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Editorial: Holiday MARP lust By David Leishman dleishman@maccentral.com
Perhaps you’re familiar with The Simpsons episode wherein Homer gives Marge a bowling ball for her birthday? With his name on it. Marge, of course, doesn’t bowl. Hilarity ensues — if your idea of hilarity is a mad-as-heck spouse using your gift in spite and falling for a ten-pin gigolo.
My wife doesn’t bowl and, while she loves her aged TiBook, she isn’t really into the minutiae of Macs-and-related-products (MARP) lust. Which works out fine, because I don’t bowl either and I’ve got enough MARP lust for both of us.
And the editors of Macworld magazine are overflowing with it. Just in time for those last-minute holiday buying needs, they’ve graced us with two invaluable shopping resources for the Mac lovers on our lists. Their Editors’ Choice Awards for 2003 recognize the year’s top hardware and software products for their utility, innovation, and elegance; and the January issue (on newsstands next week), features “Ultimate Mac Savings,” and showcases the best places and ways to save when exercising your MARP lust.
The Awards, known far and wide as the Eddys, are nineteen years old, which means Macworld has been handing them out as long as there have been Macs. Once again, Apple is well-represented on the list, and while you probably won’t be sending 12-inch PowerBook G4s or copies of Final Cut Pro 4 to everyone on your list, iChat AV for non-Panther users costs only $30 and a gift certificate for the Tunes Music Store is a hot little stocking-stuffer.
A host of reasonably-priced products from other Award-winning developers are also sure to please. MacSoft’s Dungeon Siege will grab the gamers, Michael Tsai’s SpamSieve 2.0 will ease e-mail trauma, and Weber Ventures’ ExecutiveSync will help someone keep themselves and their files on-time when they travel. My favorite on the list is Granted Software’s ReVision, which enables me to quickly create cool soundtracks for my QuickTime movies with Propellerhead Software’s Reason music tool.
The “Shop Smart” article in the January issue of Macworld is a treasure-trove of tips for saving money on MARP, and it includes a Santa-sized list of software titles, ranging in price from free to $30. And, if you roll it up, the issue conveniently fits in a big red sock, too.
So now that I’ve shared my gift-buying secrets, I’d like to wish all of you the best of the season, and good health to you and yours. I’m grateful for your responses to some of the more thought-provoking columns, and I look forward to exploring some new ground in the new year.
Apple News
iTunes Music Store: 20 million served and growing
iTunes Music Store users have downloaded 20 million songs in less than seven months, Peter Lowe, director of marketing for iTunes, told attendees at the Music 2.0 conference for record industry executives. Lowe also note that Apple is “going to be aggressive about continuing…and taking digital distribution to the mainstream.”
Jobs on how to create cool technology
David Pogue on iSight, iChat AV
Jobs talks music with Rolling Stone
Security update offers Safari cookies fix
Jupitermedia: iPod, iTunes ‘energized music industry’
Visit MacCentral’s Apple Hardware and Apple Software forums.
Hardware News
Media 100 offers hardware-based Media 100 HD
Media 100 Inc. this week introduced the Media 100 HD, a new native High Definition (HD) and Standard Definition (SD) editing system that resides on a PCI-based expansion card. It provides 10-bit uncompressed resolution-independent native HD and SD editing and broadcast-quality format conversion — a first for personal computers, according to the company.
IDC: PC shipments growing faster on business strength
LaCie offers FireWire 800 PC card for laptops
Formac Electronic Inc. gains independence, goes back to work
Phlink, Indigo enable remote phone home automation
Aurora intros PipePro SDI card
Visit MacCentral’s Hardware forum.
Software News
Rogue Amoeba releases Nicecast 1.0
Rogue Amoeba on Monday released Nicecast 1.0, which can be used to broadcast any audio your Mac produces — including iTunes playlists or playlists from other MP3 software. In effect, it enables users to create their own Internet radio station. Nicecast supports real-time audio effects, and includes VoiceOver, which enables you to insert your own radio-style commentary in between tracks.
MacSoft: Halo for Mac goes Gold Master
PayPal targets digital music merchants
MSN updated for Panther, WMP 9
Pangea unveils Nanosaur II: Hatchling
WebMerge 2.3 adds TagMaker utility and more
Visit MacCentral’s Software forum.
Around the Web
You ask, Google answers…but bring money
We’re all “great” search-and-finders these days. But if you need deep research on a given topic and you need it quick, Google Answers might be…the answer. For a modest fee ($10 and up), you’ll likely get results that Cornell librarians figure are about as good as they would have provided. You can even read the results of past searches to evaluate the quality of Google Answers’ work and its cost.
iPod as Digital Photographer’s Best Friend
New PowerPC 970 G5 next month?
RSS & the birth of “The Metaweb”
All fired up: FireWire audio interfaces
Pictures of Sony’s new super skinny Vaio laptop
Visit MacCentral’s Lounge forum.
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