Apple Mac HQ

One of my favorite podcasts has returned from nearly a year long hiatus. NeatLittleMacApps is an enhanced podcast about those little applications that make the Mac so great. I’ll go ahead and warn you that if you visit the website you’ll have music automatically start playing (a pet peeve of mine). Other than the website, there’s nothing to dislike about the podcast.

Episode 41 is the first episode since Frank De Graeve returned to podcasting. The long hiatus was due to the construction on his home. If you love Mac shareware, you’ll enjoy listening to NeatLittleMacApps (iTunes link). Give it a try!

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The newest version of the ever popular Firefox browser will launch today at 10:00 PDT. While the news is exciting for all users, Mac users should be particularly excited due to the “under the hood” changes. The biggest change took place in the Gecko engine (version 1.9) for OS X , which was largely switched to Cocoa. While Gecko is not entirely Carbon free, the days of Carbon code in the Gecko engine appear to be numbered.

If you’re into the super geeky under the hood change details, you can check out a blog post by Josh Aas, one of the Mozilla Mac developers. Josh has even posted about the development for Gecko 1.9.1 for OS X.

The official Download Day website for Firefox 3 is HERE. It sounds like Firefox 3 will be the best Mac version of Firefox yet!

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Looks like I might be a little late on this piece of news, but I only found out about it a few minutes ago.

If you like (or just need) Windows on your Mac, one of the leaders in Windows virtualization on the Mac has released Beta 1 of their product. VMware Fusion 2.0 Beta 1 is now available for download. Beta 1 will set you back absolutely nothing; it’s free!

Among the new features in Fusion 2.0:

• Multi-Display Support
• Experimental 3D Acceleration
• Easier Printing
• USB Improvements

The blog post announcing the Beta 1 release has a cool video of the multi-display feature. If you would like to test the beta, you can download it HERE. Don’t forget to file bugs or issues with the Fusion team if you encounter a problem!

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How cool would it be use your iPhone and never have to hook it up to a phone charger? According to a Forbes article, that might very well be within the realm of possibility. Apple has filed a patent to place solar cells on portable devices.

The iPhone could have photovoltaic cells placed underneath the LCD multi-touch screen, maximizing the surface area for the cells to gather sunlight. The patent filing said the LCD could display the solar cells performance alongside the battery information.

While some patents never make the light of day, this would be a welcomed addition to the iPhone in my opinion. The only downside is that you would have to leave your iPhone on a table or window seal to take advantage of the solar cells. That small detail could leave many iPhone toting users to accidentally leave their phone behind. Sound off in the comments your thoughts on this idea!

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If you have been reading Apple Mac HQ lately you’ve probably noticed the irregular posting schedule I’ve kept for the last month or so. I’ve been traveling a TON for work and just haven’t had the time to post. I’ve been all over the Southeast (GA, TN, KY, VA, WV, NC, SC, AL, and PA) in the last month or so and it will finally come to an end this week. I’m off to Europe at the beginning of June, but once I’m back you’ll see my regular posting schedule return.

Traveling this week in Western West Virginia, I noticed something with my iPhone. My iPhone became an iBrick for about a day and a half. For about 1.5 days I had no cell signal, much less an EDGE connection. I’ve been without EDGE before (Wyoming), but to have no cell signal for so long is unusual. We weren’t in National Forests or Wilderness, where having a cell signal is quite unusual, we were simply driving down a state HWY.

I’m currently in Bluefield, WV with a great cell and EDGE connection. But if you live in the hills of Western West Virginia, you might want to think twice about getting an iPhone. Based on my experience, I wouldn’t recommend it.

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If you are submitting an application for the Apple Design Awards, today is the deadline!  You have until 5PM PDT to submit your application to Apple.  Winners in the following categories will be chosen at WWDC in San Francisco.

• iPhone Developer Showcase (SDK based application)
• Best iPhone Web Application
• Best Mac OS X Leopard Application
• Best New Mac OS X Leopard Game
• Best Mac OS X Leopard User Experience
• Best Mac OS X Leopard Graphics and Media Application
• Best Mac OS X Leopard Student Product

Winners in each category receive a collection of free Apple gear including a 15″ MBP, 30″ ACD, ADC memberships, and more.  You can see who won the 2007 ADA here. Best of luck to all the entries!

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In a somewhat surprising announcement, David Watanabe has announced that Inquisitor, his search extension for Safari, has been acquired by Yahoo. This announcement was made simultaneously with the release of Inquisitor 3.1. Among the changes in Inquisitor 3.1 is the default search engine for new users is now set to Yahoo (it was previously Google).

Details on the acquisition are a little scarce. No word on the acquisition price or other details. What is known is that Watanabe will not join Yahoo, but will remain the lead developer of Inquisitor.

So what’s in this for Yahoo? I suspect the acquisition is just an attempt to buy search queries. The search box in Safari is powered by Google. If you install Inquisitor, the search box now defaults to Yahoo. Yahoo is paying for your searches.

Disclosure: I own a small number of Yahoo shares.

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