New Apple Commercial – “Referee”
Apple released this yet another new commercial, in the classic Mac vs PC style which depicts PC, Mac as well as being reviewed by an NFL referee – PC eventually is ejected for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Hidden OS X Feature – Word Completion
Forget how to spell a word, but you only know how to spell the first couple of letters? This secret OS X feature lets you easily see all possible spellings in one keystroke–And it works in every Cocoa app. This is a really good foundation Apple has laid, I wish someone would take it one step further and make a full fledged OS X predictive text input system, it would probably help us compensate for the inefficiency that is QWERTY.
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SEC to Investigate Falsified Documents
Steve Jobs received 7.5 million stock options in 2001 without the proper authorization. Later, documents were falsified to show that the board had convened to approve these options. Jobs surrendered the options and is expected to be cleared of any misconduct. For the full story, here.
It will be interesting to see how this effects Apple stock prices. Currently, stock value is hovering just about 80. Apple’s shares have not fallen under 80 since November 2006. Financial analysists believe buyers should pick up shares now, as they expect they will rise, according to CNBC.
New MS Office Formats Leave Mac Users .sadx
With the official release of Microsoft Office 2007, Mac users everywhere will cringe when they attempt to open the new “Microsoft Office Open XML Formats”: docx, xlsx, and pptx. Unfortunately, the new format is unreadable by Office 2004 for Mac. Users will instead see the following:
Office 2007 users can save documents in the backwards compatible format of previous versions and the Mac Business Unit has announced that they will release document converters, but there is no word yet when these will be released.
Many of the new features offered in Office 2007 seem extremely useful, like converting directly to a PDF. Unfortunately, this means that users may be more willing to switch the new Office suite as soon as possible.
I am suddenly having flashbacks to the Mac OS 8/9 days when every PC formatted document had to be converted to a readable format. Is there a new Mac Office to be released soon? Maybe Apple will save us and release their own office suite. One can only hope.
Linksys Fixes WRT54G DHCP Bug
Mac users everywhere have been experiencing problems after upgrading to firmware v1.00.10 on the popular Linksys WRT54G v5. After the upgrade, a bug in the way the router issues DHCP addresses to wireless clients does not allow Mac users to obtain an IP address from the router. A quick workaround is to assign the computer a static IP address. Not only is this a hassle (because you have to turn DHCP back on when you change locations), but for less wirelessly-adept users, this can be a complicated, confusing task.
Fortunately, after a number support calls and desperate forum posts begging for help, Linksys has released new firmware for the WRT54G v5 and v6 to appease a vocal Mac audience. The upgrade resolves the DHCP issue. If you have a 54G router, I highly recommend upgrading ASAP!
On another note, the fact that Linksys has responded to this issue brings up the question: Will Linksys be supporting Apple products in the near future? Perhaps users will be able to add wireless capabilities without having to spend money on an $80 Airport Extreme or have to track down the older discontinued Airport card. Maybe we will even see 802.11N support.
For the new firmware, go to Linksys.com and choose your product.
Apple Announces MacBook Pro feat. Core 2 Duo
Today, Apple beefed up its MacBook Pro line with a bunch of new features ranging from the obligatory speed bump, to higher memory capacity (3GB) and larger hard driver offerings (200GB). Apple claims that the new processors, clocking in at 2.33GHz, show a 39% performance improvement over their predecessors. The MacBooks did not recieve an update today, but are rumored to be refreshed before the end of the month.
Apple also announced a new MagSafe Airline Power Adapter, an accessory for all computers with a MagSafe port which allows the powering (but not charging) of your laptop for those long flights.
