Newton’s Lore

If you were frustrated at getting your iPhone/iPod Touch/MobileMe activated over the weekend you weren’t the only one (although I’m sure you could have found something better to do!). Someone took the time to come up with an “I’m an iPhone” video, and JoyOfTech also had a take on the BlackBerry schadenfreude, short lived though it was. Or check out “How to get broke by buying an iPhone”
Meanwhile, Australians weren’t left out of the picture with a certain phone company’s activation system going offline before the launch. Which was probably better than Optus (i)phone users in Queensland being unable to dial emergency 000.

Some folks on MacTalk.com.au mentioned (and probably compiled) this Google spreadsheet containing an Australian iPhone 3G pricing comparison.

The folks over at StorageMojo have a battery life comparison of MacBook Airs with hard drives and SSD drives. Also a comparison of MacBook Pros with and without SSD drives.

Anybody with a MacBook Air with SSD care to comment if they’ve got a /.hotfiles.btree file on their machine? This would possibly indicate that Mac OS X is still shuffling around their file system to optimise file access as if it was on a hard drive.

ZDNet Australia reports that Apple Australia have reduced the premium on putting a solid-state drive into a new MacBook Air to only AU$769, almost halved from the previous AU$1409.

• Optical drives aren’t recognised in Vista after installing iTunes 7. But it’s ok, you can fix it by editing the registry!
• The call it “Time Machine” because when you run Time Machine off your install DVD it thinks it’s on Pacific Standard Time
• Big list of keyboard shortcuts. I had forgotten you could hit the control key whilst using command-shift-4 to get the screengrab on the clipboard. Also didn’t know you could command-click the window toolbar button to get different views.
• Troubleshooting procedure for your mac not starting up in 10.3.9
• How to use your iPod as a storage drive. Remember, if you use FAT32 you won’t be able to put files larger than 4Gb onto it!
• How to troubleshoot locked files
• The New User’s Guide to the iPod shuffle (put your right foot in, take your right foot out…)
• You need to use shift-control-option to reset the SMC on your MacBook Air
• You can get the MacBook Air DVD or CD sharing software here
• A diagram of the MacBook Pro’s ports. Omitting the Firewire 800 port?
• To change your default Mail or Web Browser you need to use Safari or Mail, even if you’re not using them. Because since InternetConfig went away Apple doesn’t know where to put these things.

If you want to trade in your mobile number (and no doubt some privacy) for a chance to win a 24 carat gold plated iPhone you can do so here.

The LA Times reports that as a result of a class action suit filed in 2006 Apple will pay US$25 to US$79 to customers who bought a power adaptor to replace a faulty one. This affects adaptors for PowerBooks and iBooks. Presumably some variant of the refund will be available in Australia, without having to ship the things to the US by the suitcase-full

If you want to use your Nintendo Wii remote (Wiimote) with your Mac (via Bluetooth) (perhaps because you liked Tony Stark’s movie UI and a Wii is a cheaper way to get accelerometer gear check out

• DarwiinRemote
• The Wiinstrument for use with MIDI and/or Garageband.
• Remote Buddy

For the more programmatically inclined there’s

• WiiremoteJ
• Wiimote Simple (an open source Java library)
• WiiJuce

MacDailyNews reports that Apple’s market value is now four times as big as Dell’s. Perhaps it’s time for Michael Dell to sell up and give the money back to the shareholders?

Since Apple’s announcement of movies being available on the iTunes Store on the same day as the DVD release, MacRumors reports that the AppleTV can now be used to download music directly, without requiring a computer to purchase and upload the movie.