I managed to put up a podcast at the weekend with all the news that came my way. This week we look at the second part of my review of GarageBand and I focus this time on the new feature of lessons.

GarageBand (2): Learn to Play

In the same way I did with the iPhoto sections, I have now made a couple of extra files for the GarageBand articles: a full version and a print version, should anyone be so inclined.

Last week was really busy for news and the weekend saw me putting up a rare interim podcast on Sunday evening and that was almost 30 minutes. If the amount of news keeps up like this, I may have to think about number three in order to get the time back down to a reasonable 20 minutes.

Much of that was due to the iPhone 3.0 beta information that has pleased some people while others are wringing their hands. The iPhone and the bits on the iPod touch that access some of the features are just going to get better. This will have Nokia and the rest all wondering what to do next, although Sony is already trying to move the Ericsson people out. Dell tried to join the party but they need to stick to the core business, or learn some lessons from Apple.

In a decision that must cause considerable embarrassment to Dell, and underlines just how different the iPhone is, Prince McClean at Apple Insider tells us their iPhone rival has been aborted owing to lack of interest from the carriers, as it is too dull. Now there is an advertising caption not to die for: "Dull, Dell". Thud.

One of the ideas we looked at on Sunday was the way that Twittering is now taking off; but it has its drawbacks for sure. Some seem to be constantly tweeting and I really cannot find the time, although one of the apps I am using also activates Growl, the notifying software, so puts anything to the left of the screen for a second or so and does not demand full attention. Linking by mobile phone here would appear to be difficult -- it really needs an internet link. So much of it seems also to be so mundane. There are a few interesting people who send tweets out, but there does not seem to be two way communication. I am likely to stick to SMS and email.

Of course, ON the internet, it is difficult to confirm or deny things sometimes. Three examples appeared over the weekend, the first concerning Keith Olbermann of Countdown, who has several hundred followers, but who has never used Twitter. Two others involve Apple: a link to movie trailers and one to Apple PR. Again, both have been found to be false and were removed: something like name-squatting. But I see the Apple movie trailers one has come back.

On that interim podcast we had another mention of the Ballmer phenomenon which some commentators are likening to Chicken Little in their derisive dismissals. We are reminded that Ballmer said no one would buy the iPhone.

I also made some comparisons with what you pay for and what you end up getting, with particular reference to the pile of bits upstairs that a friend has next to my iMac which he uses when he is not playing games: the sole reason the PC is there.

On Monday morning, the Bangkok Business Post had an article that brought a couple of ideas together for me. Nothing to do with computers, it was about private education in Thailand. Despite the almost free nature of parts of the education system here, as long as you can pay the tea-money some of the better so-called government schools apparently demand, there is a healthy private education system, from kindergarten through to university.

The Post article had the title, "International Schools Prosper in Slowdown" and the content suggested that the families who pay the fees are not affected too much (I guess that is what we call Old Money) and many recognise that in such times a good education is important: an investment for the future.

It is this point that I think can be applied to Apple and Macs. Albeit a small market still, but buyers want something that worked and that lasts. With the never ending malware and breakdowns, some people are just crying, Enough. Ballmer's $500 may be a hefty sum to a family with limited earnings who can only work with what they have (and may well want more), but for many the extra is an investment that soon pays off.

In a lovely satire of Ballmer's outpourings, John Moltz of Crazy Apple Rumors has an article that turns the tables and suggests, with tongue firmly planted in cheek, that the wife of Greg Joswiak, or Joz, is sad that her children are not allowed to have the Zune. You have to read this in relation to the comments of Microsoft family relationships, including Melinda Gates.

We are also asked to be sad for these kids as they "have also never known the joy of firing up Windows Vista, cursing, rebooting, cursing, rebooting again, installing hundred of megabytes of critical updates, rebooting, installing anti-virus updates, rebooting, waiting for a system scan to complete, and then having Internet Explorer 7 improperly render a standards-compliant Web page and crash, and then reinstalling the operating system."

Which reminds me, the department techie was doing that again on Tuesday morning when I went in to the office.

I copied all that [above] of course and am grateful for Mr Moltz doing a far better job of such humour than I could. You should read the whole lot although it does get a bit raucous towards the end.

I have had some back and forth emails with Dr Smoke on his new PDF book, Troubleshooting Mac OS X that can be downloaded from his site. During the communications he brought up the Apple hardware test that is available on the install disk that comes with each Mac -- do keep these; there are several reasons why you should.

I mentioned I had never run the tests and during Tuesday afternoon, the implications sunk in a bit. I got the disks out of the drawer in my office which was open as I am preparing this year's tax forms. I put the first disk into the drive and selected restart from the apple menu. On the restart, we hold down the "D" key. The interface reminded me of Apple's System 6: all very retro.

Simple really, it reads some settings then we can press the button to start the test, which in the case of my MacBookPro with its 2G RAM, took just over 2 minutes. There is a check box for an extended test which I then checked and left to run. While I was waiting I went onto the roof to take some photos.

On my return it was all fine. The panel has three tabs: a basic information tab; the test tab; and Information which like System Profiler, reports some of the hardware details and specifications.

Last week we brought in how John Cramer and Mad Money had some severe criticisms levelled at it, especially the way he was suspected of manipulating stock using the program. One of the companies had been Apple and he had talked the price down a while back to a fair bit of flak. Now he is contrite and is pro-Mac recognising that, "there are a thousand Steve Jobs over at Apple and they are delivering product after product. There is a video that goes with this on the MacDaily News page.

If you do hit the age of The Street, the program Cramer appears on, have a look at the huge disclaimer at the bottom of page 2. Talk about a health warning.

Also newly available and something that made me take notice as I am looking through iMovie right now, is Final Cut Pro Killer Secrets by Martin Baker. Like Dr Smoke's book, this is also in PDF download format -- this will be happening more and more -- and is priced at $19.

I still find online purchasing a bit of a lottery. There are several sites I use that give me no problems, but others have me pulling my hair out. As well as making a podcast I am a user and download several each week, both information and music. One of my long-time subscriptions is IndieFeed: I take the Alt Rock and Electronica feeds.

It was on the latter that I heard one of those must-have tracks, so went online only to find that I was limited to iTunes, Napster and Rhapsody. I knew it was a waste of time trying iTunes from here, but it was also the same for the others: not outside the US. I signed up on the group's pages for email notification about other retailers and they sent me iTunes, Napster and Rhapsody. So here is another group that may need record sales but they are just unavailable even if you want to throw money at them.

Follow that with an email from Nine Inch Nails who made history a few months ago by offering an album for download for free. The email makes another offer of free music downloads as part of the publicity for its upcoming multi-venue tour with the title Ninja 2009. When you do get to the links for download there is a selection of formats and explanations of what these are.

There, free publicity for them. And thanks from me.

My only problem was the standard of my internet connection which has deteriorated so much lately with low speeds and an intermittent signal that I am ready to pull the plug on True.

It had been bad for a few days so a friend phoned on Sunday morning. Nothing we can guarantee about outside connections they say. I wrote using the web based system. No response. After another 24 hours and several frustrating disconnects, I wrote email. The next day I had a long reply pointing out the types of problems and what can or cannot be done.

When one looks at the speed tests, we are getting 1700 kbps in Thailand, but 300 to the outside world. It seems to have little to do with the number of local users, although more nodes might help, and more to do with proper links, and that means investment in infrastructure by True. Speculate to accumulate, remember? [Late note: the technician came and, surprise, the problem is not at my house: more next time.]

The update to Leopard creeps closer with the latest seed of 10.5.7 going out to developers with a really long list of things to do and improvements that have been fixed. Alex Brooks over at World of Apple has more information than you ever wanted to know.

In another item on this, MacNN say this has certain improvements to the speech dictionary and has fixed several bugs.

I wonder if this update will bring a fix to the problem with Perl that Apple apparently introduced with a Security Update earlier this year. They have said sorry, according to the Register (they must have loved that) and promise it will be fixed real soon, now.

Over the weekend a BMW-riding friend, who has actually been to Thailand, sent me a link to a world clock which has several display types: population, death, pollution, food resources. It is called World Clock 2008, but does show the date and time correctly. As each is displayed, the counters go up, or down, depending on what is being tracked.

There was a report that on Apple education sites, the 17" iMac would be made available. As far as I can see, there is nothing listed in the Apple store for Thailand but I made a quick comparison of the prices and there is a difference, between 2,000 and 4,000 baht for some iMacs for example. There is free delivery for any purchase over 2,000 baht too.

If you access the online store and click on the education link to the left you will be asked to agree to a set of conditions, like the number of purchases that can be made. While the K-12 list of those eligible does not include the students themselves, the higher education list does, as well as faculty and staff. A later story confirmed that the 17" iMac had always been available but for institutional purchases.

Too Good to Miss?

The Register which posted the links in the first place as well as others to Wikileaks where the list appeared, now follows that by reporting that one of Australia's ISPs, iiNet (not related to the Thai INET) has pulled out of the trial.

Trial? Sounds like the Australian government are the guilty ones. What is it about Labour governments that turns them into oppressive, secretive regimes, every bit as bad as the right wing ones they replace?

That Register page has a lot of links that relate to the earlier story and other useful sites.

Another Thai link is the App store and I check this every few days for updates. Once these are listed -- and the Thai Word app I have for learning new vocabulary was one of those updated -- we are sent back to the App store main page. A few weeks ago there was a Thai dictionary listed there as top free app and this week the top one for free downloads is Thai Pray.

The specs tell us that the language is English, although screen shots all show Thai. User comments are all fairly positive. I downloaded this but as I suspected, it is wholly Thai text.

I wish people would classify things correctly on the App store. It comes from Thai-g.com and they do applications for mobile devices although the iPhone is not shown on the site which is almost totally in Thai.

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