Articles for February 2012

Apple will officially announce the iPad 3 on March 7. This new iPad will have a retina display and faster quad core processor. With the Retina, the iPad will have the capability of displaying 1080p videos and movies.

The Apple TV is one of the best accessories for the iPad. It can mirror the iPad display onto a much larger screen. This is great for watching movies, sports, pictures, games, and presentations. While the current Apple TV should be able to mirror the iPad 3, it will not look as good since the Apple TV only displays 720p. That may change on March 7.

Have you noticed the change? If you are long-time listener to MacBreak Weekly, hosted by Leo Laporte and his tech compadres, there's little doubt you could escape it. MacBreak jumped into the podcast era early on, and with the well known Leo Laporte, it quickly grew into the podcast to listen to for all things Apple. But the show has shifted axis over the past few years, thus Three Guys and a Podcast felt it was time to give MacBreak Weekly listeners a voice – in what we believe is a growing concern amongst many listeners that MacBreak Weekly is now longer a Mac or Apple-centric show. We've also made this a key topic in Epsiode 73: Scaling Engine from China.

 It was recently discovered that Google has been circumventing Safari's cookie controls. Google has been leaving third party cookies from its sites and ad sites they own. This happens even when the user tells Safari to block them in the application's preference panel.

Cookies are used to set site preferences so users can see the same site next time they return. They are also used to log into an account and set location information. While these are good things, cookies can also be used to keep track of what the user does or where the user goes on the Internet. Some may be ok with this, but many are not. The user should have this control, not the ad agencies.

Podcast Episode 73: Scaling Engine From China. Mark, Karl and Werner bring it for another fantastic podcast full of fun and adventure featuring analysis on Mac Break "Weakly", AAPL Stock prices, Apple TV rumors, Samsung, Tim Cook & Goldman Sachs, and much, much more in Episode 73: Scaling Engine From China.

Lawsuits notwithstanding, earlier this week Samsung took a few shots at Apple, with a tone that could only be described as defensively whiny, conjuring up images of a certain Star Wars character (must I mention Mark Hamill?...). Samsung appears to be in very vulnerable in the TV space, as Product Manager Chris "Skywalker" Moseley stated at their Prague forum:

The Terminal is a very powerful tool that comes with the Mac. It gives access to the core operating system via a command line. One of the cool things the Terminal can for you is to change hidden preferences.

There are many "hidden" files on every Mac. These hidden files contain folder icons, system data, and application information. Some of these can can be removed and they can take up a large amount of storage. There is an easy Terminal command to show and hide these files.

Pixelmator is the top selling application in the Mac App Store Graphics & Design category. It is a very good photo editor for less than $30. Many things that can be accomplished using Photoshop, can also be done with Pixelmator.

Pixelmator’s website has a number of tutorials. It used to be that these were the only resources available. That has now changed since Pixelmator has grown in popularity. Some additional Pixelmator resources are listed below:

Podcast Episode 72: Soiled. Mark, Karl and Werner return for another blockbuster podcast featuring analysis on iPhone and iPad domination, Apple's secret projects (fake projects), South Park and XServes, WebOS, Windows Phone 7 and India, JC Penny, and much, much more in Episode 72: Soiled.

 Ever since the latest MacBook Air came out last summer, it has had errors in correctly displaying brushes at different sizes. This was true for most of the graphics software, including Pixelmator, Aperture, and Photoshop.

The latest version of Pixelmator addressed this issue and fixed the brushes issue most of the time. Yet, Aperture, Photoshop, and Lightroom still had the same issues. Apple released 10.7.3 this week, and for MacBook Air graphics users, it was a big update.

Today’s car drivers want to be more connected. New laws around the country are prohibiting drivers from using their smart phones with their hands while on the road. The car industry is trying to solve this by adding hands free electronics to their cars.

Auto companies are adding full computers to their dashboard electronics. Honda has their i-MID system with navigation, SMS text messaging, music and voice recognition. SYNC is Ford’s computer system with even more features. The rest of the industry will be sure to follow, but should they?

For those of us old enough to remember, there was a jingle that was put out by Chevy back in the 1970's. It went something like this:

Baseball, Hotdogs, Apple Pie and Chevrolet.

Apple, Inc. didn't advertise during the SuperBowl this year, or did they? Evidently, Jim Cramer actually watched the SuperBowl and pointed out that the best advertisement was none other than a non-ad. Instead of Apple throwing countless millions on what is either a hit or miss commercial campaign, Apple let the players do the talking.
At the end of the game Indianapolis hall of famer Raymond Berry carried the Lombardi Trophy through a lineup of Giants players and staff. While Cramer said the number if iPhone said it all, we thought to put a quick montage of what we could – at the very least – spot on camera.

Podcast Episode 71: Solar Flare Earnings Report. Despite the dangers of solar flares The Three Guys use their podcast powers to discuss Apple Q1 Earning Call, iPad outselling HP PC's, Kindle Fire, Google Privacy Changes and the iPad 3: Imminent. All this and much, much more in Episode 71: Solar Flare Earnings Report.

Those of us who have followed Apple for three decades have been a spoiled lot. In the 80's we were introduced to the Apple II and then to the Macintosh. The Mac was an unbelievable computer that propelled us 50 years into the future compared to DOS and unix counterparts. 

 Apple has been pretty quiet the last couple of months. So have the rumors about the new products. January has come and gone without hardware updates from Apple. Some speculated Apple would bring out the Apple HDTV, but that did not pan out.