Newton’s Lore

Apple have announced a free Apple TV software update available in 2 weeks time (why the wait, is it not finished yet?) that allows you to rent movies from your TV screen without a computer required. It has DVD quality, HD and Dolby 5.1, video and audio Podcasts, along with Photos from flickr and .Mac. It also synchs with iTunes. HD rentals are US$4.99 with 100 titles available today. Movies (including Star Trek can be previewed and also can display what ‘other renters also rented’.
Screensaver photos can also be automatically downloaded from .Mac galleries, and songs purchased from the iTunes Store onscreen.The Apple TV price has been lowered to US$229 

After announcing that iTunes has sold 4 billion songs (20 million on Christmas Day), 125 million TV shows, and 7 million movies, Steve Jobs today announced the availability of iTunes Movie Rentals (for US users only!) with content from Sony, Universal, Touchstone, Miramax, MGM, Lionsgate, Newline, Fox, Warner Bros, Disney and Paramount.This will include over 1000 movies available 30 days after DVD release. Watch on Mac, PC, iPod or iPhone within 30s start time (assuming you’ve got decent broadband), and movies available for watching within 30 days but must be watched within 24 hours of starting to watch. US$2.99 for library titles and US$3.99 for new releases 

For the iPhone a free upgrade gives:

• Maps with location (based on nearby WiFi base stations)
• Webclips (Up to 9 web bookmarks on your phone’s home screen)
• Customised home screens
• SMS multiple people
• Chapter and language options in iPod mode, plus Lyrics

For the iPod Touch, a $20 upgrade gives: Mail, Stocks, Notes, Weather and Maps 

Steve Jobs has announced Time Capsule, an Airport Extreme with built in  500Gb (US$299) or 1Tb (US$499) hard drive

Ambrosia software is celebrating its 15th birthday as a Mac shareware house and as such is offering 10% off to Macworld attendees and at its online store.

EMC Insignia announced their return to MacWorld:

EMC will highlight and demonstrate the latest version of its backup and recovery software – EMC® Retrospect® for Macintosh, version 6.1 – for consumers and small and medium businesses. In addition, EMC continues to demonstrate its commitment in enhancing Mac data protection as it will announce a call for betas for the next version of EMC Retrospect for Macintosh at Macworld.

For more information about EMC Retrospect 6.1 for Macintosh, please visit http://www.emcinsignia.com/products/smb/retroformac 

After EMC bought Dantz and management put Retrospect for the Mac into what essentially amounted to maintenance mode since before 2004 it had better have done a good job with adding features to the next version. It’s only because the old version is so good and the competition so complex or unreliable that Retrospect still survives.

• Faster (Wireless?) Firewire
• Blu Ray drives
• Direct iPod to iPod song transfer

If you’re up early looking for the keynote coverage (especially if you’re in GMT+9), then you can check out The Unofficial Apple Liveblog (they’ve also got a Twitter feed).Alternatively there’s a feed from Engadget, including a translation in Spanish.Newly on the scene there’s also SteveNoteLive which promises to include pictures.Also, #macrumors on irc2.tecknohost.com if you remember what IRC is :)Also don’t forget JoyOfTech’s handy Unofficial MacWorld Expo Survival Kit. 
 

Microsoft have annouced that Mac Office 2008 will be available on shelves as of 15th January (ie after the MacWorld keynote). Ships on a DVD, includes universal binaries, requires Mac OS X 10.4.9 or later and a recommended 500MHZ machine minimum.

List price is US$399, ff course, there’s always the free NeoOffice as an alternative.

I’m trying to play some music from iTunes, but I can’t seem to get anything to play. Space bar doesn’t work, play button doesn’t work, nothing. Then I try volume up, down keys, and controls in iTunes and the menu bar, none of which works. Then I open up the Sound preference panel, and lo and behold the mute checkbox is checked, and it’s greyed out so I can’t change its state, even if the volume up and down keys indicate that the audio is not muted!I did have similar problems with muting under Tiger, but don’t think I ever noticed that the mute checkbox was permanently checked.