MacNewsBlog

We just got word that Universal Music Group is not renewing its contract with iTunes. This doesn't mean that they will be pulling their content from iTunes though. Universal Music Group, the worlds largest music publisher will probably instead opt for a short-term sales agreement. This would make it easier for UMG to deal with iTunes competitors as well as Apple.

UPDATE: Wall Street Journal has info posted here.

Apple released Audio Update 2007-001 which resolves an 'audio popping' issue.

From the docs:
"The Audio Update 2007-001 addresses an issue with version 1.0 of the Mac OS X 10.4.10 Update in which a "popping" sound might be heard with some external speakers on Intel-based Mac. This update is recommended for all Intel-based Macs running Mac OS X 10.4.10."

Get Audio Update 2007-001 here.

According to a report today, Apple Inc plans a new Apple Store in Waikiki that would be the company's third retail outlet in the state.

Apple's newest store might be in the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center, which is currently undergoing $84 million in renovations. They applied for a building permit recently. Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center is considered Waikiki's largest mall.

The permit applications seeks to build a two-story store, much like the ones in San Francisco and Tokyo.

Both Apple and mall directors declined to comment on the matter.

We've kept the iPhone reports here to a minimum, but a reader sent us this site to show us what they did to their iPhone the moment they got it.

Yes thats right, the crazy guy took it apart! Aside from just taking it apart, there was no sense in doing it unless you took a bunch of pics to show the world whats inside. So thats what he did. He didn't just take two or three photos either... her took tons of them and some very very close up so you can see whats up inside that sleek, slick iPhone case. See that photo above? Yep thats what the inside of the iPhone looks like.

See what the mad men did to their iPhone here.

So maybe you just love your iPhone to death. You love the way you can use your fingers to move things and zoom in. Well Apple has a patent right up your alley! Reports have filed in that Apple has patented multi-touch for a mouse!

Read more about this fascinating patent here.

Here's a helpful tip for all of you who use FireFox as your main browser. We're not sure if there is a similar trick in Safari but there may be. If you know please drop us a line!

I run MenuMeters on my MacBook Pro so I can keep tabs of my system at all times. I also do a ton of work in my web browser of choice, FireFox, which means I usually have multiple tabs opened at once. One day I saw my CPU usage was going crazy and I decide to see what the deal was. Turns out it was FireFox that was hogging up all the CPU time.

At first I couldn't figure out how a simple webpage could be using up all that power but then it dawned on me that many of these pages had Flash advertisements on them that were constantly cycling through their animations. Quitting FireFox successfully calmed the CPU down to flat line which proved that it was indeed the Flash sites causing the excessive CPU usage.

I went hunting for a plug-in to kill Flash ads in FireFox and found a really great one called FlashBlock. Description from their website:
"Flashblock is an extension for the Mozilla, Firefox, and Netscape browsers that takes a pessimistic approach to dealing with Macromedia Flash content on a webpage and blocks ALL Flash content from loading. It then leaves placeholders on the webpage that allow you to click to download and then view the Flash content."

After installing this plugin I very rarely see CPU usage spike because of multiple tabs opened in FireFox. In additon, I can still view flash media when I want to by clicking on the placeholder. This plug-in is a must have if you do any type of surfing in FireFox and notice CPU usage getting hogged up.

So I just got a brand new MacBook Pro (LED display) the other week. I had to update to Mac OS X 10.4.10 in order to sync the iPhone to it. Ever since this time the airport connection has become flaky. However, I notice that it will only drop it's connection when it's running on battery power. When it's plugged in it works flawlessly.

The Apple discussions MacBook forum is full of people with a similar problem and no real way to fix it.

So have you been having issues with wi-fi since you upgraded to 10.4.10?

Last night, Apple released MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.3. with little to no information available. This is all that appears on the webpage:

About MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.3
This EFI Firmware update fixes a display issue on 2.2/2.4GHz 15-inch MacBook Pro models.

This update requires MacBook Pro Software Update 1.0

We were kinda hoping for a fix for the airport / wi-fi problems we've been having. But Perhaps this fixes some other problems not documented. We shall see.

In case you didn't see this, iTunes has a Jimi Hendrix sale going on. We're not sure how long this will last so if you like Hendrix and have been thinking of adding some of his albums to your collection... nows the time to do it!

Most of The Jimi Hendrix Experience albums are $7.99, and there are a lot to choose from too! We love Jimi and jumped at the chance to buy some of the remasters. Check it out: Jimi Hendrix iTunes Sale!

Shiira, the really cool third party webkit based browser has been updated to 2.2 utilizing Apple's Safari 3 beta webkit. If you've used Shiira before, you know all of the cool things it does such as Windows Xposé and such.

If Shiira was acting up since you've installed Apple's Safari 3 beta, this should fix things up for you! Get Shiira here.

Why can't people just let Fake Steve Jobs be? People pointing their finger at veteran Mac World writer Andy Ihnatko can point it back at themselves now.

Andy wrote a column in Mac World today basically telling everyone he ain't Fake Steve Jobs:

I’m not Fake Steve.

For good measure, I will point out that I have specifically chosen to have this statement published on Macworld.com instead of my personal blog. They’re paying me for this and I told them in advance what I’d be telling you folks. So if I am indeed lying to Macworld just to kick the spotlight away from me, then man alive, in addition to committing a rather upsetting ethical transgression that will impact whatever reputation I might have built up as a journalist, and in addition to burning a bridge that has remained intact for (good Lord) more than 15 years, they can sue me for the money they paid me plus all of the ad revenue that they’d be forced to refund when word finally got out.

So there you have it. Andy's always been a favorite of mine since his day's at competitor MacUser. He's always been a funny and friendly Macaholic and we're very happy to hear from him that he's NOT the Fake Steve Jobs.

Now let's enjoy Fake Steve Jobs instead of trying to unmask him. If he's ever revealed, the magic would be lost!

Apple Inc (AAPL) leaped almost 10 points today (as of 7:40am PST) to 146.64 due to reported earnings after the bell yesterday.

During a conference call Apple stated that it earned $818 million, or 92 cents a share for the quarter ending June 30, compared to $472 million, or 54 cents, in the year previous. To top that off , Apple's revenue advanced 24% to $5.41 billion up from $4.37 billion.

Read more about Apple's fantastic numbers over at MarketWatch, which goes into much more detail.

Are these the photos of the new Apple (AAPL) iMac slime line keyboard?
They look pretty authentic... but with todays Photoshop hacks, who knows...
Purportedly, this new slimline keyboard will match the new iMac in brushed aluminum. Also notice the Apple is missing on the keyboard and the new F-keys as well. The chicklet style keyboard is very much like the Apple MacBook keyboard.

Apple today announced that iTunes has sold 3 Billion songs! iTunes has a catalog of over five million songs, 550 television shows and 500 movies. It is now the 3rd largest music retailer in the US.

"We'd like to thank all of our customers who have contributed to this incredible milestone," said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of iTunes.

3 billion is really something to think about. Just consider that many laughed at the iPod when it was released. Now I can't drive anywhere without seeing SOMEONE wearing the prolific white headphones. These things are everywhere, so it's no wonder iTunes is doing so well.

Engadget just received a invite to the Apple Campus on August 7th for a "product presentation for Mac". Apple was very forthcoming about this presentation that it would be all about the Mac. So will the new iMac make it's debut on August 7th?