• The iPod nano is now coming out in a new version — it gets rid of the video playback and capture in the 4th generation model, but adds a touch screen and… iOS. Like the shuffle, it has a built-in clip, so you no longer need a special case for running or time at the gym. The new nano gets 24 hours of music playback time per charge, has a built-in FM tuner, and also includes a special clock function. The nano will come in an even larger variety of colors than the shuffle, adding black and red to the spectrum. Pricing starts at $149 for the 8GB model, going to $179 for 16GB.
• The most popular iPod is the iPod touch, which is now even more slim, has a Retina Display, an A4 chip, the 3-axis gyro found in the iPhone 4, and front and back facing cameras. FaceTime is now possible with the iPod touch. The device gets a whopping 40 hours of battery life. There’s an 8GB model for US$229, 32GB for US$299, and 64GB for US$399.
• iTunes 10 should be out in the next few hours. It sports a new logo and a new social networking feature called Ping. Ping provides social music discovery, allowing you to learn what your friends are listening to and vice versa. Ping will also be available on iOS devices.
• The Apple TV finally got an update. The new version is tiny, about a quarter of the dimensions of the old box. It runs on an A4 chip, has HDMI out, micro-USB, Digiial Audio, and Ethernet ports, and will sell for US$99. It has little or no storage; all content will be streamed to the device from your computer, iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. First run HD movies will rent for $4.99, TV shows will be available for 99¢. ABC and Fox have signed up to provide content, and Netflix is on the device as well. If you like Rotten Tomatoes as a source of movie reviews, they’ll be available on Apple TV. The device will be available in the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, and Australia in September. It also appears you will no longer be able to “own”/save TV shows or movies. I’m sure this will be a nice boost for bittorrenting/illegal downloading.
• Steve Jobs announced iTunes 10 today, complete with a new logo. The core interface does not receive much tweaking, however in the list view there is a hybrid view where if you have more than 5 songs from the same album, it will show you the album artwork.

  Most of the new release’s focus is on Ping, a social network for music. “It’s like Facebook and Twitter meets iTunes,” Jobs said. Jobs is right; it looks almost, but not quite Facebook. It’s much like that service where you can follow friends, have a circle of friends and share what music you’re listening to through the network. When following an artist, you can be alerted to their concert listings.

  Ping will be available for 160 million iTunes users in 23 countries right off the bat. It will also be available in the iTunes Store on the iPhone and iPod Touch.

For OS X Server Setup enquiries please contact me, Vince Loden at: (852) 93486884 or by email on this page.

AppleJack 1.6 for Snow Leopard – Mac OS X Hints.

Some reports are even going as far as to suggest this is discrimination against lefties. However this is where I disagree – it actually affects more right-handed people than one might realise. Although I’m right-handed I hold my phone in my left hand as I use my right hand for tapping, typing, gestures etc. More importantly I hold my phone in my left hand so as to be able to take notes with my right hand. Isn’t that what everyone does? Which hand do you hold your phone in? Let us know in the comments section.

There are rumours that there will be a software fix through an update coming soon.

iTunes started life as SoundJam which was an MP3 player and recorder originally developed by Jeff Robbin and Bill Kincaid and released by Cassidy and Greene until Apple bought it in 2000. Apple added a new interface and the ability to burn CDs, removed some features and released it as iTunes in January 2001. Originally an OS 9 application it supported OS X when version 2.0 was released and support was added for the original iPod. Since then it has seen numerous updates and considerable additions well beyond it’s original purpose as an MP3 player. I think it has got out of control and tries to do too many things and ends up doing them all badly.

Upgrading to iOS 4 was a disaster mainly because the update managed to mangle the Applications and data files. It needs to be “sandboxed”. An OS  should not affect anything except the operating system and should be independent. When I upgrade a Mac OS X say from Leopard 10.5 to Snow Leopard 10.6 it doesn’t touch my applications or data. If I did there would be all hell to pay. Incompatibilities I can deal with. This shouldn’t happen on an iPhone or iPod Touch either. What Apple needs to do is have an iDevice Manager that deals with operating system and apps separately from user data. User data (music, purchases from iTunes Store, photo, videos, podcasts etc) should be handled in one or more different applications. As a result of this upgrade most of my applications were missing or in the changed  positions. Music, photos and videos disappeared. It took me ages to sort out the mess. Synchronization again is another tiresome process. Everything needs to be done as separate synchs. You cannot specify in each tab what needs to be synched and then synch everything at once. You must do each type of data separately. It should be simple drag and drop. Ideally I would like to see any iDevice (iPhone, iPod and iPad) mount as a device in the Finder. Then when I download or want to add anything new I would like to drag and drop and have the device recognize and file appropriately. Same for removal. This can be very time-consuming. The hassle to view a movie on an iPhone or iPod is ridiculous. First you might need to convert and then sync with the device. That’s why I love the ease of use in an application like Air Video Server. If I’m at home and want to watch a video on my iPhone I don’t need to convert or sync with iTunes. I just find what I want to watch over my network and that’s it.

iTunes is now becoming like the old OS 9. It’s like a nice old family home with many wings and extensions added on over the years, but unfortunately has become unlivable in and needs to be torn down and rebuilt from scratch, much as Mac OS X replaced OS 9.

But make no mistake. I love my iPhone 3G and I’ll probably go for the iPhone 4 too. I think it’s a marvelous device and I love the range and usefulness of all the apps available for it. To replace so many gadgets and devices with one hand-held device is truly remarkable and it will surely go down in history as one of the greatest technological advances of the 21st century but it’s become an untamable beast to manage, a dinosaur in fact!

“All-new Mail at me.com
MobileMe Mail on the web (now out of beta) has been completely redesigned with powerful new features such as widescreen view for reading email with less scrolling, rules to keep your email organized everywhere, and faster performance. For more details on these and other new Mail features, please read this news post.

Find My iPhone app and more
You can now download the free Find My iPhone app, enabling you to locate a misplaced device directly from iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch while on the go. After installing it from the App Store, just launch the app and sign in to quickly locate your devices on a map and access the other Find My iPhone features — Display a Message or Play a Sound, Remote Lock, and Remote Wipe.*

The Find My iPhone web application on me.com has also been updated with a full-screen map view. Clicking your missing device on the map lets you access all the Find My iPhone actions to help you recover your device and protect the information on it.

Learn more about improvements to Find My iPhone here.”

*Not available in the Hong Kong App store??

As of this writing, Apple has not yet published the specific security patches in the update.

Apple’s release notes:

General fixes and improvements

• improves compatibility with some Braille displays
• resolves an issue that causes the keyboard or trackpad to become unresponsive
• resolves an issue that may prevent some Adobe Creative Suite 3 applications from opening
• addresses issues copying, renaming, or deleting files on SMB file servers
• improves reliability of VPN connections
• resolves a playback issue in DVD Player when using Good Quality deinterlacing
• resolves an issue editing photos with iPhoto or Aperture in full screen view
• resolves an issue with Parental Controls Time Limits for Open Directory or Active Directory users
• resolves a display sleep issue with MacBook Pro (Early 2010) computers
• resolves an issue with MacBook Pro (Early 2010) computers in which the right speaker may sound louder than the left speaker
• includes Safari 5.0; for more information about Safari 5.0, see this webpage
• Security improvements; for information about the security content of this update, please visit this article [does not yet include a link to information on this update]

Fixes and improvements for Aperture 3

• adds tethered shooting support for additional digital camera models
• addresses IPTC metadata compatibility issues
• Fixes and improvements for external devices

RAW image compatibility for additional digital cameras

• resolves an issue with using third-party USB web cameras
• resolves an issue with noise when using some third-party FireWire audio devices
• resolves pairing issues with Apple remotes

- Mac OS X v10.6.4 Update (607.21 MB)
- Mac OS X v10.6.4 Update (Combo) (887.37 MB)
- Mac OS X Server v10.6.4 Update (615.60 MB)
- Mac OS X Server v10.6.4 Update (Combo) (1.05 GB)

Apple also released a pair of Mac OS X 10.6.4 updates specifically for the company’s new Mac mini released earlier today.

- Mac OS X v10.6.4 Update Mac mini (Mid 2010) (403.38 MB)
- Mac OS X Server v10.6.4 Update Mac mini (Mid 2010) (411.72 MB)

Finally, Apple released Security Update 2010-004 for users on Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.

- Security Update 2010-004 (Leopard-Client) (222 MB)
- Security Update 2010-004 (Leopard-Server) (380.29 MB)