It's prognostication time again. Before every major Apple Event, TUAW bloggers offer their predictions on what, if anything, Apple will release or announce. Sometimes we're right; sometimes we're wrong. With WWDC less than one week away, it's time to dust off our psychic hats and offer up what we see coming from Apple:

Conrad Quilty-Harper
Pretty certain
- Mac minis move to 1.66 Core Solo/1.86 Core Duo (with lower price points?)
- New Intel Xserves
- New Cinema Displays
- Mac Pro
- 10.5 demo, beta disks to developers, new naming scheme (big cats are old)

Not so certain
- Core 2 Duo iMacs
- 6G iPods? Smaller, cheaper shuffles? Bigger capacity nanos? OLED displays
- New hardware all feature Nvidia cards/Intel integrated, no more ATI

Damien Barrett
The safe money is on the Mac Pro as a replacement for the G5 PowerMacs, utilizing the new Intel Core 2 Duo processors. Probably a new case design with a smaller footprint.

A longer shot, but still likely, is the release or announcment of Apple's iPhone. The new iPod software appears to include references to phone-related functions and other industry people have been talking openly about Apple's foray into this market.

Unlikely, but I just can't let a prediction cycle pass without wishing for it: an iTablet. Work bought me a Dell Axim X51 and it's nice, but using it is just as clunky as using Windows. I want the elegance of OS X but in a largish PDA or tablet form factor. If anyone can do it, Apple can.

Dave Caolo
I'm keeping it simple. Mac Pro, 10.5 ship date (and demo, of course).

Dan Lurie
I'm sticking with Dave in that I'm only predicting 10.5 ship date and Mac Pro's as a certainty. Less certain but still possible is the iPhone, which analysts are expecting. They know a lot more than we do.

David Chartier
- Mac Pro with Core 2 Duo - those chips will be reserved for these machines, not the consumer line
- Shiny new Cinemas to go with said Mac Pro
- iPod nano bump (they haven't been touched since their introduction, hey? Besides the 1 GB of course. But going down in size doesn't count)
- 10.5 preview with a really close launch date of Oct/Nov at latest. Probably Sept. Just in time for the holidays!
- Jobs will be wearing Nikes again. All hail Nike. Also: finally a public apology for letting the Finder suck so bad for so long (hah).

Scott McNulty
As for predictions, I'm just going with a Leopard ship date and that's it.

Victor Agreda, Jr.
Quad Core Xserves, Brainwave-controlled 6G iPods, Leopard will ditch Finder for an OpenDoc-esque system based on Spotlight, and Nanos in Tiger fur...Oh, and clearly the Cinema displays with built-in iSights are a lock.

When I was about thirteen, my older brother, Craig, was really into cars and fixing them. I'd follow him around and watch him work on his Camaro in the garage. Like a doting little brother, I wanted to be like him and was awestruck at how much he knew about cars and engines. I can remember asking him how he knew so much about them and how I could learn what he knew. Craig handed me a huge stack of car magazines and told me to start reading. I was flabbergasted. Where do I start reading? Which do I read first? Is Car&Driver more important than SuperChevy? I can remember flipping through a few of his magazines and quickly being overwhelmed at the amount of information I'd have to know to be like Craig. I soon went back to my Garbage Pail Kids cards and DOS manuals. I gave up on being a car mechanic but learned an important lesson...the best way to start learning something is to just start learning it. It doesn't matter where you start as long as you start somewhere and keep at it long enough until the knowledge begins to gel in your mind.

Being a good Mac tech starts with knowing the Macintosh and its operating system--namely, Mac OS X. Good car mechanics are often filled with arcane knowledge about the vehicles they work on. They tend to know which parts break down first and can diagnose a problem from an extensive knowledgebase of vehicles and engines and parts. I've discovered that good Mac techs are the same way--they tend to know pretty well the insides of many different Macintosh models and the peculiarities of each. They know, for instance, that the Rev. A iMac G5 often suffers from logic board failures and "exploding capacitors". They can often diagnose a problem--or if one is happening--just by using the computer in question.

Hacking the Mac OS X Installer DVD

I work at a university and we regularly get lots of new computers in that need to be imaged. Normally, people use a NetBoot server with NetRestore to do this, but our network is too clunky and poorly-designed to able to handle network-based imaging. So I have to resort to different methods of distributing our customized ASR images. For instance, we have one image for people in the Illustration Dept, but a very different one for workers who do not work in our design departments.

Last year, I was able to use Charles Sruska's excellent BootCD to build a bootable DVD that could then be used to image the workstations as needed. The ASR image is simply stored on the extra space on the root of the DVD, and NetRestore would let techs image from the ASR image to the internal HD of the Mac. It was fairly close to a "double-click" install for my techs: Boot from DVD, run NetRestore, restart the computer.

BootCD works well with Panther but has not been updated to work in Tiger. I'm sure Charles is working on it, but it's not done yet and I had to create a different solution, so I started hacking the Mac OS X Installer DVD. For the PPC machines, I used a copy of the recent Mac OS X 10.4.6 Retail DVD that was shipped to ACN members. It is a universal DVD that will boot any Tiger-compatible PPC-based Mac. Quite simply, this is how I did it:

An article in the Scotsman speculates that the next version of Apple's icon iPod will have text-to-speech capabilities that allows it to read the text of music tracks to the listener. The article says,

"Apple has flatly refused to comment on the design, but a patent lodged by the company in the United States makes clear the sixth generation of iPods will be able to convert those famous text menus into speech.

The ingenious system will rely on home PC processing power and clever software. The computer being used to download tracks will analyse each album title, song name and artist and convert them into sound files. These will be loaded into the iPod, along with the song files."

This is being driven by safety concerns. When you use an iPod in an "eyes-busy" activity like driving or using exercise equipment, having the music tracks read to the listener is preferable to having them only displayed on the screen.

This certainly makes sense to me. Apple has long been at the forefront of text-to-speech technology. It only seems a natural move to integrate it into their iPod music players.

One of the least-used but quite powerful tools in Mac OS X is the ability to run contextual menu plug-ins. Contextual menu items are those little programs or accessories that can be installed in /Library/Contextual Menu Items or ~/Library/Contextual Menu Items to extend the capabilities of your operating system by providing a quick way to launch a tool based on some selected text for a selected item in the Finder.

Here are some of my favorite Contextual Menu items/applications:

FinderPop gives you the ability to have quickly-accessible links to applications or folders at the top of your contextual menu. So, for instance, if you want to open a JPEG file with Photoshop instead of Preview (often the OS's default), you can put a link to Photoshop in your FinderPop contextual menu list and then right-clicking on the file in question will give you a quick list of applications at the top-most menu. This is faster than having to wait for the "Open With" application list to generate, which is useful if you have a lot of applications installed on your system.

OnMyCommand lets you execute a string of selected text in the Terminal.

SymbolicLinker is a contextual menu item that lets you build symlink to an item in the Finder. I've found this very useful in building lab and classroom images where my workstations have much of their shared data as symlinks to other locations in the filesystem. For instance, Microsoft Office 2004 likes to install 80MB of fonts for each user but I don't want dozens of user profiles each with 80MB of fonts on my workstations, so I've used symlinks to "trick" the program into thinking that each profile has the fonts installed but the actual fonts are located in a shared folder space. But because the symlink exists (but points to a different location), the software just follows the link. I've used the same trick for the excessive support files installed by the Macromedia suite.

FileCutter brings a much-desired Windows feature to Mac OS X--cut and paste. I know a lot of Windows guys who are pissed that Mac OS X doesn't use the same "cut and paste" paradigm they are used to from years of Windows use. One of them actually jumped in the air and clicked his heels together when I showed him FileCutter. (Okay, he didn't click his heels together, but he jumped out of his chair).

There are more CM plug-ins out there. Some applications install their own,  like Toast or StickyBrain. Which ones do you use and why? Are there any "must-haves" that I've missed?

Oh so sweet. My favorite catch-all notepad and organizer, VoodooPad, has been updated to version 3.0 today. I fell in love with VoodooPad about two years ago when I started a new job and needed to start keeping track of a huge variety of different kinds of information. I started dumping everything I could into the program--scraps of technical support information, dates and details of computer repairs, website URL's, coworkers' phone extensions, serial numbers. I didn't really know right away if VoodooPad was going to help keep all this stuff organized, but after awhile I noticed that I started to rely on the software to track down that information that otherwise would have been misplaced. I also started to notice connections between information that I might not have otherwise made.

VoodooPad sports a number of new features including tabs, searching improvements, support for big documents, and new filetype embedding. There's also support for Mac OS X's PDF framework so you can print a PDF straight into VoodooPad.

VoodooPad Pro is a new edition to the family that has several advanced options for power-users such as encryption, triggers, metadata inclusion, and a built-in web server to facilitate collaboration between VoodooPad users.

Other programs, like Yojimbo, have popped up recently to serve as the same kind of catch-all, but I remain faithful to VoodooPad, my first love. It saved me from the growing rat's nest that was StickyBrain. Mojo, indeed.

Most of our readers know that Mac OS X is a much more secure environment than any flavor of Windows. Microsoft apologists like to say that the lack of viruses and malware targeted towards Mac OS X is because its much smaller marketshare. I believe there's a kernel of truth in this argument, but it's also an oversimplification. It's true that Windows is a larger target, but it's also true that Windows is just not very secure. Study after study after study shows that plugging a Windows computer into a broadband connection without any protection is a surefire way for that computer to become infected with a virus or worm. Yes, there are ways to harden your Windows computer so that it doesn't become a spam-sending zombie and these anti-virus and anti-spyware tools are getting better all the time, but it's still a lot to ask a new computer user to do just to get online.

So it's nice to see the BBC and Sophos (a leading maker of anti-virus and security software) recognize Mac OS X for its better security. I'll be the first person to tell you that Mac OS X isn't totally secure; in fact there is no such thing as a completely secure operating system. But there can be no question that Mac OS X and its underlying Unix permissions model is more secure than any flavor of Windows.

I can hear the comments already. "But, but...just you wait for Vista. It will solve all the security problems." Well, if you remember, that's what people were saying about WinXP. And Win2K before that. And even Win98 before that. Yes, Vista will probably be a more secure environment than its predecessors, but that's not saying much.
[Thank you to everyone who sent us this tip.]

After months of work, the excellent multiple network instant messenging program, Adium, has reached version 1.0b1, and this release is a great one. It sports major improvements to interactions with AIM, ICQ, and .Mac IM networks, iTunes integration, the default look and feel and privacy options. It now requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 and is a universal binary.

Please note that this is still in beta, though I was using it last night without any significant problems presenting themselves.

[Thanks to those who sent us this tip.]

Top ten lists are all the rage recently and Phillip Ryu gives us a unique one--the top ten most beautiful applications for Mac OS X. He's got a nice write-up and I agree with most of his choices.

10. Transmission
9. Voice Candy
8. Podcast Maker
7. Transmit
6. Quinn
5. AppZapper
4. Acquisition
3. Coverflow
2. Newsfire
1. Delicious Library

I would add to his list RapidWeaver and Comic Life, both programs that have impressed me with their ease-of-use and well-designed user interfaces. What apps would you add in your own top ten list of most beautiful Mac OS X applications?

Podtropolis.com, the leading podcast and iPod-ready video bittorrent tracker may soon shut down. A notice posted to their front page yesterday and udpated today explains:

"It's looking like we are going to have to close our doors in the next week unless we can come up with enough money to pay our server bill for this month. Our host has put us on notice. We have been unable to pay it due to the fact that we lost an advertiser and donations have become practically non-existant. If you want to see Podtropolis keep rolling please donate via the sidebar, otherwise we have no choice but to close our doors."

Daniel Jalkut has discovered that the Mac OS X 10.4.7 update released last week is causing his computer to phone home to Apple. Every eight hours, a process called "dashboardadvisoryd" is contacting two different servers hosted by Apple, ostensibly to verify that the Dashboard plug-ins you have installed are the same versions as the ones provided by Apple.

While this certainly isn't as insidious as Microsoft's much-maligned Windows Genuine Advantage program phoning home to verify the authenticity of your operating system's license code, I find myself agreeing with Daniel that Apple should provide us a way to turn this feature off. For my few computers at home, I doubt that I'll care much whether each is talking to Apple's servers, but in my work environment where I manage many hundreds of computers, I now need to evaluate whether this change is going to have a negative effect on my network. I've already got network administrators mistaking Bonjour traffic as PC viruses, the last thing I need is to have another discussion with our firewall administrator to explain why our lab computers are all hitting an Apple server at scheduled periods.

I've been debating all summer whether or not our computers in the Fall would have Dashboard enabled. I have no choice now but to disable Dashboard on our lab and classroom computers until there's an easier way (other than using Little Snitch) to turn off this phoning home feature.

Some guy asked for donations to buy a G5. As a reward to his donors, he said he would blow up his aging PowerMac G4.

ColorEnvy.com is a company that provides scratch repair and custom paintjobs for your iPod(s), so it's only natural for them to have launched a contest to find the "worst scratched iPod." The winner of the contest will have their iPod's scratches fixed by ColorEnvy and painted the color of his/her choosing. He/she will also receive an do-it-yourself scratch repair kit to keep the iPod looking new and scratch-free.

If you think you've got the world's worst-scratched iPod, send them a picture. The contest ends August 1st. My bet is that an iPod nano wins the contest. Heh.

Everyone knows about GIMP, the open source graphics editor that competes with Photoshop for editing bitmap images, or images with "pixels in a bitmap." But what if you need a free program that can work with vector-based images, such as those that Adobe Illustrator builds?  Inkscape is an open source vector graphics editor that runs in the X11 environment compatible with Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.

Inkscape can import many and work with many of the common graphics formats, such as JPEG, PNG and TIFF, and can export as PNG and many of the common vector-based graphics formats.

GIMP and Inkscape combined can offer many of the same capabilities of their much more expensive cousins Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. If you're looking to build a graphic design machine on the cheap, you should at least check out these open source programs. They may just suit your needs.

I've always liked screensavers. Flying toasters will always hold a special place in my heart, but I continue to be impressed by Skyrocket, a free screensaver that renders fireworks on your display. Perfect for your 4th of July party, not only is Skyrocket free, it's also a universal binary which runs fantastically on my Intel iMac. Be sure to turn on the smoke option and play around with the zoom level, Moon glow, and sound options.