Mac

Yes, you read it correctly: After years of forcing their followers to resort to textual blogs to follow an event live, Apple is finally broadcasting a live stream of its music event tonight (at 6 p.m. London time / 7 p.m. Berlin time on Apple's website). The catch: You will need a Mac with Snow Leopard or an iPod/iPhone as the stream will be an HTTP Live stream only. Though Apple has made this a standard, so far it seems only Quicktime X adopts it. You may try your luck with VLC as described here, in case you are stuck on a PC or an older version of Mac OS X. See y'all tonight!

Getting away from the clash of the titans that are Google vs. China and health-care vs. Republican ideals, a David vs. Goliath battle is taking place between Opera Software and Apple. As many of you may know, in the strictly controlled iPhone environment there can only be one browser, that is Safari. Other attempts have been turned down by the clause that apps are not allowed to interpret any thrid party code.

Now Opera enters the ring and dares to challenge Apple by submitting Opera-Mini to the App-Store. And there are two things that make this attempt interesting: For one, Opera is not interpreting code themselves apparently, but letting remote servers do the work and sending the compressed result to the iPhone. This not only circumvents Apple's clause, but also allows much faster web page rendering than Safari. Secondly, Omni is doing everything it can to make this approval process as public as possible, in order to shame Apple should they turn it down. There is even a contest to pick the number of hours it will take for Apple to approve the browser. The candidate with the closest estimate to the actual number of hours will receive - drum roll - a free iPhone!

Now the ball is in Apple's park, and the company could still turn down the App due to the "duplication of functionality" clause. The pressure is on, especially with Safari looking so bad compared to Opera. Whatever the decision, it will give developers and users a clear signal of where Apple is heading, and should give an indication of just how tightly controlled the iPad will be. So what will it be, Apple? Stick to being the dictator, or open up to the world? Video after the break.

Just a quick reminder that the Apple event is on this evening at 6pm (Ireland)/7pm (Germany). Apple is expected to introduce the "iPad", a new tablet device, iPhone OS 4.0 and iLife 2010. As always, the closer we get to the keynote, the more legitimate rumors are popping up, with a very convincing photo of the iPad in a lab (no, not an elevator) surfacing today.

In any case, I will be leaving work a bit earlier today, and if any of you geeks want to join me in following the ticker and later on the video stream, please give me a shout!

Hope to see many of you tonight!

Do you ever write documents that contain code snippets? Do you ever include code in your presentations? If yes, you probably know how nice it would be if the code was actually syntax highlighted to make it more readable. With the context dependent services in Snow Leopard, I will show you how to add a service that will allow you to syntax highlight code in almost any application. By right-clicking on any selected text, you will be able to select the syntax highlighting service in the context menu, which will add that extra bit of color to your code.

Don't forget to tune in to the MacWorld Keynote tomorrow at 6 pm Berlin time. As usual, there will be no live stream, but you can follow the keynote transcript live with pics at the known places, such as engadget, gizmodo, MacTechNews (German), and this year on MacRumors. As you have probably heard, although Steve is not giving the presentation, there are quite a few rumors surrounding the keynote, so that we are probably in for quite an interesting event. Read on to learn more.

Apple just released this press release a few minutes ago:

"CUPERTINO, California—December 16, 2008—Apple® today announced that this year is the last year the company will exhibit at Macworld Expo. Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, will deliver the opening keynote for this year’s Macworld Conference & Expo, and it will be Apple’s last keynote at the show. The keynote address will be held at Moscone West on Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 9:00 a.m. Macworld will be held at San Francisco’s Moscone Center January 5-9, 2009.

Apple is reaching more people in more ways than ever before, so like many companies, trade shows have become a very minor part of how Apple reaches its customers. The increasing popularity of Apple’s Retail Stores, which more than 3.5 million people visit every week, and the Apple.com website enable Apple to directly reach more than a hundred million customers around the world in innovative new ways.

Apple has been steadily scaling back on trade shows in recent years, including NAB, Macworld New York, Macworld Tokyo and Apple Expo in Paris."

So what does this mean? Well, Apple could still hold its own special events (at more appropriate times than in early January), but there are two things that concern me (after the jump):

Hey dudes! Want to know what Trackmania Nations Forever looks like on the Mac using CrossOver Games? Well, wait no more and watch the video below, where I take the game for a spin on my iMac. So, why my sudden urge to video review this game that I have known for a long time? Well, in this video I not only demonstrate my awful racing skills, but also the soon-to-be released ScreenCamera (project name) for the Mac, which allows you to do screen-casts like the one below for free. Check it out after the jump (Read More).

Yep, it's that time again, so put on your Steve-o-visions and tune into your favorite gadget site tonight at 7p.m. Berlin time. On the menu: New MacBooks, MacBook Pros, and possibly an LED display. The rumor mill has really been grinding this time, and if you want to feel a hint of surprise tonight, you should probably move to a deserted island for the time being. Honestly, I must say, that given we're talking about a laptop update here, I am amazed by the level of anticipation for this event: MacRumors has well over 5,000 event-related forum posts! I think I stopped reading after page 50 or so... As for me, well, although I've tried to avoid spy pics and the sorts, I have failed. So in case you have been living on a deserted island, I can give you this advice: Do not go online until 7p.m. However, do tune in, the new MacBook Pros look stunning! :D

Hey everybody, I am writing this from my brand-new MacBook! Yes, I know, I wasn't actually planning on getting one now. But after my good friend Master Cui called me up from the Media-Markt, telling me that due to the won quarter-finals all products were reduced by one quarter, I just couldn't resist. Of course, once we got there, no MacBooks were left... that is, except the lonely demo units standing there. After raising the quarter off to about one third off, I was convinced and bought one of the demo units. Cheapest MacBook buy ever: At just 700 EU!

A great Mac pr0n (totally SFW) video... or could also be titled: How to wreak havoc with your Mac. Thanks to Sam for pointing this one out.