iChat is an instant messenger created by Macintosh and based on AIM. One of the options that iChat presents to the user is the ability to add buddies. A user can do this by:1. Open iChat up.2. Select Buddies on the top toolbar and click Add Buddy.3. Enter in their screen name as well as what type it is (AIM or .Mac).4. Click Add and they will be entered as a buddy.
On Lewis Blacks excellent Carnegie Hall Performance (available from Amazon on CD or downloadable MP3!), jokes that while iPods are the size of credit cards and play music, they still haven’t created a good method to harness solar power, he jests “iPods are geting so small, pretty soon, you’ll just be wearing underwear and hear music playing in your ears!”And now, reports in MacWorld now say your clothing will soon be powering your electronics: ”Professor explains Nanotech power for iPods“From the article:
“Wouldn’t it be great if you could walk down the street listening to your iPod or using your smartphone without ever worrying about the battery dying?Zhong Lin Wang, a professor and nanotechnology researcher at the Georgia Institute of Technology, says that within five years, you might be able to do just that. According to Wang, instead of using a battery to power phones, MP3 players and other portable devices, you could harvest the energy generated by the movement of your shirt. Yup, you read that right - a “power shirt,” which would provide users with a flexible, foldable and wearable power source.”
The Mac user base has grown exponentially in recent years, more folks are switching from Windows than ever before, after all, when a PC consultant can run multiple instances of Windows Vista, XP, Red Hat Server and more under the extremely stable Parallels, VmWare Fusion or the (Free) Opensource VirtualBox on their MacBook Pro, MacBook Air or $1099 MacBook, why not get a Mac?One of the most missed features that Windows converts ask me is about the delete key, on a PC, the delete key deletes to the right (or forwards, if you’re writing in a western language), this ‘forward delete’ key is certainly present on the full size keyboards that Apple ships with Mac Pro and iMac computers but noticeably absent from both the new wireless Apple Keyboard and also Apple’s fine line of Notebook computers, fear not, because holding the ‘Fn’('Function’) key on your notebook or wireless keyboard while tapping the delete key causes it to behave like a ‘Forward Delete’. For more tips and tricks, subscribe to the RSS feed from this page by adding “http://auburncom.com/wp/feed/” to your FeedReader of choice or check back here often.You can also send your Mac OS X questions or pet peeves too brendan@auburncom.com
The Apple TV 2.0 or ‘Take Two’ Update includes a host of wonderful features that I had to share with you: The greatest news about this new release is that all of the features of it are available to all of us Apple TV 1.0 owners, simply navigate into ‘Settings’ from the main screen of the Apple TV, click ‘Update Software” and follow the simple steps that the Apple TV takes you through, downloading the update takes about 15-30 minutes on a standard broadband connection, following this, the Apple TV asks you if you wish to ‘Update Now” or ‘Update Later’. Clicking ‘Update Now’ will cause the Apple TV to reboot and begin installing it’s updates, the Apple TV actually needs to run a total of three reboots and patches, after which you’ll see a brand new intro video full of glitz and style which brings you to the new and advanced Apple TV 2.0 menu screen.
It’s a highly intuitive interface with categories organized in a new and more sensible method, if you have some time to watch a quick tutorial video, Apple is hosting a wonderful quick guide here: http://www.apple.com/appletv/guidedtour/
Three of the greatest new features of the Apple TV 2.0 from my perspective are the following:
There are many more great features to the Apple TV including instant Movie rentals in standard or High Definition, browsing and instant watching of a huge range of Audio and Video Podcasts, Browsing .Mac photo galleries, and as I alluded to, purchasing Albums and songs by your favorite artists live on your TV is quite incredible (Did I mention that of course everything you purchase on the Apple TV syncs to your main computer’s library and then to your iPod/iPhone et al.
Thank you all for being early adopters of this great technology, I’ve seen it used by many of my clients in a variety of ways, sometimes to primarily stream music, sometimes to primarily show photos, everybody who has tried it has been very impressed and I’m confident that you will all appreciate the new features of the Apple TV once you run the update and get some time to try it out.
If you have any questions or comments about your Apple TV and it’s new softwarr, I’d love to hear from you, and will be glad to talk on the telephone or pay you a visit to run your Apple TV through it’s paces and get your network running really speedy to let it perform best for you.
You can read more about the Apple TV here: http://www.apple.com/appletv
There are also reviews of the latest Apple TV here: http://gizmodo.com/355843/apple-tv-20-reviewhere: http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-media-receivers/apple-tv-40gb/4505-6739_7-32306442.html?tag=nefd.ledeand possibly the most well informed review here: http://www.macworld.com/article/132085/2008/02/apple_tv_take_two.html
From the WSJ: ”Yahoo Inc.’s board plans to reject Microsoft Corp.’s unsolicited $44.6 billion offer to acquire the Web giant, a person familiar with the situation says.” This is a wonderfully audacious and spirited move by Yahoo! who are grossly undervalued at the moment, their stock when Microsoft made the offer was only $19 per share, the lowest in over two years, and doesn’t represent Yahoo!’s talent at picking great upcoming companies from Silicon Valley, (something Apple is also quite good at, but something I’ve never witnessed Microsofty do well). In recent years, Yahoo! has fostered Del.icio.us, FlickR and upcoming.org, they’ve also developed gorgeous pages for the iPhone, widgets for the iPhone, Push IMAP email for the iPhone and UNLIMITED email storage space (to compete with Gmails 6Gb limit).Yahoo! brought in revenue equal to a almost a half of Google’s last quarter and has a P/E ratio almost half of Google’s, this alone should put it’s market price near $70billion (Msft offered $45billion) and when one see’s that Yahoo!’s properties (a large the largest base of email users, ties to AT&T, great ocean front properties (FlickR, Del.icio.us, Upcoming, iPhone hooks), it makes one think, “hey maybe Yahoo is actually a damn steal at $70billion”(which may be what Msft’s offer is come Monday morning…
Not extremely surprising! These devices are well suited to toting around the new HD Videos’s that iTunes is selling and renting!
Whenever you next find yourself penning an email in Mail, a script in Textedit, or a message in iChat, try tapping the “Escape” key halfway through the word you’re typing, you’ll see a drop down list of words that OS X has fetched from the Oxford American Dictionary, selecting one of these and tapping the “Return” key will save you a few seconds and also ensure your spelling is correct.
This technique will even expand your vocabulary and may win you your next game of Scrabble.