First up we talked about our now first hand experiences with the iPhone 3.0 software, then we talked about our first hand experiences with the iPhone 3G S.

Allison did a nice little rant about how she bought 2 MacBooks right before WWDC because none of the rumors talked about the MacBooks. Don talked about his 15″ MacBook Pro may be a gem now with the removable battery and the ExpressCard slot.

Bart asked us what 4 things do we keep in our iPhone Doc, and then Don gave us the low down on what you can expect if you ever join one of the MacMania cruises.

Our Software Picks were:
Bart - Mapterture Pro - Geotagging plugin for Aperture from UberMind - http://www.ubermind.com/products/maperturepro.php $39.95

Don’s - TeamViewer http://www.TeamViewer.com

Allison’s Dial Zero on iPhone from http://nextmobileweb.com/

On this super sized episode we discuss the announcements from the WWDC Keynote.

WWDC Apple Keynote Address video - Click here

Some of the topics covered: Upgrade your current system or buy a new Mac. Should the release (sometime) of Snow Leopard keep you from buying a new Mac now? Apple’s relationship with Mac User Groups. Do you belong to a MUG? Mac user online communities - forums, FaceBook, Twitter, podcast, etc…

Our picks - Applications that we need need to spend more time with or need help with.

Katie - Automator
Steve - BoinxTV & Kinemac (yeah, I snuck two in)
Chuck - Final Cut Pro
Victor - Keynote

Katie & David are starting Mac Power Users Podcast at macpowerusers.com

MICROSOFT VS. APPLE PROFIT & PC SALES DROP VS. MAC SALES DROP

Microsoft reported its profit dropped 32%
Apple’s profit rose 15%
PC Sales dropped 16%
Macintosh sales dropped 3%

APPLE ADS:

Discussion of which ads we like, and which ads we think are perhaps misleading

HACKINTOSH

I recently got to spend some time with a Dell Mini 9 Netbook with OS X installed. I was not impressed. Maybe we could talk about the whole Netbook phenomena and our thoughts about Apple’s participation. Cough Tablet Cough

I went as far as getting an MSI Win to use as a proof of concept, installed OSX and promptly sold it 2 weeks later. So I can chime in on that!

Mac Insurance - safeware.com

WHERE ARE ALL THE MAC USERS?

Something that has been bugging me is where are all the Mac users? Last quarter 2.2 million macs sold yet MacHeist sold 88,000 bundles. A huge number but a tiny fraction of the total Mac population. Do “normal” mac users buy online software? Why are podcast audiences in the single thousands when there are millions of Mac users? Just a thought!

MAC ROUNDTABLE PICKS OF THE WEEK

Al - Etherpad - etherpad.com

Don - Tweetie for the Mac! - atebits.com

Bart - DeskLickr - desklickr.isnot.tv

Katie - Dashboard Kick Start - alwintroost.nl

David - Livescribe Pulse Pen — livescribe.com
2 gig pen and book - $200

Another small but mighty group this week. We discussed the proliferation of hard drives and why that’s not necessarily always a good thing, storage solutions and backup strategies. We also talked about how the iPhone and iPod Touch have become much more than simple phones and iPods and how a variety of applications make them excellent travel companions and perhaps even computer replacements. Of course, the discussion somehow also turned to Twitter clients and our picks.

Storage Solutions and Backup:
Mozy Online Backup
Time Capsule
Voyager Dock
Drobo
SuperDuper

iPhone/iPod Touch Apps:
Evernote
Night Stand
White Noise (Light)
Flight Tracker
WiFiTrack

Twitter Clients:
TweetDeck
Nambu
Tweetie

Other Cool Stuff Mentioned:
Matias Folding Keyboard
WWDC
MailPlane

David Sparks of MacSparky macsparky.com Twitter
Bart Busschots of the International Mac Podcast at impodcast.tv Twitter
Allison Sheridan of the NosillaCast Mac Podcast at podfeet.com Twitter

It was a small but energetic roundtable who discussed iPhone 3.0 and whether they actually cared about cut and paste, how badly did they want a netbook or tablet from Apple, their favorite Twitter clients, and their picks of the week.

Links:
Twitter Clients:
Tweetdeck tweetdeck.com
Twhirl twhirl.org
on iPhone:
Tweetie from atebits.com
Twitterfon from twitterfon.net
Picks of the Week
* Cooliris from cooliris.com
* ifreemem from activata.co.uk
* Pixelmator from pixelmator.com

Rodney Dangerfield vs. Jon Stewart twitpic.com
David speaking at ABA Techshow at abanet.org/techshow

Jonathan Cost: Mac Tips Daily Twitter
Chuck Joiner: MacVoices Twitter
Allison Sheridan: NosillaCast at podfeet.com Twitter
Steve Stanger: The Mac Attack Twitter
Tim Verpoorten: Mac Reviewcast Twitter

The panel assembled to talk about the new Mac hardware offerings, what they have and what they lust after and ways to save money and get more value for your Mac purchase dollar in these trying economic times. Two panel members expressed their “displeasure” over recent Windows encounters, then squared off on a Mac product that one loves and the other…doesn’t. The group finished up by sharing their own particular brands of Mac therapy.

Links:

iMac

Mac Pro

Mac mini

Airport Express

Apple Special Deals and Refurbished Equipment

Menu Meters by Raging Menace Software

The Dirty Deed is Done…… by Don McAllister on My Own Reality

dealmac

The Deal Brothers

ExperCom

Apple Care

Amazon Prime

Other World Computing

MonoPrice.com

Turbo.264 by Elgato

iMac vs. Mac Pro
is the Mac Pro worth $1000US more than the iMac? and with the iMac you get a 24″ monitor too!

MobileMe replacements
iDisk - implemented large file sharing option just now apple.com/mobileme, can password protect and set expiration date
Dropbox for 2GB is free from getdropbox.com, back up REAL folders, not one blob like iDisk or 50GB for $99, must be careful in transferring packages in Dropbox
Google sync - can sync Google contacts and addresses to your iPhone - erases your data but it’s beta!
Foxmarks to sync bookmarks across Windows/Mac and Firefox/IE/Safari - foxmarks.com

Microsoft Stores - why?
Can they help build brand loyalty by working with customers?
Could they educate more? teach tools? one on one services?
Maybe they could show off hardware - like the Zune and XBox 360?
Macworld mocks the Microsoft Stores macworld.com
Sony mocked by the Onion theonion.com

IBM on Apple security
macnn.com
IBM did the story, and they have a horse in the race
the article talks about percentage of vulnerabilities fixed, not about the severity or how many.
Premise is true however, that Apple has a poor record of patching!

New toys
Katie - Dictate from Mac Speech
Victor - Cylon Detector battlestarextras.com
Bart - DOF master dofmaster.com
Don - NSConference in the UK (AKA Mac Dev Conference) nsconference.com
Don - TweetDeck new version tweetdeck.com
Allison - People who create scripts for me - Connor wrote script to turn off Time Servers to fix Skype dropouts, and Will wrote a script to set up Garageband automatically turning off stupid settings

Katie Floyd - The MacCore
David Sparks - Mac Sparky
Steve Stanger - The Mac Attack
Tim Verpoorten - Mac Reviewcast

Topics for this episode:

Are iLife and iWork worthwhile upgrades? Our experiences so far with the new software.

Trojan found on bittorrent downloads of iWork ‘09.

Seagate drive issues.

iTunes Plus - Upgrading iTunes purchased songs to DRM-free, higher bitrate music. Are we going to do it?

The Mac turns 25 and we remember our first Macs.

Our favorite iPhone / iPod Touch time wasters:
(These links will take you to the iTunes App Store)

LED football
Topple
Vector Blaster
Tap Defense
Virtual Zippo
Lightsaber

Allison Sheridan- Nosillacast
Adam Christianson - MacCast
John Chambers - One Minute Tip
Katie Floyd - The MacCore
Victor Cajiao - Typical Mac User
Chuck Joiner - Mac Voices
David Sparks - Mac Sparky
Don McAllister - Screen Casts Online
 
The Mac Roundtable crew records our first ever live show and were privileged to do so on the Macworld Learning Center at Macworld San Francisco in front of a live audience.  We talk about our thoughts and impressions on the Keynote, how important Apple is to Macworld, why we come to Macworld, our favorite picks from the show floor, discussion of Macworld 2010 and we take questions from the audience

Links Mentioned:
Where the Hell is Matt?
Allison Dancing Video
Apple Keynote
iLife ‘09
iWork ‘09
Apple User Groups
Lacie Flat Cables
Neat Receipts
Slingbox
Matias Tune Blocker
SongGenie
BusyCal
Pulse Smart Pen
GeoPhoto
Roxio Toast Titanium
Blue Eyeball
Podcast and New Media Expo

Allison Sheridan: NosillaCast  Twitter
Chuck Joiner: macvoices.com Twitter
Katie Floyd: themaccore.com Twitter
Don McAllister: screencastsonline.com Twitter
David Sparks: macsparky.com Twitter
Steve Stanger themacattack.tv Twitter

What we like about MacWorld, what are we looking forward to

- The people!
- Meeting the small developers doing the real

New Years Mac resolutions

- Dual boot OLPC into Ubuntu Linux
- Final Cut Express Tutorials
- Learning more CSS - learn CSSEdit
- Geeky building/soldering electronics - arduinos
- Learn more about Automator and AppleScript Automator on Wikipedia

Christmas Organization

- Bento database
- Address Book issues
- Receipt Wallet
- Stationery for Apple Mail for electronic Christmas cards

What we want for Christmas:

- MacBook Pro
- Guitar Hero guitarhero.com or Rock Band
- Drobo with Firewire 800
- Trip to MacWorld
- Animoto
- Apple 24″ Cinema Display
- Flip Mino

Katie Floyd: The Maccore
Bart Busschots: International Mac Podcast
Victor Cajiao: Typical Mac User
Steve Stanger: The Mac Attack

Topics for this episode:

Apple’s disappearing anti-virus tech document which leads to a discussion on viruses, malware, and phising.

Google Calendar adds CalDAV support and what calendar solutions we use.

Adobe is going to be a no-show at Macworld 2009 and we discuss graphic and photo editing alternatives.

Apple’s “Black Friday” deals (or lack thereof).

iPhone / iPod Touch application picks:

Delivery Status Touch
Amazon Mobile
Touch Physics
Vino for Dinner Mobile

Links:

BusySync
Anxiety
Photomatix Pro
RapidWeaver/
Pixelmator

Katie Floyd: The Maccore
Bart Busschots: International Mac Podcast
Allison Sheridan: Nosillacast
Don McAllister: Screencasts Online

In this episode the Mac Roundtable crew grilled Don about his adventures on the MacMania cruise where he was actually a guest speaker on the cruise.

MacWorld Coverage of MacMania8
Insight Cruises
Flickr Photos

Next up we discussed how disappointed we are in Apple for implementing the HDCP DRM through the Display Port - which will keep honest people from using some of their content. For more on HDCP check out webopedia.com.

Finally we had a chat about what we think will be happening on Black Friday for Apple. theblackfriday.com.

Katie Floyd: The Maccore
Bart Busschots: International Mac Podcast
Chuck Joiner: MacVoices
Tim Verpoorten: Mac Reviewcast

The MacRoundtable crew engaged in a “hit and run” discussion on a variety of topics including who’s still printing and what they’re using, if and how they’re using Time Machine, and whether Apple TV is really just a hobby or is falling too far behind. The panel also delivers some thoughts on display options, keyboard commands, and whether WalMart’s online music sales changes represent a threat to the iTunes Store.

Links:

File Magnet by Magnetism Studios

Business Card Composer from Belight Software

Snapfish

InkDaddyal

dealink

TimeMachineEditor by Time Software

Time Capsule by Apple

Apple TV by Apple

TiVo

EyeTV by Elgato

TubeStick and The Tube by equinux

Neflix Streaming Coming to the Mac on The iPodObserver

TiVo Teams with Netflix for Instant Movies on The iPodObserver

LaunchBar by Objective Development

Quicksilver by Blacktree

MX Revolution Mouse by Logitech

Mac Reviewcast

Surfbits

International Mac Podcast

NosillaCast

Typical Mac User Podcast

Bart Busschots blog

The Maccore

MacVoices

MacNotables

MacJury

Don McAllister: ScreenCastsOnline
Allison Sheridan: TheNosillaCast
David Sparks: MacSparky
Victor Cajiao: Typical Mac User

As you might expect, the main topic for discussion this week was the launch of the updated MacBook and MacBook Pros, with one of the crew becoming an early adopter (twice over!). Here are links to several of the items we discussed:

Firewire 400/800 options:
Belkin 9-Pin to 6-Pin FireWire 800/400 Cable, 6 feet (this link says $40US but it was $30US at the Apple Store)
Sonnet FireWire 400 to 800 Adapter [FAD-824] ($14.95 direct from Sonnet or pay $12 through Office Depot)

We talked about no firewire on the MacBooks but here’s an option:
OWC FireWire/USB Combo ExpressCard/34 Adapter ($45US through Other World Computing - two FireWire and One USB!)

Mac Software Pics
PGP Whole Disk Encryption 9.9 for Mac OS X - with Basic Maintenance - Perpetual

iPhone Software Pics:
11C Scientific RPN Calculator ($9.99US)
Pano ($2.99US)
WritingPad (free!)
Loan Shark ($4.99US)

PS The backing to Allisons sorry tale was added after we recorded the show - sorry Allison, couldn’t resist!

The topics for this weeks show include blogging software, managing & archiving email and home theater set-ups.

Links:

MailSteward
ATVFlash
WordPress
MarsEdit
PowerMail
TubeStick
Drupal
Gmail
RapidWeaver
Hulu
MediaCentral
Plex
Boxee
Remote Buddy

The main topics for this weeks show include a rant from Allison, Mac graphics cards, new MacBooks or MacBook Pros, what is in our menubars!

Links (more to follow):

Sound Source:
iStat Menus:
Caffeine:
Teleport:
Anxiety:
ByteController:
DropBox:
Skitch
Evernote
Textexpander
Houdahspot
Jumpcut
RapidoWrite
Default Folder X
Podcamp Barcelona

The main topics for this weeks show include Google Chrome, Operating Systems on your Mac and the Sept. Special Apple Event.

Links:
Remote Desktop Connection: http://www.microsoft.com/mac
Cords: http://cord.sourceforge.net

David Sparks: MacSparky
Don McAllister: ScreenCastsOnline
Bart Busschots: International Mac Podcast
Victor Cajiao: Typical Mac User
Katie Floyd: The Maccore

The main topic for this weeks show is the holy grail of going paperless!

The crew share their ideas and experiences in digitizing all their documents (well almost all) for easy storage and retrieval as well as discussions around the Mac OSX Dock and how we all use it.

As usual, we feature our mac picks and these week, David asks us about our iPhone guilty pleasures!

and much, much more!

Links:
Evernote
Epson CX8400
Brother MFC-8860DN
Crypt.xhead from Xhead software
PGP Desktop for Mac
Unite SATA HDD Multi-Function Dock
Together from Reinvented Software
Yep
Receipt Wallet
ScanSnap
PasswordVault
arRsync
Scriviner
Dock Hack

Don McAllister: ScreenCastsOnline
Dave Hamilton: Mac Observer
Bart Busschots: International Mac Podcast
Chuck Joiner: MacNotables
Joseph Nilo: MacMediaCast

A new voice on todays show plus the return of one of the original MacRoundtable crew!

This weeks show features discussions on:

The MobileMe debacle
Mac Podcasters at the new Media Expo
Developers and Mac gaming

Along with some terrific Mac picks

and much, much more!

Links:
New Media Expo
Password Vault
Favorater
FileMagnet
Kinemac
StageHand

Adam Christianson: The MacCast
Katie Floyd: The MacCore
Don McAllister: ScreenCastsOnline
Victor Cajiao: The Typical Mac User Podcast
John Chambers: One Minute Tip
Steve Stanger: The Mac Attack

A pretty packed show today with a larger than normal crew!

Discussions around MacWorld now and then.
Apple Retail Stores including the newly opened Apple store in Liverpool UK
AppleCare Woes
Mac User Groups
How we train friends and relatives
AT&T Woes

and much, much more!

Links for some of the picks to follow shortly!

Jonathan Cost: Mac Tips Daily
Adam Christianson The MacCast
Katie Floyd: The MacCore
Chuck Joiner: The MacJury

As you can imagine, this week’s show was all about the iPhone 3G, 2.0 FIrmware, and the rollout of MobileMe. We talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly in this episode. Katie picked up a 3G iPhone on launch day and talks about her mixed experiences with the device. Chuck also shares his AT&T horror story which actually prevented him from buying a new iPhone and Adam and Jonathan share their reasons for not wanting to upgrade just yet.

The gang also talks the less than stellar MobileMe rollout. As of the recording of this podcast there were still problems reported with people trying to log in and not all services are operational as advertised. Adam shares his experiences with the MobileMe push services and a problem he discovered if he tried to sync Exchange data at the same time. Some MobileMe services are still missing in action, including the iDisk email file sharing feature. 

Everyone seems to love the new iPhone 2.0 Firmware update and some of the new offerings available from the AppStore.Instead or our regular “Mac Picks” we decided to each share our favorite new “iPhone Pick.”

Adam- Midomi and Shazam - Tagging and identification of songs.
Jonathan - Jott - Turns voice memo into notes
Katie - OmniFocus - GTD task management that syncs with the Mac App
Chuck - Pandora - Personalized streaming radio service

This weeks topics include:

Email habits
We all manage our emails in different ways so the crew discuss their own particular problems and solutions when managing emails.

Links mentioned:
Mail Act-On
MailTags
MailSteward
OmniFocus

Software Picks

Put a group of mac geeks together and one thing they love to discuss is their favourite mac apps. This weeks show gave us all the opportunity to make a software pick!

Links mentioned:

ScreenSteps - Use discount code NOSILLA for 25% off
Evernote
Jiggler
Caffeine
Skitch

New Toys

OK, as well as software, we love talking about new gadgets or toys, so this week a new section all about any recent purchases and why we bought them!

Links mentioned:
Time Capsule
Bamboo fun graphics tablet
HueyPRO Monitor Calibrator
Amazon Kindle

Don’t forget, send in your rapid fire questions to macroundtable@gmail.com

We welcome Dave Hamilton to the Roundtable and discuss all the latest announcments from the World Wide Developer Conference. Dave gives us an on location report from WWDC.

We talk through how excited we are about the new shift to MobileMe from .mac, what it means to current and future iPhone users, as well as Windows users. Mostly we’re excited, hear what we’re not so excited about.

We’re all frustrated that the App Store for the iPhone and iPod Touch is STILL not open (we though June was the longest month ever, now it looks like July will beat it). And can you say Cut and Paste?

The new iPhone might just push Dave over the edge, and while the iPhone is now available in every country on earth and several other planets, it’s still not available where Tim lives.

And finally, Snow Leopard (OS 10.6) is on its way - not much from the user perspective (yet) but this IS the developer’s conference so it’s opening up some great opportunities for them.

Note: This podcast was posted to the feed ahead of our regular release date due to WWDC. Our plan is to return to our every two week release schedule with our next show releasing around June 30th.

Allison got to attend D6: All Things Digital hosted by the Wallstreet Journal with hosts Walter Mossberg & Kara Swisher. She gave us some high points of the show:

• Bill Gates in line behind her in the buffet line for Mac & Cheese
• Windows 7 demo - just like the iPhone
• Allison gave Jerry Yang, CEO of Yahoo a hard time - watch the video at d6.allthingsd.com (jump to about 5 minutes in to see her question)
• Then, Gary Shapiro (CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association (the guys who run CES)) to be a judge for the hottest tech gadgets of CES this fall!
• She had Lunch with a corporate VP at Microsoft where he described the amazing bandwidth in China that allows them to do video teleconferencing on their cell phones
• She also saw a prototype of a new SlingBox that would allow you to share from your computer to your home TV, and hopes that it will one day show up on the iPhone
• You can find Allison’s flickr photos of D6: flickr.com

Rumors are flying that .Mac will get a major update and be rebranded “Mobile Me” and the group talks about how we use .Mac and how we use .Mac alternatives that we would like to see integrated into .Mac

• Katie uses BusySync to share her iCal with others and upload to Google Calendar
• David wishes you could use your .Mac account similar to how he uses SugarSync to keep documents on multiple Macs in sync.
• Katie wants to replace Apple’s Backup program with something more similar to Mozy
• And everyone wants to see .Mac get a speed boost.

We also talk about the new 10.5.3 update and the fixes and new featurs it offers. 

Lastly, we introduce a new segment called Rapid Fire, where we take questions from the listeners and each member of the roundtable “fires” out a quick answer. We’ll try to do a couple per show, so we need your participation. If you have a “quick question” you want to submit to the group, send it to MacRoundtable@gmail.com and we’ll answer as many as possible. Todays questions: