Motorola Dumps iTunes in latest RAZR

Motorola has reportedly dumped the music platform from its newest RAZR, reports. Dubbed the RAZR “R,” the new phone is equipped with MP3 capabilities, so users will not be left out in the cold. Cingular will continue to sell the iTunes enabled phones, but it’s not known whether they will stop once supplies dry up,

Microsoft's Zune Released- No One Seems to Care

www.macsimumnews.com—analyst_zune_not_affecting_ipod_sales

Incompatibilities

Zune will only play protected content from Microsoft's new Zune Marketplace. Curiously, Zune is not compatible with previous Windows Media Player based music stores

money.cnn.com—7.html

Zune not compatible with Vista

iPod recommended 75% of time- Some clerks never heard of Zune

In a research note distributed Tuesday by a Piper Jaffry analyst said the 40-store survey found that clerks only recommended the Zune 8 percent of the time, while they recommended the iPod 75 percent of the time.
"In fact, some MP3 player salespeople had not even heard of the Zune, despite the fact that they sold it in their store," he wrote.

among weekend holiday ads from three big-box retailers -- Target, Circuit City, and BestBuy -- only one showed a Zune while all three had iPod ads.

Security Update 2006-007

docs.info.apple.com—article.html

For OS 10.3.9 and 10.4 Security Update 2006-007 is recommended for all users. Of the 30+ vulnerabilities fixed by the updated --which is labeled Security Update 2006-007 -- twelve are related to flaws that could lead to arbitrary code execution.

The update is available Mac OS X 10.4.8 Client Intel (23MB), Mac OS X 10.4.8 Client PowerPC (11MB), Mac OS X 10.4.8 Server PowerPC (12MB) Mac OS X 10.4.8 Server Universal (25MB), Mac OS X 10.3.9 Client (33MB) and Mac OS X 10.3.9 Server (46MB)

Disk Image Security Flaw

www.frsirt.com—4629

FrSIRT (the French Security Incident Response Team) reports on a newly demonstrated flaw affecting versions of Safari in Mac OS X 10.4.8 and prior where maliciously crafted disk images -- which are used to distribute most Mac OS X software packages -- can allow an attacker to crash or gain control of the target system. Note that your system will still experience a kernel panic if you double-click the downloaded malicious disk image in order to mount it.
The reported workaround for this issue is to turn off the "Open safe files after downloading" option in Safari as follows:

Apple Remote Update 3.1

www.apple.com—appleremotedesktop31client.html

• remote lights out management of Xserve
• scanning computers on the local network
• installation of software meta-packages
• authentication when using directory services
• execution of AppleScript and Automator workflows
• compatibility with third party VNC viewers and servers

Toast Titanium - 7.1.2

www.roxio.com—overview.html

• Resolves issues relating to saving projects on Intel Mac.
• Resolves crashes encoding MPEG video files.
• Includes Deja Vu backup scheduler v3.2.3 which addresses 2 minor security issues.

CopyCat X

subrosasoft.com—index.php

SubRosaSoft has announced the release of CopyCatX v4.0, a new version of its hard drive duplication and recovery software for Mac OS X

CopyCatX works using sector copying instead of the “file-by-file” method used by some backup software. It creates an exact copy of your Mac’s hard drive, iPod or Mac OS X startup drive. You can clone multiple targets, recover drives and CDs or DVDs using a resumable system, and restore permissions, icons, placement, hidden files and content. And because it’s sector-based, it’s not operating system or file dependent, so it can also copy Linux, Windows and TiVo drives.

Norton Confidential Released

symantec.com—overview.jsp

Norton Confidential is designed to protect Mac users against fradulent Web sites that are “phishing” for user data; the software installs a plug-in for Safari and Firefox that shows a Norton Confidential toolbar that displays a simple green indicator and the words “Site Verified” when it’s safe to use. The software will block phishing sites from collecting sensitive information. Retail price is $49.99, but Norton is offering an introductory price of $29.99

Intuit QuickBooks Pro 2007 R2-9.01

quickbooks.intuit.com—pro_mac_financial_management_software.jhtml

New layout desinger and printing, improved time tracking, and updates to the customer list.

Deep Freeze Mac 3.2

www.faronics.com—DFMac.asp

Deep Freeze protects and preserves baseline PC and Mac configurations. Regardless of the changes a user makes to a workstation, a reboot resets the computer to its original state. This new version adds the ability to pre-designate up to four Thawed partitions with the Deep Freeze Assistant, tag user ThawSpaces with the user's icon, visual notification when ThawSpace is being created, enhanced Check for Updates feature, and the ability to Check for Updates from within ARD

Daylite 3.2

www.marketcircle.com—daylite

This version of Daylite offers: improved calendar printing; streamlined setup process including email user invites; estimated project time and activity time; numerous Report Engine improvements; and more. Daylite 3 is priced at US$149 per user.

RapidWeaver 3.5.1

www.realmacsoftware.com—rapidweaver

Now localized into English, French, German, Italian and Japanese.
Added "Revert to Saved" menu command.
Fixed an issue whereby RapidWeaver would crash if the theme inspector was left open when closing a document.
Many other minor fixes.

Skype 2.5.0.38

www.skype.com

• new feature: SMS :)
• new feature: improved history list in main window
• new feature: ripple animation effects (Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) only)
• new feature: ringing device selection to audio preferences
• change: video resolution for G5 machines is now the same as Intel machines (increased)

Audio Hijack Pro 2.7.1

www.rogueamoeba.com—audiohijackpro

• Improved AAC recording compatibility with iPod Shuffle 2G
• Improved RadioShark support
• Updated versions of Soundflower (1.2), Smart Crash Report (1.2.1), and the LAME encoder (3.9.7)
• Minor updates to AppleScript support
• Many additional bug fixes