Newsletter to Members
March 2008
Contents
March Meeting This Monday 3 March at 6:30pm.
NOTE ALTERNATE VENUE: Room 335, Level 3, Sir Robert Webster Building, middle campus, UNSW Kensington.
For March only, we are in Room 335, down the hall – look for directions once inside.
Colin is back from Macworld Expo with his take on the show.
- Main presentation: Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac
- Main RafflePrize: Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac (Home and Student Edition)
- Ken Driver will preview the club's new web site.
NEW Disc-of-the-MonthAMUG Sydney, in collaboration with Nicholas Pyers and AUSOM (Apple Users' Society of Melbourne), will be bringing you a monhtly compilation on either CD or DVD, stacked with lots of useful shareware, freeware and trial applications and utilities, with a new theme each month. Normally selling through Mac User Groups around Australia for $10, they will be available to AMUG Sydney members for the special introductory price of just $5 each (if collected at our meetings, plus $2 postage if delivery is required).
The first one is titled "Publishing House", with all the tools you need to generate your own greeting cards, envelopes & labels, flyers & newsletters, calendars & scrapbooks, banners, signs & posters, and CD & DVD labels, covers & inserts.
More info (PDF 428K).
The applications are supplied as is and various license types apply. Some titles require further payment direct to the application publisher to enable full feature set and functionality.
Saturday Workshop
One-on-one Mac Help from AMUG Committee members in a friendly, sharing environment.
Saturday March 8, commencing 10am. Room 136C (Computer Lab), Ground Floor, Webster Building, UNSW Kensington.
Bring your own Notebook or use one of the Uni's iMacs.
To book, phone Rob on 9387 2069 or email
Apple beefs up MacBook and MacBook Pro with new models
Multi-Touch Trackpad Comes to MacBook Pro
Apple has just updated its popular MacBook and MacBook Pro notebook lines with the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors, larger hard drives and 2GB of RAM standard in most models. In addition, MacBook Pro includes the latest NVIDIA graphics processors, now with up to 512MB of video memory and Apple’s innovative Multi-Touch trackpad, first introduced in MacBook Air. All Mac notebooks include built-in iSight video camera, Apple’s MagSafe Power Adapter, built-in 802.11n wireless networking, built-in Gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth, and analogue and digital audio inputs and outputs. All come with Leopard and iLife '08 pre-installed.
|
MacBook | MacBook Pro |
| Processor: | 2.1 or 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo | 2.4 or 2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (2.6 GHz option) |
| RAM: | 1GB or 2 GB | 2GB standard (4GB option) |
| Display: | 13.3-inch glossy | 15- or 17-inch antiglare or glossy |
| Hard Disk: | 120, 160 or 250GB | 200 or 250GB (300GB option) |
| Colour/Finish: | White or Black polycarbonate | Anodised Aluminium |
| CD/DVD Drive: | Combo drive or 8x SuperDrive dlLayer | 8x SuperDrive double layer |
| Connectivity: | 2 x USB 2, 1 x FireWire 400 | 2 or 3 x USB 2, 1 x FireWire 400, 1 x FireWire 800, ExpressCard/34 slot |
| RRP inc GST: | from $1,499 | from $2,699 |
www.apple.com/au/macbook/
www.apple.com/au/macbookpro/
Apple product images courtesy of Apple.
iPod shuffle now just $65, new 2GB model only $89
iPod shuffle, the world’s most wearable music player, is now even more affordably priced at RRP A$65 inc GST and a new 2GB model is now available for RRP A$89 inc GST. The popular iPod shuffle weighs just 15.6 grams, is 27.3 mm x 41.2 mm and features an aluminium design with a built-in clip and comes in five colours—silver, blue, green, purple and (PRODUCT) RED™ special edition.
32 GB iPod touch added to range
Apple has added a new model of the iPod touch with double the memory, doubling the amount of music, photos and videos that customers can carry with them wherever they go. The revolutionary iPod touch now comes in a 32GB model for RRP A$629 inc GST, joining the 16GB model for A$499 inc GST and the 8GB model for A$399 inc GST.
Extract from TidBITS #915 by Glenn Fleishman
The Leopard 10.5.2 release is available through Software Update as a universal incremental release, updating 10.5.1 to 10.5.2, and weighs in at 180 MB on a PowerPC-based PowerBook, but Apple notes size will vary from machine to machine.
No incremental updater is available from the Apple Downloads page – only the universal Combo updater, which combines 10.5.1 and 10.5.2, and is a whopping 343 MB!
With the release of 10.5.2, Apple has fixed a number of things that thisTidBITS author and legions of actual users have complained about. Plus, 10.5.2 makes it possible to stop using utilities and hacks created by developers and Terminal-level clever folk to work around problems in earlier releases.
Apple Releases Aperture 2Major Upgrade Features Improved Interface, Faster Browsing & Enhanced Image Processing
Apple has introduced Aperture 2, the next major release of its groundbreaking photo editing and management software with over 100 new features that make it faster, easier to use and more powerful. With a streamlined user interface and entirely new image processing engine, Aperture 2 also introduces new imaging tools for highlight recovery, colour vibrancy, local contrast definition, soft-edged retouching, vignetting and RAW fine-tuning, and lets users directly post their portfolios on the .Mac Web Gallery* for viewing on the web, iPod touch and Apple TV. At a new low price of A$268 inc GST, anyone can easily organise, edit and publish photos like a pro.
* The .Mac service is available to persons aged 13 and older. Annual membership fee and Internet access required.
iTunes Now Number Two Music Retailer in the US
iTunes Customers Top 50 Million
CUPERTINO, California—February 26, 2008—Apple® announced that iTunes® is now the number two music retailer in the US, behind only Wal-Mart, based on the latest data from the NPD Group*. Apple also announced that there are now over 50 million iTunes Store customers. iTunes has sold over four billion songs, with an incredible 20 million songs sold on Christmas Day 2007 alone, and offers the world’s largest music catalog of over six million songs from all of the major and thousands of independent labels.
*Based on data from market research firm NPD Group’s MusicWatch survey that captures consumer reported past week unit purchases and counts one CD representing 12 tracks, excluding wireless transactions. The iTunes Music Store became the second-largest music retailer in the US after Wal-Mart, based on the amount of music sold during 2007.
Other News from the Net
Extract from TidBITS #914 by Rich Mogull
QuickTime 7.4.1 Fixes Zero-Day Vulnerability
Apple has released QuickTime 7.4.1, a critical security update all users should apply immediately. It is available via Software Update and as a direct download for Leopard, Tiger, Panther, and Windows systems.
This update patches a month-old zero-day vulnerability in the QuickTime streaming protocol (RTSP) that could allow an attacker to take over your computer if you visit a malicious Web site or receive an email with a malicious link. In security parlance, we call this "remote execution of arbitrary code," using a vulnerability for which no patch exists (the "zero-day" part). This is similar to a previous vulnerability in RTSP that Apple patched in the QuickTime 7.3.1 update.
iPhoto 7.1.2 Blocks Security Vulnerability
Extract from TidBITS #914 by Adam C. Engst
Apple last month released iPhoto 7.1.2 (also known as iPhoto '08 7.1.2, to be clear) via Software Update and as a 14.2 MB standalone download. The unhelpful release notes say only: "This update addresses issues when publishing photos to a .Mac Web Gallery, improves overall stability, and fixes a number of other minor issues." However, there's also a link to Apple's Security Updates Web page, where a link explains that iPhoto 7.1.2 also fixes a vulnerability related to subscribing to a maliciously crafted photocast.
[Since then, iPhoto 7.1.3 update has been released (16.9 MB and presumably incorporating the 7.1.2 Security patch), which Apple says "addresses issues with wire-bound books and cards"—KD].
Other Recent Updates
Other software updates posted by Apple in February and late January include:
- MacBook and MacBook Pro Keyboard Firmware Update 1.0 (876K)
- iLife Support 8.2 (9.7 MB)
- Security Update 2008-001 (PPC 16,7 MB; Universal 28.8 MB)
- Leopard Graphics Update 1.0 (48.9 MB, after 10.5.2 is installed and the computer restarted).
- ProKit 4.5 (for Apple's pro apps, 22.4 MB)
- iWeb 2.0.3 (17.2 MB)
- Keynote 4.0.2 (32 MB)
- Pages 3.0.2 (27.8 MB)
- Numbers 1.0.2 (26.2 MB)
- iTunes 7.6 (45 MB)
- Front Row 2.1.2 (16.8 MB)
- iMovie 7.1.1 (16 MB)
iPhoto Print Products available in Australia and New Zealand
Extract from TidBITS #914 by Adam C. Engst
A mere six years after introducing iPhoto, Apple has finally made print products available in Australia and New Zealand. Now Mac users in Australia and New Zealand can purchase iPhoto books, cards, calendars, and prints in exactly the same way that users in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Japan can. Pricing inc. GST is comparable to the U.S. and Canadian pricing. Previously, iPhoto users in both countries had to use a U.S. billing and shipping address, and get a friend to forward things on.
For those still using iPhoto 6 or earlier, sorry, but it appears that you must update to iPhoto '08 7.1.2 or later, to be able to order print products. [As reported via email last month—KD].
Blu-ray Wins High-Definition Disc Format Battle
Extract from TidBITS #916 by Glenn Fleishman
After less than two years of head-to-head competition in the marketplace, HD DVD developer Toshiba has resigned the side, choosing to drop further development of their format. The Sony-backed Blu-ray high-definition (HD) disc specification has won. This must be an especially sweet victory for Sony, which lost decades ago in the VHS versus Betamax battle, despite some superior technical characteristics of Betamax.
Each standard had a variety of technical differences in its approach to interactivity security, and storage density. Blu-ray supports Java; HD DVD uses a Microsoft standard. Blu-ray can store 25 GB on a single-layer disc, and 50 GB on a dual-layer disc; HD DVD offered just 15 GB and 30 GB for single- and dual-layer discs. Blu-ray can also pull audio and video data off a disc at an effective playback rate more than 50 percent higher than HD DVD (48 Mbps for Blu-ray versus 30 Mbps for HD DVD). Both playback rates are far higher than necessary for full 1080p content, however.
LaCie has a Mac-compatible FireWire/USB 2.0 Blu-ray drive that handles dual-layer 50 GB discs (US$740), and includes Toast 7.1.1 Platinum with Blu-ray support; Toast 8 Titanium can be purchased separately with built-in Blu-ray support. Single-layer recordable discs cost about US$12 to US$15 each; dual-layer recordable discs, about US$35. Blu-ray discs can't be mastered with desktop burning software for video and audio playback, only for data storage.
Read Glenn Fleishman's full TidBITS article here.
Take Control News: Wrangle Leopard Permissions
New Ebook Explains All about Permissions in Leopard
If you like to go under the hood of Mac OS X, or if you've been forced to by quirky problems, you'll want to check out TidBITS' latest ebook, freshly revised for Leopard – "Take Control of Permissions in Leopard." Written by Unix guru and Mac aficionado Brian Tanaka, the 87-page ebook mixes practical how-to details and troubleshooting tips with just the right amount of theory as it explains permissions in relation to how you keep your files private, copy files to and from servers effectively, set the Ignore Permissions option for external disks, repair screwy permissions, and delete those files that just won't die. It's $10, with the usual 10% MUG discount if you use this encoded link.
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