February 27th: This is the most emotional entry on this website I have ever done. Inventor, vissionary and genius Jef Raskin passed away on Saturday. He died of cancer at the age of 61. Jef Raskin was on the original Macintosh team and was of the first 50 employees of the company. He was behind every aspect of the Mac's GUI interface and set the blueprints for how we use the Mac today, even the one button mouse. My condolences to his family and friends. I had the utmost privilage of meeting him a few times. We exchanged emails and I looked to him for career advice. I respect his achievements in the personal and professional life. God bless you Mr. Raskin.

Sincerely,
Adam Jackson

In another note, the ammount of Mac news sites covering the news is very few and is insulting for a man that has done so much for the world of computing. You owe him a few words and I am ashamed that I affiliate with some of these websites.

February 17th: One of our readers in southern California sent us an E-mail stating she saw accessories for the iPod in a local Wallgreens store. They had FM Transmitter, Car adapter, cables and other things.

I was in Walgreen's yesterday, and on a side endcap of one of the aisles, not even noticeable, was a display of iPod accessories! What got me is they are the real deal--and they are cheap! They had the car lighter charger, the headphones, and about 5 other items that I need to look up...

This is not Apple's fault, I just think Walgreens became a reseller of Belkin or another iPod company. There is no such product in my local stores in Florida, but if you have a Wallgreens nearby, please let us know.

February 14th: Happy V-Day everybody. The holiday populurized by chocolate manufacturers and jewelers. I hope you all spend your money well and if you don't have a date, spend it with family or a close friend. V-day is not just for lovers but everyone to show you love each other. Don't spend all day online. Go out and have fun. Don't forget, you can still load XML on modern day cell phones so feel free to stop by while you are out and about. If you feel down and alone, smile cause you are not the only one.

Sony, IBM and Toshiba, who have been working on the Cell processor for three years, unveiled the chip on Monday. This chip is extremely powerful, and is being touted as "the Super Computer Chip" even though it only reaches just over three gigahertz and is significantly slower than any super computer. It is significantly faster than the P4 however, carrying out 10 tasks to intel's 2.

The Specs:
Faster than 4 GHz
256 billion calculations per second
2.5MB of on-chip memory
Able to shuttle data to and from off-chip memory at speeds up to 100 gigabytes per second,
234 million transistors

Plus the size which will possibly allow it to be used in PDAs makes it even more impressive, imagine one of those in the newest Powerbook.
Personally, seeing those specs wowed me. Imagine seeing OS X run on one of those!
Expect great things from Sony in the year 2006.

MPG will be giving away a book each 2 weeks to commemorate the ownership shift that is taking place here at MPG. As most of you know by know, our current owner will be signing the company over to a different owner in 2 weeks, thus the MPG 2 week giveaway. While at MacWorld San Francisco, we made some great sponsors who happily gave us books for the giveaway, O’reilly and Sybex are both online book stores with a wide selection of books and other merchandise at reasonably low prices, there is a total of 10 books, 1 for every 2 weeks until supplies run out.

Here is how it works, to enter the contest, simply make a comment on this entry, include your name and e-mail address. Or you can e-mail me at
At the end of every 2 week period we will have a random drawing to determine the winner who will be allowed to choose a book of the list below, this entry will act as the sign up sheet for the book giveaway # 1, for all following giveaways I will post an additional entry open to comments.

We sincerely thank our sponsors : www.oreilly.com and www.sybex.com for their help.

Click more to see the list of books up for grabs

Gratis Network responsible for almost all the free product sites on the web is at it again, this time with the newly released Mac Mini. It works exactly the same as the other products, this time you need 10 referrals. Free Mac Mini

January 13th: The first automobile giveaway to all Macworld atendees took place today at the MacMice booth. An event sponsored by Mazda and DVForge / Macmice was to give away a maxed out 2005 Mazda Miata "Speed" in bright red to a lucky expo attendee. The rules were very simple. Those not affiliated or employed by MacMice can walk up to the booth and submit a piece of paper with their information. Then, Thursday(today), a winner was chosen at random to take home this beautiful automobile. I had to post audio to this event because the ammount of time Jack Cambell and crew try to find a winner is hilarious. The audio is 20 minutes long but well worth it to hear the end of an intense giveaway. Thanks to MacMice and company for allowing us to get so close to the event and capture audio & interview the winner. MacMice and their other ventures are located at http://macmice.com

opt-Click to download link

Day 2 of the MacWorld Expo San Francisco didn’t exactly go according to plan, we didn’t wake up until 10:00 PM because the guys stayed out late at the iSkin party which I couldn’t go to because I am underage. So we didn’t get to the Expo until 12:00 PM, everything went smooth from there, I made a lot of important contacts and received several products for review, and a book. You guys can be expecting products reviews coming soon from Radtech, Rain Design, Timbuk 2, Crumpler, Brenthaven and as earlier mentioned Xtrememac. We also received a signed copy of 'Revolution in the Valley', I had it signed to “ Fans of Mypersonalgetaway.com. ” So if you haven’t guessed it, that’s right, MPG will be giving away a copy of 'Revolution in the Valley' to commemorate MacWorld San Francisco, I will post the details on the giveaway by the end of the week. After the we were kicked out of the media room by the Macworld staff at 6:00 PM, we spent about five minutes at the Macworld After Dark concert before we decided that it royally sucked, after that we went out to dinner with “ The Mac Mind “ and “ Apple-X “ crews. After that we could all either go to a party or the movies, “ The Mac Mind “ and “ Apple-X “ guys wimped out on us and went home, they all had decent reasons which will not be mentioned here. Adam and me ended up exploring the city for about 3 hours, we made it all the way up to China town and got back to the hostel around 11:30 PM. Adam has work to do and halfway dead so its time for me to get some sleep. You royal fans of mine stay safe and have fun.

Well its here, the first day of MacWorld San Francisco, Tuesday the 11th, the door to the Expo finally open to the public, Adam and me got up at 4:30 AM to hand out doughnuts to the first lucky people trough the door. We bought 3 dozen doughnuts and they were gone in about 30 seconds. Then we set up in the media room. We soon learned that we would not be seeing Steve Jobs live at the Keynote as promised, instead we were piled in the "OverFlow" room along with every other internet based media representative. We watched the whole thing on a silver screen. So many people we dissapointed, sad, and even angry. Apparently Macworld managment had issued too many media passes. This is a miscalculation on the part of the Macworld staff and we at MPG do not support the way the Macworld staff handled this, we did not come 2000 miles to watch Steve on a silver screen.

For those that can't wait until 6PM or even thirty minutes, I am posting a 96k encoded MP3 of the entire show (1.5 hours) for download. Please do not stream. Right-click or Option-click and download to your HD. We will have photos up very shortly from Apple's booth.

Low Bit Rate (26 Megabytes)
High Bit Rate (52 Megabytes)

January 11th: At the trip to Apple cafeteria today in Cupertino I was getting something to drink with my sushi meal and saw the water I have been trying to track down for a while now but never knew the name. It seems Steve really likes this water a lot. The brand is "GLACE'AU smartwatersport". It's website is http://drinkbetterwater.com and is bottled in New York. The water has electrolytes to enrich taste and is two dollars a bottle at the Apple "Cafe' Macs". For years I have seen mutliple threads on message boards asking about his water and some thought it was a french title but instead it is a U.S. company and bottled here but it not claiming to be "Spring Water". Albertson's carries the companies' vitamin water but the mineral water we are unsure of.

BTW: While drinking the water, I noticed you make a sound when you take your mouth from the pop top due to suction. Now, thinking back to old keynotes, you never hear that noise when Steve Drinks. I am betting he really practices before keynote to make sure the *pop* does not blast through keynote Speakers.

And now, the Gallery.

As many of you know the Macworld Expo doesn’t officially begin until Tuesday, however Adam and me decided to come two days early to explore the wonderful city of Saint Francsco and find out what it is all about. It’s an awesome change from Florida. Florida and California are polar opposites, while Florida is a flat, thrilless wasteland devoid of life and exitement, California is a rugged and beautiful land, and everywhere you look there is something to get your adrenaline pumping. Adam and me got in to San Francisco at 9:00 AM this morning, after getting our luggage we preceded to our dwelling place; we share our room with four other strangers at a local hostel home.

Well Ladies and Gentlemen, this is it, the 8th of January, 2 days until Macworld San Francisco. As most of you know me and Adam Jackson will be attending this year, along with a few eager MPG fans who got a sweet deal on their airline tickets and hotel rooms trought Mypersonalgetaway.com. Macworld San Francisco is the biggest mac event of the year, every year............ coincidentially it is also my moms birthday today. I do feel a little bad about leaving on her birthday but the reservations have been made and the bags have been packed ; there is no turning back now, we are in it for the whole deal. I bought her a huge bouqet of roses to make up for it, I actually think shes happy to have me out of the house. On a more professional note, MPG will be covering the Mac Expo from day one to the last second. There will be 2 seperate tittles for articles concerning Macworld on Mypersonalgetaway.com, Matts Blog and Adams Blog, that is pretty self-explenatory, but i can guarantee that Matts Blog will be tons better ........... :) Just kidding, well its 8:00 pm here in beautiful St. Augustine Florida and Adam will be here shortly, I will post again when we touch down in San Francisco, Hopefully ill see some of you there and as for the rest of you, I hope you make it next year and stay safe. >..<

January 6th: In a document obtained by MacIn Touch, Apple will not be broadcasting ,via sattelite or internet, the keynote on Tuesday January 11th at Macworld. This has been done at most less important keynotes like WWDC, and Apple Expo Paris but MWSF is always live.

The keynote is going to be rebroadcasted shortly after it ends at 11:30 Pacific time. All users make a note; we will be posting up to the minute announcemens via cellular phone to this website and our iChat room, "MPG". The keynote begins around 9AM PST on Tuesday.

From one of our contributing writers:

"I was speaking/e-mailing with someone senior at Apple who takes care of QuickTime Broadcast
of the Keynote couple of days ago and he mentionned in his e-mail to me "Please know the
keynote will be available via the web before your meeting begins" which he was referring to my
meeting at 7PM EST."

UPDATED 2X: AppleInsider has learned the keynote will be rebroadcasted at 6PM Streaming.

Apple updated the apple online store this past week with more price cutting, and twice as many sale prices. One would think its because MWSF is right around the corner, well I beg to differ, click read more for info.....

December 15th: Once again, first to cover it; We noticed 10.3.7 is out in Software update via a reader email. Click "Full Story" for the complete download details.

As always, wait before installing the update.

Our UK correspondent and unofficial photographer of Apple related events, such as the upcoming Macworld San Francisco, Kalpana Mavjee has uploaded a collection of Apple Store pictures from the Apple Store opening on London's Regent St.

Click Here for photos!


Thanks Ms. Mavjee

I found this very interesting app. I was amazed of something like that and easy. I thought it would be Apple that would create that kind of App considering Exposé.

Click "Full Story: for details

Hi Everyone,

I just got this interesting hard copy document yesterday from someone at CERT/NIPC.

It`s also available on the net at:¨


The document is basically a guide that provides operating system security and recommendations for configuring the security features. The guide provides recommended settings to secure systems using this operating system, and points out problems that could cause security concerns in systems using this operating system. This document is intended for anyone managing a locally -administered Apple Mac OS X v10.3.x system. It is assumed that anyone using this guidance will have some experience using Mac OS X, and understands the basics of the Mac OS X user interface. Some instructions within this guidance are complex, and deviation could result in serious adverse effects on the system and its security. Modification of these instructions should only be performed by experienced Mac OS X administrators, and followed by thorough testing.

Send me your feedback/comments about this document or post here.

George Stamatis

Apple held a press event on October 26th with U2 and only the big wigs of media and press were invited. As of now, no stream is available but we will keep you updated. The following is a summary of today's multitude of announcements...

Forbes has a story reporting that Apple will soon be debuting a new, black iPod. It's going to come preloaded with the band's upcoming album, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, and other selections from U2's 25 year catalogue. The new iPod is slated to be released the same week as the band's album, November 23rd.

Apparently, this is only a small part of a larger deal Apple has with U2. In addition to the recent Vertigo ads Apple is running, the album How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb will get its run online with the iTunes music store for a few weeks, before being made available on other music networks. The actual CD, of course, will still be available in stores.

The official announcement from Apple regarding the black iPod is expected to be announced next week.

October 19th: Previously rumored updates to the Powermac G5 and iBook line were announced today. Only new offerings and speed bumps but nothing too exciting. The updates only came due to demand and the iBook has become long in the tooth, last updated in April.

The Powermac G5 1.8Ghz Single CPU was released today as a low cost option (headless-mac). For the same price as a 1.8Ghz iMac, the tower has similar specs but is geared for those not in the market for an iMac but want comparable price and speed. The new Powermac is $1499.

The iBook G4 was given updates today to 1.2Ghz in the low end and 1.33Ghz. Once again, Apple forces you to purchase a 14 inch iBook to get a faster clock speed. I am not a fan of the larger iBook because you lug around an extra pound of computer for the same resolution as the 12" and with a larger price tag. The new iBooks also come with Airport Extreme pre-installed.

Finally, Apple has updated the Xserve Raid to 5.6 Terabytes of storage. This is a bump from only 3 Terabytes released at January's Macworld Expo in San Francisco. The pricing is still the same which makes the package only two dollars per gigabyte. Don't forget the Xserve Raid is certified to run with Windows and Red Hat and is a great option for IT manager in a Mac, Windows or NT environment.

October 14th: A slew of announcements from the Computer maker today...

Apple has unveiled a new store concept for its retail sector, the "mini-store". Apple's new stores are half the size of their big brothers and are designed for colleges, and airports for students and traveling shoppers. The mini stores have the complete line of iPods, some of desktops and top selling hardware and software. There is also room for a genius bar for questions and repairs. The new stores debut all around the country this Saturday.

Also, Apple announced the sale of 150 million songs on the iTunes Music Store. This is a great milestone for Apple because back in June they had sold 100 million. Apple also stated users are downloading four millino tracks a week.

Apple is also giving 300 loops to .Mac users as a promotion of its new Jam Packs for Garageband. Since none of us are .Mac users, we don't give a rat's behind.

One final thing: The media contact for Apple retail store's name is "Fletcher Cook". Myself and a business partner were discussing if Fletcher is a man or woman. We will call soon to figure it out, but who names their kid Fletcher anyway? We also were wondering if Fletcher Cook is related or wed to Tim Cook, a VP at Apple. Just a puzzling tidbit.

That's all for today, talk amongst yourselves.

October 13th: From DD News

Apple on Wednesday announced their 4th quarter results. “We are thrilled to report our highest fourth quarter revenue in nine years,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We shipped over 2 million iPods, our Retail store revenue grew 95 percent year-over-year, and the new iMac G5 has received phenomenal reviews and is off to a great start.” Apple shipped 836,000 Macintosh computers and 2,016,000 iPods during the quarter, representing a 6 percent increase in CPU units and a 500 percent increase in iPods over the year-ago quarter. Apple posted a net profit of $106 million, or $.26 per diluted share. These results compare to a net profit of $44 million, or $.12 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. For more info, check out the press release. They will have a conference call today at 5:00pm, which we will cover, and post highlights here.

October 12th: On iTunes Music Store and Apple's Website, a new iPod ad has been released featuring U2's song, Vertigo Exclusively on iTunes.

Recently, rumors began popping up all over the place about a new iPod, starting with a in-depth exclusive on ThinkSecret. Ryan Katz writes, "Apple's iPod will widen its horizons and gain photo-viewing capabilities within the next 30 to 60 days, highly reliable sources tell Think Secret. The new iPod, which will sit at the top of Apple's fourth-generation line-up, will pack Toshiba's new 60GB 1.8-inch hard drive, a 2-inch color liquid crystal display, iPhoto synchronization, audio/video-out capabilities, and will sell for $499." As yet another exclusive of being a Different District member, you can view a high quality artist's rendering (with some help from the iPodLounge Gallery) image here.

Apple's iPod mini received a 'Gold Prize' in Japan's "Good Design Awards". Japan's design evaluation and commendation awards offer awards in several categories, including Ecology, Interaction, Small/Medium Enterprises, "Long-selling", and Product Design, where Apple's iPod mini received the highest distinction, a "Gold Prize' in the Digital Audio Player category. In July, Apple's iPod packaging won a design distinction award.

August 29th:


After a long delay, the .Mac e-mail update. Users are now given 250 megabytes, up from the original 125 MB. Users are also given the option tp upgrade the the gigabyte mark for an additional $49.95 a year. While this is still the same amount as the Spymac mail for 50$ more, we won't get mad at Apple for being behind the market. We are just glad to see .Mac users are now able to compete with their Spymac buddies.
http://mac.com
http://spymac.com




Apple has also updated its Logic line of pro-audio tools used by over two hundred thousand
musicians worldwide. Logic and Logic Pro 7 come with many new features, head on over to
for further information.



Finally, two new Jam Packs marketed for Garageband users; Jam Pack Remix Tools and Rythym Section. Both carry 2,000 new loops and dozens of new instruments, both aimed at different types of musicians. The new Jam Packs, introduced today, accompany the one released on January 6th at Macworld San Francisco. The tools and Loops are in Apple Loop Format and can be used by Garageband, Soundtrack and Logic. Each pack costs $99 from the Apple store

September 26th: We Floridians are getting tired of this, and I am sure the rest of the U.S. is getting tired of reading about it. The thing is, I wanted to share with you some media from the storm that hit St. Augustine, FL today. MPG's headquarters is located there and we suffered quite a blow. I will assess the damages tomorrow and find out just how bad we were hit. The hurricane is still proving its furry outside but the worst has passed. You can hear everything starting at around 12:30PM to 7:30PM in a sixteen minute audio recording brought to you by our Fourth generation iPod and Griffin iTalk voice recorder. The audio has been compressed for easay downloading. We also shot a 1 minute video compressed using Quicktime 6 Pro into an MPEG4 file at around 640K. Both have been uploaded via dial-up which took quite a while to our servers.

Click "Full Story" for downloads.

September 21st: From Techworld.com. Eight hundred planes had were three hours without communication to air traffic controls due to a massive Microsoft Windows powered server crash. The servers controlled communications with commercial airlines. The lack of controls caused a few close calls between airplanes and forced controllers to communicate with planes via mobile phones filtered through working stations.

Full Article : Here

Slashdot sent 10 questions to Real Networks’ Rob Glasser. As promised to Slashdot, Glaser answered all the questions himself rather than through PR people. Several of the questions have to do with support for Apple and Harmony. An interesting quote is from Real’s take on Harmanoy, “Harmony simply added a new way to secure the content we've licensed from music companies. We didn't mess with the locks on any of Apple's music,” stated Rob Glaser during this interview. He then added, “We think it would be extremely anti-consumer for Apple to stop the music by intentionally breaking compatibility with Harmony.” What!!!!! I can't believe he said that!

Glasser also answered questions about the price of digital music. Selling digital music “will involve some kind of tiered pricing new mainstream songs for 99 cents retail, and up-and-coming artists and back catalog artists at a lower price.” However, Real is still trying to prove that such a tiered method can work effectively....

In one of my previous stories I told you about the possibility of Microsoft taking over the theme park industry, or at least part of it. Now Microsoft aims at taking over the music download industry and is making a fair play at it. Microsoft announced and released their beta version of the MSN Music, their online music store and download service.

This new service touts many similarities to Apple's iTunes and also includes many advanced services that Apple fans can only hope for in their future, like video and online radio...

A flat-panel display with built in processor and drives on top of a sleek pedestal. With the Apple continues with their minimalist approach to design that has made them the engineering envy of many other hardware companies.

Two sizes or the iMac are currently available starting at $1,299. A 17-inch and a 20-inch version are ready for your taking, in mid September. This new design looks like a 2-inch thick monitor with everything you need hidden inside...

New products were announced by several companies during the Apple Expo Paris. We have provided descriptions and links for each of these products...

The Expo was pretty uneventful. The iMac was a big announcement but not what we all expected. We missed Steve but Phil did a good job none the less. Other than the uneventul Tiger demo, it was a great keynote and went smoothly except for the "We Want Steve!" yelled out during the iChat AV demo. Click "Full Story" for the completed article.


Keynote begins Tuesday morning 4AM EDT

Our Forum Thread is available Here