The MacTrack – iPhone, iPod, iPod Touch and Mac News

BBC releases iPlayer for Mac and Linux
by Mark Hattersley, Macworld UK

Note: The following article is reprinted from Macworld UK. Visit Macworld U.K.’s blog page for the latest Mac news from across the Atlantic.

The BBC has announced that a version of its iPlayer application for Mac and Linux operating systems is now available for download by Mac users in the U.K.

The BBC has worked with Adobe to develop a cross-platform version of its BBC iPlayer Desktop application; the new version of iPlayer uses Adobe Air technology to enable cross-platform support. iPlayer is the BBC’s online media player that enables viewers to watch television programmes online up to seven days after they have been broadcast.

While Mac users have been able to watch iPlayer content via the BBC iPlayer Web site, the new application enables them to download shows and store them locally on their computer.

Users looking to download the new iPlayer Desktop application can get a trial version from the Labs section of the iPlayer site. The BBC news site claims that a finished version is likely to be released in February 2009.

When iPlayer was fist launched, the BBC was heavily criticised by both the Mac and Linux communities for creating a program that only worked with Microsoft Windows XP. The Windows version of iPlayer uses Microsoft’s Digital Rights Management (DRM) to ensure that television programmes can not be watched after seven days.

Speaking to the BBC news Web site, the BBC’s head of digital media Anthony Rose defended the BBC’s adoption of DRM technology saying: “The BBC Trust said we could make content available for seven or 30 days after broadcast,” he said. “The ability to take things away after some time requires DRM.”

BBC iPlayer now uses three DRM technologies: Windows Media Player, Adobe Air and OMA for mobile devices. The BBC also enables media to be streamed (but not downloaded) to the iPhone in using Apple’s H.264 codec. Because Apple does not share its FairPlay DRM with other companies the BBC has had to use Adobe Air to enable DRM content to be downloaded to the Mac. Because the iPhone does not support Adobe Flash, a version of BBC iPlayer for iPhone would seem to be still some way away.

“We may embrace other DRMs as needed,” said Mr. Rose. The BBC news site also noted that putting the iPlayer on phones, game consoles and more computers was helping to drive the success of the application.

The BBC iPlayer service is only available to users with a IP address located within the United Kingdom.

via BBC releases iPlayer for Mac and Linux | Macworld.

Does your Mac wake-up at the same time each day regardless of the energy saving settings?  Mine did, until I found this fix (below).  The latest Software Update patch also fixes this issue.

Mac OS X 10.5: Computer starts up unexpectedly at the same time each day

* Last Modified: September 15, 2008

* Article: TS1831

Symptoms

In Mac OS X 10.5 through 10.5.4, your Mac may start up unexpectedly each day (at midnight UTC/GMT) even if it is not scheduled to start up in Energy Saver preferences in System Preferences.

The local time when the computer may start up will vary depending on which time zone you are located in and whether or not daylight savings time is being observed. For example: Midnight UTC/GMT may be 5 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) or 7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST).

This could happen after upgrading from Mac OS X 10.4 to Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.

Products Affected

Mac OS X 10.5

Resolution

Download and install Mac OS X 10.5.5 or later.

Additional Information

If you’re not ready to update to Mac OS X 10.5.5 or later, you can use this workaround:

1. Choose Go to Folder from the Finder’s Go menu

2. Type or paste the following, then press Return:

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/

3. In the SystemConfiguration folder, locate and delete the file named “com.apple.AutoWake.plist”

Your computer should no longer start up at midnight UTC/GMT (unless you later add a scheduled event in Energy Saver preferences).

Tip: If you need to schedule your Mac to sleep, restart, or shut down at a specific time, you should also schedule it to wake or start up at a time when the computer is likely to already be powered on. For example, if you need the computer to shut down every day at 6:00 PM, you could schedule it to wake or start up at 5:55 PM. The computer will not start up at midnight UTC/GMT on any days, as long as it is scheduled to start up or wake at some other time at least one day a week.

Mac OS X 10.5: Computer starts up unexpectedly at the same time each day

Need to rate your iTunes music tracks?  Don’t want to interrupt your current activity by switching to iTunes?  You need I Love Stars

This neat little application sits on the menu bar and allows you to set the iTunes star rating of the track currently playing.  You can do this either by clicking on the appropriate star or, even nicer, the application is mouse scroll-wheel aware so you can simply roll the wheel whilst hovering over the application’s display in the menu bar.

If you right-click on it you can see the current track name and album.

Oh, did I mention?  It’s FREE

Also worth looking at is another, more feature-rich, free application: You Control: iTunes

If you want a quick and simple, no fuss rating tool you be hard pressed to find better than I Love Stars.

It occurred to me today that many people who are new to Apple Macs, MacBooks, iMacs and the Apple Air may struggle getting their mouse to behave as they wish.  By default the right button/right-click is not configured.  This dates back from when the Apple mouse only had one button.

A two button (usually more) mouse is now a standard feature but the Apple system preferences don’t account for this.

So, to activate your right mouse button so that you can right-click on an item simply go to System Preferences, the icon looks like this:

Click on the Keyboard and Mouse icon:

Read the rest of this entry »

A useful summary, via the Apple support website, of extra features of the Apple Mac OS X’s dock, and modifier keys that help you manipulate it.

Luxembourg, Europe – Houdah Software is proud to announce a major update to HoudahSpot, their popular file search utility for Mac OS X. HoudahSpot 2.2 is a free update. and is a recommended update for all Leopard users.

HoudahSpot 2.2 introduces a completely rewritten BlitzSearch feature. BlitzSearch combines the simplicity of Spotlight with the power of HoudahSpot. When called upon, the BlitzSearch window slides out of the top of the screen. You may now enter a search string, opt to search by file name, text contents or Spotlight comments, as well as pick a template to apply.

BlitzSearch takes care of creating your HoudahSpot query. This opens a world of possibilities: additional criteria, countless columns to choose from, custom sort order, file name or path filters …

HoudahSpot 2.2 also brings enhanced AppleScript support. Not only may your scripts call upon BlitzSearch, they also get access to search results as well as to the current selection.

HoudahSpot 2.2 integrates well LaunchBar, QuickSilver and PathFinder. The use of AppleScript, custom URL

Read the rest of this entry »

Walnut Creek, California – net4mac is a social network built exclusively for Mac users. In order to become a part of the community and use all its features, users need to download an innovative application designed for Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. Today, we are launching version 1.5 with many improvements.

The net4mac application allows you to:

* Create an account and login to the service (internet connexion required)
* Create your profile including your location, job, activities, skills and the type of Macs, iPhone, iPod, etc. that you own.
* Add friends to your profile and manage them (remember, the service is only for Mac users)
* Contact members, send invitations to join the community, and manage your messages
* Create your own groups of interest and invite friends to join them (people using the same application, in your same location, sharing the same passions, etc)
* Browse and join groups you find interesting – share discussions, events and more
* Create events and invite Mac users (this is useful if you want to announce the presentation of a product / service, etc)
* Search members using different of criteria (for example, you can find people that use the same Mac or software)
* Discover people around you (other Mac users in your neighborhood)
* And many more functions

There are many good reasons to use an application instead of a website:

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been using Parallels desktop for a few weeks now and here are my inital impressions.

From the first moment of loading the install package I’ve been really impressed by Parallels implementation of co-hosting Windows on my Mac. From the beginning of the windows install everything has gone smoothly and without any incidents.

I choose ‘Express Install’, ‘Windows XP‘. I was prompted for my windows license key and install disk (it has to be a Service Pack 2 build – see this page for details on how to upgrade your install disk from SP1 to SP2). Parallels handled the windows install from this point onwards performing a quick and efficicent unattended install of Windows XP (no user intervention needed). After a couple of the windows instance restarts (part of the usual Windows rigmarole) I had a brand new clean windows desktop within a Mac application window.

Interestingly, of the many numerous installs I’ve done of Windows (must be well in excess of 100) this was the fastest and smoothest I’ve ever encountered.

Parallels Desktops allow you to run Windows in 3 modes:

Read the rest of this entry »

San Jose, CA – app4mac today released CheckUp 1.2, a new update to the innovative tool that allows you to check the health and monitor the behavior of a Mac computer (even from a remote computer). Built from the ground up with Mac OS X technologies, CheckUp features an amazing user interface. CheckUp works with any Mac with a PowerPC G4, G5 or Intel Processor.

CheckUp is first designed to monitor the usage of CPU, Memory, Disk Drives and Network Adapters. You can display detailed information about all running processes and pause or terminate these at any time. By adding rules that will be triggered when certain conditions are met for a specified resource on the computer, you can receive visual notifications.

For example, CheckUp can alert you when a certain resource exceeds a certain value or when a hard drive seems to have hardware failures, even when the application is not opened (thanks to an innovative background process and the use of S.M.A.R.T technology). CheckUp can also help you to determine if your computer is able to run Mac OS X Leopard or determine if your computer have enough memory to run all your Applications at the same time.

The graphical user interface is designed with a top priority on high usability in mind. Unlike other competing

Read the rest of this entry »

Portland, Oregon – You Software has announced the immediate availability of You Control 1.7, the award-winning utility for creating custom menus on the Mac. This update introduces improvements for better support of iCal on Leopard, as well as a number of enhancements and fixes for other modules in You Control. The Calendar module is one of 19 modules included with You Control. You Control modules are the building blocks that allow users to create a wide variety of custom menus, with all kinds of information directly available from the menu bar.

The Calendar module provides quick access to all of the user’s iCal calendars. New in version 1.7 is support for iCal calendars served via a CalDAV server (such as the iCal Server on Mac OS X Server). This version also improves the handling of To Dos created in Leopard’s Mail application and provides general performance improvements.

In addition to the Calendar module changes, several other modules have also been updated based on user feedback. Highlights include:

* Improved compatibility for RSS feeds in the News Reader module
* Support for Microsoft Word 2008 in the Fonts module (when used in conjunction with You Control: Fonts)
* Minor fixes and enhancements in the Clock, Weather, and iTunes modules

We recommend that all You Control users running Mac OS X 10.4 and higher update to this version.

You Control: Fonts 1.3.1, You Control: Tunes 1.7 Also Released
In conjunction with the release of You Control, both You Control: Fonts and You Control: Tunes have been released with updates introduced in You Control 1.7. You Control: Fonts introduces support for Microsoft Word 2008, allowing simple, consistent font selection in this popular word processor.

About You Control:
You Control is a powerful utility for creating custom menus that extend the functionality and usability of your Mac. You can place your user-created menus in a variety of locations, including the Menu Bar, any corner of your monitor screen, or you can pop your custom menus up anywhere on the screen using key commands you specify.

You Control is loaded with time saving tools that make working with OS X better, faster and easier. In addition to taking control of iTunes, you can create custom menus that allow you easy and instant access to your Address Book Contacts, iCal events, news, stocks, weather and any file or folder on your Mac.

Pricing and Availability:
You Control 1.7 is a free upgrade to registered users and is compatible with both Mac OS X Tiger (10.4) and

Read the rest of this entry »

Does your iTunes library need some TLC, attention, cleaning, sorting out and general first aid?  I know mine certainly does, so I was really excited to learn of a potentially great new utility called ‘TuneUp‘, from TuneUpMedia, the features of which are:

Your music collection is a mess. TuneUp fixes it:

• Automatically clean your mislabelled music
• Find your missing cover art
• Be alerted to upcoming concerts based on your collection
• Get the best music content from the web.

Find your missing cover art.

• Automatically search for missing cover art
• Choose from multiple album covers
• No more grey music notes
• Bring sexy back to your iPhone and iPod

Currently only available for Windows users (boo!) but soon to released for Mac users as well (hurrah!).  You can sign-up for a notification when TuneUp is available for the Mac at the TuneUp website or by clicking here.

TuneUp comment about the availablity for the Mac on their blog:

Read the rest of this entry »

If you’d like to keep one particular website separate, in it’s own window and in effect turn it into a mini application then take a look at a free program called Fluid.

Simple to set-up, all that’s required is the web address and you can then create a site specific browser:

Save it on your desktop (or wherever you wish) and you’ve now got an icon for the web site of your choice.

Sometimes is useful to keep sites in their place and locked to one window rather than loosing them in amongst many tabs.  For example, keep eBay, Facebook, or the BBC News web site in their own window allowing them to be located quickly, easily and efficiently.

Perhaps a niche application but a useful one nonetheless.

Hutto, Texas – Macgamestore today announced the release of Jewel Quest III, the next installment in the extremely popular Jewel Quest series. The game is published by iWin.

Read the rest of this entry »

Washington, DC – KavaSoft today released KavaTunes 3.2, the web jukebox for iTunes. KavaTunes makes websites that look and work just like iTunes, so you can browse, search and play your music from any web browser. KavaTunes features continuous playback, so you can queue up an album or playlist and listen to one song after another.

KavaTunes can add album artwork to your music library, and includes artwork in the catalog. KavaTunes can also create web catalogs that look and work just like an iPod. Visitors can browse and play your music using the familiar iPod clickwheel interface.

Read the rest of this entry »

In my system console log I noticed errors connected with Apple‘s built-in updating routines, and over in Apple’s discussion forum I had a thread describing the problem I was having with the Software Update process. I’m posting details of this issue here in case it proves helpful to others.

Symptoms included errors in the log reading:

• Package Authoring Error: installation-check results requires a message
• JavaScript error “Undefined value” while running “__choice_su_visible”
• __choice_su_visible returned error: Undefined value

At the same time updates that my Mac may have needed were not downloading automatically. It looked like Software Update had failed. Read the rest of this entry »

Occasionally, when using iTunes (if iTunes has previously crashed), I come across a fault: iTunes won’t quit, it just reloads itself each time I try to close it. This issue also prevents my Mac from restarting/rebooting unless I do a quick and dirty cold restart (either using the 10s power button method or dropping to a terminal window and issuing a ‘sudo shutdown -r now‘ terminal command).

Further investigations have discovered that the SRS Labs iWow plug-in (see my previous post) is to blame:

Here is some background

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If you want to enhance your iTunes audio, for a modest outlay, I thoroughly recommend iWoW by SRS Labs.

This iTunes plug-in gives much deeper and richer bass, and a fully immersive surround sound quality to your music.

At $29.99 it’s worth every cent (or for me in the UK, every penny). Try the free 14 day trial. You’ll never be satisfied with iTunes’ plain vanilla audio again!

The plug-in processes audio in realtime so your actual tracks remain intact and unchanged.

One particularly good feature is it’s Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re interested in learning about UNIX for the Mac OS X, or perhaps you occasionally need to open a terminal window to force a system restart, or maybe to kill a hung process (for example to restart the Dock) then a good place to begin is osxfaq and it’s UNIX tutorials.

Another good website to look at is MacRumors:Guides and it’s Terminal Commands Guide where you can learn about the delights of sudo and killall (for starters).

Remember: Terminal commands have the potential to be very powerful and wide-ranging, please use them with caution.

I thought I’d share a little utility that I use on a daily basis but would be lost without, in fact I don’t really consider it an add-in as it’s used so much. You Control: iTunes gives you full control over iTunes from the menu bar. There are many utilities that can do this but where this one excels, for me anyway, is the ability to rate a song directly from the menu bar without having to switch back to iTunes.

I can already control track playback with my Apple keyboard but was frustrated that firstly, most of my tracks remain un-rated and secondly, to rate a track I had to interrupt what I was currently doing and switch back to iTunes (hence the reason for most of my tracks being un-rated).

The interface to You Control: iTunes is highly configurable allowing you to show as much or as little of the controls as you wish.

Scrolling track and album details can be shown in the menu bar, either Read the rest of this entry »

The excellent free RSS news feed reader Newsfire has been updated with a minor bug fix release [now v1.5 (73)]. Flickr images in news articles are now displaying correctly 100% of the time.

Newsfire is a great feed reader for Apple Macs. If you are looking for a reader for your RSS feeds you should look at Newsfire. It’s extremely fast and works smoothly and without error.