As we inch closer to tomorrow’s keynote at Macworld, we’re getting even more confirmation of a update to the Mac mini.  In an ill timed press release from SeeFile, they reveal that there will be a new Mac mini premiering at tomorrows Macworld. Not only revealing a new mini but they also tell us that it will have hard drives that (most likely) go up to 1TB in size to accompany their server software:

Complete bundled server systems including a Mac mini server with 1 terabyte of storage are available starting at $1,495

In conjunction with a few other rumors I think it’s now safe to assume that we will see an update to the mini. Will it be worthwhile? Not sure, lots of people use their mini’s as home servers and with the inclusion of a much larger hard drive capability along with SeeFile’s software this could very well be something many will upgrade to (not to mention it has not been updated in a very long time).

Don’t forget about to join us for the Macworld 09 Live Chat tomorrow at 8:30 AM Eastern.

[via ars technica][press release SeeFile]

Well it’s been a fun year, Smoking Apples has been a blast to work with and I’ve had quite a year myself too. Preshit and Milind have given their top choices, I too have my own apps. Some have been here for a while and some are brand new. Either way I still love em’!

Mac

Skitch »
I love this app to death. When I had to reinstall my OS, Skitch was one of the first apps I reinstalled. I’m a heavy forum user and this is awesome for taking quick snapshots of something, adding a few drawings/text, and then uploading it to a site with the click of a button.

Cyberduck »
I’ve used this app off and on a few times but never hardcore. Now that I have my own website I’ve been finding it to be insanely useful, and it’s great because it’s also free. The interface is great along with the capability to edit my files with TextWrangler is just great.

Quicksilver »
This is probably the second app that I would have right away after I reinstall my OS. It’s made my “work” efficiency increase exponentially, and I’m not even using all the features! With the quick tap of Ctrl+Space I can quickly type in a few letters and start whatever app I want. Not only that but you can do some of the functions within each app with those triggers. It’s a free download and oh so worth it to check out.

Littlesnapper »
It’s like my backup to Skitch. I’ve used it mostly just to take quick snaps of websites, videos on YouTube and then sharing them through email and the forums. I just love the interface as well and it just screams Mac for me.

1Password »
I’m not very good with passwords and have resorted using the same one for years now (unsafe!!!). With 1Password I can have a randomly generated 12-16 character password for any site I go to without worrying about getting cracked or anything. My only worry now is what will happen if I lose all those passwords (of course I back them up to a physical medium just to be safe). Oh and it’s also got a free iPhone counterpart which is a plus.

iPhone

Fieldrunners »
Yes, I’m addicted. Tower Defense was the perfect time waster and now it’s been brought to the iPhone/iPod. The first version of the app was a little bare, no sound and only one map. It was still fun but later on the developers finally brought sound to the game along with a few other expansions. It’s graphically pretty, polished, challenging, and extremely addicting.

Frenzic »
I learned about this game from the review here on Smoking Apples. After a while of Milind constantly talking up this game I decided to check it out. Man is this game ever fun! I’ve played quite a few games and even had my Mother try (which she did terrible at it). It’s a great thing to do if you have a small amount of time and it’s extremely fast paced.

Things »
There have been few “to do list” apps on the iPhone. I’ve only tried a few of them (and the free ones at that), none have compared to that of Things. It’s got everything you could want from a to do list app. Great organization, easy to use, great at managing deadlines, and it’s got quite a few more things as well. Ten bucks might be a little steep but I think it’s still worth the buck.

Tweetie »
I’ve been using Twinkle for the longest time and I’ve recently tried Tweetie. It might not quite look as good as Twinkle but it’s got more features and I don’t feel quite so limited. Great for iPhone Twitter users.

BibleXpress »
This is the app that I had to do quite a bit of thinking on how to justify the $29.99 price tag. I’ve looked around at getting other Bibles on my iPod but they all are limited to using Wi-Fi. I want a Bible that is stored on my device and that’s exactly what BibleXpress is. It’s got quite a few translations included and the developer has been working hard on getting more. BibleXpress has a full feature set including bookmarks, notes for individual verses, and it’s all easy to navigate. Why does it cost so much though, well it’s gotta pay for the rights to have the different translations. This app is really only for the person who is going to use it consistently though, so it (obviously) isn’t for everyone.

From time to time you may find that your Mac starts to really slow down. It’s really painful for myself when I have a whole bunch of apps open and then my computer comes to a near complete halt. Normally a restart helps to solve the problem and I do get some better performance but that really is only a remedy. There are a few maintenance apps on the Mac but really not many can compare to the full feature set of Cocktail. Not only does Cocktail feature some typical maintenance tasks but it also has a few extras.
 

The Features

Cocktail divides itself into six tabs: Disks, System, Files, Network, Interface, and Pilot. Each of these contains tasks that pertain to the respective category. The Disk tab has tasks that allow you to enable/disable journaling, repair disk permissions, settings for what to do when the computer sleeps, and some last miscellaneous options. System has some scripts that you can run, spotlight things, database fixes, start up options and some more miscellaneous options. Files has caches options, preference fixes, and some pretty nifty things you can do to files (like deleting locked files). The Network tab has some things that I don’t think the average user (myself included) will find necessary to mess with, however there are some cool filesharing options. As an almost extra, Cocktail includes some interface customization options which I will go into later. Finally the Pilot option is probably the most useful and easiest thing to understand. It lets you run scheduled scripts and just preform the basic maintenance tasks. Many of these options you might not know what they do but the Cocktail help really helps out in explaining and I’ll be doing some copy & paste from it to explain the options (seeing as I’ll most likely get them wrong). Continue Reading »

We are getting closer to Christmas everyone! What does that mean in the Mac world? Why it’s mac mini fakes and layoffs! Oh joy!

AT&T Now offers the iPhone to buy online »
Well for me seeing as I’m not American this doesn’t matter to me but I’m sure plenty of others will make use of this. Now if only they would bring back the online activation from the first generation.

Aspyr Media confirms layoffs »
Famed Mac and PC game publisher is tightening their belt and sources say they have layed off 30 or more people. Aspyr Media was the publisher that brought Sims, Call of Duty and a variety of other games to the Mac.

Mac kicks PC’s butt in a Transformers Mac vs. PC parody »
Yeah, it’s not exactly Apple new but it’s cool nonetheless. I mean who doesn’t want to see a fight between Mac and PC tranformers?

Steve Jobs Sets His Priorities Straight »
A brilliant piece by Joe Wilcox about Jobs giving his health a higher priority than Apple, and how it is okay for him to do so.

A Mac mini (fake) product image appears »
I mean, Apple would never use a straight quote for an Apostrophe.

Intel seems to have fired their icon designers »
Seeing as they are plainly copying icons from Apple’s iPhoto, Final Cut and Script Editor for their new Intel Convertible Classmate, I can make no other assumption.

Apple has just released the following press release stating that the 2009 Macworld will be their last:

CUPERTINO, California—December 16, 2008—Apple® today announced that this year is the last year the company will exhibit at Macworld Expo. Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, will deliver the opening keynote for this year’s Macworld Conference & Expo, and it will be Apple’s last keynote at the show. The keynote address will be held at Moscone West on Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 9:00 a.m. Macworld will be held at San Francisco’s Moscone Center January 5-9, 2009.

Apple is reaching more people in more ways than ever before, so like many companies, trade shows have become a very minor part of how Apple reaches its customers. The increasing popularity of Apple’s Retail Stores, which more than 3.5 million people visit every week, and the Apple.com website enable Apple to directly reach more than a hundred million customers around the world in innovative new ways.

Apple has been steadily scaling back on trade shows in recent years, including NAB, Macworld New York, Macworld Tokyo and Apple Expo in Paris.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.

Apple has used the Macworld convention to announce new products such as the iPhone and showing off OSX Leopard. Will we see a lack of new products coming out from now on? Share your thoughts, sad as they may be, in the comments. 

As Mac users we’ve always been so proud to point out the lack of malicious software to worry about. Sure there were some “concept” viruses but they required administrator access and pretty much a complete idiot to do even the slightest amount of damage. We can thank the incredible UNIX system in which OSX is built off of. It may also help the fact that we are in the minority.

Virus authors really don’t want to concentrate on attacking the Mac family since therea is a much bigger market out there. Until recently, we’ve been seeing only two Mac viruses come out into the open, and both of them require your admin/password to break through the rock solid UNIX core of Mac OS X. And even then, they just changed some DNS setting which pointed your Mac to a hacked site, the damage which could be reversed by manually changing your network settings.

First let me say this, you really have nothing to fear if you’re smart. Now I want to go through a few things about what exactly viruses intend to do, what these viruses are, and how to protect yourself.

The Objective of a Virus

Wikipedia defines a computer virus as being:

A computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer without permission or knowledge of the user.

In the early days of virus’ most of the programmers really just wanted to show off their stuff. They used to first only say “Hey look at me! I got on your system without you knowing”, then they progressed to actually harming your files and now days they are used to either steal from you are steal from others. Viruses have become a money maker for their authors and it’s also become a business.

You don’t need Anti-virus software!

It’s true! Did you know that the majority of security experts on Windows really don’t need to run anti-virus software? They know how you can get viruses on their system so they just avoid doing those things. Consumers (like you and me) are not quite as knowledgeable and will click something they shouldn’t have. Anti-virus software doesn’t keep viruses away 100%. It’s only a second line of defense, a moat surrounding your fortress. Enemies can still get smart enough to vault over that moat and get in your castle.

The first line of defense is yourself! You just need to be smart when you’re on the internet. Unfortunately Mac users have become so lax in what they do because they don’t have to worry about viruses. This might our downfall because we are quite a few years behind in thinking securely (as a whole) than Windows users.

You are the first line of defense

Mac users have really nothing to worry about if we play it smart when it comes to viruses. OSX is still inherently more secure than Windows and Apple has included some fairly nice security features in it. Leo Laporte of the TWiT network has some pretty good advice that I think can be applied to Mac users:

• Don’t click unknown links in emails This is basically how phfishing works. People get an email from their banks saying they need to come and confirm their account. Someone clicks the link, enters their account info and bam! The scammer has your bank info. The safest way to deal with email links is just to copy and paste the link or enter in the URL yourself and navigate to the desired address.
• Don’t open unknown email attachments For Mac users this isn’t quite so bad because if anything wants to run it needs administrator access. On Windows you typically want to verify that you were expecting the attachment and then just run it through a scanner. Eventually Mac virus authors will find a way to circumvent the Administrator install feature.
• Run Windows update automatically Well obviously Mac doesn’t have Windows update but you should still run Software Update regularly. Usually though you’ll find out about a security patch because it’s been blogged thousands of times.
• Don’t go to sites you can’t trust Pretty much the same thing for email links/attachments. If your not sure about the legitimacy of a website get out of there right away. Of course, Safari 3.2 now features phishing and malware protection so you will be mostly safe from this.

After playing around with Hyperspaces there was still one more thing Spaces is missing. Everytime I switch a space it would be nice to have a separate dock for each. Why did Apple never include separate docks for each space? It just seems like such a natural thing to do. For whatever reason, Patrick Chamelo is here to save the day with Dock Spaces.

Dock Spaces. The review begins. 

This app finishes what Apple and Hyperspaces couldn’t do. Dock Spaces has the ability to create up to 10 different docks in which you can assign to each space and even switch them on the fly. It’s great for keeping yourself organized. For instance I have a space for each type of workflow, one for graphics, video editing, and general purpose. Now I’m able to create a dock for each type. My graphics dock for example, has Photoshop, Bridge, iPhoto, and other apps like it. Continue Reading »

When Steve Jobs first sat down to introduce us to OS X Leopard during the WWDC conference in 2007, one of the fantastic new features was Spaces. It was showed off as a great way to organize your desktop and was able to act like having several external monitors within one. Since the release of Leopard I’ve found this feature to be incredibly useful. I’m the type of user who has many application windows open at the same time. My workspace gets very cluttered and it’s hard to navigate all the windows even with Expose. Now with spaces I’m able to move each window into new workspaces. It’s a nice feature and it’s something that really sets Mac apart from Windows. Spaces still feels like it’s missing a few features. Hyperspaces helps to remedy one of these problems.

Hyperspaces. The review.

Hyperspaces is the brain child of Tony Arnold, a member of The CocoaBots. Borrowing a few words from the Hyperspaces page,

“the ultimate way to customize your spaces. Customize each and every space the way you want using colors, desktop pictures, text labels and even the name of each space!”

Hyperspaces does exactly as advertised. The app itself sits in you menu bar showing you the name of which space your in. From the bar you can open up the preferences where the real fun begins. The first category has a few basic options, you can launch the app on login (it won’t cause a slow down on you system like a few other apps can *ahem* Bridge *ahem*), you can show the space name in the menu bar, show the desktop backgrounds in the Space Switcher, and you can choose to draw Space labels under the dock. Continue Reading »

Hi my name is Andy Bewernick (don’t bother trying to pronounce it) but some of you might know me by my online alias as ilikemonkeys. So a little about myself: I live in western Canada and am 17 year old high school student (graduating in 2009). My hobbies include gaming and doing animations (the career I’m pursuing).

The Mac was the first computer I ever used and was what I’ve used for the majority of my life. Going through a little rough spot in life I like to call the “stuck using a pc era” I finally was able to get a Mac. I currently own a Macbook Pro, but my home has another Macbook Pro as well as an iMac. The main thing I use my Mac for is graphics and video, using programs like Photoshop, Maya and Final Cut Pro.

So that’s all I’ve really got to say about myself. If you like you can visit my personal blog: ilikemonkeysblog.com and you can follow me on Twitter: ilikemonkeys_. If you wish to contact me at all you can do so through Twitter or email .