Security researcher Charlie Miller has discovered a way to attack and control an iPhone using only SMS messages. Don't worry, the details aren't public yet, and Apple should have a patch soon. Copyright © 2009 Rich Mogull. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. Bare Bones Software's BBEdit 9.2 -- A burly upgrade with newSleep command, LassoScript support, plus enhancements to Projectsand core features like Find and Multi-File Search windows,editing in browsers, and text completion. <http://barebones.com/>  

After weeks of discussion, design, and development, Glenn Fleishman and Jeff Carlson and I are pleased to unveil our new TidBITS Commenting System (TCS). For many years, we've had the TidBITS Talk mailing list for discussions of our articles. We've tried to integrate it more tightly with our articles, but it's difficult to connect email and a Web-based content management system in a reliable and coherent fashion that doesn't require constant intervention. In the meantime, nearly every other publication and blog has added a comment feature. But commenting systems have suffered their own growing pains, caused largely by the need to deal with spambots and trolls, and it's become sufficiently onerous to use many commenting systems that we no longer bother. (Trolls are people who specifically pick fights to make others respond; they often have no stake in the opinion they're stating.) So we thought about what we wanted in a commenting system, and after many discussions and design tests, we've come up with one that we quite like. It has worked well in testing, and in a quiet rollout a few days ago, and we'll see how it scales as more people start using it. On the TidBITS home page and each of our section pages, each article summary now displays the number of comments in the metadata line beneath it, and each full article shows the number of comments at the top. In either case, clicking the word "Comments" takes you to the comments section at the bottom of the article. Lightweight, Yet Secure -- Our first goal with the TCS was that it be easy to use. Twitter has been successful largely because it's so easy to post tweets. You don't have to worry about writing much or formatting your text, and your tweet appears immediately. Since we've put untold hours of work into moderating our TidBITS Talk discussion list, we wanted a system where posts could appear immediately, without any intervention on our part. Moderation was good for stopping spam and keeping discussions on track, but forcing people to wait hours or days for their posts to appear isn't ideal. The problem with immediate posting, of course, is comment spam. Spammers have figured out how to write comment bots that do nothing but fill up commenting systems with link-filled posts as a way of attracting a few clicks and gaming search engine rankings. Most comment systems we saw dealt with this by either requiring users to type a CAPTCHA for each post or to set up an account before posting. CAPTCHAs have their place, as do accounts, but for a quick comment, both were more than we wanted to use. (We use CAPTCHAs if you want to post a tip or send email to a TidBITS author.) Instead, the first time you comment on an article via the TCS by clicking the "Add a comment" link, it asks you for your name and your email address in addition to your comment. The TCS then generates an email message to you, asking you to click a link in the message to post your comment on the site. When you click the link, we know that the email address you entered is valid and that it's your address. That gives us enough confidence to allow your post to appear on the site. It won't stop trolls, of course, but more on how we can deal with that shortly. Confirming via email for each comment would be tedious, so the TCS also sets a cookie in your Web browser when you click that confirmation link. Thanks to that cookie, the TCS then knows who you are and doesn't require confirmation of any subsequent posts, as long as you use the same browser and don't delete your cookies. Posting comments becomes even easier, too, because identified users don't have to enter their names and email addresses in the Post Comment dialog. If you post a comment from another computer or another browser, you must confirm via email again, but as long as you use the same email address, the TCS will know that you're the same person in multiple browsers. We have to store your email address in our database for this to work, but your address isn't displayed in any way, so there's no worry about it being harvested by spam trawlers. For information about how we treat private information, see our privacy policy. Maintaining this lightweight identity is important because we give identified users the ability to edit their own posts. So, let's say you submit a comment and notice as soon as it's posted that it has a typo in it. Click the Edit button and you can make a change instantly and repost your edited comment. The ability to edit your own posts lasts for 7 days, after which the TCS locks the posts down. There's one other neat little trick that Glenn added toward the end. What if you enter your name incorrectly, or more or less formally than feels appropriate once you see it on the page? Just click your name (a subtle yellow highlight appears when you mouse over it) and enter a new one. Simple and unobtrusive. Threaded Discussions -- Another of our goals with the TCS was that it be threaded, but again in a lightweight way. Some commenting systems are entirely flat, which is fine when there are relatively few comments per article, and where the comments seldom refer to each other. But once there are a lot of comments and they start referencing one another (often with manual email-style quoting), it gets out of hand. Threaded systems are less common, probably because they're harder to write, and they often suffer from design problems that make it difficult to group related messages in your head while reading. We addressed these concerns in the TCS in several ways. To add a top-level comment, click the "Add a comment" link at the bottom of any article. But if you want to reply to a particular comment, click its Reply button instead, after which your comment will be indented under its parent and any previous replies; it also has a different background color. Jeff's design for this is intentionally minimal. He created two light background colors that match with the rest of the site color scheme, and each level of threading uses a different color. So the top-level comments always use the light purple, the second-level replies use a light blue, third-level replies go back to the light purple, and so on. This has the effect of subtly grouping replies to a particular comment and making it clear when levels are changing without hitting you over the head with an outline. Although it's not specifically related to the threading, we also implemented a 1,000-character limit on comments. The idea is not so much to prevent people from writing a lot (though it will have that effect), but to encourage people to keep comments concise and to the point. Instead of one long comment that addresses an issue in the article, and responds to several other comments, we'd prefer that you post a short comment for each topic, replying directly to other comments as necessary to maintain the structure. Right now, there's no way to collapse replies into their parent, but if threads start to grow long enough to need a way to condense them, we'll look into adding it. Preventing Abuse -- The final design goal with the TCS was to keep it easy to use without opening ourselves up to comment spam or trolls. Our abuse-prevention features include: The email-based verification for the first time a person posts, which should stop most spambots. An AJAX-intensive interface that will hopefully resist being controlled through automation. Admin-level controls that allow us to edit a comment, delete a comment, prevent a user from posting new comments, and block a user (and delete that user's posts) entirely. Although we don't plan to use a heavy hand, we won't put up with anything that's abusive. Email notification for several staff members of the actual comments, so we can see what's being posted quickly and act on it if need be. Automatic disabling of comments on articles older than 30 days, since few people are likely to see comments on old articles, and it lessens the risk to our massive article database if something does break through our safeguards. A master switch to turn comments off for the entire site. This is our "Oh no!" fallback if we see abuse happening and need time to figure out the best way to stop it technically. Honestly, though, I believe the main thing that will help keep our comments clean is the TidBITS audience. I've been distressed by the behavior I see (and hear my colleagues complain about) at other sites, but we just don't have those sort of problems with TidBITS Talk and direct email responses from TidBITS readers. Universally, TidBITS readers are polite and thoughtful, even when they don't agree with something we've written. My hope is, therefore, that by having useful, considered comments by long-time TidBITS readers setting the tone, people who are new to TidBITS will respond in kind. And if we see comments that are abusive or wildly off topic or otherwise just icky, we'll delete them as soon as we notice. Whither TidBITS Talk? The release of the TCS raises the question of what will be happening with our TidBITS Talk mailing list. For the moment, all will continue as it has, although we're hoping that the combination of some mail server changes and traffic diverted to the TCS will allow us to stop moderating posts from subscribed users. We'd still look at anything from someone who wasn't on the list, mostly to prevent spam. We anticipate that TidBITS Talk will remain useful as a place to have more involved discussions about topics that are perhaps only peripherally related to an article, or that are about a topic about which we haven't yet written an article. As such, we don't have any plans to change it in the near future, and we'll play it by ear going forward. Future Plans -- We've already started to keep a list of things we want to consider adding to the TCS in the future, such as including comment links in the email issues, optionally informing authors of comments on their articles, allowing user-level email notifications of new comments, and some sort of integration with Twitter. We're not committing to any of these ideas, and we're open to others, so if you have a particular suggestion, leave a comment!  Copyright © 2009 Adam C. Engst. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. Fetch Softworks: With Fetch 5.5, FTP and SFTP are simplerthan ever. Use it on Mac OS X to upload, download, mirror,and manage your Web site, images, videos, and data sets.Download your free trial version! <http://fetchsoftworks.com/>  

Ars Technica is reporting on Apple's deal with Maine's Learning Technology Initiative to provide every middle- and high-schooler in the state with a MacBook. The arrangement is rooted in the success of an earlier initiative that gave every 7th and 8th grader in Maine with an iBook. Apple will provide 64,000 MacBooks (adding to the 37,000 already in circulation), educational software, professional development for educators, and tech support for $100 million over four years. Copyright © 2009 Doug McLean. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. Microsoft's MacBU: Supporting Mac users with Office 2008.Straighten up your Office with the latest updates to Word,Excel, PowerPoint, and Entourage. Update today at Mactopia!<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.mspx>  

Mozilla has thrown back the curtains on Firefox 3.5, a significant update to the most popular Web browser that's independent of operating system makers. The tagline for the new browser is "Faster, Safer, Smarter, Better," and in initial testing, its new and improved features indeed apperar to improve an already good experience. Faster -- Firefox 3.5 includes a new JavaScript engine called TraceMonkey, which is supposed to provide up to twice the performance of Firefox 3.0, and over ten times the performance of Firefox 2. (I see hardly any visitors to TidBITS still using Firefox 2.) Although Mozilla provides a chart comparing Firefox 3.5 with Safari 4, results on performance are not included. That leads me to believe that Safari 4 remains the current speed champ. Nonetheless, Firefox 3.5 does feel notably snappier when working with JavaScript-intensive sites like Google Docs. Even the TidBITS site feels faster, which makes sense, given our increasing use of JavaScript to add features and improve ease-of-use. Page rendering in general is also faster, thanks to a new version of the Gecko engine with "speculative parsing" that can load resources (such as scripts) in parallel with the rest of the page. I wouldn't trust rendering speed benchmarks, since there are so many real-world bottlenecks that change the standard user experience, but in my short usage of Firefox 3.5, it definitely feels faster. Safer -- Security is increasingly important on the Internet, and Firefox has long had a number of essential security features, including a pop-up blocker, a constantly updated database of phishing sites, automated updates to fix vulnerabilities, detailed site information (click the site's favicon in the address bar) and more. New in Firefox 3.5 is a private browsing mode (Tools > Start Private Browsing) that avoids recording Web history, form entries and searches, downloads, passwords, cookies, and cache files (though bookmarks you create in private browsing mode are retained). Since it's easy to switch in and out of private browsing mode, there's little downside to using it when you wish to keep nosy kids from seeing where you were shopping for birthday presents. (Yeah, I know what people will really use it for, but this is a family publication.) If you forget to turn on private browsing, you can still at least ask Firefox to forget where you've been. This feature, also new in Firefox 3.5, is a bit tricky to find. Choose History > Show All History, and in the Library window that appears, search for the site you want Firefox to forget. Once you find it, Control-click it and choose Forget About This Site from the contextual menu that appears. All traces of that site will be erased from your history, though cookies and other information remain. Firefox 3.5 also converts the previous Clear Private Data dialog to a Clear Recent History dialog (Tools > Clear Recent History), adding the capability to control the time span over which data will be deleted, perfect for clearing out what you've been doing on a public computer for the last few hours. Smarter, Better -- It's a little hard to know what Mozilla was getting at with these words, but Firefox 3.5 reportedly improved the "Awesome Bar" (the address field, into which you can type nearly anything and get back something useful), the way you can tag bookmarks, and the extremely helpful session restore capability. It's unclear exactly what changes were made there. More concrete is the improvement to Firefox's tabbed browsing. You can now drag a tab out of a window to create a new window with that tab's contents, a notable omission in Firefox 3. Firefox 3.5 also introduces location-aware browsing, an optional feature that allows Firefox to share information about your location with Web sites. Mozilla is on the heels of Google, which developed the Geolocation API and submitted it to the W3C standards consortium. As with iPhone apps, you're asked each time a Web site requests access to your location so it's not a privacy concern. Geolocation works both by checking your IP address and scanning for any wireless networks within range of your computer, so its accuracy will range from a few meters to a few miles (all it knows about me so far while I use a computer inside my home is that I'm in Ithaca, NY). A Web site could request your location from your browser via JavaScript, but it's unlikely that a Web site would ask for this when you load a page. More likely, you'll click on a "Find stores" or "Where am I?" link. Firefox would then display the location request at the top of the page, much as it asks if you want a password to be saved. I can't really see location-aware browsing being all that important, given that when I want location-specific information, I'm usually using my iPhone somewhere other than at my desk. And even when I'm travelling with my MacBook, I imagine I'd turn to the iPhone first for location-specific information. For those without location-savvy phones, this feature could be useful when you're using a coffeeshop, library, or hotel network in an unfamiliar area. Mozilla also put a lot of effort into Firefox's support for modern Web standards. Firefox 3.5 now supports downloadable fonts, HTML 5's audio and video elements, the HTML 5 offline resource spec, drag-and-drop within and between Web sites, CSS media queries for media-dependent style sheets, multi-threading for speeding up Web applications, and more. As usual, these improvements won't mean much until they're adopted by Web developers for sites you use, and such changes tend to happen slowly because of the large number of people who don't (or can't) upgrade from old browsers. Comparing with Safari 4 -- Since I'm using a Mac, Mozilla's site showed me a comparison of Firefox 3.5 and Safari 4, rather than Firefox 3.5 and Internet Explorer 8. It acknowledges that Safari 4 does an excellent job with modern Web standards, but then gives Firefox the nod in speed of response to security vulnerabilities, number of add-ons, and adaptive capabilities. That seems fair: security updates to Firefox do appear more quickly than updates to Safari; Firefox does have far more add-ons that extend its functionality; and Firefox's "Awesome Bar" really is far better than Safari's "Smart Address Field," simply because you can enter anything Firefox's address field and it will do something intelligent (display bookmarks or recently visited sites, go directly to the correct site, or run a Google search). In contrast, typing in Safari 4's address field can access only your bookmarks and history, and only those by URL, rather than name or content. Although I appreciate Safari 4's speed, I stayed with Firefox 3 and am now happy to use 3.5. For my purposes, Firefox's "Awesome Bar" (I just can't bring myself to type it outside of quotes) is the key differentiating factor. Being a writer, I think in words and I direct them through my fingers on the keyboard, so it's important to me to be able to navigate the Web via text. Also important to me is Firefox's capability of restoring sessions automatically after relaunching. Safari offers a History > Reopen All Windows From Last Session command, but I don't want to have to remember to do that after every restart. I recommend you take a look at Firefox 3.5. If nothing else, it's good to have multiple Web browsers around when dealing with badly coded sites. I also like using multiple browsers when testing how Web pages render and how a site behaves when I'm logged in versus when not. But here's one suggestion. The main drawback that kept me from switching among browsers in the past was my bookmarks - I don't use a lot, but I rely heavily on those I do have. There's a free utility called Xmarks (previously known as Foxmarks) that backs up and synchronizes your bookmarks between Firefox and Safari (it also works with Internet Explorer). Thanks to Xmarks, I can be certain that Firefox and Safari always have exactly the same set of bookmarks across all my Macs, which makes it easy to use any browser at any time. Firefox 3.5 for Mac OS X requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later. Note that a number of add-ons will be disabled by the update; in the past, add-on developers have responded quickly with updates. It's a 17.6 MB download. Copyright © 2009 Adam C. Engst. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. Bare Bones Software's BBEdit 9.2 -- A burly upgrade with newSleep command, LassoScript support, plus enhancements to Projectsand core features like Find and Multi-File Search windows,editing in browsers, and text completion. <http://barebones.com/>  

What's a touring band to do when they've got a new song, but nowhere to record it? Use the iPhone! The Loop is reporting on pop band The 88 using an iPhone to record a new track while touring with the B-52s. The 88 mainly relied on Four Track, a $9.99 app that emulates a four track recorder with impressive results. The song, "Love is the Thing" is available on iTunes.  Copyright © 2009 Doug McLean. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. VMware Fusion. The most seamless way to run Windows on your Mac. Backed by nearly a decade of proven virtualization technology. Try VMware Fusion today for only $79.99. Visit: <http://www.tidbits.com/about/support/vmware-fusion.html>  

Since having a child last year, my wife and I often find ourselves confirming that gravity does, in fact, continue to function well. Our toddler trips, sits down abruptly, and drops things from all heights as one would expect from someone still figuring out how her body is working. You can see where this is going. One day recently, my daughter reached for something shiny and swiped the corner of my wife's iPhone 3G, spinning it off the table and onto one of its corners against the floor. The top portion of the glass screen fractured, but the phone was still usable. To keep glass shards out of my wife's ear when using the phone, I immediately applied an Artwizz ScratchStopper, a plastic film designed to protect the iPhone's screen. Next, I researched the options. Although the phone was still under its original warranty, according to Apple's iPhone Service FAQ the "Limited Warranty for iPhone excludes coverage for damage resulting from accident, disassembly, unauthorized service and unauthorized modifications." The other Apple option was to get Out-of-Warranty service, which costs $199 and results in a replacement (refurbished or new) iPhone. We could have also bought a brand new iPhone 3GS, but since the iPhone 3G wasn't yet a year old, it didn't qualify for AT&T's least-expensive pricing. Another option appeared this week: According to Jim Dalrymple at The Loop, Apple is now offering screen-replacement services onsite at Apple retail stores, which also costs $199, since it would be a non-warranty repair. That means you'll be able to get the repair done on your original phone without having to send it in or be given a replacement. Instead, I turned to the do-it-yourself-and-risk-destroying-the-whole-thing approach. A few minutes of searching Google led me to 3G Cracked Glass.com. Site owner Tim Dupree has put together links to companies other than Apple who can do the repair and where to get parts yourself, as well as a tutorial video on making the repair. Although the video lacks narration (which Dupree notes will be added later), I found it helpful to watch someone disassemble the iPhone. For about $80 and four hours of my time (working slowly and deliberately), I successfully fixed the screen myself. (If you're reading this article on the Web, click any image to view a larger version.) The Parts -- I purchased the iPhone 3G Digitizer and Front Glass with Adhesive Kit from Mission Repair for $59. Taking this route is more advanced than ordering a kit that includes the digitizer, glass, and frame ($119). In hindsight, the latter would have made for a much easier repair, but I was trying to do it myself without spending a lot of money. I had resigned myself to the likelihood that if I messed up somewhere and damaged the iPhone, I'd be paying $199 to replace it, so I'd rather be out of pocket $59 and learned my lesson than out $119. I also bought a case opener tool from AX Micro Solutions (Directfix.com) for $3.99. Yes, it's just a molded piece of plastic, and I also ended up paying $3.99 for shipping, and it's silly that I had to go to a second merchant to get the part. However, I don't have a lot of tools, and the thought of using a bare X-acto knife to pry open the iPhone didn't sound like a great idea. Within a week or so, I had the tools in hand. I also assembled the other tools I'd need: the SIM removal tool that came with the iPhone, or a small paperclip; a small Phillips screwdriver; a pair of tweezers; a cup to hold the incredibly tiny screws; and a small knife (more on that later). The screwdriver turned out to be a sticking point, because none of mine were small enough. You need a size #000 Phillips head (the middle one in the photo below). I ended up purchasing one at Amazon for about $6 with free Amazon Prime shipping, because not even my local Radio Shack carried one that small. Performing the screen replacement isn't particularly difficult, as long as you're patient and comfortable working with small electronics. Also keep in mind that doing so voids your warranty and introduces the possibility that you could damage other components if you're not careful. That said, here are the steps to replace a damaged screen on an iPhone 3G. Although I suspect that the steps are similar for an iPhone 3GS, I haven't opened mine, so I can't be sure. I've included photos where appropriate, but I also highly recommend that you watch the video at 3G Cracked Glass as you go along. You can find several other videos on YouTube, too. Open the Case -- Turn off the iPhone's power and pull out the SIM card from the top of the device. Next, remove the two screws on the bottom, located on each side of the dock connector. The iPhone is tightly built, so initially simply prying it open seems almost impossible. Furthermore, the case doesn't come apart at the seam separating the metal frame and the plastic back. Instead, press the edge of the pry tool into the seam just below the Home button. Gently pry the screen up, but don't pull it off entirely yet, because three cables connect the screen to the lower section. Using the pry tool or your fingers (if your fingers are small enough), remove connectors 1 and 2; for me, connector 1 lifted off by itself as I pulled the screen up, and connector 2 popped up when I placed the pry tool under its lip and gave it a little twist. Number 3 is actually a ribbon that's anchored by a connector on the base. To disconnect it, use the pry tool to flip up the white latch and then pull the ribbon out. Set the base aside. Remove the LCD Assembly -- Next you need to separate the screen frame from the LCD assembly. Using tweezers, pull off the black strips of tape on the left and right edges of the frame. That exposes five screws for you to remove. One other screw is located at the top of the LCD assembly near the connecting cables. Use the pry tool to gently - so as not to damage it - remove the LCD assembly from the glass; it lifts slightly and then slides out. Set the LCD assembly aside. Separate the Glass -- The hardest part of the entire replacement process is pulling the screen frame from the glass. The two sections are held together by adhesive, and initially appear to be just one fused part. (This step is confusing in the 3G Cracked Glass video, because the narration is not yet in place.) I slide a knife edge into the space behind the rubber seal where I originally pried the case apart. (An X-acto knife will work, but I used a tiny Swiss Army knife.) Once I got some purchase, I gently twisted the knife blade to separate the pieces. Some tutorials on the Internet suggest using a hair dryer to heat and soften the adhesive, but I didn't need to try that approach. Due to the broken glass, the screen did not separate from the frame in one clean piece. I had to pick apart the top section to remove it. However, the adhesive is applied in sheets, so if you can get the knife edge under the adhesive layer, the broken glass may come up together like peeling a hard-boiled egg. Once the glass and frame are separated, remove any remaining adhesive from the frame. Attach the New Screen -- With the old screen removed, it's time to start rebuilding the machine. The new adhesive is double-sided, so apply it to the top and bottom sections of the frame and then remove the backing. Insert the new screen into the new frame, making sure to pass the connecting cables on the replacement screen through the frame's opening. Oh, and don't forget to peel away the clear plastic that protects the inside of the screen. Lastly, carefully press the new screen into place against the adhesive so you get a tight fit. Reassemble the iPhone -- After the replacement screen is attached to the frame, reverse the steps above for reassembling the phone: slide the LCD assembly into place, replace the screws, reconnect the cables, and seat the screen assembly into the iPhone's body. Pay attention when reconnecting the cables: at one point I must have nudged connector 4, because the Home button didn't work when I put everything back together. Opening the iPhone again to fasten the connector was much easier the second time around, however. My wife's iPhone 3G now looks as good as new, and I didn't have to fall back on my alternate plan of paying Apple for a replacement. I hope I don't have to put my new screen-fixing skills to work again, but if gravity should assert itself, I'll be ready.  Copyright © 2009 Jeff Carlson. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. THE MISSING SYNC FOR iPHONE: Sync notes, tasks, files and documents between your iPhone or iPod touch and a Mac. The Missing Sync for iPhone provides two-way syncing over Wi-Fi.Learn more - <http://www.markspace.com/bits>  

PasswordWallet 4.4.7 from Selznick Scientific Software is a minor update to the longstanding password protection utility. Changes include enhanced VoiceOver support for visually impaired users, compatibility with Palm Pre HTML exporting, the capability to share passwords between records, the closing of helper apps upon quitting PasswordWallet, and auto-typing support for JIS keyboards. The company has also released Password Wallet 4.4.7 for the iPhone with a number of new features and usability tweaks. ($20, free update, 5.1 MB) Cocktail 4.4 from Maintain is a substantial update to the general purpose maintenance utility. The update adds the capability to reset Access Control lists and home directory permissions, greater control over Time Machine's backup intervals and settings, improved support for additional network interfaces, compatibility with Safari 4, and the capability to disable Safari 4's Web page previews. ($14.95, 1.9 MB) PDFpen 4.1.4 and PDFpenPro 4.1.4 from SmileOnMyMac are the latest versions of the company's PDF editing utilities. Both version updates have improved performance speeds for larger PDF documents and added an OCR AppleScript document property that enables users to write scripts for paperless workflows. Unspecified minor features and bug fixes are also included. ($49.95/$99.95, free updates, 12 MB/12.2 MB) iPhoto 8.0.4 Update from Apple addresses an infrequent crashing bug related to photos imported into a previous version of the application. The update also fixes some incorrectly labeled names in the Places feature. The update is recommended for all users of iPhoto '09 and is available for download via Software Update or from the Apple Support Downloads page. (Free update, 102.27 MB) iPhoto 8.0.4 Update from Apple addresses an infrequent crashing bug related to photos imported into a previous version of the application. The update also fixes some incorrectly labeled names in the Places feature. The update is recommended for all users of iPhoto '09 and is available for download via Software Update or from the Apple Support Downloads page. (Free update, 102.27 MB) Nisus Writer Pro 1.3 from Nisus Software is a fairly major update to the increasingly powerful word processor. New features include an all new Document Manager, a style library, a selection history that enables users to skip to previous editing spots, the capability to make any menu into a toolbar item, additions to the Nisus Macro Language, and the capability to attach an active document to a Mail or Entourage email message. For more detail on the huge number of other changes and bug fixes, see Nisus Writer Pro's release notes. ($79 new, free update, 118 MB) MacSpeech Dictate 1.5.2 from MacSpeech is a minor maintenance update for the speech recognition utility. The update mainly improves compatibility for Safari 4 by enabling versioned commands to appear for newer versions of the same application. ($199 new, free update) Typinator 3.5 from Ergonis Software is a significant update to the auto-typing and auto-correcting utility focusing on under-the-hood enhancements. Changes include a new expansion technique that increases replacement speed and improves compatibility with other applications (it requires Mac OS X 10.5.5 or later). Also new is improved cursor positioning speed, support for custom user sounds, and a handful of bug fixes including one that would cause the program to freeze under Mac OS X 10.4.x. A full list of changes can be found on Ergonis's Web site. (19.99 euros new, free update for purchases within 2 years, 2.7 MB) MacBook Air SMC Firmware Update 1.2 from Apple "adds compatibility for the latest service replacement batteries." SMC stands for System Management Controller, a micro-controller located on the logic board that's responsible for the computer's power functions. To install the update, follow the instructions in the updater application that automatically launches after the installer has closed (/Application/Utilities/MacBook Air SMC Firmware Update.app). (Free, 623 KB)  Copyright © 2009 Doug McLean. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. VMware Fusion. The most seamless way to run Windows on your Mac. Backed by nearly a decade of proven virtualization technology. Try VMware Fusion today for only $79.99. Visit: <http://www.tidbits.com/about/support/vmware-fusion.html>  

Apple has informed a number of press outlets that CEO Steve Jobs has returned to work on schedule after his six month medical leave of absence (see "Steve Jobs Takes Medical Leave Until June," 2009-01-14). According to spokesperson Katie Cotton, for the time being he will work several days a week at Apple's Cupertino campus, and from his home office the remaining days. Apple's COO Tim Cook has been handling day-to-day operations in Jobs's absence. Jobs's medical leave was, according to him, necessary to deal with an unspecified hormone imbalance that left him physically gaunt. More recently, it has come to light that he received a liver transplant at the Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute of Memphis, Tennessee. With Jobs's permission, the hospital announced that the procedure had taken place, though they did not specify when it occurred. We at TidBITS, though happy to see Jobs make a timely and hopefully healthy return to Apple, remain distressed at the incessant nattering over his health. While there's no question that Jobs brings vision and marketing savvy to Apple, the company's performance over the last six months shows that he is by no means indispensable. In that time, Apple posted the company's best non-holiday-quarter revenue and earnings ever, shipped the iPhone 3GS and iPhone OS 3.0 plus significant updates to the entire Mac line, and saw its stock rise from under $80 per share to more than $140 per share today. Those are not the actions of a company struggling with the absence of a charismatic leader. Copyright © 2009 Adam C. Engst. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. Microsoft's MacBU: Supporting Mac users with Office 2008.Straighten up your Office with the latest updates to Word,Excel, PowerPoint, and Entourage. Update today at Mactopia!<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.mspx>  

Garmin, the GPS device giant, has issued a mandatory update targeted at correcting a widespread updating bug that renders them either useless or entirely inoperable. The bug causes affected GPS units to attempt to update their firmware repeatedly, and then either to shut down or lose their GPS satellite signal. Affected devices include the nuvi 7x5 series, nuvi 800 series, nuvi 8x5 series, zumo 660, GPSMAP 620 and GPSMAP 640. If you own a Garmin nuvi 7x5 series device that is no longer able to receive a GPS satellite signal, you may download the firmware update immediately via Garmin's WebUpdater. Owners of other affected Garmin devices will be able to access the update in the near future, also through the WebUpdater. Registered users will receive notification of the availability of these updates via email. On the other hand, if your Garmin nuvi 7x5 series device is no longer able to power on, a return authorization is required so you can send the unit back to Garmin for repair under warranty. To request a return authorization, follow the steps listed on this page in Garmin's Knowledge Base.  Copyright © 2009 Doug McLean. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. READERS LIKE YOU! Support TidBITS with a contribution today!<http://www.tidbits.com/about/support/contributors.html>Special thanks this week to Daniel P. Richardson, Bob Arnold,Leonard D. Schloff, and Bill Chaloupka for their generous support!  

Next time you're about to buy an iTunes gift card on eBay or Craigslist you may want to think twice. There's a chance the card was purchased with a stolen credit card or hacked, and, as Macworld reports, Apple is cracking down on these fraudulent gift cards by permanently disabling user accounts that redeem them. Copyright © 2009 Doug McLean. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. Fetch Softworks: With Fetch 5.5, FTP and SFTP are simplerthan ever. Use it on Mac OS X to upload, download, mirror,and manage your Web site, images, videos, and data sets.Download your free trial version! <http://fetchsoftworks.com/>  

Learn more for less! We're having a 50%-off sale on all Take Control ebooks and Macworld Superguides through 07-Jul-09, so you can expand your library with our highly practical ebooks about Macs, Mac OS X, iLife '09, AirPort networking, and much more. To take advantage of this limited-time sale, visit our catalog using this coupon-loaded link, select the titles you want, and click the Buy Selected Ebooks button. You'll see the coupon code and the discount on the first screen of our shopping cart. Macs & Mac OS X -- In our catalog, you'll find new and updated titles that help you operate your Mac more effectively: "Take Control of the Mac Command Line with Terminal": Joe Kissell shows you how to release your inner Unix geek! "Take Control of Maintaining Your Mac, Second Edition": Keep your Mac running smoothly with an easy maintenance program! "Take Control of Troubleshooting Your Mac": Learn how to solve any Mac problem with Joe Kissell's expert advice! "Take Control of Running Windows on a Mac, Third Edition": Find essential advice for running Windows on your Intel-based Mac. "Macworld Mac Gems Superguide": Browse through 240+ reviews of inexpensive software to improve your Mac experience. "Macworld Mac Security Superguide": Protect your Mac from bad guys, malicious software, thieves, snoops, and other pesky problems. Applications -- Make the most of your apps, whether you want to work creatively in iLife '09 or get going in style with the new Safari 4: "Take Control of iWeb '09": Learn how to make useful, attractive Web sites with iWeb '09. "iPhoto '09: Visual QuickStart Guide": Master every aspect of iPhoto '09 with step-by-step, visual instructions from Take Control publisher Adam Engst. "Take Control of Recording with GarageBand '09": Learn how to record complete songs with drums, keyboards, bass, strings, even horns...even if all you have is a beat-up electric guitar! "Take Control of Making Music with GarageBand '09": Get creative and make music with the built-in loops in GarageBand '09. "Take Control of Safari 4": Sharon Zardetto helps you make the most of Apple's Safari, a deceptively powerful Web browser with many hidden and under-appreciated features. AirPort Networking -- You'll also find a pair of up-to-date ebooks from Glenn Fleishman about AirPort/Wi-Fi networking: "Take Control of Your 802.11n AirPort Network": Make your 802.11n-based AirPort network fast, reliable, and secure! Updated for 2009 models. "Take Control of Your Wi-Fi Security": Learn how to keep intruders out of your wireless network and protect your sensitive communications. Thanks to everyone who has supported the Take Control series with purchases, feedback, and enthusiasm!  Copyright © 2009 Tonya Engst. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. Microsoft's MacBU: Supporting Mac users with Office 2008.Straighten up your Office with the latest updates to Word,Excel, PowerPoint, and Entourage. Update today at Mactopia!<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.mspx>  

Late last week, as part of our continual upgrade plans, I threw the switch on an infrastructure change with our servers. In an attempt to reduce the effects of the constant onslaught of spam and to start removing myself from the never-ending task of administering email accounts for local users, I'm now routing incoming mail through a different server. The practical upshot of this change is that the server we use to send the TidBITS, TidBITS Talk, and Take Control mailing lists may now identify itself explicitly as emperor.tidbits.com instead of just tidbits.com in various email headers. As a result, if you filter or whitelist email from tidbits.com, you may need to adjust things to pick up emperor.tidbits.com as well as tidbits.com. Sorry for any inconvenience this causes! Copyright © 2009 Adam C. Engst. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. Fetch Softworks: With Fetch 5.5, FTP and SFTP are simplerthan ever. Use it on Mac OS X to upload, download, mirror,and manage your Web site, images, videos, and data sets.Download your free trial version! <http://fetchsoftworks.com/>  

Congratulations to Terrell Hall of mac.com, Tom Powers of zoran.com, and Larry Weakly of foxinternet.com, whose entries were chosen randomly in the last DealBITS drawing and who received a copy of DiscLabel 6, worth $35.95. Entrants to this drawing all received a 20-percent-off discount on DiscLabel 6 (hey, sometimes you have to participate to get the discount!). Thanks to the 427 people who entered this DealBITS drawing, and we hope you'll continue to participate in the future!  Copyright © 2009 Adam C. Engst. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. Microsoft's MacBU: Supporting Mac users with Office 2008.Straighten up your Office with the latest updates to Word,Excel, PowerPoint, and Entourage. Update today at Mactopia!<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.mspx>  

The Mac OS X Finder is a sitting duck for criticism, so I won't bore you with an attempt to list its faults; indeed, after so many years, I'm usually numb to it, like a bad smell that one stops noticing. But the other day, when I was swearing with particular vehemence at the Finder - was it because the Get Info size of a certain folder was mysteriously much smaller than the combined Get Info sizes of its contents, or because the Open With contextual menu for a file was failing to display the application I wanted to open it with? - I threw in the towel and decided to give Cocoatech's Path Finder another try. This has proved to be one of my more fortunate moves. I'd looked at Path Finder 4 several years ago; it was good, but I found it rather flaky, and it had some deplorable habits (such as silently installing things I didn't want installed - see "Are Input Managers the Work of the Devil?," 2006-02-20). Nonetheless, my earlier review ("Path Finder 4 Still Shows the Way", 2006-02-06), is largely positive; and my current reaction is much more strongly positive. I've been using Path Finder 5.1.3 for several weeks now, and, quite without regard to the relative merits of the Finder and Path Finder, I'm astonished at how much more fluid and productive I am with Path Finder. To be sure, first I had to resign myself to the fact that Path Finder 5 is Leopard-only; but suddenly (nudged along by a hardware disaster that I won't go into here) so am I. The program has behaved completely reliably, and I also find the new Path Finder's design more rational and supple than ever before. If you, too, are weary of the Mac OS X Finder's frustrating shortcomings, its lack of intelligence, nimbleness, and complaisance, then you owe it to yourself to give Path Finder 5 a try. Sure, you can go on holding your breath waiting to see whether Snow Leopard can work miracles (see "Apple Previews Snow Leopard for September Release," 2009-06-08), if that's your idea of a good time; but most of us need to get stuff done now. With Cocoatech's Path Finder, you can. One Window To Rule Them All -- You know how, in the Finder, you are constantly opening new windows? It's partly because you need to work in a new place but you want to be able to get back later to the old place. Also, to copy or move a file from folder A to folder B, you usually prefer to see both places simultaneously and then, when they are positioned just so, perform the drag. Similarly, to Get Info about a Finder item, you open a secondary Info window. The first thing to get used to with Path Finder is that although you can make more than one window, you rarely need to; the optimal use pattern is a single great big window (on, optimally, your great big monitor). One reason for this is Path Finder's clever window layout. It looks somewhat like a Finder window, with the middle comprising a list of files and folders, a toolbar at the top, and something reminiscent of the Finder's sidebar off to the left. But then the window optionally spreads its wings like a bird and reveals two drawers, one on each side, each containing two panes with extra functionality. Plus, the main part of the window optionally splits, with two panes of further functionality in the lower part. What goes into each pane is up to you, and you can change it at any time. Path Finder's genius here is the inclusion of a bunch of what it calls "modules". Each module can be a separate window, but it can also be slotted into a drawer or main window pane. Thus, for example, at the moment I have something close to the default layout, with the Processes and Shelf modules on the left, Recent Documents and Recent Folders on the right, and Info and Preview at the bottom. But the header of each pane is a pop-up menu listing all the modules, so I can just choose, say, Attributes from the Recent Folders pane header, and now that pane shows Attributes instead of Recent Folders. Or, a pane can display the contents of a particular folder. Thus, the whole arrangement is completely flexible. You don't need to have all these panes showing at once, or ever; you might be content with just one drawer and its two panes, hiding the other drawer and lower panes more or less permanently. There's little penalty for doing so, because it's so easy to change what module or folder each visible pane displays (and if you really had to, you could open a module as a separate window momentarily, remember). There are as many Path Finder window layouts as there are users, who seem to take a peculiar pleasure in posting screen shots at the Cocoatech forum. Jump and Drag -- Meanwhile, the main part of the window, the list of files and folders, can of course be viewed as Icons, List, or Columns; if Smart Sorting is switched on, these are clumped alphabetically into applications, packages, folders, and files, plus you can display invisibles. List view offers columns the Finder never dreamed of, such as Extension and Permissions (and all views let you sort by such information), and the various views have a wonderful array of options; aliases can be italic (does that bring back any memories?), and invisibles, if shown, can be dimmed. One of my favorite touches is that in Column view, you are not automatically "targeting" the last column: for example, when you choose Edit > Select All, you select everything in the column you are actually working in - unlike the Finder, where what column Select All selects depends, maddeningly, on whether you started with a file or a folder. Amazingly great navigation tools let you nip around your disk and folder hierarchy. Above, there's a customizable toolbar of folder names, where each name summons a hierarchical folder-and-file menu; plus there's a "Path Navigator" bar that shows where you are, and lets you easily jump up and back down the hierarchy. To the left is the sidebar, customizable much like the Finder's sidebar, except that you can set up multiple sidebars and switch amongst them. (The Shelf module is similar.) The Back and Forward buttons behave like Safari, displaying a pop-down list of places you can go back or forward to. Again like Safari, a folder can be expressed as a tab, so if you're jumping frequently amongst certain folders you can keep them all open as tabs at the top of the main window. And, as icing on the cake, the main window can be split horizontally, so that it lists the contents of two different folders at once. If you can see a folder's name anywhere in the interface, you can drag Finder items onto it as a way of moving or copying them. A tab, an item along the Path Navigator, a Recent Folder listing, it doesn't matter: if you can see its name or icon, it's a drag target. And if all of that isn't enough for you to be able to move a file from one place to another with exquisite ease and without opening a second window in advance, there is also the marvelous Drop Stack, where you can just drop things you intend to move, accumulating them to be dragged out later when you're viewing the target folder. Ways of Seeing, Ways of Knowing -- Path Finder tells and shows me things the Finder refuses to reveal. Being a power-user type of guy, I could find out such things by switching to some other application, such as the Terminal; but with Path Finder, I don't have to. For example, a .cue file is a text file that accompanies a sound file to describe its tracks. Because my .cue files are set to open with a sound-file player such as Cog, the Finder's Preview and Quick Look display of such a file is just an icon. Path Finder's Preview module, however, happily displays the text. (For files that are not text, the Hex module still permits what can be a useful peek at the contents.) There is lots to know about a file that the Finder's Get Info won't tell you. Path Finder's Info module displays a file's four-letter Type and Creator codes, and its wonderful Spotlight Metadata module tells you its creation and modification dates including seconds (something I often need to know), as well as its uniform type identifiers and (for an application) its bundle identifier. Plus you can see its ownership and permissions properly, as the Terminal would display them. If you do need to switch to the Terminal, you can do it inside Path Finder. Path Finder's Terminal module starts out with the directory you're currently viewing as its working directory. But don't switch to the Terminal just because you need to use Subversion (svn), because Path Finder also has a Subversion module, so you can commit a file or update a working copy with the mere click of a button. Path Finder also provides many built-in "reports" that it will gladly construct for you as text documents (displaying them in its own built-in text editor). The Selected Items report emits the Info and Spotlight Metadata for whatever is currently selected. You can have a directory listing; PF doesn't know whether you want file names, Unix pathnames, or File URLs, so guess what? it gives you all three! You can get a list of current processes and lots of information about them, learn what's on the various system pasteboards, and much more, including some real developer functions like sampling a beachballed application or getting a class dump. The Finder's inability to find things is a long-standing joke; Path Finder gives you three ways of finding. The simplest and most brilliant is filtering: you type into the search field and the list of files in the current folder is reduced to those whose names (or extensions or kind) contain the string you're typing. This is absolutely splendid, because often this is exactly the kind of finding I want to do. You can also search manually, similar to EasyFind (see "EasyFind 4.0: It's Easy, It Finds, It's Free," 2007-10-11); or you can use Spotlight (but the interface to this is limited and I don't recommend it; I prefer my own NotLight, or the built-in Spotlight interface). Utility Knife, Swiss-Army Knife -- Path Finder also provides such miscellaneous Finder-based features as burning a CD, connecting to an iDisk or other server, or taking a screen shot. Often it does these things better, of course; for instance, you can compress a file in various formats, including StuffIt. Some of these features turn out to be quite tricky to implement; in a recent interview, developer Steve Gehrman reveals that he really had to dig in order to make Connect to Server list SMB shares. But the result is that if Path Finder has a secret goal of letting you avoid use of the Finder entirely if you really want to, it has succeeded admirably. Path Finder does too many miscellaneous additional cool things to list, but here are some of my favorites. There are dialogs in which you can rename a file, select files, or alter selected files' extensions. You can make a symbolic link (sometimes this works better than an alias). The Open With menu lists not only applications that claim this file's type but also all running applications (brilliant!), plus all applications in the Applications folder. You can copy the selection's pathname to the clipboard in any of a number of different formats, a huge timesaver. You can email the selected file (perhaps compressing first). You can create or edit a disk image. You can (careful, now!) launch an application as root. Oh, and I'm not even going to try to describe the wonderful iTunes Browser module; you have to see it for yourself to believe it. What's Not Up? Docs! Path Finder has a lot of features, and I haven't mentioned them all. This is in part because Path Finder has a lot of features, and in part because, to be quite honest, I don't know what all of them are. And that is because (indulge me, please, while I relieve my frustration by ranting) Path Finder has no gosh-darned documentation! Oh, yes, something does appear when you choose Path Finder Help from its Help menu, but it's utterly useless: a page of press-release advertising copy and a couple of pages mostly boasting of differences between this version and the previous one. To cite just one example of the online help's breathless, meaningless prose: "Path Finder 3 introduced the Shelf, a sidebar in the Path Finder window that provided fast access to directories, applications, or files in a conveniently located pane. The Shelf works in a similar way to the Finder's Places feature, but with a twist. In Path Finder 5 we've expanded this concept immensely with the introduction of Zones." Notice all the advertising: "Conveniently," "fast", "expanded immensely." But there is no explanation of what the "twist" is or what a "Zone" is supposed to be. Online help, let me remind you (and by "you" I mean Cocoatech), should not advertise a product - otiose in any case, since I'm already using it; it should tell you how to use the program and what the program does. So most of what I have said here about Path Finder is based on a combination of experimentation and guesswork; I'm sure it does lots of things I haven't discovered, and may never discover thanks to the lack of documentation. Conclusion -- Path Finder is an amazing program, clear evidence of the persistence and dedication of a single programmer. Sure, I could nitpick about things I think could use improvement - why don't all dates include seconds, why can't I eliminate relative dates throughout, why can't recent applications be associated with their own recent documents (as with LaunchBar; see "Curing Your LaunchBar Addiction," 2007-08-06), why isn't the selection restored when you return to a previous folder - but these are mere quibbles. When you consider how useful Path Finder is, how it not only improves upon the Finder but embraces many other third-party utilities, all in one convenient place, the price of $39.95 ($19.95 to upgrade from Path Finder 4) seems eminently fair. Download the 30-day full-featured trial and see for yourself. Path Finder requires Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) or higher, and is said to work on Snow Leopard as well.  Copyright © 2009 Matt Neuburg. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. MacSpeech Dictate -- unleash the power of your voice withaward-winning speech recognition solutions for the Mac.It's so easy to use - just talk! Now with spelling andphrase training. <http://tidbits.com/about/support/macspeech.html>  

Buying Bogus iTunes Gift Cards May Cost You -- Next time you're about to buy an iTunes gift card on eBay or Craigslist you may want to think twice. There's a chance the card was purchased with a stolen credit card or hacked, and, as Macworld reports, Apple is cracking down on these fraudulent gift cards by permanently disabling user accounts that redeem them. (Posted 2009-06-29) Jeff Carlson Talks iMovie '09 with MacVoices -- Jeff Carlson chats with Chuck Joiner on MacVoices about undocumented features in the latest iMovie '09 releases, and unexpectedly delivers a short Video Encoding 101 course when explaining the new Optimize Video feature. (Posted 2009-06-22) First iPhone Recovered via Find My iPhone? -- A Lego Brickworld conference attendee writes up his Jack Bauer-like recovery of an iPhone that was nicked at a sketchy bar. (Posted 2009-06-22)  Copyright © 2009 TidBITS Staff. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. WebCrossing Neighbors Creates Private Social NetworksCreate a complete social network with your company or group'sown look. Scalable, extensible and extremely customizable.Take a guided tour today <http://www.webcrossing.com/tour>  

iTunes stops podcast downloads -- If you don't open a new podcast episode within five days, iTunes stops downloading new episodes. Is there a way to change this behavior? (2 messages) My Three Screens, via ViBook -- The ViBook lets you add another monitor via a USB connection, but iMovie '09 won't launch with one attached. (2 messages) Mac OS X shutdown vs sleep mode -- Is it advisable to shut down a Mac periodically, or can you just put it to sleep? The consensus is: sleep. (6 messages)  Copyright © 2009 Jeff Carlson. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. VMware Fusion. The most seamless way to run Windows on your Mac. Backed by nearly a decade of proven virtualization technology. Try VMware Fusion today for only $79.99. Visit: <http://www.tidbits.com/about/support/vmware-fusion.html>  

Despite being packed with information, a dictionary usually gets scant attention: You look up a word to check its spelling or definition, maybe skim its etymology, and then return to what you were doing. But if you consult Wordnik, you could easily find yourself embarking on a languorous exploration of the English language. Wordnik provides definitions from the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition; the Century Dictionary; WordNet 3.0; and the GNU version of The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. Synonyms and antonyms are pulled from Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition, and Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms. Definitions from Webster's Unabridged 1913 edition also occasionally make appearances. There's more to a word than its definition, of course, and Wordnik supplements the basic information in several additional ways. Most prominent are examples of the word in use, pulled from titles available from Project Gutenberg. Passages appear at the top-left corner of the page, providing the word in several contexts. I think this approach is a great idea, because a definition alone may not always give you a sense of how the word is used. Wordnik also includes audio pronunciations read by a deep-toned man from American Heritage. If you create a free Wordnik account, you can record your own pronunciations (as well as take other actions such as adding notes and suggesting related words). I noticed that kerfuffle didn't have a pronunciation, so I recorded one. (I also realized after consulting Wordnik that I'd always pronounced it "kerfluffle" with an extraneous L in the middle.) A Statistics graph, when available, displays the frequency a word has been used each year dating back to 1800, with an indication of how unusual its usage was for that year. Wordnik appears to be doing the calculating themselves, but it's unclear where the source data is coming from. For a more modern take, Wordnik grabs real-time examples of the word from Twitter, as well as images from Flickr that contain the word as a tag. The site also tells you how many times a word has been looked up, which is a neat indication of which words people are using or exploring. And, no doubt because it can, some words include anagrams and their point values in Scrabble. Although Wordnik claims a database of 1.7 million words, some are bound to not appear (or are not recognized as real words). Instead of putting up a generic "word not found" error page, Wordnik uses its tools to locate instances of the word online. Even if you can't suss out the precise definition, the additional context can be a ginormous help in determining its meaning. This approach can also apply to people: "jeff carlson" displays recent appearances of my name in Twitter plus two photos from Flickr. You also have to admire a service that openly discloses its plans for world domination in its FAQ: "We figure that once we have at least some information for every word in English, updated in real time, world domination will just fall in our laps." Wordnik proves you don't have to be a lexicographer or vocabulist to appreciate and play with language. But be careful, because you could find yourself happily absorbed in the site for hours.  Copyright © 2009 Jeff Carlson. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. VMware Fusion. The most seamless way to run Windows on your Mac. Backed by nearly a decade of proven virtualization technology. Try VMware Fusion today for only $79.99. Visit: <http://www.tidbits.com/about/support/vmware-fusion.html>  

When AT&T mishandled public relations around the iPhone for the Nth time recently - in having no formulated or ostensibly correct answer about upgrade fees for existing subscribers - I heard plenty of folks counting the days until AT&T was no longer the exclusive U.S. carrier for Apple's iPhone. (See "Call AT&T for the Best iPhone Upgrade Price," 2009-06-15.) I don't want to say that it ain't gonna happen, because we all know that where there's a business will, there's a technology way. But there are a few big bars in the way. Cellular Standards -- The foremost bar is that AT&T uses the GSM cellular standard, over which the vast majority of mobile phones operate worldwide. T-Mobile USA uses GSM as well. Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel long ago opted for CDMA, which is used by hundreds of millions of people in the United States and elsewhere, but has no future as a standard, as I'll explain. Verizon has been much mentioned as a replacement or supplemental partner for Apple. But many folks forget that the iPhone simply can't operate on Verizon's network today. There is no technical reason why Apple cannot create a modified version of the iPhone that works on Verizon's current 2G and 3G networks. Except that Apple's mobile chip provider is still reportedly Infineon, and Infineon has no CDMA technology in its portfolio, only GSM. (If you read Infineon's site you'll see that the company supports WCDMA, which is connected only in underlying theory to CDMA. WCDMA is an encoding standard used in UMTS, the slowest 3G flavor used on GSM networks.) That means Apple would have to switch chip providers or add another one, which would be difficult given Apple's penchant for secrecy and how closely the company has reportedly worked with Infineon. Infineon could develop its own CDMA chips, but Qualcomm owns an enormous number of patents related to CDMA (which it invented), and it would be a complex, long-term project for Infineon to obtain the rights. That all makes it highly unlikely in the short run. Infineon also has one software-defined product, where software can reshape the radio standards supported in the chip, but CDMA isn't on the list of supported standards. Further, it's hard to see why Apple would start down the CDMA path at this moment, because Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel have both abandoned the CDMA roadmap for their 4G networks, and Qualcomm has discontinued development on its 4G standard. Verizon and Sprint use Qualcomm's 3G standard, EVDO, but both have committed to different fourth-generation network standards. (EVDO doesn't allow data and voice at the same time, which would seemingly be a non-starter for Apple.) Of course, T-Mobile currently uses the same GSM standard as AT&T. However, T-Mobile was late to the spectrum game, and has deployed 3G only in limited cities. Further, T-Mobile acquired some spectrum that hasn't been used before for 3G in the United States, nor in other countries. T-Mobile's 3G phones support a different set of spectrum bands than those sold by AT&T for international use, and the iPhone doesn't include the band required for some of T-Mobile's 3G spectrum. What about LTE and WiMax? AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon will all use LTE (Long Term Evolution), which is considered a GSM-evolved protocol - the standard has come from the GSM worldwide trade group - and has emerged to be the dominant next-generation or 4G mobile standard. LTE will have a top throughput of 50 to 200 Mbps, depending on how wide a frequency range is assigned by carriers to channels. In the United States, a real per-user speed could hit 4 to 8 Mbps in routine use, and peak at much higher rates in bursts. Companies working on LTE phones and telecom analysts don't expect handsets with LTE built in for a while - 2011 will likely be the earliest, but it could even be 2012. Sprint has opted for WiMax, because the firm wanted to get a 4G network deployed faster for competitive reasons, and wasn't sold on LTE when it made the call. Sprint merged its holdings with Clearwire, of which it now owns a majority, and has put WiMax in four major cities so far (Atlanta, Baltimore, Las Vegas, and Portland, Oregon). Sprint's choice of WiMax makes it unlikely to work as an Apple partner, and Sprint was also the exclusive debut carrier for the Palm Pre, as well. (Again, WiMax could be added to an iPhone at some point, but the future worldwide market for WiMax seems extremely small compared to current LTE plans.) Clearwire expects to have WiMax built out to pass 120 million people by the end of 2010, but Verizon and AT&T likely won't hit that population with LTE until well into 2011 or even 2012 with currently announced plans. After that, however, LTE will likely surpass WiMax by a vast margin. I could see Apple taking one of two paths. One would be to stick entirely with the GSM roadmap, upgrading new iPhone models with faster HSPA standards as they appear, and adding LTE to a future iPhone as AT&T starts to deploy that standard in earnest in about two years. That buys the iPhone access to 4G networks worldwide, including Verizon's, although only for LTE. This strikes me as most likely because it's a simple, effective plan that encompasses the majority of advanced-network users worldwide now and over the next decade. The latest reports put worldwide GSM users at 4 billion and CDMA at 500 million, roughly, although a good portion of those subscribers don't have faster than 2G network access. The second path, which seems more fussy and thus less likely, would be for Apple to wait for both AT&T and Verizon to have significant LTE deployments that are backed up by slower and more robust CDMA/EVDO and GSM/EDGE/3G networks where LTE coverage is unavailable. At that point, Apple could produce an iPhone that could support all those standards. The reason that Apple would need to add at least CDMA (and possibly EVDO) to work on Verizon's network is that Verizon will continue to operate its slowest 2G voice networks using CDMA for some time, perhaps another decade. First-generation analog voice service was discontinued only last year, many years after 2G voice was fully deployed. It's unlikely a Verizon customer would tolerate an LTE-only phone. Currently, AT&T has about 80 million and Verizon about 90 million U.S. subscribers, and both carriers will continue to grow. It does seem odd for Apple to forego a potential large hunk of users in the United States, but looked at worldwide, focusing on GSM and LTE is a simpler course of action. It's still possible that Apple has a card up its sleeve, but I don't see how that's possible without bringing in another chip maker, and firing up operations that would be highly specific to the U.S. market. Never say never with Apple, but I believe that AT&T is where the iPhone will remain for the next couple of years. Copyright © 2009 Glenn Fleishman. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. Fetch Softworks: Fetch 5.5 has WebView, the easy wayto view files in a browser and copy web addresses from Fetch.Also Quick Look support, droplet shortcuts, and more.Download your free trial version! <http://fetchsoftworks.com/>  

AOL has pushed out a version of AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) for iPhone that features push notification of new messages. The program comes in two versions: free with ads, or $2.99 without ads. Both versions work with iPhone OS 2.0 software, but require iPhone OS 3.0 to display alerts of new responses from chat partners when you're using other apps. The addition of push is the only major change to the iPhone AIM client, and it's a big one. (The other, minor, addition is typing in the landscape orientation.) You have to launch AIM and sign in to activate push. All programs that feature push have to be launched at least once to register their intent to push, even if there's no account configuration required. Once you're signed in to AIM, the software lets you remain signed in for 24 hours, during which time incoming messages are displayed as push notifications if your iPhone is sleeping or if you're using other apps. If the iPhone's display is active and you're using AIM, messages are shown inline. The iPod touch receives notifications only if it's connected to a Wi-Fi network; while awake (display active), it shows messages instantly, and while sleeping, it checks every 15 minutes. The iPhone uses Wi-Fi only if a cellular connection isn't available, and Apple's developer guidelines says those messages are shown only if the iPhone is plugged in or awake. This appears to be either an inconsistency in how the iPhone and iPod touch handle push, or an error in one of Apple's documents. AIM can work from multiple locations at once, which means you could be signed into iChat on one or more Macs and signed into AIM for iPhone. However, in testing, Adam Engst and I found that if you and your partner have encryption enabled in iChat, messages and sessions initiated in iChat don't generate push notifications. If you start responding to the same person in AIM for iPhone, encryption is disabled on iChat, and push notifications start up. You can disable iChat encryption (Preferences > Accounts > your account > Security), or make sure you're logged out of iChat on all machines if you want push notifications to work in AIM for iPhone. Push notification behavior for an iPhone or iPod touch can be set through a new Notifications item that appears in the Settings app only after you've installed at least one program that uses push. There's a global setting to turn notification on or off, and then program-specific options. AIM offers the choice of disabling sound, alerts, and badges. (A badge is the number that appears on an app icon showing a quantity of something associated with the app.) The addition of push should be part of the inevitable decline of text messaging (also known as SMS). As I wrote in "When iPhone Pushes, Text Message Fees Fall" (2009-04-09), a text message might cost a carrier a fraction of a cent to handle, while the firms charge customers up to 25 cents per message. As far as the details that Apple has provided explain, push notification doesn't cost the customer or the software developer anything, and, in the United States, iPhones come with unlimited data plans. Push notifications are tiny, and even thousands of notifications should add up to no more than a megabyte per month, which shouldn't be a problem even in countries that cap data plan usage. Unlike SMS, push notification is best effort - Apple tells developers that "delivery of push notifications is not guaranteed." For instance, Apple's "quality of service" description says that notifications that can't be delivered are stored for a "limited period" before being deleted, and that only one notification per app is cached if a device isn't immediately reachable. SMS is designed to be more robust, and while there is also no guarantee, SMS text messages are almost always delivered unless a cell phone is either out of range or turned off for an extended period of time. SMS's key advantage is universality across carriers and countries, even though cross-border SMS is even more expensive than the ridiculous in-country charges. But AIM has tens of millions of users, and it's free to get an AIM account that works with iChat as well, so you could encourage anyone with whom you frequently text message and who has an iPhone or iPod touch to set up an AIM account for use with the iPhone client. That said, AIM can't yet replace SMS. The 24-hour sign-in limit might be AOL's way of reducing load or Apple's requirement to avoid damaging relationships with carriers. Still, I could see checking in to see if someone were on AIM before using SMS - and if not, sending an SMS message for them to log into AIM.  Copyright © 2009 Glenn Fleishman. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. Microsoft's MacBU: Supporting Mac users with Office 2008.Is your Office up-to-date? Make sure you're running the latestversions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Entourage by choosingCheck for Updates from the Help menu of any Office application!  

Tinderbox 4.7.0 from Eastgate Systems is a significant update to the personal content assistant. Maps and charts receive a slew of new features including added shapes, fill materials, and support for Dashboard. Also, new smart adornments help manage and organize your maps by automatically gathering, sorting, and arranging notes and then extracting pertinent information, setting or removing tags, or even posting messages on Twitter. Finally, the update brings a new Chart view, improved handling of link labels, and a speed bump for agents, actions, and rules. ($229 new, free updates for purchases within the last year or $90 otherwise, 28.7 MB) Airfoil 3.3.1 from Rogue Amoeba is a minor maintenance update to the audio distribution tool. The update provides compatibility with AirPort Express 7.4.2 firmware and Apple TV 2.4 firmware; the auto-transmit checkbox under Preferences now works correctly with speakers that disappear; and Airfoil no longer sends initial fake timing packets to work around firewalls. Also, several issues have been addressed including multiple Video Player problems related to dragging in a new movie and one with deadlocked speaker threads. ($25 new, free upgrade, 11.3 MB) Apple TV 2.4 is an update to Apple's home media center. Most notably, the latest version includes support for the iPhone/iPod touch Remote app, enabling users to control an Apple TV with finger gestures. The update also adds Flickr search capabilities, new View categories, and enhanced transport and chapter modes. The update is available via Apple TV's Software Update menu. The Missing Sync for iPhone 2.0.2 from Mark/Space updates the Mac-to-smartphone syncing software to add voicemail and voice memo archiving and transfer capabilities, and provides full support for iPhone OS 3.0. A bug that could prevent syncing in Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger has been fixed, as has one that could cause a crash when syncing Notes with Entourage. Note that encrypting backup files in iTunes 8.2 (set on the Summary tab for the iPhone in iTunes) prevents The Missing Sync from being able to read data from the iPhone. This update is downloaded automatically by The Missing Sync. ($39.95, $29.95 crossgrade, free update) Time Capsule and AirPort Base Station Firmware Update 7.4.2 from Apple is a maintenance update that fixes a handful of minor bugs. Issues addressed include unspecified problems with connecting to extended networks, connectivity issues with third-party devices, an unspecified issue that occurs when the base station is configured for PPPoE, and Back to My Mac support for third-party routers. Apple suggests that AirPort Utility 5.4.2 or later be installed before upgrading to firmware version 7.4.2. The update can be downloaded via AirPort Utility > Check for Updates. (Free) Final Cut Pro 6.0.6 from Apple is a minor maintenance and compatibility update to the professional video editing software. The update fixes issues with real-time playback for users working with early 2009 Mac Pro and Xserve models. (Free, 19.15 MB) Camino 1.6.8 from The Camino Project is a security and stability update to the Mac-focused, Gecko-based Web browser. Improvements include an upgrade to the Mozilla Gecko rendering engine version 1.8.1.22, which contains a handful of security fixes, and enhanced ad blocking. Also, the stored cookie list now displays despite the presence of invalid cookies, the Downloads window now remains open when the Customize Toolbar dialog is visible, and typing to select an item now works correctly in SELECT controls with OPTGROUP elements. (Free, 15.3 MB for English-only or 19 MB for multilingual) BBEdit 9.2.1 from Bare Bones Software is a maintenance and stability update to the powerful text editor. Four crashing bugs have been fixed, including one that occurred when dragging items into a project list, one that could happen when opening the Find window from the scripting interface, one that appeared when an SFTP server returned invalid UTF-8 file names, and one that popped up when using the Open with Finder action from project and browser lists. Plus, a bug that prevented users from setting a Sleep key command has been fixed, the Replace commands now properly update the search history, and a progress dialog now appears when upgrading the Application Support folder contents. ($125 new, free update, 15.4 MB) MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.7 from Apple addresses an unspecified issue affecting a small number of users using 3 Gbps SATA drives in June 2009 MacBook Pros. Apple clarifies: "While this update allows drives to use transfer rates greater than 1.5 Gbps, Apple has not qualified or offered these drives for Mac notebooks and their use is unsupported." The download is available via Software Update or via the Apple Support Downloads page. To update your firmware, follow the instructions located in the updater application which launches after the installer closes (/Applications/Utilities/MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update.app). (Free, 3.35 MB)  Copyright © 2009 Doug McLean. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. THE MISSING SYNC: Take it with you! The Missing Sync makesit easy to synchronize contacts, calendars, notes, photosand more from your Mac to your BlackBerry, HTC, Treo,iPhone and other phones. <http://www.markspace.com/bits>  

Jeff Carlson chats with Chuck Joiner on MacVoices about undocumented features in the latest iMovie '09 releases, and unexpectedly delivers a short Video Encoding 101 course when explaining the new Optimize Video feature. Copyright © 2009 Jeff Carlson. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. READERS LIKE YOU! Support TidBITS with a contribution today!<http://www.tidbits.com/about/support/contributors.html>Special thanks this week to Daniel P. Richardson, Bob Arnold,Leonard D. Schloff, and Bill Chaloupka for their generous support!  

Click to Flash and YouTube -- Click to Flash can automatically display the H.264 QuickTime version of YouTube videos, as can some other utilities. (5 messages) iPhone running software -- Readers discuss which iPod and iPhone models include support for the Nike+ software and hardware. (8 messages) Upgrade to iPod Touch -- With the iPhone updated, readers turn to speculation about what the next revision of the iPod touch will bring, as well as a discussion of getting Internet access at Wi-Fi hotspots. (24 messages) The Art of iPhone Photography -- The iPhone's built-in camera gets the TidBITS Talk scrutiny. (8 messages) Unable to upgrade RAM in dual G5 -- After repeated failure to upgrade RAM in a Power Mac G5, the question of that model's durability comes up. (9 messages) Java update -- Readers report problems when installing the recent Java update that fixes a security vulnerability. (9 messages) Call AT&T for the Best iPhone Upgrade Price -- The $99 iPhone 3G is somewhat misleading when you factor the cost of ongoing cellular service. (7 messages) Clever address field parsing in Web browsers -- Adam likes Firefox's smart suggestions based on what's typed in the address field, although LaunchBar can bring some of the same capabilities to other browsers. (2 messages) Some observations about the new iPhone/iPod Touch OS -- Readers start sharing their impressions of the iPhone OS 3.0 software. (4 messages) Upgrading from iPod Touch to iPhone -- What's the best way to move one's data from an iPod touch to an iPhone? Is it just a matter of plugging in the new device? (1 message) AirPort Express Query -- Can you access more than one printer from an AirPort Express if you attach a USB hub? (2 messages) Switching to Safari 4: plugins? After switching to Safari 4, a reader looks for utilities that replicate the functionality of many Firefox plug-ins. (4 messages)  Copyright © 2009 Jeff Carlson. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. WebCrossing Neighbors Creates Private Social NetworksCreate a complete social network with your company or group'sown look. Scalable, extensible and extremely customizable.Take a guided tour today <http://www.webcrossing.com/tour>  

Call me obsessive, call me retentive, but just don't call me on an "iPhone 3G S," since Apple has quietly started changing the new iPhone's name to "iPhone 3GS," removing the space before the trailing S. As I said in "New iPhone 3GS Boosts Power, Performance, and More" (2009-06-08), "Technically, it's 'iPhone 3G S' - with a space before the S - but those of us who spend our lives writing about these products have to draw the line somewhere, and a standalone S is untenable in running prose." Aside from just looking awkward, a standalone S makes it even harder to form plurals and possessives than it would be with an S at the end of the word. (One person on Twitter pointed out that "Mac OS X" should also suffer from the same problems, but it never set off my warning bells because X is such an unusual character, because it's pronounced "ten," and because the entire name is short enough to be read as a single unit.) Although I subsequently caved to staff concerns about our articles looking incorrect in comparison with those from other publications, and we wrote around the awkward "iPhone 3G S" construction all last week, I was ecstatic to see this morning that not only had Apple started following my construction in the press release announcing the iPhone 3GS's excellent initial sales, but that the company had also retroactively edited the press release announcing the iPhone 3GS to avoid the spaced-out name. For a few hours, that initial release's headline link on the main Apple PR page still used the old name, but I now see that even that headline has been fixed. I expect it will take some time before Apple can make this name change consistent across the entire site. For instance, a useful KnowledgeBase page that calls out which iPhone OS 3.0 features work on which iPhone models still uses the old name. That's OK - I was mostly interested in guidance from Apple for those of us who are likely to be writing about the iPhone 3GS on a regular basis for the next few years. Plus, losing that space will make Ted Landau's next edition of "Take Control of Your iPhone" shorter and less prone to awkward orphans. I also don't see Apple changing the graphical branding of the iPhone 3GS, which actually has the S using a different font style and in a box. It's also worth noting that on the iPhone 3GS itself, the only identifying text at all says simply "iPhone". I'm fine with that.  Copyright © 2009 Adam C. Engst. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. THE MISSING SYNC: Take it with you! The Missing Sync makesit easy to synchronize contacts, calendars, notes, photosand more from your Mac to your BlackBerry, HTC, Treo,iPhone and other phones. <http://www.markspace.com/bits>  

Apple has announced that one million iPhone 3GS units were sold during the phone's first three days of availability. Interestingly, this is the exact amount of time it took the iPhone 3G, released on 11-Jul-08, to clear one million units. The iPhone 3GS also launched in just eight countries, compared to 24 countries for the iPhone 3G launch. Despite the incredible anticipation and memorable images of lines spilling out of Apple retail stores, the original iPhone didn't hit the one million mark until 74 days after its release on 29-Jun-07. Although it's interesting to compare these numbers, we have to take a number of factors into account, especially when considering the time it took the original iPhone to hit the one million mark. While the subsidized prices for the iPhone 3G 8 GB and 16 GB models were the same as for the iPhone 3GS 16 GB and 32 GB models - $199 and $299 respectively - the original iPhone's 4 GB and 8 GB models were priced at $499 and $599 (without subsidies). Selling at roughly double the cost and under first-generation scrutiny and skepticism, the original iPhone's 74-day wait to sell one million units is easily understandable. It's also worth considering that since the original iPhone's debut, Apple has opened more retail stores, and a wider population has caught on to the iPhone phenomenon and even the concept of owning a smartphone. Additional years of marketing, positive reviews, and awards should also be acknowledged when considering the tremendous reduction in time it took both the iPhone 3G and 3GS to hit the one million milestone. But how should we think about the apparently identical sales statistic for the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS? Some factors point to lowered expectations, such as the dour economy (the major bank failures that signaled the most serious phase of the economic crisis came after the release of the iPhone 3G in July 2008). Plus, at least in the United States, AT&T's fumbling of the iPhone 3GS upgrade pricing must have caused some people to hold off on upgrading (see "Call AT&T for the Best iPhone Upgrade Price", 2009-06-15, and "AT&T Improves and Clarifies iPhone Upgrade Eligibility", 2009-06-17). While AT&T eventually improved its wayward upgrade policy to be more friendly to loyal customers, initial reporting may still have negatively affected the first weekend of sales. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the iPhone 3GS could have exceeded the sales of its predecessor, given the additional year of marketing and press, and an improved list of specs for the same price points. This year's model also had the benefit of online pre-orders, with devices shipped free for arrival or available for pickup at an Apple Store on launch day. The iPhone 3G required in-person sales and activation at the beginning of its run. Which generation's one-million-sold mark is the greater accomplishment is thus a difficult question to answer - but quite the enjoyable problem to have if you're Apple. Meanwhile, the demographics of who partook in this first weekend's shopping spree will likely remain unknown, though this year it likely contained a slew of generation-jumping owners of the original iPhone, a healthy dash of iPhone 3G upgraders, and likely some wide-eyed newcomers too.  Copyright © 2009 Doug McLean. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. READERS LIKE YOU! Support TidBITS with a contribution today!<http://www.tidbits.com/about/support/contributors.html>Special thanks this week to Daniel P. Richardson, Bob Arnold,Leonard D. Schloff, and Bill Chaloupka for their generous support!  

A Lego Brickworld conference attendee writes up his Jack Bauer-like recovery of an iPhone that was nicked at a sketchy bar. Copyright © 2009 Glenn Fleishman. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. Fetch Softworks: Fetch 5.5 has WebView, the easy wayto view files in a browser and copy web addresses from Fetch.Also Quick Look support, droplet shortcuts, and more.Download your free trial version! <http://fetchsoftworks.com/>  

Whenever I'm making Take Control Library CDs as door prizes for Mac user group meetings (which is, honestly, the main reason I burn CDs of any sort), I've taken to using the Dymo DiscPainter to label them, in conjunction with DiscLabel from SmileOnMyMac (see "Print Classy Discs with the Dymo DiscPainter," 2008-12-01). There are other disc labeling programs out there, several of which I have, but DiscLabel floated to the top when I needed to label a CD. The recently released DiscLabel 6 makes creating labels easier than before, thanks to a streamlined interface for creating new designs and an inspector that simplifies editing object, image, and text properties. Image importing has been improved, so imported images can now be added to all label and packaging design elements simultaneously, and a new montage tool lets you create montages from multiple photos. SmileOnMyMac also added 80 professionally designed template sets for those who just want to add some text or import track lists from iTunes, iPhoto, iDVD, the Finder, or Toast. All entrants (and only entrants!) will receive a discount on DiscLabel 6, so be sure to enter at the DealBITS page. All information gathered is covered by our comprehensive privacy policy. Remember too, that if someone you refer to this drawing wins, you'll receive the same prize as a reward for spreading the word.  Copyright © 2009 Adam C. Engst. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. Think it. Speak it. Create it with the all-new MacSpeechDictate 1.5. It better, faster, stronger with improved recognition,new regional accents, vocabulary editor with word training.Learn more: <http://www.tidbits.com/about/support/macspeech.html>  

If you just can't get enough WWDC coverage, don't miss Adam's recent podcast appearance on the Tech Night Owl Live to discuss all of Apple's announcements with Gene Steinberg. Copyright © 2009 Adam C. Engst. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. Fetch Softworks: Fetch 5.5 has WebView, the easy wayto view files in a browser and copy web addresses from Fetch.Also Quick Look support, droplet shortcuts, and more.Download your free trial version! <http://fetchsoftworks.com/>  

Late on 19-Jun-09, The Wall Street Journal published a surprising article about Steve Jobs having a liver transplant, but even more surprisingly, cited no sources for the information. John Gruber of Daring Fireball follows the threads to suggest that perhaps the source was a member of Apple's Board of Directors. Copyright © 2009 Adam C. Engst. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. Fetch Softworks: Fetch 5.5 has WebView, the easy wayto view files in a browser and copy web addresses from Fetch.Also Quick Look support, droplet shortcuts, and more.Download your free trial version! <http://fetchsoftworks.com/>  

John Gruber Opines about WSJ Liver Transplant Article Sourcing -- Late on 19-Jun-09, The Wall Street Journal published a surprising article about Steve Jobs having a liver transplant, but even more surprisingly, cited no sources for the information. John Gruber of Daring Fireball follows the threads to suggest that perhaps the source was a member of Apple's Board of Directors. (Posted 2009-06-22) New Hotspot Handling in iPhone 3.0 -- The new iPhone 3.0 software includes a better way of handling recurring hotspot logins by capturing the gateway login page information that you enter and re-joining the network automatically. This new method also introduced some bugs in existing Wi-Fi connection managers. Glenn Fleishman explains all at Macworld. (Posted 2009-06-18) Apple Kills Q&A at WWDC App Store Session -- Marco Arment is reporting a surprisingly dismissive gesture by Apple at WWDC. After the final developer session about publishing on the App Store, Apple cut, without notice or explanation, the standard Q&A segment that provides developers a crucial opportunity to go beyond the presented content. Apple's refusal to allow questions raises another one: What is Apple afraid of hearing from iPhone developers? (Posted 2009-06-16) Adam Looks More at WWDC on the Tech Night Owl Live -- If you just can't get enough WWDC coverage, don't miss Adam's recent podcast appearance on the Tech Night Owl Live to discuss all of Apple's announcements with Gene Steinberg. (Posted 2009-06-16)  Copyright © 2009 TidBITS Staff. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. VMware Fusion. The most seamless way to run Windows on your Mac. Backed by nearly a decade of proven virtualization technology. Try VMware Fusion today for only $79.99. Visit: <http://www.tidbits.com/about/support/vmware-fusion.html>  

Google has been name-checked on security. A letter sent on 16-Jun-09 to Google CEO Eric Schmidt strongly urges the company to make a secure connection the default method for Web applications. Among the 38 signatories to the letter are a host of well-known security experts, researchers, and advocates, including Ronald Rivest (the R of RSA), Bruce Schneier, Jon Callas, Eugene Spafford, Peter G. Neumann, William Cheswick, and Steven Bellovin. Two years ago, Google's use of unsecured connections came to the fore with the discovery of sidejacking, a technique for grabbing the authentication cookies that Google uses to identify users during an unsecured session and inserting them into a browser under the sidejacker's control. Sidejacking can be performed anywhere there's an open Wi-Fi hotspot or an untrusted Ethernet network in which traffic is mingled and sniffable. (See "Sidejack Attack Jimmies Open Gmail, Other Services," 2007-08-27.) Google has taken some steps to derail sidejacking, including marking the Gmail authentication cookie with a secure flag that should keep it from being sent without encryption even if https isn't used. Google also added an option to require https (SSL/TLS secured) connections for Gmail. (See "Google Gmail Adds Secure Session Option," 2008-07-28.) The researchers noted that other services, like Google Docs and Google Calendar, support https as well, although there's no way to set that level of security as a default. The letter sent to Google claims that acquiring a Google authentication cookie from Docs or Calendar would allow access to Gmail, but one of Google's security team members, Alma Whitten, said in a blog entry that it wouldn't be possible for such a cookie to be intercepted. The security experts urge that https sessions become the default for all Web-based services. The letter acknowledges that this lack is a widespread problem, and is even worse at Microsoft Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, Facebook, and MySpace because those services don't offer a secure option. We expect that the security experts are starting with Google because of Google's existing optional support for secure connections, and if they can convince Google to make the switch, they'll move on to these other companies. They note that because Google apps are designed to work asynchronously, queuing and performing tasks at the server and then updating the browser without a page reload, any latency introduced by the additional user or server computational load for encryption won't make the experience of using these applications worse. Google's response, in Whitten's blog entry, is that Google remains concerned that there's not enough known about whether specific computer configurations, networks, or parts of the world would suffer far worse performance in an all-https world. Whitten also said that Google is planning a trial that moves small sets of Gmail customers who haven't explicitly requested https-only sessions to that option. Copyright © 2009 Glenn Fleishman. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. WebCrossing Neighbors Creates Private Social NetworksCreate a complete social network with your company or group'sown look. Scalable, extensible and extremely customizable.Take a guided tour today <http://www.webcrossing.com/tour>  

iTunes Tagging seemed like the ultimate in awkward technology to me when it was announced in September 2007 by Apple and iBiquity, the firm responsible for HD Radio, the only legal standard for digital AM and FM transmission in the United States. (Satellite radio is controlled by Sirius.) I finally used the technology yesterday, and I was surprisingly impressed by it. You need the background first to understand why my mind was changed, and what the future symbiosis for broadcast radio and Internet radio might be. Tag, You're Buying It -- The idea behind iTunes Tagging was to add tag button to radios with iPod and iPhone docks that would let you later decide to buy a song you heard. If you were listening to a radio station that was broadcasting a special tag number that uniquely identified the song, and you pressed the tag button while your device was docked, the radio would send that information over the dock. Some radios could store tags and load them on a device when it was docked subsequently, too. Later, when you synced your iPod or iPhone with iTunes, the tagging information would be transferred into iTunes, where it shows up under a special entry in the Store section of the sidebar. Awkward, huh? You need a radio with a dock, you have to listen to a station broadcasting tags, you must move the iPhone or iPod back and forth, and then you have to use iTunes to buy the tagged songs. The first tabletop and portable radios came out with this feature in early 2008, and while I would occasionally see it written up, it seemed merely like a marketing idea with little impact. The list of capable devices (missing at least a few) is quite slim at hdradio.com, a site run by radio stations promoting the technology. HD Radio, meanwhile, has been floundering. There are about 12,000 radio stations in the United States and only about 15 percent - largely public radio stations and parts of radio empires - have turned on digital broadcasts. That number hasn't grown much over the last two years, after an initial flurry of interest by stations in what is a relatively cheap upgrade, but which also requires recurring royalty fees to iBiquity. Only some percentage of those 1,500 stations use iTunes Tagging, too. HD Radio has a lot of compromises, but when it works well and you're within the coverage area, the sound quality of AM improves from hideous to very nice, and for FM it offers a sound similar to a well-compressed MP3 or AAC file. FM also gains multiple sub-stations which have unique programming. I won't go into the many reasons that this form of digital radio - as distinct from satellite radio in the United States and from incompatible standards used or proposed in Europe for regular and short-wave radios - hasn't taken hold. That might take a book to document fully. But the foundation for iTunes Tagging is the combination of digital broadcasts, participation by stations, and Apple baking the technology into iPods, iPhones, and iTunes. Playing Tag in Traffic -- When our Honda's horrible Aiwa radio started to give up the ghost, I decided it was time to add a receiver with HD Radio reception, given that I've been writing about the technology for years but own only a cheap Radio Shack receiver at my office. I even wrote several of the earliest articles and reviews for The New York Times of HD Radio gear. (What's more, I started and have partially abandoned a blog about HD Radio, called Digital AM/FM.) While HD Radio isn't thriving everywhere, and reception can be poor if you're too far from transmitters, I live and work in the heart of Seattle, which has more than a dozen stations broadcasting digital signals. This includes KUOW-FM, where I contribute a regular segment on technology. FM stations are currently required to mirror their analog broadcast on the first HD channel - which are numbered HD1, HD2, and so on - and KUOW puts alternate public radio programs on its second, and BBC news on its third. I went over to Crutchfield to find a new receiver that was HD capable. Crutchfield has a terrific winnowing assistant, so I was able to look at radios that were compatible with my Honda, and that had both HD Radio support and a front-panel iPod jack. I wound up buying a JVC model KD-AHD59 for about $170. (If you order from Crutchfield and are a new customer, you can use a referral code - purdt-etsqh-s1hiz - for $20 off orders of $200 or more of merchandise. I get $20 for referring you - up to some unknown amount - but I'm interested in getting readers a better price, too.) Crutchfield provides full installation instructions for the brave or foolhardy, and being both, I chose to install the radio myself. It wasn't that hard, and I was left neither bleeding nor bruised. The radio worked, too. After reassembling the interior panels, I plugged in my iPhone and started playing with options. Like all receivers that support iPods and iPhones, the head unit of the receiver offers an iPod-like scrolling list of items like playlists, albums, and podcasts. JVC chose to put its Tag button prominently on the left - a bit too much so. It's possible that there's a subsidy for doing so, because it's not the kind of thing a user would ask for, nor do you need it often unless you're an inveterate listener. I tuned through some commercial stations, saw the Tag button light up after a digital broadcast had locked in - it can take 5 to 8 seconds for locking, although analog plays on an AM or HD1 on FM while you wait. I tapped Tag, saw that tagging information was being synced to my iPhone, and that was that. Later, I brought the iPhone inside, popped it in its dock to charge, and the Tagging item showed up in the sidebar in iTunes. In one case, the item was an iTunes streaming audio link, which I thought was awfully useful and non-commercial. Imagine hearing an unfamiliar radio station, and having that station tagged along with or instead of a song. The limitation in all this is that tagging requires that stations both broadcast HD Radio and have preset playlists that have the tag data associated. That limits this service to commercial stations at present. But there could be an ultimate synthesis that would be far better, and perhaps isn't far off, based on the streaming link that tagging gave me. Linking Over the Air and Over the Internet -- The initial announcement of tagging came three months after the original iPhone shipped. No one knew if it would be a success, and it wasn't clear if cellular networks could support streaming audio and large downloads. In the end, of course, Apple has sold over 40 million units of the iPhone and iPod touch, and Apple enabled 10 MB or smaller iTunes Store downloads over cellular networks. There's no download limit over Wi-Fi (although hotspots may have their own limits). Thus it will be interesting to see if tagging were to morph a little, to become a way that terrestrial radio stations could push out options for listeners to swap easily between listening to a broadcast and listening to a podcast, as well as simply buying songs heard on the station. (The station, by the way, gets some undisclosed piece of the song purchase.) For instance, you're tooling down the road at 12:34 PM listening to a particularly fascinating discussion on NPR's "Talk of the Nation." What if the Tag button linked to the future podcast download of what you're hearing? You get out of your car 15 minutes later and walk into your office, missing the last part of the program, and when the Wi-Fi network kicks in after 1:00 PM, the program starts to download. Perhaps you're even alerted that it's available - and perhaps the podcast is set to the point at which you stopped listening on the radio? All of this would be technically possible, even if a bit of cleverness were required. What if a station could announce something particular - a free song download, a future bit of programming later in the day, or reference a program that was already broadcast on a topic? A Tag button could capture all that and give you can option later, with context, on the iPhone or an iPod touch about what's available. Heck, the Tag button could even be used with advertising, creating a link in iTunes that would open in your Web browser and give you more information about the product or service in question. In the best case, with a 3G-capable iPhone, you could conduct all the operations live over the cell network. The podcast or other data would just start downloading wherever you were, or a song preview could be preloaded for you to listen to. The future of AM and FM is much in doubt because of Internet radio. Tagging should be able to go far beyond the tap-and-maybe-buy scenario for which iTunes Tagging was created. Copyright © 2009 Glenn Fleishman. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. THE MISSING SYNC: If you have a smartphone, we can sync it!Sync your address book, calendar, notes, music, pictures, andmore between your BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian OS orPalm OS phone and your Mac. <http://www.markspace.com/bits>  

Bluetooth Firmware Update 2.0 from Apple comes with brief release notes saying only that the update "provides bug fixes and better compatibility with the Apple Wireless Mighty Mouse and Apple Wireless Keyboard." Apple also notes that the update should be installed on any Macintosh system whose Bluetooth support is based on the Broadcom chipset. To find the manufacturer of your Mac's Bluetooth chipset, run System Profiler, click Bluetooth under Hardware in the sidebar, and check the Manufacturer line. The update is available via Software Update and from the Apple Support Downloads page. (Free, 1.78 MB) Sync'Em 1.30 from Derman Enterprises is an update to the multi-platform syncing utility. Changes include a new setup assistant with a simplified interface, the capability to relaunch the Sync'Em Engine if it fails, improved handling of corrupt SQLite database files, and the capability to handle contact notes that are too large for Google to accept. Also, several issues have been resolved, including one that prevented Exchange from accepting certain iCal alarm conditions, and one that prevented Sync'Em from recovering from lost Exchange EWS IDs. DiscLabel 6.0.1 from SmileOnMyMac is a bug fix update following a major upgrade of the CD and DVD label design software. Changes in DiscLabel 6.0 include 80 new template sets, a redesigned interface, an improved image import palette, a new inspector palette, a new montage tool that enables users to create montages and add them to design elements, an enhanced random design generator, and support for automatic software updating via Sparkle. ($35.95 new, free update, 12.7 MB) Safari 4.0.1 from Apple is a maintenance update to the recently updated browser which "...addresses incompatibilities between Safari 4.0 and certain features in iPhoto '09, including Places and Facebook publishing." The update is available via Software Update or from the Safari download page. (Free, 43.5 MB)  Copyright © 2009 Doug McLean. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. Fetch Softworks: Fetch 5.5 has new support for Mac OS X10.5 Leopard technologies like Quick Look. And you canupload with the oldest technology of all, Copy and Paste!Download your free trial version! <http://fetchsoftworks.com/>  

We've just released "Take Control of Safari 4," a new book by long-time Mac author Sharon Zardetto. We've had many requests for a thorough explanation of Apple's Safari Web browser, and the beta of Safari 4 inspired Sharon to comb through the program, documenting exactly how it works for those who would like to learn a few non-obvious features so they can get more out of the program. If, to pick just a few of the topics covered, you've been slacking off on learning how to organize your bookmarks into a highly useful bookmarks bar, if you've never bothered to learn the keyboard shortcuts for working with tabs efficiently, or if you've always wanted to read RSS feeds but never quite figured them out, this 92-page book is for you. It's available in both PDF ($10) and print ($19.99) formats. In "Take Control of Safari 4," you'll learn about new features like Top Sites and searching the page content of your bookmarks and history, and you'll get answers to questions like these: How do I load six Web pages at once? Now that I've loaded six pages, how do I best work with them? What are all the keyboard shortcuts for working with tabs? How do I bookmark a page I want to return to? How do I import Firefox bookmarks? I have 1,042 bookmarks. Is there a sensible way to search or organize them? What are the default keyboard shortcuts for the bookmarks bar? Can I search for text on the currently active Web page? How do I erase my history to prevent someone from snooping through it? Where does Safari store Web site user names and passwords? Help! However Safari stored my password, it doesn't work any more! How do I use Safari to read RSS headlines from different sites? How do I "snip" a Web page to make it into a Dashboard widget? Needless to say, if you already consider yourself sufficiently expert in Safari and other Web browsers, you probably won't learn that much from the book, but you might consider picking up a copy, skimming it for new tips and tricks, and then giving it to a friend or relative whose Web browsing techniques drive you crazy (you know, your buddy who insists on typing out every URL in its entirety, or your family member who hasn't picked up the utility of Command-clicking links). Copyright © 2009 Adam C. Engst. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. Bare Bones Software's BBEdit 9.2 -- A burly upgrade with newSleep command, LassoScript support, plus enhancements to Projectsand core features like Find and Multi-File Search windows,editing in browsers, and text completion. <http://barebones.com/>  

The new iPhone 3.0 software includes a better way of handling recurring hotspot logins by capturing the gateway login page information that you enter and re-joining the network automatically. This new method also introduced some bugs in existing Wi-Fi connection managers. Glenn Fleishman explains all at Macworld. Copyright © 2009 Glenn Fleishman. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. VMware Fusion. The most seamless way to run Windows on your Mac. Backed by nearly a decade of proven virtualization technology. Try VMware Fusion today for only $79.99. Visit: <http://www.tidbits.com/about/support/vmware-fusion.html>  

Darn it - where's my iPhone? My iPod touch? My keys? Okay, my keys are in my hand, but I have no idea where the other two are. Ow! Now I remember where I left the barbells. I'd better find my Mac - I know where that is, at least - and fire up MobileMe. Let's see, go to me.com, enter username and password, click the Account icon at the top, re-enter my password (for what reason is beyond me), and then click Find My iPhone. Ah ha! It's in my house according to the map. I'll click Display a Message, and have a sound play, too. Under the couch cushions. How typical. Pairing Location with MobileMe -- Find My iPhone, which works with both the iPhone and the iPod touch, is a nifty feature that Apple added to iPhone OS 3.0. It requires a MobileMe account to work (accounts start at $99 per year), but has no other cost attached. The service is intended to help with both misplaced and stolen phones; it lets you trigger a message on the device or erase all the data on it. With location services built into the iPhone, it's trivial for an iPhone to send its current coordinates at any given time. The original iPhone uses a combination of Wi-Fi and cell tower locations; the iPhone 3G and 3GS add GPS to the mix (see "iPhone and iPod touch Become Self-Aware," 2008-01-15). The iPod touch must connect to a Wi-Fi network to both find and update its location. An iPhone needs a connection to either a Wi-Fi network or a cell data network to send the small amount of data necessary. You enable Find My iPhone via the Settings application on the iPhone or iPod touch. It's hidden in the Mail, Contacts, Calendars section under your MobileMe account. You don't have to sync calendars and contacts if you don't want to, as those options can be turned off. The Find My iPhone/iPod touch item is at the bottom; merely slide the switch to On. After enabling the option, use a browser to log into MobileMe, as I describe in my bumbling steps at the start of this article. The Account tab in MobileMe has added ever more options since launch, with Find My iPhone being the latest. (Apple inconsistently calls this Find My iPhone for both the iPhone and the iPod touch in some places, and in others uses the specific device type.) The Find My iPhone page shows one entry for each device. I have both an iPhone and an iPod touch, both of which are set to be found, and I can scroll to see both. When the page first comes up, the last known position is shown, along with the date and time the device last checked in. MobileMe then - I presume - sends a push message to the phone to update that data. An Update Location button appears after MobileMe is satisfied that it has the best location. As long as the device is online - indicated by a green dot and the text "Online" - you have the option to send a message, a beeping alert, or both to the device. Any message you send to the device is also sent to you via your MobileMe mail account. If you use the Display a Message dialog's Play a Sound for 2 Minutes option, your iPhone or iPod touch will sound an alarm even if you have turned off all audio notifications. That's a nifty option both to freak out a thief and to find your phone when it's hidden away in a car or your home. When I described Find My iPhone to my wife, the owner of an original iPhone, she was initially slightly appalled. She thought this would become known as the cheating-spouse or stalker feature, because anyone with access to someone's MobileMe account - which could be a spouse or partner or an ex - would also have live access to someone's position. That's worth considering, references to current and prior relationships aside, if you're not the only person with your MobileMe account password. MobileMe partitions multiple accounts with separate passwords and account features in a family pack ($149 per year), so that shouldn't be a concern. When Your Phone Goes Missing -- As someone who has become rather aware lately of laptop theft - see my friend David Blatner's account of his PowerBook being ripped off in "What I Learned from Having My Laptop Stolen" (2009-03-24) - I had wondered how recovery software companies might work around the "one program runs at a time" limit in iPhone software. Apple skirted that issue by building in such a feature at the system level and bundling it with its own service. Laptop recovery software costs run from about $40 as a one-time fee to $40 to $60 per year, depending on the firm. The addition of Find My iPhone improves MobileMe's value and utility more than just a little for me. Find My iPhone isn't designed just for dealing with the possibility of theft, but the Remote Wipe feature certainly is. Click the Remote Wipe button in MobileMe to reset the device to its factory setting, and your iPhone or iPod touch will delete all your personal data, files, and applications. It will be interesting to see how this finding feature is used with a stolen phone, because law enforcement doesn't always take an interest in items that are worth less than a few thousand dollars, even if you have a picture of the alleged thief and his or her address. However, with a live map, perhaps that would improve your odds. (For the first heart-warming story of how Find My iPhone reunited a geek and his iPhone, read this post from the blog The Intermittent Kevin.) Ken Westin, the head of GadgetTrak, which makes recovery software for laptops and smartphones, said he was pleased that Apple has added this feature, especially the remote data wipe option; he calls it a "greatly needed service." But, he noted, a lot more than a pin on a map could be done. Westin's firm gives away GadgetTrak for iPhone that, when active, looks just like a Safari window. This requires that you launch and leave the app up whenever you're not using your phone. GadgetTrak can't do more because that would require having a constantly running monitor program. Westin said that in his experience with smartphone theft, thieves typically remove SIM cards - the authentication module used on GSM networks worldwide - as soon as possible. Although the iPhone and iPod touch can connect to Wi-Fi networks to report location, thieves might be clever enough to prevent that, and to turn off the Find My iPhone switch. He also pointed out the double-edged sword of pairing a MobileMe account with Find My iPhone's service: if you don't wipe your phone, a thief has access to anything on the phone provided by MobileMe, possibly including your calendar and address book, and the capability to send and receive email. (Setting a passcode significantly improves your odds of keeping your data safe.) The moment you wipe the phone, you're secure, but your ability to locate the phone disappears. Westin also noted that even with a map in hand, Apple isn't providing assistance to go to law enforcement, something GadgetTrak and other laptop recovery software developers offer. A Base on Which to Grow -- Apple has certainly provided a baseline here for both misplaced and stolen devices, but the company usually then relies on third parties to fill in the missing pieces in its own offerings. That's impossible at the moment, but I would suspect that with tens of millions of these devices out there, and the high resale value of both iPhone and the iPod touch, Apple could allow some developers inside the kimono eventually. At least I know where my equipment is at the moment. Now, if I could only find my glasses.  Copyright © 2009 Glenn Fleishman. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. Fetch Softworks: Fetch 5.5 has new support for Mac OS X10.5 Leopard technologies like Quick Look. And you canupload with the oldest technology of all, Copy and Paste!Download your free trial version! <http://fetchsoftworks.com/>  

Apple overhauled its mobile computing offerings last week, making the iPhone OS 3.0 software available on 17-Jun-09 and then releasing the iPhone 3GS two days later on 19-Jun-09. The iPhone 3GS release didn't create the same lengthy waits as last year, when some people stood in line for hours. (I spent 8 hours at the Apple Store University Village to buy an iPhone 3G for my wife; see "iPhone 3G: On the Line in Seattle," 2008-07-13.) Purchasers this year were able to pre-order models and have them shipped for delivery on the 19th or for pickup at an Apple Store; iPhone 3G buyers needed to activate the phones in person at an Apple Store or AT&T retail location. Supplies seem to be plentiful, with shipping estimates from the online Apple Store quoting 2-4 business days. Today, Apple announced that it had sold 1 million iPhone 3GS units during the opening weekend, an impressive feat considering the new model was introduced in just eight countries; the iPhone 3G, which also sold a million units in its first weekend, debuted in 24 countries. Apple also reported 6 million copies of the iPhone OS 3.0 software were downloaded in the same time period. iPhone OS 3.0 -- The iPhone OS 3.0 Software Update is a free update for owners of all existing iPhone models. Owners of all iPod touch models can purchase the update for $9.95 (the pricing is required because of how Apple reports iPod revenue). For details on what's new, see "Apple Previews iPhone 3.0 Software" (2009-03-17) and "iPhone OS 3.0 Ships 17-Jun-09" (2009-06-08). To get the update, connect your iPhone or iPod touch to your computer, launch iTunes, and let it synchronize and back up the device. Next, click the device's name in the sidebar and click the Check for Update button. iTunes downloads the software (approximately 230 MB, depending on the model of device you're updating) and applies the update. It will take some time to download and install, so don't do this if you expect to need your phone within the next hour or so. Activation Troubles, Again -- Although not as rocky an introduction as the iPhone 3G and iPhone OS 2.0 last year, the launch still taxed Apple's resources. When the iPhone 3G and iPhone OS 2.0 software were released on the same day in July last year, the launch was severely marred by the overwhelming flood of activation requests to Apple's servers, which left many people with unactivated devices. The load was compounded by the introduction of MobileMe, which replaced Apple's .Mac service. (See "MobileMe Fails to Launch Well, but Finally Launches," 2008-07-12; and "MobileMea Culpa: Apple Apologizes and Explains Tiger Situation," 2008-07-16.) This year's release was better, but activation woes still bedeviled new iPhone owners and upgraders. According to a report posted to AppleInsider, some customers were alerted in iTunes that the activation process could take up to 48 hours. My new iPhone 3GS (white, 32 GB) had no cellular access for about 3 hours on Friday; my original iPhone was also offline during that time. According to Ars Technica, Apple is offering $30 iTunes Store credits to people who were affected by the activation delays. It's not yet clear who will receive the credits - I presume there's a minimum wait time - but email messages with the offer are due to be sent from Apple today.  Copyright © 2009 Jeff Carlson. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. VMware Fusion. The most seamless way to run Windows on your Mac. Backed by nearly a decade of proven virtualization technology. Try VMware Fusion today for only $79.99. Visit: <http://www.tidbits.com/about/support/vmware-fusion.html>  

With the release of the iPhone 3GS, AT&T has clarified and changed some of the most confusing policies around which existing customers qualify for the cheapest upgrade prices. Many existing iPhone 3G customers can now pay $199 or $299 (16 GB or 32 GB) for a new iPhone 3GS - the same as a new AT&T customer. Before 17-Jun-09, they were told it would cost them an additional $200. TidBITS editor Rich Mogull wrote about these policies and his analysis of how they work last week in "Call AT&T for the Best iPhone Upgrade Price," 2009-06-15. The condensed version is that AT&T said most subscribers who had a subsidized phone, whether an iPhone 3G or otherwise, under a 2-year plan would likely be eligible for the cheapest upgrade between 12 and 18 months into their contract period. The latest change is that iPhone 3G owners who would be eligible for new-customer pricing in July, August, or September 2009 will be offered that lower upgrade price starting 18-Jun-09. AT&T will update whether a customer is eligible or not in that person's account on that date as well. In the announcement, AT&T revealed what Rich and others had inferred: the more you spend, the sooner AT&T will sell you another phone at below its cost. In the release, AT&T says that subscribers who spent $99 or more per line per month are the people who are eligible between 12 and 18 months in a 2-year contract. While this change still doesn't explain some of the scenarios Rich explored, it's a welcome change for early iPhone 3G buyers who already pay AT&T a lot of money per month. Such customers felt that AT&T had already recouped the difference between what AT&T pays Apple and what the subscriber paid for the phone, and that the telecom giant was losing a lot of good will, along with another 2-year commitment, from its most dedicated customers. Copyright © 2009 Glenn Fleishman. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. THE MISSING SYNC: If you have a smartphone, we can sync it!Sync your address book, calendar, notes, music, pictures, andmore between your BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian OS orPalm OS phone and your Mac. <http://www.markspace.com/bits>  

Yours truly has been cursing at Web browsers since 1994. That gives me some pedigree in suggesting that Adobe BrowserLab is the finest method I've seen over 15 years in checking whether a Web page you've designed will look the way you want on browsers used by the majority of Internet users. (The service is currently in a limited-user preview stage.) Why test? Because no two browsers appear capable of rendering the same Web page in precisely the same way. The further you go back in time with browser versions, the greater the disparity among rendering and the more errors that show up with perfectly valid code. But even the latest releases of major browsers still have peculiarities that require tweaking. BrowserLab lets you enter a URL and rapidly see the resulting Web page as it appears in the seven most popular browser versions currently in use: Firefox 2.0 (Windows XP and Mac OS X), Firefox 3.0 (XP and Mac OS X), Internet Explorer 6 and 7 (XP), and Safari 3 (Mac OS X). BrowserLab requires Flash 10, but no additional plug-ins. What makes BrowserLab different from services like BrowserCam or BrowserShots is that it's intended to be nearly interactive, rather than just a screenshot service. Enter a URL and within a few seconds, the results are shown. Different views let you look at two browser previews against each other, too. The idea behind BrowserLab is quite simple: "Making sure you have design integrity, and you have easy access to cross-browser previewing," said Scott Fegette, an Adobe Dreamweaver product manager. Fegette sees BrowserLab as an extension of Dreamweaver's ability to "find problems and help you fix them" as you design or tweak pages. But he also said Dreamweaver designers need the context of "real browsers." BrowserLab has a light layer of integration with Dreamweaver CS4 via a palette, but can be used entirely independently as well. Fegette said that Adobe wanted to design a service that had a very short wait time for previews to be generated. Other browser capture services - many of which feature an inordinate number of browsers and platforms - take minutes or tens of minutes to generate screenshots, which have to be downloaded and viewed. "Designers couldn't work iteratively," Fegette said. BrowserLab loads screen captures within the Flash frame from the seven supported browsers noted above. You can also create one or more "browser sets," which is handy if you're testing only against, say, Firefox 3 and IE 7, but not Safari 3 and Firefox 2. While pages load, the site displays a little spinner animation to show which browsers are still loading and which have completed. That's a nice bit of feedback. On the backend, Adobe uses a combination of virtualized and dedicated servers to create page previews. You can view browser captures in one of three ways: 1 up, 2 up, and onion skin. The 1-up mode is obvious: it shows a single capture, selected from a pop-up menu at the upper left. The 2-up view lets you compare captures side by side, selecting the browsers from menus on the left and right. Scrolling horizontally or vertically moves both captures in lockstep. (The screen captures are created with some depth, so you can see a reasonable way down a page.) Onion skin overlays two browser views with transparency to help designers create pixel-identical layouts (or at least layouts close to that) in every browser; it's an easier solution than the common approach of bringing screenshots into a Photoshop document and putting them in separate layers. A slider lets you adjust the relative transparency levels of each browser. Assisting in any mode, but especially useful in onion skinning, is a zoom function from 75 percent to 200 percent. The site also has a set of hot keys for switching among browsers (arrow up and down), zooming (+ and -), switching among views (1 for 1 Up, 2 for 2 Up, and 3 for Onion Skin), and adjusting onion skin transparency (left and right arrows). Internet Explorer 6 was continually mentioned both by Fegette and myself (and fellow TidBITS editor Jeff Carlson, also in on the interview). IE 6 continues to have relatively high use on general-purpose Web sites, and is often the only browser in which a given site is broken. Fegette said that Dreamweaver designers might fix a problem that the program said would cause IE 6 rendering issues, but then not be able to preview that page in IE 6. (Windows doesn't like having multiple versions of IE installed, although you can cajole it.) Fegette said that Adobe has many plans for future iterations of BrowserLab, based on the response to the preview. More browsers will obviously be added, with the top items being IE 8, Safari for Windows, and Google Chrome. Fegette didn't mention Safari 4 in particular, which was still in beta when we talked. He also said that the initial response was so strong and positive that he can see a lot of room for expansion. Mobile browsers, previewing how a page would look in a cell phone browser, is also high on Adobe's list. The iPhone is of keen interest, but even designers who aren't specifically creating sites for mobile phones want to start preparing for it. However, Fegette noted that mobile browsers are a challenge because, although the majority of smartphone operating systems - Symbian, Android, and iPhone - are standardizing on WebKit, "they're all using different builds." BrowserLab is currently in preview release, opening for use by additional people at irregular intervals as Adobe scales resources and tweaks the site. When BrowserLab was opened for use on 03-Jun-09, Fegette said the plan was to allow 3,500 people on a first-come, first-served basis. By 9:00 AM on the launch day, the team had accepted 8,300 people, and had to shut down enrollment. Broader enrollment is planned for July, but until then you can follow the project on Twitter to get updates when Adobe accepts new small contingents. You can use an existing Adobe ID, or you can create a new account. The preview of BrowserLab is free, but the service will ultimately cost money. How much hasn't yet been decided, Adobe said. BrowserCam costs $60 per month or $400 per year for unlimited use. BrowserShots is free with best-efforts results, or $30 per month for expedited, unlimited requests with support. Fegette echoed my feelings about a service that he was instrumental in creating: "I really wish I had this 10 years ago."  Copyright © 2009 Glenn Fleishman. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. THE MISSING SYNC: If you have a smartphone, we can sync it!Sync your address book, calendar, notes, music, pictures, andmore between your BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian OS orPalm OS phone and your Mac. <http://www.markspace.com/bits>  

Marco Arment is reporting a surprisingly dismissive gesture by Apple at last week's WWDC. After the final developer session about publishing on the App Store, Apple cut, without notice or explanation, the standard Q&A segment that provides developers a crucial opportunity to go beyond the presented content. Apple's refusal to allow questions raises another one: What is Apple afraid of hearing from iPhone developers? Copyright © 2009 Doug McLean. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. Fetch Softworks: Fetch 5.5 has new support for Mac OS X10.5 Leopard technologies like Quick Look. And you canupload with the oldest technology of all, Copy and Paste!Download your free trial version! <http://fetchsoftworks.com/>  

According to a TUAW article by Erica Sadun, anyone using AT&T's prepaid GoPhone plan to avoid the 2-year contract will be forced to switch to a normal contract to maintain 3G data access. It's unclear how many iPhone users have jumped through the necessary hoops to use a GoPhone plan, but if you're among that group, you might want to upgrade to an iPhone 3G S just so there's some upside to being forced into a 2-year contract. Copyright © 2009 Adam C. Engst. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. THE MISSING SYNC: If you have a smartphone, we can sync it!Sync your address book, calendar, notes, music, pictures, andmore between your BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian OS orPalm OS phone and your Mac. <http://www.markspace.com/bits>  

Fixes for a number of serious vulnerabilities in the version of Java in Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5 were released by Apple today - about six months after Sun Microsystems released updated packages for all other platforms that Sun supports, including Windows. Apple releases its own updated versions of Java for Mac OS X. As Rich Mogull discussed in "Protect Yourself from the Mac OS X Java Vulnerability" (2009-05-20), the flaws could allow a Java applet on a malicious Web site to execute arbitrary code on your computer, among other vulnerabilities. To work around the problem, Rich explained how to disable Java in Safari and Firefox. Rich also chided Apple for leaving such a major hole unpatched for so long. The Java updates can be retrieved via Software Update, or at Apple's Support Download site. The updates are listed for the last or latest releases of Leopard and Tiger: Mac OS X 10.5.7 (158 MB) and Mac OS X 10.4.11 (80 MB). No restart is required, but all browsers should be quit before installing the updates.  Copyright © 2009 Glenn Fleishman. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. THE MISSING SYNC: If you have a smartphone, we can sync it!Sync your address book, calendar, notes, music, pictures, andmore between your BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian OS orPalm OS phone and your Mac. <http://www.markspace.com/bits>  

One "Trick," One Quirk in Microsoft's Bing -- Readers share their experiences with, and thoughts about, Bing, Microsoft's new search engine. (43 messages) iTunes 8.2 not syncing podcasts correctly to iPhone -- A smart album in iTunes 8.2 explains odd podcast sync behavior. (4 messages) New iPhone 3GS Boosts Power, Performance, and More -- Readers attempt to figure out AT&T's opaque upgrade policies for the iPhone 3G S. (5 messages) Apple Previews Snow Leopard for September Release -- Snow Leopard's slimmed size and welcome $29 upgrade price attract discussion. (4 messages) iPhone 3.0--Icon limit -- One welcome improvement in the iPhone 3.0 software is support for more application screens. (5 messages) Safari 4 "Favorites" -- Safari 4's Top Sites feature could be useful, but not if you already have a system for going to your favorite sites. (2 messages) The "other" Apple announcement on June 8 -- Apple's use of adaptive HTTP streaming invites comparison with how QuickTime currently streams content. (3 messages) MobileMe calendar sync problem -- When MobileMe gets confused, it seems to do it in a big way. A reader details how he has tried to get calendar sync working, to no avail. Another reader reports success with Apple's help. (2 messages) One unfortunate shortcoming of the new MacBook Pro -- The new MacBook Pro design takes us back to removing lots of screws of varying lengths in order to open the case and upgrade RAM or the hard disk. (3 messages) How to use a Mac with websites that require Internet Explorer -- What's the best way to access a Web site that requires Internet Explorer from a Mac? (7 messages)  Copyright © 2009 Jeff Carlson. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. READERS LIKE YOU! Support TidBITS with a contribution today!<http://www.tidbits.com/about/support/contributors.html>Special thanks this week to Daniel P. Richardson, Bob Arnold,Leonard D. Schloff, and Bill Chaloupka for their generous support!  

In this three-part MacNotables video podcast, Adam and host Chuck Joiner talk with the members of the Cowtown Macintosh User Group in Fort Worth, Texas, about Apple's announcements at the Worldwide Developers Conference. (It's in three parts to make the downloads more manageable.) Copyright © 2009 Adam C. Engst. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. WebCrossing Neighbors Creates Private Social NetworksCreate a complete social network with your company or group'sown look. Scalable, extensible and extremely customizable.Take a guided tour today <http://www.webcrossing.com/tour>  

When Apple announced that the new iPhone 3G S pricing would be the same as that of the iPhone 3G at its launch, applause could be heard far beyond the Worldwide Developers Conference presentation hall. Since users moving from the original iPhone to the iPhone 3G last year weren't charged any penalties for upgrading in mid-contract, many people assumed Apple had cut some sort of deal with AT&T to put shiny new iPhones in the hands of early adopters. But within hours after the announcement, we learned that most iPhone 3G owners wouldn't qualify for discounted pricing on launch day, or, in many cases, for an additional 6 months or more. Most existing AT&T iPhone customers who don't qualify at the $199/$299 price points (for the 16 GB or 32 GB models) can still purchase an iPhone 3G S for "early upgrade" pricing of $399/$499. Customers who bought their phones too recently even for that pricing can upgrade for full retail price at $599/$699. To confuse the situation even more, eligibility for the different tiers of upgrade pricing isn't as simple as how long you've had your phone... and in some cases AT&T's system for determining eligibility makes mistakes. Wireless Subsidies and iPhone Pricing -- In the United States and many other countries, we rarely pay the full price for our mobile phones. These ubiquitous computing devices pack an incredible amount of technology into a pocket-sized package, and that's especially true of powerful smartphones like the iPhone or BlackBerry. Since mobile providers make most of their profits on our monthly subscriptions, they subsidize the cost of the phones to hook us on technologies that will steer us toward more-expensive plans. Devices lose their cutting-edge appeal over time in comparison with new models, so the carriers re-hook us with additional subsidies as our contracts come close to expiring. It makes sense that mobile carriers want to recoup any losses incurred when they sell us phones below cost. (Mobile phones aren't the only devices sold at a loss; most gaming platforms like the Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3 are initially sold below the cost to make them, with the manufacturers making it up with the residuals paid by game sales.) The original iPhone was sold without any subsidies, and thus when the iPhone 3G was released in July 2008, AT&T was able to offer subsidized pricing to anyone who wanted to upgrade (and lock in to a new, 2-year contract). All the original iPhones were sold at full retail price, so AT&T didn't have any gap to make up. Since the iPhone 3G was subsidized, AT&T wants to recover its costs on the phone, which is why the company isn't offering the full, discounted prices to all existing iPhone users. While we might argue that AT&T is missing a golden opportunity to build brand loyalty before it loses its exclusive contract with Apple, or perhaps the company might want to make up for the lack of MMS, tethering, or faster network supported by the iPhone 3G S, we can't argue that AT&T is being unfair for wanting to recover the capital outlay on discounted phones. But AT&T uses more than contract age to determine when users qualify for phone upgrades, which is creating confusion as the horde of iPhone addicts prepares to mass-migrate on a single day. A Tale of Two iPhone Families -- Like many iPhone addicts, once the iPhone 3G S was announced, I quickly logged into Apple's online iPhone store to reserve my model. I saw that I qualified only for the early upgrade pricing of $499 for the 32 GB model, sighed in disappointment, and made my reservation. I assumed pricing was directly tied to the age of my contract, but then I started to notice reports that upgrade eligibility didn't seem to be tied directly to contract expiration date. A couple days later, I also realized that we are a two-iPhone family, with my wife using my original, unsubsidized model, and perhaps we could upgrade that phone more quickly. I decided to call AT&T directly to check my status, and that one call saved me hundreds of dollars. The online iPhone store shows you only your current pricing for a single line, not potential pricing for other phones on the same account, or when you qualify for the fully subsidized price. I learned that my wife's iPhone was immediately eligible for an upgrade, and my iPhone 3G (purchased on launch day in July 2008) would be eligible on 12-Jul-09; less than a month later, and only 12 months after purchase. I'd be able to upgrade one phone on launch day (swapping SIM cards after the fact, since my wife isn't nearly as geeky as I am), and we could upgrade the second a few weeks later. With a fairly new baby, we are looking forward to the improved photo and video capabilities of the iPhone 3G S - otherwise we would have kept my current iPhone 3G. TidBITS contributor Chris Pepper encountered a completely different situation. Like me, he's in a two-iPhone family with an iPhone 3G for himself and an original model handed down to his wife (we do wonder how our wives put up with us at times). We've both been on AT&T for about the same length of time, although I used a BlackBerry for my first 5 months. We're on different AT&T family plans, but we pay within $20 a month of each other. When Chris called in, the AT&T customer representatives informed him that neither of his lines was eligible for upgrades until his contract expiration dates. He was required to pay the higher early upgrade pricing even on his original, unsubsidized iPhone. At one point Chris and I were on the phone at the same time, talking to different AT&T representatives as we shared our findings over iChat. Despite our circumstances being extremely similar, our upgrade situations were very different. Investigating Further -- After Chris and I compared results, I put out a call on Twitter and email to find out what other people were experiencing. The results were all over the map, with users in very similar circumstances (including the same subscription price tier) reporting very different upgrade eligibility dates. Fellow TidBITS editor Glenn Fleishman and I started to compare notes, and it became clear that contract date, last upgrade date, and price plan weren't the only factors involved in determining iPhone upgrade pricing. I contacted AT&T representative Seth Bloom, who responded immediately to clear up the confusion. It turns out that phone upgrade eligibility, for the iPhone or any other hardware, is tied to overall account history, using a number of factors. Seth said, "The main factor is how far you are into your contract. You will likely be eligible in the latter part of it. We also look as such things as how promptly you pay your bill, the date of your last subsidized handset, etc.  Please note, though, that all of these factors simply add up to how early (i.e., prior to the end of the contract) AT&T can give another subsidized device to an iPhone customer. "Customers can check their eligibility at http://www.att.com/iPhone or by visiting any of our company-owned retail stores. If you're not currently eligible, we'll give you the date you may qualify. You also can call *639# from your AT&T handset and receive a text with information about your upgrade eligibility." A Mistake Was Made -- This made a lot of sense. AT&T, like any company, has higher and lower value customers. High value customers tend to receive greater incentives to stay with the company. Since I was paying, on average, $240 more a year than Chris, it's understandable that I would be able to upgrade sooner. But this still doesn't explain why Chris couldn't upgrade his completely unsubsidized iPhone on launch day. AT&T didn't pay a dime for it, and thus has no costs to recoup. Chris called AT&T back for a third time and managed to get through to a supervisor who realized something was wrong on Chris's account. By AT&T's own policies, Chris should qualify for the full upgrade discount on his wife's older iPhone. The supervisor escalated Chris's case, and he should hear back in the next couple of days. Since none of us have access to AT&T's eligibility algorithm, there's no way to predict anyone's eligibility for a discounted iPhone without checking with the source. I personally assumed I would qualify only after my contract expired, and I'm glad I called in to learn I was eligible immediately on one line, with the second following less than a month later. Chris learned that there was a problem with his account, and he will now likely be eligible to upgrade at least his older iPhone on launch day. Call for the Best Price -- If you don't know, for sure, that you're getting the $199/$299 pricing, we recommend that you call AT&T, stop by a store, or check their online system for your upgrade eligibility date. If you think it's wrong, especially if you have an original iPhone, ask to talk to a supervisor and see if there might be a mistake on your account. And if you happen to be in Phoenix on June 19th, look for me in line bright and early at the Biltmore Apple Store. Copyright © 2009 Rich Mogull. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. WebCrossing Neighbors Creates Private Social NetworksCreate a complete social network with your company or group'sown look. Scalable, extensible and extremely customizable.Take a guided tour today <http://www.webcrossing.com/tour>  

Firefox 3.0.11 from Mozilla is a security and stability update to the popular Web browser. Several critical security vulnerabilities that could be exploited to run arbitrary code have been repaired. Other more minor security vulnerabilities have also been addressed, as well as an issue causing the bookmark database to become corrupted. Finally, several problems with the SQLite internal database have been fixed. (Free update, 17.2 MB) Script Debugger 4.5.3 from Late Night Software is a maintenance update to the AppleScript authoring environment. Changes include the pasting of object specifiers as a series of nested tell blocks instead of one object reference, an improved Balance command, automatic closing of AppleScript blocks, and the capability to continue when Script Debugger detects duplicate symbols coming from your libraries. Also several issues have been fixed including a hanging bug that occurred when viewing the InDesign dictionary, a bug that blocked auto-close and balance when unbalanced characters appeared in a style comment, and a bug that caused references to 'path' outside of a tell block to create incorrect 4-character codes. ($199 new, free update, 10.8 MB) 1Password 2.9.19 from Agile Web Solutions is a minor compatibility update to the password syncing utility. The latest version brings full support for Safari 4 on Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and 10.5 Leopard. ($39.95 new, free update, 11.8 MB)  Copyright © 2009 Doug McLean. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. VMware Fusion. The most seamless way to run Windows on your Mac. Backed by nearly a decade of proven virtualization technology. Try VMware Fusion today for only $79.99. Visit: <http://www.tidbits.com/about/support/vmware-fusion.html>  

No More Prepaid GoPhone Plans for the iPhone -- According to a TUAW article by Erica Sadun, anyone using AT&T's prepaid GoPhone plan to avoid the 2-year contract will be forced to switch to a normal contract to maintain 3G data access. It's unclear how many iPhone users have jumped through the necessary hoops to use a GoPhone plan, but if you're among that group, you might want to upgrade to an iPhone 3G S just so there's some upside to being forced into a 2-year contract. (Posted 2009-06-15) Adam Recaps WWDC in a Cowtown MUG Video Chat -- In this three-part MacNotables video podcast, Adam and host Chuck Joiner talk with the members of the Cowtown Macintosh User Group in Fort Worth, Texas, about Apple's announcements at the Worldwide Developers Conference. (It's in three parts to make the downloads more manageable.) (Posted 2009-06-15) Apple's WWDC App Wall -- Why should I have gone to WWDC when I was able to get all the news from home? To check out Apple's wildly cool App Wall in person! TechCrunch has posted some pictures and video of the pulsating wall of apps - a four-by-five grid of 30-inch Cinema Displays jam-packed with iPhone app icons. Each time an app was purchased in the store, its icon pulsed on the wall. (Posted 2009-06-12) Glenn and Adam Discuss AirPort Networking on MacVoices -- Listen in as Glenn Fleishman and Adam Engst chat with MacVoices host Chuck Joiner about both the latest developments with Apple's AirPort wireless networking devices and what's new in the world of Wi-Fi security. (Posted 2009-06-12) Adam Talks Through WWDC News on Your Mac Life -- Tune in to this week's Your Mac Life show to listen to Adam and host Shawn King talk through all of what went down at the Worldwide Developers Conference. And yes, the Twitter hype is real - Shawn did get Adam to swear on the air. (Posted 2009-06-11) iPhone 3G S Specs Revealed -- Wired is reporting that T-Mobile (in the Netherlands) has let the cat out of the bag with regard to the technical specs of the iPhone 3G S. Apple has been keeping the exact details of the new phone's chipset under wraps, but now we know the deal: 256 MB of RAM for the OS, twice that of the original iPhone, and a 600 MHz processor, up from 412 MHz. (Posted 2009-06-11) Apple's WWDC Keynote Video Now Available -- By now you've probably read oodles of reports about Apple's keynote presentation at this year's Worldwide Developers Conference. But if you want to see how it all went down, or want to watch the many iPhone OS 3.0 app demos, Apple has posted a QuickTime video of the presentation. (Posted 2009-06-09)  Copyright © 2009 TidBITS Staff. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. THE MISSING SYNC: If you have a smartphone, we can sync it!Sync your address book, calendar, notes, music, pictures, andmore between your BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian OS orPalm OS phone and your Mac. <http://www.markspace.com/bits>  

Why should I have gone to WWDC when I was able to get all the news from home? To check out Apple's wildly cool App Wall in person! TechCrunch has posted some pictures and video of the pulsating wall of apps - a four-by-five grid of 30-inch Cinema Displays jam-packed with iPhone app icons. Each time an app was purchased in the store, its icon pulsed on the wall. Copyright © 2009 Doug McLean. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. Fetch Softworks: Fetch 5.5 lets you edit remote files withany application, or Quick Look them for a snappy preview.Best of all, uploads are faster and more reliable than ever.Download your free trial version! <http://fetchsoftworks.com/>  

I was raised on the most successful initiatives from Public Television, or ETV as it was previously known (E standing for Educational of course). Sesame Street, 3-2-1 Contact, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, and Reading Rainbow were my bread and butter as a kid. And yet while those educational programs were major successes, television's promise of bringing education and instruction to a wide audience was left largely unfulfilled in the United States. Proponents of educational TV faced the harsh realities of the large amounts of funding required to create and maintain television programing placed upon them. The need to satisfy the large and diverse communities that helped raise those funds also made it difficult to sustain certain kinds of programing, especially those that failed to blend education and entertainment into an easy-to-swallow medicine. The Internet, on the other hand, is arguably a more fertile marketplace for education programming because of the relatively low cost of production, and the ability to target niche audiences with more specific kinds of instruction and coverage. Mac users may already be familiar with iTunes U, the educational section of the iTunes Store that's loaded with free content like university lectures, commencement speeches, and interviews. Another well-known resource is TED Talks, the popular site featuring short lectures by field leaders from the annual TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference. But there are other sites that offer excellent educational videos, despite being less well-known, including FORA.tv, Big Think, and Academic Earth. These sites offer a glimpse of what educational TV can be when unfettered from the massive costs of producing mass market content. Roundup of Rhetoric from FORA.tv -- FORA.tv focuses on public lectures, roundtables, and debates. The site's main menu is broken down into six primary categories: The Economy, Green, Politics, Science, Technology, and Culture. While everything on the site falls into one of these categories, you can also search by tags, which include more specific sub-groups such as Books, DNA, Education, Muslim World, and Wireless. You can also sort through content by partner - the organizations and groups that upload videos to the site. Of the many partners, some of the more prominent and prolific ones include C-SPAN, the New School, and the Brookings Institution. FORA.tv's site design is easy to navigate, and deftly displays the additional information provided for each video. During any given playback, you can sort through tabs located below the video which include Info, Bio, Full Program, Highlights, Transcript, and Download. Not every video offers all of this additional content - many videos don't come with a transcript, for example. But many do, and being able to thumb through a speaker's biographic information, or locate speech highlights while watching the video, is convenient. Each video is also accompanied by a list of recommended related talks - it's not an innovative feature, but is much appreciated nonetheless. Additionally, while all the content is in video form, the Download tab includes the option to download just the audio - perfect for those users without the time to sit and watch an hour-long lecture, but who would listen to it on an iPod while in the car. Once registered, you can also leave comments and rate videos. The comments are handy, because ratings alone are a vague form of evaluation, and the comments give a better sense of what's interesting or dull about a particular lecture and whether it's worth your time. You can also opt to view a listing of the week's most watched, commented, or rated videos. While not specifically instructional, FORA.tv's videos are educational, and the site's compelling design, attention to detail, and quality of material make it worth bookmarking and checking back on regularly. The Grand Aspirations of Big Think -- The purpose statement of Big Think reads, "We're a global forum connecting people and ideas." It's a lofty goal, creating yet another social network, this one focused around ideas and debate among a global community of experts and laymen. And while the site doesn't quite hit its mark, there's still good reason to check it out. The main reason to visit Big Think is its collection of Expert videos. These are produced specifically for Big Think, with various field experts being interviewed against white backdrops. The videos are served up in bite sized morsels - usually less than 10 minutes long. The format is candid and relaxed, and it's neat to see big-name people speaking directly to you as the viewer. If you have only a little time to spend, or just want a splash of information or ideas, they're great. Usually each expert has at least a handful of videos, sometimes many more. You can search for expert videos alphabetically, if, say, you have someone in mind you want to listen to; you can also search by subject. Some of the subjects are a little unusual for a site index, including topics like Life & Death, Outlook & The Future, and Inspiration. It's a little hard to imagine how anyone besides a ghost or time traveler could be much of an expert on death or the future, but I give Big Think points for thinking outside the box. There are more traditional categories as well, such as Arts & Culture (I've been impressed by the depth of experts in the Arts), Business & Economics, and Science & Technology. Unfortunately, their short length often makes Big Think's videos less satisfying than more extended discussions or lectures available on other sites. Occasionally I wished a perspective or argument could be more fully fleshed out. Aside from the Expert videos, Big Think has a lot to offer, but much of it is overwrought and cumbersome. The site simultaneously hosts the Expert videos, blog entries by the site's editors and other writers, news links and coverage, and an extensive social networking facet focused on community discussion. The latter component is a large part of what bothers me. It comprises customized updates, discussions of ideas, messages, and friends. I admire Big Think's goals, but the result is confusing and results in overload, at least with the current organization and design. Furthermore, much of the user-generated content wasn't worth reading. Most user articles and videos felt like people spouting off about topics they didn't know much about, giving it the feel of an overgrown comments section. Ideally, the expert content would mingle with user-generated content to provide a rich discourse, but it just doesn't gel. I recommend sticking with the Expert videos. Academic Earth: Ivy League on the Cheap -- Academic Earth is the most academic of these services. Its main objective appears to be to provide access to university lecture courses in their entirety. Participating schools currently include Berkeley, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale. Considering how much you'd have to pay to attend even one of these courses in person, Academic Earth is an amazing bargain. You can follow along in full with courses like "The American Novel Since 1945" at Yale, or "Computer System Engineering" at MIT. Or you could learn a whole heck of a lot about Entrepreneurship - for some reason there are almost 1,000 lectures on that subject alone (mostly from Stanford, presumably for all the Silicon Valley entrepreneur wannabes); way more than any other subject currently represented. Academic Earth's site design is simple and clean, making it easy to navigate and find what you're looking for. You can search for lectures by subject, university, instructor, or playlist - groups of lectures grouped by different themes or ideas. Surprisingly, there is little opportunity for users to generate content. While you can "grade" lectures, Academic Earth's equivalent of a rating, there is currently no commenting system. Thinking more on this, it occurred to me that perhaps this is to maintain the philosophy of the lecture. That is: professor talks, students listen. That said, on a pragmatic level, it also eliminates the need for an online moderator or teaching assistant for these courses. From a user perspective, the absence of comments helps keep Academic Earth clean and clutter free, and I'm all for that. While you can't comment or engage in discussion, you can share videos via Facebook, del.icio.us, Digg, or via several other sites and services. You can also embed videos, create a list of favorites, download the lectures (as audio or video), and subscribe to podcasts. Lecture transcripts and reading assignments are also sometimes available, depending on the course. Finally, you can easily acquire a proper citation for any given video - the lecture's information is put into correct bibliographic format and made available for you to copy and paste. In time, I hope Academic Earth expands its offerings to include more universities, and more importantly, more subjects. Out of all the educational sites I've seen, Academic Earth is the most exciting to me, and the depth and richness of the instruction it provides is unparalleled. Practical Pedagogy -- For anyone who loves surfing Wikipedia articles or combing the Internet for savory bits of knowledge, these video-rich educational sites hit the spot. From the nuggets of expert insight on Big Think, to the compellingly relevant speeches on FORA.tv, to the dense and challenging lectures on Academic Earth, this trifecta covers a lot of ground and shows what "educational TV" can become when unfettered by commercial constraints. Copyright © 2009 Doug McLean. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. Fetch Softworks: Fetch 5.5 lets you edit remote files withany application, or Quick Look them for a snappy preview.Best of all, uploads are faster and more reliable than ever.Download your free trial version! <http://fetchsoftworks.com/>  

Listen in as Glenn Fleishman and Adam Engst chat with MacVoices host Chuck Joiner about both the latest developments with Apple's AirPort wireless networking devices and what's new in the world of Wi-Fi security. Copyright © 2009 Adam C. Engst. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. WebCrossing Neighbors Creates Private Social NetworksCreate a complete social network with your company or group'sown look. Scalable, extensible and extremely customizable.Take a guided tour today <http://www.webcrossing.com/tour>  

When Apple announced the swapping of the ExpressCard slot on the 15-inch MacBook Pro for an SD (Secure Digital) memory card slot, the few users of ExpressCard-compatible peripherals - at least those other than SD card readers - were understandably disappointed. (Apple claimed that only a "single-digit" percentage of MacBook Pro users used the ExpressCard slot.) For most people, the addition of the SD slot is welcome, since the majority of consumer-level digital cameras use SD cards for storage. Nevertheless, it didn't seem like that big of a deal either way. However, a recent Apple KnowledgeBase article reveals an extremely useful and previously unmentioned feature of the SD card slot: users can boot the Mac from an SD card with Mac OS X installed on it. To make a bootable SD card, you must first change the default partition table to GUID using Disk Utility, and format the card to use the Mac OS Extended file format (as opposed to the FAT32 file format). You can then install Mac OS X onto the device, enabling it to boot the Mac, which could be very handy in a troubleshooting situation. The MacBook Pro SD card slot accepts cards that conform to the SD 1.x and 2.x standards. This includes Standard SD cards, which hold between 4 MB and 4 GB; SDHC cards, which hold between 4 GB and 32 GB; and the older MMC cards. MiniSD, MicroSD, MiniSDHC and MicroSDHC cards can work if used with adapters that enable the cards to conform to the necessary physical configuration. While the MacBook Pro can read (but not boot from) cards that use the FAT32 file format (the standard for most SD cards), cards that use the exFAT system will not work. Copyright © 2009 Doug McLean. TidBITS is copyright © 2009 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License. READERS LIKE YOU! Support TidBITS with a contribution today!<http://www.tidbits.com/about/support/contributors.html>Special thanks this week to Garth Fletcher, Abdulkarim Alzuhair,Andrew James, and Heinz Jose Gattringer for their generous support!