The new year is only a few hours away now, so I figured I might as well get an early jump start on one of my New Years Resolutions...

New Years Resolutions...I've never really been a fan of them. I mean after all, who REALLY keeps their resolutions much beyond the month of February, right? I use to never make New Years Resolutions, but for some reason this year, I find myself oddly motivated to. And since one of my resolutions is to blog more I figured I might as well share a few of my resolutions with you in hopes of inspiring you as well.
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As I sit at home and prepare to spend Christmas with my family, I've been doing a lot of thinking lately on the year that has gone by and how fortunate I have been. Between graduating from law school, traveling to Europe, moving and starting a new job, it's been a very busy, but wonderful, year for me both personally and professionally. Believe it or not, one of the highlights of this past year has been to spend some of my time with all of you out there in the Mac Community. Through podcasting, your emails and comments, and through my local Macintosh Users Groups, sharing some of my time with you all has been a wonderful experience.

It's been an interesting year for the MacCore Podcast, we've continued to grow in listenership, re-designed the website and logo, and I booked my first trip to Macworld. It's also been a year of changes with Corey's unexpected hiatus during the latter part of the year, the various solo podcasts, and the wonderful range of guest hosts and contributors. I thank you all for you continued support during this time. My hope is that things will begin to return to normal this next year and that Corey will make a triumphant return to the show. I know there have been a few bumps along the road but I'd like to think I came through this experience having learned a few things along the way.

Sending my sincere thanks for your continued support, and wishing you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a bright and Happy New Year...

- Katie

Welcome to the new home of The MacCore Podcast! When we first launched the show (nearly two years ago now - yikes!) we did so very quickly and without really thinking through a lot of the details. We really bought into Apple's idea that anyone with a Mac and a mic could start a podcast so we grabbed a domain name, threw up a logo and started recording. Apparently we did something right because all of you joined us along the way. We figured it was about time we "relaunched" the MacCore and a few months ago announced a contest on the show to design our new logo. Many of you sent us some great entries and we ultimately picked a design from listener Darren, who is a very talented graphic designer from the UK. You can find Darren's blog over at macwingnut.com.

Like the new logo? Looking for a Christmas gift for yourself or another Mac fanatic? That's great because we've also launched a CafePress store where you can buy T-shirts, coffee mugs, sweatshirts and all other kinds of MacCore branded merchandise. Not only do you get some really cool new gear, but a portion of your purchases also comes back to us so that we can continue to keep the streaming bills paid and keep the podcast coming down the tubes. You can access the CafePress Store by clicking on the link to the right.

It's been an amazing few years and we look forward to bringing you many more. Thanks for your continued support and dedication.

-Katie & Corey

Apple's marketshare on the rise, is NBC's departure hurting Apple, France really likes the iphone, T-mobile likes the iPhone locked down, Visual Voicemail comes under fire, Google gets easier, and 1.1.3 may be just around the corner. Katie heads to Macworld, The MacCore launches a new website and logo, and Blake Tucker take some of the confusion about buying a digital video camera for the holidays. (Running Time: 0:50:54)

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Allison Sheridan from the NosillaCast at podfeet.com co-hosts this show. We talk about the iPhone unlocking in Europe, AT&T's "big announcement" that the iPhone will go 3G in the next year (did anyone not see that coming?), hard drive failures in some MacBooks and what you should do whether or not you're impacted, rumors of an ultra portable Mac heating up, Macworld 2008, and our annual Holiday Geek Gift Guide continues with part 2 of this special feature. Need to know what to get the geek in your life, wanna know about all the gadgets that should be on your list? We've got you covered. (Running Time: 00:57:05)

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Well, it's official, I've booked my trip to Macworld. Because January is a crazy time for me at work I unfortunately couldn't attend the entire conference, but I will fly in to San Francisco Wednesday afternoon and fly out Saturday afternoon. This means I'll miss the Keynote, which has always been a dream of mine to see, but this was the only way I could make the trip fly with work so it will have to do. Besides, there's always next year.

This will be my first Macworld, and it will in fact be my first trip to San Francisco. Not only do I plan to take in the sights of the convention, but also plan to see the city as well. I'd like to plan some kind of "meet-up" with my listeners so if you're interested in getting together and have suggestions for time and places nearby drop me an email (themaccore@gmail.com) and as the time draws near we'll try to arrange something. I'm in touch with several of the other mac podcasters so I'm hoping to coordinate with them to do a group event and also attend some of the parties. I'll keep you updated.

Now, let's hope that Apple doesn't release anything really compelling, because I'm already out the $800+ just to get to the party, I'm not sure I can afford to get caught up in the reality distortion field while I'm there. Of course if you feel the urge to help defray the cost of my trip, there's always the PayPal donation link over there to the right. Your support of the show is always appreciated. I'll be in touch...

My apologies to anyone who may have had the entire podcast feed refresh in their podcast catcher of choice. Because of some of the issues I and other podcasters have had with Libsyn I've decided to move my feed off libsyn (the files are still hosted there) and onto Feedburner. This is something I should have done at the very beginning, but live and learn. One of the unexpected consequences was that all the old shows showed up as new shows in your aggregators. Apologies for the inconvenience, but this should improve the overall quality and reliability of the feed and give me more options for hosting the show in the future. Thanks for your understanding.

Victor Cajiao from the Typical Mac User co-hosts this show. We talk about the iPhone launch in Europe, the new Final Cut 4 Express, the future of Audio and Video downloads, whether the Zune is a real threat to the iPod, Apple Software Updates, thoughts on 10.5.1, and our annual Holiday Geek Gift Guide. Need to know what to get the geek in your life, wanna know about all the gadgets that should be on your list? We've got you covered. (Running Time: 01:06:08)

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The Google Phone finally reveals itself, well, kinda, Apple sells two million copies of Leopard in the first weekend, MacBooks and MacBook Pros recieve quiet updates, New "virus" targets Macs, the iPhone is named invention of the year, AT&T sure thinks so anyway, international data roaming plans to save users thousands, the iPhone can be "revirginized" for now, limits on iPhone sales, Leopard bugs, a listner review of Sapiens, your comments, and more! (Running time: 0:47:34)

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Apologizes for the lack of an Enhanced AAC feed this week, I was in a real time crunch to get the episode out before leaving town.

In this very special edition of the MacCore, I have the pleasure of Co-Hosting the Typical Mac User Live Podcast over on TalkShoe alongside my good friend Victor Cajiao. We discussed all things Leopard. Launch parties, install experiences, troubleshooting problems, the cool new features in the Finder, Spaces, Time Machine and a whole lot more. I apologize in advance for the super-sized show (nearly 2 hours long!) but we had an absolute blast and just had to keep going beyond our scheduled hour. Thanks to all you folks who turned out live for the show. (Running Time: 01:41:24)

Unfortunately, as of the time I write this post TalkShoe is still not working with Leopard and I've not heard anything from the development team. One alternative if you don't have a bootable copy of Tiger and you've already upgraded to Leopard, you might want to consider (although I hate to say this) running TalkShoe via Windows. I was able to participate in the MacCast Loop chat earlier this morning using TalkShoe on Windows through Parallels while still booted into Tiger. If you have Boot Camp or VMWare this should still work for you. You'll want to allow a little extra time as you'll need to download and install the TalkShoe client into Windows.

I'm loving Leopard, and I can't wait to talk to many of you about it in the Live Talkshoe chat that I'm co-hosting with Victor Cajiao of the Typical Mac User Podcast tomorrow, Sunday, October 28th at 5pm Pacific/8pm Eastern time. While I may love Leopard, unfortunately, TalkShoe does not. There is some kind of incompatibility with the TalkShoe chat client and Leopard. In my experience, the client will not properly render, then will quickly eat up system resources and will have to be force quit. This is a problem, because I know many of you who were planning to join the chat will most likely have already upgraded to Mac OS 10.5 Leopard. Victor has put a video blog posting on his website talking about this issue in more detail.

Both Victor and I have contacted TalkShoe about this issue, though as of the time I post this message, we do not have a fix other than using a non-Leopard mahchine. I am hopeful that an updated TalksShoe client will be released in time for the podcast, but with it being a Sunday, I'm not all that confident that it will be. I'll, of course, post any updates I get throughout the day. You do have some options though. If you still have Tiger or a previous version of the OS installed, you should run TalkShoe from that machine in order to use the chat interface. If you don't have access to a computer with a non-Leopard OS, you can still participate via phone. Simply call 724-444-7444 and enter Talkcast ID 3097. Victor knows that many people will be on the phones but not on the chat, so we'll make a point to allow for your input on the show.

While I'll admit this is a disappointment, I want to reiterate to you all that the show will go on, and it will be great. This just gives us another topic to discuss. Overall, I've been thrilled with Leopard and this has been the only program I've come across thus far that has had a problem. I can't wait to talk with Victor and our listeners about their thoughts and first impressions of the operating system. If you're unable to join us in the chat, the show will be posted sometime on Monday to our feed as a regular podcast. Please come if you can...

I stayed up WAY too late last night playing with Leopard, but I must say I had a blast. I was number 20 or so in line at my local Apple Store and got my Leopard launch day T-shirt. I had a blast. Met up with some friends from my MUG and then had a nice dinner together at Cheesecake Factory (Yum!). Once they left it was Install time. The total install on my original 2.0 Ghz MacBook Core Duo took about an hour and half. Most of that time was spent zeroing out my hard drive and the check of the DVD itself. Just the install itself took probably only 45 minutes.

You can find photos of the launch event here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/themaccore/sets/72157602740014488/

I've had several people ask me recently what my plan was for installing Leopard. Tomorrow, I will be doing a complete clean install of Leopard on a new upgraded Hard Drive for my MacBook. I've had the external drive for a few months now, but figured Leopard was the perfect time to install it since I'll be erasing everything off the Mac and reinstalling anyway. The process I'll be taking, will be very similar to what many of you will do should you choose to perform a full Erase and Install of Mac OS 10.5. Adam Christianson of the MacCast has posted a great show detailing his plan for upgrading to Leopard. For all the details, you can listen to Adam's excellent podcast. But in a nutshell, below are the steps that I'll take.

Disclaimer: This is a more advanced method of installing an Apple OS and not at all necessary for the average Mac user. I perform this plan because I like to take the opportunity to "spring clean" with OS releases. For most people, performing a simple Upgrade or Archive and Install will be just fine.

1. Confirm my Mac is healthy and in good working order (I'll perform a verity of maintenance tasks and hardware checks)
2. Print my database of Registration Info and Locate all my Application Installer CDs (this assumes you have such a database, if you don't now might be a good time to put one together)
3. Create a full bootable clone of my machine to an external Hard Drive (I use SuperDuper!)
4. Perform secondary backups of critical files (I backup my entire Home folder to my iPod and burn DVDs of my Documents Folder for later off-site archival)
5. Deauthorize my iTunes account (don't forget to deauthorize any iTunes account you may have running under Windows via BootCamp, Parallels or VMWare, etc.)
6. Deactivate any other software that only allows a limited number of activations, such as the Adobe Creative Suite
7. Sync all devices and .Mac
8. Repair Permissions
9. Unplug all cables except my power cord (I have a laptop- unplug all cables except power, monitor, keyboard and mouse if you have a desktop)
10. Boot from the Installer DVD and use Disk Utility to perform a final repair of the Disk
11. Use the Erase and Install (I choose the advanced options and remove extra printer drivers and foreign languages I won't use to save space and time)
12. Restart computer after install and run Software Update
13. Migrate my User Data only using MIgration Assistant
14. Reinstall Applications from their CDs and Download Shareware Apps from the Web (Check at this time to ensure 10.5 compatability)
15. Re-run Software Update, and run it until no more updates are found (this includes third party utility's software update programs)
16. Repair DIsk Permissions
17. Keep copy of old OS bootable backup for at least a month to ensure all runs well, take Backup DVDs to off-site storage.

It's Leopard Week! Leopard will be released on Friday, October 26th, Educational Pricing, Hardware Requirements, iPhone Syncing Speculation, No Classic Support, More DRM free songs on iTunes Plus, Apple's Marketshare on the Rise, Yet Another "Open Letter From Steve Jobs", Orange gets the Apple, and the iPhone is once again, unlocked. We are also fortunate this episode to have interviews with Ken and Glen, the developers behind iPhone Drive, and Andrew Welch, president of Ambrosia software. Corey chime's in on his thoughts of the previous show, and listeners chime in with ideas for a MacCore show on Talkshoe. (Running Time 01:12:02)

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Katie will be the co-host on this Sunday's edition of the Typical Mac User Podcast with Victor Cajiao. Victor and Katie will take your calls and chat all about the release of Apple's newest operating system, Mac OS 10.5 Leopard just two days before. This will be a live show on TalkShoe on Sunday, October 28th at 8pm Eastern, 5pm Pacific where listeners can interact with the hosts and guests by calling in to the show and participating in a live chat.

Talkcasts are a lot of fun for both the hosts and the audience, if you've never had the opportunity to participate in a live talkcast, this is a great time to start. To participate, go to www.talkshoe.com and register for a free account. On the day of the show, simply log in to talk shoe to enter the chat. You can also call in to the show at (724) 444-7444 and enter Talkcast ID 3097. Call in on any regular telephone (great for those night and weekend minutes), use Skype or Gizmo Project.

Click here for more information.

We get back to a more normal show this week. Katie discusses what's going on with the iPhone 1.1.1 "bricking" drama and the Mac community's response, thoughts on iPhone bricking and class action lawsuits against Apple. In more positive iPhone news iToner is now apparently working with 1.1.1, and Ecamm updates iPhone Drive. We'll also dig into the status of the iPhone overseas, when will we see Leopard and when we do will all our apps work, and is iTunes going to be in trouble in the face of new competition from Amazon and other competitors. We'll also have a very special interview with the guys from Mozy talking about their off-site unlimited backup solution. Listeners chime in on the iPhone rebate, YouTube in China, using an iPod while in the car and questions about .Mac Backup. (Running Time: 01:00:22)

Here's the Link for the extra 250MB of storage space for Mozy: https://mozy.com/?code=6LULV1

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Katie gives you an update on what's going on with the podcast and we have an opportunity to talk with Carl from 1Password. 1Password is one of Katie and Corey's favorite Mac applications and it was an honor to have the folks form 1Password on our Podcast. Carl tells us what 1password is all about and gives us a sneak peak at some of the upcoming new features, including perhaps something for the iPhone. (Running Time: 00:40:40)

EDIT: Oops, I said the date was October 8, 2006. Duh. It's 2007. Guess I'm still a year behind these days. Sorry about that.

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First off, our apologies for not getting a podcast out to you last week. If you've been following Katie on Twitter you know that it's been a crazy but amazing past few weeks for her. Shownotes for the new podcast is in the works and hopefully we can find sometime to sit down and record next week.

Now, we do need to let you know of some upcoming changes. Corey is going to be taking a hopefully brief hiatus from The MacCore. Don't worry, everything is fine. Corey is just in the midst of some big things going on in his life and he has other commitments that are unfortunately taking all of his attention right now.

So, here's how things are going to change a bit in the next several weeks. Katie is going to try to get a podcast out to you every two weeks. We'd like to be on a weekly schedule but with only one of us there's now twice the work. Corey's going to pop in from time to time as he can and as his schedule allows. We're also looking into the possibility of having some guest co-hosts and already have lined up interviews with guests on a variety of topics. Keep checking the website, www.themaccore.com as Katie plans to post an extensive review of the iPhone and along with other updates

Seeing as Katie is going to be doing this solo for a while, now more than ever, we need your help. Send in those audio comments and voicemails and let us know what you think about the state of affairs in the Mac Community. There are a lot of hot topics out there right now, everything from the iPhone firmware update that has locked down the phone and turned many iPhones into iBricks, along with the upcoming anticipation surrounding Mac OS 10.5 Leopard. You can reach our voice mail hotline at 206-203-CORE that's 206-203-2673 or attach a standard audio file to an email and send it to themaccore@gmail.com

It's going to be an interesting next few weeks, but we hope you'll like the new content that we have planned. If this new format isn't for you, stay subscribed and hang in there, things will be back to normal hopefully soon. Thanks for your patience and understanding, we'll talk to you soon...

Apple Unveils Logic Studio, 1 Million iPhones, Price Cut Might Tipple Sales, Free Unlock Utility, Ringtone Drama, What's the Real Deal With NBC, Could $0.99 TV Downloads Be Coming, New iPods Don't Play Nice With Old Stuff, Crazy FCC Rumor, Our Reactions to Apple's "The Beat Goes On" Announcements, Listener Feedback on Mozy, iPod, Touch Concerns, and Reaction to the $200 Price Drop. (Running Time: 01:07:42)

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According to MacWorld, Apple has invited the media to a special invite-only event at their London flagship store on Regents Street next week. The event will be held on Tuesday, September 18th at 10am. The Invitation simply says "Mum is no longer the word." All suspicions are that this announcement has to do with the UK launch of the iPhone. We'll of course have all the latest news on our next Podcast.

(P.S. From Katie: I had a chance to visit the Regent Street store when I was in London earlier this month. It's an amazing store with a large theater and display.
You can check out some photos I took Flickr account.)

Posted By: Katie

I just got back from a trip to my local Apple Store to check out the new iPods (living just a few miles away is a very dangerous thing). My first impressions overall were much more positive than when I saw the keynote presentation. Specifically I was surprised by the Nanos. I was expecting not to like the new design, we kept hearing it being called the "stubby pod" or the "fatty pod." but make no mistake, this Nano is till...well, nano.

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Posted By: Katie

There's quite a buzz on the web about the $200 iPhone price drop. I personally have very mixed emotions about this subject. I've always thought the iPhone was about $200 over priced and I think this price drop hits the sweet spot where the iPhone should have been priced all along. Investors seem to think differently with Apple's stock taking over a 7 point dive on the day of the announcement. We've seen figures suggesting Apple makes a 50 - 60% markup on their iPhones which means this price drop cuts directly into profit, something Apple stock holders don't like. Then of course the big question is why drop the price now? The iPhone was already the most successful launch of a cell phone in the history of the industry, why drop the price when it seemed to be doing so well? These are all topics we'll discuss at length on our next podcast that will be released sometime this weekend. If you have thoughts or opinions, please send them in now and we'll try to share them on our next show.

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iTunes and iTunes Wi-Fi

Apple today unveiled the iTunes® Wi-Fi Music Store, offering the ability to browse, search, preview, purchase and download songs and albums from the iTunes Music Store over a Wi-Fi network directly onto their iPod touch or iPhone. Once they connect their iPod touch or iPhone back to their PC or Mac, downloaded music will automatically sync back into their iTunes library. If users have only partially downloaded a song or album onto their iPod touch or iPhone, their computer will complete the download automatically. Prices and selection on the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store are the same as on the regular iTunes Store.

In addition, iTunes customers will now be able to create custom ringtones by selecting up to a 30-second segment from over a million participating songs on iTunes and sync them onto their iPhone. Once a customer has purchased a participating song from iTunes, including previously purchased participating songs, it will cost 99 cents to make up to a 30-second segment of that song into a ringtone and sync it onto their iPhone. Customers can personalize their ringtones by choosing which portion of the song they want to use, and setting custom fade in and fade out points. iTunes 7.4 is now available and includes a larger viewing area for movies and TV, filling the entire iTunes window.

Apple and Starbucks announced an exclusive partnership that lets customers wirelessly browse, search for, preview, buy and download music from the iTune® Wi-Fi Music Store at Starbucks onto their iPod touch, iPhone or PC or Mac running iTunes. When a customer enters a location the device will recognize the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store with no connection fee or hotspot login. Customers will be able to browse, search and preview of songs, including a new “Now Playing” service which displays the name of the song playing in the Starbucks at that moment, and buy and download songs to their device. Prices and selection are the same as on the regular iTunes Store. The service will make its debut at more than 600 Starbucks locations in New York and Seattle on October 2 the store will then continue its rollout to 350 Starbucks stores in the San Francisco Bay area on November 7; 500 stores in Los Angeles in early February 2008; 300 stores in Chicago in March 2008; and additional markets throughout the US later in 2008. The iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store at Starbucks will run on the robust T-Mobile HotSpot Wi-Fi network which is available at participating Starbucks locations across the US.

iPod Lineup Revamped

Apple also revamped their entire iPod lineup. The iPod nano now brings video playback, an enhanced user interface with Cover Flow, and a new design. The new iPod nano features a larger two-inch display with 204 pixels per inch which supports video and games. iPod nano delivers up to 24 hours of audio playback or five hours of video playback, is encased in a new design made with anodized aluminum and polished stainless steel and comes in five new colors—silver, black, blue, green and a (PRODUCT) RED special edition. Available today, the 4GB iPod nano comes in silver for $149 (US) and the 8GB model is available in silver, black, blue, green and a (PRODUCT) RED special edition for $199.

Apple also introduced the new iPod classic, featuring 80GB or 160GB of storage, an enhanced user interface featuring Cover Flow, and a new all-metal enclosure. iPod classic is priced at $249 for the 80GB model and $349 for the 160GB model. The iPod classic features up to 40 hours of music playback and seven hours of video playback in the 160GB model, and up to 30 hours of music playback and five hours of video playback in the 80GB model on a single charge.

Rounding out the iPod lineup is the new iPod touch (aka iPhone without the phone) featuring multi-touch user interface, Wi-Fi, Safari, YouTube, and the new iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store lets users wirelessly browse, preview and buy songs and albums. The iPod touch features roughly the same dimensions as the iPhone and is priced starting at $299. iPod touch features up to 22 hours of audio playback and up to five hours of video playback.

iPhone Price Drop and New Features

Apple is on track to sell its one millionth iPhone before the end of September, and is lowering the price of the to $399 for the 8GB model. The 4GB model is being discontinued but will be offered for $299 at stores while supplies last. A software update is coming to the iPhone later this month to add the new iTunes Wi-Fi capabilities.

Disco 1.0.2
Review by Corey
http://www.discoapp.com/
Price: $29.95

Since Mac OS 10.2 (Jaguar) I have been using the Finder to burn CDs with the data from my drive, just drag and drop and the CDs are cross platform. Its really all I need. What turned me on first about Disco, and what may just get everyone to try it is the user interface. The ooolest feature by far: the animated sequence when you are burning a CD. Disco has the option of displaying animated smoke, fire, goo, icy mist, purple haze, read sea, and steam. My favorites are smoke and fire. This is an amazing effect and just goes to prove even more how cool and creative mac developers are in creating their apps.

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Speculation about Apple's Special Event on September 5th, Television Shows now available on iTunes in the UK, iPhone hack releases the phone from AT&T, Orange says it's only "in talks" for iPhone contract in Europe, iResQ now offers iPhone repairs, Backing up Email with MailStward, Online Backup with Mozy, praise for NetNewsWire, Troubleshooting the Apple TV . As always, we have listener feedback, Software Updates, News and More. Graphic artists and design gurus take note we are still accepting submissions for the contest to design our new MacCore logo. Can you help us out? Send your submissions to themaccore@gmail.com enter as many times as you like. (Running Time 00:56:09)

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It's confirmed. Late today Apple sent out invitations to "special" members of the media (aka not us) to attend a special event at Moscone West in San Francisco on September 5th at 10am. iPods and other music related announcements are expected as you can see from the invitation. We'll of course have all the announcements on our podcast.

Apple notebook share on the rise, have the European carriers for the iPhone been named? (Some of) EA's games are now available on the MC, Adobe decides to jump on the H.264 bandwagon, we debate whether we can blame Skype's problems on Microsoft, Apple earns a few silver metals, MTV, RealNetworks and Verizon team up against iTunes, Meebo brings Instant Messaging to the iPhone, ultra-detailed billing comes to an end, save $100 (Really!) on an iPhone, and Corey schools Katie on RSS readers. As always, we have listener feedback, Software Updates, News and More. Graphic artists and design gurus take note! We also (unofficially) announced our search for a new MacCore logo. Can you help us out? (Running Time 00:47:01)

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Just a quick note to all of you out there having trouble downloading our podcast. No, there's nothing wrong with your computer. We, along with many other podcasters, use a service called Libsyn to deliver our podcast feed. Libsyn makes our life easy because it provides low cost storage, configures the RSS feed, and integrates with iTunes. Unfortunately, it appears that Libsyn is going through some growing pains and as of the time I write this post has gone completely down. We've had some minor problems off and on for a few weeks and have heard reports from other podcasters about sporadic outages. We have no information right now as to what's going on or how long it will take to resolve the issues. Libsyn has been a great service for us up until this point so we're inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt for now. Of course, if this continues then we'll have to look at other options.

We know that we're not the only podcasters being impacted by this issue, in fact as I look at my podcasts in iTunes I see about a third of them are giving me error messages. For now we ask for your patience and hopefully these issues will be resolved in the near future. For the time being, you can always download the MP3 version from our website, or subscribe to our MP3 feed using the XML link to the right which is hosted off our server. Thank you for your patience and understanding. Stay subscribed...we're not going anywhere.

DiskWarrior 4
Review by: Corey
http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/
Price: $99.95

I've had DiskWarrior 4.0 for approximately 3 months, and have been asked for a review several times by many colleagues, clients, and friends. A program like this really takes a long time to review, in my opinion. So what is Diskwarrior?

Alsoft says, "DiskWarrior is not a disk repair program in the conventional sense. Instead of patching the original directory, it uses a patent-pending technology to quickly build a new replacement directory using data recovered from the original directory, thereby recovering files, folders and documents that you thought were lost and that no other program could recover."
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I plugged in my new iPhone and just saw that there's a new software update. Apple is keeping pretty quiet on exactly what this update includes, they just say the standard "bug fixes."

At first glance I notice that my airport reception is now showing at full strength no matter where I go in my (albeit small, 2 bedroom condo). Previously, I was getting only 1-2 bars of strength even when I was in the same room as the airport. I'm not sure whether my signal reception is truly better or whether the indicator was just fixed. I've noticed in various mac forums that other users are reporting that the iPod no longer stalls when your browse multiple web pages in Safari. i really haven't had much of an opportunity to use my iPhone as an iPod so I can't confirm this.

We'll have more on this update and the mysterious "bug fixes" on our next podcast...stay tuned.

It's official, three out of four Beatles prefer iTunes, Universal looks to sell DRM free music, but they're snubbing Apple, There's a downside to the .Mac Storage Upgrade, Many People Not Happy With iMovie '08, the 300 Page iPhone Bill, iTunes Web Widgets, Skype on an iPhone, RIP AppleWorks, Guess Who Got an iPhone, recommendations for scanners, shrinking your iTunes Library, making 802.11n work on older computers, . As always, we have listener feedback, Software Updates, News and More. (Running Time 00:51:24)

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Hard drives, like all technology, will eventually fail. It's not a question of if, it's a question of when, and how bad the data loss will be. Think for a moment about all the data you have on your computer. Family photos, financial information, personal documents. How upset would you be, if you turned on your computer one day, and all that data was gone. That very thing happened to me about two years ago. One minute I sitting in a class typing notes when my computer froze. I restarted my computer, and nothing happened. For whatever reason, my hard drive picked that very moment, to have a catastrophic failure. Everything was gone. Most of the time, there's no way to detect or prevent a hard drive failure. The only thing you can do is to make sure that you have a backup of all your important files so you can recover once a failure has occurred.

My Mac User Group friends have lovingly called me the "Backup Queen" for years and thankfully when my hard drive failed, I had complete backups in place and only lost about an hours worth of information. I've had several requests from people to post my personal backup strategy to the website. While I admit my backup plan borders on the edge of obsessive compulsive, perhaps you can modify it to suit your needs.

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RapidWeaver
Review by: Katie
http://www.realmacsoftware.com/
Price: $49.99, Upgrade and Family Packs available

I have three websites that I manage, this one for the MacCore, one personal site and one for my local Mac Users Group. Until a few months ago, none of them looked very good. I used GoLive and was able to get sites that functioned and looked just okay, but updates were a pain and they took literally days to build. I didn’t want or need anything super-fancy, I just wanted something that worked, was easy to update and looked clean and professional. One of my favorite podcasts, ScreenCastsOnline did a series on RapidWeaver that peeked my interest and I haven’t looked back! Read More...

Posted By: Katie
I get this question a lot: I need a basic Mac, email, word processing, web surfing, a little graphics, manage my photos and create the occasional movie and DVD. What Mac should I buy? My answer is always the same, it depends. You'll have to forgive me because for the past three years when I was in law school the answer to any question ever asked was always, it depends. So as you can Imagine I'm a little predisposed to throw out this answer whenever I'm asked a tough question. But in this case, it really does depend. The reality is, for the average person either the Mac Mini or the iMac will probably be more than enough power to accomplish these basic tasks. There's no question that either of these machines will hands down run faster, smoother, give you less problems and last a whole lot longer than any run of the mill PC you buy.

Continue reading for more and a detailed graphical breakdown of your buying options...
Read More...

Special "Mac Focused" Event Wrap-up Edition. Katie and Corey have a (sometimes off the wall) discussion about today's announcements from Apple as well as some of the big news over the past few weeks. We talk about the new iMacs, Mac Mini, iLife '08, iWork '08, and other updates. For more information on these announcements you can check out Apple's website as they have posted a video from the event. It's great to be back! (Running Time 0:55:10)

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Show Notes

Don't worry, we haven't gone anywhere...it's been a crazy past few weeks for us and as a result we haven't been able to get podcast out. As many of you know Katie has been studying for the Bar Exam and just took that exam last week. (Think good thoughts, results won't be in until mid-September.) As if that weren't enough she's packed up her life and moved across the state for a new job. (And now she lives less than 2 miles form an Apple Store - very dangerous!) Now that Katie is all settled and back up and running Corey and his family have taken off for a much deserved week-long vacation.

We were going to strive to get a podcast out this weekend, but with the Apple Special Event announced for Tuesday, August 7th it only makes sense to hold off and release our podcast with all the details of that announcement. For the time being, you can follow us on Twitter and also check out the new reviews we released on the website.

As always, we welcome your feedback. Feel free to send us an email to themaccore@gmail.com or call our audio hotline at 206.203.2673

We'll talk to you soon...stay subscribed.