I'm really liking the iPhoto Faces feature. The accuracy is amazing, almost makes the Hollywood plots feasible. Having those tags carry over to Facebook is a huge bonus. If you don't have iPhoto '09 you should get it. If you don't have a Mac you should get one.

Did you know that bookmarks in your "Bookmarks Bar" can be executed via a keyboard shortcut?

cmd+1 will execute the first bookmark
cmd+2 will execute the second bookmark
cmd+3 will execute the third bookmark
etc...

This does not apply to bookmark folders. I haven't verified, but I believe it only goes from 1-9.

The Free Software Foundation posted their 5 reasons for not buying an iPhone, via Daring Fireball. This is a bit ridiculous. Every Verizon phone operates pretty much the same way.

1. iPhone completely blocks free software. Developers must pay a tax to Apple, who becomes the sole authority over what can and can't be on everyone's phones.
2. iPhone endorses and supports Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) technology.
3. iPhone exposes your whereabouts and provides ways for others to track you without your knowledge.
4. iPhone won't play patent- and DRM-free formats like Ogg Vorbis and Theora.
5. iPhone is not the only option. There are better alternatives on the horizon that respect your freedom, don't spy on you, play free media formats, and let you use free software -- like the FreeRunner.

1. Verizon controls all softwae you put on your phone. You can't manually install anything. (MS Mobile phones might be an exception because Verizon doesn't own the OS.)
2. Although you can put music on your phones, I think Verizon controls everything that is broadcast through VCast.
3. I don't think any phone actually does this, unless you install the software that does it.
4. I don't think there are any Verizon phones that do this, most phones probably don't.
5. The FreeRunner is not a very good option and barely competes with the iPhone.

I only use Verizon as an example because I subscribe to them and I know how crappy their phones are. They are endorsing Google's Android OS, but that's a long ways away.

Apple plans to release an application that will allow you to control iTunes remotely. I'm sure it will be a great app, except for one feature: the ability to change AirTunes Speakers. How sad is Apple that they can't add this one feature? If I were a betting man, I'd wager they won't support it.

Update: I guess I lose. Perhaps they got tired of me submitting complaints about this issue. It's even listed as a feature in the AppStore. That license for Signal just went to waste, at least the author got paid for making a good app.

Took the MacPro to TechRoom to diagnose the problem. They wanted to charge me $50 per drive (x4) to back them up, plus the $50 to diagnostic test. I only opted to have them backup the system drive. They kept it for a week, told me the problem was the original RAM modules. It wasn't the RAM. It's most likely the Video card. The computer seems to work fine when I'm not actually using it. Bleh, what a waste of $100.

Speaking of dumps, my MacPro also took a dump soon after. It's in the shop now. The three day turnaround is more like seven days. I need to find a good backup solution. Time Machine isn't good enough. Maybe I'll try out Carbon Copy Cloner. The last time I tried it, it didn't work so well. But, I do remember it had the features I needed.

It seems my Photos Server took a dump. Re-installing the OS is probably the only option at this point, although I'm not sure it's worth it. I might just end up paying the nominal fee for an unlimited Flickr account. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how I can integrate it into the Coppermine Photo Gallery software.

So the new Apple TV v2.0 was released yesterday. It's a long overdue update. And the only plus is the new interface and Rentals. Other than that, it's not much to brag about. The interface is a good deal slower. My Movies is still not browsable by Genre or any meta data. They can do it for Rentals, but not for my personal movies. I don't understand why. It's just so annoying to scroll through 200+ movies to look for anything.

I would give v2.0 a C-.

I saw this post on Daring Fireball and had to try it out. I've never used del.icio.us before, but I hear it's a great way to organize bookmarks. Unfortunately, aside from my normal list of links, I don't really go into my history to browse. Instapaper is a clever idea. It's a quick way to bookmark sites to read later. What's impressive is the way that it's implemented. To install, you just drag a button (scriptlet) into your tool bar. When you see a page you want to read later, just click the button (scriplet) and it gets saved to the Instapper server. To register, you just provide an email address, the password is optional.

scriptlet: javascript bookmarks.

From HiTechToys:

GE 6.0 Cell Fusion Home Phone: $150
IntelliScanner Mini: $299
Bugaboo Bee Stroller: $500
Boulevard Car Seat: $270

Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard is out. I haven't had time to upgrade just yet, but I'm waiting for things to settle down and for developers to update their applications first. There are a few features I'm waiting to try out, like Spaces and Time Machine, although there are still some bugs and limitations.

The first step is to backup.

My first Google Gadget. Any Shopzilla Publisher content can be used as a Google Gadget. Google is amazing, they're building web applications the way web applications should be built. Web applications should look and feel like any other desktop application. If you find this Gadget useful, add it to your iGoogle page.



Or add it to your web page.

<script src="http://gmodules.com/ig/ifr?url=http://hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/111112737739082765987/shopzilla-459-dynamic-search.xml&synd=open&w=280&h=250&title=Search+at+Shopzilla&border=http%3A%2F%2Fgmodules.com%2Fig%2Fimages%2F&output=js"></script>

Apple releases the iPhone today at 6:00pm PST. Somewhat exciting. Still can't make the switch to AT&T though.

David Pogue's Review
iPhone Apps
My First Mac iPhone Widget
iPhone Widget Tutorial
iPhone + Widget Mashups

Top Utilities/Applications:
Quicksilver:   http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/
TextExpander:  http://www.smileonmymac.com/textexpander/index.html
PTHPasteboard: http://pth.com/products/pthpasteboard/
Synergy:       http://wincent.com/a/products/synergy-classic/
Path Finder:   http://www.cocoatech.com/pf4/
Renamer4Mac:   http://www.power4mac.com/renamer/
CUPS-PDF:      http://www.codepoetry.net/projects/cups-pdf-for-mosx
MenuMeters:    http://www.ragingmenace.com/software/menumeters/
Visor:         http://docs.blacktree.com/visor/visor
SIMBL:         http://www.culater.net/software/SIMBL/SIMBL.php
Firebug:       Firefox Extension

Honorable Mentions:
MenuCalendarClock  http://www.objectpark.net/en/mcc.html
Growl              http://growl.info/
LittleSnitch       http://www.obdev.at/products/index.html
SafariStand        http://hetima.com/safari/stand-e.html
Teleport           http://abyssoft.com/software/teleport/
TinkerTool         http://www.bresink.de/osx/TinkerTool.html
WindowShadeX       http://unsanity.com/products
Mail.appetizer     http://www.bronsonbeta.com/mailappetizer/beta/
VirtueDesktops     http://virtuedesktops.info/

Update: iUseThis

I can't understand why Apple chose not to make the Speaker Menu scriptable. This is the last piece of the puzzle for having a real iTunes jukebox with Airtunes. It's been 2+ years since they introduced Airtunes and you still can't change speakers remotely.

Add to the thread.

Update: Please send feedback to Apple that they need to Script the Speaker Menu.

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