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The Complete iMac History -- Bondi to Aluminum

Michael Simon — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:52:43 -0600

It was perhaps the greatest gamble of Steve Jobs’ career. Barely 18 months into his second tour of duty with the company he founded, Apple’s interim CEO gathered a cadre of reporters at Cupertino’s Flynt Auditorium on May 6, 1998, to showcase the newest member Mac family: a funny-looking, rebellious sibling with a flashy attitude and a remarkable sense of style. Dressed in blue plastic and built to harness the power of the Internet, the iMac was the first PC that actually felt personal. And it would forever change Apple, the industry, and virtually everyone who came into contact with it.

iMac G3

Legend has it that Steve didn’t warm to the iMac name until after it rolled off the assembly line, but it’s hard to imagine it being called anything else. With no less than five meanings attached to its little prefix--internet, individual, instruct, inform, inspire--the original Bondi Blue iMac was the personification of Apple’s think different campaign, an ingenious, incomparable, inimitable all-in-one machine designed to combine "the excitement of the Internet with the simplicity of Macintosh."

While not quite the screamer it was billed to be, the first iMac was no slouch: $1,299 bought you a 233MHz G3 processor, 512MB L2 cache, 32MB RAM, ATI Rage IIc graphics, 4GB hard drive, tray-loading CD-ROM drive, 2 USB ports, stereo speakers, a funky mouse, garish keyboard and, of course, a 15-inch CRT display all built around a semi-translucent blue shell. Consumers immediately responded by ditching the boring, beige alternative, and soon iMacs were brightening desktops everywhere.

But Bondi Blue didn’t appeal to everyone, and in 1999 (following a minor graphics refresh to accommodate OS 8.5), Steve took the iMac to "a whole new level." Determined to let users "express themselves in a new way," the iMac picked up five fruit-inspired colors (Strawberry, Blueberry, Lime, Grape and Tangerine ) for its first major revision. To sweeten the deal, Apple added 33 extra megahertz and trimmed $100 off the price tag--and in April, a 333MHz processor sped things up even more--but it was the array of colors that consistently stole the show. (If you’re feeling nostalgic--or just looking for a unique aquarium--they can be had today for as cheap as a bag of fruit.)

Steve didn’t let the iMac rest on its palette, however. In October, the iMac DV brought the machine’s first FireWire ports, wireless support, slot-loading DVD-ROM drive and 400MHz processor, and added a RAM-stuffed, high-capacity special edition in the same Graphite color as its big brother Power Mac. At Macworld New York in July 2000, four new models made their appearance in an array of new colors, running up to 500MHz and ranging from $799 to $1,499: iMac (Indigo), iMac DV (Indigo, Ruby), iMac DV+ (Indigo, Ruby, Sage) and iMac DV SE (Graphite and Snow).

A quiet update most notable for finally ditching the puck mouse, the sixth version of the iMac unofficially kicked off an 18-month waiting game for the next big thing, as the bubble-butt design began to show its age underneath the semi-annual paint job. But first, the iMac had to earn its spots.

In February 2001, the iMac sunk to new depths with a gimmick that kicked the Reality Distortion Field into overdrive. Sensing the color wheel had run its course, Steve somehow convinced consumers that trippy, abstract patterns were the most logical way launch the "Rip, Mix, Burn" campaign. The Blue Dalmatian and Flower Power iMacs marked the beginning of the end of the original iMac’s cachet, and the CRT Wunderkind would see just one more update during the remainder of its reign, bumping the three surviving colors--Indigo, Graphite and Snow--to a top speed of 700MHz at Macworld New York 2001. (These days, $75 will get you one of the final models to roll off the assembly line, which still runs OS X, all the way up to Tiger.)

A $799 600MHz Snow model would remain on shelves until March 2003, when its hipper cousin, the flat-panel, white-and-chrome eMac G4, picked up the CRT mantle.

iMac G4

Time magazine might have stolen a bit of the thunder from Steve’s Macworld San Francisco 2003 keynote, but even a leaked cover story with pics could hardly prepare anyone for what emerged from beneath the Moscone Center stage that morning. A floating, flat screen attached to a chrome neck and a gleaming white base, the iMac G4 had personality to spare and looked more at home in an art museum than on a desktop. Or, to hear Time describe it, a patch of grass:

As (Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive) walked through the 1,000-square-meter vegetable garden and apricot grove of Jobs' wife Laurene, Jobs sketched out the Platonic ideal for the new machine. "Each element has to be true to itself," Jobs told Ive. "Why have a flat display if you're going to glom all this stuff on its back? Why stand a computer on its side when it really wants to be horizontal and on the ground? Let each element be what it is, be true to itself." Instead of looking like the old iMac, the thing should look more like the flowers in the garden. Jobs said, "It should look like a sunflower."

A testament to Steve’s relentless pursuit of perfection, the iMac G4 brought more to the table than a distinctive design and 800 MHz G4 processor. Sporting an optional SuperDrive, a plethora of professional ports and a brilliant, widescreen display that “usher(ed) in the age of flat-screen computing for everyone,” the iMac G4 didn’t need a candy coating to turn heads and hardly felt like a consumer machine. With three identical models ranging from $1,299 (CD-RW, 700MHz G4, 128MB RAM, 40GB hard drive) to $1,799 (SuperDrive, 800MHz G4, 256MB RAM, 60GB hard drive), the iMac G4 began to blur the line between consumer and professional, and represented one of the greatest advancements in Apple’s history.

Naturally, it was a sensation. More than 150,000 units were ordered in the first three weeks and not even a $100 price bump to offset "significant increases in component costs for memory and LCD flat-panel displays" could slow down the sunflower juggernaut.

To keep the line fresh, the iMac G4 followed a unique upgrade path. At Macworld New York in July, a 17-inch flagship model topped off the popular trio of 15-inchers, which kept the same specs and pricing. The following February, the line was whittled down to just two models: a 1GHz 17-inch model (SuperDrive, 256MB RAM, 80GB hard drive) with internal Airport and Bluetooth support, and the same 800MHz 15-inch model (Combo drive), which saw its price drop back to the original $1,299. (Head over to eBay and pick one up--new and in the box--for just a tenth of its MSRP.) Six months later, both models were fitted with faster processors and graphics, DDR memory and USB 2.0, and wireless networking became standard.

The final update came in the form of a "huge, gorgeous" 20-inch model (identical spec-wise to the 17-inch it supplanted) that joined the line in November for $2,199 (and still sells for more than $500 today), leaving three distinct models for the remainder of its reign.

iMac G5

Unlike the iMac G3, which stuck around long after its successor arrived, Apple forced the iMac G4 into early retirement in July 2004 while it ironed out some last-minute issues with the upcoming model. Eventually introduced by Phil Schiller at the Paris Apple Expo on the final day of August, the iMac G5 was met with flurry of anticipation as Apple all but confirmed a dramatic overhaul for its next-generation iMac.

The first Mac truly inspired by the halo effect, the iMac G5 was brought to us by "the makers of the iPod" and it looked every bit the part. Abandoning the each-element-should-remain-true-to-itself philosophy, the iMac G5 was dressed in glossy, white plastic with a brushed aluminum foot and gray Apple logo. Sporting a 2-inch-thick housing built around a 17- or 20-inch screen, powerful 1.6GHz or 1.8GHz processor, and "completely redesigned system architecture," the iMac G5 brought the clean simplicity of Apple’s popular music player to its desktop computers in a timeless marriage of form and function.

The iMac G5’s upgrade path was anything but ordinary. The first, which didn’t land until May 2005, kept the same lineup--but trimmed $100 from the top-shelf model--and brought the requisite 2.0GHz processors, faster SuperDrives, higher-capacity hard drives and built-in Airport and Bluetooth, but also added a new ambient light sensor that lessened the intensity of the pulsing sleep light in a dark room.

But it was the second--and final--revision that really shook things up.

Arriving just five months later at Apple’s "One More Thing" event, the iMac Rev. C was noticeably light on the speed boost, bringing just 100 extra megahertz to the table. The Combo drive model was squeezed out in favor of a robust, SuperDrive-equipped 17-inch unit priced at $1,299; and another $100 was shaved off the top model, bringing it down to $1,699 for a 20-inch screen, 2.1GHz processor, 512MB of 533MHz DDR2 SDRAM, 8x SuperDrive and 250GB 7200 RPM hard drive.

Even more notable were the superficial changes to the all-in-one desktop machine. Designed to push the iMac closer to the living room, Apple pre-loaded all new iMac G5s with its "amazing Front Row experience" that included an infrared port and mini remote control that neatly attached to the right side. USB and FireWire ports were rightfully turned on their side and the case was trimmed by a half-inch, ushering in the first of the convex enclosures that would make their way into the MacBook Air and iPhone. An iSight camera was added to the top bezel for "out-of-the-box video conferencing," and Apple tossed a Mighty Mouse into the box, just for good measure. (If you’re still looking for one, scrape together $450 or so and head over to eBay.)

A subtle, stunning update, the design that Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal dubbed "the gold standard of desktop PCs" would need very little tweaking to stay fresh through the years, up to and including the latest 27-inch behemoth.

NEXT: The Intel Changeover

Intel iMac (Polycarbonate)

On the heels of the surprising redesign of the iMac G5, Apple kicked off its Intel transition at Macworld San Francisco 2006 by adding Core Duo processors to its iMac lineup, "delivering performance that is up to twice that of its predecessor." Leaving the design, pricing and other features unchanged from its PowerPC counterpart, Apple was sending a clear message that the chip changeover would be clean, seamless and virtually unrecognizable to the untrained eye.

Following the introduction of an $899 17-inch education configuration that brought back the CD-burning Combo drive, Apple upgraded the line in September with across-the-board Core 2 Duo processors ranging from 1.83GHz to 2.16GHz, and popped 802.11n Airport cards into the top three models. Once again, Apple made room in the lineup for a large-screen flagship model, this time in the form of an HD-ready 24-incher that sold for $1,999--and still sells for around $700. Heck, even the box can fetch $40 on eBay.

Intel iMac (Aluminum)

The first iMac that wasn’t wrapped in plastic was largely an incremental update--if not for its gorgeous aluminum-and-glass dressing. (Glass, of course, meant glossy, the first iMac to ditch the matte screen.) As if the new enclosures weren’t attractive enough, Apple dumped the 17-inch model in August 2007 and trimmed 20 percent from the price of the 2.0GHz 20-inch, bringing the price down to $1,199, the cheapest entry-level iMac since the G3. A 2.8GHz option, healthy RAM boost and faster graphics all around finished off the update, which would remain largely unchanged for two years.

The next two upgrades--in April 2008 and March 2009--were two of the quietest in the iMac’s illustrious reign. The first, a minor refresh that pushed the line above the psychological 3GHz barrier for the first time, upped the chip cache and frontside bus, and featured a custom, low-watt Intel processor that gave the metallic iMac a hefty push into the professional arena, what with its 24-inch screen, 500GB hard drive and NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS graphics BTO option.

The early 2009 bump, essentially a lineup shuffle and price cut, was most notable for jettisoning the FireWire 400 port (a fourth USB 2.0 port made up the difference) and doubling the storage and memory; $1,499 now bought you a 24-inch model with a 640GB hard drive.

iMac Intel (Backlit)

Which brings us to the current lineup, the culmination of more than a decade of research and development. Hailed as "jaw-dropping," "stunning" and "screenormous," the new incarnation of the iMac presents an LED-backlit 27-inch screen flagship model in true 16:9 widescreen (previous models had a 16:10 aspect ratio) and a resolution that rivals Apple’s premium Cinema HD Display. Sporting a lineup that starts at 3.06GHz and tops off at Mac Pro-worthy Core i5 and i7 quad-core processors, the new iMac is distinguishable from its predecessor by a new “edge-to-edge glass design and seamless all aluminum enclosure” and represents the first mac to come bundled with the brand-new Multi-Touch Magic Mouse.

An attention-grabbing force that raises the bar yet again, today’s iMac shows virtually no resemblance to its candy-colored, bubble-butt ancestor that set the ball rolling so many years ago. But while every other Apple computer has undergone a post-Intel transition name change, the iMac, while certainly outgrowing its role as an Internet machine, has never strayed from its individual mission of instructing, informing and inspiring--and has never been shy about looking good while doing it.

New Apple Products--as Imagined by the Elite Gadget Press

Jon Phillips — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:19:59 -0600

What will be Apple's next super-product--its next spectacular, game-changing "one more thing"? We asked five Apple experts to brainstorm with abandon and then brought their ideas to life.

3D Illustrations by Adam Benton.

Apple doesn’t develop category-creating products. Instead, it enters categories that already exist, deconstructs the competition, burrows deep into R&D mode, and returns with gear so dominant, you’d think Apple invented the category in the first place. This approach doesn’t require rocket science. It only requires a commitment to push the boundaries of what’s possible--and not release a product until it offers enough innovative new features and clever design to make people switch away from the competition.

Consider: The iPod has become a synonym for any portable music player. The iPhone has redefined what a smartphone can be. The MacBook enjoys near complete control of the $1,000-plus notebook market. And iTunes? It’s the world’s largest music retailer.

Apple watchers are well aware that the company is planning to release some sort of tablet computer, and given Apple’s recent history of making surprise announcements, that could very well happen between the day we put this issue to bed and the day you read this article. But what if the tablet rumors are bunkum? And even if the tablet is announced, what comes next? Jaw-dropping products can take years to develop, and Apple surely has tablet-eclipsing wonders brewing in its labs.

For answers, we turned to five tech journalists, people who follow Apple every day and are straight-A students of its products. Each expert was asked to fill out the same worksheet, wherein we requested details on the features, specs, wow elements, and essential “Appleness” of the gear they envision Apple making. We then took their worksheets and turned their ideas into the fully rendered fauxtotypes you see on the following pages. We did our best to stay faithful to our experts’ visions, but sometimes we did add elements of our own. But, of course, this entire little game is an exercise in interpretation: We asked our experts to interpret Apple’s magic mojo, and then we interpreted what our experts gave us. We hope we served our experts well.

Want to play too? You can enter our "Apple Fauxtotype Challenge" in January. But for now, please begin your tour of Apple’s future vision.

The Fauxtotypes

iRead

The Internet's everywhere-at-once tech reporter envisions the first mainstream application of full-color electronic paper.

Veronica Belmont

Omnipresent Video Host & Blogger

Bona Fides: Belmont was a producer/reporter for CNET and now hosts Sony's Qore video magazine and cohosts the Tekzilla video podcast. She is also a columnist for MaximumPC.com, regularly updates her own tech blog (veronicabelmont.com), and has 1,442,554 Twitter followers as of this writing--making her Twitter's most-followed tech journalist.

With its Kindle device, Amazon proved that e-readers aren’t lame pieces of junk. You just have to use eye-soothing “electronic paper” (aka e-paper) instead of not-so-reading-friendly LCD displays. And just this October, Barnes & Noble released the nook, an e-reader with two screens: a grayscale e-paper screen for reading and a smaller color LCD screen for navigation.

Yes, e-books are hot, and its against this backdrop that Belmont conceived the iRead--because you didn’t think Apple would pin all its e-book aspirations on the upcoming tablet, did you?

Click to embiggen for more details.

Belmont’s iRead concept uses two screens, but they’re nearly identical in their generous specs: 8 inches high, multitouch-enabled, and full-color-capable. That’s right: full color. The left-side reading screen uses e-paper, but it’s color e-paper--the first available in a consumer device. The right-hand screen, meanwhile, uses a regular LCD to display movies, games, and other traditional digital content. Belmont explains: “You can hold it open like a book to view rich media alongside corresponding text, or you can place it like an easel on your table top to watch videos or read hands-free.”

Click to embiggen for more details.

E-reader on one side, full-featured media player on the other. Sounds like the iRead could boost sales on iTunes, right? Indeed, Belmont envisions downloadable e-books that complement text with video snippets, author interviews, and other treats that only digital technology can provide. For example, “premium edition” e-books could have an audiobook component that syncs automatically to your text--so you could segue from reading a novel in a café to listening to that same novel in your car, all without missing a word.

Click to embiggen for more details.

Think your iTunes bills are getting expensive? Just wait until the iRead arrives, and you begin downloading e-books with abandon. It’s a pricey proposition, but if it reverses our descent into illiteracy, it’s a price worth paying.

The Fauxtotypes

iTenna

Gizmodo's top gadget expert posits a cynical response to the AT&T clusterfrick.

Brian Lam

Editorial Director, Gizmodo.com

Bona Fides: As the editorial boss of the gadget site Gizmodo, Lam enjoys unparalleled hands-on access to the product developments of Apple, a company that makes early looks of new gear as rare and valuable as Wonka’s golden tickets. Lam is often awarded “first seat” at Apple press events and has established Gizmodo.com as the world’s fastest live-blogging source of breaking Apple news.

The year is 2011. Apple is still locked in its suicide pact with AT&T. The reliability of voice and text-messaging service over the iPhone is as reliable as electricity service in Pyongyang. Anti-Apple protest rallies are a weekly occurrence, complete with cries of “No more telecom totalitarianism!” and placards of Steve Jobs bedecked in Kim Jong-il’s pompadour and glasses. Apple can no longer wait for AT&T to fix its network crisis, so it does an end-run around the iPhone’s greatest threat--it releases the iTenna, an add-on that allows users to tap into any cell network other than AT&T’s.

Click to embiggen for more details.

Or at least that’s the vision we saw when Brian Lam provided a bare-bones overview of his concept. Here’s Lam in his own words: “It’s a repeater. Perhaps an antenna, or a set of mini bunny ears. The thing could be attached. Or not. It connects to Sprint, Verizon, or T-Mobile, and routes everything over the iPhone’s Wi-Fi or Bluetooth or perhaps a dock connector.”

Click to embiggen for more details.

From this product brief, we extracted two features that really caught our fancy. First, we decided that connectivity over the dock connector made the most sense, so our fauxtotype integrates iTenna technology into a slide-on case. Second, we were smitten by the allusion to VHF rabbit ears, and thus begat the twin nubbins at the top of the device. The whimsy of the design matches the whimsy of the entire iTenna concept. As Lam himself states, “I’m perfectly aware that this product makes no sense, given the way Apple works. But, hey, neither does an iPhone that gets no reception in a major metropolitan city like San Francisco. Hello, I live four blocks from Haight Street--why do I have a zero percent call success rate for anything even resembling a human voice?”

The Fauxtotypes

iVision

The internationally focused gadget guru sees augmented reality making a quantum leap forward.

Michael Brook

Editor, T3

Bona Fides: One of Mac|Life’s sister magazines from across the pond, T3 (“Tomorrow’s Technology Today”) not only publishes in the UK, but also has 21 country-specific international editions, making it one of the world’s premier sources for gadget news and reviews. With 10 years experience reporting on technology, Michael Brook leads this formidable charge.

Augmented reality apps bring science-fictiony data overlays to the iPhone--which isn’t a terribly ideal place for them, as the iPhone keeps reality (augmented or otherwise) at arm’s length from our eyes. Brook’s iVision concept fixes all that by placing augmented reality mere millimeters from our corneas, letting it integrate perfectly with our natural vision. Viewing life through iVision--with digital data served directly on top of all that we see--completes the promise of everything augmented reality technology has to offer.

Click to embiggen for more details.

“Each lens will have a built-in HUD,” Brook says, “so you’ll be able to view the output of your augmented reality apps directly on your glasses. No need to hold up the iPhone. It will use Bluetooth, or a more advanced wireless standard, for connectivity. Low power, no need for constant charging. GPS positioning, etcetera, will be done on the iPhone with info relayed to the glasses for processing within the unit. Features like caller ID will naturally be viewed on the glasses, and when listening to music, track data will also appear on the head-up display.”

Click to embiggen for more details.

And then there’s the curious Oakley/Apple logo on the iVision frames. We told our experts that it’s common for Mac|Life fauxtotypes to imagine a marriage between Apple and some equally iconographic megabrand. In years past, we conjectured Apple synergizing with LEGO and Audi, and we were thrilled when Brook followed our lead, and used Oakley in his product brief.

Click to embiggen for more details.

“Apple has most areas of tech covered with the iPhone and computing products,” Brook says. “The glasses idea brings them squarely into the world of fashion, which, let’s face it, they’re already knee deep in from a tech point of view. Teaming up with a forward-thinking brand like Oakley allows them to be first to market with a groundbreaking product that makes more of existing tech.”

The Fauxtotypes

exerPod

The maven of mobility wants his exercise data completely bespoke.

Mark McClusky

Products Editor, WIRED

Bona Fides: As the senior editor in charge of products at Wired, McClusky is the magazine’s gear and gadget gatekeeper, leading the charge in covering technology that’s actually shipping today. He was also an editor on Mobile (a former sister magazine of Mac|Life), where he honed his expertise in handheld technology.

There once was a day when just a single iPod ruled the portable audio universe. It had everything we needed in a music player--or so we thought. Now there are four iPods, with each version offering a form factor, feature set, and price point skewed to specific consumer needs. Could this same type of fragmentation and specialization be applied to the iPhone line? After reading McClusky’s exerPod brief, we’re excited by the possibilities.

Click to embiggen for more details.

The exerPod is an Apple handheld devoted wholly to physical fitness. As McClusky says, “It makes the act of tracking your exercise and health totally transparent--it’s a thing you throw in your pocket, and it just does it, if you’ll pardon the Nike reference.”

Click to embiggen for more details.

Actually, we like the Nike reference, because with the exerPod, we see more companies teaming up with Apple to create highly integrated telemetry systems that marry real-world gear (shoes, bikes, home gyms, and so on) with custom apps--much like the existing Nike+ system. But let’s let McClusky explain how this works:

“It’s the ultimate tracking device for athletes, and other folks looking to monitor their health and performance. For example, using built-in accelerometers and GPS, it tracks speed and distance for runners. There’s also ANT+ wireless support to hook up to heart-rate monitors, bike-speed sensors and power meters, and gym equipment like treadmills. Any time you’re doing anything active, it’s tracking and capturing the associated data. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi let it beam information to your computer, as well as the ecosystem of sites that will spring up to let you slice and dice the data.”

Click to embiggen for more details.

Some might scoff that the iPhone can already do much of what McClusky envisions. Well, it can but at a hefty price--and not nearly as well. The exerPod is an inexpensive device (we see it costing $99) for folks who don’t want an Apple cell phone and simply need a small, rugged gadget that includes a battery of special features dedicated to a fitness lifestyle.

The Fauxtotypes

iMake

The mischievous master of DIY sees us making our own Apple gear in the future.

Mark Frauenfelder

Editor-in-Chief, MAKE

Bona Fides: As the founder of BoingBoing.net, one of the world’s first tech-culture websites, Frauenfelder has the longest career in tech journalism of all our five experts. He was also the founding editor of Wired Online, and today he’s the top editor of MAKE, a quarterly devoted to creating DIY tech projects.

Good googamaloo, what has Frauenfelder asked us to imagine here?! His iMake concept came to us exceedingly well fleshed out, so we’ll turn the podium over to him:

“iMake is a desktop manufacturing system based on the RepRap (reprap.org), an open-source 3D rapid prototyping technology. Apple led the way in the desktop publishing revolution, and now it’s leading the way in the desktop manufacturing revolution. With iMake, you can make your own small products at home, such as Bluetooth headsets, iPods with unique form factors, wristwatches, eyeglasses, door knobs, and more.

Click to embiggen for more details.

“To create a product, you visit the iTunes Store to choose from among tens of thousands of product designs--prices range from free to $9.99--purchasing one just as you would a song, video, or app. The 3D data is sent to the iMake, which builds the parts, layer by layer, out of high-quality plastic. The iMake will also make the circuit boards. Then, all you do is snap the pieces together! After purchasing a 3D model from the iTunes Store, it takes about 15 minutes to print a 3D part.

Click to embiggen for more details.

“It seems counter-intuitive that Apple would allow its customers to have a hand in designing its products, but after witnessing the runaway success of its iTunes App Store--which has thousands of apps created by third parties--Apple realized that quality rises to the top and that enabling people to design and create their things is even cooler than giving them the tools to design and create their own media, as Apple did when it put the power of publishing in the hands of everyone.”

Thank you for this fascinating glimpse at the future, Herr Frauenfelder. And thank you for not spec’ing the iMake to have the ability to make its own parts, a feature of the RepRap.

Uh, hello?! Skynet?! Anyone?!

The Fauxtotypes

Satire: 10 Ideas Steve Pitched to Disney

Michael Simon — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:53:18 -0600

It might not be as exciting as another tablet rumor, but the recent New York Times’ report that Disney and Steve Jobs are collaborating on a radical new retail shop design certainly piqued our curiosity. But the tip that landed in our inbox a few days later really caught our attention.

Titled "Top Secret Apple/Disney Ideas," it contained a handful of proposals that came straight from the Mouse’s brainstorming sessions with the Man himself. We’re not going to divulge our source (bring it on, Apple legal), but our Duc—, er, Deep Throat used his significant clout with Walt to gain access to one of the early meetings. Unfortunately, he was quickly thrown out for not wearing pants, but not before he snagged a handout of Steve’s Keynote presentation.

We’re pretty sure these didn’t make it past the first round of discussions, but you never know what might pop up.

Mighty Mickey Mouse

If not for the sudden introduction of Magic Mouse, we never would have believed this one, but apparently there’s a reason Steve didn’t retire Apple’s once-Mighty Mouse. An odd step backward from sleek Multi-Touch mouse now shipping, Steve proposed fitting Apple’s old pointer with a pair of black Mickey ears that added an extra pair of programmable buttons--and, from the best we can surmise, a bit of clunkiness and a whole lotta cheesy corporate branding.

Conscience Bar

Instead of dishing out computer advice in 15-minute intervals, Steve submitted an idea for a Conscience Bar staffed by a team of semi-professional, kid-friendly counselors. Obviously inspired by Pinocchio’s pal Jiminy Cricket, the station would dispense words of wisdom to toddlers and young adults who get in trouble and don’t know right from wrong. But here’s the really cool part: Little iPhone users could whistle into a special app to book the next available appointment.

Circle of iLife

Steve’s Lion King-inspired suite contains a trio of digital hub apps--Idol, Popcorn and Pictures--bundled together and given the full kiddie treatment. With an emphasis on simplicity, Circle of iLife strips GarageBand, iMovie and iPhoto down to its barest necessities and lets kids sing along with their favorite songs, direct their own Disney cartoons, and add fun effects to photos without worrying about submenus and pallets. As Steve so cleverly put it, "There's more to do than can ever be done."

Snow White Leopard

We know Steve’s in for some serious competition now that Microsoft has made an operating system people actually want to use, but rebranding OS X Snow Leopard seems a little desperate to us. So does dressing the dwarves in cute little cat costumes on the box. And that Magic Mirror Photo Booth effect ... OK, we kinda like that one.

Whistle While You iWork

iLife’s Disneyization was fairly inevitable, but we were surprised when iWork made the list, too. Clearly another Snow White reference (and, oddly enough, the second proposal to involve whistling), Steve’s Whistle While You iWork vision consists of another trio of apps--Show, Count and Tell--designed to stimulate creativity and help kids learn their ABCs and 123s. We just hope he wasn’t planning on hiring a nauseatingly cute kid to pitch it.

Poison Apple Care

More of a return policy than a warranty, Poison Apple Care is Steve’s version of a gift receipt on steroids. For a small fee, kids or parents buying a present could pick up a Poison Apple Care that would let the recipient easily exchange the unwanted gift for Apple Store credit, along with five free iTunes downloads and a 10 percent discount coupon. As Steve so modestly put it: "Everyone should get exactly what they want for their birthday, and that’s not always at the Disney store."

Wall-eMac

Jonathan Ive already helped with the EVE design for Pixar’s hit movie, so it’s only natural he would have a hand in transforming her boyfriend into a new Mac for preschoolers. Built around a 17-inch screen and a 1.83GHz Core 2 Duo processor, the Wall-eMac comes with posable eyes (the left is an iSight camera, the right is a microphone) and arms (the right holds a remote; the left is an iPod dock), and movable legs (the right one is a USB hub). Unfortunately it can’t crush garbage--that is, unless it happens to come across a Dell Vostro Mini Tower. (Good zinger there, Steve. Hope you remembered to pause for laughter.)

Mary Pippin

Who knew Steve has a soft spot for Apple’s failed gaming system and Disney’s 1964 musical? Essentially an iPod touch accessory geared toward undiscriminating little girls, Steve’s Pippin reboot freakishly resembles Mary Poppins’ floral carpet bag, with her parrot head umbrella sticking out the top. A dock is nestled between the handles, and a proprietary cable around back encodes games for big-screen TVs. But the piece de resistance has to be the controller shaped like a spoonful of sugar--which’ll come in handy, because this one’s awfully hard to swallow.

Finding nano

The inevitable special-edition iPod comes in the form of a reddish-orange nano with a black Click Wheel and snazzy, wavy white stripes across the front, and an engraving of one of five characters on the flipside (Nemo, Dory, Pearl, Squirt or Bruce). As if that wasn’t enough to justify Apple’s $70 premium, each special-edition iPod would come bundled with a digital copy of its namesake.

Hakuna Mac-tata

Why shouldn’t the Mac have its own theme song? Sung to the melody of Elton John’s classic, Steve sketched out a veritable marketing blitz around “Hakuna Mac-tata,” with heavy in-store rotation, free iTunes downloads, commercials and mailers built around Apple’s brand new slogan: "It means no Windows for the rest of your days."

50 Common Mac Problems Solved

The Mac|Life Staff & Scott Rose — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:39:33 -0600

We present the Ultimate Mac Troubleshooting Guide, so you can banish the peskiest problems once and for all.

Mac problems? Isn’t that an oxymoron? If you just switched to the Mac from Windows, you might be thinking that you accidentally picked up one of your old PC magazines--and, by the way, we’ve got solutions to the seven most common problems switchers encounter, too. If you’re a longtime Mac user, you could even be wondering where we get off accusing the Mac platform of being problematic.

Using a Mac is generally painless and trouble free, but things can go wrong. Usually they’re not catastrophic (for solutions to true Mac disasters, click here). Sometimes the things that go wrong are those little annoying things that you just shrug off--over and over, until you finally have to deal with them.

We’re here to help you tackle the 50 most common problems in eight different categories, once and for all. If your problem isn’t covered here, email us at ask@maclife.com, and we’ll try to solve it in a future issue.

General Mac Problems

The Mac OS is, fundamentally, as trouble-free as operating systems get. But nothing's perfect. Here's what to do when you hit a snag.

1. I want a tabbed finder.

Download the incredibly versatile Path Finder ($40, www.cocoatech.com), which gives you all sorts of features that are missing from the Finder, such as tabs, stacks, bookmarks, and panes. Sounds like fun to us!

Now THIS is the Finder we've always dreamed of. Thanks, Path Finder!

2. I can't print anymore.

This could be caused by a variety of different issues relating to your printer hardware or printer drivers, so you may need to contact the printer manufacturer for more help. But if your Mac is causing the problem, it’s always a good idea to reset your entire printing system by going into your Print & Fax System Preference, right-clicking in the printer list, and choosing Reset Printing System.

3. I travel all over town with my MacBook, and I’m sick of reconfiguring my settings every time I show up at a location I’ve been to before. Why can’t my Mac remember various location settings for me--my default printer, mounted servers, iChat screen name, Bluetooth settings, everything?

Try NetworkLocation ($29, www.networklocationapp.com), which can perform dozens of actions on your Mac whenever you switch to a new location. Best of all, its AutoLocate feature will determine where you are, using the same SkyHook Wireless Wi-Fi Positioning System that your iPhone uses, and it will automatically change all of your settings for you.

If you frequently switch physical locations, NetworkLocation can save you both time and headaches changing your Mac's settings.

4. I forgot my OS X password.

After retyping your password very carefully at least twice to make sure you just didn’t mistype it, you’ll need to haul out your OS X install disk, insert it into your Mac and restart holding down the C button. After selecting your language of choice, in the menubar, select Utilities > Reset Password. Follow the directions and there you go. Just try not to get a lobotomy after resetting it!

5. My CD or DVD is stuck in the optical drive and won’t come out when I press Eject.

After holding down the eject button for several seconds to no avail, restart your Mac and hold down the primary button on your mouse--the trackpad button will work as well if you’re on a MacBook--and during startup the disk should eject.

6. My Mac is not recognizing devices plugged in to one of my USB ports.

First, make sure your Mac’s firmware is up to date--check Software Update and the Apple Support Downloads page (support.apple.com/downloads/) and install any firmware updates you find for your machine.

If nothing happens, turn off your Mac, unplug the power cable, disconnect all peripherals, and let it sit for five minutes. Plug it back in, reconnect the keyboard and mouse, turn it back on, and try the USB ports again.

Check the Support Downloads page for firmware updates for your Mac.

If they’re still unresponsive, you will need to reset the PRAM (parameter RAM) and NVRAM (nonvolatile RAM), which stores some system and device settings that your Mac accesses on startup. Shut your Mac down. Then position your fingers above the Command, Option, P, and R keys on your keyboard. Turn the Mac on, then immediately press and hold those four keys before you see the gray screen. Keep them pressed until the Mac restarts again and you hear the startup chime for the second time. Then let ’em go. When your Mac is finished starting up, check those pesky USB ports.

If they’re still not behaving, there’s one more thing you can try before making a Genius Bar appointment: resetting the SMC, or system management controller. Directions for resetting the SMC on your MacBook Pro are found at support.apple.com/kb/HT1411. Instructions for all other Macs are linked from support.apple.com/kb/HT1894.

In Search Of...Search Solutions

Leopard makes finding files and data on your Mac relatively trouble-free, but when it comes to search, there are improvements and tricks you can apply to make it even better. Here are two solutions to common search problems we hear about from a fair number of Mac users.

7. My Spotlight results have stopped working reliably.

If it’s a single non-Apple program that isn’t showing up properly in your Spotlight results, try turning off and on the Spotlight indexing in that particular app.

If you’re still getting Spotlight results for an app that you got rid of a while ago, you may not have completely deleted all of the data or databases that are associated with that program.

Spotless gives you a nice GUI for managing, deleting, and rebuilding your Spotlight indexes.

If it’s an Apple program--or your entire Mac--that isn’t working properly in Spotlight, try re-indexing your whole hard drive by going into the Spotlight System Preference, clicking on the Privacy tab, then dragging your hard drive into the list. Wait a moment, and then remove your hard drive from the list again.

If you’re still having problems, you may need to bring out the big guns by using Spotless ($17, www.fixamac.net), a Spotlight index-management tool that can help fix most Spotlight problems.

8. I need more power, flexibility, and customizability with my Spotlight searches and Spotlight results.

Get HoudahSpot ($25, www.houdah.com), which lets you create extremely detailed search requests and customize the results to your liking.

HoudahSpot handles Spotlight searches with much more flexability than Apple's built-in Spotlight search.

3 Essential Utilities

Three more Mac problems solved--before they happen!

9. Disk Warrior

($100, www.alsoft.com) This is a great preventative maintenance tool for rebuilding your Mac's directory and keeping your mac running quickly and smoothly. It's also a great emergency tool for repairing disks that have missing files or will no longer mount.

10. Cocktail

($15, www.maintain.se/cocktail/index.php). This general all-purpose utility will clean the caches on your machine, run the UNIX maintenance scripts, unlock hidden features of your Mac, and much more.

11. SuperDuper

($28, www.shirt-pocket.com). This disk cloning utility is great for backing up or transferring all the data on your entire computer to a fully bootable state.

Next Page: Email and Web Problems...

Email and Web Problems

We know you spend most of your time in front of a Mac online or pounding out email. Here's how to answer when trouble comes knocking.

12. I use a webmail client to check email, but every time I click on an email link, it launches Apple Mail instead.

You can set up Apple Mail to access your webmail account using IMAP or POP (check with your webmail provider for instructions on how to do this; some charge a fee for this service), or you can install the program Webmailer (free, www.belkadan.com/webmailer), which lets you set any webmail site as your default email program.

We set up Webmailer to take us to Yahoo's webmail system whenever we click on an email link.

If you use Gmail, you have a few additional choices: You can install Google Notifier (free, toolbar.google.com/gmail-helper) and set that to your default email client in Mail’s preferences. Or you can use the outstanding Mailplane ($25, www.mailplaneapp.com), which provides many more features than the Gmail website.

13. I can receive but not send email messages.

Outgoing email messages are typically sent over the Internet using TCP port numbers 25, 465, or 587. However, in an effort to reduce spam, some ISPs and firewalls are set up to severely restrict the use of those ports. For example, AT&T is notorious for blocking port 25 for its DSL customers, unless you’re sending email with the AT&T email address assigned to your DSL modem. If you’re using AT&T (or another service provider that has similar restrictions), call the technical support number and request that they unblock port 25 for you. If you don’t control the Internet access where you are located, contact your email host to see if they have an alternate port that you can send email on. You can specify alternate port numbers in your email app’s account settings. If all else fails, you should be able to send email through your webmail system until you can physically get yourself to a different location that has no restrictions.

Our Web-hosting company, hostbaby.com, allows us to send email messages over alternate port 2525, which typically bypasses any firewall restrictions that have been put in place.

14. When I reply to or forward an email, the original message isn't entirely quoted in my reply--sometimes just the header and a few characters are quoted.

If you used your mouse to highlight some text in the original email, and then you clicked on forward or reply, only the words that you selected will be quoted in your new email. To override this behavior in Mail (it can’t be overridden in Entourage), go into Mail’s Preferences, click on the Composing button, and you can set it to include all of the original message. If the problem still happens after this, your Mail preferences might be corrupt. Quit Mail, and trash the file located at yourhomefolder/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist. Also try upgrading to Snow Leopard, which makes Mail more reliable in general.

The Composing preference in Mail ensures that your replies and forwards will always quote the original email message in their entirety.

15. I want to send an email later, not now.

Each email client handles this slightly differently.

In Entourage, choose Message > Send Message Later or click on the Send Later button. (In Entourage 2008, you’ll need to add the Send Later button to your toolbar by choosing View > Customize Toolbar from any outgoing message.) Your messages will queue up in your outbox, and then you can send them all at once by creating an Entourage schedule (Tools > Schedules) or by clicking the Send & Receive button.

In Thunderbird, choose File > Send Later. Your messages will queue up in the Unsent folder until you choose File > Send Unsent Messages.

The Send Later Extension lets you schedule your outgoing messages in Thunderbird.

The Send Later Extension for Thunderbird (free, www.unsignedbyte.com/?page_id=4) lets you schedule an exact date and time in the future to send your message.

Surprisingly, Mail provides no ability to send messages later. You could take all your accounts offline (Mailbox > Take All Accounts Offline) before clicking on the Send button, in which case your messages disappear until you quit and relaunch Mail to find a temporary outbox with your messages sitting in them. Or, to schedule emails for a later delivery time that you specify, install the Schedule Delivery script which is a part of Mail Scripts (donations requested, homepage.mac.com/aamann/).

Finally, LetterMeLater (free, www.lettermelater.com) offers another way to schedule emails to be sent at a later time.

16. I have multiple folders entitled Drafts, Sent, Junk, or Trash for my IMAP email account.

Setting up an IMAP account can be a little tricky. After typing your valid account settings into your email program, there are two additional steps:

First, you’ll need to set the proper IMAP path prefix (sometimes called the “root folder” or IMAP server directory) in your account settings. For example, Gmail’s IMAP Path Prefix is [Gmail].

Defining your IMAP server's root folder is an often-forgotten step when setting up an IMAP email account.

In Entourage, you set this on the Options tab of your IMAP’s account settings. In Thunderbird, click the Advanced button on the Server Settings tab. In Mail, this is on the Advanced tab of your IMAP’s account settings.

Then you’ll need to designate which folders on the server should be used for storing your drafts, sent messages, trash, and junk. In Entourage, you set this on the Advanced tab of your IMAP’s account settings. In Thunderbird, this is done in the Copies & Folders section of your account settings. In Mail, go out to your main viewer window and select a folder on the server (in the left-hand margin, underneath the IMAP account name), then choose Mailbox > Use This Mailbox For.

17. Whenever I address an outgoing email, I get unwanted email addresses for people who aren't in my address book.

Most email clients keep track of addresses that you’ve emailed to in the past and will suggest those addresses to you in the future when you start to type the same characters. You can turn off this feature in Entourage and Thunderbird by going into their preferences. In Entourage, this is found on the Compose tab. In Thunderbird, this is on the Composition > Addressing tab. You can’t turn off this feature in Mail, but you can clear the list from time-to-time by selecting Window > Previous Recipients, selecting the names and clicking Remove from List.

In Mail, you have complete control over your Previous Recipients list.

18. When I email long Web links to others, they sometimes get broken up onto multiple lines and don't work correctly.

Try putting angle brackets (<>) around long URLs to help them travel safely across the Internet without “breaking.” Or you turn to TinyURL (free, www.tinyurl.com), which will turn those long URLs into, well, tiny URLs!

19. I wish Safari's built-in search field worked with more websites than just Google.

You may want to switch to Firefox, which has the built-in ability to customize its search field with any number of search engines that you specify. Otherwise, check out the Safari plug-ins Saft ($12, haoli.dnsalias.com) or Glims (free, machangout.com), both of which let you customize Safari’s Google search field. And one of our favorite utilities, iSeek ($15, www.ambrosiasw.com) lets you add a global customizable search field to your Mac’s menubar that works with any Web browser.

iSeek places a fully customizable search field in our menubar at all times.

20. I want to filter inappropriate websites so my kids can't access them.

Although Mac OS X has built-in parental controls that you can turn on for individual accounts, you can gain more control by purchasing software like ContentBarrier ($50, www.intego.com) or Net Nanny ($39.99 a year, www.netnanny.com). Even better, we’ve discovered that one of the quickest, easiest, and most effective ways of filtering all the computers in your entire household is to switch your DNS servers to the free OpenDNS servers (free, www.opendns.com).

ContentBarrier is one of many options you have for blocking websites on your Mac.

21. My Internet connection is slow.

That’s a tricky one. A sluggish Net connection could be caused by any number of things, so here are a few troubleshooting tips to start with:

Try resetting Safari (Safari > Reset Safari). Then, try a different Web browser to see if the problem happens there as well. You may also want to uninstall any Internet plug-ins that you have installed recently.

Next, check your upload and download speeds at www.speakeasy.net/speedtest and see if you’re getting the speeds you’re paying for. If not, try power cycling both your modem and router, such as your Airport Extreme. Turn off or unplug the device, let it sit powered off for several minutes, then plug it in or switch it on again.

Our latest speed test from Speakeasy.net shows us that we're not currently getting the full upload speeds for which we've been paying the big bucks!

If these methods don’t address the slowdown, try plugging your modem directly into your Mac using an Ethernet cable to see if the problem goes away. If so, your router may be the problem. If you’re using an Airport Extreme or Airport Express, launch Airport Utility to see if there is a firmware upgrade available. If so, install the firmware upgrade and see if that helps.

If not, your Mac could be the problem--you may need to perform an Archive and Install of your operating system, which is one of your options on the Mac OS X Leopard Installation DVD.

And it’s always possible that your modem or Internet line is the problem too, in which case you should call your ISP’s technical support number.

Next Page: Photo and Office/iWork Problems...

Photo Problems

These solutions to common photo issues will make you want to say "cheese."

22. I need to quickly resize an image and make some color corrections to it, but I can't afford Photoshop and don't really want to learn how to use it.

Preview has the built-in ability to resize images and adjust colors. Open up your image in Preview and select Tools > Adjust Size or Adjust Color.

This image-size adjustment dialog box is from Preview, not Photoshop!

23. I want to email photos from iPhoto through my webmail account by clicking on iPhoto's Email button.

Even if you’ve installed Webmailer, as mentioned in problem #12, the email button in iPhoto will only work with four email clients: AOL, Eudora, Entourage, and Mail.

However, if you use Gmail, you’re in luck because Mailplane ($25, www.mailplaneapp.com) installs an iPhoto plug-in that lets you click on iPhoto’s Email button and send your messages through your Gmail account.

In any dialog box, you can activate QuickLook when browsing your iPhoto Library by selecting a photo and pressing the spacebar.

Otherwise, go into your webmail program, and attach photos using the standard method. Leopard’s dialog boxes give you the ability to browse through your iPhoto library, and they even let you use QuickLook by clicking on a photo and pressing the spacebar.

24. I want to use iPhoto '09 to export photos to Facebook, but there are too many problems with it.

Forget about using iPhoto ’09’s poorly implemented Facebook “integration.” Instead, use the outstanding Facebook Exporter for iPhoto (free, developers.facebook.com/iphoto).

Use Facebook Exporter for iPhoto to tag, add captions to, and upload your Facebook photos right from within iPhoto.

25. I created a PDF file with lots of embedded photos in it, but now the file is way too large to email.

Open up the large PDF file in Preview and select File > Save As. Where it says Quartz Filter, choose Reduce File Size, then click Save. Voilà! You’ve now saved a much smaller version of your PDF file, which will be easier to email.

Choose this Quartz Filter in Preview to reduce the size (and quality) of large PDF files so you can email them without choking your email server.

For even more control over the resulting quality of PDF size reduction--and to batch-process multiple PDF files at once--try PDFshrink ($35, www.apago.com).

If you still can’t get the file small enough for your needs, try a file-sending service such as YouSendIt (www.yousendit.com).

26. Somebody emailed me a PDF file with lots of embedded photos in it, and I need to extract the photos from the file.

File Juicer ($18, www.echoone.com) will extract images, sounds, and more from any filetype.

File Juicer can extract all these types of files out of other files.

Office/iWork Problems

Work smarter not harder with these troubleshooting tips for common productivity apps.

27. I created an awesome slide show in Keynote, but I have to present it on a PC. I tried exporting it to Microsoft PowerPoint format, but I lost my transitions, effects, transparencies, gradients, and more--basically, all the cool stuff.

Export your Keynote file to a QuickTime movie instead. As long as the PC has QuickTime installed on it (which it should, if it has iTunes installed), you’ll be able to play back your presentation with all of its awesomeness intact. If the PC doesn’t have QuickTime, download it for free from www.apple.com/quicktime.

With the "Fixed Timing" option, we can set our QuickTime movie to automatically advance to the next slide on a regular interval.

When you export your movie, you have several options for how it should advance from one slide to the next. For example, if you set it to manually advance, you simply have to press the spacebar on the PC to move to the next slide.

28. I’ve included presenter notes (View > Show Presenter Notes) in a Keynote slide show, but when I play or rehearse the slide show, the notes don’t show up onscreen.

In Keynote’s preferences, click on the Presenter Display button, and check the boxes for Notes and “Use alternate display to view presenter information.” Now your notes will show up when you play or rehearse your slide show.

This checkbox lets you toggle between mirrored displays and dual displays.

However, if you start seeing your notes on both your computer screen and the projector’s screen, your computer is set to mirrored (instead of dual) displays. You can toggle these display modes while the projector is connected to your Mac by launching System Preferences, choosing Display > Arrangement, and deselecting the Mirror Displays checkbox.

29. I use Office 2008 to create Word, Excel, or PowerPoint files, but my Mac-using colleagues can’t open the files because they’re using Office 2004.

TextEdit can open and edit Word 2008 files. And if your colleagues have iWork ’09 installed, they can work with all of your Office 2008 files in Pages, Numbers, or Keynote.

Otherwise, you’ll need to save the file in an earlier file format. Choose File > Save As and select the format that corresponds to Office 97–2004. You can also set this older format as the default in your preferences for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Choose the .doc format to avoid compatibility issues with people using earlier versions of Microsoft Word.

Alternatively, your colleagues can install Microsoft’s Open XML File Format Converter (free, www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads), which will convert your Office 2008 files into a format that Office 2004 can read.

Next Page: Syncing Problems...

Syncing Problems

Data syncing can be particularly stressful since we need access to info anywhere these days. We've got solutions.

30. I want to sync some--but not all--of my iCal calendars across my Macs.

Don’t use MobileMe to sync, which always synchronizes all of your calendars. Instead, use BusySync ($25, www.busymac.com) or BusyCal ($40, www.busymac.com), which both give you an incredible amount of syncing options.

BusyMac's products are true champions when it comes to publishing and subscribing selected calendars without any dedicated servers.

31. I want to synchronize my iCal calendars and Address Book on my Mac to Outlook on a PC.

Sign up for MobileMe ($99 a year, www.apple.com), which will keep all of your Macs and PCs (and iPhones!) in sync with each other.

Spanning Sync effortlessly syncs your calendars and contacts to Google.

Or, you can use Google Calendar and Google Contacts as a conduit. On the Mac side, you’ll need Spanning Sync ($25/year or $65/one-time purchase, spanningsync.com). On the PC side, you’ll need Google Apps Sync ($50/year, tools.google.com/dlpage/gappssync).

32. I keep getting duplicate entries on my iCal calendar.

Sounds like you’re trying to sync your Entourage calendar with iCal. There’s a known bug with Entourage that causes repeating events to multiply out of control in iCal. We don’t know of any long-term solution at this time except to ditch Entourage’s calendar and stick to iCal for your calendaring needs. To do this, uncheck the box for syncing events in Entourage’s Preferences (on the Sync Services pane). To erase iCal dupes, try iCal Cleaner (free, www.busymac.com).

33. I’m getting two of each calendar entry on my iPhone.

You may be trying to sync your calendars through both iTunes and MobileMe. You’ll need to choose one method or the other, not both. If you’re syncing wirelessly through MobileMe, then go into your iPhone settings within iTunes and uncheck all of your calendars there.

The exception to this rule is iCal’s Birthdays calendar (enabled in iCal’s preferences, this calendar pulls birthdays from your Address Book), which can only be synced through iTunes, so it must remain checked in iTunes.

34. My U.S. Holidays and other Internet-subscribed iCal calendars are not syncing between my Mac and my iPhone.

Any Internet-subscribed calendars must be resubscribed to directly from your iPhone. You can manually set up the server on your iPhone by going to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Add Account > Other > Calendars.

You must resubscribe to your iCal holiday calendars on your iPhone all over again.

Or, you can automatically subscribe to a calendar by using Safari on your iPhone to choose from Apple’s extensive selection of calendars at www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/calendars.

35. iTunes no longer launches automatically when I attach my iPod or iPhone to my computer.

If your iPhone or iPod is very low on power or if the battery is fully depleted, it can take up to 10 minutes to appear under Devices in iTunes.

Otherwise, you may have unchecked the box in iTunes for your device that says “Automatically sync when this iPhone/iPod is connected” or “Open iTunes when this iPod is attached.”

You may have also removed the iTunesHelper application from your Login Items in your Account System Preferences, which is required to automatically launch iTunes. You can get this back by reinstalling iTunes (www.apple.com/itunes) or by manually dragging iTunesHelper into the Login Items. iTunesHelper can be found by right-clicking on iTunes in the Finder and choosing Show Package Contents, then going to Contents > Resources.

36. I want to synchronize files between two computers.

There are many different programs available to help you with this task, but our favorite is ChronoSync ($40, www.econtechnologies.com). ChronoSync can automatically mount remote servers, wake your local Mac from sleep, schedule your synchronizations, archive backup copies of your files before syncing, and even give you a list of proposed changes before it makes any of them.

Synchronizing files between two different computers is as simple as drag-and-drop with ChronoSync.

While you can use ChronoSync to synchronize to any type of volume or folder, if you specifically want to sync to another computer, you may want to additionally purchase ChronoAgent for an extra $10. ChronoAgent lets you communicate directly with a remote Mac faster than using AFP or SMB, and you gain full root access, so you can copy anything without any restrictions.

37. I turned on MobileMe syncing on my iPhone, but nothing is syncing to my Mac or Me.com.

It’s possible that the MobileMe servers aren’t communicating properly with your iPhone. An Apple support rep recently admitted to us that this is an extremely common problem that MobileMe users may experience every few months until Apple increases the reliability of its MobileMe syncing servers. So you may want to keep these instructions handy for future reference.

First, find out if MobileMe sees your iPhone at all. Activate Find My iPhone on your iPhone (Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > your me.com account > Find My iPhone). Then, from a computer (not your iPhone), go to your MobileMe account page at https://secure.me.com/yourusername. Click on Find My iPhone to see if the MobileMe website sees your phone. If not, try turning off your iPhone and turning it back on again. If the MobileMe site still doesn’t see your phone, try deleting your MobileMe account on your iPhone and re-creating it again.

We feel like Big Brother is watching us with Find My iPhone's crosshairs centered directly on our house!

Once Me.com sees your iPhone, try adding an event or a contact to your phone and see if the change shows up on your MobileMe calendar (www.me.com/calendar) or address book (www.me.com/contacts) within a few minutes.

If not, you will probably have to reset all of your sync data on Me.com with information from your Mac’s iCal and Address Book. Make a mental note of any recent unsynced changes you’ve made on your iPhone, because you’re going to lose them in this process. Also, sign out of Me.com. Go into the MobileMe System Preference on your Mac, select the Sync tab, click on Advanced, and then click Reset Sync Data. Click on the right arrow so that you are replacing all sync info on MobileMe with “info from this computer.”

Log back into Me.com and verify that it now has your current information for contacts and calendars. If not, you will have to reset the SyncServices database on your Mac. Apple has instructions on this process at support.apple.com/kb/TS1627.

But before following those instructions, be sure to do two things on your Mac: First, repair your permissions using Disk Utility (Applications/Utilities), and, second, repair your keychain using Keychain Access (in Disk Utility, pull down from the Keychain Access menu and select Keychain First Aid). After that, try syncing again from the MobileMe System Preference pane.

This is how it should look when you're about to overwrite information on the MobileMe website with information from your Mac.

Once Me.com has your current information, you are ready to go back to your iPhone. On your iPhone, go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data. Turn Push off, then completely turn off your phone for 30 seconds. Turn your phone back on and re-enable push. Then, go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > your Me.com account and turn off and on each one of the sliders for the information that you’re trying to sync (Contacts, Calendars, Bookmarks, etc).

Wait several minutes, and hopefully all your current information will reappear in your calendar and contacts on your iPhone.

If not, you will probably need to have a live chat with a MobileMe support agent. Go to www.apple.com/support/mobileme. Choose any of the troubleshooting options underneath Syncing with MobileMe in the left-hand margin, and a Chat Now button will appear.

Next Page: Video, Music, and Backup Problems...

Video Problems

These tips address problems you might encounter trying to play video files on your Mac.

38. I’m trying to use my Apple Remote on my Mac to watch movies through Front Row, but the other computers in the room--along with my Apple TV--are inadvertently responding to my remote’s button presses.

You need to pair each one of your Apple Remotes to a particular device. Apple has instructions on how to do this at support.apple.com/kb/HT1619.

39. Sometimes I can't play Web videos.

Out of the box, your Mac can only play Flash and QuickTime videos. To play other video formats, you’ll need to install one or more of the following free apps:

>> Flip4Mac Windows Media Components for QuickTime (www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/wmcomponents.mspx)

>> Perian (www.perian.org)

>> Microsoft Silverlight (www.microsoft.com/silverlight/)

>> RealPlayer (www.real.com)

>> VLC (www.videolan.org)

40. I want to convert video files to other formats, particularly those that will work on my iPod or iPhone.

To convert your video files into many different formats--including iPhone and iPod compatible formats--try Video Monkey (free, videomonkey.org), VideoDrive (7.99 euros, www.aroona.net), or CosmoPod (8.90 euros, www.cocoamug.com). To convert DVDs, try HandBrake (free, www.handbrake.fr).

41. I want to download a Flash video from the Web.

There’s a little-known trick in Safari that lets you download Flash videos that are embedded in webpages. Bring up the Activity Viewer (Window > Activity) and look for a file that appears that it may be your video file, perhaps based on its large size or the fact that it is so large that it is still loading. When it‘s finished loading, hold down the Option key and double-click on the video file. Safari will download the file into your Downloads folder for you, and you can monitor the progress through the Downloads window.

Little-known Safari secret: You can download Flash vids, like Funny or Die's famous "The Landlord" starring Will Ferrell, to your Desktop to watch at your leisure.

If you’d like an easier way to download Flash videos, try TubeTV (donations requested, www.chimoosoft.com), Videobox ($15, www.tastyapps.com), or TubeSock ($15, www.stinkbot.com).

42. I want to download a QuickTime video from the Web to my Mac, so I can watch it later.

If you’ve purchased QuickTime Pro ($30, www.apple.com/quicktime), you can download many QuickTime videos right from the Web by clicking on the triangle in the lower right-hand corner of the video and choosing Save As QuickTime Movie.

However, some QuickTime videos, including those on Apple’s website, don’t let you download them directly. To download these devious videos--with or without QuickTime Pro--view the source of the webpage in Safari (View > View Source) or Firefox (View > Page Source). Do a search for .mov (the file extension for QuickTime videos) to find the full URL of the video file. When you find it, copy the entire URL of the video file. Then, launch QuickTime Player on your Mac and select File > Open URL and paste in the URL. Now you can save the video file onto your computer.

43. I bought an external USB webcam, but my Mac laptop isn’t recognizing it.

If your Mac is running Mac OS 10.4.11 or later, it can recognize almost any USB webcam on the market, usually without installing any drivers.

If you’re running the latest version of OS X but still having problems, the iUSBCam (www.ecamm.com/mac/iusbcam) and macam (webcam-osx.sourceforge.net) websites provide helpful tips and driver downloads.

Note that Mac programs like iChat and Skype will first try to use your built-in internal camera before using any external webcams. To change this, you’ll need to go into the preferences of those programs to change your video input source.

If you’re unsuccessfully trying to use your external webcam in Photo Booth, you have to switch back to the internal camera in iChat’s preferences before launching Photo Booth.

Music Problems

How to keep rocking in the free world.

44. I want to make iPhone ringtones from a song that I didn’t purchase (or isn’t available for purchase) from the iTunes Store.

If you have a track in iTunes that you own on CD and that you’ve ripped to iTunes, you can make a ringtone from it for free in GarageBand ’09. Click here for instructions and scroll down to “Roll Your Own iPhone Ringtones,” which also provides instructions for doing the same thing in QuickTime Pro).

45. My iTunes library is full of duplicates.

For smaller libraries, use iTunes’ Show Duplicates feature (File > Show Duplicates) and manually remove the extra files. iTunes only matches on Artist and Title information though, so be careful not to delete legit alternate versions of tracks--live versions, for example. For better duplicate control, try Dupin or some of the iTunes scripts available at www.dougscripts.com.

46. One of the rubber tips from a pair of third-party earbuds got stuck in my ear--help!

Believe it or not, this has happened to us too--more than once. We recommend keeping a pair of tweezers handy, just in case a tip come off in your ear canal, which can sometimes happen if you pull the ’bud out too quickly. It’s happened to two Mac|Life editors, both of whom agree that having something small and unreachable lodged in your ear can be pretty traumatic.

47. My iTunes library is spread across multiple Macs. How can I keep two iTunes libraries synchronized?

If all you want to do is listen to iTunes music housed on another local Mac (i.e. connected to the local network), just turn on iTunes’ sharing feature (Preferences > Sharing and check “Look for shared libraries”). To share your own tracks, also check “Share my library on my local network.” You can also store libraries on a network drive that supports iTunes sharing, to share tunes without needing another Mac up and running all the time. To keep two libraries in step for syncing iPods, use a utility like TuneRanger ($29.99, my.smithmicro.com) or SuperSync ($29, www.supersync.com).

You don't have to share all your iTunes content--and you can password-protect it if you want, too.

Backup Problems

Don't tell us you don't back up--especially since Time Machine makes it so easy! Here's what to do when you run into problems.

48. I want to restore a file from a Time Machine backup of a different Mac or an older backup of my main Mac that Time Machine no longer recognizes (due to a new backup drive, a new logic board, or a new internal hard drive).

You can restore any Time Machine backup onto any Mac, if you know a few tricks involved with restoring.

The first one is related to an odd decision by Apple: You can only browse other Time Machine volumes by adding the Time Machine icon to your dock, then right-clicking on the icon and selecting Browse Other Time Machine Disks.

There's our hidden option to browse other Time Machine disks!

But even if you do that, it won’t see your Time Capsule or other external Time Machine drives, even if they’re mounted on your Desktop. In Finder, you actually have to manually choose the .sparsebundle file that represents the computer that was backed up, double-click on this file, let it mount on your Desktop, and then Time Machine will let you choose the resulting mounted disk image to restore from.

49. Time Machine is giving me an error message that’s too vague for me to interpret.

The programs TM Error Logger (donations requested, www.carnationsoftware.com) and Time Machine Buddy (free, www.bluedog.com.au) can help you interpret what has gone wrong with your Time Machine backup.

50. I’d like Time Machine to back up to multiple external hard drives, so I can keep one backup drive offsite and one backup drive onsite.

Time Machine can correctly keep track of backups on multiple external hard drives. Just give your hard drives different names, and whenever you connect the other drive, you’ll need to manually make a trip to Time Machine’s System Preference and change the disk there.

From iMac to iPhone: A Video Trip Down Apple Announcement Memory Lane

Michael Delano — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:52:59 -0600

No one announces a product like Apple. To remind us of that fact, we've put together a video of Steve and company introducing products from the original iMac up to the latest iPod nano with video.

Never have the words, "One more thing," meant so much to so many people.

Enjoy the trip down memory lane.

Note: Be sure to turn up the volume of the video player. By default, it's on mute.

For fun, drop the products you've purchased that are announced in this video in the comments below.

Net Neutrality: Follow the Money

Michelle Delio — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:47:14 -0500

It’s been framed as a fight for freedom but Net Neutrality is really a battle of business models. The outcome will almost certainly affect We The People’s wallets or/and Internet experience so we’d best keep a wary eye on everyone who is trying to “help” us.

The latest skirmish began last Thursday when the Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously to begin work on formalizing a set of rules that would, among other things, bar (PDF link) Internet service providers from blocking legal content or altering the delivery speed of content based on who owns it, who created it or who wants to access it.

The FCC has stated that Thursday’s vote simply opens the subject for official discussion, with the goal of codifying principles that have been applied on a case by case basis over recent years. Many, many months of discussion are expected before anything becomes law. But the battle lines have been drawn.

ISPs argue that they own the infrastructure that delivers the bandwidth, they have to maintain it and support their customers and therefore should be able to manage the services they provide in order to reduce network congestion and maximize profits. Internet Application companies, businesses who offer services and content via the Internet, are usually in favor of Net Neutrality because they want to get their stuff to customers without having to pay more to do so.

One of the ways an ISP could ramp up profits is to make deals with Internet Application companies who would pay more to provide consumers with an optimum experience. If, say, your company streams video you could pay an ISP to ensure that viewers can access your service at the best possible speeds. So the people watching your videos will be happily munching popcorn while your competitor’s viewers are throwing their popcorn at their computer’s screen in frustration.

Pay-for-optimum-play service agreements would also affect small businesses and entrepreneurs. If you are a kid in a dorm room with a few bucks and a plan for the next Google, Twitter, YouTube or Facebook you may find that a big corporation can deliver a less-innovative offering more effectively because they can afford to pay ISPs for first class delivery service.

Net Neutrality rules are intended to ban such speed machinations but the FCC’s Net Neutrality proposal specifically does not block the practice of “throttling,” which typically involves reducing the quality of service provided to the ISP’s most active users after a predetermined amount of data has been downloaded. Most ISPs tend to slow P2P or other resource-hungry network activity.

The FCC’s Net Neutrality proposal specifies that broadband providers would be allowed to “engage in reasonable network management” as long as ISPs are open about the fact that they are throttling. ISPs would also be able to “develop and deploy new technologies and business models, including by offering managed or specialized services that are distinct from traditional broadband Internet access service.”

There are good arguments to be made on both sides of the Net Neutrality argument, but those who are currently shaping the conversation have apparently decided not to simply present their business case to the general public. Thankfully no one has yet figured out a way to tie Net Neutrality to Protecting The Children, but tried and true concepts like “Freedom” and “Government Interference” and “Greedy Big Business” plus “Jobs” and “Innovation” are being flung about with great abandon.

The National Cable and Telecommunications Association did a great job of hitting all the right points in their response to the FCC’s vote:

“(the organization) support(s) a free and open Internet. However, we continue to believe the broadband marketplace is an unparalleled American success story and already offers consumers an open Internet experience. So, we welcome the opportunity to make our case that investment, innovation and consumer welfare are all enhanced by continued government restraint. Given the tremendously high stakes, we hope the Commission will approach these issues with a healthy skepticism of hypothetical harms, and with a full understanding of the very real consequences that regulatory action may have on investment, job creation, and the continued expansion and improvement of next generation networks.”

The freedom from government interference rallying cry has been echoed by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz), who just happens to be the biggest beneficiary of political contributions from telecommunications companies according to data provided by the Sunlight Foundation. Last Friday McCain introduced the Internet Freedom Act, which would prohibit the FCC from “proposing, promulgating, or issuing any regulations regarding the Internet or IP-enabled services.” in order to keep the Internet “free from government control.”

It’s easy for a tech-loving person to dismiss McCain, who admitted that he, according to an interview printed 7/13/2006 in The New York Times, has never “felt a particular need to e-mail.” But arguments made by the other side are equally self-serving and shrouded in rhetoric. As thirty venture capitalists stated in an open letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski:

“The promise of permanently securing an open Internet will deliver consumers and innovators a perfect free market that drives investment, job creation, and consumer welfare. These principles should apply across all Internet access networks, wired or wireless. Investment and innovation at the edge of the network will create not just jobs but also new tools and opportunities for communication, education, health care, business, and every other human endeavor.”

Since everyone is beating the patriotic drum it might be best to reflect on what our founding fathers -- the folks who initially developed the protocols that power the internet -- have to say about Net Neutrality. Their beliefs are laid out in an open letter (PDF Link) from Vince Cerf, Stephen D. Crocker, David Reed, Lauren Weinstein and Daniel Lynch to the FCC.

This letter states that the FCC’s “network neutrality proposal’s key principles of ‘nondiscrimination’ and ‘transparency’ are necessary components of a pro-innovation public policy agenda for this nation” noting that “successful companies have deployed their services on the Internet without the need to negotiate special arrangements with Internet Service Providers, and it's crucial that future innovators have the same opportunity. We are advocates for ‘permissionless innovation’ that does not impede entrepreneurial enterprise.”

The letter then states that “One persistent myth is that …network neutrality would forbid charging users higher fees for faster speed circuits. To the contrary, we believe such features are permitted within a ‘network neutral’ framework, so long they are not applied in an anti-competitive fashion.”

Critics of Net Neutrality have warned that if ISPs aren’t allowed to extract money from Internet Application companies they are likely to start charging consumers on a per-gigabyte-usage basis. We’re far from any final word on Net Neutrality, but don’t be shocked if the combatants ultimately all agree that pay-for-play is fine as long as consumers are the ones who are paying.

For a hilarious take on the current state of Net Neutrality, check out the clip from The Daily Show below.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

From Here to Neutrality

www.thedailyshow.com

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Breaking the Law? The Pros and Cons of Jailbreaking

Cory Bohon — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:35:47 -0500

There’s an underground app store on the iPhone and it’s only available to "jailbreakers." People that decide to hack their iPhones do it for a variety of reasons, but being able to run applications in the background on their phone is one of the main ones.

With recent talk about jailbreaking the iPhone 3GS, some people might still be wondering what it is and how it could benefit them. To help those new to the iPhone and for those iPhone owners without a super-nerd friend to pummel with questions about the Pwnage tools and the iPhone-Dev Team, we answer a few basic questions about jailbreaking the greatest device ever.

What is Jailbreaking?

The first jailbreak was released two weeks after the iPhone's initial release in June of 2007 and allowed users to customize their ringtones. A few months later, jailbreak users could install third-party applications on the iPhone. Jailbreaking is not the same as unlocking, which allows you to place a different SIM card in your iPhone to use on other GSM carriers.

The basic ideas of jailbreaking remains the same. The jailbreaking process involves tweaking the Apple firmware and opening doors to third-party, non-Apple approved applications and tweaking the user interface (i.e. adding themes, changing icons, colors, etc.). Once the jailbreaking software on your Mac has altered the iPhone firmware, it will install the custom firmware onto your device.

This process is called jailbreaking, because you're freeing your iPhone/iPod touch from the bonds of Apple, which picks and chooses what its users can do with their devices. Also it sounds kinda cool. Like you're a low-level criminal.

Some Pros/Cons of Jailbreaking

Background Processes

If you want the ability to run an app that isn't the current app in the foreground on your iPhone, jailbreaking can do that for you. For example, if you want to run a chat application in the background and still receive IMs even though you're checking the weather in another application. This is possible with background processes and without push notifications. Another example is GPS apps. They have to be running in the foreground to work on your regular non-hacked iPhone. If they're running in the background on a hacked iPhone, you can check your email, take a call, or switch up your music playlist and the GPS app will continue to track your path.

The downside to applications running in the background is that you will find that your battery drains much quicker and the iPhone will slow down once you have a few processes running along side that of the currently open application.

Apple Updates

A major con that comes to mind with the jailbreaking process is that when Apple updates the iPhone/iPod touch firmware/OS, the new iPhone software overrides the hacked software you have on your iPhone. After each Apple software update, you usually have to wait until the iPhone Dev Team releases an updated jailbreaking tool to update to the latest and greatest features implemented by Apple. This wait can be anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks depending on the update from Apple.

This means you'll be constantly jailbreaking your iPhone in order to keep the features you covet on your device.

Pushed Away

Push Notifications, the little messages you might get on a non-jailbroken iPhone when you get an IM in Beejive or AIM, don't always work on jailbroken devices for some people. The fact that you can run apps in the background makes this con easier to swallow.

Breaking the Law?

The legal issues surrounding jailbreaking is also a big deal. Since you are hacking around with Apple’s software, it's a bit of a "gray area" surrounding the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act), which tries to keep people from, among other things, reverse engineering copyrighted software.

Jailbreaking does allow you to have some pretty nifty and free options added to your iPhone/iPod touch, but Apple is definitely adamant about fighting jailbreakers. For instance, if you take your iPhone in for repair at an Apple Store or through AppleCare, it would probably be in your best interest to restore your device. Apple has been known to refuse service to iPhone/iPod touch owners who have jailbroken their devices.

The Jailbreaking Process

The ability to jailbreak your iPhone is made possible by groups like the iPhone Dev Team. They create the tools needed to unlock your iPhone.

The tools utilize the Apple approved firmware as a base to create a custom firmware based upon what you want your iPhone to do. The resulting .IPSW file is then loaded onto your iPhone via iTunes.

There are a few different pieces of software that allow you to do this, most notably the iPhone Dev Team’s PwnageTool that runs on the Mac and allows you to compile firmware for iPhone, iPhone 3G/3GS, and iPod touch 1st/2nd gen. There’s also an application that runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux called "redsn0w" that is made by the iPhone Dev Team and the Chronic Dev Team.

Getting Applications for your Jailbroken Device

The App Store allows you install applications on your iPhone/iPod touch with relative ease. If you plan on jailbreaking your iPhone but you're concerned you'll lose the App Store. Don't worry, the App Store works fine with jailbroken iPhones. In fact, with a jailbroken iPhone, you'll be opening yourself up to a world of new apps that don't jive with Apple's rules and regulations.

Installer applications come with your newly jailbroken device. These applications are Cydia, Icy, and the old and rarely used, Installer.app. This means that you can have the best of both worlds: the Apple controlled App Store, and the open, free applications of the app installers.

Many applications that have disappeared from the App Store for content violations have reappeared in Cydia or Icy. Most notably, many Google Voice applications pulled from the App Store you can now download from Cydia or Icy. Since Apple doesn't control the content in this store, it’s an "anything goes" model of application development, which many open-source fans like.

Of course that lack of control does mean that you could download an app that could crash your iPhone or not work at all. Patience can be key when trying to find a app that accomplishes a task or adds a feature. We found ourselves downloading three to four apps that promised to do the same thing then uninstalling the two to three that just crashed upon launch or froze the iPhone.

Jailbreaking your iPhone can be a fun exercise or way to enhance your favorite piece of technology. We definitely wouldn't recommend jailbreaking to our less techie friends who just want a working device without the hassle. We would have to recommend that you not jailbreak your main device since you can occasionally run into devastating problems during the installation or regular operation unless your comfortable with that possibility. But, if you're an early adopter with more than one iPhone or iPod touch on hand, jailbreaking might be an intriguing project.

Good luck.

6 Pro Photographers Share Their Most Guarded Digital Secrets

Michelle Delio — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:59:59 -0500

Great photos are made, not taken. Creating the perfect image requires a skill set that includes a deep understanding of one’s gear, the light, and the ability to think about what story you want the photo to tell and how to communicate that story through a captured moment in time. Tremendous patience, physical flexibility (a photographer spends a lot of time pretzeled into odd positions to capture the perfect angle), and an ability to think lucidly before dawn (can’t miss that golden light) are also essential.

Most photographers would now agree that proficiency with photo-editing software is also a critical skill. So we asked six photographers to tell us about their favorite image processing applications and add-ons as well as share their best tips for making and digitally refining images.

Lucas Gilman travels the world in search of untouched places and wild experiences, capturing images ranging from kayaking in India to backcountry skiing in South America. His work is often seen in National Geographic, Sports Illustrated, ESPN Magazine, ESPN.com, Men’s Journal, National Geographic Adventure, Outside Magazine, Men’s Fitness, Maxim Germany, FHM Australia, USA TODAY and the New York Times. Lucas recently won the “2008 American Photo Emerging Photographer Award” sponsored by Apple Inc.

Preferred Post Processing Applications: The majority of my post processing work is done in Adobe Lightroom 2. I use Adobe Photoshop CS4 for small detail work and Nikon Capture NX for certain images.

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Favorite plug-in filters/scripts/actions/etc:

Nik Viveza: Amazing color and contrast control without the need for masks. It helps make even a day with the worst light look good with just a few sliders and a couple of clicks.

Nik Silver Efex Pro: The best black and white conversions in the industry, allowing total control and creativity without layers, masks and hours of tedious Photoshop work.

Nik Color Efex Pro: Amazing ability to enhance and correct colors without masks.

OnOne Software Genuine Fractals: Allows me to deliver perfect images that have been resized on demand to epic proportions.

Which filters do you use the most in the Nik collections? In Nik Color Efex I really like the "Brilliance and Warmth" filter. It allows me to add saturation and warmth in a natural way to produce really pleasing images. I also really like the "Tonal Contrast" filter, it allows me to accurately adjust contrast in many areas of the image without masking. In NIK Silver Efex Pro I like being able to click through all the film type options within the black and white conversion filter, being able to control grain and contrast to show every detail that I want is really cool!

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General Filter Tips: Take your time, play around and check out what each filter can do for you. You will be amazed at all the variations you have the ability to produce with some creative thinking.

Favorite Photography Tips: Find your background and then wait for your action to come into the frame. Shoot early and shoot late when the light is good. And take hand sanitizer to Third World Countries -- you will make better photos if you are not sick in bed.

Where do you print your work? Printroom.com

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Preferred Gear:

Photography: Nikon D3X, Nikon D3, Nikon D700, Nikon 14-24mm AFS f/2.8 G ED, Nikon 24-70/2.8G Autofocus-S, Nikon 70-200 mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR Lens, NIKON 300mm AF-S VR f/2.8G IF-ED, Nikon AF-S Teleconverter TC-17E II, Nikon 400mm AF-S VR f/2.8 IF-ED, Nikon SB900 speedlights, Honl professional Light Modifiers (grids, snoots, gobos for Nikon SB900’s).

Backup and image storage: 16GB Lexar Professional UDMA 300x CompactFlash, Lexar Professional UDMA FireWire 800 Readers, DroboPro (Studio), Western Digital MyPassport Studio Edition 500 GB DRIVES (travel)

Computer: Mac Pro 8-core 3.0GHz Intel Xeon + 8GB Crucial RAM (Studio), MacBook Pro 2.4GHz 4GB Crucial RAM (travel).

To see more of Lucas’ work, visit his website.

David Schloss is the director of the Aperture Users Network and MacCreate.com. A photographer for more than two decades, David specializes in adventure sports, travel, lifestyle and hyper-macro photography. He is the author of two books on photography and teaches workshops internationally.

Preferred Post Processing Applications: I do about 95 percent of my work in Aperture, with occasional work in Photoshop CS4, Illustrator CS 4 and Painter.

Favorite plug-in filters/scripts/actions/etc:

NIK Silver Efex Pro: This is by far the best black and white conversion tool ever made.

Imagenomic Portraiture: After spending countless hours retouching portraits for commercial use Portraiture has been a godsend. It selectively retouches images without having to create complicated masks, it can tell the difference between facial texture and things like hair and makeup.

Picture Code’s Noise Ninja: The industry standard for noise reduction. Getting rid of noise from a high ISO or low light shot doesn’t get any easier--or better--than this.

Which filters do you use the most in the Nik Silver Efex collection?: I tend to be drawn to the filters that provide the grainy black-and-white experience I used to get from darkroom techniques. The film simulations for things classic 1600 ISO film stock are great. While it doesn’t feel exactly the same to me (there’s just a quality of black and white high-ISO film that’s hard to duplicate) it brings back much of that quality of playfulness and artistic expression of the darkroom.

Click to embiggen

General Filter Tips: Digital filters are best used like a spice. A little bit can transform a creation from mundane to extraordinary, but used too heavily it will overwhelm the creation. And there’s no filter that’s going to save an out of focus image so work to get the image right in the camera first.

What tips can you share with us about working in Aperture: In the 90's there was almost a mandate that "artistic" photos had to be processed and highly-filtered. A lot of simulated cross processing work and bleach tones. For many photographers the image in-camera was simply a jumping-off point for a creative journey. That's fine and it produced a lot of great looking images, but it can only go so far.

With the advent of Apple's Aperture, and the focus (pardon the pun) on bringing out the best of an image, I've really rededicated myself to shooting the best possible image in the camera and just bringing it back to the way I saw it in my mind when I shot it. So filters for me are largely about bringing images back to reality, or at least the reality that I had envisioned.

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The really powerful adjustments in Aperture allow me to do a lot of things I used to do in filters -- adjust levels, saturation, vibrancy, sharpness. I take my images and round-trip to a plug-in when I need to make that final little creative tweak to make an image mine. Take the black-and-white conversions possible with Silver Efex Pro -- Aperture is not designed to simulate a film stock, but the ability to take an image and go right into a plug-in and still manage it in Aperture allows me to make a version that replicates the techniques I used to use, with today's tools.

Favorite Photography Tips: The best thing I’ve ever heard about photography came from photographer Jay Maisel. Taking the expletives out it boils down to "you can’t take a picture if you don’t have a camera." One thing I learned from my father, a commercial shooter, was to forget about the automatic settings and spend days walking around with camera in manual mode, changing the f/stop and shutter speed by feel. Meter once in the morning and see if you can tell how many stops lighter or darker your subjects move from there. As a result, I often think of things in terms of stops of light. I’ll turn on a bedside lamp and think of how many stops lighter the room got. It’s really a great way to become one with your camera.

Do you still shoot with film? I have not shot a piece of film since 2002. The convenience, speed and ecological benefits of working with digital have outstripped all the reasons I shot film.

Where do you print your work? At home, on my HP B9180 and a HP Z3100. I’ve also used the site ImageKind.com when I want to get output printed, framed and shipped. They do great work.

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Preferred Gear:

Photography: Canon 1Ds Mark III, 5D Mark II, Nikon D3x. A mix of lenses, favorites are the Canon 50mm 1.4, Canon 65 1x-5x macro, and the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8.

Computer: My main Mac is an 8-core Mac Pro with 16GB of RAM, connected to a Drobo Pro, HP B9180 printer, dual 30-inch Cinema Displays and a Wacom Intuos drawing tablet.

To see more of David’s work, visit his website.

Tony Sweet decided to redirect his creative energies towards nature photography after 20 years of working as a professional jazz artist. His images are published on calendars, post cards, posters, annual reports, greeting cards and catalogs. Tony conducts Visual Artistry photography location workshops and speaks to photography organizations and "Professional Photographers of America" schools throughout the continental United States and Canada. He is a staff writer for Nikon World magazine and has authored four books on the art of photography. Tony has been honored as a "Nikon Legend Behind the Lens" and is represented by The Getty Picture Agency.

Preferred Post-Processing Applications: Aperture for processing and cataloging, also Photoshop CS4.

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Favorite plug-in filters/scripts/actions/etc:

Nik Color Efex Pro: Particularly the “Darken/Lighten Center” filter to add depth to the image.

Nik Silver Efex Pro: For black and white conversions.

LucisPro: I use it on every HDR image to enhance detail and add depth.

AlienSkin Snap Art: To add watercolor, oil paint and other artistic effects.

Topaz Adjust: to affect exposure and region on specific images.

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What tips can you share with us about working with filters in general? Play often to learn the capabilities of the software. It’s impossible to pre-visualize a filter effect on an image if you are not familiar with the filter. And always place the filter effect on a separate layer and blend it with the original -- this works especially well when you are blending a black and white converted image with the color original. Work in layers, leaving the original untouched. Practice using your software. The more familiar you are with software usage, the more options you have to bring your creativity to fruition.

Favorite Photography Tip: Isolate and simplify the subject.

Do you still shoot with film? No more film for me. I have no need for it.

Where do you print your work? I use an Epson 7900.

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Preferred Gear:

Photography: Nikon D3X, 14-24mm, 24-70mm, 70-200mm, 105mm macro, Lensbaby.

Computer: MacBook Pro, 8G RAM, 320GB HD, 4TB external storage, Epson 7900 printer.

To see more of Tony’s work, visit his website.

Mike Sweeney started his visual career by drawing incessantly from the time he was old enough to be trusted with a box of crayons. By the time he was his early twenties he had bought a Canon 35mm camera and was learning the finer points of photography. Now Mike blends his photography skills with his extensive knowledge of technology to produce images that are both classic and state of the art. Mike is an active member is the "Strobist" and other social groups on Flickr, as well as the PPA (Professional Photographers of America), ASMP (American Society of Media Photographers) and NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals). He specializes in wedding photography, portraiture and fine art photography.

Preferred post-processing applications: Adobe Suite CS3 (primarily Photoshop, InDesign) for advanced editing, Lightroom 2 for the majority of workflow management and light editing, PainterX for live media effects, LumaPIX to create albums, calendars, cards etc, VMwareFusion for running Windows XP and LumaPIX, and Fundy SOS album builder which is Photoshop application for creating wedding albums.

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Favorite plug-in filters/scripts/actions/etc:

Imagenomic Portraiture: The best and fastest tool I have found for smoothing and evening out skin surfaces and skin tones.

Imagenomic Noiseware: The best noise reduction software.

OnOne Pro Tools: The best overall photo editing tool box on the planet. I especially like the Photo Tools Bleach Bypass and High Pass Sharpening filters.

A Neutral Density Gradient: I use a gradient more than any other processing tool aside from sharpening to dial in localized exposures of sky, water, windows etc.

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What tips can you share with us about working with filters in general? Apply any filter effect at the level that you think it should be and then dial it down a notch. Educate yourself about sharpening your images. It's not as simple as you may think and it can make or break an image. Highpass sharpening is your friend. Learn about using sharpening masking in Lightroom, you will be amazed at the details it can bring out. When you’re sharpening don’t forget to zoom in to 100%. Invest 17 bucks in a monthly pass for kelbytraining.org, some of the best information I’ve seen for Lightroom comes from Matt Kloskowski on kelbytraining.

Favorite Photography Tip: Read the manual for your camera even if you have been shooting for years, you will certainly learn something from it. Be an active member of a few of the many, many photography related boards, there is always something new to see and learn and you never know when you will uncover a piece of priceless information or learn the one thing that will tip a gig your way.

Do you still shoot with film? Yes, Kodak Porta-160VC. I offer it as a custom option for portraits. Some clients like the look of film and will pay a premium for it. And I still shoot Polaroid sometimes because it's fun.

Where do you print your work? BayPhoto and MPIX

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Preferred Gear:

Photography: Nikon D70s, D90, D300, Nikon 17-55mm F/2.8, Nikon 11-24mm F4, Nikon 50mm F1.8, Nikon 17-55mm VR, 4 Nikon SB800 flashes, Nikon SU800, 5 Cybersyncs, Mountainsmith Parallax backpack Flashpoint carbon tripod/head, Westcott collapsible umbrellas, Photoflex Transpack, Z Raygun - a Dual Xenon battery powered light by Brinkmann.

Computer: MacBook Pro 6GB RAM, 250GB drive (Travel), Mac Pro dual quad 10GB RAM, 4TB disk (studio) with a Dell 24-inch Ultrasharp monitor, Canon MP950 all in one printer, Epson 4990 Scanner.

To see more of Mike’s work, visit his website.

Anthony Tortoriello is a Chicago commercial photographer who specializes in animal and pet photography, action/motorsports, food and people and anything else that comes his way. His work has been used in numerous publications worldwide. Anthony is an expert in color processing and regularly works as a digital technician for top shooters across the country. He has studied color theory with the best (notably Dan Margulis) and is also a professional retoucher.

Preferred Post-Processing Applications: I’ve dabbled with every photo related software at some point or another but now the vast majority of my time is spent working in Phase One’s Capture One Pro which is a RAW workflow application, Photoshop CS4 (which I live and breathe) and occasionally Lightroom.

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Favorite plug-in filters/scripts/actions/etc:

onOne’s Software Suite: Mainly for Genuine Fractals Pro and Photo Frame Pro which I find useful for certain images and jobs.

Photomatix Pro: For HDR and a handful of complex sharpening and color boost actions that I created and are specific to my style.

What tips can you share with us about working with filters in general? Less is more. Filters are to be used when needed not just because you can. Sure you can play and have fun, but if your job is to get an ordinary image to look like a breathtaking postcard then use filters with caution.

Also, you can use color effects software, noise reduction software, etc., but there is no substitute for knowing how to do this all yourself by having a solid understanding of Photoshop. Photoshop is our digital darkroom period and should not be taken lightly.

I would suggest people use Photoshop as if it is a video game and you are trying to win the game by getting the best possible looking images. Try every possibility like you would in a game, for example you could try running filters in different channels.

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Favorite Photography Tips: I am a firm believer at shooting as much as possible any time I can. This means always having a camera by your side and using it with NO worries about what others may be thinking. To paraphrase something photographer Jay Maisel has said, we have to do our visual push-ups everyday to keep our skills in shape.

Do you still shoot with film? I have not touched my film cameras in years. It just does not make sense on so many levels for me to still be using film.

Any tips on getting prints that match what we see on the screen? Make sure your displays are calibrated correctly with a calibration device such as an i1 Display 2 from X-Rite, which will help ensure that the color and luminosity of what you are seeing is accurate. Familiarize yourself with the proper settings for your software and output device -- for example, if you are printing out of Photoshop make certain you are not double color managing your files -- turn off color manage in the print dialog box. And select the correct paper profile. Obviously there is much more to it than that, but those things are a big step in the right direction.

Where do you print your work? At home I print with an Epson 4880 and an Epson 3880 for my more manageable sized prints. And for the larger prints I work with an amazing printing boutique in Chicago; JS Graphics.

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Preferred Gear:

Photography: Nikon D3x, Nikon D3, and Canon 5D Mark II. Lenses include “fast glass” Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8, 24-70mm f/2.8, 70-200mm f/2.8, 200-400mm f/4, 105mm f/2.8 micro, 16mm f/2.8 fisheye, & 50mm f/1.4G and similar for the Canon. Tony also loves his Canon G10 and G11 professional point and shoot cameras for everyday fun.

Computer: (Studio) Mac Pro 8-Core Two 2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon "Nehalem" Processors with 16GB 1066MHz DDR3 RAM with 4TB Internal Storage and 20TB external RAID Storage. 30-inch Apple Cinema Display and a 22-inch CRT for proofing. Wacom Intuos4 graphics tablet “I could not work without it.” (Travel) Apple 17-inch MacBook Pro with 8GB of RAM

To see more of Anthony's work, visit his website.

Michele Wortman has been taking pictures professionally for over a decade. Her specialty is “macro photography with a deep emphasis on observing beauty.” Her work also includes shooting studio portraits of her tattoo clients. Her photography has been featured in several publications and in a book, “Moments of Epiphany” by Proton Press.

Preferred Post-Processing Applications: Adobe Photoshop CS3. And I particularly enjoy shooting my portrait work directly into my computer using Aperture and completely bypassing the memory card in the camera by tethering the camera to the computer. You can really see your shot and be able to make adjustments a lot better than the film days.

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Favorite plug-in filters/scripts/actions/etc: I don't use a lot of filters, and all of my favorites are included with Photoshop. I try not to alter the image too far beyond the original shot as I like to preserve the natural magic from the first impression. Typically I adjust the levels first, then I use the selective color menu to create better color balance adjustments. If the image needs some enhanced focus I select the area to sharpen with the lasso on a wide feather and sharpen as needed. I often use the path select tool to create cut outs for my portrait photography. I am a firm believer when it comes to digital manipulation that less is more. A subtle enhancement can make an image look extra dreamy, but take it just a bit too far and the piece will probably look artificial and overworked.

Favorite Photography Tips: Follow your bliss and where the light lands. Shoot what interests you and whatever your passion is. It will show in your work.

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Do you still shoot with film? No, digital photography meets all of my needs plus I never have to deal with the hassle of scanning negatives with dust specs!

Where do you print your work? For portfolio purposes I print on the Epson Stylus Photo r1800. I also sometimes print on high quality transparency film which I backlight when I’m exhibiting my work.

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Preferred Gear:

Photography: Canon EOS 5D with Canon EF 24-70MM, Canon MP-E 65MM, Canon EF 100 MM lenses. Lights: Calumet travelite 750 set, Nova 32 softbox, Canon 540 EZ Speedlite

Computer: MacBook Pro with 2.5GHz Core 2 Duo and 4GB RAM and an iMac with Intel Core Duo 2GHz and 2GB RAM. MyBook Essential edition 1TB external drive and a Burly 4 Bay Firewire Enclosure with four Seagate 7200.10 500GB drives.

To see more of Michele’s work, visit her website.