Posted By: Katie

Ok, let’s get this out of the way up front. We all know that there is a near 100% chance that I will buy a new 3g iPhone in the near future. In fact, I think the chances are very high I’ll buy it on opening day or that weekend. My plan was to be in line with the rest of the crazies (and I mean that in the best possible way!) waiting for the iPhone to go on sale. But as the time draws closer to the July 11th launch date, I’ve been doing some serious thinking about the iPhone 3g and whether it’s something I want to rush right out and buy or whether it’s something that’s best to wait a bit on.

There are three big draws to the iPhone 3g for me.

1. 16GB vs. 8GB - I only have an 8GB model so double the space is a bonus for me.
2. 3G - Faster data speeds are going to be nice, I use the iPhone for data a lot!
3. GPS - I’m probably going to buy a GPS device for my car within the next year and if the iPhone could take care of this for me, that would be a big bonus.
4. Geek Cred - Come on, admit it. Having the latest and the greatest is cool.

But, there are currently a lot of unknowns with he iPhone 3G and some pretty big disadvantages. At the time I write this blog post, we’re still 4 days away from launch, so it’s possible some of these big unknowns will be answered. But as I sit here now, here are the major disadvantages and unknowns that give me pause.

1. New AT&T price plans - I’m okay with paying $30 a month more for 3G data. But the $5 extra you’ll have to pay for the 200 SMS messages that use to come free and the $18 “activation fee” really leave a sour taste in my mouth. At a minimum, I’ll be paying $15 a month more for phone service than I currently am. Now, I do understand that the iPhone is significantly cheaper than the previous model, and that does mean a lot.
2. Exchange Support - This falls into the “unknown” category, there’s lots of speculation out there. My law firm uses Exchange for email and has not enabled IMAP access so I cannot get my work email on my iPhone. In the beginning, this wasn’t that big of an issue, but as I’ve taken on more cases and more responsibility, this will be come a bigger deal. (Now, we’re only talking about 20 - 25 emails a day, but they’re typically fairly important emails.) The guy at the Apple store tells me that in order to get Exchange to work on my iPhone 3G I’ll have to be on a $45 “business plan” from AT&T. Though after some questioning he admitted he was only speculating. If I have to pay for a $45 data plan plus $5 for SMS messages, I’m looking at raising my current bill by over $30 a month or $720 over a two year contract. The only “official” word we have is a blurb on the AT&T website that mentions Exchange being a “business” feature.” So the big question still remains, if all I want is Exchange support for my work email on my iPhone, am I going to have to move over to a more expensive business data plan? Will Exchange work on my current $20 a month data plan with my 1st Gen iPhone and software version 2.0? Will AT&T even know that I’m running exchange? Considering Steve Jobs has touted one of the biggest features of iPhone 2.0 firmware as being Exchange support, my personal guess, is that it will work without a business plan on either the 1st Gen or 3G iPhone. I hope that AT&T will have no way of knowing or caring what type of traffic is coming in and out of the iPhone. But, this is a big enough issue that it makes me want to hold off and see.
3. 16GB Only - I was shocked when the new iPhones came out and there wasn’t a 32GB version. I wouldn’t mind paying $499 for a 32GB model. A 16GB iPhone is better, but I still have to carry around my 60GB iPod to use in my car and to carry all my tunes. If that iPod were to die tomorrow, I’d have to go out and replace it with an iPod Classic. Apple is notorious for having an iPod event in September, so my guess is that we’ll see a 32GB version of the iPhone within 3-4 months.
4. Is 3G That Much Faster?- I’ll admit, I really want faster data, but there is a question really as to how much faster in real world situations 3G will be over EDGE. My guess is it’s not going to be as fast as we think and certainly not as fast as we hope. It might be a good idea to spend an hour or so in my local Apple store playing with an iPhone 3G and comparing it to my current iPhone in terms of speed.
5. Will the GPS Be That Useful- GPS is cool, but I just took a trip up to Atlanta and borrowed my brother’s Garmin Nuvi for the trip. It cost less than $200 on Amazon and had audible turn-by-turn directions and interactive maps. GPS on the iPhone doesn’t look like it’s going to offer near these features and in the car for navigation purposes is probably where I’d want to use the GPS features a majority of the time. Should Garmin or another big brand come out with an iPhone App that turns the 3G iPhone into a full fledged GPS product, I’d be all for that. But based on what I’ve seen of the demos, it just looks like Google Maps with a blinking dot. Again, something probably better to hold off and wait and read the reviews on.
6. Firmware 2.0 Does Most of What I Want- Yes I’m interested in faster data speeds, I’d like the extra storage, and the GPS looks cool. But besides from those hardware improvements, of which I’ve already raised questions/concerns about before, everything else is in the software. Firmware 2.0 is going to be available free on my current iPhone and will probably serve me just fine for the time being. I’m looking forward to the App store and am sure a handful of applications alone will bring a lot more functionality to my iPhone. Assuming Exchange support works as I hope it will, my current iPhone will probably serve me just fine. I absolutely love my current iPhone, it’s changed the way I use a mobile phone and the computer in such a positive way, do the extra hardware features really matter that much? How often is EDGE really “too slow” and how often would true GPS be needed?
7. AT&T- I’ll admit most of my issues with the new iPhone are not Apple issues. I’m less than thrilled with the new AT&T pricing plan and really like the plan and features I already have. I’ve been overall pleased with AT&T as a carrier but my loyalty to AT&T ends at the iPhone. Since the new iPhone will be subsidized through AT&T I have concerns that next year when the next version of the iPhone rolls around we’re going to be “ineligible for upgrade” and end up trowing out a few hundred extra bucks to upgrade. Apple tends to be on a yearly upgrade cycle and AT&T’s contracts run for two years. Now, I love the new lower price of the 3G iPhone and I think they’re going to fly off the shelves. But, I’m not so sure this particular version of the iPhone has significant enough advances from the 1st generation product to make that substantial a difference that I need to run out and upgrade. Sure, we’d all like to have the latest and greatest, but I don’t upgrade my computer every year just because Apple comes out with a new model, why should I upgrade my phone?

So, there you have it, only time will tell what happens. My hope is that in the coming days before the iPhone 3G launch we’ll have more information and a lot of these unknowns will be come non-issues. But my advice (and I’m not so sure I’m going to follow it) is to hold off for a bit. Wait and see as the reviews come in and make a decision at that point. The 1st Gen iPhone is a revolutionary product, second only to the 3G iPhone. Maybe having the second best mobile phone in the world is good enough for the time being.

The iPhone pricing plans have come out and there are a lot of people who aren’t so happy with what AT&T had to say. Katie and Corey give you their thoughs on the matter. We also talk MobileMe, Back to School, AppleTV, Apple Certifications and more. (Running Time: 0:49:52)

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Katie and Corey give you their impressions of the announcments at today’s World Wide Developer Conference Keynote. We talk 3G iPhone, 2.0 Firmware update, MobileMe, Snow Leopard, and more... (Running Time: 0:51:25)

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Meet Kacey, she’s one of our most dedicated listners. Kacey is Corey’s dog and not only does she listen to every show, she usually hangs around while we record them (although we think she naps through quite a bit of it.) Kacey is modeling one ouf our MacCore T-shirts available at our cafepress store.

If you (or your pet) wants to support the show and wear some cool threads the same time, consider picking one up. Send us a picture of you, your kid, or your pet modeling your shirt (G rated please!) and and if it’s cute or funny enough, we may just feature it on our website.

For all you designers out there, we’re always interested new ideas. If you have an idea for a great shirt that incorporates the MacCore logo, send us an email with a mockup and we’ll consider adding it to the store.

Belkin TuneCast
Review by: Katie
http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=404646
Price: $79.99

More and more cars are being built to work with iPods and other personal media players. in fact Steve Jobs regularly documents in his Keynote presentation just how many automakers are creating custom iPod solutions for their vehicles. But what about all of us who don't have one of the latest and greatest cars on the road? I personally drive a 1997 Toyota Avalon (it's a great car, only has about 75,000 miles on it and I plan to drive it another 100,000) and it certainly doesn't have any kind of iPod connection. Although I went out a few years ago and put a new stereo in the car that does have an iPod dock, it won't work with my iPhone, which is what I'd like to use as my primary iPod. That's where the third party manufacturers come in with some really innovative solutions. Read More...

BookEndz Docking Station for MacBook
Review by: Katie
http://www.bookendzdocks.com/Docking_Stations-Docking_Station_for_13_MacBook_Black.html
Price: $159.00 with other options available

While at Macworld earlier this year, I had a chance to see first hand a lot of the Mac products that I had read about over the years. One of the products that I specifically sought out was the Docking Station for MacBook by BookEndz. BookEnds makes docking stations for most Mac portables, and since I regularly "dock" my MacBook to an external monitor, keyboard, mouse and USB hub while working at home, I've long been interested in the concept of an "all in one" dock in hopes of replacing the mess of wires that currently sits on my desk. The good folks over at Dr. Bott were kind enough to send me a BookEndz Docking Station for my Black MacBook for review. Read More...

I don't use Windows much, but sometimes it is a necessary evil. When I originally installed Parallels, I very conservatively set my original disk size at the minimum, 8GB. With the new Service Pack 3 update and after installing a few programs within Windows I've found myself running very low on space. I used the Parallels Image Tool to expand my hard disk size thinking that would be an easy fix, problem is, it wasn't. Although the Parallels Image Tool does add more space to your virtual disk, Windows treats that as unused space. You can use that free space to create a new partition within Windows, but since I don't have that many files, that wouldn't solve my problem. What I needed was some way to easily take that unused space and allow my current installation of Windows XP to recognize it. After some searching I found a quick and easy solution so thought I'd post it here in hopes it could be of help to someone else.

1. Use the Parallels Image Tool to expand your virtual disk. This may take a while, so be patient, the rest of the process is fairly easy.
2. From within the Finder, create a duplicate of your hard disk image file. Mine was named winxp.hdd so the duplicate was named winxp copy.hdd
3. Open Parallels, but don't start Windows. You need to make two changes here. First, change the hard disk to the new duplicate image you just created. Second, add a second hard drive, and point that to your original virtual disk. Basically what you're doing is setting the copy to be your primary and boot disk, and adding the original as a secondary hard drive. In order for this procedure to work, you have to be booted from an image that is not the one you seek to change.
4. Boot into Windows and wait a few minutes for it to recognize the new hard drive. Once everything is up, go to the Start Menu and choose Run. Type "DISKPART" (no quotes)
5. Once inside DiskPart type "list volume" (again, no quotes in any of this) and hit return.
6. You should see to volumes. Volume 1 is the copy and Volume 2 is the original drive.
7. Type: "select volume 2" press return Then type "extend" and return. Give it a minute and it should say the process is complete. Once it's finished type "exit" and shut down windows.
8. When back to the Parallels settings screen, go back and remove the secondary hard drive that you added in Step 3 and set your original virtual disk as Hard Disk 1. At this point, we're putting things back the way they were before we started. You can also trash the virtual disk copy that you made in step 2.
9. Now, restart Windows and you should be back to your original virtual machine, though when you look at the disk properties, you should now see the extra free space. You will probably have to restart your windows after it's done recognizing the new hardware. Once that's done, you're back in business with your expanded disk space.

What's going on with the iPhone, what would it take to make you upgrade to iPhone 2? Apple faces more competition from Netflix and Napster, are the record labels and the networks snubbing Apple just to be nasty? Apple ranks number 1 in Tech Support, but unfortunately people are having more interactions with AppleCare. Apple claims 66% of the PC market share over $1,000 but does that really mean all that much? We pick a winner for our AudioEngine W1 giveaway and we take your questions and comments regarding Quicken, PDF organization, and iPhone speakers. Oh yeah, did you know that you can get MacCore stuff for your dog? (Running Time: 0:53:02)

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Congratulations to Chris from Springfield, Virginia! He's our lucky winner of our AudioEngine W1 giveaway. Our thanks to all of you who entered the contest, we hope to bring you more promotions like this in the future. For those of you who didn't win the W1, there is good news. We have teamed up with AudioEngine to give all MacCore listners a 10% discount off any AudioEngine product. Simply use the code MacCore10 at checkout. You can learn more about the great line of AudioEngine Products at www.AudioEngineUSA.com

I just wanted to give you all a heads up that I'm going to be doing some under the hood work on the website. I'm considering moving the site over to WordPress but wanted to play around a bit with the current version, the podcast feeder, and such to make sure that it does everything I need and see if it works any better than our current system. I'm going to be experimenting in a separate directory of the site, and if things work, may transition things over and move them over to the main directory of this site. This work should not in any way interfere with the operation of the current website or the feeds. However...you know how these things go when geeks start tweaking with things they shouldn't. If you have any problems with the site or the feed over the course of this weekend, please email me at themaccore@gmail.com or shoot me a note on Twitter. Please, don't just assume that I know there's a problem. Thanks!

I've often said that in a perfect world with unlimited funds I'd probably run with an iMac on my desk as a primary machine and a MacBook Air in my briefcase. It's a very tempting thought, and it got even more tempting this Monday when Apple released new iMacs with faster processors and graphics options. The new iMac includes faster processors with 6MB L2 cache and a faster 1066 MHz front-side bus across the entire line, and 2GB of memory (finally!) standard in most models and are expandable up to 4GB. The 24-inch iMac now offers a 3.06 GHz Intel processor and the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS.

The entry level iMac features a 20-inch screen, 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor w, 1GB of SDRAM, a 250GB 7200 rpm SATA drive, SuperDrive, and ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT with 128MB GDDR3 memory memory all for $1199 US. The top of the line 24-inch model comes with a 3.06 GHz Core 2 Duo Processor, 2GB of SDRAM, a 500GB SATA drive, SuperDrive and an NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS with 512MB memory for $2199.

I am resisting the urge to pull out the Visa as I type this...

Katie and Corey were both honored to co-host the Typical Mac User Live Podcast with Victor Cajiao this week. Today we talk a little bit about the history behind Katie and Corey, how we met, and how we decided to start a Podcast. Corey talks about becoming Apple Certified and how that is done and who should consider certification, and we both chime in on the prospects of Mac Clones and whether or not that's a good thing from Apple. We had a great discussion so hope you'll enjoy it as well.

Note: Unless there is a special occasion this will likely be the last Typical Mac User Live show that will be put into this feed based on feedback from listeners.

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The good folks over at AudioEngine have graciously given us a set of their W1 Wireless Audio Adapters to give away. AudioEngine make a slew of excellent audio products including their flagship product the A5 desktop speakers. Their newest product, the W1 wireless adapter allows you to transfer music wirelessly from any audio device or computer to your Audioengine powered speakers, surround receiver, any other speakers or powered subwoofer in CD-quality HD stereo sound with no reduction in audio quality.

The contest runs between now and May 15th. To enter simply send us an email with the words "AudioEngine W1 Contest" in the subject line to themaccore@gmail.com and include your contact information. One winner will be chosen by random to receive a band new set of W1 Wireless Audio Adapters complements of AudioEngine. You can find more information about the W1s over at http://www.audioengineusa.com

From now through April 29th, the folks over at TidBITS are offing a 50% discount on all Take Control and Macworld Superguide eBooks in celebration of their 18th Anniversary. I've long been a fan of these eBooks as they offer a great deal of information on a variety of topics in an easy to read and digest format. They encompass a variety of topics from maintaining your Mac to the individual iApps. TidBITS has long been a strong supporter of the Mac Community and I regularly use their titles when researching and making presentations at my local MUG.

To take advantage of the sale you'll need to use the link below and the appropriate discount will be automatically applied.

Take Control eBooks 50% off Sale

Today is Dave Teare's 33rd birthday, Happy Birthday Dave! Dave is the co-founder of Agile Web Solutions, and maker of one of our all time favorite Mac Apps, 1Passwd. In honor of Dave's birthday, today only, MacZot is offering 1Passwd for $19.95, normally $34.95. We've talked about 1Passwd at length on our show, it is a full featured password manager and form filler and now includes integrated iPhone/iPod touch support, a feature they first demoed for me at Macworld. If you've been thinking about trying 1Passwd, there's never been a better time. You can find all the info here: http://agilewebsolutions.com/promo/daves_birthday

Are the MacBooks getting a new design and blurring the line between the consumer and pro models? More drama in the Time Machine over AirDisk debacle. Corey tells us why we should ditch Quicken and give iBank a Try. Katie and Corey talk about the iPod speakers that they use. More questions about how to get your TiVo content on to your mac, Tony has a problem somewhere deep in his user folder, and questions about using SuperDuper! with a TimeCapsule or AirDisk. (Running Time: 0:53:17)

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Billable 1.1.2
Review by: Corey
http://www.clickablebliss.com/billable
Price: $24.95

Billable is a easy to use Invoicing application, that will make creating your invoices quick and easy.

You setup your clients in an easy to use client editor window. The window allows you enter important information about your clients, and you can also use the window to import a client from your address book. This is actually one thing I love about Billable, too many applications make you store these Clients in your Apple Address book, which I don't want. I like that Billable has its own database, and Billable automatically backs it up each time you open the application. Read More...

AppZapper
Review by: Katie
http://www.appzapper.com
Price: $12.95

I recently took a call from a listener on the Typical Mac User Live Podcast who said that he had installed a ton of programs but thought he had removed them by simply dragging the icon in the Applications folder into the trash. Problem is, that didn't really uninstall all the "extra" files that were installed in other locations. The solution I recommended..App Zapper. AppZapper is one of those applications that once you start using it, you just don't know how you ever got along without it. The premise is quite simple, drag an unwanted application into AppZapper and ZAP! the entire application, including all those annoying little orphan files are instantly moved to the trash.

Many of the programs installed in Mac OS X are self contained in a package inside the Applications folder and once removed the entire program will be delted. But the problem is, most applications install files in places other than the Applications folder. One of the largest problems I've run into with with applications developed for Mac OS X is that for some reason, very few developers, even major developers such as Adobe, no longer include uninstallers with their programs. Do you have any idea how many stray Adobe files I have on my system since installing CS2? Scary...
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iSale
Review by: Katie
http://www.equinux.com/us/products/isale
Price: $39.95

Until recently, selling on eBay has always been a bit of a pain. I’d have to take pictures of my item and if I wanted more than one picture in my eBay listing I’d have to host the photo on my own .Mac webspace and then figure out how to link to those photos. If I wanted something other than simple text and a photo I’d have to open up an html editor and basically create a webpage that looked pretty. Once that’s all done, I’d have to copy the code, open up my browser and go through another half-dozen webpages to list my item on eBay. As I said, it was a pain, until iSale came around.
Read More...

Katie has a chance to co-host the Typical Mac User Live Podcast with Victor Cajiao this week. Victor has kindly asked Katie to be his guest host on the last Sunday of the month from now through the end of June. On this show we talk all about buying a new Mac. Making the choice between a desktop and a laptop, choosing which model Mac to buy, how to save money when buying a Mac, tips for getting the best deal on AppleCare, and more. We also discuss alternatives for the iSight and how to determine what files are bogging down your hard drive. (Running TIme: 0:57:28)

If you've never had the opportunity to participate in a live talkcast, it's never been easier, with the new talkshoe software you don't even have to setup or register an account. The show starts every Sunday at 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern. To participate, go to www.talkshoe.com and search for the Typical Mac User Podcast. If you wish, you can also register for a free account. 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.

Request for Feedback: In the past I've put these Typical Mac User Live shows in the feed because they were typically "special" shows occurring only a few times a year. Now that I will be a regular guest host on the show for the next few months, I'd like your feedback as to whether you'd like to continue receiving these shows in the feed. I know many of you probably already subscribe to Victor's show. Please send me your feedback, themaccore@gmail.com

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He's Back! Katie and Corey have a chance to chat for the first time in a while. Corey tells us what he's been up to and becoming Apple Certified. Katie chimes in with her recent experiences buying a plasma TV. We also talk about our love of TiVo and thoughts on the AppleTV and it's possible future as a DVR. Corey discusses his new found family organization using BusySync and the duo discuss their iPhone cases of choice. (Running Time: 0:52:55)

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David Sparks of MacSparky.com joins Katie today as the guest co-host. We talk about the rebirth of the Mac Roundtable, 10.5.2, first impressions of the AppleTV update and whether Apple has "gotten it right" this time around, the future of the iPhone, Aperture 2.0, and Review the A2 Speakers and W1 remote receivers from Audioengine and the Jawbone bluetooth headset. (Running Time 0:47:34)

Note: due to a cache problem, the podcast that was originally posted abruptly stopped at the 27:31 mark. As of 6:30pm Eastern on February 20th, that issue has been corrected. If you have the old version you may need to download the show again. I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

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As you may have heard, I had an opportunity to meet some of my favorite Mac Podcasters at Macworld this year and had a chance to participate in that now infamous "podcasters lunch." It was commented that it was a shame that we didn't record our conversations from that lunch because what a great podcast that would have been. We thought it would be fun to get together on a regular basis to chat and catch up on all things Mac and if the conversation was worthwhile, post it to our respective feeds. Well, one thing led to another and we ended up getting together with the original crew from the Mac roundtable to re-launch that podcast, which we internally have called "Mac Roundtable, Take 2"

All of the original crew are back, including Adam Christianson, Steve Stanger, Joseph Nilo and Tim Verpoorten but we are also joined by Don McAllister, Allison Sheridan, David Sparks, Jonathan Cost, and myself. Talk about being a member of an All-Star team!

Now obviously, all the members won’t appear on every show but know we should be able to bring you a much more varied and regular show with a bigger pool of resources.The first show of the re-launched Mac Roundtable has just been published and you can listen here or even better, subscribe to the podcast in iTunes I hope you enjoy this first show with some of the new line up and thanks to the Mac Roundtable guys for welcoming us with open arms!

Audioengine A2
Review by: Katie
http://www.audioengineusa.com
Price: $199.00

First, I must say that I am not an "audiophile" but I appreciate good music and quality speakers. But still, I've never considered spending $200 for a set of speakers that I would hook up to my laptop, I think the last pair I bought were a $35 open box special at Best Buy. After listening to the Audioengine A2 speakers for the past few months, I'll never go back to those cheep computer speakers again. Read More...

This is probably our final show in our Macworld series. In this show we bring you a the MacCore's "Best of Macworld" with the best of the audio interviews recorded direct from the show floor. We learn about the new iPhone features coming to 1Password, learn all about Dr. Bott and their family of products, figure out how to watch WMV file and create WMV files using Flip4Mac, walk around "naked" with your iPod or iPhone without having to worry while wearing an Invisible Shield, get rid of all our old stuff to make room for the new on eBay using iSale, protect all your stuff and listen to your music wirelessly with products from iSkin, never run out of battery again thanks to iZapp, recover a stolen laptop with LoJack for Laptops, hear what's new from the folks on Smile On My Mac, and figure out how to finally organize our life and get thigns done with OmniFocus. (Running Time 0:52:14)

Note: For some, this show in iTunes is showing up as being tagged "Explicit" that is in error, I promise the show is family friendly.

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Well, I was hoping to get a new show out to you last weekend, unfortunately life got in the way. In addition to the podcast feed problems we had, which thankfully now seem to be resolved, I ended up coming down with the "Macworld Crud" and spending most of the last few days in bed. Thankfully I'm feeling much better now and will have our next show out for you sometime this weekend. This will probably be the last of the Macworld episodes as it will contain the best of the audio interviews I conducted from the show floor. Stay tuned, I'll be back with more this weekend.

You may have noticed that many of your favorite podcasts are not downloading right now. There are apparently a few separate issues going on. FIrst off, Talkshoe's servers have been down since sometime late Sunday night. They're supposed to be back up by mid-day on Wednesday. This is why you can't download my latest podcast, Show 55, where I was a guest host on the Typical Mac User Podcast. Since that was a talkshoe show, the actual file is hosted on their server and therefore unavailable. Apparently a few hundred of you got the show before the server went down, but as of now it's unavailable. It's a great show, Victor and I had a lot of fun so hopefully you'll be able to download and enjoy that soon.

Additionally, there is apparently a separate issue going on with some feedburner feeds as well. My feeds also go through feedburner to serve them so I've been hit with a double whammy. As far as I can tell, no one has been able to access any of my content in the last 48 hours or so. Hopefully that issue will be resolved soon. It's surprising that both of these outages happened at the same time, but these things sometimes happen in the podcasting world. Stay subscribed and hopefully you'll be hearing from me soon.

Katie had the pleasure of co-hosting the Typical Mac User Podcast Live on Talkshoe this evening. Katie and Victor talk all about their Macworld experience and their reactions to Apple's most recent announcements, as well as some of their favorite picks from the show floor. You can find Victor's excellent show over at www.typicalmacuser.com. You can find photos from the show floor by clicking the Photo Album link on our website. (Running Time: 01:20:01)

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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 talk all about our first experience at Macworld and the recent keynote announcements. This will be a live show on TalkShoe on Sunday, January 20th 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.

I you've never had the opportunity to participate in a live talkcast, this is a great time to start, with the new talkshoe software you don't even have to setup or register an account. To participate, go to www.talkshoe.com and search for the Typical Mac User Podcast. If you wish, you can also register for a free account. 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.

Well, I must say this is a day that I'm glad to see come to an end. As I type this last blog entry I'm on the flight home and due to land in about 30 minutes. Assuming you're reading this, it means I made it home save and sound and was able to post. The day started out with news that our flight home had been cancelled. Apparently there was fairly bad snow in Atlanta and as a result our flight and about 1000 other Delta flights were cancelled. I was supposed to catch my connection home through Atlanta, so that was a no-go. After 45 minutes on hold with Delta I was finally told the best they could do was to put me on a 3-stop flight that would eventually get me home around 9am on Sunday, assuming the Atlanta airport was open the following morning. Great...just great. The Delta representative on the phone did tell me that although my re-booked flight didn't leave San Francisco for another 10 hours, I could possibly do better if I went to the airport and tried to get on another flight from there. So the decision, go to the airport, give up my room, and risk being stuck there for 10 hours until our re-scheduled flight take off with the possibility of getting out sooner, or stay another day in San Francisco and fly all around the country throughout the night and hopefully make it home the next morning.

Well, I went straight to the airport and luckily my gamble paid of. The Delta agent at the airport was extremely helpful, and within just a few minutes had me booked on a US Air flight with one connection that left in 2 hours and would have me home within 10 minutes of my original scheduled arrival time. Perfect. So, here I am, on the last leg of my flight, and hopefully will be home warm in my own bed within the next hour or so.

All in all it's been a great trip. I had a chance to meet some of my podcasting friends, see the sights of Macworld, and get introduced to some really great products. I'm going to be going through all the audio I recorded from the show floor in the next few days and hope to have that posted to the feed over the coming weeks. In the short term, stay tuned as I'll be making a special guest appearance on the Typical Mac User Live Podcast this Sunday where Victor and I will gab about our first Macworld experience. It should be a lot of fun, especially considering Victor and I know have had an opportunity to meet in person and get to know each other a bit more.

Well, no Macworld Expo today. I've never been to San Francisco, so today was my day to go explore the city and see some of the sights. We took the famous cable cars down to the pier, saw the sea lions, and took a boat tour under to Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz prison. After our boat tour we went to Ghirardelli Square where I had to pick up a few gifts for the folks back at the office. What is it about girls and chocolate? :) Wait...don't answer that. Wrapped up the day at Lorri's diner with some Apple Pie ala mode - Yum.

I was able to get a good connection to the hotel WiFi so I've posted all my photos up on Flckr. To access them, just click the Photo Album link in the right navigation bar of this site.

Well, after day two at Macworld I think I've decided I'm going to give up on my career and become a full time Mac junkie. Does anyone happen to have a spare $60k laying around so I can pay off my student loans? :)

Seriously, I had a great day on the show floor today. I took about a dozen or so audio interviews from the show floor with my Zoom H4. I haven't had a chance to listen back to any of them yet so I'm hopeful they turned out. I'll be editing for quite a while and will try to post some of that audio out in the coming weeks. It was great to actually put names with faces and see some of the great products offered by Mac developers that I didn't even know existed. One note for today, there will be no more photos posted to flickr. I took so many photos today and the hotel wireless just isn't reliable or fast enough to get the photos posted. But rest assured, once I'm home and back on my reliable broadband I'll have a chance to edit and post.

A few follow-up notes on the Apple products I thought would be of interest. As to the MacBook Air, I am now getting conflicting information from the Apple employees on the show floor. Two Apple reps told me that the MacBook Air would boot from a CD that was in another computer's optical drive using their Remote Disc software, one told me it would not, and several others stated they didn't know. So looks like we're going to have to wait a bit and see on that one. Also, I'm not getting conflicting information about the Apple TV Rentals and whether or not they can be rented on the Apple TV and then moved to a computer or iPod. Two Apple reps told me that if it was rented on the Apple TV it stayed on the Apple TV and if it was rented on the computer it could not be transferred to the Apple TV. Several people have questioned this and indicated that Steve indicated the exact opposite in his Keynote demo. I watched the keynote and it was my impression too that the rentals could be transferred freely, but I'll have to go back and see for sure.

Far and away, the best part of the day was having the chance to meet in a more personable atmosphere some of my favorite Mac Podcasters. Allison from the Nosillacast showed up today and we really hit it off. I'm going to have to see about having her on the show more often. I also had lunch with Allison, Victor, David, and Don and what struck me as so odd was it was as though we had known each other for years. Kindred spirits I guess. Of course tonight we had Adam' Podcaster Meet-up and the Mac Mingle party which was great. The panel was quite interesting and as a relatively novice podcaster I felt I learned quite a bit from their conversation. I have a lot of ideas that I want to try to implement now based on their thoughts and suggestions. I'm sure the audio will be available in a few days in the MacCast feed. One great treat for me is I got to meet Tom and Veronica from Buzz Out Loud, one of my favorite shows. I also talked to Scott Bourne and Liana Lehua from the Apple Phone Show and Girls Gone Geek. One of the most pleasant surprises of the day was learning that many of these podcasters that I so admire actually listen to my show, truly an honor.

I'm having such a great time here at Macworld that I don't want to leave, but alas all good things must come to an end. Tomorrow (Friday) is my last day in San Francisco and I'm going to take the time to skip the show and instead to a little sight seeing around the city. I've never been to San Francisco before so figure a little tourist fun is in order.

Well, by the time I finish posting all this I will have been up for 22 hours straight. And to be honest, I'm not all that tired. I'm no longer speaking coherently, hopefully I'm typing coherently, but I'm running on adrenaline here. I only had an opportunity to spend a few hours on the floor today. The show closes at 5 and once we got to the hotel, checked in, and grabbed some lunch it was nearly 3pm. But I do have a few thoughts and impressions from my first day on the floor.

First off, the MacBook Air - Wow. That pretty much sums it up, wow. I had the opportunity to play with one briefly and learned a little more about the device. Although it's not the right device for me, right now, it's am amazing piece of technology and I can't wait to see how it evolves. First off, this thing is TINY. The pictures don't do it justice but until you pick it up you don't realize how light 3 lbs is. The keyboard feels good and the screen is very clear. My only problem with the device is that it is designed to complement another Mac in your household, it will probably not suffice as your only mac. Only 1 USB port, a non-user replaceable battery, no built in optical drive and only an 80GB hard drive and 1.6 GHz processor means that this mac is good for traveling light, but not a replacement mac for the average consumer. Though I did learn a few things about it today. Most notably, you CAN boot the MacBook Air from a CD when the CD is in another Mac. How Apple does this from a technological standpoint I don't now, probably magic is involved. But in theory at least, you can boot your from a CD or DVD wirelessly. I still think this may pose some troubleshooting problems, especially if you're having trouble with your mac all these fancy features may not be working properly. However there's always the option to boot off a USB drive and I suspect we'll see companies coming out with USB drive utilities in the near future.

The new Apple TV software is great, I cannot wait to get my hands on this update. The demos they're doing seem flawless, but I notice they're all using the same material which leads me to believe the two week delay is more related to adding content than it is to finishing the software update itself. One thing I did learn that gives me some concern is that if you rent a movie on your Apple TV you can NOT sync that movie back to your Mac or transfer it to a portable device. If you rent on the Apple TV you watch on the Apple TV. Similarly, if you rent the movie from your Mac you can move it to an iPod or iPhone but you can NOT move it to the Apple TV. From a practical standpoint, I don't see this being much of a concern for me as I plan to watch and rent all my movies on my Apple TV and not my Mac. But I don't see why Apple felt the need to put this limitation in the software.

I only had a chance to browse the exhibit hall today to get a lay of the land but I have a game plan to go back tomorrow with my Zoom H4 audio recorder and my Canon PowerShot SD850 to make sure I get lots of audio and photos for you. I'm going to post the photos as a batch up to flicker each night, but I will not have time to do any editing or organization. I'm just throwing them up there for you to see. Once I get home and have some time to catch up I'll go through and edit them and try to do some labeling. But for now, they're just up in the flickr stream. You can find them up on http://www.flickr.com/photos/themaccore/

However, far and away the best part of the day was The