The Mac Experience in Business & Home: Help, Tips, Discussion & Radio Show Notes

You can now take a 20 minute guided tour of the iPhone here on Apple’s website. This device is mind-bogglingly cool. Watching this makes me want one more than ever.

I’ve had this wonderful little freeware application for many years now. And, since I had to yet again refer to it to definitively answer a call that just came in to the OnDeckTech helpdesk, I thought I’d pass it along to y’all as well. MacTracker is a database with a nifty-looking front end, that does just as it says. It gives you information about every model of Macintosh computer ever made. It even does iPods now as well. You can read more about it, and download it here . And, since it is freeware, if you find yourself relying on it, please consider donating, so that the authors can continue to develop it.

iPhone arrives on June 29. iPhone features an amazing mobile phone, is the best iPod ever created, and puts the Internet in your pocket with desktop–class email, web browsing, searching, and maps. And iPhone makes it all easy to use with its revolutionary multi-touch user interface. iPhone syncs with your PC or Mac just like an iPod, so organizing your content now will help you start calling, texting, emailing, surfing, listening, and watching even faster when you get your iPhone. Here are a few suggestions to help you get ready:

A few weeks ago a friend of mine asked me if I knew how to do this, as he was writing up a document about a PC-only application in which he wanted to include screenshots, and rather than switch back and forth between Mac OS X and Windows XP, it seemed easier to do it all in Microsoft Word on the PC partition of his MacBook Pro. After a little googling, we found this wonderful little article that explains how easy it is to accomplish this task. Now go forth and PrintScreen!

Panic Software , the makers of the fantastic FTP application Transmit (and other Shockingly Good Mac Software) have outdone themselves with their newest product Coda . If you are the hand-coding type, Coda is a wonderful way to improve your workflow. It combines everything you need for web development (file manager, text editor, preview, CSS editor) and then some (a terminal window and a great help book ) into one window. Coda is $79, or, if you already own a license for Transmit 3, $69. That’s a pretty great price for such a complete product, from an independent Mac software developer. If you’d like to try it, you can download a demo here .

Mactech.com, The Journal of Macintosh technology, has, courtesy of Microsoft’s Mac Business Unit, made available a handy guide for transitioning from Microsoft Office VBA macros to AppleScript. It is available here:

http://www.mactech.com/vba-transition-guide/

The online guide is free, and there are options for downloadable pdf, or hardcopy.

Prior to installing sync software, prior to various software updates, prior to troubleshooting any problems with your email software, your techs may be, should be! recommending you backup your mail.

A free way to do this with Mail.app in Apple’s OS X 10.4 is here:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301239#mail

An almost free way to do it ($10), and do it automatically, scheduled, with Apple Mail as well as Entourage and Thunderbird, is here:

http://homepage.mac.com/minge/emailbackuppro/index.html

Are Macintoshes just a “little” more secure? Here’s a good article on an opening discovered in the last week in Mac OS X 10.4’s security, a vulnerability in the interaction between Quicktime, Java and a Macintosh web browser, including Firefox and Safari. It enables a malicious programmer to potentially control a Macintosh OS X 10.4 system by simply directing the visitor to a specially coded website. As of the writing of this note, Apple has not yet published a security update in response to this discovery.

Security Update 2007-004 is recommended for all users and improves the security of the following components:

• AFP Client
• AirPort
• CarbonCore
• diskdev_cmds
• fetchmail
• ftpd
• gnutar
• Help Viewer
• HID Family
• Installer
• Kerberos
• Libinfo
• Login Window
• network_cmds
• SMB
• System Configuration
• URLMount
• Video Conference
• WebDAV

For detailed information on this update, please visit this website:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61798

http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/

Changes in Boot Camp 1.2 beta

Boot Camp 1.2 beta contains several updates and is intended for all new and previous Boot Camp beta users.

Boot Camp 1.2 beta includes:

• Support for Windows Vista (32-bit)
• Updated drivers, including but not limited to trackpad, AppleTime (synch), audio, graphics, modem, iSight camera
• Support the Apple Remote (works with iTunes and Windows Media Player)
• A Windows system tray icon for easy access to Boot Camp information and actions
• Improved keyboard support for Korean, Chinese, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Russian, and French Canadian
• Improved Windows driver installation experience