A recent E-mail post from .Mac/Mobile Me…

We have already made many improvements to MobileMe, but we still have many more to make. To recognize our users’ patience, we are giving every MobileMe subscriber as of today a free 60 day extension. This is in addition to the one month extension most subscribers have already received. We are working very hard to make MobileMe a great service we can all be proud of. We know that MobileMe’s launch has not been our finest hour, and we truly appreciate your patience as we turn this around. Read this article for more details.

So, your iPod Shuffle gave out on you…and you’re three seconds away from throwing in the pile with all the other stuff you think is broken??  Well hold your horses.  Before you do such a crazy thing try the iPod Shuffle Reset Utility.

The iPod Shuffle Reset Utility restores the original iPod shuffle. The restore process completely erases all music and data on iPod shuffle and reinstalls software version 1.1.5.

Installation

To install iPod Reset Utility:

1. Download the iPod Reset Utility from one of the following locations
   • iPod Reset Utility for Mac
   • iPod Reset Utility for Windows
2. Double-click iPodResetUtility.pkg (Mac) or iPodResetUtilitySetup.exe (Windows).
3. Follow the onscreen instructions.

After installation is complete, iPod Reset Utility will be available on a Mac at /Applications/Utilities/iPod Reset Utility or on Windows by choosing Start > Programs > iPod > iPod Reset Utility.

So, for any legacy users who’ve been around long enough to remember life before OS X, you’ll remember one KEY element I feel has been missed since the days of the Classic OS…the “Print Window” option in Finder.

I asked Adam Christianson of the MacCast (www.maccast.com) for a suggestion on what program existed that was free (or cheap) and worked just as well as the old Command+P, and he directed me to a shareware application called “Print Window” (www.searchwaresolutions.com); the program with a very unique name.

The free version works great, and the $20 version unlocks the last few features. It’s a great app, and I just figured I would share the findings with anyone else out there missing this Classic tool.

Thanks again to Adam for help on this one!

Ahh…Outlook Express. How I hate thee!

I feel this question needs to be answered because there are still people who don’t know how to spell their name navigate their Options Menu. If your attachments are showing up as grayed out files whenever you receive a new E-mail from someone not in your address book here is how you can fix this.

1. Go to Tools > Options, and click on the Security Tab (see screenshot).
2. There, you will find a checkbox that says “Do not allow attachments…” Uncheck that box and click OK on the window.
3. Open the E-mail you’re looking to save/open the attachment from and it should be accessible.

Just make sure you’re up to date with your Anti-virus software and that your preferences are set to scan the incoming message attachments as they are being downloaded. (That is one of the main reasons that this checkbox is activated by default…to “keep you safe” from bad files.)

A quick note to users who share my hatred of Outlook Express…check out Mozilla Thunderbird. Much nicer E-mail app for both Mac and PC, and still my favorite brand (FREE).

taken from the VMware Fusion site:
http://communities.vmware.com/community/beta/fusion

—————————–

We’re proud to announce the availability of VMware Fusion 2.0 Public Beta 1.

VMware Fusion 2.0 Beta 1 brings support for multiple displays, tools for even easier switching to VMware Fusion, experimental support for DirectX 9.0 Shader Model 2 3D acceleration, and more!

When released, VMware Fusion 2.0 will be a free downloadable upgrade for all VMware Fusion 1.x users, as a sincere thank you to VMware Fusion early adopters.

VMware Fusion 2.0 Beta 1 is available as a free download.

Please note: Beta software can be prone to instability and bugs. Do not run beta software in mission-critical environments.

So…Apple’s web store was down this morning for a few hours. Now, we can see the new (refreshed) products hitting the “shelves,” with the new 3.06ghz 24-inch iMac.

My Favorite Model:

$2,199.00

Sweet!

Engaget reports that the next generation iPhone is currently being tested by super-secret super-cool people, and that they expect it to be release around July.  They’re also reporting that the phone will have 3G (finally), true GPS (instead of the makeshift maps it has now), have the non-recessed headphone jack, and will be slightly thicker than its predecessor.

Yes, silly… Yes, most people know it… But recently I’ve been asked more than a few times how to not have Outlook automatically mark everything you scroll through on your preview pane as read even if you didn’t look at it yet.

Specifically, my girlfriend’s colleague is an admin assistant. She checks his mail for him when he’s out of the office on another machine. Her fear is that when she checks it and forgets to right-click and choose “Mark As Unread” that he may skip past something when he gets back to the office. There is another simple way around this…

1. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Other tab.
2. Click Reading Pane.
3. Uncheck “Mark item as read when selection changes.”

Then you’ll just have to manually right-click and choose “Mark As Read” or choose the first option in the Reading Pane and choose how many seconds you have to pause on any given message before it automatically marks it as read for you.

Last night I was at a family get-together. Of course (while getting random calls from a few people having OTHER computer problems) my cousin asks me to take a look at her Toshiba Satellite A200 laptop. She went on to say that her Panasonic CD/DVD drive on her computer wasn’t working. The drive would spin up after putting in a CD/DVD but nothing would happen. I assumed the simple answer…going into device manager and uninstalling the device and letting Windows re-install it on boot. Well, needless to say that didin’t work.

Next, I tried going to the drive manufacturer website and downloading the latest drivers. Long story short, that didn’t work either. And neither did any of the (obvious) user forums out there.

So I did what I hate to do and called tech support to see if they had anything bright to say. Again, long story short, they directed me to a Microsoft support forum header that was entitled “The CD drive or the DVD drive does not work as expected on a computer that you upgraded to Windows Vista” (929461). Now, the tech explained to me that even though the system had been in use for a while, this is supposedly a common issue with Vista. (Another reason to hold on for dear life to your XP box, or switch to the Mac platform.)

And just an FYI, the fix requires the user to go into the system’s registry and delete a few files. I would like to take this opportunity to warn everyone now. If you don’t know what you’re doing or feel uncomfortable doing this than don’t. If you remove the wrong files from your system’s registry you could do some serious damage and GeekSquad is kind of expensive. Find your friendly (or not so friendly) geek and ask him/her to do this for you if you don’t feel you’re up for the task.

I followed those instructions and rebooted the machine and it seemed to work fine; though, I’m weary to see how long the band-aid will last (or if Microsoft will fix the damned “known issue” with Vista).

Good night, and good luck…

(Courtesy of i4u.com)

After much waiting and anticipation from iPhone owners and software developers Apple released the iPhone SDK yesterday. The SDK has all the APIs and other stuff that developers need to build applications for the iPhone.

The SDK also includes an iPhone simulator that runs on the Mac OS for testing applications developed with the SDK. The applications developed with eth SDK will be distributed via a new Apple App Store. “We’re excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community with potentially thousands of native applications for iPhone and iPod touch,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iPhone’s enterprise features combined with its revolutionary Multi-Touch user interface and advanced software architecture provide the best user experience and the most advanced software platform ever for a mobile device.”

In addition to the SDK, Apple announced iPhone 2.0 software that will ship this June. The 2.0 software will add some significant features that enterprise users need including support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync. That will allow for secure over-the-air push email, contacts and calendars in addition to remote wipe and Cisco IPsec VPN access. Also on the list of additions is the ability to view PowerPoint attachments and to delete email and move email in mass.