Broz News

Friday afternoon Apple links, one month 'till WWDC edition

This Friday's Apple links talks up EyeTV's latest software update, Steve Jobs' beard, Twitter references hidden in Quartz Composer, and how unlocked iPhones are hurting at least one US company. A lot.

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Climate Counts: Apple lags on climate change policy

Apple has come a long way in improving its environmental efforts and publicly disclosing them. But Climate Counts' latest climate policy scorecard shows that Apple has a long way to go when it comes to global warming.

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Failed power adapters spark settlement from Apple

iBook and PowerBook users are all too familiar with the sparking power adapters of yore. Apple has now reached a preliminary settlement over the failed power adapters, and will soon offer between $25 and $79 to eligible parties.

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OpenOffice.org 3.0 beta offers Mac OS X enhancements
The OpenOffice.org Community this week released a public beta release of OpenOffice.org 3.0, the open-source productivity suite for Mac OS X as well as Windows and Linux. The beta release will be the first to run on Mac OS X without X11, but is primarily designed to allow a broad user base to test and evaluate the next major version of OpenOffice.o...

Nik Software offers Viveza plug-in for Aperture 2.1
Nik Software this week released the Viveza plug-in for Aperture 2.1, Apple's photo editing and management software. The Viveza plug-in allows Aperture users to selectively control light and color in photographic images from within Aperture. Integrated seamlessly within Aperture's organizing and editing environment, users can simply place "U Point"-...

TapeDeck 1.0 quickly, simply records audio
TapeDeck is an new audio recording application written exclusively for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard that is designed with a quick-capture workflow. New recordings called "tapes" can be started with a single mouse click (or keystroke); the software records directly to compressed MP4-AAC audio, making it useful for a variety of applications including simpl...

Amazon Update
Save $55-$105 off Apple's latest iMacs with Amazon rebates and discounts; cut $35 off the Mac's best voice-recognition system ever: MacSpeech Dictate. Amazon has Photoshop Elements 6 on sale at $79.99; VMware's on sale at $39.99. MacBook Airs are in stock for $1744, or save $75-$250 on MacBook and MacBook Pro models (including the last close-outs). Amazon rebates chop $150-$380 off the Mac Pro Quad and new Quad-Core models. Save on AppleCare, too! Kindle, Amazon's revolutionary wireless book, is back in stock after its initial sell-out, and Garmin's Nuvi 660 GPS navigator is on sale at a 57% discount. Amazon discounts iPods, too, plus a huge selection of digital cameras and HDTV's. Leopard is just $109, and ".Mac" 5.0 is only $69.99, while Office 2008, iLife 08 and iWork 08 are also on sale. And, while you're saving yourself money, you're also providing critical MacInTouch support just by clicking through our links to purchase!

Review: Amazon Kindle
Our review of this unique wireless book/reader covers features, technology, Mac integration, available content, Amazon's publishing system and more, along with helpful links and tips. [Updated with new links, graphics and a few more details.]

Report: Security
excellent advice on guarding against remote access/SSH attacks

Copy paths from Finder selections
There are a number of ways to see and/or copy the path to a given selection in the Finder. Rob Griffiths explores your options.

Add more solid desktop color options
Discover two ways to use more than the 10 provided solid-colored desktop backgrounds.

Mouse-only access to title bar icons in 10.5
Learn a simple way to access title bar icon menus (proxy icons) in Leopard.

Could Apple, NBC be patching up differences?
Apple and NBC were embroiled in a feud last year over iTunes pricing. But signs point to a thaw in the frosty relations between the two companies, as NBC shows have appeared on the U.K. version of the iTunes Store.

Adobe fixes Photoshop Express
Adobe has released an updated version of Photoshop Express, its online photo sharing software, days after delaying the update because of a last-minute bug discovery.

TapeDeck audio recorder debuts
TapeDeck is a new audio recorder app that looks like a cassette tape deck from the 1980s.

Yahoo acquisition to aid Apple searches
The Internet company acquires Inquisitor, software that augments the search process on Apple's Safari Web browser.

Google gains on Microsoft with hosted security offering
The search giant's latest Web-hosted offering, Web Security for Enterprise, gives it a leg up on Microsoft in a digital world increasingly turning to cloud computing, experts say.

If Apple can go home again, why not Dell?
Looking to Apple's past for a clue to his company's future, Michael Dell knows that reversal of fortune is a common theme in the PC industry's history.

TorrentSpy Won't Pay $111 Million Fine
TorrentSpy lawyers said the torrent-tracking service won't pay the $111 million judgment a U.S. judge levied against it. Attorney Ira Rothken said he would appeal one of the nation's largest copyright penalties. The search engines' owner, he said, has filed for bankruptcy.

Toilet Busted, Biodiesel Everywhere, But Eco-Boat Sails On
The eco-geeks aboard the carbon-neutral, biodiesel-powered Earthrace trimaran have completed the first leg of their trip around the world. And they're on pace to do it in record time.

Soon, Your Space on MySpace Can Be Everybody's Space
The social networker plans to allow its customers to share their personal data with websites operated by Yahoo, eBay and others, a move that would change the nature of social networking.

Moshi Zefyr Keeps Your MacBook Cool, Pants Burn-Free [Cooling Pads]

Moshi's Zefyr is a portable cooling pad for the MacBook that provides a near silent fan, powered by USB, and offers a temperature drop of roughly 6 degrees Fahrenheit. The Zefyr is designed to place your MacBook at an ergonomically beneficial tilt, and when not in use, the Zefyr collapses to better fit in a bag.

The Zefyr also provides a pass through USB port, so that peripheral use is not sacrificed. A portable cooling pad might be a little silly, but for anyone who's experience the heat of a MacBook on their lap, and worries about going sterile, it may be useful. It's available now in black and silver colors, and sells for $75. [Moshi]

When Wii Tennis Turns into Wii Penis (NSFW) [NSFWii]

This is a post, for the ladies. But fellas, read it closely, because life is not all about NSFW topless Wii playing. Sometimes, you have to give them something else, as this video shows. If you ever wanted to know about how playing Wii Tennis with your weemote works, then play this Not Safe For Work (or home) video and avoid the potentially horrible consequences of experiencing your curiosity up, close, and very personal.

Now, if you excuse me, I have to find some band-aids. [Thanks for the tip Anon Imus—I know that's you Jason]

Plasma-Powered Hovercraft Patent [Patents]

The patent shown is for an aircraft to be powered off the ground using a plasma technology. Subrata Roy, a University of Florida aerospace engineer, proposes the existing technique of passing a magnetic wave through a conducting fluid can produce a force strong enough to lift an aircraft off the ground. Granted, the example in the patent is only 15 cm, and attempts by others haven't gone particularly well. But with phrases like magnetohydrodynamics being thrown around, I keep flashing back to the space travel scene in Contact and getting excited. Subrata Roy must be a poet. [WIPO via Ubergizmo]

WEEK IN PHOTOS: Texas Sinkhole, Myanmar Cyclone, More

See a supercell light up the Texas sky, U.S. Marines braving a sandstorm in Afghanistan, the Olympic torch reach the top of Mount Everest, and more.

Livestock, Pets Left Behind As Chile Volcano Fears Loom

Tens of thousands of animals are trapped in an ash-covered region of southern Chile after their owners have been forced to flee the still-active volcano.

PHOTOS: 1,000 Tombs Discovered in Colombia

The massive burial site contains a treasure trove of artifacts and information about two little-known South American civilizations, experts said.

Great tits cope well with warming
Great tits in Britain seem to be adapting to climatic change, scientists report, unlike some other birds.

New batch of walruses gets tagged
Ten of Greenland's walruses are fitted with sat-tags to confirm whether the blubbery beasts migrate to Canada.

'No bias' against UK astronauts
UK government opposition to human spaceflight will be no bar to its citizens becoming astronauts, Esa says.

Astronomers begin search for 'vanishing' stars
A new survey is monitoring a million massive stars to see if any suddenly disappear, imploding to become black holes

Five science fiction movies that get the science right
All too often movies make shocking science blunders, but here are a few rare gems that make a valiant effort to get it right

Cyclone survivors may have to grow their own food
Storm damage has washed away Burma's main agricultural land, as its military rulers force the UN to stop shipments of emergency food