MacShrine

MacRumors has handed over the domain MacBookAir.com to Apple. Rightly so! No mention if they were paid anything or not.

There are now more and more reasons why you would want to switch to a Mac. Macintosh computers are becoming a more and more appealing alternative to Windows computers, and here is why:

1. Beauty – Mac hardware and software is amazingly beautiful. The hardware of a Mac is sleek, shiny and clean. It is modern, light and looks great compared to some of the ugly cases that most computers come with. Mac software also looks great; it comes with a similar style to the computer itself, light, sleek and shiny. Mac software is pleasing on the eye and the Mac OS itself has a great interface. It is easy to find what you want using the glossy and well organised interface.

2. Easy – While many Windows users are put off with changing to Macs because they think that they won’t be able to use it. It is actually far easier to use a Mac than it is to use a Windows PC. While it may take a few days getting used to it is easy to learn. The whole interface of a Mac is organised in such a way that it is easy to find the setting you want or the feature you want to use. Continue reading »

Microsoft’s Hilton Locke, who used to work on the Tablet PC team and now works on the Windows Shell team, let Pocket.info know that if you are impressed with touch on the iPhone, then prepare to be blown away by the touch features of the upcoming Windows 7.

“I will say that if you are impressed by the “touch features” in the iPhone, you’ll be blown away by Windows 7. Now if only we could convince more OEMs that Windows Touch Technology is going to drive their sales.”

We never realised how many different icons there are for “Home” in Mac OS X. Can you tell where each of these came from? Post your answers in the comments!

So it may be crap but it’s free. Grab it whilst you can. Just enter your email address and they’ll send you a brand spankin’ new serial to enable the installation. Also it’s a Universal Binary - pretty standard by now by nice nonetheless.

VoIP use is estimated to grow to 32.6 million users by 2010. Isn’t it time that you looked at how it could be used in your daily life? Jimmy Atkinson has written a guide on all the different hardware and software that your Mac supports to use VoIP.

With the announcement of YouTube coming to the Apple TV, Google today announced they are converting all YouTube videos to H.264. All recently uploaded videos have been converted directly into H.264 and Google expects the rest of the backlog to be converted by the time the update arrives for the Apple TV.

Apple today confirmed they have banned access to MySpace.com from all Apple Stores. This is the first time Apple has blocked a specific website. The ban was brought about because “heavy MySpace use was simply getting in the way of business”.

Like MacRumors we were also lucky to have an iPhone user visit our site. The visit took place last night from an internal Apple address. The browser seems to be the same:

Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/1A538a Safari/419.3

Not Mac related but still important… Reuters is reporting that Microsoft has once again approached Yahoo!, asking the Sunnyvale based search portal and content destination to come to the table and negotiate a friendly takeover by Microsoft. The same report values Yahoo! at $50 billion; the interest by Microsoft is said to be serious to the point that world renowned bankers Goldman Sachs are advising Microsoft on the deal.

Update: The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the deal is off:

…the merger discussions are no longer active, these people say. The two companies may still explore other ways of cooperating.

Not much is known except it’s going to be released some time in May, come in Black, White, Red, Lime, Pink, and Dark Blue and retail for $50 for the 1GB model. We can also safely assume it’s shaped like a small stone.

Today is Apple CEO Steve Jobs 52nd Birthday! We wish him all the best and many happy returns. I know we all can’t wait to see what new products Apple have yet to release - all made possible because of Steve.

Courtesy of “Broo2″ at Flickr.

Update: Seems this was a joke, an employee swapped the “iPod and $15 iTunes” offer with the “Zune and headphones” one.

The Meizu M8 is said to measure in at a scant 57×105x11.5mm and packs both a GSM and Chinese TD-SCDMA 3G radio, a 3.3″ 720×480 pixel display, Bluetooth, a 3MP camera, and an ARM11 CPU capable of recording video at 30fps at the device’s full 720×480 resolution. It’ll be available from next year in Asia. Perhaps Apple should take note on the specs…

The Windows Home Server is an easy to use, plug ‘n play server for the family. You can share all your movies, pictures, music, files, etc. with up to 10 users wirelessly and can access your files anywhere in the world via a free personalized domain. Microsoft is using these as OEM devices and customizing them to different manufacturers needs. HP is releasing their version in Q2 this year with a storage capacity between 500GB and 1TB. There’s also four USB ports and three extra drive bays in case you run out of storage. Rumors are that the price will be in the $500-ish zone.

Apple did it to the iPod so why can’t Microsoft do it to their Zune? The European Xbox Chief Chris Lewis said that “gaming is certainly something we’re considering for the Zune”. It’s not like Microsoft is completely foreign to video games. They have quite the ample team working on PC games, as well as groundbreaking titles for the Xbox 360, so it shouldn’t be too difficult porting old titles (if not creating all new ones) to the Zune. Can you imagine taking Xbox Live Arcade titles from the Zune marketplace? Is this the portable Xbox we’ve been hearing about?

Adobe Labs have released the beta for the upcoming release of Photoshop CS3. The Mac version is a Universal Binary, and system requirements call for a 1GHz+ G4 or G5 or any Intel-based Mac with 512MB RAM. A Windows version is also available. Adobe says the beta will expire soon after the formal release of Photoshop in Spring 2007. Final pricing is yet to be determined, but should be around $649.

Packed with new features, Photoshop CS3 beta also includes a pre-release version of a major upgrade to Adobe Bridge, as well as a preview release of the all-new Adobe Device Central. Photoshop customers can use Adobe Device Central to design, preview, and test compelling mobile content, created specifically for smaller screens. This new tool, built into Photoshop, simplifies and accelerates the creation of mobile content with a preview environment and built-in device profiles.

Update: Users are reporting that you must have an exisiting CS2 serial to activate the 30 day demo. If you do not, then the demo time is limited to 2 days. “Academic” Photoshop CS2 serial numbers not working either.

So the ad is cute in a Tim Burton-esque way and the sharing of cookies relates to the sharing of music. But how on earth are you meant to know what the ad is about, without already knowing about it?…

Pembroke Pines police are investigating a complaint by Best Buy into the disappearance of more than $35,000 worth of iPods from the electronics retail giant. Managers of the Best Buy at 11450 Pines Blvd. called officers to the store Monday. A preliminary investigation revealed that there has not been a break-in or forced entry to the store, leading police and store managers to believe that the thefts could be an inside job.

Microsoft have said that they secretly swapped 100 random Zunes for a limited edition Pink one. According to Microsoft this is one of their various marketing schemes for the Zune. I can’t help but feel for the shoppers who drove for hours to buy a Black Zune only to find they’ve a Pink one - “great” surprise. Oh well, at least they can earn a bit from popping them on eBay. What next? Microsoft is going to swap over 1000 Vista Ultimates for Vista Basic editions? Yay! Poor Microsoft, they do try…

Fastforward this week announced the release of FinanceToGo, a new finance manager application for Mac OS X that “seamlessly integrates dozens of intuitive financial management features into one affordable software package.” FinanceToGo allows users to track multiple accounts and thousands of transactions simultaneously. Transactions can be categorized, and graphs are automatically generated displaying where your money is being spent and on what. Reports and budgets can also be produced from the financial data you enter. FinanceToGo requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later and is priced at $34.95 as part of a special three-week introduction offer, which ends on December 18th 2006, after-which the price will be $44.95.

The Zune features WiFi, 30GB of HDD, built-in FM, a 3″ screen and basic music, pictures and video playback. Supports h.264, MP3, AAC (not protected AAC) and WMA (not protected WMA). Has “Zune to Zune” music sharing, enabling users to share music tracks to other Zunes. It’s out today in over 30,000 different stores for $249.99. It doesn’t work on Macs.

It has been some time in the making, but Microsoft has finally announced their online video entertainment strategy for the Xbox 360. Beginning on November 22, Xbox 360 owners will be able to buy and rent over 1,000 hours of programming using the new Xbox Live Video Marketplace. The Marketplace will see Microsoft selling programming from CBS, MTV Networks, Paramount Pictures, Turner Broadcasting, Ultimate Fighting Championship and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. “CSI,” “South Park,” “Batman Forever” and “Nacho Libre” are a few of the titles that will be offered by year’s end. At launch, TV shows will be offered as download-to-own, while movies will only be available as 24-hour rentals. Microsoft has also said that users will be able to re-download content for free, in the event that users delete content to make space for new purchases, or even if users want to sign in to Xbox Live and download the show on another console. Shows will be attached to a user’s Xbox Live gamertag. The service will launch in the US, but Microsoft plans to expand it to other territories over the coming year.

Google announced today that it has agreed to acquire YouTube, the consumer media company for people to watch and share original videos online, for $1.65 billion in a stock-for-stock transaction.

When the acquisition is complete, YouTube will retain its distinct brand identity, strengthening and complementing Google’s own fast-growing video business. YouTube will continue to be based in San Bruno, CA, and all YouTube employees will remain with the company. With Google’s technology, advertiser relationships and global reach, YouTube will continue to build on its success as the world’s most popular source for videos.