Final Cut Pro X £179.99 panned by pros

				Apple retail boss leaves to lead department store, JC Penney The man responsible for building Apple’s retail empire, Ron Johnson, is to leave the company to become CEO of US department store chain, JC Penney. Johnson said that the move fulfilled a lifelong ambition. ‘I’ve always dreamed of leading a major retail company as CEO, and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to help JC Penney re-imagine what I believe to be the single greatest opportunity in American retailing today, the Department Store,” he said. Apple’s response was brief: ‘Ron is excited about this opportunity and we hope it goes well for him,’ it said in a statement. Johnson, a Harvard MBA graduate, joined Apple from discount retailer, Target, in January 2000. Over the last 11 years, under his leadership, Apple has opened over 300 retail stores worldwide, including 29 in the UK. Last year, Apple’s retail stores served 233 million customers, generating $9bn in revenue and 2.4bn in profit. For more breaking news and reviews, subscribe to MacUser magazine. We'll give you three issues for £1

				Mac OS X 10.6.8 Brings TRIM Support for Apple SSDs, Graphics Improvements [Updated] Monday June 27, 2011 1:15 pm PDT by Eric Slivka One item of interest regarding last week's Mac OS X 10.6.8 update reveals that Apple has enabled TRIM support retroactively for solid state hard drives shipped in Apple-produced configurations. TRIM is a feature that allows solid state drives (SSDs) to automatically handle garbage collection, cleaning up unused blocks of data and preparing them for rewriting, thereby preventing slowdowns that would otherwise occur over time as garbage data accumulates. Support for TRIM has been included in OS X Lion since its early developer builds, but Apple has apparently decided to push the feature out to Snow Leopard users as well. The new native TRIM support does appear to limited to stock Apple drives, as users who have installed third-party SSDs into their machines have reported that TRIM is not enabled by the update. Mac OS X 10.6.8 also appears to have brought graphics improvements that have been most apparent to gamers. According to one set of benchmarks, Mac OS X 10.6.8 outperforms Mac OS X 10.6.7 in many measure of graphics performance, sometimes by a significant margin. User reports in the MacRumors forums and the Steam forums similarly point to significant improvements in graphics performance under real-world conditions. A number of users has actually reported significant declines in graphics performance with Mac OS X 10.6.7, so improvements with the new Mac OS X 10.6.8 are certainly to be welcome. Update: To clarify Apple's TRIM support, the new MacBook Pros released in February shipped with a special build of Mac OS X 10.6.6 that included TRIM support for Apple SSDs. But that TRIM support had not been extended to all SSD-configurable Macs until the release of Mac OS X 10.6.8 last week.

				Apple releases Mac OS X 10.6.8 Fire up Software Update! In what may be the last Snow Leopard-era OS update ever before Lion’s official first roar, Apple on Thursday released Mac OS X 10.6.8. In addition to what Apple terms “general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac,” the update tweaks the Mac App Store to prepare for the release of Lion. It also resolves an issue that caused Preview to crash, improves IPv6 support and VPN reliability, and identifies and removes known variants of the Mac Defender Trojan horse. There are a number of other improvements included in the update, all of which are detailed in an Apple support document. You can download the entire update directly from Apple's website if you prefer: Apple provides both a 474.2MB incremental update, along with the heftier 1.08GB combo updater. Apple also released the 10.6.8 update for Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server. Among other things, ot fixes issues displaying videos in Wiki pages for Firefox and Internet Explorer, improves the reliability of sharepoints with Time Machine, address the reliability of vacation email notices, improves international character handling and authentication support for iCal Server, properly enables earlier updates in Software Update Server, and improves reliablity for cascading Software Update Servers. For a full list of fixes, follow the link above. Both a 542 MB incremental update and a 1.27GB combo updater are available directly from Apple. In addition to that update, Mac OS X Server users can also now grab Server Admin Tools 10.6.8, which revises a number of administration tools and utilities for the server software. It’s available via Software Update as well as in a 255.9MB update from Apple’s support downloads site.

				Macworld: What's in, what's out for MobileMe users Apple won't officially debut iCloud for months - September is the bet by most - but last week the company revealed more information about what the online sync and storage service will and won't include. The news was especially welcome to customers already paying £59 a year for MobileMe, the 2008 service Apple launched to early teething troubles and poor press. MobileMe never attracted a wide audience, in part because so much of what it did could be cobbled together from free services and tools. Earlier this month, Apple announced it would pull MobileMe's plug in 2012, months after it is to be replaced by iCloud . But until last week, Apple had left MobileMe users in the dark about what parts would shift to iCloud and what would be ditched. Apple's MobileMe-to-iCloud transition FAQ gave us some answers, and we pitched in with some others. Will I still be able to access my mail, calendar and contacts on the Web?  Yes. Once iCloud launches this fall, users can access email, calendar and contacts, three of the apps now  available on MobileMe. Apple said it would provide more details on how to migrate MobileMe's mail, calendar and contacts to iCloud when the latter goes live later this year. What happens to iDisk and the files I've stored there? iDisk won't make the move to iCloud. But it's not going away until June 30, 2012, when Apple retires all of MobileMe. That gives subscribers just over a year to continue uploading and downloading files to and from the 20GB iDisk space.Before MobileMe goes dark, users must copy the files in iDisk to local storage on their Mac or PC. Instructions for doing so are available on Apple's website. Can I use iCloud's online storage like I did iDisk? Because Apple's not been crystal clear, we're not sure, but we think the answer is no. Unlike MobileMe's iDisk, iCloud's 5GB of free storage space apparently won't be accessible through, say, the Mac's Finder, but instead will contain documents saved, at least initially, only through Apple's iWork suite of Pages, Numbers and Keynote. Other uses of the space, Apple's said, will be for the email mailboxes and backups of iOS devices , including photos, settings, app data and other information. Apple has said nothing about files generated on a Windows PC or on a Mac outside of iWork. So with iDisk gone, what do I do? Apple hasn't said, but it seems the company has ceded the space to the likes of Dropbox and Microsoft 's Windows Live SkyDrive. Dropbox gives Mac and Windows users 2GB of storage space for free -- and syncs that space between platforms, machines and mobile devices, while SkyDrive offers 25GB for free. For online backup purposes, you may want to look into services like Carbonite or Mozy . The former charges $55 per year for unlimited storage, while the latter provides 2GB free, with 50GB of space costing $6 per month. What's happening with MobileMe's iWeb and Gallery? They'll vanish in June 2012. Neither service is making the move to iCloud, so June 30, 2012 is the date to remember: After that, a site (or sites) you've published to iWeb, and photos or videos you've stored on Gallery, will be inaccessible. Apple's recommended that users move their iWeb sites to another hosting firm, and either sync Gallery with iPhoto '08 or later, or download the photos and movies to the hard drive of a Mac or Windows PC. Can I keep my .me or .mac email address? Yes. "If you have an active MobileMe account when you sign up for iCloud, you'll be able to keep your me.com or mac.com email address," Apple said. Will iCloud sync my passwords between Macs like MobileMe? Nope. "Syncing of Mac Dashboard widgets, keychains, Dock items, and System Preferences will not be part of iCloud," Apple said in its transition FAQ. "Keychain" is Apple's name for its password management system, so once you shift to iCloud, you won't be able to sync passwords between Macs using Apple's service. Instead, you'll have to switch to a password service or manager that supports synchronization. The $40 1Password , for instance, stores passwords on all your personally owned Macs, and uses Dropbox to sync. A free alternative is LastPass, an all-online password manager that syncs across multiple browser, OSes and devices. Both Dropbox - which 1Password relies on for sync - and LastPass have had confirmed or suspected security breaches this year, however, so the cautious may want to standardize on Chrome or Firefox on all their Macs, then use the browser's built-in sync service. What about Find My iPhone? It will live on in iCloud, says Apple. According to reports , Mac OS X 10.7, aka Lion, will also support a Find My Mac tool serviced by iCloud. Like the long-available Find My iPhone, the new tool will let users pinpoint the location of a lost or stolen Mac. iCloud's 5GB of storage space seems pretty puny. Can I opt for more? Apple says you can, but hasn't spelled out how much additional space will cost. Remember that iCloud won't count music, apps, and books you've purchased through iTunes, the App Store or iBooks against the 5GB. Nor will the 1,000 images in Photo Stream, iCloud's photo-sync service for iOS devices, Macs and Windows PCs. I know Apple's extended my MobileMe subscription through June 2012, but I'm not happy about the changes. Can I get my money back? Yes. You can cancel your subscription at any time, said Apple, and receive a prorated refund. If you paid the $99 annual fee six months ago, for instance, you'd have $49.50 coming. But if you do cancel, all your MobileMe services will stop working and your data will be deleted. Our suggestion: Wait until this autumn to cancel - after you've migrated to iCloud - so that you can retain your .me or .mac email address, and keep syncing your calendar and contacts.

				Apple Set to Shift From Samsung to TSMC for 'A6' Chip Production Next Year? Monday June 27, 2011 7:38 am PDT by Eric Slivka Back in March, a report suggested that Apple was preparing to shift production of its A5 system-on-a-chip for the iPad 2 from Samsung to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), a deal that was claimed to span multiple generations of chips and would reduce Apple's reliance on competitor and legal foe Samsung for iOS device components. Early examinations of iPad 2 chips did, however, reveal that Samsung continued to be Apple's supplier for the brains of the popular tablet device. Talk of TSMC striking a deal with Apple revived late last week, with Merrill Lynch analyst Dan Heyler claiming that the chip manufacturer stands a good chance of winning orders for Apple's next-generation "A6" chip next year. And today Ars Technica weighs in, sharing word from a "plugged-in source" that chatter about an Apple-TSMC deal is "growing deafening". While Apple continues to source components from Samsung for its mobile devices under contracts that were likely signed more than a year ago, Apple presented a huge pile of evidence that Samsung was attempting to copy at least some of the secret sauce that made its iPhone and iPad so successful. So Apple very likely sees moving production to a non-competitor as a strategic business move. Dan Heyler, a semiconductor analyst with Merrill Lynch in Taipei, told the China-based Commercial Times newspaper on Friday that TSMC will most likely be producing "A6" processors for Apple, a next-generation ARM-based design, in 2012. That jibes with what Ars has heard from a plugged-in source -- that the chatter on the foundry grapevine about an impending Apple/TSMC deal is growing deafening. Apple has surpassed Sony to become Samsung's biggest customer, making for an uneasy relationship that has seen Apple and Samsung have a strong reliance on each other even as Apple has been pursuing legal action against Samsung, claiming that Samsung has copied Apple's designs with its own products.

				BestBuy.com Runs Out of MacBook Airs As Refresh Nears Sunday June 26, 2011 10:44 pm PDT by Arnold Kim BestBuy.com has stopped shipping MacBook Airs to customers ahead of expected revisions to the MacBook Air. 9to5Mac speculates this is to divert the limited MacBook Air stock to their retail locations: This typically means that supplies are so constrained that they have to focus their remaining inventory on their popular physical retail stores. BestBuy.com does not provide a date for when they will be shipping the notebooks again, but these types of things are usually indicative of a product refresh. Rumors have all pointed to an imminent refresh of the MacBook Air in the coming weeks. Apple also may be holding up new Macs in order to pre-install the final version of Mac OS X Lion on launch. Mac OS X Lion is due for release in July.

				AirPlay and Thunderbolt May Be Limited to High-End Devices to Start Friday June 24, 2011 1:32 pm PDT by Eric Slivka Earlier today, we noted that LaCie is preparing to roll out its first Thunderbolt-enabled Little Big Disk external hard drives, although the initial models will be limited to higher-end SSD-based devices. iLounge now reports that slow roll-out of Thunderbolt and the lack of consumer-based options may be due to high pricing for incorporating the technology, an issue that appears to also be affecting third-party peripherals compatible with Apple's AirPlay streaming technology. According to the report, the inclusion of Thunderbolt or AirPlay compatibility can add as much as $100 to the price of these devices, limiting their ability to address mainstream consumer markets. Our sources have described the AirPlay technologies as considerably more expensive to incorporate than Apple's standard docking Made for iPod/iPhone/iPad Dock Connectors, and noted that Apple is very heavily pushing developers to adopt the wireless technologies despite the costs involved. We similarly have learned that the price of the components required to add a Thunderbolt port to an external hard drive is roughly equal to the cost of a low-end hard drive itself, a high cost that one developer has suggested will limit Thunderbolt's near-term use to products aimed at the professional market. For the time being, announced Thunderbolt products do seem to be coming in at price points above those typically within range of mainstream consumers, as evidenced by Promise's 8 TB Pegasus RAID R4, which briefly appeared on Apple's store priced at $1399.95 before being pulled. That price is only $100 more than for Promise's current 8 TB RAID offering, but it remains to be seen just how quickly Thunderbolt will be able to make its way into more mainstream products. iLounge suggests that there may at least be some hope for price drops for AirPlay devices in the relatively near future, noting that Philips earlier this week debuted AirPlay-compatible speaker systems with price tags as low as $229, a new floor in what has until now seen the feature primarily limited to higher-end receivers.

				iMovie '08 Was Originally Called 'First Cut', Ubillos on Final Cut Pro X Saturday June 25, 2011 11:37 pm PDT by Arnold Kim In a lengthy article on DVCreators.net, Josh Mellicker revisits the Final Cut Pro X complaints and what Apple might have to do to address its limitations. The full article may be of interest to video editing professionals. For the rest of us, the most interesting part of the article was a reference to how Apple's Chief Architect of Video Applications Randy Ubillos had originally created an application called "First Cut" which later evolved into iMovie '08. iMovie '08 was met with similarly mixed reactions due to the complete overhaul over iMovie 6. Steve Jobs told the story when he originally introduced iMovie during a keynote in August 2007, but left out some details. According to Mellicker, Ubillos returned from vacation and found that Final Cut wasn't ideal for organizing raw footage. From that experience, First Cut was born which would let you import your raw footage and quickly skip through, organizing and building a rough edit. The intention originally was to then export to Final Cut Pro. At some point, Apple officially latched onto the project and turned it into the new iMovie '08. Ubillos was the creator of the first three versions of Adobe Premiere and later developed KeyGrip which was sold to Apple and released as Final Cut Pro. Ubillos continues to be the Chief Architect of Video Applications at Apple. With the release of Final Cut Pro X, Ubillos has been answering emails and told one of our readers "I'm extremely proud of Final Cut Pro X, it's a huge step forward in digital storytelling." He went on to say suggest if the user gave it a fair shot, they may be pleasantly surprised. Ubillos also write "Final Cut Pro X 1.0 is the beginning of a road, not the end."

					iTunes reviews

				Competition Time - five copies of iStudio Publisher First 5 Say hello and introduce yourselfs§

				Dave talks about broadband and VPN

				A reflection on WWDC 2011

				•    Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, or Xeon processor     •    2GB of RAM     •    Mac OS X 10.6.6 or later with the Mac App Store installed     •    At least 4GB of additional disk space to accommodate the download, but more is obviously recommended

				Installation - upgrade or not

				Partition and sharing the download

				PPC apps R.I.P

				Hi Will I have finally purchased a new iPod touch. Yippee, and it now has a camera.  And will take iOS 5 when it arrives. I purchased  iMovie from the app store and I noticed the iCloud icon - Tim Ray

				Will, heard you mention Kuala Lumpur in a recent show. I've moved I now live, in semi retirement, on a rice farm in Surin, NE Thailand. I worked in Malaysia for 18 years and have been listening to your show for at least 2 of them and now 'The Unexplained' and more recently 'Bagel Tech Mac'. Love the show, very British, very funny reminds me of home; haven't been back to the UK since 2004; the Bagel Tech show also very enjoyable. I bought my 1st Apple computer (an Apple II+ clone) in Singapore in 1982 and used Apples' ever since, except during the time Steve left the company when I used windows, largely because there was no upgrade path from my Apple IIGS to a Mac. I'm a plus subscriber to your podcast, I listen to your show whilst on my nightly exercise walks trough the rice fields and this morning when  the thai guy building my laundry room sent me out for a cock nam (tap), so he could finish plumbing in my washing machine. Keep it up mate Peter

				BritishMac Plus - video and magazine

				Music used in this podcast: A.L. LLoyd, Walking with Ghosts "Bonny Ship the Diamond / Egyptian Reggae Medley" (mp3) from "Fresh Handmade Sound: From Source To Sea (Lush)" (Lush Limited) Peter Watchorn "Prelude No. 1 in C major, BWV 846i" (mp3) from "Das Wohltemperierte Clavier - Book 1, 1722 / BWV 846-869" (Musica Omnia)