Safari Googlemaps
I mentioned Google's amazing new map service recently, noting that it only worked in Firefox and Internet Explorer. No longer! Google have now got it working with Safari as well.
Memory Stick Pro Duo hits 2GB
Engadget are reporting that Sony has finally announced 2 gigabyte Memory Stick Pro Duo cards! These should work in the P900 and P910 - yet another reason I'm considering an upgrade.
Sonos on a Mac
A while back I drooled over the Sonos Digital Music System - it appears that there have been reports of problems with Mac compatibility, but they've now been fixed.
Sony Ericcson Walkman Phone
Sony Ericcson are planning on cashing in Sony's Walkman brand by releasing a combination phone and digital music player. The story is that it will have enough storage for six to ten albums worth of MP3 or AAC files which suggests a 256MB capacity. The support for AAC is interesting, since that is the usual format for the iPod and iTunes.
'Powerbook HD' rumours
No G5 for now, but the PowerBook's future is looking good. MacMischief has posted an analysis here.
PC makers desire OS X?
It's been mentioned in a few other places over the last couple of days, but this ArsTechnica article provides some insight. If true, this will be huge.
Googlemaps
Google Maps has gone beta. Most definitely worth a look, but only using Firefox or (ugh) Internet Explorer. Make sure you try click-and-drag on the map! Double-click it as well! Amazing stuff - streets ahead of the competition. It only covers the United States at the moment, but expect more countries to be added soon.
4.4GB photographs
Gadget Lounge picked up a truly amazing Wired story (try and ignore the hideously annoying audible flash adverts) 
. The photos are actually taken with 4000 dpi film and then scanned with a 4000 dpi scanner to produce a 4 gigapixel image. Each photo fills up an entire DVD!
Pirated software erases your PocketPC
Geek News Central are reporting that the developer of an app named Pocket Mechanic has introduced a 'feature' which forces a hard-reset (thus erasing your data) if the user inputs a pirated serial number. Sounds like the Echelon fiasco all over again.
Internet sharing success
Despite previous failed attempts to get this working I did not lose hope. Since the recent firmware upgrade hadn't done anything significant to solve the problem, I concluded that it must be the generic bluetooth dongle I had. I decided to do what I should have done to start with, and bought a D-Link DBT-120 bluetooth dongle. This has cracked it!
The combination of the new firmware and the new dongle allows P800 Manager to share my internet connection for what appears to be an indefinite duration! So far my P800 has been sharing my laptop's internet for about 6 hours straight without any problems.
The mobile Opera browser is, as you can see, pretty slick. It resizes images very nicely and the 'fit-to-width' option saves you from a lot of side scrolling. Furthermore the full-screen option (as shown to the right) allows you to make maximum use of your screen real estate.
P800 syncing, solved
After the failure of my recent P800 firmware upgrade to solve certain long-standing problems, I finally splurged and replaced my el-cheapo generic bluetooth dongle with a D-Link DBT-120 bluetooth dongle, which is incidentally the dongle that Apple recommends. This has completely and utterly solved my often mentioned syncing problems. Syncing works 100% of the time now! 
All Apple needed to do was to put a warning on their website - something along the lines of "using other brand bluetooth dongles may cause iSync to crap out" would have sufficed.
Keyword Assistant updated!
I mentioned in this entry that Keyword Assistant, an indispensable iPhoto plugin, was broken by the upgrade to iPhoto 5. Have no fear, life is good again - author yesterday released an update which works with iPhoto 5. Phew!
Unique Mac mini review
This is really worth a read. It seems clear that plenty of Mac fans will get their knickers in a twist about it, but c'mon - this has GOT to be a joke. It can't possibly be anything else. How likely is it that a single individual could make SO many uninformed statements?
Update: It's starting to look like the entire DivisionTwo site is a joke. This article discusses replacing an 89-year-old granny's Mac 7.5 System with an easy-to-use Linux system. For word processing the author was kind enough to recommend emacs. 'Nuff said.
Further update: It's definitely a joke. If you read all the articles it becomes apparent entire site is an attempt at satirical humour. Sadly most it isn't very funny.
Trackback spammers try their luck
Over the last couple of days this site has had something in the region of 200 trackback spams proclaiming the wonders of online gambling. It's actually quite a refreshing change to have some spam again after 10 weeks of being spam free.
After doing a little research, it appears there is no reliable way to block trackback spam whilst allowing legitimate trackbacks, but given their relative unimportance turning off trackbacks for all previous entries appears to be a no-brainer. Clearly the mere fact that someone else is linking to this site is the important point, the trackback's main purpose (* see below) seems to be providing an ego-boosting acknowledgment of that link.
* The argument that trackback serves as a sort of 'continuing the discussion elsewhere' signpost could conceivably be an argument to keep trackback, were it not for the fact that the vast majority of trackbacks are the blogosphere's equivalent of UseNet "me too" posts.
Update: Phil Ringnalda wrote an insightful article on this subject.
iPhoto 5.0.1 but not on Software Update
According to MacMinute, iPhoto has been updated to version 5.0.1. Unfortunately, as of 20:16 hours GMT, there seems to be no reference to it on Apple's site - the most recent update is listed as iMovie HD 5.0.1:
Software Update is also drawing a blank:
Update: MacOSXHints has a possible solution.
That sounds better on my suitcase
This week's sign that the Apocalypse is nigh: Boom Bags.
I love this bit:
In addition, the bags include a microphone input with separate volume control. Anyone doing presentations can use their suitcase to provide speakers and amplification for a multimedia program, and for live narration at the same time.
I can see it now - we'll all be taking our empty suitcases to presentations
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