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Apple Showtime: The accumulation of everything ripped off

By UnnDunn, September 12, 2006

It's good to know that the photocopiers up in Cupertino are in good working order.

Apple’s Showtime event just wrapped up, and the new products announced read like a Microsoft Windows Media feature list… circa 2004.

Let’s go down the list, shall we?

First up, iTunes 7:

Movies: Windows Media Player has been playing movies since version 7, and a several movie stores were added in version 9. WMPs movie stores have movies from several major studios, not just Disney-owned studios.
CoverFlow: This is perhaps the only truly new feature iTunes 7 has. But it is purely aesthetic.
Automatic Album Art: Windows Media Player has been doing this since version 8, five years ago.
New User Interface: All of a sudden, iTunes looks suspiciously like Windows Media Player, with songlists grouped and stacked by artist and album, with prominent cover art adorning each group. Just like Windows Media Player does it in version 11 beta.
iPod Games: Another new, yet largely useless feature. Who wants to re-buy games for their iPod when they already have them for their phone (or they have a PSP or DS which provides a much better game experience?)
iPod Summary: Well, it’s about time Apple used its iPod+iTunes “synergy” for something that doesn’t involve restricting consumer choice.
Download Manager: This…
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Reflections of a geek in light of 9-11

By Nick, September 11, 2006

It was five years ago today that I was awaken by news of the most startling, surreal event that has taken place in my life. I woke up to the call of my mother, telling my brother and I to get up, that a plane had hit one of the Twin Towers in New York. My brother and I went downstairs quickly, still half-asleep, though we were quickly shocked awake by the sight of a gaping hole in the side of 1 World trade Center on TV. I stood in front of the television stunned, my jaw hanging open, dangling somewhere around my ankles. Surely this had to be an accident.

Moments later, I notice a plane entering into view on the screen. Intially, I thought it was a military jet patrolling the skies aorund the World Trade Center, except that it never emerged from the other side.

It was 6:02 AM Pacific Standard Time, 9:02 PM Eastern. Two World Trade had just been struck.

Okay, now I start to really get upset. My mom and brother were in the kitchen at that moment. I call out to them in a shaky voice that another plane just hit the other…
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Windows Vista - the accumulation of everything ripped-off.

By SogniX, September 7, 2006

I finally took a dive into Vista with RC1, as it seemed that every disk image of Beta 2 I tried getting previously was corrupted.

I wanted to give Vista the opportunity of a doubt,
I thought it would be so much better than XP,
but, honestly - with the few minutes I spent with Vista (after more than an hour of installation and around 10 reboots later) feels like it’s simply a theme for XP (a nicer theme than the Fisher Price default theme on XP), with an entire collection of things ripped-off from others. Innovative indeed.

From the few minutes I was able to stand Vista, here’s how I feel:

Gadgets is most definitely Konfabulator - err I mean Yahoo Widgets.
IE7 is most definitely Safari.
The theme feels like a theme on Linux with some OS X Flavoring.
The forced dialog screens (where the entire screen goes black except for a password screen or dialog box) are annoying as all hell - altho I do like it for some people that tend to ignore them, there should be a way for advanced users to turn it off!

As it’s not an official release I can’t really complain…
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Cut the Fat from your Mac

By Nick, September 6, 2006

Running an older system with a smaller hard drive? Or maybe an iBook or PowerPC-based Mac mini with 40 GB hard drives that fill up quickly? Here are a few easy steps you can take to slim down your system. Some are obvious to experienced users, some not as obvious.

Note: I am not responsible for any hosed applications, Mac OS X installs, or files. Do this at your own risk. DO NOT EVER, EVER, MESS WITH YOUR OS X INSTALL ITSELF UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING! YOU MAY RENDER YOUR COMPUTER UNUSABLE!

Difficulty level is measured in fish sticks. One fish stick means it’s a very simple task to accomplish, five fish sticks mean it’s a job for experts only!

Empty the trash (difficulty level: 1 fish stick)

This is a beginner mistake. If you’re new to the Mac, dragging files to the trash does not--repeat--does not mean they have been deleted. You must “empty” the trash to regain disk space. Don’t worry, it won’t involve hauling garbage bags out to the dumpster:
From the Finder menu, select “Empty Trash”. If you get an alert box, click the “OK button.

Alternately, click and hold (or right-click) the…
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Apple Introduces 24” iMac [UPDATED]

By Pilky, September 6, 2006

Apple has introduced a new 24” iMac and reintroduced the low-end 17” iMac to double the number of iMacs available to consumers. The new iMacs have been upgraded to the new Core 2 Duo chips from Intel. The specs for the mid range 17” and 20” iMacs remains mostly unchanged though both come with 1GB of Ram standard and upgrades to 2GHz and 2.16GHz processors respectively.

The low-end 17” iMac is pretty much identical to the educational iMac previously announced, featuring a combo drive and integrated graphics with an absence of Bluetooth and the Apple Remote. The 24” features a 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo (upgradable to 2.33GHz), 1GB memory (upgradable to 3GB), 250GB HD (upgradable to 500GB) and an NVIDIA GeForce 7300GT (upgradable to a 7600GT).

The Mac Minis have also been upgraded to 1.66 and 1.83GHz Core Duo chips at the same price points.

UPDATE If you’re eligible to purchase with an academic discount and are planning to buy a new iMac, be forewarned: the new iMacs are not eligible for Apple’s iPod rebate promotion, which ends in ten days. (See the FAQ for details.)