NOT just you.

Pretty good for theft prevention, though.

Gave Mrs. Monkey her MacBook last night for her birthday. She loves it.

Nice one. My wife was shocked how much faster my 3yo MBP was than her much older 1Ghz Powerbook. Time for a MacBook Air for her I think. She needs something lighter and less easy for the little one to damage by pulling the power cable.

Macbook

Macbook Air

IPAD IPAD IPAD

I've been thinking that, with the keyboard. I want the iPad though for myself.

FWIW it's strongly rumored that there will be new MacBook Pros coming out shortly. When that sort of thing happens, the remaining stock of the old line immediately turns up in the Apple refurbished/clearance store (go to store.apple.com and scroll down until you see the "special deals"/"save" section). Expect to save about 15-20% off today's prices. You have to be sort of prepared to jump on the last-of-the-old-models deals quickly, because the best ones don't last long. (Then you have to wait for actual refurbished units to show up there. Which they do - that's what's in that section now - but at a slower and less predictable rate.)

FWIW personally I'd have a 13" MacBook Pro over a MacBook Air. Yes, shaving the pounds is nice, but the extra 2.5 lbs gets you an optical drive, a full suite of connectors including SD card slot, and a longer-lived battery, and saves a few hundred dollars. YMMV of course.

I'm hoping Apple will hurry up and release the new MBPs. The Apple Store manager has offered me 10% off if I buy a 15", i7 iMac or Mac Pro and the 3GB of RAM I currently have is not enough for Aperture 3, which is a bigger RAM hog than Photoshop. I want an Air for my wife, as she has bad rheumatism in her hands and can barely lift her Powerbook.

^arthritis in the hands is rough, sorry to hear that.

I, too, eagerly await the MBP refresh. I had been thinking the 13", but I'm not tempted by the 15" matte screen...

I'm hoping Apple will hurry up and release the new MBPs. The Apple Store manager has offered me 10% off if I buy a 15", i7 iMac or Mac Pro and the 3GB of RAM I currently have is not enough for Aperture 3, which is a bigger RAM hog than Photoshop. I want an Air for my wife, as she has bad rheumatism in her hands and can barely lift her Powerbook.

Really sorry to hear that. I don't suppose an iPad would meet her needs? Half the weight of an Air...

Interesting utility: Choose Wisely Lets You Select Your Default Browser on a Per-Link Basis - Web browsers - Lifehacker

I use Firefox most of the time, but I prefer Safari's handling of PDF links. And I like Chrome's isolation of plug-ins, so I use Chrome for YouTube.

Choose Wisely only works when launching a link from somewhere outside of a browser - for example, from email or from a desktop Twitter client. Those two uses were useful enough in themselves form me to install it.

Doesn't come with any instructions on how to set it up, so here they are: 1: drag to Applications folder. 2: Launch it, then drag your other browsers besides Safari into the little window it shows. 3: Launch Safari, go to Preferences, and make Choose Wisely your new default browser. (Yes, you do that in Safari, not in System Preferences.)

I have never used iTMS before today. Does the user have any control over the file format? To they sell ALACs? There's a very rare Perfume Tree remix album from 1993 on iTMS that I really want. The CD brings upwards of $50 on eBay, when it comes up (I've seen it twice in seven years) and the only p2p copies are crap (128 Xing mp3s). I don't mind paying $8 for 8 tracks, but I'd really like to know what I am getting first.

Who likes mozzarella? Who likes the shape of Jobs head?

Steve Jobs Cheese Head

Does anyone know how to get Front Row working with "share screen?" I have a Mac Mini for a music server (no external monitor hooked up). I am using screen share to control it on my Macbook Pro. Everything works well except if I try to run Front Row, the (mac mini) "screen" goes black. When I press the "arrow" keys, I can hear it clicking so I know it is running Front Row, I just can't see anything.

Shelly: It might be that Front Row outputs direct to the video card, so nothing will show up in Screen Sharing. Don't suppose you have an iPhone or iPod touch by any chance? Apple's Remote software is much better than Front Row IMO.

Shelly: It might be that Front Row outputs direct to the video card, so nothing will show up in Screen Sharing. Don't suppose you have an iPhone or iPod touch by any chance? Apple's Remote software is much better than Front Row IMO.

Ok, guess that makes sense.

No Iphone/touch (I seem to be one of the only people left) but I should have an Ipad soon and will try out Remote then. For now, I guess I will stick with using itunes via screen share.

Are there any "good" USB hubs out there? Or put another way, are some USB hubs better than others for an iMac?

Is it a bad idea to run an audio USB connection out of a hub? In other words, if I want to connect my iMac to my PWD via USB, is there a difference doing that through a hub or directly from one of the main iMac USB ports?

YOU TRY IT

I'm using a Targus portable mini 4-port hub which works for me fine on my Macbook. I don't get any drop-outs or sonic defects that I can hear. The USB cable has two heads and plugs into both USB ports, which seems to provide enough power to connect 4 items without power or data flow issues.

ive done it with audio stuffs, it should be fine

I have a d-link one that is in between my macbook pro and pico dac. Sounds fine to me.

Are the USB cables at least 18AWG?

Mine will be, of course. Insulated with the finest goose down.

The key to making a good USB cable is to draw the wire through Jena's butt Crock crack at sub-zero temperatures.

Is it a bad idea to run an audio USB connection out of a hub? In other words, if I want to connect my iMac to my PWD via USB, is there a difference doing that through a hub or directly from one of the main iMac USB ports?

I also run and power my audio (gamma2) out of a powered hub, which is connected to another powered hub, connected to my Macbook Pro. Never had a problem.

An unpowered hub should be OK unless there are other items plugged in that require power (most computer USB ports provide 500mA, so an unpowered hub has to share that across all devices).

Anyone know why the Apple store is down?