This made my day. Apple has released version 2.0.1 of the Apple TV software. All I could say when a saw this was thank god! The Apple TV 2.0 update known as Take 2, launched in February was fantastic as it completely transformed Apple’ set top box adding substantially new functionality to the Apple TV including Movie rentals in HD with surround sound. The 2.0 update was not all good however as been subject to random lockups and a very slow menu system and scrolling was sometimes terrible.

Apple TV version 2.0.1 hopefully can provide the needed bug fixes. The update is available as a free download from the device’s General settings menu under Update Software. I have immediately updated both of our Apple TVs and in the short time I have used it, I already see improvements. Updates takes about 2 minutes to download and another 5 minutes or so to install. Well worth it. Thank you Apple.

I just bought a black Asus Eee PC 4G last week. I wanted a really portable device for travel. I will be roving the show floor in Las Vegas next month covering NAB and needed a computer that is ultra light and inexpensive. As much as I absolutely love the MacBook Air, it did not fit my needs or budget.

I was looking for a durable machine to get email, surf, use an office suite when I am not connected, communicate with Skype and AIM, edit an occasional web page from the road, and blog post. My iPod touch or an iPhone at this point can not do all of this. I needed portable, something that would not break my shoulder after a very long day walking an event. The MacBook Air was too expensive to take on these trips, although a very capable and light.

After looking at the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet and several other ultralights I settled on the Asus Eee PC 4G that I bought for $399. The Nokia N810 cost almost as much, lacked Skype with video and because of its size had a really small keyboard. I thought an updated iPhone with 3G would be a better device for me than the Nokia N810. So I will wait on a 3G iPhone.

Continue reading Review: Asus Eee PC 4G Ultra Portable Computer…

The iPhone SDK (software development kit) is taking up a lot of space on websites all over the blogosphere and rightfully so. This fantastically successful device is on the verge of being truly “insanely great” to take another more famous Steve’s quote. In all the news on the iPhone SDK that will open up the iPhone to thousands of third-party apps, I have to wonder if Apple will even bring an SDK for the Apple TV? Where is the Apple TV’s App Store?

Imagine the apps we could have running on an “open” Apple TV. DVR, SlingPlayer, TiVo, sms, chat, RSS, social networking, games, home automation, alarm clocks, remote desktop, security, video conferencing… Bluetooth add-ons like keyboards and mice.

Maybe this would be the right approach to bringing what Jobs called a “hobby” into yet another “insanely great” and very successful product for Apple. There are no really open set top boxes on the market. With Apple TV running OS X the developers would flock to it. If Apple wanted to get into the living room further what better way? None of this gets in the way of Movie rentals and gives loads of people another reason to buy an “open” Apple TV with all these added capabilities. What are your thoughts? Take our poll on the left.

With all the rumors flowing in about the new 3G iPhones that may be coming with an an included webcam, OLED displays, thinner - faster and more battery life. Here is more fuel for the rumor mill. Apple has posted for a position of a Handwriting Recognition Engineer position, citing the need for a dedicated employee for its Mac OS X handwriting recognition technology.

The Handwriting Recognition team is seeking an engineer who will be responsible for advancing Apple’s handwriting recognition technology for Mac OS X. The ideal candidate will be an expert in the area of pattern recognition, with an excellent understanding of handwriting recognition issues. The person will also assume primary responsibility for maintaining and enhancing existing code and tools. The recognition technology you create may extend beyond Mac OS X to other applications and the iPhone.

Is Apple bringing back the Newton handheld platform with a new forthcoming iPhone? Inkwell has long been part of OS X requiring a tablet to be installed to use. This is what the Axiotron Modbook Tablet Mac is based on. Will be writing on an iPhone with our pointer fingers any time soon?

Apple has released a new beta build of the iPhone software development kit to registered developers that includes Interface Builder that allows creating a UI as simple as drag and drop.

SOHO Organizer 7.0 is a software suite for managing contacts, calendars, and notes for individuals or workgroups. This major update adds recurring tasks, tasks displayed in day, week, and month views, an Alphabet Bar for selection in the Contact Card view, a Date Bar in calendar views for navigation, calendar printing, custom task sorting, interface improvements, and much more. SOHO Organizer is $99.99 for Mac OS X 10.5.2 (Universal Binary).

SOHO Notes 7.0, an update of its note-taker and information organizer. The update adds attachment of tasks to notes, embedding of tasks in notes, a Details sidebar for note attributes, import of tab-delimited and CSV data directly into forms, printing improvements, and more. SOHO Notes is $39.99 for Mac OS X 10.5.2 (Universal Binary).

Rage Software released released updates for SERank 1.6 and Domainer 1.6.

SERank 1.6, which tracks and monitors search engine rankings for web sites. This release adds integration with the company’s Domainer, creation of filters based on rank change, support for Google Australia, drag-and-drop of keywords between web sites, and other changes. SERank is priced starting at $59.95 for Mac OS X 10.4 and up (Universal Binary).

Domainer 1.6, which tracks and manages domain names. This update adds creation of PDF domain reports with all information retrieved, display of third-party backlinks only, and some bug fixes. Domainer is $39.95 for Mac OS X 10.4 and up (Universal Binary).

Softpress has released Freeway 5, a major update of its web authoring software. Highlights of Version 5 include CSS menus, personalized Blogger templates, a suite of Google Actions, script.aculo.us Actions, accessibility provisions, new graphic effects, nested HTML lists, iPhoto import, and more. Freeway 5 is $79 for the Express edition ($249 for the Pro edition) for Mac OS X 10.4 and up.

Apple has released Aperture 2.1 introducing an open plug-in architecture that makes it easy to use specialized third party imaging software right from within Aperture. Available via software update, Aperture 2.1 includes the Apple-developed plug-in, Dodge & Burn, which adds brush-based tools for dodge (lighten), burn (darken), contrast, saturation, sharpen and blur. Over the coming months, third party software developers will deliver image editing plug-ins for localized editing, filters and effects, noise analysis and reduction, fisheye lens correction and more.

Apple has released Mac Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.3 with stability fixes for the Mac Pro model that was introduced early in 2008. Available via the Software Update application, or as a download at the Apple Support Web site. The updater installs the Mac Pro EFI Firmware Update application in /Applications/Utilities. Users must launch that application to complete the firmware update process.

Great deal on VMware Fusion today on Amazon. If you are needing to run Windows on your Mac you can not go wrong on this deal. Amazon is selling VMware Fusion for only $54.99 with a $20 rebate applied you will be paying ONLY $34.99, did I mention there is also FREE shipping. Get them while they last.

Adobe has launched a new free web based Photoshop called Photoshop Express. Windows, OS X, Linux users with a browser, Internet connection and the latest Flash installed now have a place to work on their images on the web which is kinda of a cross between iPhoto and Adobe Bridge CS3, according to Ars Technica that has posted a nice review.

Apparently it can. The recent consensus showing up on Microsoft’s own blog and many other Windows based websites seem to be that with SP1 Windows Vista is even worse.

Since Windows Vista was released way back on January 30, 2007 (November 30, 2007 was the business customer’s release), many Windows customers have been frustrated with many even going back to Windows XP (some Windows champs have even gone to Mac OS X). Well some 14 plus months later Microsoft has released SP1 for Windows Vista that arrived late. So far many Windows users are still going to feel the pain, as this release may not fix the problems they are having.

Continue reading Can Windows Vista Get Even Worse?…

This is not Safari it is Firefox with the GrApple Yummy theme.

If you are running the latest Firefox 3.0 beta, one nice new feature is the new theme called Proto that looks a lot better and more Leopard-like than previous versions of Firefox. I still for one am not that crazy about the new theme and have opted as I have in the past to use Aronnax themes. There are two Safari 3-like themes for Firefox 3 available, the GrApple Delicious and GrApple Yummy. I’m using GrApple Yummy, although I do admit it can get confusing when I have both Firefox and Safari open at the same time. Both themes are free, and are installed in a couple mouse clicks and a re-launch of Firefox. Aronnax does have accept PayPal donations.

Adobe has announced Photoshop Elements 6 for the Mac. The new version of the consumer digital image editing application includes a new redesigned interface with tab-based tool organization, Photomerge tool along with a version of Bridge CS3 tailored for Elements 6 users.

Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac requires Mac OS X 10.4.8 or higher, or Mac OS X 10.5.2, and is Universal Binary allowing it to run natively on Intel and PowerPC-based Macs. It is priced at US$89.99, or $69.99 for upgrades from earlier versions. Looks like a nice upgrade.