Because we all need another social network in our lives, Apple introduced "Ping" as part of iTunes 10 during its big media event this week. Described by Steve Jobs as "Twitter and Facebook meet iTunes," Ping aims to let the already-existing (and quite massive) audience of iTunes users friend each other, stay up-to-date on their friends' musical tastes, and like/comment on things found around iTunes.

Getting started with Ping is fairly easy, although it takes some time to figure out how to do all the things you would want to do with the service. Ping requires iTunes 10 and is not turned on by default—it looks as if Apple is trying to head off complaints about privacy by making users turn it on themselves. Once you install iTunes 10, you can click on "Ping" in the everything-is-now-gray left-hand sidebar to get started.

Thanks to Rudy Richter of Ambrosia Software Who wrote via Twitter:

to answer my previous tweet, to move the stop light back to horizontal, defaults write com.apple.iTunes full-window -1

To translate - Quite iTunes. Open your Terminal application and cut and paste "defaults write com.apple.iTunes full-window -1" (without the quotes). Re-open iTunes 10. Voila!

The MiFi released by Virgin Mobile this week ($150) is almost exactly the same thing as the one offered by Verizon and, until recently, Sprint — but there’s a twist that makes it revolutionary all over again.

The Virgin MiFi, like its rivals, is still an amazing gizmo to have on long car rides for the family, on woodsy corporate offsite meetings, at disaster sites, at trade show booths or anywhere you can’t get Wi-Fi. If you live alone, the MiFi could even be your regular home Internet service, too — one that you can take with you when you head out the door. And it’s still insanely useful when you’re stuck on a plane on a runway.

But three things about the Virgin MiFi are very, very different.

Watch the streaming video from today's special event.

As expected, Apple refreshed its iPod lineup Wednesday, unveiling redesigned versions of its iPod touch, iPod nano, and iPod shuffle music players. But the company didn’t stop there, using its annual fall music event to also announce an update to its iTunes software and an overhaul of its Apple TV set-top box.

The fall music event is an Apple tradition dating back at least six years, in which the company typically rolls out new iPods in advance of the holiday shopping season. This year’s edition took place in San Francisco Wednesday, with Apple CEO Steve Jobs leading a 90-minute run-through of his company’s music plans for the coming months.

Those plans include a revamped iPod touch that adopts many of the features of its iPhone 4 counterpart—including front-and-back-facing cameras and support for Apple’s FaceTime video chat technology. The fourth-generation touch also sports the Retina display technology introduced to the iPhone line this summer.

This week on Your Mac Life, sponsored by 1Password, Smile Software, Circus Ponies and PowerMax - "Today's Apple Announcements Dissected"

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

Or you can listen in to the plain old audio feed at:
http://yml.me/node/4243

You can also join the Chat Room that runs during the live show - on the Live Video Feed itself or on the dedicated IRC Server at irc.chat-solutions.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.

Apple® will broadcast its September 1 event online using Apple’s industry-leading HTTP Live Streaming, which is based on open standards. Viewing requires either a Mac® running Safari® on Mac OS® X version 10.6 Snow Leopard®, an iPhone® or iPod touch® running iOS 3.0 or higher, or an iPad™. The live broadcast will begin at 10:00 a.m. PDT on September 1, 2010 at www.apple.com.

I know, I know. You keep hearing the term “net neutrality” and wonder what it really means. I’ve been following the story for five years now, and sometimes I still wonder myself. Is it something that could really end up affecting what I see or can’t see on the Web, or is it just a buzzword that geeks, policy wonks, and politicians like to throw around at parties? Well, it’s really both.

Here I’ve put together a list of basic questions about net neutrality that, if taken as directed, can help you swim through the spin and hype around the topic. It’ll also help you understand in jargon-free terms what’s being debated now, and how the possible outcomes of the debate could change the Web forever.

Adobe has released Photoshop Lightroom 3.2, Camera Raw 6.2 and DNG Converter 6.2.

These are final versions of updates that were originally posted as 'release candidates' on the Adobe Labs site, and are now available for immediate download. The latest versions provide final RAW support for sixteen recent cameras, including the Canon EOS 60D and Sony Alpha NEX-5. The updates also add more than 120 lens profiles and fix a number of bugs.

Choose only ten Mac Gems? Are you kidding?

As Macworld’s resident Gem-meister, I not only test every Mac Gem, but I also end up using many of them regularly, so choosing a list of ten must-haves is an excruciatingly difficult task. (The last time I tried to come up with a list of “Gems I’m thankful for,” I ended up with two articles covering 31 products!) But if I’m forced to choose the First Ten Gems I’d Install On A Desert Island—or however you want to phrase this cruel hypothetical—here’s my current list.

Autodesk has announced plans to release its legendary professional design and engineering software AutoCAD for the Macintosh. The software will be available this fall. The company has also announced a mobile application that will enable AutoCAD users to adjust their designs using iOS devices in the field.

AutoCAD combines design and drafting tools in a graphical user interface designed to be intuitive for Mac users. It supports Mac OS X technologies like Cover Flow and support for multi-touch gestures on Apple laptop trackpads, the Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad. AutoCAD for Mac lets users work in the DWG file format; it’s downwardly compatible with DWG files created in older, PC-only versions of the software. An Application Programming Interface (API) provides customization features for tailor-built workflows.

Autodesk has also announced plans to offer AutoCAD for Mac for free to students through the Autodesk Education Community.

In the past 100 days, Apple's iPad has changed the way I work and live.

Immediately after the iPad came out, I went out and bought four. I have one for myself and three for my senior staff members. They have become part of a living lab within our internal research environment. I use my daily and challenged my staff to do the same. I asked them to give me a weekly update on how they used it, what they like and disliked about it, and how it affected their digital lifestyles.

After 100 days with the iPad, I am convinced that this is a form factor that's not going away any time soon. It represents the next major mobile computing platform, and I think it will evolve into a serious companion to our desktops and laptops.

One of my jobs at Macworld is to help moderate our forums. And part of that job is to keep the forums as free of clutter as possible. Some of that clutter comes in the form of spam—a lot of it from Chinese companies promoting media conversion utilities.

It happens that, at the same time, some of these companies solicit us for reviews of their software. I find it a little nervy that on the one hand, they’re using sleazy marketing tricks to promote their stuff and gain Google hits by the sheer number of Web mentions generated by their spam and, on the other hand, attempting to promote their software as legitimate.

These companies work this way. A Chinese-based company creates these utilities—generally some kind of media converter or ripper. Invariably open-source software like FFmpeg lies underneath this stuff, though it’s not always credited as it’s supposed to be. That company then has several brands. The software’s interface is skinned differently for each brand, but is otherwise the same in terms of functionality. The interfaces are invariably garish and the UI clumsy.

I have no problem naming the companies that have spammed us in the last several months—and yes, this company is among them. If you have an aversion to spammers and the wares they peddle, here’s a handy list of companies to avoid.

Ringtones — They are the darlings of the music industry and the bane of anyone subject to hearing a bad one. If you’re sick of your plain old telephone ringer but don’t want to download a canned tone, you don’t need to spend extra money to turn your favorite song into a ringtone for your iPhone. There’s a way to create ringtones in iTunes from your existing music.

Once you’ve done it, you’ll be making ringtones faster than you can download them. It is not, however, the most obvious process. Here’s a how-to guide to help you out for both Mac and Windows users.

Folks who purchased a fancy new Core i5 or i7 MacBook Pro any time since the models were introduced in April can fire up Software Update and snag the EFI Firmware update Apple released on Thursday.

MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.9, recommended for all users of the specified models, contains a few fixes for the portable computers, most prominently the squashing of a rare issue that could cause the latest Core i5 and i7 MacBook Pros to freeze during startup or intermittently stall while running.

MPEG LA, the firm that controls licensing for a number of video and other standards, announced on Thursday that it will never charge any royalties for Internet video encoded using the H.264 standard that Apple favors, as long as that video is free to end-users.

Thursday’s announcement by MPEG LA means that it will never charge any royalties for Internet video encoded using the H.264 standard, when the video is free to consumers. The December 31, 2015 expiration date for royalty-free use of H.264 is now history, and anyone can decode Internet video encoded in the format freely, in perpetuity.

There’s plenty of reason to rejoice at that, not least because oodles of HTML5 Web video is already using H.264. YouTube uses it in its HTML5 player, and any YouTube video you watch on your iPad or iPhone is encoded in the format. The same is true of Vimeo’s HTML5 player, and CNN’s, and ESPN’s, and Major League Baseball’s, and so on. And, of course, if Thursday’s announcement means that the Web will soon get even more H.264 HTML5 video, that’s more video you can consume with your iPhone and iPad, or other Flash-free mobile devices (which, at present, is many of them).

One hopes that with MPEG LA’s announcement, Mozilla and Opera will now feel comfortable supporting the H.264 codec, and HTML5 Web video can standardize on the format.

Apple severed ties with a small Silicon Valley design firm that for nearly a decade had helped with the development of some of its products, after the firm showcased its own prototype tablet computer.

Eric Bauswell, a founder and chief executive of the engineering design company SurfaceInk, confirmed on Thursday that his company and Apple had “gone separate directions.”

Mr. Bauswell declined to give details of its relationship with Apple, citing client confidentiality agreements. But he said that his company was let go because of “Apple’s growing awareness of our turnkey capabilities,” referring to SurfaceInk’s business of designing products for its clients. “I think they view our capabilities as an opportunity for competitors, “ he said.

Apple declined to comment.

When Apple revealed the iPhone 4 back in June, they were keen to point out the smartphone’s new video recording capabilities. However, despite the device’s newfound video competency, it still fell short when it came to sharing your high-definition content, especially when uploading to YouTube. When you decide to share your video online, the moment you tap that Send to YouTube button, the iPhone 4 will take your clip and compress it. The seemingly unavoidable compression process takes your 720p HD clip and squeezes it down to a lower quality 360p video.

Drakfyre’s Software recently released a free application called 720tube, which solves the compression problem. The fairly basic — yet functional — utility application works as expected, taking your HD video clips and uploading them to YouTube in the format you originally intended.

Netflix has hit the iPhone. iPhone and iPod Touch users can now stream their favorite Netflix videos.

The popular video subscription service just updated its Apple app to support the iPhone and iPod Touch, which now join the iPad in offering streaming videos. Netflix members can download the free 1.1.0 version to watch their favorite TV shows and movies.

The Netflix app lets you access your Instant Queue to view videos you've already saved. You can browse by genre or search for specific titles from the service's growing library of streaming content. You can also stop a video and then resume where you left off, whether you're watching on your iPhone, your computer, or your game console.

To tap into this app, you must be a paying Netflix subscriber (plans start at $8.99 a month) or set up a free 30-day trial.

Gmail isn't just about e-mail anymore: it's also a phone.

Google launched the ability to make voice calls to any traditional phone number from a Gmail account Wednesday, which CNET had reported Tuesday was in testing. It's a blend of Gmail and Google Voice technology that allows users to dial numbers from their computers as well as receive incoming calls through one's Google Voice number.

Gmail users can link their Google Voice accounts with their Gmail accounts to have their in-boxes treated like just another line that will ring when people call their Google Voice numbers, and their Google Voice number will appear on the incoming call screen of those they are calling. A Google Voice account isn't required to use the service, but international calls will be funded through Google Voice accounts.

Calls to phone numbers in the U.S. and Canada will be free, and will cost 2 cents a minute to several other countries such as France and the U.K.

Adobe on Wednesday announced a major redesign of its free online editing tools at Photoshop.com, giving consumers one less reason to BitTorrent the real McCoy. The suite of rich Web apps has been redesigned, renamed, and reorganized to make sharing and editing photos online easier. But the real improvement to these tools is easy access: The Photoshop Express Editor is now open to all visitors—no sign-up or sign-in required.

Photoshop.com now features four Web apps under the “Photoshop Express” name: Photoshop Express Editor, Organizer, Slideshows, and Uploader. The Editor app is for touching up photos; the Organizer app allows you to sort photos into albums and share them with friends; the Slideshows tool makes it easy to create interactive slideshows from your images; and the Photoshop Express Uploader puts your photos on the Photoshop.com site in order to set up your creative photographic canvas.

All Photoshop Express apps are free to use, and interestingly, Adobe no longer requires you to register for an account before you can begin using Photoshop Express Editor.

Um, ewwwwwwwwwwww! (Seems perfect for Website of the Week then.)

Now that's just disgusting!

;-)

If you’ve been paying attention over the past few years, you know that in the early autumn Apple holds a music event that invariably introduces new iPods. The idea being that the holiday season is rolling around and Apple wants to release something that people can jam into a festive package and give to their dearest and nearest.

Apple has just announced that this year's event will be held on September 1st. I expect that, as usual, we’ll see that new crop of iPods. But there’s a good chance that we’ll see something more. Rumors are flying of a new Apple TV, a camera or two brought to the iPod touch, and even a smaller iPad.

This week on Your Mac Life, sponsored by 1Password, Smile Software, Circus Ponies and PowerMax - "Apple Special Event and What to Expect"

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

Or you can listen in to the plain old audio feed at:
http://yml.me/node/4243

You can also join the Chat Room that runs during the live show - on the Live Video Feed itself or on the dedicated IRC Server at irc.chat-solutions.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.

Apple on Wednesday announced that it would be holding a special invitation-only event on Wednesday September 1, at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.

As usual, the invitation itself is a terse affair, listing only the time and place and showing a picture of a guitar with an Apple-logo-shaped sound hole. In past years, Apple has used September events to showcase music- and media-related products, such as new iPods.

It’s time for users of Mac OS X Leopard and Snow Leopard to get their Software Update engines ready. Apple on Tuesday released Security Update 2010-005, which is recommended for all users.

Detailed in Apple’s support document, this update contains a variety of fixes for both the client and server versions of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard and 10.6 Snow Leopard. Among the vulnerabilities squashed in the patch include one where maliciously crafted fonts that could be embedded in documents, a potential man-in-the-middle data interception attack, possible code execution due to maliciously crafted PDF documents, vulnerabilities in the ClamAV antivirus program, a weakness in the Samba system that could allow denial of service attacks, and a number of security holes in Mac OS X’s pre-installed version of PHP.

The updates are available now in Software Update for all affected versions of Leopard and Snow Leopard or from Apple’s support downloads site.