Just last week, Verizon released Media Manager for the Mac. While many customers are saying it's less powerful than its Windows-based counterpart, it received significant changes this week. Namely, users can now stream content from their iPhoto and iTunes libraries to a FiOS DVR (something TiVo did three years ago, but let's not nit-pick).

With the desktop app running (configured as a simple preference), you can browse iTunes playlists as well as your entire library. From iPhoto, browse your library, events and slideshows. Keeping events intact is nice for when you want to show Aunt Shirley pictures from your trip to Scranton.

Note that this requires a FiOS TV DVR Set-Top Box, Mac OS X 10.4 or greater, iTunes 7 or greater, iPhoto 6 or greater and QuickTime version 7 or greater. For an unnecessarily enthusiastic demonstration of the software, check out the video after the break.

(Screenshot courtesy of Dave Zatz / Zatz Not Funny)

[Via Engadget]

More Mac 101, our series of tips and tricks for novice Mac users.

Now that the winter holidays are almost upon us, we're thinking about sharing stories, photos, and movies with far-flung relatives and friends. There's a slew of ways to get this done, and this post focuses on creating a simple site in iWeb '09 and publishing it not to Mobile Me, but to your own host via FTP.

If you're unfamiliar with iWeb '09, I'll say this: It does what it does well. If your goal is to share photos, movies and stories with minimal fuss and zero coding, iWeb will work. When I travel, I typically create an iWeb gallery and movie page. Yes, there are many other options, but this one works for me.

If you'd rather not publish your iWeb site to MobileMe and have access to FTP, you're in luck. The setup is simple. First, create your site. Next, click the title of your site in the iWeb '09 sidebar (this doesn't work with previous versions of iWeb) to reveal the publishing options. In the first drop-down menu, select "FTP Server." Give your site a name and enter a contact email.

Below that, enter your FTP settings. You'll need your server address, username, and password. Next, enter the path to the directory (http://mysite.com/paris, for example). Just make sure the directory already exists on your server or you'll get an error. It won't hurt to test the connection at this point by clicking the button that's available for just that purpose.

Finally, enter your site's URL and then click Publish. Off it goes! If you set it up correctly, your iWeb-powered site will be uploaded to the proper place on your site. Subsequent updates require re-publication, so just hit that Publish button again when you're done making changes

That's it! Have fun sharing your holiday experiences with iWeb '09.

It's a common theory that Apple is a "hardware company" not a "software company." What does that mean? Doesn't it actually sell both?

The idea is that Apple uses software to push more hardware sales. If Apple was a software company, you wouldn't see the fantastic and very useful iLife bundle of applications included for free on every new Mac, including the el-cheapo Mini. Instead, they might decide to charge $99 for it, or worse, break it up into pieces and distribute it as separate packages, each with its own price.

Snow Leopard's price also seems to support this theory, especially when contrasted to Microsoft's pricing model. Any "dot-oh" operating system upgrade priced at $29 is simply amazing. And given the fact that you can upgrade a whole home or small office full of Macs for less than the price of an Xbox 360 game...well, that's just a special kind of awesome. The main OS competitor, however, has graciously offered its upgrade, similar in "just fixing stuff and making it run better" nature to Apple's update, at the low, low price of $129. Ouch! At least you can save a substantial amount by buying Microsoft's family pack at a tick under 150 bucks, but that discount will only get you three copies instead of Apple's five. And it's still three times the price of Snow Leopard's bundle!

But I realized something interesting about the whole "hardware company vs. software company" argument. As a Mac convert, I've noticed that I think quite a bit less about the hardware than I do the software. In the PC world I still live in, we talk about processor benchmarks, motherboard options, frontside bus speeds, and other Ambien replacements. However, when I talk Mac, I'm often concerned much more with the software it's running, what OS version is installed, and where I can find a free app to do what I need.

On what seemed like a somewhat slow Monday, Apple has updated GarageBand '09 to version 5.1. This update adds a few new features, improves compatibility and stability, and also fixes a security issue.

The changes include:

• GarageBand track effects and Audio Units can now be added to a guitar track.
• Improved support for Apogee audio interfaces.
• Faster switching to full screen in Magic GarageBand.
• Improved access to audio monitoring settings.

This update weighs in 139.29MB, and is available to download in Software Update or from Apple's support download page. If this updates improves or fixes any problems you might have in GarageBand, feel free to leave a comment below.

The Eye-Fi Memory Card sends photos wirelessly from your camera to the destination of your choice, like a computer or the web. Back in January of '08, the product gained Mac and iPhoto support, and support for MobileMe was added in September '08.

This week, Eye-Fi announced the Eye-Fi 2GB Geo, which is currently exclusive to Apple retail, both online and brick-and-mortar stores. As you've probably guessed, the Geo adds geotagging to the mix. Once snapped and tagged, photos will be sent to a folder on your Mac or directly to iPhoto, all tagged and ready to go. This makes great use of iPhoto '09's Places feature.

It's $60 for a 2GB card, which is cheaper that most of the geotagging add-on hardware we listed a couple months back. If you pick one of these up, let us know how it goes.

Additionally, there's a Eye-Fi app for the iPhone [App Store link] that lets you send photos to your Mac or certain online services direct from your phone.

[via MacDailyNews]

Back in June, TUAW reported on iPhoto2Twitter, an iPhoto plugin that provides an easy way to send photos from your iPhoto library to Twitter via TwitPic. Now the developer, Blue Crowbar Software, is back with an update that adds support for sending photos and movies from your iPhone or digital camera to Mobypicture.com.
Mobypicture is an online service that lets you upload a photo or movie once, then distribute the media to a number of different social sites and blogging tools. At this time, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Blogger, Vimeo, WordPress, LiveJournal, Tumblr, Vimeo, Jaiku, Hyves, and BrightKite are all supported.

As before, iPhoto2Twitter is available for €4.95 (approximately US$7.03) directly from the developer's website. Blue Crowbar's Aperture2Twitter has also been updated to add various social media and blogging sites through Mobypicture, and it's now available for €5.95 (about US$8.47).

Apple has just released an update for iMovie '09. The new version, 8.0.4, improves overall stability and fixes a number of other minor issues.

According to Apple, these issues include:
• Fixing a problem with incorrect rotation when working with video created by iPhone 3GS.
• Resolving instability when adding multiple beat markers in some languages.
• Correcting an issue where iMovie could become unresponsive after using fine-tuning controls beyond the stabilized portions of a clip.

To download this update, open Software Update (Apple Menu > Software Update) or visit the download page on the Apple support website.

For me, iDVD has always been the redheaded stepchild of the iLife suite. While I've used Garageband to make songs, iPhoto to manage photos (until I got Aperture), iWeb to make websites, and iMovie to make movies, until recently I'd never once tried to use iDVD to put together a DVD project. I've spent the past week trying to put together a DVD of our first year in New Zealand to share with our family back in the States, and while the movie's turned out great, getting there has definitely not been half the fun.

Creating the movie itself was somewhat of a chore. Because I haven't yet upgraded to iLife '09, I'm stuck with the much-maligned tinker-toy interface introduced in iMovie '08. I couldn't use iMovie HD instead, because it's not compatible with my hard disk-based camcorder. After several days of wrestling with iMovie '08 to get it to do what I wanted it to do, I finally had a 95-minute project ready.

At "professional quality" in iDVD, that 95-minute project left me with almost a third of the DVD unused, so I decided to add more content, including a slideshow with 300+ pictures and two more short movies in an "extras" menu.

This turned out to be my downfall. Suddenly, iDVD no longer wanted to co-operate with me.

The most recent update of iPhoto to version 8.0.2 included a couple of new features around the Faces functionality for identifying people in photos. Apple, however, was kind enough to throw in another feature; one which I was hoping would show up from the day iPhoto '09 was announced.

It is now possible to copy geodata from one photo and paste it into another photo. While this feature might sound useless at first glance, the reality is that it can be very applicable. Consider this: you have a tried-and-true digital camera that you've had for years. Along comes iPhoto '09 and it's fancy-schmancy geotagging chops make you feel old and outdated. Well, fear not dear friends, your trusty iPhone 3G has GPS built right in.

The process goes like this: wherever you are out taking pictures, snap an additional photo using your iPhone 3G then copy the geodata from the iPhone picture to all of your other pictures taken at the same locale. This process will work with any photo that has location information, not just an iPhone 3G's photos.

To do this, select the photo with the geotag information that you took with your iPhone 3G. Right-click (or command-click) the photo and choose "Copy." Next, select the photo(s) that are missing said geotag information and right-/command-click the photos then choose "Paste Location."

Now, you too can take part in all of the GPS-y goodness of those new-fangled cameras without having to buy any new gear.

With the introduction of iWeb '09, Apple pumped up the volume on its entry-level website authoring tool, making it more functional and flexible for novice users while adding enough power -- multi-site publishing options, FTP upload to unlock users from MobileMe, more capable RSS/podcasting tools and widgets, and links to social media sites like Facebook -- to merit a second look alongside midrange/prosumer apps like Sandvox, RapidWeaver, Flux & Freeway. Since the app is included in iLife '09 and bundled with every new Mac, it's likely to be the authoring app of first resort for many Mac users.

If you want to get the most out of your iWeb '09 site, we're proud to say there's one guy who has your back: our own Steve Sande, who has revised his Take Control of iWeb ebook for the latest iLife version. The $10US digital title (also sold in printed form for $23.99) reviews all the new features, covers advanced tricks and techniques, and walks the reader through the creation of a sample site (online here). Steve did a great interview about the book on Chuck Joiner's MacVoices podcast last week.

In the interest of sharing the iWeb love (and thanks to Tonya & Adam Engst at TidBITS Publishing), we've got an exclusive discount on Steve's ebook just for TUAW readers. Follow this referral link to place your order (be sure to click the big orange "Buy eBook" button) and you'll get a 30% discount off the ebook; it's normally $10US, but for you? $7. 143 pages + an appendix worth of iWeb goodness -- enjoy!

If you just can't get enough of books from current and former TUAW team members, you can check out Steve's guide to making the most of your classic iPod, Scott McNulty's WordPress book, or multiple titles on iPhone development and maximizing your iPhone/iPod touch from Erica Sadun.

Yesterday Apple pushed out three updates via Software Update. According to Apple, iMovie 8.0.2 "...fixes an issue with projects having a size of 0 KB." That's a problem all right.

Aperture 2.1.3 is also available now and "...addresses minor issues in a number of areas, including the display of thumbnails on import and image rotation."

Finally, Apple has also pushed out Server Admin Tools 10.5.6v1.1 which is required to administer Mac OS X Server version 10.5.6 from a remote Mac client. These updates weigh in at 24.1MB, 48.11MB and 92.7MB respectively. The interesting thing here is that Apple was actually a bit forthcoming with exactly what these updates address. Not totally, mind you, but better than the "bug fixes" we usually get.

Last week, Apple released iLife updates with typically terse descriptions. Dissatisfied with "...overall application stability improvements," I explored iPhoto 8.0.2 for obvious changes. Here's what I found.

First, Faces offers Address Book contacts as potential matches for unrecognized faces (based on initial letter), each labeled with an Address Book icon. Formerly, you'd be presented with the names of previously identified faces only.

Also, the label that identifies an unknown face has been changed from "unknown face" to "unidentified."

This one could be just in my head, but zooming in on the Places map with a double-click seems a lot faster now.

They're minor changes, but definitely welcome. Many people dismiss iPhoto, but as a snapshot professional, I love it.

Earlier today, Apple released updates for iWork '09, iWeb, iMovie, iPhoto and iLife Support. As usual, the cryptic descriptions of each disclose very little about their contents. Along with the usual "...overall application stability improvements," the iWeb update fixes FTP issues (what those are we don't know) and iPhoto fixes issues with Faces, Places, photo sharing, and slideshows.

You can grab them now via Software Update. They range in size from 1.4MB (iLife Support) to 88.8MB (iPhoto Update). A restart will be required. As usual, let us know if anything goes wonky after installation.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Apparently, to go along with today's hardware updates, Apple has also pushed down a number of updates via both Software Update and at Apple's Support Download site. The updates include:

• iPhoto 8.0.1 which "improves overall stability and addresses minor issues in a number of areas, including internet connectivity, keyword import, and slideshow export."
• iLife Support 9.0.1 which "improves overall stability and addresses a number of other minor issues. It is recommended for all users of Aperture, iLife '09, and iWork '09."
• AirPort Client Update 2009-001 for Intel Macs, which "addresses issues with roaming and network selection in dual-band environments."
  
• AirPort Utility 5.4.1 (Mac) for managing the Airport Express, Extreme, and Time Capsules.
• AirPort Utility 5.4.1 Windows - ditto for the dark side.

Check your Software Update or download them direct from Apple. Unfortunately, this set of updates will require a restart.

Here's a useful corner of Apple's enormous website. The "Find Out How" pages feature tutorials on things like Mac and wireless basics as well as web, music and MobileMe tips.

We've written about it before, but Apple has recently added tutorials for iLife '09 apps, including iPhoto and an iLife '09 overview. The tips are super handy, and even an old salt like me learned something new. For example, did you know you could publish to FTP with iWeb? I didn't (of course, I never use iWeb).

Of course, you can check out our own Mac 101 series as well. Here's to education!