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.

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

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!

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 Mac Observer's Cirque Du Mac Party. The Mac Podcasters had an unofficial meet-up and I finally had a chance in person to meet Adam from the MacCast, Victor from the Typical Mac User, Don from Screencasts Online, David from MacSparky, John from Mac Tips Daily, Ken from Mac OS Ken, and Dave and John from The Mac Geek Gab. These guys were great and I am so thrilled to have finally meet them in person. I can't wait to have a chance to talk to them more at the Mac Podcaster Meet-up and Mingle tomorrow night. Also, gotta say the Macworld All Star Band- awesome. They put on a great show for us.

That's all for me tonight, I'm off to bed but I l can't wait for a full day on the show floor tomorrow!

Some of these are pretty out there, some have have a chance, and maybe even a few will happen by the end of next week. Here is Katie's list of things she would like to see from Apple, Inc. in 2008. Note that these aren't predictions for 2008, but just a wish list of things we'd like to see. If you have you own ideas of where you'd like to see Apple go in the new year, post a comment to this thread, or send us a email to themaccore@gmail.com or leave us an audio comment and we'll continue the discussion on a future show.

(story continues...)
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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

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/

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.

(Story Continues...)
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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...
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Posted By Katie

Let's just get this out of the way right now, I don't have an iPhone. But I really want one. In fact, just yesterday I was actually in my car on the way to the AT&T store to make my purchase, but then I heard a little voice in my head (it sounded a lot like my Mother's voice actually) telling me that this was not a practical decision, and I turned the car around without having even managing to get out of the neighborhood. 

Let me back up a few steps now...
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