Katie and Corey talk about how they use their iPods and the future of iPods in the wake of Apple’s “Let’s Rock” announcements, car integration, and iPod and iPhone accessories. We also talk about our experiences with the 2.1 software update for the iPhone, what’s fixed, what’s not, and what we wish we would see in the future. Corey tells the tale of how his 17” MacBook Pro took on his van and lived to tell the tale. Apple sends up some major software updates with 10.5.5. Listener Tyler is looking for help running an insurance business on the Mac. Judy wants to learn how to sync her Entourage Address Book with her Comcast webmail and Katie goes off on a mini-rant against ISP based email service providers. We also talk more about managing and syncing calendars. (Running Time 00:41:55)

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When we started the MacCore Podcast, we produced both an Enhanced AAC feed that included chapter markers and additional artwork as well as a standard MP3 version. We al love the Enhanced AAC feed, it takes significantly longer to produce and can add as much as two hours to our post-production process. As our lives have gotten more hectic, that’s simply time we do not have. We were therefore faced with the decision to either put the show out less frequently, or do a show only in MP3 format. We’ve decided that most listeners would rather have more frequent shows than the Enhanced AAC feed.

Since most listeners are subscribed to our Enhanced AAC feed in iTunes we are going to use that as our primary feed and those subscribed shouldn’t have to do anything. We hope that we can switch all of our current MP3 feed listeners over to the primary feed without any action needed on your part. But, just to be sure, we would ask those of you who are currently subscribed to our MP3 feed in iTunes to please subscribe to the Enhanced AAC edition. Although the name says otherwise, this feed is already using MP3s. We’re working with the iTunes Podcasting Staff and they’ve advised we do this transition in a few stages over the course of several weeks in hopes of not loosing any subscribers in the mix.

We need to do a little work on our end to clean things up and standardize our feeds. When we “flip the switch” it’s likely that this will cause all of our shows to “republish” making them show up as new episodes which may cause your client to re-download everything. We’ll issue a warning before this happens so you can make adjustments in iTunes that will allow you to avoid to avoid this. Again, the switch won’t happen for a few weeks, we’ll let you know.

Thanks for your patience and understanding. Hopefully we can come through this transition with a minimum level of annoyance for everyone.

I’m sure you’ve all seen variations of the email go around where you’re asked a series of questions about yourself and then are supposed to reply to the person who sent it to you and forward it on to your friends. I admit I’ve done it a few times between friends and have enjoyed reading the replies that came back. Recently, a friend sent me this email again and this time suggested that rather than reply via email, I post the responses to this blog in order to share a little more about me with all of you.

If you’re not interested, go ahead and ignore this. We’ll have more Apple and tech stuff soon. But, if you found this intriguing, consider posting something similar to your blog, feel free to post a link in the comments. Read More...

Corey and Katie sat down with Steve Stanger of The Mac Attack and devoted a special podcast to the topic of becoming Apple Certified. This is a little different show for us, but we’ve gotten a ton of listener feedback on this topic and thought it warranted its own show. Steve and Corey talk about the reasons they choose to become Apple Certified, talk about the reasons to become certified, the different types of certifications Apple offers and answers listener questions about the certification process.

Links Mentioned:
You can find Steve Stanger at: http://www.themacattack.us/
Learn more about Apple Certification at: http://training.apple.com/
Peachpit Training Books: http://www.peachpit.com/

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Next week, Corey and Katie will sit down with Steve Stanger of The Mac Attack and devote a special podcast to the topic of becoming Apple Certified. This is a little different show for us, but we’ve gotten a ton of listener feedback on this topic and thought it warranted its own show.

You asked for it, now we’re doing it but in order to make it a success, we need your help. Please send in any questions or comments you may have on this topic no later than Monday, September 1st. You can send an email question or attach a standard audio file to an email and send it to themacccore@gmail.com you can also call our listener hotline at 206.905.4119 or use the Grand Central link in the sidebar and we’ll save you the long distance charge by calling you.

We hope to hear from you. Read More...

As you know, I'm frantic about backup. I use a Time Capsule with Time Machine along with nightly clones with SuperDuper while at home. I also use an online backup service called Mozy for off-site backup of mission critical files which runs in the background on a regular basis whenever I have an internet connection.

Last week, I was traveling and was away from home Thursday - Wednesday. While on the road I did not have access to my SuperDuper or TIme Mchine backup. However, I do make a point whenever I go out of town to backup just before I leave so I did have full backups to both methods as of Thursday morning. I was in a hotel on Monday night attending a convention for work when I turned on my computer and nothing happened. I'd hit the power key, the gray screen with the apple logo would appear, the little pinwheel would turn 5 or 6 times and the machine would power off. After multiple attempts I booted into single user mode and tried to run the fsck (file system check) utility command. It exited on error saying something like "error -8 file system structure" and could not repair the machine. Without any other utilities, I was stuck until I got home. Read More...

iPhone 2.0.1 is out and much to Katie and Corey’s joy squashes quite a few iPhone bugs, but these bug fixes may come at the cost of not being able to unlock your phone in the future. Lots of happenings, some good, and some bad in the App Store. We talk about a few of our favorite new Apps, talk about the Null River debacle and iPhone tethering, and discuss just how involved Apple should be in policing the App store. The MobileMe mess is starting to clean itself up, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some bitter feelings. Steve has admitted that the MobileMe mess had problems, but is all forgiven? Katie explains stories of Macs being discriminated against by state Bars and Corey tells us about his plans to do a special Apple Certification episode by popular demand. (Running Time 00:40:01)

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Katie and Corey talk all the Apple launches this past week. Katie shares her experiences while waiting to pick up her 3G iPhone, Corey shares his thoughts about why he's not planning on buying one just yet. The gang both talk about the changes to the 2.0 Software and their favorite iPhone Apps. We also discuss the less than stellar rollout of MobileMe and why we are and are not using it. Christopher, our AudioEngine W1 winner chimes in with a review, we get a question from Australia about Time Capsule, when is the best time to buy an iPod touch and how do you keep iCal and Outlook in sync. (Running Time 01:26:06)

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Note: Some listeners reported that while listening to this podcast through headphones the audio channels were out of balance. Somehow one track was recorded in stereo and the other in mono. The issue has been corrected. If you had this problem, please re-download the podcast. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Okay, so you know that whole blog post I did a few days ago saying how I wasn’t going to buy an iPhone 3G and listing all my reasons? Well, scratch that. I mean, come on people, you knew there was no way I was going to let iPhone day pass without buying a brand new iPhone, right? :)

Ok...so in my defense, I had no intentions of buying an iPhone when I went to bed last night. I had downloaded the iPhone 2.0 software on my original iPhone using the “backdoor” method posted by MacRumors.com and was very pleased with the new functionality and the App Store. So, I set my alarm for a regular wake up time for Friday morning and figured if I happened to get up early, then I’d head down to the local Apple Store ONLY for the purposes of documenting the event for the website and podcast. Of course, I get up early and decide to head on down. My entire day is pretty much documented on Flickr so if you want to see the pictures that go along, I’d suggest you check out our iPhone 3G photos.

I arrive at the local Apple Store a little after 7am an already there are about 100 people in line in front of me. When the doors open at 8:00 we make one big jump in the line as the Apple Store lets in the first 30 people or so, but after that the line pretty much stalls. We knew that the lines would move slower than they did last year because AT&T was mandating that all iPhones be activated and a rate plan selected in store. It wasn’t clear until later in the day the seriousness of the activation problems that were being had in the store. 30 minutes passed, and only the first few people were slowly starting to trickle out of the store and only then were people allowed to go in one for one. We got the sense that this was not the way things were supposed to work and the Apple employees started to get worried. Keep in mind, I’m in Florida and evan at 8am it was already well on it’s way to 90 degrees. I was standing in line in a suit and in the sweltering sun.

Speaking of the Apple employees, I have to stay that they have been a total bright spot to the day. The Apple Store was totally prepared on their end for the crowd. They were giving out water, coffee, umbrellas, and generally doing everything they could to make the wait in line all the more pleasant. There were employees going around the line to give out information on AT&T’s rate plans, verify that customers had the information they needed, and tried to get everyone prepared for the activation process when they went in the store. They were trying to take care of as many problems out side the store as possible to minimize needless waiting and make the activation process as smooth as possible. They also had a few employees out working the line with the new iPhone. They were showing off the new features and allowing people to touch and feel the phone for themselves. I asked one employee if I could compare the speed of my iPhone on EDGE with hers on 3G and she gladly agreed. I typed in cnn.com in both browsers and was blown away. The 3G iPhone loaded significantly faster than my iPhone and it was at this point, about an hour and a half after I got in line, that I was actually sold on the new iPhone.

Time ticked on and it got later and later. Generally I like to get to work between 8 and 8:30 but I’m not really “due in” until 9. Though my first appointment today was at 10:00 so I figured that if I didn’t have my phone in hand by 9:00 then I would be forced to leave the line. at 8:45 I was 26 people away from the door and things were still crawling along. There was no way that I was going to be in the store, musth less with the iPhone activated in time to get to work. So, I had to leave without my iPhone. I planned to try to return to the store around lunch time in hopes the crowds had died down and I could just walk in and pickup an iPhone, but unfortunately my day got hectic and that wasn’t an option. I tried calling the Apple Store several times to get an idea of what type of stock they had but he lines were constantly busy. By now the west coast had come online and we were getting reports via Twitter and the blogosphere that there were major nation wide activation problems. Even if I had managed to leave, there was no way I could have gotten an iPhone and gotten back to work.

Seeing as I worked through lunch I decided to leave about an hour early at 4:00 and headed back to the Apple Store. Ironically, when I arrived in line I was in almost the exact same spot as I was when I left earlier in the morning. There were about 25-30 people standing between me and the door and it took nearly an hour just to get inside the store. Once I was inside the store, we were greeted by more employees who directed us to accessories and again confirmed that we had all the information we needed, and in some cases directed people to AT&T’s website to verify information. It was another 30 minutes or so of waiting in the store before I actually got to an employee to activate my iPhone. The way it was setup they had about 20 employees around the store with handheld units doing activation. You would be “assigned” one who would stay with you one-on-one during the activation process. My guy, Pete, was very friendly and we chit chatted about his day while he was waiting for the first phase of activation. He went into the back and grabbed my 16GB black iPhone and I immediately felt at ease. It wasn’t activated, and it wasn’t bought, but it was in my hands and I wasn’t leaving the store without it. I decided to stick with my current rate plan, and just add the 200 text messages for an extra $5 a month. Although my iPhone activation went off without a hitch, it still took about 15 minutes for the process.

Once this was done, I was directed to another employee who would activate my phone with iTunes. This was the part I was dreading because I heard that this was the major cause for the slow down earlier in the day. Though much to my surprise, within a minute I was activated and ready to go. All in all, I spent more than 4 hours today at the Apple Store, but based on what I’m reading this wasn’t all uncommon. Though again, I can’t stress enough how great the Apple employees were throughout this entire process. While talking to Pete I was pleasantly surprised when he told me that everyone seemed really cool and they hadn’t really had any problem customers. People seemed to understand there was going to be some craziness and it was quite obvious that the Apple folks were working their butts off. Everything that went wrong today was on AT&T’s part and Apple was ready and did everything they could to smooth out the process. It’s just beyond me why Apple agreed to get involved with this iPhone in store activation process in the first place. I understand AT&T’s legitimate concerns with subsidized phones being let into the wild without a contract, but there has got to be a better way. I can’t imagine Apple letting this mess continue next year.

It’s too late and I’m too exhausted to get into my first impressions of the iPhone right now. In a nutshell, I like it and it’s pretty much working as expected. Look for a more in-depth review to follow in the coming days and I’m sure I’ll have a whole lot more to say on our next episode of the Podcast which will likely come out sometime next week. In the mean tine, check out the flickr photos for a walkthrough of my experience at the Apple Store and some comparisons between the iPhone and iPhone 3G.

Posted By: Katie

Ok, let’s get this out of the way up front. We all know that there is a near 100% chance that I will buy a new 3g iPhone in the near future. In fact, I think the chances are very high I’ll buy it on opening day or that weekend. My plan was to be in line with the rest of the crazies (and I mean that in the best possible way!) waiting for the iPhone to go on sale. But as the time draws closer to the July 11th launch date, I’ve been doing some serious thinking about the iPhone 3g and whether it’s something I want to rush right out and buy or whether it’s something that’s best to wait a bit on.

There are three big draws to the iPhone 3g for me.

1. 16GB vs. 8GB - I only have an 8GB model so double the space is a bonus for me.
2. 3G - Faster data speeds are going to be nice, I use the iPhone for data a lot!
3. GPS - I’m probably going to buy a GPS device for my car within the next year and if the iPhone could take care of this for me, that would be a big bonus.
4. Geek Cred - Come on, admit it. Having the latest and the greatest is cool.

But, there are currently a lot of unknowns with he iPhone 3G and some pretty big disadvantages. At the time I write this blog post, we’re still 4 days away from launch, so it’s possible some of these big unknowns will be answered. But as I sit here now, here are the major disadvantages and unknowns that give me pause.

1. New AT&T price plans - I’m okay with paying $30 a month more for 3G data. But the $5 extra you’ll have to pay for the 200 SMS messages that use to come free and the $18 “activation fee” really leave a sour taste in my mouth. At a minimum, I’ll be paying $15 a month more for phone service than I currently am. Now, I do understand that the iPhone is significantly cheaper than the previous model, and that does mean a lot.
2. Exchange Support - This falls into the “unknown” category, there’s lots of speculation out there. My law firm uses Exchange for email and has not enabled IMAP access so I cannot get my work email on my iPhone. In the beginning, this wasn’t that big of an issue, but as I’ve taken on more cases and more responsibility, this will be come a bigger deal. (Now, we’re only talking about 20 - 25 emails a day, but they’re typically fairly important emails.) The guy at the Apple store tells me that in order to get Exchange to work on my iPhone 3G I’ll have to be on a $45 “business plan” from AT&T. Though after some questioning he admitted he was only speculating. If I have to pay for a $45 data plan plus $5 for SMS messages, I’m looking at raising my current bill by over $30 a month or $720 over a two year contract. The only “official” word we have is a blurb on the AT&T website that mentions Exchange being a “business” feature.” So the big question still remains, if all I want is Exchange support for my work email on my iPhone, am I going to have to move over to a more expensive business data plan? Will Exchange work on my current $20 a month data plan with my 1st Gen iPhone and software version 2.0? Will AT&T even know that I’m running exchange? Considering Steve Jobs has touted one of the biggest features of iPhone 2.0 firmware as being Exchange support, my personal guess, is that it will work without a business plan on either the 1st Gen or 3G iPhone. I hope that AT&T will have no way of knowing or caring what type of traffic is coming in and out of the iPhone. But, this is a big enough issue that it makes me want to hold off and see.
3. 16GB Only - I was shocked when the new iPhones came out and there wasn’t a 32GB version. I wouldn’t mind paying $499 for a 32GB model. A 16GB iPhone is better, but I still have to carry around my 60GB iPod to use in my car and to carry all my tunes. If that iPod were to die tomorrow, I’d have to go out and replace it with an iPod Classic. Apple is notorious for having an iPod event in September, so my guess is that we’ll see a 32GB version of the iPhone within 3-4 months.
4. Is 3G That Much Faster?- I’ll admit, I really want faster data, but there is a question really as to how much faster in real world situations 3G will be over EDGE. My guess is it’s not going to be as fast as we think and certainly not as fast as we hope. It might be a good idea to spend an hour or so in my local Apple store playing with an iPhone 3G and comparing it to my current iPhone in terms of speed.
5. Will the GPS Be That Useful- GPS is cool, but I just took a trip up to Atlanta and borrowed my brother’s Garmin Nuvi for the trip. It cost less than $200 on Amazon and had audible turn-by-turn directions and interactive maps. GPS on the iPhone doesn’t look like it’s going to offer near these features and in the car for navigation purposes is probably where I’d want to use the GPS features a majority of the time. Should Garmin or another big brand come out with an iPhone App that turns the 3G iPhone into a full fledged GPS product, I’d be all for that. But based on what I’ve seen of the demos, it just looks like Google Maps with a blinking dot. Again, something probably better to hold off and wait and read the reviews on.
6. Firmware 2.0 Does Most of What I Want- Yes I’m interested in faster data speeds, I’d like the extra storage, and the GPS looks cool. But besides from those hardware improvements, of which I’ve already raised questions/concerns about before, everything else is in the software. Firmware 2.0 is going to be available free on my current iPhone and will probably serve me just fine for the time being. I’m looking forward to the App store and am sure a handful of applications alone will bring a lot more functionality to my iPhone. Assuming Exchange support works as I hope it will, my current iPhone will probably serve me just fine. I absolutely love my current iPhone, it’s changed the way I use a mobile phone and the computer in such a positive way, do the extra hardware features really matter that much? How often is EDGE really “too slow” and how often would true GPS be needed?
7. AT&T- I’ll admit most of my issues with the new iPhone are not Apple issues. I’m less than thrilled with the new AT&T pricing plan and really like the plan and features I already have. I’ve been overall pleased with AT&T as a carrier but my loyalty to AT&T ends at the iPhone. Since the new iPhone will be subsidized through AT&T I have concerns that next year when the next version of the iPhone rolls around we’re going to be “ineligible for upgrade” and end up trowing out a few hundred extra bucks to upgrade. Apple tends to be on a yearly upgrade cycle and AT&T’s contracts run for two years. Now, I love the new lower price of the 3G iPhone and I think they’re going to fly off the shelves. But, I’m not so sure this particular version of the iPhone has significant enough advances from the 1st generation product to make that substantial a difference that I need to run out and upgrade. Sure, we’d all like to have the latest and greatest, but I don’t upgrade my computer every year just because Apple comes out with a new model, why should I upgrade my phone?

So, there you have it, only time will tell what happens. My hope is that in the coming days before the iPhone 3G launch we’ll have more information and a lot of these unknowns will be come non-issues. But my advice (and I’m not so sure I’m going to follow it) is to hold off for a bit. Wait and see as the reviews come in and make a decision at that point. The 1st Gen iPhone is a revolutionary product, second only to the 3G iPhone. Maybe having the second best mobile phone in the world is good enough for the time being.