From Mercury News
Apple has agreed to pay refunds of $25 to $79 to as many as 2.3 million customers to resolve claims that some of its power adapters were prone to spark.

Customers who bought certain replacement adapters for PowerBook and iBook computers are eligible for the settlement, according to documents filed Jan. 25 in federal court in San Jose. District Court Judge James Ware granted preliminary approval of the agreement March 24. The class action, or group, lawsuit, filed in 2006, alleged Apple misrepresented problems with the power adapters.

In 2001, Apple recalled about 570,000 power adapters sold worldwide with Macintosh PowerBook G3 personal PCs after reports of overheating. Apple will give cash payments to customers who bought an adapter made by Apple or another company to replace a failed one, according to court documents.

Click here to read more "Apple to refund Customers to resolve Adapter Lawsuits"

Streamed Audio Only Archive - http://yourmaclifeshow.com/QT/YML080507s.mov (Open QuickTime, type Command-U and type in the address)

Our guests on Wednesday's show were:

- Chris Breen, Macworld.com

- Lesa King, Graphic Reporter

You can subscribe to Your Mac Life on the iTunes Music Store - just click here!

From Macworld

May 6, 1998 was a Wednesday. I used to work at home most Wednesdays. That day I got a call from my boss’s assistant instructing me to hurry in to the office. Which means I was probably not wearing pants when I first heard about the existence of the iMac.

Ten years later, the iMac is still with us, though it has transmogrified from a 233MHz CRT-based all-in-one system into today’s 3.06GHz flat-panel-based system. In the years following the announcement, the iMac helped Apple stagger to its feet, and in 2001 the iPod helped get the company back to the top of its game.

I don’t think it’s unreasonable to suggest that without the iMac, Apple would either be out of business or a vastly different company than the one we see today. And certainly the iMac was the first Apple product to truly bear the stamp of Steve Jobs, as well as designer Jonathan Ive, both of whom have spent the last decade driving Apple on to even more impressive creations.

Click here to read more "The iMac turns 10"

I know we've all seen similar images before but they never cease to amaze me and why I picked this site as this week's Website of the Week:

Cool Art That Messes With Your Head

BTW, since there was no show last week, I thought I'd remind you of last week's WotW as well:

An Engineer's Guide to Cats

Double your pleasure, double your fun! ;-) Hope you enjoy!

~ Sly

(If you're getting last week's show when you tune in live, you click on Quicktime Preferences in your Quicktime Menu, then click on browser and then click on Empty Download Cache (or uncheck the "Save Movies" in disk cache")

This week on Your Mac Life, sponsored by RadTech, SmileOnMyMac and Circus Ponies - "Anniversaries, GPS Review and Riding Segways!"

Live Video is on Your Mac Life thanks to MacOSG.com! You can watch the show live at this URL:
http://yml.macosg.com/

Or you can listen in to the plain old audio feed at:
http://www.yourmaclifeshow.com/QT/stream.mov

You can also join one of the two Chat Rooms that run during the live show - on the Live Video Feed itself or on the dedicated IRC Server at irc.netmug.org in the #yourmaclife Channel.

Make sure you listen in this and every Wednesday evening from 5:30pm to 8pm PT or from 8:30pm to 11pm ET, for the most fun you'll have listening to your Mac.

Well, not exactly but, thanks to Alamo Segway Tours, they got to "see San Antonio at 6 miles per hour!"

There has been much tequila drunk, much Mexican food had and much shopping done. Check out the Flickr Feed for more pics!

From Macworld
Independent music download service eMusic has announced its launch in Canada.

eMusic doesn’t encrypt its music files with any sort of digital rights management (DRM) technology — they’re all available in MP3 format, and work equally well on the Mac and the iPod.

The company has differentiated itself from catalogs on the iTunes Store and Amazon.com’s MP3 store by focusing specifically on independent music, which eMusic says appeals more to an older audience. To that end, they also incorporate editorial content, columns, genre-specific newsletters, and the ability to view playlists and “neighbors” and “fans” to get ideas of new music to listen to.

eMusic has been selling tracks online since 1998; the company claims to be second to the iTunes Store in terms of number of downloads sold. eMusic reports having sold more than 200 million music downloads since November, 2003.

Canadian service to eMusic is priced at CDN$11.99 per month for the Basic rate (30 downloads), $17.99 for the Plus package (50 downloads) and $23.99 for Premium ($23.99). Audio books are priced at CDN$11.99 for one or $22.99 for two.

Click here to read more "eMusic comes to Canada"

From Macworld
Jumsoft announced the release of Keynote Jam, a collection of pre-rendered images for use in Apple Keynote presentations. The software is available for download from the Web site now.

System requirements call for Mac OS X v10.4.3 or later and Apple Keynote 4.0 or later.

The software is being offered free of charge, and Jumsoft licenses users to utilize the images on Web sites, in printed materials, PDF documents or any other purpose except for resale.

Click here to read more "Free Keynote Jam Package Released"

From Macworld UK
Apple has moved to dismiss rumours that it plans to abandon its video products. These rumours first emerged when the company confirmed it had no plans to exhibit at NAB. But the rumours are false, said Richard Townhill, Apple’s director of marketing for professional video applications.

"I can categorically state, on the record, that is not the case," he told TVB Europe, adding that the company recently sold its millionth Final Cut Pro license.

The report continues to explain that Apple took 49 per cent of the US professional editing marketing (Avid took just 22 per cent) last year.

Click here to read more "Apple committed to Final Cut"

From Business Week

Soon after Michele Goins became chief information officer at Juniper Networks in February, she decided to respond to the growing chorus of Mac lovers among the networking company's 6,100 employees. For years, many had used Apple's computers at home and clamored for them in the office as well. So she launched a test, letting 600 Juniper staffers use Macs instead of the standard-issue PCs that run Microsoft's Windows operating system. As long as the extra support costs aren't too high, she plans to open the floodgates. "If we opened it up today, I think 25% of our employees would choose Macs," she says.

Funny thing is, she has never received a single sales call from Apple. While thousands of other companies scratch and claw for the tiniest sliver of the corporate computing market, Apple treats this vast market with utter indifference.

Click here to read more "The Mac in the Gray Flannel Suit"

From Mercury News
Apple, which hopes to do for show business what it has done for digital music, is now selling new movie releases from major studios and independent film companies on the same day as their DVD releases, the company announced Thursday.

New releases available for purchase this week through Apple's online iTunes store include "American Gangster" and "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly." Other catalog titles offered include "Juno," "Cloverfield," "I Am Legend" and "There Will Be Blood."

"What this shows is that digital media is gaining momentum on traditional media," observed Phil Leigh, president of research firm Inside Digital Media. "Ultimately, our televisions will be hooked to the Internet. We are going to pull up the iTunes page and get what we want on demand. Some of it will be free, some of it we will pay for."
New releases will sell for $14.99, while most catalog offerings are priced at $9.99. The movies can be viewed on video iPods, iPhones and computers, as well as a widescreen TV connected to an Apple TV. People who purchase a movie through iTunes can play it as many times as they like, just like a DVD.

Titles will be available from 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Lionsgate, Image Entertainment and First Look Studios.

Click here to read more "Apple to Sell Movies on Release Date"

From the New York Times
There was good news for Apple and Comcast, but bad news for Blockbuster woven into Time Warner’s conference call with investors today. Jeff Bewkes, Time Warner’s chief executive, said that the company’s Warner Brothers studio will now release movies for video-on-demand systems on the same day they are released as DVDs.

Until now, people who wanted to watch movies on cable pay-per-view systems or rental download systems like Apple TV had to wait a few weeks after the same movie was released as a DVD. (And the DVD comes out, of course, four or five months after a film hits the theaters.) Warner Brothers has been experimenting with the new approach for the last few months. It has found that DVD rentals only fell by 3 percent to 5 percent and sales of DVDs actually increased, perhaps because of the increased promotion and fewer used rental discs available for sale.

Mr. Bewkes boasted to investors that the shift from DVDs to digital distribution, on the “day and date” of DVD release, will be better for Warner Brothers because it will eliminate some of the costs of manufacturing and distributing discs.

Click here to read more "Warner Brothers to Rent Movies Online Sooner"

Nurse Sly seems to think it might be Strep Throat. Nurse Lesa thinks it might be a cold. Patient Shawn doesn't care - all he knows is he can't talk. :(

As Shawn Twittered this afternoon, "Does swelling/pain under jaw and *serious* difficulty swallowing actually mean anything...or can I just ignore it?"

Apparently, it means *something* but no one knows just what yet. What it means for the YML audience is, with an inability of the host to talk, tonight's show would be *very* uninteresting. Therefore, we've had to cancel it. :(

Short and sweet.

An Engineer's Guide to Cats.

Hope you enjoy. :-)

~Sly

I thought I was fortunate enough to be able to see Bon Jovi in concert back in my hometown of Vancouver, BC in December ‘07 (for the very first time I might add). Since having been a fan it seems like forever, I had always wanted to see them perform live but for whatever reason I never had the opportunity. Their genuine love for Vancouver, having recorded three of their most successful albums there, was apparent in both their performance and in the memories they shared of an obviously important time in their lives. I even declared that this concert was probably as much fun as my all time favourite concert - Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA tour, which stopped in Vancouver in October 1984.

Click here to read the full review, see a page full of pictures and my own and other videos from that night

Hope you enjoy!
~Sly

From iPhone Matters
Here at iPhoneMatters, we’ve come across pretty much every 3G iPhone rumor that has ever existed. Some of them are believable, others, not so much. We decided to take matters into our own hands and see what our friendly local Apple store employees had to say about the product they’ll be selling in just over a month.

(Shawn's Comment: No offense intended to any of our listeners who are Apple Store employees but they will be the *last* people to find out anything about the 3G iPhone. Any article/web site that claims anything different is moronic and should be put on your list of things not to read/waste time on)

Click here to read more "We Interview Apple Employees about the 3G iPhone"

From MacObserver
Apple posted a Leopard only Java for Mac OS X Update 1. The update adds Java SE 1.6.0_05 to the system.

"This Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 1 adds Java SE 6 version 1.6.0_05 to your Mac. This update does not replace the existing installation of J2SE 5.0 or change the default version of Java," according to Apple. The reference page for the update notes that the release is only for Mac OS X 10.5.2 or later and is for 64-bit Macs. It cannot run on PowerPC-based Macs or 32-bit Intel Macs.

The update can be found in System Preferences -> Software Update or on the Apple Downloads page. It is 57 MB.

Click here to read more "Apple Posts Java Update 1 for Leopard"

From Macworld

BBC announced that BBC America programming is available for purchase and download through the iTunes Store in the United States.

BBC America’s programming on iTunes begins with Torchwood, a spinoff of the BBC’s popular Doctor Who series; the comedy sketch series Little Britain; and the medieval action series Robin Hood.

Each series is available either per episode for $1.99 each, or per season. The U.S. iTunes Store’s coverage begins with Robin Hood Series (Season) 2; Little Britain Series 3 and Torchwood Series 2.

Click here to read more "BBC America Content comes to U.S. iTunes Store"

From Macworld
As far as digital technology has come, there’s still one thing that digital cameras won’t do: give you perfect color every time. In fact, if they gave us perfect color 50 percent of the time, that would be incredible. But unfortunately, every digital camera sneaks some kind of color cast into your images. Here’s how to get your color in line.

Click here to read more "Color Correcting Digital Camera Images"

From ZDNET

Rogers Communications said Tuesday that it has a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to Canada. In a terse announcement, Rogers, the largest wireless provider in Canada, made the announcement and said little else. Here’s the full-text:

Ted Rogers, President and Chief Executive Officer of Rogers Communications Inc. today issued the following statement:

We’re thrilled to announce that we have a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to Canada later this year. We can’t tell you any more about it right now, but stay tuned.

(Shawn's Comment: Thanks Rogers! The full text of the announcement, as posted above, shows just how much concern you have for your Canadian customers....none...)

Click here to read more "iPhone coming to Canada"

From MacDailyNews
In a Flickr photostream, "Paint.It.Black" has posted a photo showing an Apple MacBook Pro on Steve Ballmer's lectern at a recent conference, "Business Leadership and Digital Innovation" something or other — which is obviously yet another Ballmer presentation focusing on things about which he has no clue.

He's probably using Apple's Keynote, too.

(Shawn's Comment: All very funny - it's a shame it's also not true. It's easy enough to make fun of Ballmer without making up things. Why not stick to the truth?)

Click here to read more "Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer Uses Apple Mac for Presentation"

From Macworld
Today marks the fifth anniversary of The Store—the music/video/podcast/iPod game/iPod touch software emporium launched by Apple on April 28, 2003. To mark the occasion I thought I’d take a gander at my Purchase History and use it to note a handful of personal landmarks.

Click here to read more "The iTunes Store: 5 Years and $2,315.60 Later..."

From iLounge

Apple has launched a special promo section on the iTunes Store celebrating the fifth anniversary of the store’s launch.

”iTunes Turns Five” features a look back at bestselling and staff-recommended media from each of the store’s five years of operation. Launched on April 28, 2003, the iTunes Music Store initially offered “more than 200,000 songs and a handful of exclusive tracks.” Over the years it has grown to offer more than 10 million songs, as well as movies, TV shows, iPod games, podcasts, audiobooks, and music videos, a diversification reflected when the store dropped the word “Music” from its name. As such, each year spotlighted in the promotion represents the content available that year; for instance, 2003’s promo page features only music, while 2005’s page spotlights music as well as TV programming (launched on October 12 of that year), podcasts, and audiobooks.

The iTunes Store is now the largest music retailer in the U.S., and has sold more than 4 billion songs.

Click here to read more "Apple celebrates 5th anniversary of iTunes Store"

From Macworld

Click here to read more "Canon Pixma MX850"

From iLounge

Click here to read more "Griffin Evolve Add-On Cube Speaker + Speaker Charging Base"

From Macworld UK

Adobe has discontinued its website creation suite GoLive in favour of Dreamweaver, announcing it has ceased development and sales of the product, starting today. The end of support for the venerable product follows Adobe's acquisition of Macromedia in late 2005, when it bought alternate website creation suite Dreamweaver into its fold.

“GoLive helped creative professionals to support what was then a new market trend,” said GoLive product manager Devin Fernandez. “That is, design moving to the web. Even after GoLive 9 came out people were drawn to Dreamweaver,” Fernandez told Macworld, “especially around features and support for technology like AJAX and CSS Starter Points. Dreamweaver also supports dynamic content, while GoLive doesn’t.”

Adobe will continue to support GoLive users with online tutorials and migration assistance created by usage experts, and is offering existing GoLive users a chance to upgrade to Dreamweaver for c.$199.

Click here to read more "Adobe Discontinues GoLive"

From Macworld

Apple updated its iMac consumer desktop computer, adding the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processor and more powerful graphics.

The new iMacs feature faster processors across the product and they also feature a 1066 MHz front-side bus and up to 4GB of 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM memory. The 24-inch iMac also has an optional NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS with 512MB of video memory, delivering what Apple says is up to two times standard performance for graphic intensive applications.

The new iMacs also feature AirPort Extreme 802.11n Wi-Fi networking, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR; Gigabit Ethernet; built-in iSight video camera; a total of five USB 2.0 ports (including two on the Apple Keyboard); and one FireWire 400 and one FireWire 800 port.

The new iMacs come in three basic models and are available immediately.

Click here to read more "Apple updates iMac with Faster Processor, Graphics"

From the Wall Street Journal
Apple’s acquisition of chip design firm P.A. Semi this week started tongues wagging about whether there was discord in Apple’s three-year old relationship with Intel. Not so, says Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

In an interview after Apple reported earnings Wednesday, Jobs told the Business Technology Blog that the company’s relationship with Intel, the provider of microprocessors for its entire line of Macintosh computers, is still strong. “We have a great partnership with Intel,” Jobs said. “We expect that to continue forever.”

Jobs said Apple acquired P.A. Semi mainly for its chip designers and suggested it will rely on P.A. Semi’s expertise primarily for portable electronics devices like the iPod and iPhone for which Intel doesn’t currently supply chips (though they would like to). Jobs says Apple has long been involved in custom designing chips for iPhones and iPods and P.A. Semi will help enhance its capacity to do so.

Click here to read more "Jobs Still Hearts Intel"

Streamed Audio Only Archive - http://yourmaclifeshow.com/QT/YML080423s.mov (Open QuickTime, type Command-U and type in the address)

Our guests on Wednesday's show were:

- Carl Slawinsky, Chief Evangelist for 1Password

- Ben Hazard, Marketing manager for Alien Skin Software

- Peter Cohen, Macworld.com

- Lesa King, Graphic Reporter

You can subscribe to Your Mac Life on the iTunes Music Store - just click here!