Netflix-“We are keeping Profiles” stop whining!

Netflix Hears Your Laments

We whined, they backed down. Or, as Netflix’s e-mail to customers puts it:

You spoke, and we listened. We are keeping Profiles. Thank you for all the calls and emails telling us how important Profiles are.

We are sorry for any inconvenience we may have caused. We hope the next time you hear from us we will delight, and not disappoint, you.

Well done, Netflix. Not quite as well done as, um, not threatening to kill off a beloved feature with absolutely no plausible reason in the first place.But still, well done.

(Via Pogue’s Posts)

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‘Wall-E’: An Homage to Mr. Jobs

Bits: ‘Wall-E’: An Homage to Mr. Jobs

Talk about product placements.

“Wall-E,” the Pixar movie that took in $62.5 million over the weekend, is chock full of references to Apple products. Perhaps that’s because Steven P. Jobs, the chief executive of Apple, used to own Pixar before he sold it to the Walt Disney Company.

The ovoid robot, Eve, is an obvious one. She is as shiny and white as any iPod or MacBook. Richard Siklos at Fortune wrote about how much Apple got involved in the design of the laser-gun-slinging robot ingenue:

But it may be the first time a character was based on a true corporate sibling. A call from [director Andrew] Stanton to Jobs in 2005 resulted in Johnny Ive, Apple’s behind-the-scenes design guru, driving across the San Francisco Bay to Pixar’s converted warehouse headquarters to spend a day consulting on the Eve prototype. Stanton said that it was a “lovefest” with Ive, but that the notoriously tight-lipped design wizard offered few specific modifications. “Apple is so proprietary and so secretive that he couldn’t even really allude to where the future of technology was going,” says Stanton. “The most he could do is nod his head to the things we said we wanted to do.”

There were plenty of other Apple references.

When Wall-E is finished recharging his batteries he emits the Mac welcome chime.

Old Apple mice skitter across the floor in a visual pun.

Wall-E watches “Hello, Dolly!” on an iPod.

The spaceship’s computer control speaks in the voice of MacinTalk, a speech synthesizer that was included with early Macs.

Slashfilm found a bunch of Mac references and other Easter eggs.

(Via NYT > Technology)

Mac OS X 10.5.4 – Out NOW

Apple releases Mac OS X 10.5.4

Apple on Monday released Mac OS X 10.5.4 fixing several issues with iCal, AirPort, Safari, and Spaces & Exposé.

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AirPort has been updated addressing reliability issues with 5GHz networks and issues that may result in slower performance in Logic Studio or MainStage.

iCal received updates fixing seven issues with the application including reliability for meeting requests, cancellation notices, delegation, and syncing with iPhone. The update also fixed an issue that prevents deleting an iCal event without notifying the creator.

iCal now includes a checkbox that excludes information-only calendars from affecting availability and a problem with copying and pasting attendees from one event to another has been resolved.

Performance issues when loading secure web pages in Safari has been resolved. Another performance issue where client certificates are on a smart card has also been addressed.

Spaces & Exposé received a couple of updates, as well. An Exposé problem that may result in only a subset of windows being shown has been fixed. An issue has been fixed when switching from a space keeps the Finder as the active application and dragging an application from the list of application assignments does not assign the app to the Space have both been addressed.

Mac OS X 10.5.4 includes additional RAW image support for several cameras and an issue with saving and reopening Adobe Creative Suite 3 files on a remote server has been fixed.

Improvements for L2TP VPN client reliability have also been made.

The update is available from the Mac OS X Software Update mechanism or directly from Apple’s Web site.

(Via macworld )

Recordable Blu-ray For Mac!

MCE Ships Recordable Blu-ray For Mac: $499 || The Mac Observer

MCE Technologies, LLC announced the immediate availability of its 6X Blu-ray recordable drive for PowerMac and Mac Pro on Monday. Unlike previous drives, it is natively recordable with Mac OS X 10.5.2 or later and can record data directly from the Finder with no additional software required.

The MCE 6X Blu-ray Recordable Drive is capable of recording to Blu-ray media at up to 6X, to DVD ± R media at up to 16X, to CD-R media at up to 40X, can read HD DVD-ROM media, and is LightScribe compatible.

“Professional Blu-ray movies, playable on set-top Blu-ray players and the Sony Playstation 3, can be created with the MCE 6X Blu-ray Recordable Drive using Adobe Premier Pro CS3’s Encore program in conjunction with either Adobe Premier Pro CS3 or Apple’s Final Cut Pro editing software and basic Blu-ray movies can be created using optional Roxio Toast 9 Titanium and Toast 9 HD/BD Plug-in,” MCE said on Monday.

The drive comes with instructions and is user installable on Apple PowerMacs and Mac Pros. Software is also included that allows one of these Macs running Boot Camp to access the drive with Windows XP.

The MCE 6X Blu-ray Recordable Drive plus one free 25 GB Blu-ray disc is priced ay US$499. A bundle with Roxio Toast 9 and the HD/BD plug-in is priced at US$599. Check it out HERE!

(Via macobserver )

Refresh your Widget!

Refresh Widgets

A very Handy Widget Tip!

To refresh a widget individually, click on the desired widget and hit “apple-R”.

(Via Leopard Tricks Tips and Tools)

Microsoft to stop selling Windows XP on Monday, Mac users to demand OS9?

Microsoft to stop selling Windows XP on Monday
Associated Press

Microsoft to stop selling Windows XP on Monday – Microsoft Corp. is scheduled to stop selling its Windows XP operating system to retailers and major computer makers Monday, despite protests from a slice of PC users who don’t want to be forced into using XP’s successor, Vista.

editor note
“In other news, Mac users stated they did not want to re-install OS9 since Apple made a new OS that works great…thanks!”

(Via Techmeme)

Voice Activated R2-D2!

Star Wars Toys – The Voice Activated R2-D2

Here’s another cool Star Wars toy, the voice activated R2-D2.

Previously only Luke Skywalker could boast about having his own droid but now you can too. This little R2D2 unit may not be able to help you blow up spaceships, shut off trash compactors or project images of Princess Leia but he does have a few other tricks.

The new Voice Activated R2D2 obeys more than 40 voice commands so you can tell him to move forwards, back, dance, behave and much more. His built in sensors enable him to follow you around. Bits of him light up, his head spins, he plays the famous Star Wars Cantina song and he’ll even carry your beer can around for you.

R2D2 can also be put into sentry mode and will beep if the room he is guarding is invaded, ideal if you live close to those droid-stealing Jawas.

The voice activated R2-D2 is available to buy online for £129.99 about $260.

(Via Geeky Toys)

WALL-E Voted in the Top Ten Best Movies of All Time!

WALL-E Voted in the Top Ten Best Movies of All Time

At the conclusion of the film’s opening weekend, over 5,300 IMDb users have rated Pixar’s WALL-E, resulting in a 9.3 average user rating. This currently places the film at #9 on IMDb’s top 250 movies of all time, behind only Godfather 1 and 2, Shawshank Redemption, Good Bad and Ugly, Pulp Fiction, Schindlers List, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and Empire Strikes Back. But with only 5,000 votes, the movie will likely drop on the list as more votes are counted. But the question is how far? The high placement is worth noting because it rarely happens. And when it does, the movie usually lands a fairly high placement.

(Via /Film)

Save your Safari Bookmarks before dot mac kills em with BackupSafari

iBackupSafari 1.0

Save your Safari Bookmarks before dot mac kills em!

BackupSafari allows you to backup all your bookmarks from Safari. This can be handy when you want to use the same bookmarks on another Mac or when you have to re-install Mac OS X.
With this application it’s very easy to create a backup file and restore the bookmarks from that file.

You can also restore the bookmarks on another Macintosh! The location of the restored bookmarks in Safari will be in the exact same place as before you created the backup file!”

(Via tips4mac )

Rhapsody cuddles up to iPod to challenge iTunes

Rhapsody to challenge iTunes by embracing the iPod</a


Digital music seller Rhapsody is launching a $50 million marketing assault on Apple’s iTunes, offering songs online and via partners including Yahoo Inc and Verizon Wireless, Rhapsody said on Monday.

The songs will be sold in MP3 format, which means users of the Rhapsody service will be able to play them on iPods.

Before now Rhapsody, jointly owned by Real Networks Inc and Viacom Inc’s MTV Networks, had focused on a subscription service, allowing unlimited song streaming for $13 to $15 a month, rather than selling downloads.

But Rhapsody Vice President Neil Smith said the fact the service has not been compatible with Apple Inc’s top-selling iPod digital player has limited Rhapsody’s reach.

“We’re no longer competing with the iPod,” Smith said. “We’re embracing it.”

Rhapsody also will be the music store back-end to MTV’s music Web sites and iLike, one of the most widely used music applications on social networking site Facebook.

Read Full Story HERE

(Via Reuters: Technology News)