MacRumors is reporting several of their readers have received shipment notification for their iLife '09 pre-orders. MacRumors is also reporting that iLife ’09 will be available at Best Buy today and in Apple stores tomorrow.

We can’t wait to get our grubby little hands on iLife ’09. The new Faces feature literally has us giddy with anticipation. When we get our copy we’ll be sure to post with our first impressions.

Tags:ilife

SecureMac is offering for download a free iWork 09 Trojan removal tool for those that downloaded and installed pirated copies of the iWork 09 suite.

We reported on the trojan yesterday and it seems as if this one could be seriously destructive. If you’ve downloaded and installed a pirated copy of iWork 09, SHAME ON YOU! Stealing is wrong and you got what you deserved. Now that we have that out of the way, heres the link to the SecureMac removal tool. It goes without say but we’re going to say it anyway: use at your own risk and we are not responsible for any damages that resulted from you downloading and installing pirated software or the use of the aforementioned removal tool.

Tags:trojans

John Gruber of Daring Fireball fame has posted an excellent article on what Macworld Expo was and what it meant to the Macintosh/Apple community.

“Macworld Expo brings together the full spectrum of people involved in this racket. Designers, engineers, marketing guys, managers, the press, and, yes, just plain users. There is nothing else like Macworld Expo, and if it fades away, there will be nothing to take its place. What everyone wishes is that Apple hadn’t done this. That we could plan on coming back next year and have it be the same. But we can’t have that. Apple did pull out. It will never be the same. What it will be, we don’t yet know.”

The article is an excellent read. I’ve never been to a Macworld Expo but it was always something I wanted to do. Without Apple, even if the show survives, I’m not sure it would be worth the effort.

Joseph Henry

Tags:macworld

Security firm Intego has issued a security alert for users of pirated copies of iWork 09. According to Intego a new trojan horse, OSX.Trojan.iServices.A, is circulating in copies of the iWork 09 suite that have been posted to BitTorrent and other sites where pirated software is shared. Apparently the software is functional but the installer contains an additional package called “iWorkServices.pkg” which is installed during the iWork installation.

“This software is installed as a startup item (in /System/Library/StartupItems/iWorkServices, a location reserved normally for Apple startup items), where it has read-write-execute permissions for root. The malicious software connects to a remote server over the Internet; this means that a malicious user will be alerted that this Trojan horse is installed on different Macs, and will have the ability to connect to them and perform various actions remotely. The Trojan horse may also download additional components to an infected Mac.”

Let this be a lesson to all you software thieves. If you download and use pirated software you open yourself up to this type of malicious attack. Moral of the story: don’t steal software!

[UPDATE]

MacRumors has posted instructions on how to remove the trojan for those that have downloaded and installed the suite. We still say serves you right!

Tags:trojans

During the first quarter conference call yesterday COO Tim Cook dispelled any notions of Apple introducing an iPhone Nano:

"You know us, we're not going to play in the low-end voice phone business. That's not who we are. That's not why we're here. We'll let somebody do that, our goal is not to be the unit share leader in the phone industry. It is to build the best phone."

He also made similar comments regarding a low-end netbook:

"We're watching that space, but right now from our point of view, the products in there are principally based on hardware that's much less powerful than we think customers want, software technology that is not good, cramped keyboards, small displays."Cook added, "We don't think people will be pleased with those products. It's a category we watch, we've got some ideas here, but right now we think the products are inferior and will not provide an experience to customers they're happy with."

Both comments echo what Steve Jobs said in October’s quarterly conference call so we tend to believe them. It’s not unheard of for Apple to reverse course on something they’ve discounted in the past but both are unlikely given Apple’s market and product placement strategy: higher end and high margin devices.

Read the entire AppleInsider story. MacRumors is also running a similar article.

Tags:tim cook, announcement

Apple has released an update to QuickTime bringing it to version 7.6. Apple states: “QuickTime 7.6 includes changes that increase reliability, improve compatibility and enhance security. This release is recommended for all QuickTime 7 users.” The update includes:

• Video:

Improves single-pass H.264 encoding quality

Increases the playback reliability of Motion JPEG media

• Audio:

Improves AAC encoding fidelity

Audio tracks from MPEG video files now export consistently

• Application Support:

Improves compatibility with iChat and Photo Booth

• Security:

For information on the security content of this update, please visit this website:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222

Tags:update, quicktime

How does this work: the economy is in a recession and people are losing jobs at an alarming rate and Apple just had a record breaking quarter. You heard right folks, our favorite fruit company just reported record sales, revenue and profits. Read Apple’s official press release if you don’t believe us.

MacRumors sums it up very nicely.

Next quarters guidance isn’t so rosy but that’s to be expected and of course, Apple’s guidance is always very, very conservative.

Tags:corporate, earnings, financials

Bloomberg.com is reporting that the SEC is looking into disclosures regarding Steve Jobs health. “to ensure that investors weren’t misled, a person familiar with the matter said”.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s review doesn’t mean investigators have seen evidence of wrongdoing, the person said, declining to be identified because the inquiry isn’t public. Bloomberg News reported last week that Jobs is considering a liver transplant as a result of complications after treatment for cancer, citing people who are monitoring his illness.

Stay tuned...

Tags:corporate, steve jobs

RedleX released and update to Mellel today. According to RedleX the new 2.6 version includes 25 new features and many enhancements. Some of the new features include:

1. Automatic update:

• Check for updates can be done automatically or manually.
• When updates are available, details of the update are viewable from within the application.
• Mellel determines users eligibility to the update and informs the user about his/hers status.
• Update is automatically downloaded and installed, integrated with the payment.

2. QuickLook plug-in - allows QuickLook and Finder previews of Mellel documents.

• Very accurate rendering of the documents, giving a very precise preview and QuickLook (except hyphenation).
• Preferences option to limit number of pages in QuickLook previews.

3. Added "Match Style Attributes" when switching style sets.
4. "Smart Style Application" - when applying character styles, Mellel maps overrides to their closes matching variation in the style.
5. The more traditional "Wipe all overrides" style application is also available by holding the option key while applying the style.
6. "Export PDF" option.
7. Re-Arranged "Statistics" palette.
8. "Spread view" options: One up, Two up, Four up and Spread.
9. Added the following encodings for plain text export and import: Japanese (Mac), Japanese (Windows), Japanese (Shift-JIS), Japanese (EUC), Traditional Chinese (Mac), Traditional Chinese (Windows), Simplified Chinese (Mac), Simplified Chinese (Windows), Chinese (GB18030), Korean (Mac), Korean (Windows), Korean (ISO2022-KR), Korean (EUC).
10. Added support for Japanese and Chinese to RTF, this improves compatibility with word and text edit for importing and copying Japanese and Chinese texts.

“Mellel is an advanced word processor for Mac OS X designed especially for scholars, creative and technical writers, and anyone seeking a feature-rich and reliable word processor.”

Mellel 2.6 is a free upgrade for anyone that bought it after December of 2006. Users that purchased Mellel prior to December 2006 can upgrade for $19 (USD). A full regular license is $49(USD) and RedleX offers a boxed version for $64( USD). Downloadable version for educators and students is $35 (USD)

Tags:word processor

If you're trying to spice up your iPhone's vocabulary via Apple's Notes app, don't bother. Apparently, not all apps can update your iPhone user word database and Notes is one of those that can’t. Instead, type the word into Safari’s Google search box and an update will be entered immediately. This is important and timely info for all you foul-mouthed, profanity using iPhone users out there.

Oh and we didn’t figure that out here at AWAAW. Nope, the fine folks over at Ars Technica, specifically Erica Sadun, get credit for that.

Tags:humor, app

The Los Angels Times business section has posted an online article about Apple COO Tim Cook being pegged as Steve Jobs replacement while the latter is out on medical leave.

Through a series of roles, most recently chief operating officer, Cook fixed what ailed Apple in the mid-1990s: poor product quality, spotty availability and absurdly high prices. His reward: For the second time in five years, Jobs this week tapped Cook to run the company while the chief executive takes a medical leave.

The article is a good read especially for any jumpy, trigger happy Apple share holders. Cook is a very well regarded supply chain manager and is eminently qualified to run Apple during Jobs convalescence.

Read more...

Tags:corporate, steve jobs

Yesterday RapidWeaver Plugs, makers of the wonderful Styled Text+ plug-in for RapidWeaver, released a new, incredibly useful plug-in: Partitions. Partitions allows RapidWeaver’s to slice and dice a page into sections making organizing content a breeze. The real power with Partitions comes when using it on a project with Loghound’s amazing PlusKit plug-in. With Pluskit in the project, you can import any other page style into a partition.

Each partition can be styled separately from the others and there are also alignment controls, border, margin and back ground color settings. See the page inspector images below:




Partition sells for $16.00 USD which is an amazing price for an amazing plug-in. Read more about Partitions here in the Partitions announcement thread at the RapidWeaver support forums. You can also get more information and download a demo at RapidWeaver Plugs.

Tags:plug-ins, new

MacZot is running Swift Publisher at 50% off today for $22.50. This is a seriously good deal for an increadible medium level page layout program. If your desktop publishing needs have outgrown Pages and Word or you just want to try out an alternative, Swift Publisher is a great way to go.

“No doubt that staying in touch with your customers and group members is important for you. With Swift Publisher, publishing good looking and informative documents for business, social and home activities becomes easy.

Swift Publisher is an excellent Macintosh page layout application for designing and printing colorful flyers, newsletters, brochures, letterheads, booklets, etc. A great selection of templates inspires your creativity and a variety of editing tools lets you quickly apply it.”

Swift Publisher Features:

• Thousands of images and designs: 24,000 high quality images, 100 unique masks and about 130 professionally designed templates (flyers, brochures, booklets, letterheads, newsletters, catalogs, etc.) are what you need for creating high-impact documents. Insert images in many supported formats — TIFF, JPEG, GIF, PDF, EPS from your computer, network or apply your iPhoto pictures using iPhoto integration.

• Advanced page layout: Flow text from column to column or to another page entirely. Adjustable layout guides are convenient for precise object placement. Text Wrap feature will be helpful if you need to combine graphics and text on a page. Take advantage of rotating each page of your multipage document on a fly. Switching between Background and Foreground layers enables you to create and edit complicated designs.

• Simple to use: Swift Publisher makes desktop publishing fun, easy and intuitive. Choose one of the ready-made templates, use a set of editing tools to control transparency, tiling, apply masks and fills, crop images, and enjoy the result. Want to share your stunning documents? Use adjustable PDF, TIFF, JPG and EPS export capabilities.

Swift Publisher is a cousin of the awesome Art Text 2 which we reviewed back in September. This is a great deal but only lasts for one day so if you’re thinking of buying hurry on over to MacZot and download the demo.

Tags:deals

SAN FRANCISCO, MACWORLD 2009

“Griffin Technology Inc., creator of all things iPhone and iPod, today announced the availability of its Navigate inline controller and iFM app for iPhone and iPod touch. Navigate delivers FM stereo radio and offers a remote control for any recent-generation iPod or iPhone model. The iFM app can be used as a companion to any FM radio to display song titles, program information, etc.’’

Navigate will retail for $59.00 and Griffin will be releasing an iPhone/iPod companion app, iFM, to the iTunes app store in March.

Read more...

Tags:accessories, app

Yesterday, Henk Vrieselaar released Bohemian for RapidWeaver. Bohemian boasts 4 Extra Content areas as well as TextBoxes.

Bohemian includes:

• 5 different built-in headerimages and the ability to add 10 custom header images, or choose any backgroundcolour or pattern.
• Up to 4 ExtraContent containers (examples)
• 8 different transparent effects on the header image and the ability to use your custom effect.
• Different body and header, beam and content, top and footer, subheader and submenu background patterns built right into the theme. 10 are built right in and you can also add your own or replace the other ones. Or choose a colour! There are thousands of combinations with patterns and/or colours.
• Three options for the position of the Sidebarheader: in the Sidebar, below or on the Header Image.
• BOHEMIAN Split has a SplitMenu and BOHEMIAN Dual has a DualMenu: the first level of navigation is always horizontal and displays at the top of the page. For second level navigation, you decide if you’d prefer it vertically in the Sidebar or horizontally below the header image. Read more about the menus here.
• Many color picker features
• I’ve added the demo BannerZest header above (with title) in the index.html to try it immedately after purchasing the theme. Just enable the radio button “Display the banner” in the Theme Styles.

TextBoxes:

“I’ve added TextBoxes on some pages. They are in the downloadfile. Paste them anywhere (Content, Sidebar, SidebarHeader, Footer, etc). In only two steps you’ve made a textbox. The ReadMe file explains how to style these boxes (size, colours, fonts, fontsize, border, padding, add columns, show it with a backgroundimage, a pattern or a colour, or make the background transparent, and much more). This page shows three different textboxes in the sidebar and an ExtraContent area between the Content and the Footer. TextBoxes are similar with ExtraContent, but you can as much as you like on a RW-page. You can use these textboxes in other themes too! You can turn ExtraContent in this theme off and use TextBoxes instead. Some like only the ease of ExtraContent, others prefer a combination of ExtraContent with TextBoxes. Some don’t like the ExtraContent at all and only want to use TextBoxes. It’s up yo you with this theme!”

Read more...

Tags:theme

Here they are:

New iLife:

iPhoto: new ways of organizing and finding photos: face recognition, geo tagging, new slideshow themes and Facebook and Flickr integration.

iMovie: dynamic themes, animated 2D and 3D travel maps, precision editing, better audio options, image stabilization.

GarageBand: Artist lessons that you can buy through iTunes.

New iWeb as well.

New iWork:

Keynote: slick new transitions, Magic Move, theme chooser, 3D chart animations, Keynote iPhone remote.

Pages: more templates via new theme chooser, full screen option, mail merge with Numbers, dynamic outlines.

Numbers: 250 new functions, easier formulas, theme chooser, better charting, links to Pages to update data on the fly.

iWork.com: share documents and add notes.

New 17 inch MacBook Pro with new battery: up to 8 hours per charge, up to 1000 charges, non-replaceable.

DRM Free iTunes! 8 million tracks DRM free now and the rest will be DRM free by the end of the quarter. Higher quality encoding as well. Three prices for songs: $0.69, $0.99 & $1.29. Available on your iPhone via 3G.

All in all a pretty decent MacWorld. Too bad it’ll be the last one.

Tags:announcement, rumor, update, macworld, ilife, iwork

MacRumors posted a nice synopsis yesterday of the most prevalent MacWorld Expo rumors and predictions making the rounds on the internet. Read the entire article here. We know you’re dying to know what our predictions are so here they are in no particular order:

• New Minis and iMacs
• iLife 09 and portions of iWork in the Cloud.
• No iPhone Nano

Ok, so we’re really not going out on a limb here but so what. Sosumi!

Tags:rumor, macworld