MacCast 07.26.2010 - Show #311
V Opening
V Opening Music
* Music is "Say Anything" by Manda and the Marbles
* Band's MySpace page
V Sponsor
V KamAlert
* Kamalert turns your iPhone into a portable Personal Safety Device with intelligent photographic Surveillance for the home, hotels, offices etc., along with Medical and Panic alert buttons using GPS technology.
* "Panic buttons" can be set up for medical or personal emergency situations
* at the press of a button SMS and/ or email messages are sent out several different people or organizations with GPS data and contact details
* Set up your iPhone as a motion detector
* Detects motion and can send email and/or SMS alerts along with photos
* Monitor your hotel room, sleeping, kids, or maybe room
* possible re-use for your old iPhone
* Based on user feedback, they Just released version 1.21 which has greatly improved the sensitivity of the motion detection and usability of the app!
* USD $4.99 on the AppStore
V News
V Apple's Third Quarter Results
* Revenue of $15.7 billion with net quarter profit of 3.25 billion. That's a year over year revenue gain of 61% with profits up 78%.
V 3.47 million Macs sold. A quarterly record and up 33% year over year.
* Not concerned about iPad cannibalization.
* 3.27 million iPads
V 8.4 million iPhones, up 61% year over year.
* AT&T reported activating 3.2 million iPhones in the quarter. And that pre-order sales were10x higher than for the iPhone 3GS.
* iPod sales were down 8% with Apple selling 9.41 million in the quarter.
* International sales accounted for 52% of the quarter's revenue.
V Selling iPads and iPhones as fast as they can make them.
* Working to increase capacity and don't see any specific component shortages slowing production.
* Reported they expect the costs of free iPhone 4 cases to be around $175 million.
V iPhone and iPad in business
* 60% of the Fortune 500 are deploying iPhones
* 50% for the fortune 100 are deploying or testing the iPad
* Reports that Apple Stores are setting up teams to target small local businesses
* Data Center on schedule and should be completed by the end of the year.
V Conservative for the 4th quarter
* New products have higher component costs which reduces Apple's margins
V Apple explains how it collects geo location data
* Policy was updated June 21st. Any iTunes purchases or downloads after that date required acceptance of the new terms.
* Concerned two U.S. House of Representatives members asked Apple for clarification on how it gathered the data
* When a customer's device sends Wi-Fi, cell tower, GPS, or diagnostic location information to Apple, it does not include any information identifying the particular device or use.
V For iAds, a user's latitude and longitude coordinates are collected anonymously and immediately converted to a five-digit ZIP code. The latitude and longitude coordinates are not maintained.
* iAd server does not match ZIP code info with a particular device or user.
* Advertisers never see the ZIP code info.
V Apple points out that customer can turn off location services completely or on an app by app basis.
* They are also notified when an app first want to activate location services and must allow it it do so.
* An icon also appears on the device anytime location services are active and in the Location Services setting it shows which apps have activated location services in the past 24 hours.
V iTunes 9.2.1 update
* Disables older versions of some incompatible third-party plug-ins
* Addresses minor issues with dragging and dropping items
* Addresses a performance issue when first syncing to some devices with iTunes 9.2
* Addresses other issues that improve stability and performance
V iBooks 1.1.1
* Double tap an image within a book to view it in greater detail.
* Experience books that include audio and video.
* Enjoy substantial performance improvements when reading PDFs.
* Look-up definitions to English words inside books without a specified language.
* Addresses an issue that may have caused some book downloads to not complete.
* Includes many stability and performance improvements.
V 1.1.2 update
* Addresses a bug some users faced when installing the 1.1.1 update.
V iPhone 4 dropped call rate gets perspective
V Gruber found a publicly available powerpoint that put AT&T Dec '09 network dropped call rate a 0.91%
* Assume the 3GS dropped calls were slightly higher than network average, 1-1.5%
* Jobs said iPhone 4 was <1 per 100 higher than 3GS. That means it' s rate is 1.5 to 2 times more.
* Still about the 2% range which isn;t too bad.
* BGR found a more recent numbers given to Tech-Ex website in response to a ChangeWave survey. AT&T said the numbers were 1.44 % for AT&T network in March 2010.
V Important to note that the cause of the drops is not a factor nor is the distribution mentioned.
* I imagine NYC, SFO, etc are higher rates and other locations are better.
* In Q&A Apple noted it takes 3 years to get a new cell tower approved for San Francisco. 3 Weeks in TX.
* Gruber himself points out "the iPhone 4 gets usable reception in areas where previous iPhones got none. Those may well comprise many of the extra dropped calls."
V iPhone 4 Free Bumper program
V Free refunds already credited to customers who paid by credit card in store
* If you paid cash then you need to go back with your receipt
* Fill out a rebate coupon if you purchased your Bumper at AT&T
V Free app to submit order for free case
* Shipping in 3-5 weeks.
* Available in all countries where iPhone 4's have been sold.
V Case choices
* Apple Bumper (Black)
* Incase Snap Case for iPhone 4 (Smoke or Clear)
* Belkin Shield Micra for iPhone 4 (Clear)
* Griffin Motif iPhone 4 Diamonds/Smoke or the Griffin Reveal Etch iPhone 4 - Black/Black Graphite
* Speck Fitted Case iPhone 4 (Black Tartan) or the Speck PixelSkin HD iPhone 4 (Black)
* If you already bought one of the 3rd party cases it doesn't look like you'll get a refund.
V White iPhone delayed until end of the year
* Official announcement from Apple on Thursday.
* Just two days after Q3 results call where they said end of July
* Week after the "Antenna" press conference where Jobs announced the end of July ship date.
V The black iPhone will launch on July 30th in 17 other countries.
V Apple prepping retail for iMac refresh?
* AppleInsider says Apple began advising its direct and indirect sales channels of near-term shortages of iMacs
V No more stock of the entry level 21.5-inch, 3.06GHz iMac for in-store pick-up
* I didn't even know it was an option
* Apple launched a "Reserve and Pick Up" program in Nov. 2009
* Now good luck finding the links on their site. I Googled for it.
* Dual Core i5 Models, Quad Core i5s and i&s, and possibly Core i3s at the entry level.
* USB 3.0 support and a faster FireWire interface
* Mac Pros are also reportedly "out of stock" at several locations.
V I don't know if the "In store pickup" feature can be used as an indicator. I imagine in store stock goes up and down on a daily basis.
* On-line orders are still shipping in 24hrs for both iMacs and Mac Pros.
V Sidenote: Buzzing of an iLife Refresh
* iLife '10 or '11
* Out mid-August (in line with iLife '08 release timeframe)
* Apps all 64-bit, dropping iDVD, new "mystery" app. All new iWeb (HTML 5?)
* Mystery app: Make you own iTunes Album or iTunes Extra content. iBooks?
V Sponsor
V Smile On My Mac
* TextExpander and TextExpander Touch
* Couldn't get through my email without it.
* Sync your snippets wirelessly between the desktop and iOS devices.
V Integrated with over 30 apps for your iPhone and iPod Touch
* Some of the most popular Twitter Clients, Writing apps, and more.
* Free trial available
V Feedback, Comments and Commentary
V Follow-up on using star ratings
V From Robert. Mark tracks you want to delete on your iPod as 1 star. then when you sync back to iTunes you can quickly identify them for removal.
* Hold down Option when you delete it from a playlist and it will also remove the track from the main library and move it to the trash.
V Rate tracks from the Dock or the Menubar
* Control+Click the iTunes icon in the dock, select Rating, and assign it stars
* Michael points out "I Love Stars" from Potion Factory. Give you the ability to rate the currently playing iTunes track from the menubar.
* And if you want to control iTunes from the menubar too he points out Synergy (5 euro)
V A better explanation of de-tuning
* Play comment from Ted
* We Have Communicators podcast with Spencer Webb of Antennasys
V Bridging the gap is not causing the antennas frequencies to mix.
* Your body is changing the characteristics of the cellular antenna. Like grabbing a vibrating bell.
* Also the "hot spot" is that gap which is the connection point for the antenna.
* Signal strength can play a roll in the severity of the effect.
V Solution is to allow space (air) around the antenna.
* That's why the effect is minimized with internal antennas
* Also, the hot spot was on the back of older phones, now on side.
* On the back the natural "cupping" while holding provided a natural space for air around the antenna.
* Bumper or cases provide that "pocket" between your hand and the antenna hot spot.
* Tape and stickers have to be pretty thick (a mm or so) to help. A couple thousandths of an inch won't help.
V Print your own Cards from iPhoto
* Many people are aware of the Card, Book, and Calendar features of iPhoto
* But you don't have to buy them from Apple
V Play with the different designs and themes.
V Themes:
* Holidays, events, etc.
* Card vs. postcard
* Color
V Design
* The Picture Card, Picture Collage, and Year and review designs offer a lot of options
* Embed "text" and titles into photos using the cards
V Adjust
* Select photos and adjust. B&W, Sepia, Antique presets. Color, exposure, contrast.
V Settings
* Control fonts and turn off "Apple Logo"
V Print
* Order from Apple
V Print direct to Photo Card stock or Postcard stock
* You'll need to play with print setting a lot to get a workflow that works
V Print to PDF
* Open in Preview to get more control of printing or convert to JPG/PNG, etc.
* Print PDF to iPhoto to enable other sharing options, like email.
V Time for your quarterly security reminder
* A couple of Mac security warnings this month, so be diligent.
V Malicious websites could use Auto-fill, plus Javascript to scan for and post saved password and credit card data
* Consider turning off auto-fill and clearing existing data
* Know what sites you visit. In Safari View-->Show Status Bar (Command+Slash). Hover over links in Mail to get URL tooltip.
V ArsTechnica reports that Apple has displaced Oracle as the company with the most security vulnerabilities in its software, according to security company Secunia.
* Report is on just number of flaws not severity
* All software is considered, so not just Apple's or the OS, but also 3rd party
* Quicktime, Safari, iTunes (quicktime via extension), Adobe (Flash and Reader), Java (Oracle)
* Keep your software up-to-date
V Converting VHS to H.264
* I finally began this project and here is my experience so far
* Finding a VHS player ain't easy
V Using the Elgato Video Capture device and software
* Makes it dead simple.
* USB to composite or S-video. Conversion done in software
V Wizard walks you through the set up
* Video, audio, capture.
* Trim and then send to QuickTime, iTunes, iMovie, or upload to YouTube.
V Great features
* H.264 or MPEG-4. Encodes directly, so it's fast.
V 640x480 max resolution, but appropriate given the source content.
* Looks as good as source material.
* Adjust video color, contrast, etc. Adjust audio gain.
* Auto stop the capture based on length (10,30,60,90,120, or 180 mins.)
* Mute sound during capture
V A few minor issues
* Occasionally I am getting what I think are a dropped frame or two
* Switching to discreet GPU seemed to help, but now I get "crackling" pass through audio (not in capture though)
* Can only trim ends, unlike Turbo.264
* Adding metadata with Meta X
V Recovering a deleted iTunes Library
* Play comment from Chris
* Prosoft Data Rescue 3
* Reminder about the 3 places rule.
V Apps that use Song Fingerprint
* MusicBrainz database and AmpliFIND music ID
* Jaikoz
* SongGenie and CoverScout
V Closing
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V Podcast Marketplace
V Thanks to my sponsors
* Circus Ponies
* Smile on my Mac
* Faronics, Deep Freeze
* Cocoatech, Pathfinder 5
* Gazelle
* KamAlert
* Rogue Amoeba
V Keep emails coming. Audio comments.
* MacCast Forum
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V New Music
* "One Perfect Day" by Adrienne Pierce
* From Musicalley
* Artist's site
* Other music available on iTunes
V EOL: Darth's iPhone 4 Support Call
* An Apple support rep gets a call from the dark side on the iPhone 4 antenna issue