Wow. Very, very cool device. Apple's innovation continues to blow away their competition by leaps and bounds, and you can bet that the iPhone will be one of, if not the, hottest tech gadget(s) of 2007. A must have though? Well, no, not from a business productivity standpoint. But with the introduction of Mac OS X in the mobile device marketplace I'm quite certain Windows, Palm, and RIM are not feeling all warm and fuzzy.

Ladies and gentlemen, I have a new favorite browser, and it's lightning fast. I downloaded Apple's Safari 3 Public BETA a week or so ago to troubleshoot a log-in issue one of our members was having, and next thing you know I've installed it on all of my PCs at home and the office. Safari 3 provides tabbed browsing similar to IE7 and Firefox 2, which is nice for those of us that have multiple pages/sites open simultaneously constantly. The first thing that impressed me was its look and layout, but I quickly realized that its primary advantage was its performance.

Apple is quick to point out on the homepage for Safari its performance advantages. They claim Safari can load pages up to 3 times faster than Opera, 2 times faster than IE7, and 1.7 times faster than Firefox. Pretty impressive numbers, but what browser doesn't claim to be the fastest? As you can imagine, some of Media-Geek.com's member services are bandwidth intensive, and others require multiple scripts to be loaded by your browser. I did a few rudimentary tests accessing various features of Media-Geek.com using Safari, IE7, and Firefox and was simply amazed at the difference in load times.

Consider this: If the DOJ forces Apple to create a new method to access this data in JUST this case, more than one Apple employee will need to be intimately familiar with it. It will need to be well documented, and protected by the very same US Federal Government privacy and security rules and regulations the DOJ is asking Apple to breach (think HIPAA, etc). Cool, Apple can do that, they have been more than helpful putting policies and procedures in place to accommodate government access legally from day one.

(The original post contained a link to my complete article on LinkedIn, but those posts no longer exist.)

Perian, the "Swiss Army knife for QuickTime," has decided to cease development after six years on the market. The Perian team posted a notice to its users this week, saying that the software is "as complete as it will ever be under our stewardship." Though we can't disagree with the team's reason for wanting to move on, Perian's retirement is a bittersweet reminder of the earlier days of Apple, when watching videos of different codecs was a challenge on the Mac.

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From The New York Times: Cabling Your Mac,By ERIC A. TAUB

A new cable from NewerTech simplifies the transfer of high-quality video from your Mac to an HDTV.

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Popular media player VLC has been pulled from Apple's App Store at the request of one of the program's original developers--in a move that's caused some hard feelings in the world of open-source software.

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Apple's security and OS updates included the latest version of QuickTime, which Apple has just made available for Windows PCs.

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Apple is once again offering the previous version of its professional video-editing software after getting mixed reactions on a newer version.

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Apple has released the anticipated OS X 10.6.7 update, after weeks of developer build seeds that were issued with no new features or fixes. The update is available in the normal versions of delta and combo updaters for both the client and server versions of OS X, and should be available via Software Update for most people. This update is especially important for owners of the new 2011 MacBook Pro systems because it addresses a graphics bug that caused hangs and crashes under heavy graphics load.

Read more: 
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20045613-263.html#ixzz1HIA7YZN5

Apple has just elevated the graphics chip to superstar status. Why focus on the graphics?

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Apple appears to have hit a home run with the new iPod touch, at least in theory. Basically, they've taken all the cool from the iPhone, and removed the requirement for related a monthly cell phone bill. How cool is that? Well, I'll tell 'ya, it's way cool if you didn't already buy the iPhone and get locked into a cellular contract.

Many who've already purchased the iPhone are a bit peeved, as not only are they locked into a cell contract with a carrier they may not have otherwise done business with, but they did so at $200 more than the iPhone's new price! At least Apple is offering them some consolation by sending $100 rebate checks out, but still...ouch.

The knock on managing Macs in business environments has long been Apple's ambivalent attitude toward providing significant enterprise support. Apple does, of course, offer tools for deploying, configuring, and managing Macs. But to move Macs beyond a departmental setting, IT will often find it necessary to look to third parties for help.

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Apple has posted yet another Digital Camera Raw Compatibility software update as it continues to increase its support for the RAW format in Aperture 3 and iPhoto '09.

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Headlines bemoaning the possible delay and dismemberment of Apple's Final Cut Studio are becoming a mainstay of the Mac press. Which would be fine, if there was any substance to the story.

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This really should come as no surprise to folks in our industry, as Apple's support of QuickTime on Windows has waned over many years. It's also important to understand that I.T. is going to take a global approach to the new vulnerabilities, and will likely force removal of QuickTime from all hosts they control/manage. Your job, should you choose to accept it, is to explain to them why you are an exception, and to learn more about the available options and solutions to address your environment and needs. There are options.

Techsmith has announced the release of Snagit version 1 for Mac users.  Visit http://www.techsmith.com/snagit for complete details.

Apple boasts that its just-released OS X 10.7 operating system (codenamed Lion) includes over 250 new features. While the marquee features make Mac desktops and notebooks a little more like the iPad, there's far more than that. Some of the improvements make QuickTime more usable.

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