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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Hardware, iLife, Software, Hacks, How-tos, Apple

Garageband's Learn to Play will run on a PPC... kind of

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Feb 8th, 2009

Good news for those of us who still have PowerPC-powered Macs lying around: while the new Garageband Learn to Play feature isn't actually designed to work with the old machines (part of Apple's switch to the new Intel chips), it apparently still does. If you've got iLife installed on your old Mac and double-click on the Learn to Play files themselves (hidden in /Library/Application Support/GarageBand/Learn To Play/), Mac.Blorge says that they'll work just fine. Unfortunately, you won't be able to buy new lessons from the store (people are still testing -- there may be a workaround here eventually), but if you want to play the ones you've got, they should work, even if playback isn't perfect.

Additionally, if you want to try to do a little hex editing, you may be able to get iMovie '09 playing on a PowerPC Mac as well. That one's just dodging the PowerPC check, though, so there's a good chance that some things won't work right on the old machine. Either that, or Apple is just trying to build in random requirements to get us to upgrade. Conspiracy hats, anyone?

At any rate, this isn't unexpected -- we're two years past the official switch, and of course at some point Apple had to move on with their new software. For the moment, you might get things working with a few tweaks, but eventually you'll have to look at replacing that old G4 if you want to run the shiny stuff.

Tags: apple-transition, garageband, hex-editing, ilife-09, imovie-09, intel, intel-transition, learn-to-play, powerpc, requirements, switch

Filed under: Internet, Internet Tools, MobileMe

MobileMe: A First look

by Cory Bohon (RSS feed) on Jul 10th, 2008

We've all awaited the .Mac to MobileMe switch for a while now (some more than others). However, Apple's 6 hour time table for upgrading to MobileMe turned awry and led into an almost 24 hour up, down, up, up, down cycle.

If you're like most users experiencing the 24 outage, then you haven't been able to login and experience MobileMe first hand. So why not take a look at our gallery? We've got pictures of the entire MobileMe suite of web applications and user preferences: from the login screen to storage partitioning.

Gallery: MobileMe Picture Walkthrough

Tags: .Mac, dot Mac, DotMac, first look, FirstLook, maintenance, MobileMe, switch

Filed under: Internet, .Mac, Apple History, MobileMe

Saying "goodbye" to .Mac

by Cory Bohon (RSS feed) on Jul 9th, 2008

Tonight, we will all say "goodbye" to .Mac, a service that has been a small part of Apple for almost 8 years. iTools, .Mac's predecessor, was launched on January 5, 2000 at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco and was a free service that included a HomePage, iCards and the much coveted @mac.com e-mail address that is commonplace today (as well as the forgotten 'KidSafe,' which was a database of kid friendly websites Apple compiled so you could make sure your children weren't up to no good on your Mac). As more users came to the service and the cost of bandwidth went up, Apple began charging for the service and called it .Mac.

The name ".Mac" was born at the Macworld Expo in New York on July 17, 2002 and provided several new services including: a beefed up iDisk (with a dizzying 100 megs of space), Backup, and a free copy of Virex. On September 17, 2002, Apple announced that it would discontinue the free iTools service in favor for .Mac.

That brings us to, well, tonight. Apple is scheduled to take down .Mac and replace it with a newer, rebranded service named "MobileMe." While some scoff at the name, TUAW can't help but see the other side of the picture: look how far iTools has evolved over the past 8 years. So, join us in saying, "So long old friend, we hardly knew ye."

Do you have a favorite story to tell about iTools or .Mac? Be sure to mention it in the comments below! Apple is scheduled to take down the .Mac service between 6 p.m. and 12 a.m. pacific time.

Tags: .Mac, dot mac, DotMac, iCards, idisk, iTools, Macworld Expo, MacworldExpo, mail, rememberance, switch

Filed under: iLife, Software, Video

Free Aperture web seminar for iPhoto users

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on May 10th, 2007



Our faithful reader and tipster Nik Fletcher just passed a link our way to a new web seminar Apple has made available called Aperture for iPhoto Users. I haven't had a chance to watch it yet (I wanted to share it with y'all before diving in myself), but details on the site reveal exactly what you would expect: the seminar explores the advantages of stepping up to Aperture from iPhoto, as well as how to migrate your library (spoiler: it's really just a one-click process - I recently did it myself as I'm testing out the Aperture demo) and even how to use both applications for your photography workflow (something I'm particularly interested in). Apple also includes links to other Aperture resources such as the O'Reilly-dedicated Aperture site with links, blog posts and tips of their own, as well as another Apple seminar that covers the world of Aperture extensions.

If you ask me, this seminar was far too long in coming, but it looks like it could be a great start on answering all those 'why should I move to Aperture?' questions for anyone interested in stepping into the world of professional digital photography management.

Tags: aperture, digital, digital photography, DigitalPhotography, iphoto, photography, switch, switching, upgrade

Filed under: Software

MacApper announces "Switcher's Giveaway"

by Dave Caolo (RSS feed) on Apr 23rd, 2007

People like getting free stuff. People love getting lots of free stuff. Feel the love yourself by checking out MacApper's "Switcher's Giveaway." They're looking for the best story about switching from a PC to a Mac. You're free to type up the details as text if you like, but iMovies, DVD's and slideshows will be considered as well. So what are the prizes? Check out this lineup:
That's $650US worth of goodies. You have until 11:59 PM EDT on Monday, April 30 to submit your true switcher story (Or made up one. Really, how are they going to know?) Good luck!

Tags: macapper, switch, switcher, switcher's giveaway, Switcher'sGiveaway

Filed under: Video, Tips and tricks, iTunes

Swap full-screen Cover Flow and video in iTunes

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Apr 4th, 2007



Here comes the community at Mac OS X Hints with yet another cool trick which, in this case, should help us waste just a little more time in iTunes 7.1.1. I specify that latest version because this hint concerns Cover Flow's new found ability to run in full-screen mode: as it turns out, you can command-tab between a full-screen video and Cover Flow. This is enabled by the apparent fact that that cmd-tab doesn't toggle Mac OS X's app switcher when in iTunes is full-screened; you have to hit Escape to get out of this environment for cmd-tab to get back to its normal duties. This is a slick, very eye candy feature that, in a way, I am surprised Apple didn't do at least a little bragging about with the latest iTunes update.

Tags: cover flow, CoverFlow, full screen, FullScreen, itunes, switch, toggle, video

Filed under: Hardware, Retail, Features, Apple, TUAW Tips, Deals

TUAW Tip: switch to the Mac on the cheap

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Mar 22nd, 2007

The word that there might be as many as 9000 switchers a day got us thinking: maybe all those switchers could use some tips on how to save a few bucks while hopping the fence to white, black and aluminum pastures. Sure, Apple typically doesn't offer much in the way of excitement when it comes to zany blow-out sales on their products, but who says you have to buy your Apple stuff from Apple? There are plenty of resellers who offer some great deals to lure customers away from Apple's shiny stores, and discount watching sites can help you jump on time-sensitive sales. If you take our tips to heart, we guarantee both you and your credit card will sleep better at night with your next (or first) Mac purchase.

Read our recommendations after the jump.

Continue reading “TUAW Tip: switch to the Mac on the cheap”

Tags: apple, buy, deal, deals, discount, discounts, hardware, mac, mac pro, macbook, macbook pro, MacbookPro, MacPro, purchase, shopping, switch, switchers

Filed under: Switchers, iMac

This guy loves his Mac

by Dave Caolo (RSS feed) on Mar 8th, 2007

As a lifelong Mac user, I haven't had the pleasure of "switching" (something which seems to happen quite often). Sometimes it goes poorly, I'm sure, and the would-be Mac user goes back to a Windows world. Other times, it goes well...very well.

Blogger The Northlondonhippie is celebrating his second year as a Mac user with a heartfelt post about his beloved iMac:

"Sometimes, even when it's sleeping, I just glance over at it, sitting quietly in the corner, on my desk and I can't believe how good it looks."

Umm...yeah. it's OK to love your Mac, Northlondonhippie, just don't love your Mac. You see what we mean?

Thanks, Sean!

Tags: imac, switch

Filed under: OS, Software, Cool tools

Witch - bring Windows app switching to Mac OS X

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Jan 29th, 2007


The way that applications, windows and our OS behave is a subject of much debate. Toss some life-long switchers into the mix and boy-howdy, you got yourself the nerd version of a bar fight. One of these much debated behaviors between Mac OS X and Windows is how to handle switching between applications and their windows. Mac OS X focuses on applications - when you press cmd + tab, you can switch between all of your open applications, but you have to press cmd + ` in each app to cycle between the windows specific to said app. The Windows switcher, on the other hand, doesn't see applications, only windows. Pressing the switching keystroke equivalent of alt + tab offers a selection of all open windows, including the 20 Word documents and 5 IE sessions you have running.

For the sake of this post, I'm not necessarily saying one is better than the other, and the subject of why this difference exists is a usability discussion best left for another day. I simply wanted to lay some context for Witch, a Windows-like application switcher from Peter Maurer (of Butler and the original Textpander/TextExpander fame) that fuses window-centric switching with some of the nice perks of Mac OS X. Not only can you switch between windows, just like on, uh, Windows, but you can also do things like bringing all minimized windows to the front or even close those minimized windows without having to bring them to the front.

Witch, like many of Peter's apps, is donationware. However, if you get attached to it and don't want it to go the way of TextExpander (or if you simply want to give a developer his much-due credit), I highly recommend you donate for Peter's fine work.

[via Lifehacker]

Tags: donationware, Peter Maurer, PeterMaurer, switch, switchers, switching, windows, witch

Filed under: Hardware, OS, Software, Switchers

Pete Wright: "My Microsoft career is now officially over"

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Dec 31st, 2006

Coming to the rescue once again, digg's users have highlighted a fairly prominent Windows coder's testimony of a switch to Mac OS X and Ubuntu Linux.

Pete Wright, a (former) Windows developer who made Microsoft's 'influencer' lists by working for such clients as American Express and Enron, has said goodbye to Redmond. "Today, I've resigned to leave that world behind forever, and I couldn't be happier," Pete exclaimed in a fairly lengthy blog post back in September. Pete cites Microsoft's inability to innovate and Vista's aura of 'Service Pack 3-ness', as well as "buggy, overpriced and stress inducing" software for the switch (amongst other things), but I have a sneaking suspicion his new work environment of t-shirts, sandals and nerf guns had *some* influence.

Still, chalk this up as another prominent switch to Mac OS X by a developer fairly high on the Windows totem pole. One can only guess as to how desirable Mac OS X Leopard will be, once Mr. J and company lay all their cards on the table at Macworld 9 days from now.

[via MacDailyNews]

Tags: developer, developers, DLS, engadget, mac, microsoft, os x, OsX, pete wright, PeteWright, redmond, switch, switchers, windows

Filed under: Audio, OS, Software, Switchers

Leo Laporte might go 100% Mac: "So long Suckah"

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Oct 26th, 2006

Leo Laporte, podcaster extraordinare and the web's general tech-guru-on-steroids, has blogged that the Soundbooth beta Adobe announced today just might let him jump ship to the Mac entirely. Since the first days of his podcasting adventures, Leo's been using Adobe's Audition for all his podcast recording and editing, but it's Windows only. While Soundbooth isn't entirely a Mac counterpart (Leo's initial impressions are that it's an "Audition Elements"), his "So Long Suckah" post title sounds like he's optimistic.

Still, I agree with Leo and I'm a little disappointed in the offering. Soundbooth's biggest ding right now is that it only does single track recording and editing. For Adobe's girth as a company, I'm a bit surprised this feature is missing. Here's hoping the term 'beta' is applied for every ounce it's worth right now.

Either way, it's nice to hear Leo might be able to make the jump entirely. One less workflow intrusion is a good thing.

Tags: adobe, audition, leo, leo laporte, LeoLaporte, mac, soundbooth, switch, switcher, windows

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Cult of Mac, Bad Apple, Apple

Editorial: Behind the MacBook "Hack"

by Dan Lurie (RSS feed) on Aug 4th, 2006


The web has been on fire the past few days with news of a presentation given at the BlackHat computer security conference featuring the compromising a MacBook Pro by executing very low-level code on the drivers of a wireless card. Whether or not the exploit presented actually counts as hacking of a Macintosh (they used a third party wireless card) is not at issue in this post. What I think is more important is the fact that these guys chose to demonstrate the vulnerability on a Mac, instead of a Windows or Linux machine, which are also vulnerable to the exploit. The presenters cited the "Mac userbase aura of smugness on security" as their reason for choosing a Mac as their guinea pig.

Some readers might attribute this negative attitude toward Mac users as one held only by uninformed Windows users and malicious hackers, but that is far from the case. Many very intelligent and highly respected members of the tech community feel the same way. Some of them even used to love Macs.

Before pointing any fingers and making any accusations about who lost their mind when, I think we need to take a step back and examine our behavior.

Continue reading “Editorial: Behind the MacBook "Hack"”

Tags: anger, apple, blackhat, crisis, hack, intel, macbook, osx, pro, switch, ubuntu, users

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Humor

USA Today moron: "Boot Camp to cause exodus to Windows"

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Apr 16th, 2006

Andrew Kantor has posted a pretty darn funny piece of satire at USA Today based on the idea that Boot Camp is actually going to cause Mac users to switch over to Windows (ok, maybe it isn't 'satire.' Maybe it's 'saying anything he can for page views'). I have to hand it to Andrew - if this article wasn't obviously a clever piece of humor, he would instead have what could quite possibly be an educated, insightful and altogether accurate argument for why Mac OS X users should simply replace their cumbersome, overpriced and useless Macs with a Windows PC from, say, Gateway.

Andrew, I gotta tip my hat - you really know how to hit the nail on the head. Once I used Windows on my friend's MacBook Pro "long enough to be deprogrammed," I'm already on the hunt for the nearest garbage can to dump the PowerBook I (begrudgingly) am typing this on right now. Anyone have the sales phone number for eMachines?

Tags: Andrew Kantor, AndrewKantor, Mac, OS X, OsX, switch, USA Today, UsaToday, Windows

Filed under: Hardware, Cult of Mac, iMac

BeLight announces winners of switcher contest

by Dave Caolo (RSS feed) on Apr 11th, 2006

As you may remember, BeLight software recently posed the question to the Mac faithful: How would you convince a PC user to switch? They held a contest to find the best answer, and today they've revealed the winners.

I thought the best advice came from Wesley D. Radcliffe, a contestant who said, "...Let them play. Sit your powerbook in your lap and use expose. Wait for them to ask how you're printing files, playing music, and using the internet at the same time, with not one cable touching it..." I recently had an opportunity to show off iMovie a bit, and after about 10 minutes I had sold a Mac to a long-time PC user. Another friend of mine (think of the most die-hard PC user you know) actually said the words "Macs are cool" after playing with a G5 iMac. The lesson: Never underestimate the power of the demo.

Tags: apple, belight, imac, switch

Filed under: Software, Tips and tricks

Drag and drop calendar items from Entourage to iCal

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Apr 10th, 2006

I don't know how long this secret affair has been going on, but apparently MacOSXHints caught a calendar event from Entourage sneaking over to iCal! Mmhm, that's right. Allegedly, it's possible to drag and drop *gasp!* a calendar event from Entourage right onto the iCal window.

While it sounds like the event will retain all of its information, I'm not sure if that includes an alarm, if set. The event will also default to being an hour long once dropped onto iCal, so depending on your workflow and your typical schedule, this might or might not be handy.

Tags: appointment, between, drag and drop, DragAndDrop, Entourage, event, exchange, iCal, move, switch

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