Ohai ZOMG. Realz! MySpace can has fab nu Music cheezburger. Wurks with iPod, all 4 awzom Muzik labels! Dayz wil haz MP3 for $$. "MySpaceMusic" so kyoot! Universal Music/MySpace fwends -- bai bai "copyright-infringement lawsuit" for realz. iTunes ftl. MySpace ftw. kthxbai.
Universal Music is desperate for Apple to face some real competition in the digital music download arena that it is now trying to work with the other record labels to launch their very own iTunes like store. The twist? Universal would like to see hardware manufacturers pay a fee (something like $5) for each device. That device would then have a free, to the consumer, subscription to the label's music service. Universal figures people will be happy because they can get the music they want on their player they want (as long as it isn't an iPod), the hardware manufacturers will be happy because people won't be buying iPods, and the labels will be happy because they can maintain their vise-like grip on the content their artists produce.
It is safe to say that most folks aren't big fans of DRM, though Apple's flavor of DRM (FairPlay) is flexible enough that most will never run afoul of it. You might remember Steve's letter to the music industry in which he extolled the virtues of DRM free music. EMI has been the only major record label to adopt this DRM free stance, and much of its catalog is available via iTunes Plus for $1.29 a song (you can still get the DRMed versions for $.99). EMI is about to have some company in the DRM free music biz, pretty soon.
The New York Times is reporting that the Universal Music Group is going to be selling part of its catalog sans DRM for the next few months to gauge consumer interest. This is great, but the only catch is that these DRM free songs won't be available via iTunes. Universal, in an effort to lessen Apple's dominance of the digital music market, will be offering up the DRM free music via Amazon, Google, RealNetworks, and Wal-Mart for $.99 a song (a price many accredit Apple to pioneering).
You might recall that Universal recently decided not to renew their contract with Apple to sell music in iTunes, and switched their commitment to a month by month basis. What does all this mean? I am betting that this experiment will succeed, and that Universal will reverse their decision and sell DRM free tracks via iTunes, why not sell your wares on the top online music store?
Our Macs work hard, and sometimes they get sleepy. But that doesn't mean they can slack off on the job! To keep your Mac alert and ready to go, check out Caffeine. It's a tiny little app (and at 48KB, we mean tiny!) that puts an icon in your menu bar. Give it a click to prevent your Mac from going to sleep, putting the disk to sleep or dimming the screen. Click again to remove these restrictions. It's quicker than launching system preferences and adjusting those settings manually, and convenient for those overnight downloads. Caffeine is universal and free.
Alternatively, try out Jiggler, which periodically "jiggles" your cursor to prevent your Mac from sleeping or launching a screensaver. Like Caffeine, Jiggle is universal and free. Now tell your Mac to get to work!
Adobe will host a press event this March 27 to announce the availability of CS3. This will be the first Universal Binary version of the Creative Suite, and Adobe is calling the event the largest software release in its history. If you've been looking for an excuse to finally buy that Mac Pro, this could be it.
In the meantime, enjoy the "What's in the Box?" promo video above.
Apple just posted a new Security Update (2007-002) at its download site. The update addresses security in CoreServices, iChat and the User Notification Center and is available as a PPC download, a Universal download and a Panther download -- see Mike's post for more detail.
QTAmateur brings a lot of the handy QuickTime Pro features to the table without having to pay the $30 upgrade. Full screen video playback (with a more streamlined, iTunes 7-like video window) and batch exporting of any format QuickTime can read and write make for a handy little app.
QTAmateur is free, Universal and available from Mike Ash, a Rogue Amoeba programmer.
Keyword Assistant is a stellar iPhoto plugin that dramatically simplifies the chore of adding keywords to images. In fact, one could go so far as to say Keyword Assistant brings tagging to iPhoto, but we'll let you judge for yourself. As you can see, it adds a menu item to iPhoto, as well as a simple, smart popup window that allows for comma-separated tags. We call this keyword entry utility 'smart' because it can auto-fill tags keywords from your existing set, (optionally) warn you when creating new keywords, and even auto-fill names from Address Book. It also brings a desperately needed option to iPhoto's preferences: alphabetizing the keyword list. All things considered, this is a utility we can easily refer to as a missing link from iPhoto's current abilities.
This can't-iPhoto-without-it plugin just went Universal, and it is still provided as freeware from Ken Ferry's .Mac homepage. KA requires 4.0.3 or 4.0.4 and Mac OS X 10.4.7, and is localized for English, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Swedish.
I have to admit, I was pretty excited when I saw the screencap of an Adobe order confirmation email above from TUAW reader Craig. Despite Adobe's repeated official refusal [pdf] to do anything for Intel Mac Photoshop users until CS3, it looked like there might be big news on the Photoshop front. A closer look, though, shows that the rumor mill has gotten ahead of itself on this one, and here at TUAW, we believe in quashing this sort of thing in the bud. It's "Macintosh, Universal English," not "Macintosh Universal, English." That one little comma is huge. It's the difference between a universal binary, and a product that isn't localized specifically for British, American, or Canadian English.
Despite some recent logo troubles and the move of design and ad agencies toward Adobe InDesign, Quark seems to be climbing out of the hole it dug itself with its disastrous transition to OS X. Today with version 7.1, QuarkXPress 7–first announced at MacWorld and released in May–became the first major page layout application to make the transition to Universal Binary for the Intel architecture. This move comes a full 6 months before the announced release time-frame for Adobe Creative Suite 3.
With today's announcements of upcoming Leopard technologies, it will be interesting to see what Quark has in store for us with its next version. Perhaps designers will be able to use Time Machine to go back and fix that pesky mistake they made 3 days ago. For now at least, we'll all just have to sit on our hands and wait like good little boys and girls.
ShapeOnYou - handy and integrated basic 3D drawing app
Photoshop Automator Actions v3 - major update to rocking set of around 50 actions for automation with and without Photoshop
Widgets
DashMail (formerly QuickMail) - quick email widget, works with addresses from Gmail, AOL, AIM, Yahoo! , .Mac and custom servers. Remembers addresses and subjects, with Address Book support in the works
CenterStage and BackStage make up a dynamic duo which gives FrontRow a run for its money. The free software suite reached version 0.6 today, bringing with it some exciting new features and Intel support. Media management app BackStage got madeover with a new unified UI, while FrontRow-esque component CenterStage now features support for the Apple remote, Elgato eyeTV, and Griffin RadioShark, as well as a new UI for photo browsing. While the programs might not be as polished and feature rich as MediaCentral, the price can't be beat, and new features are being added rapidly.
In a post aptly titled 'At Long Last!', Unsanity announced a beta of a Universal version of ShapeShifter, their UI haxie for skinning Mac OS X. As the post states, your Intel Mac can finally "get its spank on" (what on Earth are those guys at Unsanity selling??). Obviously, as their post states, this is a beta so things could very well go wrong with it. On the upside this Universal version should work just fine with any guiKit (skin) that you throw at it.
This ShapeShifter 2.4 beta version is a free upgrade for registered 2.x owners and is available from this Unsanity blog post.
The Democracy Player is a cross-platform internet television viewer (or IPTV, for buzzword-compliance) that boasts over 500 built-in channels for your endless entertainment pleasure. It takes a bit of a different approach to internet television with support for a wide variety of aggregation services, including BitTorrent, and a full-blown channel guide.
The player was recently updated to version 0.8.5 for all platforms, and there is now an Intel version of the app available - not to be confused with Universal. Their Mac OS X download page offers two separate downloads for PPC and Intel versions, stating that a Universal version is pending.
Democracy Player is donationware and available from getdemocracy.com.
Universal Music is desperate for Apple to face some real competition in the digital music download arena that it is now trying to work with the other record labels to launch their very own iTunes like store. The twist? Universal would like to see hardware manufacturers pay a fee (something like $5) for each device. That device would then have a free, to the consumer, subscription to the label's music service. Universal figures people will be happy because they can get the music they want on their player they want (as long as it isn't an iPod), the hardware manufacturers will be happy because people won't be buying iPods, and the labels will be happy because they can maintain their vise-like grip on the content their artists produce.
It is safe to say that most folks aren't big fans of DRM, though Apple's flavor of DRM (FairPlay) is flexible enough that most will never run afoul of it. You might remember Steve's letter to the music industry in which he extolled the virtues of DRM free music. EMI has been the only major record label to adopt this DRM free stance, and much of its catalog is available via iTunes Plus for $1.29 a song (you can still get the DRMed versions for $.99). EMI is about to have some company in the DRM free music biz, pretty soon.
Our Macs work hard, and sometimes they get sleepy. But that doesn't mean they can slack off on the job! To keep your Mac alert and ready to go, check out Caffeine. It's a tiny little app (and at 48KB, we mean tiny!) that puts an icon in your menu bar. Give it a click to prevent your Mac from going to sleep, putting the disk to sleep or dimming the screen. Click again to remove these restrictions. It's quicker than launching system preferences and adjusting those settings manually, and convenient for those overnight downloads. Caffeine is universal and free.
QTAmateur brings a lot of the handy QuickTime Pro features to the table without having to pay the $30 upgrade. Full screen video playback (with a more streamlined, iTunes 7-like video window) and batch exporting of any format QuickTime can read and write make for a handy little app.
I hope you've cleaned out your downloads directory, because we have another roundup of software for the week of 7-30-06 to 8-5-06:
CenterStage and BackStage make up a dynamic duo which gives FrontRow a run for its money. The free software suite reached version 0.6 today, bringing with it some exciting new features and Intel support. Media management app BackStage got madeover with a new unified UI, while FrontRow-esque component CenterStage now features support for the Apple remote, Elgato eyeTV, and Griffin RadioShark, as well as a new UI for photo browsing. While the programs might not be as polished and feature rich as MediaCentral, the price can't be beat, and new features are being added rapidly. 
It was another packed week for software premieres and updates, so here is a roundup in case you missed them the first time around:
In a post aptly titled 'At Long Last!', Unsanity announced a beta of a Universal version of ShapeShifter, their UI haxie for skinning Mac OS X. As the post states, your Intel Mac can finally "get its spank on" (what on Earth are those guys at Unsanity selling??). Obviously, as their post states, this is a beta so things could very well go wrong with it. On the upside this Universal version should work just fine with any guiKit (skin) that you throw at it.
The Democracy Player is a cross-platform internet television viewer (or IPTV, for buzzword-compliance) that boasts over 500 built-in channels for your endless entertainment pleasure. It takes a bit of a different approach to internet television with support for a wide variety of aggregation services, including BitTorrent, and a full-blown channel guide.
