British Mac Show Notes

Episode BritishMac059

				News

				Headlines

				"Mum is no longer the word" Apple have sent out invites to the UK's technology journalists for an event to be held on September 18th, headed "Mum is no longer the word" Obviously this has everyone expecting them to announce finally the UK iPhone. It ties in quite nicely with other rumours suggesting the announcement will be made at the end of the month. Unfortunately, it also ties in with O2's recent rush to upgrade its network to support EDGE, which the iPhone uses, implying a 3G iPhone may not be on the cards just yet after all.

				Government backs Trust on iPlayer - Thanks to Phil Hunter The government said the iPlayer would be cross-platform as "soon as possible" The UK government has responded to an electronic petition that called on it to ensure the BBC's iPlayer works on non-Windows PCs. More than 16,000 people have signed the petition since it was created. In its response, the government said the BBC Trust had made it a condition of launching the iPlayer that it worked with other operating systems. The iPlayer on-demand TV service lets people catch up with BBC programmes by downloading them via the net. Critical call Launched on 27 July the iPlayer currently only works with Microsoft's Windows XP operating system. The decision to launch on Windows XP has been subject to strong criticism which led to the creation of the electronic petition in June 2007. The BBC Trust has committed to making sure the BBC would meet calls for non-Windows versions of the iPlayer "as soon as possible" said the government statement. It added: "[The BBC Trust] will measure the BBC's progress on this every six months and publish the findings." The BBC has said that a Mac version of the iPlayer will be released in the autumn followed by versions for Windows Vista and mobile gadgets. The BBC Trust was the body the government created to look after the interests of licence payers, said the statement. As well as an e-petition calling for cross-platform versions of the iPlayer, the BBC has also faced criticism from organisations such as the Open Source Consortium (OSC). This group wants to see versions of the iPlayer that work with open source software such as Linux. The OSC has had meetings with the BBC Trust to discuss its views. Since a trial version of the iPlayer was launched in the BBC has been gradually signing up more people to test the Windows version of the software. A full launch is expected in the autumn. Those using the iPlayer can get at BBC TV programmes broadcast in the last seven days and watch them, once saved, at any time during the next 30 days.

				Quick news

				Apple Movie Rentals Coming Soon? From Apple Insider, thanks to Will from The D I G I T O G R A P H E R While attempting to notify Apple of a problem with its iTunes Store, one user stumbled upon evidence that suggests the company may be gearing up to offer movie rentals through the digital download service. "I was trying to report a problem via iTunes, and this pop-up for selecting a reason contains some interesting/revealing strings," David Watanabe wrote in a posting the popular Flickr image sharing website. "[It] looks like 'RentalMovies' will be coming to the iTunes store." Among the reasons for reporting a problem listed in the Apple-created menus were "DidNotReceiveMovie-RentalMovie," "AccidentalPurchase-RentalMovie," "ContentQuality-RentalMovie," "DuplicatePurchase-RentalMovie," "WrongVErsion-RentalMovie," "BadMetadata-RentalMovie" and "Other-RentalMovie." Rumors that Apple would eventually be compelled to supplement its a la carte movie download service with a rental option have been making the rounds ever since the company first began offering downloadable flicks nearly two years ago. The most recent report on the matter came courtesy of the Financial Times, which reported in June that Apple was in advanced talks with Hollywood’s largest movie studios about launching an online film rental service to challenge cable and satellite TV operators.

				Apple's Euro .Mac service slower than US? Again thanks to Will, Apple's European .Mac service, which offers customers online tools that integrate with the company's iLife and Mac OS X software, is apparently crippling transfer speeds for users downloading iWeb websites as well as images from Web galleries. Confused European .Mac subscribers are flocking to Apple's own online for answers to their slow transfers. Forum posters believe transfers from iDisks complete at full speed, but that downloads from European iWeb web sites as well as galleries are throttled down to 80KB/sec. One user notes that US .Mac users receive full speed transfers in all cases, leading him to question Apple's overseas policy and why Europeans paying for Apple's service must succumb to choked downloads from much of their online content.

				iPod Touch Manual Available for download

				http://www.apple.com/uk/support/ipodtouch/

				and finally...

				Undressing the iPod touch http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=354541

				Desert Island Applications

				Gavin Hall on the desert island

				St. British Mac

				Enabling Root

				Frankenwidget

				About Widget of Change Looking for ways to live a little healthier? The Widget of Change provides a new idea every day for eating better or getting more exercise. The ideas are provided by people who visit www.changesomething.org. Log on to submit your own idea. Or just download the widget and receive them directly on your desktop.

				Matthew Maber

				http://www.somefoolwitha.com/

				Uncle Mac's Siesta

				About Lynx Text Web Browser Lynx has become quite popular as a “Universal Access” web browser for the Visually handicapped. Though Lynx is limited as it does not support JavaScript. Lynx was originally developed at the University of Kansas. In 1995 Lynx 2.4.2 was released under the GNU Public License by UKansas, since then it has been maintained and extended by a group of volunteers. This is the latest version, and has been compiled into an OS X package. What’s New in this Version - Universal version - iFrame support

				\nInstalling From: /Volumes/Lynx-2.8.6-10.4.9+u \nEnter Your password.. Password: Installing Config File(s) installing lynx.cfg as /usr/local/etc/lynx.cfg installing lynx.lss as /usr/local/etc/lynx.lss DONE:... Drag Lynx.command to Applications... logout [Process completed]

				Ye Olde Mac & Mouse

				Hi Will, Congratulations on a cracking podcast. As a recent convert to all things Apple I have been playing catch-up with British Mac and have just worked my way through 5 or 6 episodes on holiday - I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the end(!), but it certainly made the fortnight more bearable (I can't stand sticky sun cream, sand and cheeky kids). I just wanted to write to say I agree with your comments in episode 58 about enjoying the constant rumours on Apple product launches, but feeling slightly upset if they turn out to be true. But don't you find it a bit scary how a company the size of Apple can announce a product on a Tuesday, have thousands of the items in the shops by the Friday, but no-one outside of the company really knows what is coming in advance? Perhaps Apple factories only employ oompah-loompas, and they are never allowed outside to spill their secrets. Or perhaps I've watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory too many times! Anyway, keep up the good work - We appreciate it. Martyn

				1. Hi Will, Been listening to British Mac for the last few months, I'm a recent Mac convert having bought a MacBook Pro in November 06. I've recently added an AppleTV to my growing collection of Apple products (as well as the MacBook Pro and 160GB AppleTV I've a 40gb 4th gen iPod and a 802.11n Airport Extreme wireless hub) and I'm finding that when I use the AppleTV remote, and have my MacBook on, both respond to the remote. Do you know of a way to turn off the Apple remote on a MacBook Pro? Keep up the good work on the shows, I'm learning a lot about the Mac from them, Regards, Richard Hyde Peterborough, UK

				2. Thanks for the reply. I've tried this and it stops the AppleTV working with another Apple remote, but I can't seem to stop my Macbook picking up the clicks meant for the AppleTV, and carrying them out.

				3. I found it! Under the Security options in the System Preferences app there's a check box which allows you to "Disable the remote control infrared receiver"

				British Icon

				River Cottage

				www.rivercottage.net