Blog's from the Bush

Well Apple dropped 10.5.3 (predictable given the Delicious Library 2.0 release) and another Digital Camera Raw update on us this morning.

Digital Camera Raw Compatibility V2.1 @ 2.9 MB

This update extends RAW file compatibility for Aperture 2 and iPhoto ’08 for the following cameras:

• Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi/Kiss Digital x2/450D
• Epson R-D1
• Leaf AFi 7
• Leaf AFi 6
• Leaf AFi 5
• Pentax K200D
• Pentax K20D

Mac OS X Update V10.5.3 @ 198 MB

The 10.5.3 Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility and security of your Mac.

For detailed information on this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1141.

For detailed information on security updates, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222.

Posted by craig at 8:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Yes after a long wait Delicious Library 2 has Arrived! You can get it here.

[From DELICIOUS BLOG]

Well folks this is what I can tell you - what was arguably one of the easiest to use pieces of Library management software of the Mac has finally made it to 2.0!

So far it looks good - having just downloaded and installed the software (ie. I dropped in the Applications folder) here's my first impressions:

1. You can test it out without hurting your 1.0 Library files, apparently you get 14 days to play with it.
2. It tell's you that it needs 10.5.3 to use essential fixes for Graphics so until you get 10.5.3 it'll be slower than it should be.
3. It's faster than 1.6 and no I don't have 10.5.3 installed. (Changing shelves is almost instantaneous no long pauses).
4. It converted 870+ books, 530+ DVDs and counted my iTunes libraries in less than 2 minutes (while Handbrake was running in the background).
5. It understands Blu-Ray artwork and displays it properly.
6. Interestingly the Demo mode talks about limiting you to 25 items but this didn't happen with my conversion.
7. Upgrades are $20 if you purchased before December 1, 2007 and free if you purchased after that date.
8. People that qualify for a free upgrade should get an email with their new version 2 licenses.
9. During the Upgrade/Purchase process (all contained within DL2.0) you can pick up their Bluetooth Wireless Scanner for $215.00
10. You can pay by Visa or Mastercard and the transaction time is about 10 seconds and a receipt is emailed to you.

You're probably interested in all the other great features of this 2.0 version but all I can say right now is go download it and play with it - it's free to play with, you can roll back to 1.0 if you really want to... in the meantime here's what you get when you do a "Publish All" to your DotMac account. All up it took about 6 minutes with Handbrake in the background and me typing this into Ecto in the foreground. Oh and you can see have far percentage wise the "Publish" has gotten by checking the File menu - there you'll notice that Publish menu item has been greyed out and had the progress appended to it.

Anyway go get it, play with it - let me know what you think!

Posted by craig at 12:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In a final step in the passing of Stan Flack last month it now appears that, sadly, his last great publishing endeavour "MacMinute" will close.

[From Mac News First. | MacMinute News]

I remember the first time I stumbled upon the newly minted MacMinute website. It was an immediate hit with me, being in the Apple and the Internet games this site with it's simplicity of design and always fresh content immediately replaced another venerable Mac publication for me as the first place to hit at the beginning of the day.

I don't know how many years I read MacMinute for, but I do know that I only really stopped when I became drastically time poor and had to resort to RSS feeds and scanning headlines.

Even today the clean simple design sticks in my mind as being an extremely positive aspect of the website, where the majority of the page space is valuable content. Nothing more nothing less. Some of our currently popular Mac websites could do with a bit of prune, they're undoubtably aware wallys.

Well I guess time keeps rolling forward and new things grow in the holes left by the old...

Posted by craig at 3:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Follow the link below to the most comprehensive Austrlian iPhone FAQ I've found.

[The Great Big, Constantly Updated, Australian iPhone FAQ - MacTalk Forums]

Posted by craig at 7:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

As if you needed another reason to buy a Mac... (I mean apart from being a growing platform, a rapidly growing platform, did I mention the increased market share).

Apparently 2 less than honest characters went to a party, scoped out all the nice goodies (flat screen's, Mac laptops, game consoles etc), then came back a few weeks later and cleaned out the place.

Unfortunately for these two clueless gorms they connected the Mac to the network and didn't wonder until it was too late why PhotoBooth was running and taking pictures of them... Of course there are lots of pieces of software around these days that let you do similar things, this is the first time though I've heard of it done with the standard built-in software on the computer in question.

Full story here, here and here...

Posted by craig at 10:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

You'd have to be completely blind (or just not connected to the rest of the world) to have missed all the news about the iPhone coming down under.

First of there was the Vodafone announcement, which in the world of Apple was unusual to say the least. Young Mr Jobs is not known for taking seemingly unmanaged announcements lightly.

Then came the somewhat unexpected news that the iPhone was EOL'd by O2 in the UK, first the 8Gb version and then the 16Gb - what's happening we all asked? Well it seems neither did the people at O2 as the phone came back on stock a few days ago, well the 16Gb version did..

Then a "shortage" in the US sprang up...

Finally, today, SingTel - the parent of Optus announced that they had signed up to sell the iPhone in a bunch of countries, including Australia with the Optus network.

Of course all of this means that the "exclusive" iPhone deals seen around the world aren't happening in Australia - which was pretty much a given with the way the Australian market is. Even though they haven't made an announcement yet, it's a pretty fair bet that Telstra will also be selling the new 3G iPhone as well - I mean why would the largest 3G network, in Australia, cut themselves off from a huge revenue opportunity? Then again this is the company that suggested Apple "should stick to their knitting" so their is a slim chance their schizophrenic view of business might help them miss this boat.

Of course the industry is already quoting "unnamed sources" that have "confirmed" that it will be offering the iPhone from the end of June.

Personally I like to think this weeks Tuesday (or Monday) announcements from Apple, could bring the US a 3G iPhone. Meaning that Apple's production should have ramped up by June to allow the rest of the world to get some shipments.

Of course I'm also betting on Blu-Ray options in Mac Pro's one of these Tuesdays.

Either way the iPhone I get better have 3G & at least 32Gb of on board storage.

Posted by craig at 8:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Hey it's all happening this week! Apparently the latest and greatest version of Aaron Hillegass great book is out. That's right Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X's 3rd Edition is out and its about as up-to-date as you can get for a physical printed reference like this one.

[From Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X 3rd Edition]

My editor at Addison-Wesley wrote me today. He says that 6000 copies of “Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X, 3rd Edition” are on trucks. I think the 3rd edition is pretty good; it adds two chapters on Core Data, and chapters on the garbage collector, Core Animation, Web Services, NSTask, and NSViewController. A lot of little things were tidied up.

If it's anything like the previous two versions this is a must buy book. Unfortunately at this writing the "Look Inside" on Amazon hasn't been updated for the latest version, so you'll have to just take my word on it.

Posted by craig at 9:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Not a big fan of "The Bird And The Bee" yet but their song "Again & Again" is quite catchy, enough to inspire people to create some great video clips. "Video clips!?!" you say "I thought this blog was about things Apple" you also say - well rest easy dear reader and stream down this tune for you Mac viewing pleasure. Oh and congrats to Dennis Liu on the video in question.

You've got to admire people that have this much spare time in their lives!

Posted by craig at 8:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)