Boyzone star hosts Virgin iPod bash Last week Ronan Keating launched the iPod Advent campaign at Oxford Street's Virgin Megastore, where an iPod will play continuous music until Chrimbo Eve. The squeaky clean one said, "My iPod has become my travelling companion - it goes with me absolutely everywhere. The title of my new album, Turn It On is the perfect song to start iPod Advent." Err. Well, I could reel off thousands more suitable, Ronan. Let's just hope they forgot to upload your back catalogue to the iPod before they plugged it in. Hang on. The whole thing is being supported by NME! Couldn't they get any indie bands to appear instead?! I guess they have to market the grannies somehow.

Security Update 2003-11-19
"Includes the following updated components: gm4, groff, Mail w/CRAM-MD5 authentication, OpenSSL, Personal File Sharing, QuickTime for Java, zlib “gzprintf()” function.". 40Megs mind.

Pictures: ©Apple

Java 1.4.1 Update!
This "adds the following enhancements:
- Improved Java applet support for Safari and other web browsers that support the Java Internet Plug-In.
- Improved drawing correctness and performance.
- Support for AWT headless mode.
- Changes to Java 1.3.1 that provide support for Oracle 11i client applications on Mac OS X.
- Improved stability, memory usage, and correctness."

Pictures: ©Apple

MacExpo 2004. Well it was a miserable day, weather wise and the Rugby World Cup had just kicked off as I was ironing a MacBore transfer on to a T-shirt in preparation for my visit to the Expo in Islington. It was getting late in the morning and the damn thing would take to the cotton. I ended up melting the transfer. Oh well, it was already 10am and I was due to meet fellow MacBore, Neill at Angel that morning. It didn't help with me living thirty miles outside of London, so I decided to ditch the fan boy T-shirts and head off. Fifty minutes later I was walking through Angel tube, being bombarded with iPod posters from every angle (it's surely the most wanted gift this Christmas).
So after finding my Mac buddy, we entered the BDC using our free pre-booked passes. Apparently, you could get in free if you had an iPod, as I was wearing mine, I got in free twice (well sort of). The place was packed and it only took five minutes before Neill was handed his first freebie - a Contour Hockey Puck Mouse Converter.
My Expo mission was to find a copy of Mac OS X Panther for as cheap as possible and, perhaps, a bargain basement Wacom tablet. After a quick scout around I discovered that most of the real bargains were to be found at Gasteiner Technology's stand - Panther for £85 and a 60GB IDE Drive (for my mate and work partner, Steve) at only £50 and that's both with no tax! (don't tell the tax man). Publishers Highbury Paragon were giving away iCreate and Digital Creative Arts Magazines for free, in exchange for your details. Disappointingly, there weren't any raffles. These are always a sure way of leaving with something worthwhile. Last year I won a MacAlly AirStick, not down to luck but down to the fact that most entrants hadn't returned at 5pm for the draw. Even more disappointingly, a few stands were selling iTrips (still illegal in the UK) for as little as £30 - a day after I had won one on Ebay for £45! Gutting. I convinced Neill to buy one at such a good price, even though he technically doesn't have an iPod (his 1st gen. died).
After about three hours, the noisy atmosphere and nerds we're getting to Neill and if I'd have stayed any longer I would've spent too much on stuff I didn't need. I'd liked to have seen the music thing that Kiss fm were laying on but we'd already had our coats on and our hands on the exit doors as it was about to start. Otherwise a good day had by all.
Neill got the bargain of the day.
I'm Panthered-up.
And Steve got 60 gigs more drive space in his Blue & White G3 and a mouse he can use (yes he ended up with the Contour freebie). Lucky him!

MacExpo has started! I'll be there on Saturday and I can't wait to get my hands on all those Mac goodies. Hopefully, I'll be able to find someone selling Panther for less than £99. Or perhaps a cheap old, pre-G3 PowerBook with a CD drive?(I've been searching eBay for a while now). Or a discounted Wacom drawing thingy? Macworld and MacUser have lots of pics to whet your appetite. Lovely-jubbley.

Today (out of the blue) Apple brought a 20 inch, 1.25 GHz G4 iMac. The iMac is now encroaching on lounge TV territory. Chuck out your telly and buy one of these beauties along with something like EyeTV and you can throw away your video as well. Yes, it would cost a bit more than a TV and TiVo (or Sky+), but you could watch TV on any other Mac in you house through a wireless network. Now that would impress the neighbours. Especially if they could hook up to your network too.
Imagine the possibilities.

Pictures: ©Apple

Hey, They've even pumped up the G5 Powermac. You can now get a dual processors running at 1.8 and 2GHz. (Don't tell my mate Neill, though. He bought one last week).

Update!
Bluetooth has been updated to version 1.4.1 for OS X 10.3 and 1.3.3 for OS X 10.2. It adds increased stability and performance. Which means it works with more phones. Like my brand new Sony Ericsson T610. Groovy.

Pictures: ©Apple

NO SLEEP 'TIL BEDTIME! Last weeks Guardian Online interviewed Tony Hawks. No, not the skater dude but the funny man/novelist/rap icon uses a G4 PowerBook and other Macs on AirPort broadband. Sounds like a nice setup, Tony. He runs a few websites too: Tony-Hawks.com for his books and TennisForFree - a fight for the improvement of public tennis courts. I'm in the middle of reading one of his books at this very moment, One Hit Wonderland, where after a drunken bet, he virtually tours the world to find a way of reliving past glories of being top of the hit parade. He was the brains behind the Morris Minor and the Majors' hit 'Stutter Rap'. If you haven't heard it (or can't remember it) you must download it . Altogether..."He was gonna throw a bottle, he was gonna chuck a can. Chukka Can." A Classic!

There's an especially nerdy issue of Macworld Plus out. Even though (as with all editions of MacWorld this side of the pond) it's written for yanks, there's shed-loads of filthy Mac Porn to keep you happy on a cold, lonely night. From Applescripts to Linux command lines and two discs full of utilities, you'll be busy for hours.

Fuckin' Posers! The Jason Nevins' Classic Club Blaster Remix of N.e.r.d.'s Rock Star is the chosen track on the new iPod telly ad in the US.
...and I've got mine back from Amsterdam today! Hopefully this one will work properly (third time lucky and all that).
NB: The above insult is a lyric from the song. No offence intended.

How can you annoy a die-hard PC user? Let him experience how easy using a Mac really is. Stuart Miles, who's been using Windows since Windows began, agreed to use a Mac with Panther as part of a report in The Times. Not surprisingly, he quite enjoyed it. "What makes it worse is that after only three hours of using Apple’s latest operating system, 10.3, I started to wonder if I should have made the change years ago". The Mac connected to his PC better than his Windows laptop does, and losing track of open windows, the only past annoyance he used to have with Macs, has vanished with the introduction of Exposé.
Nigel Kendall, who was given a PC for a week, pleaded for the return of his Mac at the end of it all. Surprise, surprise.
What was the PC user's only reason for not becoming a Switcher? He thought he was "too far gone" with his current choice. A feeble excuse if you ask me. If only he'd seen the light sooner.

Virgin Megastores now stock iPods.

iTunes wins TIME Magazine's Invention of the Year.TIME Magazine: Coolest Inventions 2003, Apple Music Store

Panther Update.
"The 10.3.1 Update delivers enhanced functionality and improved reliability for the following applications, services and technologies: FileVault, Printing, WebDav, and FireWire 800 drives. This update also includes the latest Security Updates."
Well, that should sort things out. It's only 1.3 MB in size, so best download it before any more damage is done.

Pictures: ©Apple

iPodding has hit East London. noWax night (d'you see what they've done? noWax, moWax?) at DreambagsJaguarshoes, on Kingsland Road lets aspiring jockeys to 'set the floor alight' karaoke style. Well it saves them carrying their decks and vinyl to each gig (imagine carting around 10,000 12 inches). To be come a superstar DJ , just take your iPods along, put your name down, wait for your number to flash up and up you get. Just remember to take a load of mates along who are on your wavelength (something I learned when I deejayed with Dean 'Decks' Taylor at Club X, High Wycombe in my student days). One problem though, how the hell do you cue and mix tracks on an iPod?
Realistically, who'd want to go to a club where the music was a geek's free for all? And no pitch control means no seamless mixes. Now that's the equivalent of a disco at a wedding...out of town..somewhere in the early 80s. Read more at Method Shop.

Boring Mac Fact:
The Apple PowerBook 100 (introduced in October '91) was codesigned with Sony.

There's a poster for the iPod at my train station. It's there as you step onto platform 4 (for trains to Euston). There with it's bright colour and cool iPod using dancing silhouette. Did someone put it there just to piss me off (even more) in the morning? Did they check their books before the media space was booked? "Hold that six-sheet. There's a customer who still hasn't has his broken Pod fixed, even though he sent it away in September. Better not stick it where he'll be reminded of his misfortune every working day". You see I sent my replacement iPod, with the dud , back weeks ago. I need music in the morning. How else do I cope with Silverlink Trains' ineptness? I may write a letter to the Advertising Standards Authority. Yeah. That'll teach a lesson they won't forget. Heartless Barstards.
Oh for crying out loud! There's three more posters on my cycle route from Euston to work aswell!
If you need any more reasons not to buy an iPod, have a butchers at this: MP3 Insider - CNET reviews

Apple .Mac members can download Backup 2. You can now schedule your backups to iPods and more third-party drives, burners, even folders. You can also mix the media in a single backup set. The result makes backing-up a whole lot easier. A less significant change to Backup is that the umbrella icon is now purple.

Picture: ©Apple

Firewire Disk problems? Filevault too? Oh dear!
Yahoo! News - FileVault problems continue Apple's OS woes