Apple Store's One Day Shopping Event set for this Friday

I asked the new Apple Store chat device what sort of discounts there would be but they couldn't divulge any info at the time. If you're planning on buying from the Apple Store, save yourself until Friday. The discounts are never huge but, in the words of Tesco, every little helps.

Clever New Online 'Get a Mac' ads appear.

I saw this on Macworld. 'Clever use of the medium' is how they would describe it in adland. When I (mistakenly) advised my Mother in Law to buy a cheap Dell (I'm sorry) and was setting it up, I found a new name for my pain - Vista. I should have told her to spend the extra money on a Mac mini. Actually, Vista is so bad that when Ruth at work queried me on a good cheap laptop (she's a XP user but only for MS Office and gets through iPods like matchboxes), I told her to bite the bullet and get a MacBook. If she'd bought a £399 laptop with Vista, she'd hate me forever.

New Mary J Blige iPod Ad.

Here's a new iPod ad featuring soul/rap diva Mary J Blige advertising her new album Work That. Very Christmassy.

Leopard's been updated to 10.5.1

The new Mac OS has been updated to 10.5.1. This means that all the major bugs have been ironed out so there's no reason not to buy it. Well, it is coming up to Christmas and you're probably short of cash, but you can stick it on your wish list. I think I'll wait a while. I'd rather put the £80 towards a iPod touch (I had a fiddle with one the other day and suffered from jealous spasms).

Price cut on Final Cut Express 4

The new version of Final Cut Express 4 is out today and it's only £129.

Apple’s powerful moviemaking package now supports the latest AVCHD cameras, features an open format Timeline, provides iMovie ’08 compatibility, and offers sophisticated effects and filters.

Offering plenty of creative options, Final Cut Express 4 lets you edit footage captured in the most popular formats — including AVCHD.* Simply connect your camcorder to your Mac, preview and select the AVCHD clips you’d like to import, and start editing your video.

No need to worry about formats, frame rates, or conversions. Final Cut Express 4 provides an open format Timeline that handily accommodates DV (both NTSC and PAL) and HD footage simultaneously and in real time. Just drop video into the Timeline and edit away.

With iMovie ’08, putting together a great movie is as quick as drag and drop. When you want to add professional polish to your project, simply export to Final Cut Express 4 and edit like a pro.

Add cinematic looks to your project with an expansive library of professional-quality transitions and filters and experiment with over 50 brand-new video effects, including Soft Focus, Vignette, Light Rays, and Line Art.

The new Zunes look quite nice, don't they?

Just to prove to you that I'm not a complete Microsoft hater (I ditched the Apple mouse for a MS trackball years ago) I have to say that I do like the look of the new Zunes. Even though they don't work with Macs and aren't touchy-screeny yet, they do have nice big screens and look much more stylish that the original - which still looks like a rejected iPod design. And whereas iPod have a mirrored finish on the back, Zunes are brushed which stops them getting covered in greasy fingerprints and scratches. I'm sure Apple have kept their iPod backs shiny for a reason - they'll always look tatty by the time a new one comes along.

Mac OS X 10.4.11 Update

Old Tiger has been updated to version 10.4.11. Hopefully making it the most stable and secure version of the pre-Leopard system, so the Apple programmers can safely put this one to bed and concentrate on perfecting 10.5. There's a long list of modifications that include the new version of Safari.

Modification Details:

Includes Safari 3

Adds RAW image decoding support for the following cameras: Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ50, Leica V-Lux 1, Olympus E-400, Olympus EVOLT E410, Olympus EVOLT E510, Canon EOS 40D

Improves compatibility when using OpenType fonts in QuarkExpress

Improves reliability when running VMWARE's Fusion

Improves support for using Image Capture to import pictures taken on your iPhone

Improves syncing between iPhone and Yahoo! address books

Addresses an issue copying files from a Mac OS 9 AFP sharepoint

Improved reliability advertising an AFP sharepoint over Bonjour

Addresses an issue which could prevent the use of port mapping when sharing your Mac's internet connection

Improves reliability when trying to authenticate to an AFP share using Kerberos

Improves compatibility with third-party wireless wide-area network devices

Improves reliability when mounting external USB hard drives.

Adds support for Microsoft Presenter Mouse 8000

Addresses an issue in which selecting two rows of album art within the iTunes artwork Screen Saver may cause System Preferences to unexpectedly quit

Includes updated Daylight Saving Time information for customers in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States state of Indiana

Allows the use of the special keys on aluminum Apple Keyboards to control Aperture slideshows

Addresses an issue in which help content for some applications may be displayed in English when using the computer in another Mac OS X language

Addresses issues with certain Apple Dashboard widgets: Unit Converter, Calculator, Stocks

Includes recent Apple security updates

Can you wait until after Christmas for a new Apple laptop?

AppleInsider have reason to believe that the recently mooted ultra-thin MacBook is ready to be unveiled at MacWorld Expo SF in January. It's form-factor is "approximately 50 percent lighter and strikingly slimmer than the company's current 15-inch professional MacBook Pro offering. In achieving this smaller notebook footprint, Apple has reportedly adopted design cues that fall in line with the minimalist nature of its chief executive, including a bold move to omit a traditional optical disc drive from the aluminum-clad systems." They're saying that it won't even have a spinning hard drive now that Samsung's NAND flash memory goes up to as much as 64GB.

Dell use JamPack sample in teaser ad.

Somebody on the Engadget site has noticed that the soundtrack for a new Dell XPS One ad uses one of Apple's loops from a GarageBand JamPack. 'Contemplative Synth 01'in fact.
End of the PC as you know it? They're talking about the iMac, aren't they? It does look like an iMac from what I can see of it.

Actually, looking at the leaked photos it really is horrible...


Unlike the Gateway One (why the same name?) which does look like it could give the iMac a run for it's money...on looks, not OS, obviously.

What is up with My iTunes?

That's it. I've had enough. Either Apple make the My iTunes widgets work all of the time or I'm not going to use them. They didn't really work that well in the first place. I'm deleting them today. They're messing up my blog!

Stuff.tv at the iPhone launch event.

You can watch UK Flagship Apple Store event on Stuffs podcast in iTunes here.
I've just been into my nearest O2 shop to see the thing and I have to say that it is quite large for a mobile. C'mon Apple, where's that iPhone nano that we've been rumouring about?

New iPod touch ad.

We may see this ad in the UK before Christmas - once the hoohah surrounding the iPhone has died down. The track is Music is my Hot Hot Sex (ooh-err) by CCS.

Photos from Regent Street

Andrew Nesbitt, a Developer and Designer is documenting the iPhone queue in Regent Street on his Flickr page. You can also nose at the photos of his new flat, a peace protest and some flowers. Lovely.

iPod touch update adds calendar editing

MacUser have reported that calendar editing has returned to the iPod touch. Steve Jobs showed us all how to do it when the touch was unveiled, but once it arrived in the shops, the function had disappeared. The firmware update downloads in iTunes.

Synchronize watches: 6:02pm is iPhone time!

Is there really a queue for the iPhone?

There have been some news reports that a queue has formed outside the Regent Street Apple Store. Well this Flickr photo tells a different story.

Apple bumps MacBooks to Santa Rosa

AppleInsider has seen that Apple updated it's laptops this morning. Here are the details:

2.0GHz 13-inch MacBook (white)

* 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
* 1GB memory
* 80GB hard drive
* Intel GMA X3100 w/ 144MB of DDR2 SDRAM
* Combo drive

2.2GHz 13-inch MacBook (white)

* 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
* 1GB memory
* 120GB hard drive
* Intel GMA X3100 w/ 144MB of DDR2 SDRAM
* Double-layer SuperDrive

2.2GHz 13-inch MacBook (black)

* 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
* 1GB memory
* 160GB hard drive
* Intel GMA X3100 w/ 144MB of DDR2 SDRAM
* Double-layer SuperDrive

At the same time, Apple also began offering customers the ability to upgrade its 15- and 17-inch MacBook Pro notebooks with a 2.6GHz Core 2 Duo chip and 250GB Serial ATA Drive.