TDL Live This week: (12/1-12/8)

It's the Cyber Monday edition of TDL Live! After dealing with some site load issues (thanks Cyber Monday...) TDL Live was a hoot. No aluminum foil was harmed in making this episode:

Show Notes:
A coming of age for YouTube
http://news.cnet.com/a-coming-of-age-for-youtube/
YouTube has announced it will auction off search terms as part of an ad program, called Sponsored Videos, designed to enable anyone to expand the viewership of their videos. YouTube also said last week it obtained rights to post full-length movies produced by a large film studio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. What this means is that YouTube has given up on the idea that user-generated content can be a successful standalone business.

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Psystar case reveals Apple's shaky e-mail retention policy
http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/11/19/filing-apple-employees-responsible-own-lawsuit-record-keeping

According to a recent legal filing (see page 7) in the Psystar vs Apple antitrust case, Apple employees are responsible for maintaining their own documents such as emails, memos, and voicemails. In other words, there is no company-wide policy for archiving, saving, or deleting these documents.

This could pose a problem in the event of a lawsuit. In recent years, companies have been fined millions after failing to retrieve old emails and other files required as evidence.

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Microsoft modifies Zune subscription model

http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE4AJ21420081120

the software company's modified subscription plan would allow owners of Zune to keep 10 tracks per month, which has an estimated value of $10. The users can also add those tracks to their permanent collection.

The company said agreements have been signed with the big four music labels -- EMI Music, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group -- and also with a few independent distributors.

A Zune Pass would allow the user to download music and the downloaded content can be shared among up to three PCs and three Zune devices, the company said.($14.99/mo)

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MacBooks slow down with battery removed

http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/11/21/macbook.slow.wo.battery/

Apple's newer MacBook range continues to exhibit an unusual design behavior that slows the system down when the battery isn't attached, testing by Gearlog confirms. Although only publicized in a support article from August that predates the late 2008 refresh, the unibody systems deliberately throttle back the processorwhen relying only on AC power.

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THE Black Friday Deals at Apple That Weren't

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Simpsons Rag On Apple

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Linux successfully ported to the iPhone, iPod touch

http://www.macnn.com/articles/08/12/01/linux.on.iphone/

Devteam member planetbeing has successfully reverse-engineered the iPhone and iPod touch platforms torun the open-source Linux 2.6 kernel. The port is still in the beginning stages of development, with limited functionality that lacks support for the touchscreen, sound, accelerometer, baseband and wireless networking. When the device is powered-on, OpeniBoot gives the choice of booting the iPhone operating system or a separate mode for the Linux kernel.

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Mac web share hits 8.9% while Firefox tops 20%

http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/12/01/net.apps.share.nov.2008/

Net Applications has revealed both Apple and Mozilla bringing Microsoft's share of the web to historic lows for November. The Mac's usage share of the more than 40,000 websites tracked by the Internet firm has now reached 8.87 percent for the past month; the increase is a major jump from the previous record of 8.23 percent in September and is enough to have pushed Microsoft's Windows below 90 percent usage online for the first time in years.

Microsoft has also taken hits from rival web browsers. Usage of Mozilla's Firefox has topped 20 percent for the first time (up from 19.97 percent to 20.78 percent) and has been the largest single contributor to a decline in Internet Explorer share, which has again reached a years-long record low at just 69.77 percent of Net Applications' view of the web. The researchers attribute the spike partly due to the timing of special events like the US presidential election and to an extra number of days off helped by Thanksgiving, all of whom contributed to heavier web use.

Apple's Safari and Google's new Chrome browser have also supported the downfall of the Microsoft browser. Safari jumped from 6.57 percent in October to 7.13 percent in November while Chrome moved up slightly from 0.74 percent to 0.83 percent.

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BlackBerry Storm Doesn't Blow Away Reviewers

http://www.internetnews.com/mobility/article.php/3788061

New York Times technology columnist David Pogue tags the Storm as the "BlackBerry Dud", and is a bit miffed over the missing traditional QWERTY keyboard.
"It's like an iPod without a scroll wheel. A Prius with terrible mileage. Cracker Jack without a prize inside," Pogue seethed in his review last week.

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Blockbuster (BBI) Looking For Streaming Partners To Go After Netflix, Apple
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/12/blockbuster-looking-for-streaming-partners
Like rival Netflix, Blockbuster (BBI) is hoping to build itsnew streaming service into as many living room gadgets as possible. Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes,

Smart (if obvious) strategy, but Blockbuster is about a year behind Netflix (NFLX), which already has deals to build its streaming service into Samsung and LG Blu-ray players, Microsoft (MSFT) Xbox 360s, Roku Web video set-top boxes, and TiVo (TIVO) DVRs.
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More iPhones sold to females in Australia
http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,28348,24732123-5014239,00.html
APPLE'S iPhone has surprised the tech set by finding more homes in handbags than suit pockets.
Australian mobile phone companies confirmed more women than men were buying Apple's fancy iPhone, with one source saying up to 70 per cent of iPhone sales were to females.

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Apple offers free licensing for Mini DisplayPort spec

http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/12/01/apple-offers-free-licensing-for-mini-displayport-spec

It turns out that the company is offering no-fee licenses to anyone interested in developing products that use the Mini DisplayPort specification.

Mini DisplayPort is an Apple-designed miniature version of the VESA-approved DisplayPort, which fully supports the protocol while offering a more compact connector.

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Macworld Expo early bird registration extended

http://www.macworld.com/article/137228/2008/12/expo.html?lsrc=rss_main

Registration for the upcoming Macworld Conference & Expo has been extended by one week, now ending on December 8, 2008.

The early bird registration gives attendees the opportunity to purchase their tickets early and save some money in the process. Prices vary from $25 for an Expo Only badge that gets you onto the show floor, to $1,695 for a Platinum Pass that grants you access to two Power Tools sessions, one Market Symposium, sessions in the Users Conference and MacIT Conference, access to feature presentations, keynote viewing, lunch, a party ticket and exhibit hall access, for $1,695.
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TDL Live This week: (11/17-11/24)

We understand not everyone can watch TDL Live Monday nights at 9PM ET. So from time to time, we like to get you caught up on what you missed:

Also, straight from our secret vault, here are the show notes and links that made the show possible:

Apple to launch ‘aggressive’ Black Friday sale?
http://blogs.zdnet.com/gadgetreviews/?p=495
As Black Friday sales begin to leak on the Web, experts at Barclays Capital say they expect Apple to counter rival PC vendors’ promotions with a one-day sale more aggressive than usual, offering deep discounts on a number of Mac models.

Low cost notebooks top the list of the most heavily-discounted electronics items poised to dominate this year’s sales, with Dell planning to offer a $299 Linux model via its website

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USB 3.0 full specs promise 10X speed boost
http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/11/17/usb.3.final.spec/

The USB 3.0 Promoter Group today revealed the full specifications for its namesake interface standard and so greenlit development of computer platforms and devices using the technology. The new peripheral format will now officially peak at 5Gbps, or about ten times faster than the 2.0 protocol. In actual tests, 25GB of data transfers in nearly 14 minutes over USB 2.0 but just 70 seconds over USB 3.0, significantly outpacing FireWire 800 as well as many hard drives.

FireWire isn't remaining static and should be upgraded to the S3200 standard ahead of USB 3.0 to provide about 3.2Gbps of bandwidth and similar power managementfeatures.

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LEGO Indiana Jones for Mac slated for November 28th
http://www.macnn.com/articles/08/11/17/lego.indy.jones.on.nov.28/
The Mac edition ofLEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures should be released on November 28th, conversion companyFeral Interactive has announced. The game is a port of a title already available for Windows and console systems,

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Eric Wilfrid is the new MacBU GM at Microsoft
http://www.officeformac.com/blog/New-MacBU-GM

Eric is a 14-year veteran of Microsoft's Mac team, having most recently worked as Product Unit Manager of the MacBU Silicon Valley team, based in Mountain View, CA. In that role I managed a team of engineers in developing Office for Mac and other MacBU products.

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Apple quietly discontinues the 23" Cinema Display
http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/11/17/apple-quietly-discontinues-the-23-cinema-display
The discontinued status means that Apple is out of stock of the remaining new 23" Cinema Displays, and those waiting patiently to get their hands on the 24" LED Cinema Display have good reason to believe it should be coming any day now.

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Apple set to release Mac OS X 10.5.6 soon
http://www.macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/apple_set_to_release_mac_os_x_1056_soon/
The release of Mac OS X 10.5.6 could be just around the corner. The update is slated to deliver wide-ranging fixes to Apple's operating system," Stephen Withers reports for iTWire.

"Developer notes accompanying various seed versions of Mac OS X 10.5.6 have been leaked by Portuguese-language web site hmbt.org. Those purportedly accompanying build 9G38 say there are no known issues with the update," Withers reports. "While that does not guarantee that 10.5.6 will arrive in the next few days, it is a sign that the project is not far from completion unless some significant problems are found in the latest changes."
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iPhone: Has Google lost its voice?
http://apple20.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/11/15/iphone-has-google-lost-its-voice-search/
John Markoff’s story in the New York Timesabout Google (GOOG) bringing voice activation to the iPhone, letting you search for everything from pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge to the length of a giant squid just by talking into your phone.
Google was under the impression that the application would be live on the App Store on Friday (obviously, since they pushed all significant press attention to it). Sometime Friday they found out Apple wouldn’t be pushing it, despite the fact that Google submitted it for review earlier in the week and got a thumbs up for Friday. One source says they’ve had little direct contact with Apple during the review, instead getting their updates via the standard iPhone developer tool, which has said “in review” for the last few days.

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Obama faces BlackBerry and Apple laptop ban

http://apcmag.com/obama_faces_blackberry_and_apple_laptop_ban.htm

His campaign embraced Web 2.0 technologies. He’s promised to appoint a ‘chief technical officer’ for the USA and will broadcast his weekly Address to the Nation via YouTube.

But from the date of his inauguration on January 20th 2008, if not beforehand, President-elect Barrack Obama will have to part with his beloved BlackBerry smartphone and maybe Apple laptop.

Concerns over email security and the need for all presidential correspondence to be entered into an official record, and eventually be open to public perusal, are expected to trump Obama’s own enthusiasm for technology.

It’s a tough break for the Geek-in-Chief, who according to The Telegraph’s list of ‘50 things you might not know about Barack Obama’ admits his ‘worst habit is constantly checking his BlackBerry’. ).

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Apple flirting with another record quarter for Mac sales

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/11/17/apple_flirting_with_another_record_quarter_for_mac_sales.html

fter spending 25 hours counting sales of iPhones and Macs at Apple's US-based retail chain, investment bank Piper Jaffray said it believes the company this quarter could meet or beat last quarter's record 2.6 million Mac sales total while again selling more than 6 million iPhones.

The firm's checks reveal the Cupertino-based company is selling an average of 28 iPhone 3Gs per day through each of its retail stores, down from 95 units per day in July, immediately following the handset's launch.

While those results would suggest a stark decline in quarterly sales, analyst Gene Munster said expanded international availability, the upcoming holiday shopping season, and the addition of Best Buy as an authorized iPhone reseller in US should combined to offset any slowdown in sales at the company's stores.

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Flash and AIR coming to ARM, but not necessarily iPhone

http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/11/17/flash-and-air-coming-to-arm-but-not-necessarily-iphone

At the Adobe 2008 MAX conference today, Adobe announced a partnership to bring Flash 10 and AIR to ARM processors that power, among many other devices, Apple's iPhones. While this marks some progress on answering complaints about poor Flash performance on the device, we don't think it's a good idea to start holding your breath for Flash (or especially AIR) on the iPhone. Yet, anyway.

As you probably remember, Flash hasn't had much luck in its quest for the iTunes App Store. While Adobe has practically begged Apple to allow one of its most profitable products onto the best-selling phone in the US, Steve Jobs ain't havin' it, publicly stating that Flash is too slow on the iPhone and Flash Lite is "not capable of being used with the web.

If you look at Adobe's news, it's really just an announcement of a forthcoming announcement, as Flash 10 and AIR won't arrive until the second half of 2009.

TDL Live Halloween Special

Yes, it's time for our weekly look at Apple news and rumors from around the Apple world. And, it's also time to get a little spooky with our Halloween Special. What makes it special? Pumpkins. And smoke. Lots of smoke. Enjoy:

TDL Live This week: (10/20-10/27)

Get your Tuesday started right with this recap of Apple news and rumors:

TDL Live This week: (9/29-10/6)

In case you missed it last night, here's our weekly roundup of Apple news and rumors: