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Today's Headlines - Friday, May 9th, 2008

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Apple Canada Offers $45 Credit in iPod Suit - 9:45 AM
iPodObserver
Apple agreed on Thursday to offer a CA$45 credit to Canadian residents that bought a first, second, or third generation iPod before June 24, 2004. The proposed agreement came in response to two lawsuits that alleged iPod batteries prematurely wore out and failed to maintain a charge.
Apple Settles Power Adapter Suit - 9:05 AM
Apple may have finally resolved a 2006 class action law suit that alleged the company misrepresented sparking issues some of its iBook and PowerBook power adapters exhibited. The company agreed to pay qualifying Mac owners between US$25 and $79.
Microsoft Dissolves Yahoo Proxy Board - 8:05 AM
Microsoft reaffirmed the claim that it won't launch a hostile takeover attempt on Yahoo with the release of the proxy board members it had assembled. The potentail board members received the word Thursday via email from Microsoft's law firm.
Tracking Application Updates in Dashboard - 7:30 AM
TMO Quick Tip
Keeping track of updates for all of the applications installed on your Mac can be a real pain, but life doesn't have to be that way. One of the handy tools I've found that takes the pain away is a clever little Dashboard widget called App Update. It handles the drudgery of tracking all of the third party apps you've installed, and lets you know if you have the most recent versions for each.
 

Headlines - Thursday, May 8th, 2008

Apple Ranked as Bottom Electronics Company by Climate Counts - 10:40 PM
Apple has been given a failing grade by Climate Counts, and was placed at the bottom of a list of 12 electronics companies also ranked by the organization. Climate Counts ranks companies on their practices to reduce global warming on a scale of zero to 100, and Apple was given a score of 11, some 66 points behind sector leader IBM, which scored a 77.
MW: Improved iMac Graphics Not the Key to Games - 4:55 PM

Apple has improved the graphics card in the latest iMacs, but that won't make much difference for die hard gamers, and Apple isn't doing enough to fix that perpetual problem, according to Peter Cohen at Macworld on Thursday.

AT&T's On-Again, Off-Again Wi-Fi Plan for iPhone - 4:10 PM
iPodObserver
AT&T has had a recent on-again, off-again affair with a free Wi-Fi plan for iPhone users at more than 17,000 AT&T Wi-Fi hotspots. AT&T's latest iPhone plan page no longer mentions the offer, and AT&T isn't commenting.
MacBook Pro 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo 15-inch Back at $1449 Delivered - 3:45 PM
TMO's DealsOnTheWeb.com
Our DealsOnTheWeb.com site noted that Apple has restocked the factory refurbished MacBook Pro 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo 15-inch for $1449. The system comes in a 2GB/120GB/8x SuperDrive configuration. Shipping is free, and a 1-year warranty is included. It's the best price DoW has seen to date.
CW: Leopard After Six Months: Solid and Doubts Vanished - 2:55 PM

Apple's Mac OS X 10.5, "Leopard" has matured into a solid operating system, according to Computerworld on Thursday. While some thought it was released too early, and there were some early snafus, debates about Leopard as a worthy upgrade have vanished.

NBC Experiments with Free TV Shows on iPhone - 1:45 PM
iPodObserver
NBC has made two of its popular shows available, 30 Rock and The Office, available, for free, on the Apple iPhone and iPod touch. The streams are commercial free.
Rising Component Costs Hit Notebook Computer Makers - 1:00 PM
Rising prices for raw materials, metals and plastics as well as new labor laws in China are set to raise the price of notebook computers made by branded computer vendors such as Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Acer, according to the Financial Times on Wednesday. The effect on Apple is not yet known.
Macgamestore Releases The Scruffs for Macintosh - 11:35 AM
Mac Gaming News

Macgamestore.com announced the immediate availability of The Scruffs for the Mac on Thursday. The seek-and-find style game sends players on a hunt for hidden treasures to save their family home.

Freeway 5.1 Improves RSS, SVG Support - 11:10 AM
Softpress Systems announced the immediate availability of Freeway 5.1 on Thursday. The update for the Web site design application added the ability to publish an RSS feed from a page, and added the ability to import graphics in SVG format.
How Valuable is the iPhone's Home Screen? - 10:10 AM
Hot Forum Topic
Today TMO readers are discussing the value of the iPhone's home screen to third party software and service companies, and are debating the value of swinging a deal with Apple to get your product's icon added to the default home screen button set.
Pages Templates 2.0 Bundles 40 Pro Layouts - 9:40 AM

Jumsoft announced the immediate availability of Pages Templates 2.0 for iWork on Thursday. The package includes 40 professionally designed templates for books, resumes, business cards, certificates, business reports, and more.

plasq Introduces Comic Life Magiq - 9:10 AM
plasq announced the immediate availability of Comic Life Magiq 1.0 on Thursday. The new version of the photo-comic editing and publishing application replaces Comic Life, and gains new editing features and image effects from the Core Image and Core Animation technologies in Mac OS X 10.5.
America Movil Lands Latin American iPhone Deal - 8:35 AM
iPodObserver
America Movil announced on Wednesday that it has partnered with Apple to distribute the iPhone in Latin America before the end of 2008. The news follows Vodafone's announcement from earlier this week that is signed a ten country deal with Apple.
Mophie Juice Pack - 6:00 AM
iPO Review
According to Mophie, the Juice Pack iPhone battery extender provides an additional 250 hours of standby time, 8 hours of talk time, 6 hours of internet use, 7 hours of video playback, and/or 24 hours of audio playback. After using this puppy for close to a month, I can't confirm that those numbers are 100% accurate, but my gut feeling is that they're not far off the mark. Before I started using the Juice Pack I had to recharge my iPhone every single night, and even then it occasionally ran out of "juice" before dinnertime or not long after. Now, with a fully-charged Mophie Juice Pack, I've gone as long as three days between recharges! That rocks.
 

Top Headlines - Wednesday, May 7th, 2008

iMac Ten Years Later: Another Dent in the Universe - 5:00 PM
Editorial

Ten years ago this week, Apple introduced the iMac with no SCSI port, no Apple Desktop Bus (ADB) and no 3.5 inch floppy drive. Pandemonium broke out. Then they sold like hot cakes.

Quick Look: View Multiple Images - 7:30 AM
TMO Quick Tip
Leopard's Quick Look feature is great for checking out images without having to launch any application first, and it's also great for checking out multiple images at the same time.

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Features & Tools

TMO Quick Tip - Tracking Application Updates in Dashboard
by Jeff Gamet
Keeping track of updates for all of the applications installed on your Mac can be a real pain, but life doesn't have to be that way. One of the handy tools I've found that takes the pain away is a clever little Dashboard widget called App Update. It handles the drudgery of tracking all of the third party apps you've installed, and lets you know if you have the most recent versions for each.

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Apple Ranked as Bottom Electronics Company by Climate Counts
by Bryan Chaffin
Apple has been given a failing grade by Climate Counts, and was placed at the bottom of a list of 12 electronics companies also ranked by the organization. Climate Counts ranks companies on their practices to reduce global warming on a scale of zero to 100, and Apple was given a score of 11, some 66 points behind sector leader IBM, which scored a 77.

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iPO Review - Mophie Juice Pack
by Bob LeVitus
According to Mophie, the Juice Pack iPhone battery extender provides an additional 250 hours of standby time, 8 hours of talk time, 6 hours of internet use, 7 hours of video playback, and/or 24 hours of audio playback. After using this puppy for close to a month, I can't confirm that those numbers are 100% accurate, but my gut feeling is that they're not far off the mark. Before I started using the Juice Pack I had to recharge my iPhone every single night, and even then it occasionally ran out of "juice" before dinnertime or not long after. Now, with a fully-charged Mophie Juice Pack, I've gone as long as three days between recharges! That rocks.

DotMac Status

All Services Are Operational

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In the Past 30 Days...

  • .Mac services have been offline for a total of 152 hours.
  • Last Outage: May 9, 2008 at 10:30 am.
    smtp.mac.com was offline
  • Longest Outage: 2 hours (smtp)
  • Most Stable Service: .Mac Online (0 total hours offline)
  • Least Stable Service: Outgoing Mail (151 total hours offline)
Editorial - iMac Ten Years Later: Another Dent in the Universe
by John Martellaro

Ten years ago this week, Apple introduced the iMac with no SCSI port, no Apple Desktop Bus (ADB) and no 3.5 inch floppy drive. Pandemonium broke out. Then they sold like hot cakes.

Since April of 1995, Apple has been proclaimed to be dead or dying 52 times. Pay your respects at the Apple Death Knell Counter.

TMO Quick Tip - Quick Look: View Multiple Images
by Jeff Gamet
Leopard's Quick Look feature is great for checking out images without having to launch any application first, and it's also great for checking out multiple images at the same time.

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