MittwochsMacOrama

Der erste iTunes kompatible Music Store 'nupha' (neben dem iTMS selbst natürlich) ist an den Start gegangen, Downloads werden wahlweise in AAC oder WMA-Form dargereicht, die Auswahl an Independent Labels scheint noch recht gering zu sein und überlastet ist man bereits auch schon, mehr bei macminute:

"According to the company, Mac users must download and install a small package (known as the nupha kit) which allows iTunes to play nupha encrypted music, which sells for 99 cents a track and $8.99 an album." Kein Wort zu einer iPod Kompatibilität bisher.
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Hochgesteckte, aber dafür umso spannendere Ziele hat das Darwine Projekt:

"The Darwine project intends to port and develop WINE as well as other supporting tools that will allow Darwin and Mac OS X users to run Windows Applications."
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Zur Abwechslung mal zwei Polls, Ergebnisse bitte wie gewohnt mit entsprechendem Stirnrunzeln betrachten:

Nummer 1 kommt aus der Macworld UK und dreht sich um die vieldiskutierte Akkulaufzeit/-lebensdauer des iPod:

"Of the 1,047 readers polled 70 per cent have not experienced any reduction of battery life, and of these nearly half (49 per cent) admitted "I accept it will lose charge over time."
Although 30 per cent of respondents have experienced decreased battery life just 14 per cent of these people state that they are "unhappy" about the situation. The remaining 16 per cent have already accepted that their battery will not live on indefinitely."

Nummer 2 findet bei Ars.technica statt, gefragt wurde nach dem 'main e-mail client', dabei führt (momentan) mail.app mit 30% der abgegebenen Stimmen.
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MIDI Basics bei macjams.com für GarageBand Anwender:

"This document is intended to be a basic introduction and tutorial on the topic of MIDI, which is short for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. MIDI is a protocol that was developed so that electronic instruments could communicate with each other as well as computers and other electronic devices. Through MIDI, a variety of musical information can be transmitted. MIDI is not only used to indicate what note is played, but the duration of the note, the velocity/volume, and sometimes the aftertouch or other information as well. MIDI is also used to transmit non-note information such as pan, effects, track or overall volume, and the like. In essence, MIDI is a basic communications protocol used by musical instruments and computers, much like Firewire is a protocol for computers and peripheral devices like hard drives, scanners, and camcorders. Read on for all the information you need to work with MIDI and GarageBand."

Eine deutsche MIDI FAQ hatte ich erst letztens verlinkt.

Ein deutsches GarageBand Forum hat Michael (esse es percipi) eröffnet.
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USAToday setzt sich mit dem Einfluss des legendären Apple 1984-Spots auseinander:

"Twenty Super Bowls later, many tech industry leaders say the ad and the first Mac played an inspiring role in their career paths. It was one of those rare bolts of lightning that can mobilize a generation in a particular field — the way John F. Kennedy's call for a man on the moon motivated the aerospace crowd, or Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein rallied young journalists with their Watergate investigation."
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Studenten (und Professoren) haben zunehmend Spass am iPod:

"The students like it just because it is compact and you can store so much music on it," he said. "Also, [the iPod] allows you to store data if you want to back up [information]. A lot of departments buy the iPod just for that - they use it for data storage capacity. A professor can take 10 GB of information and go to another Mac somewhere else across campus and be able to transfer that file."
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Ein wunderschöner Artikel über Besuch vom FBI findet sich bei SecurityFocus, IT&W lieferte die Geschichte schon vor über einer Woche und ich hatte vergessen sie daraufhin hier zu posten, deshalb schnell (aber unaktuell) hinterhergeschoben:

"I asked him about that, and he told us that many of the computer security folks back at FBI HQ use Macs running OS X, since those machines can do just about anything: run software for Mac, Unix, or Windows, using either a GUI or the command line. And they're secure out of the box.[...]
Dave also had a great quotation for us: "If you're a bad guy and you want to frustrate law enforcement, use a Mac."
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WMA vs. AAC setzt sich fort, die Business Week bietet dazu FAQ, unter anderem:

"Is Microsoft going to win, like always?
Not necessarily. Microsoft scares executives, even powerful record bigwigs. They're wary of being beholden to the software giant, so they're working with many different tech companies. RealNetworks is the weakest player in the bunch, and Sony is a wild card because it's late in selling downloads. Most experts think the battle will play out between Microsoft and Apple. Apple has the early advantage, with 70% of the music-download market and 25% of the music-player market. Still, Microsoft's WMA works with 60 different music devices and a handful of download services. So Apple will have to be innovative if it doesn't want to be marginalized once again."

Die Format-Diskussion hat schon längst die üblichen Glaubenskampf-Züge angenommen, schöner Einblick findet sich bei Dubium sapientiae initium.
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Außerdem (Halb-)Wissenswertes aus dem Terminal - heute:
01/28 Jimi Hendrix headlines Madison Square Garden, 1970
(Anleitung).