January 2004: Happy Birthday Mac, Macworld, iBook Logic boards, iPods, iTunes, and more

User Group Network Info Manager Index Submit info or news MUG News Use your Browser's "FIND" command to find specific keywords * Report broken links In this issue: January 5, 2004 [*]   Happy Birthday Mac and UGN [*]   iTunes Play while Cupertino Burns [*]   See David Pogue [*]   Spam takes a holiday? Not! [*]   Zingg! that file! [*]   We thought OS 9 was bad... [*]   Quick Mix Video in Panther [*]   Macworld Par-tay [*]   iBook, PowerBook keyboard protectors [*]   Free "Go Digital" DVD [*]   Best Books of 2003 [*]   FontAgent Pro for Panther [*]   Quotes: Too much to eat over the holidays Happy Birthday Mac and UGN As we move into 2004, many around the world will be celebrating anniversaries. First it will be the 20th Anniversary of the rollout of the first 128 Mac. Many of you still remember those times. We're also celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the closing of the AOL User Group Forum, and it's move to new digs at UGN on the web. A lot of water under the bridge, but we're still here and kicking! Happy birthday Mac and UGN! Hotwired has a good story by Leander Kahney in preparation for Macworld... Mac maniacs will be wowed at this week's Macworld. The show will mark the 20th anniversary of the Mac, and fans are praying Apple CEO Steve Jobs will introduce something insanely great to celebrate. for Wired. iTunes Play while Cupertino Burns iTunes Play while Cupertino Burns The only news out of Cupertino over the holidays was the huge success of Steve Job's iTunes music business. On the sidelines however the other business -- computers -- is having its ups and downs.       Music fans have purchased and downloaded more than 25 million songs from Apple's iTunes Music Store, the 25 millionth song, purchased, just before Christmas, was "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" by Frank Sinatra. Apple also reported over $1 million of iTunes online gift certificates have been sold since the features were added on October 16, 2003. But, not all those users are happy.       With all this success, everyone is wondering what Jobs will say about the "other" Apple business at his Macworld Expo Keynote this week. Many iPod zealots are expecting a new iPod line this week, with lower prices and assorted colors. Amid all the singing and dancing however, the iPod battery debacle has come to the forefront with a California class-action lawsuit in preparation for January filing. The suit will alledgedly charge that Apple's warranty does not run long enough to cover problems with the iPod's battery despite Apple's recent $99 fix.       Most recently, an old problem has festered its way into the main stream media -- the failure of iBook logic boards known as the iBook "black Death." (Due to the monitor going black.) iBook complaints focus on the iBook model with dual USB ports suffering logic board failure just after the warranty expired. Many users complain that even the replacement boards provided by Apple under warranty are now failing. UGN and AACUG have been contacted by many users who have shared these and similar complaints. One member's iBook is away for its second replacement -- but has been told the parts are out of stock.       On Dec. 10, O'Grady's Power Page began reporting on the situation and around December 14 the online buzz got ugly. Apple then began deleting discussion forum posts on iBook logic-board failures and issuing warnings to members for posting. One UGN member was chided three times for posting, and now risks banishment from Apple forums alltogether. AACUG's MUG News received a warning today (01/04) for posting inquiries to Apple's User Group Discussion list. (AUGD)       The darkest cloud on the horizon emanates from a petition site called BlackCider.com collecting signatures for a potential class-action lawsuit. The site is offering T-shirts with a 'screwed apple' on front and "Ask me about my logic board" on back. The organization is participating in a Macworld iBook owners protest demonstration. (First reported by the Register)       Other news sources have been logging in Saturday and Sunday including USA Today, Reuters, and the Associated Press -- all with similar stories. The User Group Network (UGN) has been receiving numerous emails and hot-line calls and continues to monitor developments. The petition list hit the thousand mark on Friday night and promises to be in the thousands in time for Macworld's protest. References: The iBook logic board/display issue from MacFixIt (Jan 2, 2004) "iBook (Dual USB): No Display, or Dim Display" Apple users threaten to sue over iBook, iPod USA TodayÊ-ÊJan 2, 2004 Class action suit information iBook owners Expo protests Macworld UK,ÊUKÊ-ÊJan 2, 2004 Black Cider's T-Shirt Art: apple.gif Black Cider's T-Shirt Art: T-Shirt IBook, IPod Users Plot Lawsuits (Wired Cult of Mac Wednesday)  http://go.hotwired.com/ See David Pogue In partnership with Gloucester County College, five Pennsylvania and New Jersey Macintosh User Groups are sponsoring a visit from prolific author, Missing Manual publisher, and New York Times columnist, David Pogue. Spend an afternoon with a very entertaining, humorous, and tech savvy speaker on The Secrets of Panther. Please make reservations by January 15, 2004 as seating is very limited. * Gloucester County College's Fine Arts Theater * Saturday, April 3, 2004 from 1 - 4 p.m. Reservations will be made on a first come first served basis atwww.macbus.org Spam takes a holiday? Not! AACUG spam tracking has reported an unexpected change in the overall complexion of incoming spam since our last InfoManager. Over the holidays pharmacy related scams began to ebb to be replaced by financially oriented scams. The number of get rich quick schemes, credit card deals and online gambling casino come-ons have doubled. They are expected to increase as we approach tax time.      Another highly unexpected change emerged over the past ten days, incoming spam to AOL mail boxes being tracked is more than 30% less than before December 15. Eight mail boxes being tracked went from an average 250 to 400 spams in seven days to just over 100. Two of the mail boxes had only 25 to 30. For the past two years, AOL spam has been running about even with normal POP email accounts. It is unknown if this is due to AOL's new spam filtering or if the spammers just took a holiday from spamming AOL users. In contrast, all of the watched POP accounts have continued to increase the amount of spam. Once much maligned as part of the spam problem, AOL now seems to be coming as part of the solution. Bravo... we hope the trend continues. Follow on-going anti-spam coverage in AACUG's Safenet area. Zingg! that file! Rainer Brockerhoff has introduced us to a nifty little program called Zingg!, a Fast Launch contextual menu for Mac OS X. Zingg! shows a list of some or all applications that claim to open the selected file. The user can select certain applications to be always included or always excluded from the list, and Classic applications may receive special handling. Zingg! offers much more functionality than Jaguar's "Open With" menu, allowing you to open more than one item or folders. A couple of the really sweet features are: the ability to restrict the list to applications in standard folders, include running applications, and restrict the list to applications marked as "Always" or "Override". Selected application paths can be copied to the clipboard, and are also available to system services such as XRay. Zingg! can be downloaded from the product information page at: http://versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/12965 and full details are offered by Mr. Brockerhoff himself! We thought OS 9 was bad... Now with Panther, the challenges of finding something are almost insurmountable. We recently advised a Mac user to back up the preferences file. Have you got any idea at all where the preferences file is? You need Easyfind 3.0 from Devonagent. This free find-file utility uses the advanced search operators known from the intelligent Internet search agent DEVONagent. Users can not only use the boolean "and", "or" and "not" operators to combine two search words, but also the high-end operators "near", "before", "after" and "xor" as well as parenthesis. It's actually the best search utility ever launched for Mac. Searching inside files is a powerful feature. Using "Near" finds all files containing two search words within a context of ten or a given number of words, "before" and "after" require the search words to appear in a given order, and "xor" connects the search words with the boolean "exclusive or". Additionally, the settings defining which files to scan when searching for file contents are now located in an easy-to-use drawer and folders and aliases on the Desktop show up in the directory pop-up menu for faster access. EasyFind runs on Mac OS X 10.1 or higher and is available as a free download from Devon Quick Mix Video in Panther Smiley Happy Software has rolled out an all new version of QuickMix for Mac OS X, the multi-track video-editing application. Among the changes in this version are Panther compatibility, enhanced playback options, an introductory tutorial, and bug fixes and interface tweaks. Users can have lots of fun without the steep curve of video editing programs. Get full-screen playback, viewer resizing, looping options and rate and trim commands. If you'd like to try your hand at multi-track movies, take a look at QuickMix. There's a free trial period, and shareware is only $20.00. Direct download: http://www.smileyhappysw.com/downloads/quickmix/QuickMix1_1.zip full details smileyhappysw.com Macworld Par-tay Scott Sheppard of Inside Mac Radio Show and author Deborah Shadovitz are organizing a new Macworld Expo party tradition -- The Inside Mac Radio Gathering - The Party For The People!       Join Scott and Deborah along with a whole bunch of vendors, authors, programmers, and other friends on Thursday at 8pm at our new kind of party Ñ an organized hang-out in the elegant Piazza Lounge of the Parc55 hotel. This is the first of its kind Ñ an invitationless get together open to all badge holders. That's right, all you need to get in is your Macworld badge. (It'll double as a name tag, making it easier to meet people.) Come test your Mac industry knowledge in a trivia contest complete with prizes -- from many vendors! * Renaissance San Francisco Parc 55 The 2nd floor Piazza lounge 55 Cyril Magnin Street (5th & Market) San Francisco, Thursday, January 8th, 2003 from 8pm until. See: InsideMacRadio.com iBook, PowerBook keyboard protectors Imagine how I felt when my eldest at VCU called to say "Dad, I spilled a drink into the iBook keyboard, and now it doesn't work. (!) What we should have had was the ProTouch PB iBook/PowerBook keyboard protectors from iSkin. They're updated to fit the new Apple iBook and PowerBook laptop computers. These flexible, high-grade silicone protectors provide a transparent barrier against spills, dirt, food crumbs, and other unwanted elements that may get in between the keys of the keyboard and potentially cause damage to your computer. It also prevents the keyboard's keys from general wear and tear caused by everyday use. Plus, they're molded to fit the keyboard -- each key and won't restrict typing. $19.99 is a small price compared to replacing the keyboard, and possibly the logic board from keyboard disasters! www.iskin.com Free "Go Digital" DVD Register for iDay 2004 San Francisco and receive a FREE copy of our Go Digital DVD. With "Go Digital," you'll learn the essential tips for using digital cameras and digital video cameras. Along the way, you'll see how Apple's iLife programs -- iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, and iDVD -- make it easier than ever to work with digital photos and movies. This 17-minute DVD sells for $19.95, but is offered FREE when you register for iDay 2004 San Francisco -- a full day of photography, music, and movie-making mastery, hosted by Jim Heid, Macworld columnist and author of the bestselling book/DVD, "The Macintosh iLife." Register Friday, January 9, during Macworld Expo at Moscone Center, San Francisco Cost: $99.00 Sign up soon! Best Books of 2003 The Designers' Bookshelf has released it's annual "Best Books" listing for designers, desktop publishers and graphic artists. If you're looking for training or books along these topics check out the Designers' Bookshelf FontAgent Pro for Panther Insider Software has rolled out the latest version of FontAgent Pro, Mac OS X native font management and repair utility. Now, it's the only font manager to offer auto-activation in Adobe Photoshop CS. In addition to Panther support under Mac OS X 10.3.2, the new release takes advantage of Apple's latest installer technology and a new simplified installation process. FontAgent Pro allows you to define multiple font libraries that can be opened simultaneously -- rename font files with meaningful file names for easy management -- verify fonts on the fly as they are imported, activated, or exported; and reorganize scattered fonts into useful libraries that maintain original font-file formats. FontAgent Pro requires Mac OS X version 10.2 or later (including Panther), 3MB of available disk space, and 7MB of memory. Download it for $89.95. at www.insidersoftware.com Quotes: Too much to eat over the holidays We never repent of having eaten too little.      Thomas Jefferson I saw few die of hunger; of eating, a hundred thousand.      Benjamin Franklin go to: 2003 Info Manager Archives --> 2002 Info Manager Archives --> 2001 Info Manager Archives --> Info Manager Favorite Quotes of 2001 --> 2001 Info Manager Archives --> Info Manager Favorite Quotes of 2000 --> 2000 Info Manager Archives --> 1999 Info Manager Archives --> ** SUBSCRIBE to the "Info" LIST! Lynn Wegley is a veteran of the UGN (AOL User Groups Forum) and User Group Network. He's been a supporter and volunteer on many, many UGNet and User Group Academy projects. As a long time user group member, he's served as volunteer from Honolulu to Boston and many points in between. Currently working with the Apple Corp of Dallas, the Dallas Mac Pack, Cowtown MUG of Ft. Worth and TUMS (the Tulsa Users of Macintosh Society) doing newsletter articles and the monthly CD-ROM Update. UG Network Channel   /   UGNN   /   NEWS   /   UG Library To Advertise or become a sponsor -- Contact Advertising Department -- Press Releases for publication -- should be directed to: UGNN News Desk at: News Editor   - Article Reprints -- User Group Network Affiliates may reprint articles as long as full credit is given. Other Non-profit or non-commercial publications should contact us. The UGNN cannot guarantee accuracy or timeliness of articles. Many have been forwarded to us by field correspondents, or press release services. All care is taken to assure the accuracy of URLs and email addresses. Some items may be 30 to 60 days old. 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