Friday October 3rd, 2008
Site Last Updated: [8:00 PM EDT]

[Column] Free on iTunes - Dogs, SIMs, Free TV and More

Talking dogs, hunting evil clones, and searching for more free stuff at the iTunes Store. Sounds like a normal weekend at Vern Seward's house, and just like every week, he's sharing it with everyone.

[5:25 PM EDT] Digidesign Announces ProTools 8: New Interface & Features

Digidesign announced Friday ProTools 8, previewing the major upgrade to the company's signature line of digital recording software at AES. ProTools 8 includes a new interface with several new interface options, fully-integrated MIDI and score editors, new editing features, and 70 plug-ins and virtual instruments.

[5:10 PM EDT] StrangeCharm - Particle Debris (Week ending Oct 3)

This week's debris was full of juicy side items that we need to catch up on: Watching high definition TV, Stallman's slam on cloud computing, a change in thinking about work environments, the World Computer Chess Championship, amateurs at work, buying or manipulating Apple stock and more.

[3:40 PM EDT] ChangeWave Survey Shows Slight Slowing in Mac Sales

A ChangeWave Research survey, published on Thursday, asked its members about their Mac purchases in the last 90 days, and there was only a slight dip in September. Going forward, the dip is a bit more pronounced.

[2:35 PM EDT] iPodObserver - Researcher Fed Up, Reveals iPhone Vulnerabilities

Back in July, Aviv Raff, told Apple about two iPhone issues that he considered to be vulnerabilities. Updates 2.0.1, 2.0.2. and 2.1 came and went with no fix, so Mr. Raff went public with the details.

[1:20 PM EDT] iPodObserver - iPhone Backs into Success Against Kindle

The iPhone is getting to be a popular book reading platform, perhaps by accident, according to Forbes on Thursday. The popular book reading app, Stanza, already has 395,000 downloads and is gaining at 5,000 per day. That's more than the 380,000 Kindles expected to sell in all of 2008.

[1:10 PM EDT] Lacquer Intros Conduit for Flash Pixel Bender

Lacquer announced the immediate availability of Conduit for Flash Pixel Bender on Friday. Conduit is a visual tool for creating Pixel Bender-compatible shader effects for use in Adobe Flash Player 10.

[Stock Watch] AAPL Takes Roller Coaster Ride on Jobs Heart Attack Rumor

Apple's stock went for a wild ride Friday morning following a rumor that CEO Steve Jobs was taken to the hospital after suffering from a heart attack. The company's stock dipped below US$100 for a short time, but began recovering after Apple representatives said that the rumor was false.

[10:20 AM EDT] Hot Forum Topic - Where Are the New MacBooks?

Rumors have been floating around for some time that Apple is planning to release updated MacBook and MacBook Pro models in October. So far, there's no confirmation from Apple, and TMO readers are asking when new laptops really will surface.

[9:55 AM EDT] Big Nerd Ranch Announces Frankfurt iPhone Bootcamp

Now that Apple has eased it's restriction prohibiting iPhone software developers from talking code, Big Nerd Ranch has scheduled an iPhone Bootcamp near Frankfurt, Germany. The event is scheduled for December 8 through December 12 in Kloster Eberbach.

[8:50 AM EDT] HSC Edit 1.5 for Aperture Adds Image Resizing

Human Software announced the immediate availability of HSC Edit 1.5 for Aperture on Friday. The update for the Aperture image effects and editing plug-in added new image resizing capabilities, image cropping, and one-step image sharpening.

[8:10 AM EDT] iPodObserver - Vote Leaves Music Royalties Intact, iTunes Safe

The U.S. Copyright Royalty Board voted on Thursday to leave the current royalty payment rates in place instead of raising them to 15 cents per song, up from 9 cents. The decision lets Apple off the hook after the company threatened to close down its popular iTunes Store if the rate increase was pushed through.

[Tip] TMO Quick Tip - iCal: Event Alarm Presets

If you use iCal to keep your schedule under control, odds are you are familiar with its event alarms. Once you start making event alarms, Leopard's iCal remembers the settings you used, and will even let you reuse them will little more than a mouse click.

[12:20 AM EDT] iPodObserver - iTunes 8.0.1 Adds VoiceOver Support, More

Apple posted iTunes 8.0.1 late on Thursday. In addition to the standard statement about improving the stability and performance of iTunes, a helpful list of important bug fixes was also provided.

[12:05 AM EDT] iPodObserver - Apple TV Update Version 2.2 Posted

Late on Thursday, Apple posted a new version of the Apple TV software, version 2.2. The new version includes security fixes, CVE-ID: CVE-2007-4674, CVE-2008-3626 and CVE-2008-3629 that all relate to maliciously crafted movies or PICT files.