Apple has just pushed the 420 MB update to OS X 10.5, Leopard, to 10.5.3. The update includes fixes for Time Machine, Time Capsule, Spaces, iChat, large attachments dragged to Mail.app, Airport, Automater, Address Book, Parental Controls and VoiceOver. Full disclosure of updates can be found on Apple’s Support site.
You can update your Macintosh either via the Software Updates in your Apple Menu or by downloading the 420 MB Standalone file directly from Apple’s site for network installs to multiple Macs.
.Mac Sync keeps pretty much everything in sync between my MacBook Pro and Mac Pro. Sometimes one will wipe out the others address book or something silly but that’s why I back up nightly with SuperDuper, too. 
For most of my purposes, .Mac Sync works but I’d love to see more remote disk space and a little better robust services for weeding out systems and preventing them from stepping on each other.
AppleScripts menu item gives me easy access to my scripts which is nice. I guess I could disable the menu item and just use Quicksilver, but when you have a 30 inch screen, who cares.
Speaking of that 30 inch screen, I really don’t know why I have Spaces on my Menu Bar. I really don’t use it. I guess I figure if it’s there, I’ll end up using it. I never really got into virtual desktops not even back in my X-Windows days on top of SunOS. I’ve tried using it even on my MacBook Pro, but old habits die hard. Maybe someday I’ll use it.
System volume is self explained. It raises and lowers your volume. I keep it up on my Menu Bar so if my music doesn’t play and iTunes is all the way up, I can quickly look at the Menu Bar and see, “Aah, it’s muted!” Sure, I can figure that out by just pressing my volume key on my keyboard, but hey, I’m visual. I’m a guy.
Last, but not least, I use Spotlight. I never really used it until Leopard. With all its added features and neat tricks like performing mathematics (try putting this in: pi/-4), I use it all day long. It finds files fast and has even shown me some things on my hard drive I forgot about! Hopefully Apple will put advanced features in a future release, but for now, I’m happy with it.
So, there’s the gloss over stuff. I’ll be talking about my other menu items in the coming week, so stay tuned!
) To get a closer look of what’s on the bar, click the above image and see it in its 100% pixel glory on our Flikr account.
So, I guess the easiest way to start is to simply go left to right. Thus we start with Remote Buddy. We previously touched on this application in a post before, so you should already be familiar with this groovy application. Basically, Remote Buddy allows you to use a slew of devices, including your iPhone, to remote control your Mac. Remote Buddy allows you to run through a presentation in either PowerPoint, Keynote, NeoOffice, Adobe Reader, or even Preview all from your remote in your hand. Since this is your buddy, it goes even further and allows you to control iTunes, DVD Player, VLC, and more than 100 other applications. Yes, that is not a typo, it is 100. As we stated in our last post on Remote Buddy, you can now watch movies, listen to music, and such all on your iPhone right from your Mac! You can even take a look to see if anyone is sitting at your chair via tapping into your iSight. Slick stuff indeed.
The Menu Item basically gives you quick access for pairing devices and configuration of Remote Buddy. It’s also a nice reminder that it is running and you are in control of your Mac…from afar.
RateMe! is very basic in what it does, but it does it so well that it just will not disappoint. Simply displaying five spots on your menu bar, you click on one of the five positions to transform the small white square into a star. Right click on it and you can select from the pop-up Increase or Decrease which will do so in half-star increments. Yes, half-stars are here baby! Man, I can’t tell you how long I’ve wanted this feature in iTunes and now here it is. Your half ratings will also appear in the iTunes interface as well. Sweet!
RateMe! lets you play, pause, mute, loop the current track, and perform other minor tasks. It also displays the track name and artist for a brief moment at the start of each song. SvenOnTech confirmed with RateMe! author Michael Markert via email this morning that this feature will be configurable to show longer or toggle in an upcoming release.
RateMe! is freeware but Market would appreciate any donations from you elated users. Give it a try and do thank him for his work if you continue to use RateMe!
I can still remember my first piece of spam. It was way back in 1996 and I just sat at my computer staring at the screen for the longest time trying to comprehend how this “person” got a hold of my sacred email address and why they were trying to sell me something I had no interest in. About four years later, I had to retire that email address because the spam became unbearable (over 500 pieces of spam a day.) But with each new address I created, spam eventually found me.
Through the years of my spam fighting career, I’ve used many different weapons in this ongoing warf. Software on my computer, server based fighters, and challenge response schemes. Really, nothing worked until I discovered the beta of SafetyBar about five or six years ago. Using software that installed in Outlook as a plug-in, it would take the community of SafetyBar users response of what was and what wasn’t spam and then “rate” those votes. The higher the rating of validity, the more likely that spam would never be in your Inbox but rather be moved to your Spam folder. My Inbox was over 90% clean of spam an achievement never yet accomplished to that point in time. It was great! I used it all these years until I came to the Mac. SafetyBar, now Cloudmark Desktop, was only for Windows and only for Outlook and Outlook Express (when I left it behind a couple of years ago.) But rejoice Mac fans, now it is here for you as well!
Today Cloudmark has announced the public beta of Cloudmark Desktop for Thunderbird on the Mac! If you’re a user of Mozilla’s freeware mail client that looks and feels much like Outlook Express, then you’ll be a happy camper to know that you can now protect yourself with one of the best spam fighting vehicles out there! You can download Cloudmark Desktop for Thunderbird (OS X) and use it free for 90 days after which you can sign up for the monthly subscription. Knowing how good Cloudmark is, I highly doubt you will even notice that this a beta while using it. I strongly encourage anyone looking for spam control to download this now and use it today!
Now my only gripe is where is the Mail.app and Entourage versions?
With SplashMoney, Mac users now have access to a complete personal financial manager that enables them to securely record transactions, track account balances, generate reports and budgets, and manage finances while on the go. SplashMoney features wireless access to online bank accounts – an ideal feature for laptops and smartphones, a streamlined user interface, charting of financial data, the ability to assign icons to transactions, transaction filtering, and bank account reconciliation.
SplashMoney supports most account types, including checking, savings, credit card, cash, asset, liability, and money market accounts.
Mac users of SplashID have been anxiously waiting for the release of SplashID 4, which includes substantial updates such as Web Auto-Fill, a feature that simplifies entering user names and passwords by using a web browser to go directly to a site and then retrieving the username and password directly from SplashID to auto-fill in the record. Other key features in SplashID 4 include improved ways to view and find information, such as the new Panel and Tree views, and an Auto Search feature that retrieves records simply by entering a few letters in the Find box.
Advanced users of SplashID 4 can use the new Database Sync feature to select multiple databases to synchronize with on the Mac desktop and easily share data with other users, even across a network.
The security of personal financial data on mobile devices is of chief concern to many, and SplashData has incorporated secure password protection in both SplashMoney and SplashID using 256-bit Blowfish encryption to protect against malicious hacking or other threats.
The SplashMoney and SplashID versions that include both handheld and desktop applications are available now for $29.95 each at www.splashdata.com. They are also available as part of the SplashWallet Suite, which includes SplashID, SplashPhoto, SplashShopper, and SplashMoney, at a 50% discount. The desktop-only versions of SplashMoney and SplashID, available for both Windows and Mac, are available for $19.95. Full functioning 30-day trial versions are also available for download.
Continuing to raise the bar in file transfer technology Interarchy 9 introduces over one hundred new and improved features, including a brand new protocol built upon SSH, numerous enhancements to the product’s interface, plus much more.
“For close to 15 years Interarchy has led the way with its advanced file transfer capabilities,” said Matthew Drayton, founder and CEO of Nolobe. “Interarchy 9 builds on this by adding a number of exciting new features to enhance our customers’ productivity.”
The new SSH protocol is a major addition to Interarchy’s already comprehensive set of supported protocols. SSH provides a number of advantages over incumbent protocols such as FTP and SFTP. Not only is it faster than SFTP but it offers much greater flexibility.
“Interarchy’s SSH protocol offers significant speed improvements, especially when mirroring. We are talking seconds versus minutes for large websites. This is a big deal.” adds Drayton. “Better yet, SSH puts us in the driving seat. Users will no longer will we be shackled by the limitations of SFTP or FTP.”
Pricing and Availability
Interarchy 9 is available at a suggested retail price of US$59.
Interarchy 9 can be purchased directly from The Nolobe Store:
A US$29 upgrade offer is available to all registered owners of
Interarchy 8.5.4 or earlier.
http://store.nolobe.com/upgrade
Volume discounts are also available. For details visit The Nolobe Store at http://store.nolobe.com/ or send an email to
sales@nolobe.com.
Interarchy 9 requires Mac OS X 10.4.11 or later.
So you’ve got a Mac or a Windows box with disk encryption and you’re feeling pretty good about your data’s safety. Bitlocker on Vista and File Vault (developed for the Depart of Defense even) on OS X put you at ease with its promises of using some super hard encryption scheme to defeat. The only way anyone’s getting in is via a key. Guess what? Hackers now can get that key.
A video on YouTube demonstrates just how easy it is to retrieve the very key that unlocks your hard drive. From start to finish, the video shows the retrieval of a laptop, the sniffing of a key, and then the opening of all the “protected” files. Just like that.
Now granted, the hacker will need physical contact with your computer in order to grab your key; however, this isn’t that reassuring if you think about it. In recent months, there has been a slew of reports of lost laptops from not just business professionals, but from government agencies such as the FBI, CIA, and of those in Congress. These laptops are in danger of losing very important and highly classified data. If enemies of the state are able to obtain such a nugget, it’s no telling what could result from the breach.
Again, the video does demonstrate a small window of opportunity in data retrevial; however, in our busy lives, it is easy to lose track of our laptops for a few minutes. That’s just enough time for someone to simply walk by and grab it without you even knowing.
The easiest and best way to protect yourself is to insure your laptop is OFF and not in standby when in public. Make sure it has been off for at least 30 minutes prior to placing yourself in a vulnerable situation. These two measures alone will greatly reduce the chance of the key residing in your memory and thus keep your data safe.
Netflix has wisely been adapting to the future fairly well with adding Blu-ray and HD-DVD (yanking the last from the queue just recently, however) to the mix. Netflix has also playing around with movie downloads. Many have been excited by the latter and with only a Windows version currently available, Macintosh fans are sitting at the table with fork and knife, ready to dive in. But you may want to put down the silverware as it’s most likely you’ll never see Netflix downloads on your Mac.
According to a source at Netflix, Apple is making things very difficult for it, and every other company with digital content, to bring this new exciting technology to OS X machines. The difficulty? FairPlay. Apple has a long history of not playing fair with it’s DRM (digital Rights Management) from shunning RealNetworks’ Rhapsody to work with the iPod to ignoring Sonos‘ constant requests for access to FairPlay to allow the music player to play content from the iTunes Store. Apple simply does not want to license out its DRM scheme as Microsoft has freely done with its Windows Media format.
Hollywood is very stringent with its content and has signed onto Window Media and FairPlay after much work by Microsoft and Apple. To add another DRM to the fold may not go down very well with Tinsel Town. Further, the cost of coming up with a new protection scheme may be too extreme for many companies. Lastly, the “bullet proof” aspect of the DRM would be questioned by all the studios and that would become the deal breaker. In the end, it has to be FairPlay on the Mac.
As long as Apple plays deaf to all the outside requests for licensing of FairPlay, one will never see Netflix movie downloads on their Mac. With Apple having its own movie rental scheme now, it’s highly unlikely Netflix movie downloads will come to the Mac. Like RealNetworks, Apple doesn’t want competition on its platform. In the end, if you really have to have those movies from Netflix on your Mac, get Parallel’s Desktop.
Ettore Software Ltd. today started shipping an enhanced version of its long-standing text expander for Mac,
TypeIt4Me, introduced at Macworld Expo in January.
Since 1989, TypeIt4Me has allowed users to set up short abbreviations which expand to words, pictures, phrases, paragraphs or indeed entire pages when typed.
New TypeIt4Me version 4.0 will now automatically correct spelling mistakes.
Unlike competing products which require the user to set up long lists of typos and their correct spelling, TypeIt4Me’s AutoCorrect uses Apple’s built-in OS X spell-checker, AppleSpell and requires no user set up.
Users can turn AutoCorrect on/off via a hotkey, which also allows changing among up to three supported languages (including English, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Spanish and Portuguese).
Company founder and CEO, Riccardo Ettore says: “Users have long been able to define commonly mistyped words to expand to their correct spelling. With 4.0, they can now leverage the power of OS X’s built-in spellchecker and have their typos automatically corrected while they continue typing, instead of seeing it
underlined in red.”
Also new in 4.0 is Autocue, which allows users to define boilerplate text with variable parts to be typed when prompted at expansion time.
For a complete list of features, see: http://ettoresoftware.com/EttoreSoftware/TypeIt4MeFeatures.html
Available now for download from http://ettoresoftware.com TypeIt4Me 4.0 costs $27 ($14 for students/teachers). Upgrades are $9, but free for users who bought the previous version after 1 August 2006.