AppleInsider is reporting that Apple has officially got rid of the forum moderators that provided support in the discussion area on the support tab of the Apple website. Seems that paying these people became too much of an expense here now that we’re selling computers faster than ever, or is that just me? So, say good-bye to an era when customer support was at least recognized by Apple. I guess you’re left with phone support pretty much anymore now. Of note, the message boards are still up, but aren’t of the same caliber as they once were. What a shame.

So I think that most of you would have already heard about all the stuff that has been going on over at the Icon Factory the last week or so, but I figured that I’d tip everyone off that tomorrow the new site will go live, so I’m excited to see what they have in store for all of us.

I thought that I would do something a little bit different this week and go with some tips for the Mac newbie. I briefly talk about using Disk Utility, Cache Out X, and MacJanitor, but mainly focus the episode on the merits of using Maintenance.

You can download Maintenance here.

 

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Found via YouTube

Users started reporting that their computers where turning shades of orange around the palm area of their laptops soon after purchasing them, over a month or more ago. Users had trouble getting anything done because it was supposedly normal wear or could be cleaned, etc etc. So, Apple has officially (about time) recognized this as a design/production flaw and will be replacing and repairing the affected computers.

Only white Macbooks with serial numbers ranging between 4H617XXXXXXXX and 4H627XXXXXXXX will be replaced, but you will still have to take your computer to a local Apple authorized repair center or retail store for them to replace it. If there’s not one near you, then you can call this phone number (1-800-800-2775 in US) to begin the process. It sounds like Apple is going to try their best to clean your laptop, even though you’ve most likely tried all of that before on your own. However, it will be replaced, so that’s the good news.

Found via AppleInsider

Just to join in the fun and numerous posts that have went up online in the last 24 hours, Apple introduced a wireless version of it’s Mighty Mouse. It’s frankly taken them forever and I would never spend 70 bucks on a mouse, so I don’t know what all the fuss is about. If the regular wired version is cheaper, that could be nice.

I just wanted to take the time to welcome all of those people that are visiting the site for the first time and it sure looks like there is a lot of you! Getting a name mentioned on the MacReview Cast sure sends some people your way, let me tell you.

So, for those that don’t know what this site is about, I’m mainly focused on providing interesting tips and reviews for Mac users. Sometimes this varies from slightly more technical stuff (see this post) to more common things, such as an RSS Tutorial, but I like to think that I keep everyone happy by jumping around a bit in coverage. I produce the Mac Fanatic podcast which airs weekly, usually up on Sunday afternoons at the lastest. There is also a video feed that I just posted, as our video and audio episodes were in the same podcast for the last few months.

I’m a 19 year old college student working a couple of jobs and attending WWDC 2006 in less than 2 weeks! I’ll be throwing in an intro article for the macCompanion production in the August issue and will have WWDC coverage in the September issue. Check back on this website for some thoughts and experiences throughout the conference itself as well.

Let me know what you want to hear reviewed or covered! I’m only one person and while what may strike me as immensely interesting, others assure me that not everyone enjoys looking through lines of code and having a “Hey, that’s how you do that!” moment. So, welcome to the site and I hope you’ll be back. There are feeds on the left of the page so you can stay up to date, including with comments, Atom, RSS, the podcast feed, and a link to the podcast on the Music Store.

Long live the Mac!

Well, I’m known to flip flop between browsers quite frequently, always lured to another by a special feature. My longest affair has been with Safari, but Safari is starting to show it’s age. So, I’ve played with Flock for awhile and have fallen in love with Camino as of late. In this whole process, I’ve given Shiira a few looks before, but never considered it a big time contender until now.

The 2.0 Private Beta (which just so happens to be public now, go figure) is amazing. It builds upon the features of Safari and Webkit and takes them to a whole new level. I personally love the floating black-transulcent windows like we have in iPhoto 6 or Aperture. I have taken some screenshots of the build in action so you can see the beauty. Not all of the browser is localized in English yet, but it’s still fairly usable.

You can download your own copy off our servers here, or check for more frequent updates from sourceforge here.

Found via Philly Ryu

I ran across this on Digg earlier and just had to share because it strikes me as so funny. Basically, someone created a BINGO card with squares labeled with product announcements rumored to appear at WWDC. So, as Jobs calls out announcements, he’s actually calling out squares, and then everyone is supposed to shout BINGO if there’s a winning row (like real BINGO, except there’s no variations on the card, so it would just be a bunch of people getting up and yelling at the same time “BINGO!”).

The super-funny part comes in when I was reading the comments on the article from Digg and ran across this user’s reaction.

“Oh, and for BINGO, just one more thing…”

That’s Steve Jobs’ famous “one more thing”, with a BINGO twist for this special occasion. I plan on having this with me at the keynote, but I’m not making bets about standing up and screaming “BINGO” during a major Apple event
You can grab the PDF that has the BINGO card here, so you too can play along at home.

In this episode, I’m taking a look at just what makes Intel Macs different from those that have come before it. To sum it up very briefly, with an Intel Mac you have options to run Windows and other PC related OSes that you didn’t have as a feasible option before. Products such as Parallels Desktop and Boot Camp allow you to easily install and use Windows and Windows applications on your new Intel Mac.

There will be one more podcast before I’m off to WWDC in great San Francisco. Be sure to leave me comments, send emails, keep the human interaction alive!

Also mentioned in this episode was the Ten Minute Mac podcast hosted by James Matarrese. You can look at the podcast in the Music Store at this link, or view his website at this one.

 

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