@methodshop

Usually, you'd fear for your life and run away from a Tiger. But when the "Tiger" in question is the latest operating system from Apple, you can expect quite a different response.

THE CAT IS OUT OF THE BAG
Tiger made its debut last night worldwide. In the US, hundreds of loyal Mac users lined up at Apple Stores from SoHo to San Fran.

MethodShop reporter J. Love and Internet DJ Spider Goodlegs were on hand to provide coast to coast coverage of Tiger's release.

Spider Goodlegs made the journey over to the Apple Store in LA and snapped a few photos. While J. Love hopped the subway down to SoHo to reactions from the New York fans.

They both found a variety of Mac loyalists waiting to get their hands on Tiger. Some people dressed up in Tiger outfits, or like iPods, while others danced in the streets to the famous fight song "Eye of the Tiger" from the Rocky soundtrack.

But what type of person lines up outside on a Friday night to get an update to a computer operating system? Love and Spider were on a mission to find out.

NEW YORK
"I just wanted to check out the [Tiger] crowds on my way home and got sucked into standing in line," said Wade, 29, of the Hoboken, NJ. "I have an iBook and iMac DV at home and use them to maintain my website and make iMovies. I was gonna buy Tiger anyway, why not get it now?"


"After talking trash about Macs for years, I finally got an iPod as a gift for Christmas last year and loved it! I've done a total 180˚ when it comes to Apple," said Lucy, 25, of Queens, NY. "My boyfriend and I got a Mac Mini last month to replace our virus ridden PC. We love our new computer so much that we wanted to get the latest operating system for it. We'll probably be up half the night playing with Tiger."

LOS ANGELES
Spider spoke to the manager at the Apple Store who said the fire marshall required that they line people up outside and bring everyone in gradually. They closed their doors at 5pm for an hour and prepared for the carnage. After changing into black shirts with Tiger features such as Dashboard or Automator highlighted on it, they opened the doors at 6 to a line that led almost all the way to the Farmer's Market. Scratch off tickets were handed out for a chance to win an iPod or a Powerbook G4, but everyone won a 10% discount in a store notorious for never having a sale.


Before 5, many of the employees were dreading just what might happen when the Tiger was released. One black shirt said "they're gonna brief us on it. We're gonna be open till midnight. I'm kind of scared. I wasn't here for the release of Panther but this should be a doosie."
Apple Store (Grove) shut down their Genius Bar (thank God) and put the "geniuses" on the floor. They also used the bar to set up registers. During the Tiger presentation it was standing room only.

Spider also discretely listened in on a few conversations:

Two guys waiting downstairs for their friend see him return with a bag.
"You got it? Sweet!" [high five]
"Yeah. It was almost four hundred bucks."
"What? Why?"
"Well. I got an iPod, too."

To quote Ivan Brandon, author of the popular Image comic book series, NYC MECH, "who lines up and dresses up for the release of a new Windows program?"

TIGER VS. LONGHORN
While Mac fans may not be afraid of Tigers, you can bet Bill Gates and company are currently crapping their pants. When it comes to operating system innovations, Apple is traditionally ahead and sets the standard for Microsoft to either copy or exceed. The 200+ enhancements and features built into Tiger is just additional pressure on the Microsoft folks in Redmond. According to recent press reports, Microsoft is probably a year away from releasing "Longhorn," the successor to Windows XP. Tiger's release could possibly push that date back a little more.

"CEO Jon von Tetzchner made a wager last week that if 1 million Internet surfers downloaded copies of his company's Opera 8 browser for use in surfing the Web within four days, then he would swim the icy waters from Norway to the U.S., with one stop in Iceland for Mum's hot cocoa. That public statement appears to have done the trick -- the downloading exceeded 1 million." [Via fool.com]

My browser's CEO is frozen.

I whole heartedly welcome competition on the browser front. Firefox, which has recently replaced my use of Apple Safari and Internet Explorer, is a favorite of mine, and now it appears that Opera, which is the Singapore of web browsers (small but efficient), is making some ground thanks to its daring CEO... I find it ironic, however, that somebody promoting their software would perform a stunt where "freezing" was the main objective....

This morning I hit a breaking point. I had 124 spam emails. Over half of them weren't even in English. I wish spammers in Korea and Russia would figure this out. An email titled "Á÷ÀÇÑ Á÷ÀåÀÎ(ÃÖÀú±Ý" isn't going to get their message across to me. I wish I could just tell these jerks that I'm not interested in their crap. Apparently I'm not alone.

Here's an open letter to Spammers by a blogger named Tian:

Dear Scumbag Spam Mongers,

Thank you for taking such an interest in me. I regret to inform you of the following:

1. My penis is just fine, thank you for asking.
2. I don't own a home, so why the f**k would I need to re-finance my mortgage?
3. I don't require any medication, and even if I did I wouldn't buy it from someone who can't spell the name of it.
4. I deeply regret your situation in Zambia (or whatever 3rd world coutnry you and "your millions of dollars you need to transfer" live in) but you're barking up the wrong f**king tree.
5. I already have a degree (again, last time I checked you didn't spell diploma with a 1 in the middle).
6. Posing to be the institution I do my banking with, wow, that's f**king admirable. No, you can't have my account information.
7. Re: I don't remember sending you a fucking email in the first place.
8. "Your PC is infected". No it sisn't, I have a Mac which doesn't open your fucked up .exe files you dick.
9. Thanks for the stock tip, unfortunately I didn't see a listing on NASDAQ for: bLo6Wjob GraNNy99.
10. Chicks banging horses is sooooo 1999.

Macintosh users with T-Mobile Sidekick phones got some great news this morning. Software company Mark/Space announced a Macintosh version of their popular Missing Sync software for hiptops, (phone/laptops you wear on your hip like a cellphone).

The new software integrates with Apple's iSync to provide two-way data synchronization between a Mac and a T-Mobile Sidekick or Sidekick II. When a user clicks the "Sync Now" button in iSync, their contacts, calendar events and to-do items are synchronized between Mac OS X's Address Book and iCal applications and the corresponding applications on their Sidekick.

The Missing Sync for hiptop (US$29.95) currently supports both T-Mobile Sidekick and T-Mobile Sidekick II.

The relatively new practice of 'podcasting' is taking hold in the US, according to a recent survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

Nearly a third of US adults who own iPods or other types of MP3 players have downloaded podcasts - audio broadcasts, such as radio shows, available on the web which can be downloaded to a computer and then transferred onto a portable audio device.

Young people are leading the way in the adoption of podcasting - a term which comes from combining the words 'iPod' and 'broadcasting'. Nearly half of the 18 to 28-year-olds surveyed who own MP3 players have listened to podcasts compared to 20 per cent of those over 29.

Yet the speed of one's internet connection appears to have little influence on the phenomenon. About 33 per cent of MP3 player owners with broadband have downloaded podcasts compared with 28 per cent of dial-up users.

The findings are based on a recent survey of 2,201 adults living in the US by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

[Via SILICON.com]

methodshop

Labels: ipod, music, tech news

Is Amazon the most assured way to hold that Tiger?

Tic-tock, Appleheads! Any minute now and it'll be here! The Tiger OS is days away from release and all the Mac Daddies and Mamas are flippin' their wigs about their pre-ordered fast new Mac operating system that's about to hit the streets.

It seems like only yesterday the "Night of the Panther" had reports of people lined up around the block cramming their way into the stores and ultimately sitting outside of their local Apple Stores installing the software like the junkies we all know we are. And now comes Tiger, the anxiously awaited promise for nearly a year now, the yummy features whetting the appetites of Mac users since well before Steve Jobs' keynote address at the Mac Conference & Expo in San Francisco.



"Who's the man!" proclaimed Steve Jobs... in my mind.




And then to make it even more tantalizing Amazon.com had a special offer... $35 mail-in rebate to all residents in the US. for a limited time, which knocked the Apple retail price down to $94.99 after the rebate with FREE shipping thrown in . Plenty cheaper than the price at the Apple Store or the website. Well, mark me down for a yes! 1-click's never felt so good.

But lately there's been some question about just how soon Amazon buyers will be riding the Tiger and whether the rebate is any good.

Many buyers noticed that Amazon's rebate was good only until May 31st before Apple made the release date announcement. It was the tip-off that Job's promise of a Tiger release in "the first half of this year" would be fulfilled in April or May. In fact, it began an April 1st release rumor amongst Apple cultists and bloggers. But a few days after Apple announced that Tiger would be unleashed April 29th, Amazon buyers discovered that Amazon had listed a ship date, June 5th, for Mac OSX Tiger. This would invalidate the rebate causing the cost to return to it's original price and making the whole thing pointless. For the first time, buying from the overpriced Apple Store would be wiser.


Well, that won't do. We dashed off a missive to Amazon threatening to cancel our order and that you readers would follow suit. (You'll notice I refer to you as my colleagues despite having never been invited over for a drink...)


And I received the following reply:

Thank you for contacting us at Amazon.com.

When we show mail-in offers for items listed on our web site, they
are generally available for printing. Customers qualify for the
offer as long as they submit their order for the item within the
offer's listed qualifying dates.

If your order was placed within the qualifying time frame and you do
not receive your order until after that time frame has passed, you
are still eligible if you send the mail-in offer and any other
necessary materials (such as the UPC code) to the manufacturer before
the postmark deadline displayed with the offer on our web site.

To view the complete mail-in offer on our web site, go to the item's
product detail page and click where indicated. Click each offer to
enlarge. You can print it using your browser's "Print" option. If
several coupon pages are displayed, please make sure you print and
complete all rebate offers for which you are eligible.

You can also view the correct coupon at the following URL:
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0002G71T0.01.RB10.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Please note that most manufacturers require that you send in the
original UPC barcode. If you need a receipt to enclose with the
offer, you can print an invoice for your order by clicking the
"Your Account" link at the top of our web site and then selecting the
link to "Print invoices."

Further, I checked and found that this item is currently scheduled to
be released on April 29, 2005.

As soon as the item has been released, we'll be able to ship it to
you. As per our standard policy, we do not charge you for items
until they enter the shipping process, so you will not be charged
for this item until it is available and we have shipped it to you.

Best regards,

Thupten Choder
Amazon.com Customer Service

Phew. So if you are ordering from Amazon you WILL get the rebate, provided you order soon and it will be delivered for free on April 29th, making the price after the rebate $94.99.

Yeah. You're welcome, fellow colleagues...

Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails has posted the band's new single, "The Hand That Feeds," as a free download for Apple's GarageBand application.

The song, which weighs in at a hefty 70MB, features multiple tracks that you can easily tweak. "For quite some time I've been interested in the idea of allowing you the ability to tinker around with my tracks -- to create remixes, experiment, embellish or destroy what's there," Reznor says.

"After spending some quality time sitting in hotel rooms on a press tour, it dawned on me that the technology now exists and is already in the hands of some of you. I got to work experimenting and came up with something I think you'll enjoy."

Fans are encouraged to build their own songs out of the NIN track's constituent parts, or just mess around to their heart's content.

Review: GarageBand 3


methodshop

Labels: music, review, software, tech news

"Apple shipped 1.07 million Macintosh computers in its 2005 second quarter, up 43 percent from a year before, as well as 5.31 million iPod music players, which represented a 558 percent increase from the 807,000 iPods sold a year earlier." [Via informationweek.com]

Sell, sell, sell!

When Frank Sinatra sang, "When I was 21, it was a very good year..." he obviously had no idea Apple would be singing the same tune in 2005, on their 21st year in existence, thanks to rising sales of macs and ipods. With the release of Tiger, OSX newest upgrade, Apple can only expect to have an increase in sales and popularity in the upcoming year.

Great design is one of the things that unites us as Apple and iPod cultists. There's something admirable about slick, straightforward, and sexy design. Case in point, the iPod, where Apple broke the mold and changed history. Conversely, when it comes to the cold uninteresting world of external speakers, JBL seems to be on the same path.

In a world of boring shelf speakers that are as fascinating as the wires that connect them, the JBL Encounter draws people towards it with its innovative tongue-in-cheek design and then lavishes them with deep warm sound. JBL proves once again that they know how to box up a brilliant set of speakers that appear as though they were intended to be fine decor, while at the same time hold nothing back when it comes to pure crisp sound. Where most speakers seem to be designed to be hidden, the Encounter defies you to ignore them. Space Monkeys, prepare for blast off.

Review: JBL Encounter Speakers


methodshop

Labels: gadgets, music, review

The contents of U.S. President George W. Bush's iPod were recently leaked by a White House aide. Many people speculate that someone's musical tastes provide an insight to their personality. So what's the verdict on W based on the Presidential iPod playlists?

It's official, the President jams like the rest of us.

Originally given to him as a birthday gift from his twin daughters last July, George W. and his iPod have become inseparable and reportedly he won't exercise without it. It's not clear if the iPod makes a good "spotter" during weightlifting or not.

The playlists on the Presidential iPod include mostly country music. However several rock tunes make an appearance including Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell, and the Knack. The New York Times reports the iPod contains only about 250 songs, but it has a capacity for 10,000+.

Apparently Bush's iPod isn't alone in the White House. Vice President Dick Cheney was spotted on the set of NBC's news program Meet the Press with a blue iPod Mini. While the music on the President's iPod has been made public, the Vice President has managed to keep the contents of his iPod a closely guarded secret.

It kind of makes you curious. What would Dick Cheney listen to on his iPod? A blogger named Ryan Boudinot speculates that the following playlists might be on Cheney's iPod:

• Classified Light
• Classified Driving Music
• Classified Smooth Jazz
• Ashcroft, Seals and Croft
• Rock and Roll, Probably
• Prehomosexual Elton John
• Now That’s What I Call Music! (Vols. 1-10)
• Republican Party Music
• None of Your F**king Business

So the next time you hear that President Bush is doing something imperative for the safety of the world, picture him and Dick Cheney singing "My Sharona" or hosting an iPod DJ Party.

Is it time to let your PowerBooks and iBooks off-leash?

One of the great luxuries I enjoy is a home that has many stations at which I can charge my PowerBook. The kitchen banquette has an adapter waiting in it, the egg chair in the living room has an adapter swirled beside my beloved Saarinen cocktail table, just raring to go. The adapters have become part of the decor, really. Even my bedroom has an adapter for my PowerBook right on my nightstand. My design friends and visiting PowerBookers love it. My physician blames my insomnia on it.

It's a logical assessment. All things need to rest, including, they say, the battery in your laptop. Tech guru J.D. BIERSDORFER points out that Apple Computer does not recommend leaving the PowerBook plugged in all the time with its lithium-ion battery connected because the internal chemistry can stagnate, which may shorten battery life. Apple advises unplugging the laptop and working from the battery once a month to discharge the stored energy and gets those precious electrons moving.

The company also recommends that you calibrate your laptop's battery every few months. Laptop batteries contain microprocessors that tell the computer how much of a charge is left, but they can get out of sync. This causes the computer to give incorrect information about the charge status. We all have either seen or experienced the laptop that insists it is only 97% charged after days of being plugged in. Well Apple suggests that calibration helps the battery and computer communicate more accurately.


Ashtray,
orchids,
Apple adapter.
Home, sweet home.



Calibrating is easier than falling out of bed. To calibrate the battery, simply start by making sure it is fully charged and showing the green indicator light on the power adapter. Then unplug the power adapter and use the laptop on battery power until the machine goes into Sleep mode. Once it goes to sleep, the battery has been drained and you can connect the power cord and charge it back up. Really it's so easy, you don't have do anything except... to coin a touchy-feely phrase let go.

If you occasionally run the PowerBook from the battery but typically keep it plugged into a power outlet as I do, Apple recommends fully discharging and charging the battery at least once a month. In fact, Apple has a lot of advice on the matter of PowerBook battery care including an iCal reminder that alerts you once a month to calibrate, but sadly, practically nothing on repairing my sleep disorder.

Find yourself in Borders, Starbucks, Kinkos, or hotel rooms wishing you had wireless access to be able to pop open your Apple ibook or powerbook and get online?

Well, with T-mobile HotSpot service, you can! Apple is offering a 30 day trial of T-mobile HotSpot when you sign up for a .Mac account. In addition, you will get 20 free itunes songs as well...If you've been debating getting a .Mac account, now's the time. T-mobile Hot Spot gives you THOUSANDS of hot spot wi-fi points all over the United States, many right outside your front door.

The folks at MacMerc.com have a great Photoshop tutorial on how to create your own transparent desktop illusion. You basically just need to change your computer's desktop picture of whatever is behind your screen. When done properly, it will appear as if you can see right through your monitor.

You can see other people's desktop illusions at the following links:

• Boing Boing
• Gizmodo
• Engadget
  

You don't have to be Gwyneth Paltrow to want to love and protect your baby Apple.

Carl Sagan once said "they laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers, but they also laughed at Bozo the Clown," suggesting that genius is an elite and hard to discern group.

Years later, in a seemingly unrelated story, after the first prolific seeds of Apple's retail store was planted, CEO Steve Jobs and several colleagues flew to it's D.C. location and moseyed up to the very first Genius Bar. It was described as being the place where perplexed Mac owners could pull up a stool, lean on the bar, and spill their woes to the nodding guru, or "genius." With a smile, the genius, Apple said, will sort through technical problems and find an answer. And for truly baffling troubles, a red "hot line" phone, a concept borrowed from the Batman television series, connects the genius to higher-level geniuses at Apple's headquarters.

However, a short four years later, the Apple retail stores have flourished but the "red hot lines" concept seems to have dried up leaving only the geniuses to guru up the solutions. Sure it's free, but is the Genius Bar the smartest way to get Apple Care?

One Mac enthusiast chronicles the journey from sick Apple to resurrection.

Here's her Genius Bar story...

This week's free iTunes download, "One Evening," is from Canadian-born singer/songwriter Feist's upcoming debut album Let It Die. Feist wraps sticky-sweet pop production and Brill building-era hooks around early-folk-style storytelling. The result is a fresh and funky neo doo-wop/post-disco sound with spare pop arrangements. "One Evening" tells the tale of an entire relationship that happened over the course of, well, one evening.

Download the free song here:

Are you getting ready to upgrade your Mac to OS X 10.4 Tiger?

Amazon.com is offering a special $35 mail-in rebate to all residents in the US. Amazon is currently selling Tiger for $129.99. In case you haven't had your morning cup of coffee yet today, that's $94.99 after the rebate.

No offical release date has been by Apple but it should be released before Summer. Amazon is also offering free shipping for this item. So you might as well save yourself a little cash.

The offer is only valid until May 31, 2005.

Sci Fi channel is the first TV network to offer original content via podcast with Exec Producer feeding fans inside scoops.

In an unprecedented move, SciFi.com has been offering fans of its new hit series Battlestar Galactica "podcasts." This DVD-style audio commentary from 'Battlestar' executive producer and writer Ronald D. Moore utilizes the much buzzed-about podcasting technology, and is now available for weekly download at SciFi.com.

The exclusive five-week event has been providing cool scoops straight from the hit series creator Moore – and has given viewers an insider-only look into the final five episodes leading up the season's dramatic conclusion on April 1 (tonight). 'Battlestar Galactica,' currently the highest-rated series on SciFi Channel, has attracted unprecedented critical acclaim since its debut in January. Moore has already become a popular presence on the SciFi.com site for his weekly "blog" musings.

For the uninitiated, "podcasting" is an evolution of technology popularly associated with Apple's portable digital audio player, the iPod, and traditional broadcasting. It offers downloadable audio content (i.e. "radio" programs), which listeners can play on ANY MP3 player at their leisure. The event is part of SciFi's commitment to exploring imagination in its programming as well as in viewer-based offerings. Building on this tradition, SciFi is the very first known television network to create an original podcast based on a dramatic series.

Season 2 of the series will premiere on SciFi in July.

Listen to Moore's podcast on your computer; no portable MP3 player is necessary:
http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/downloads/podcast/mp3/109/bsg_ep109_FULL.mp3

Battlestar Gallactica Podcasts

Canadian alt-country singer Kathleen Edwards shines on her sophomore album, Back to Me. The title track is this week's free Single of the Week. You can download the free single "Back to Me" from the iTunes Music Store this week.

Download the free song here: