The Different District

DD's TechNight 24: Touch My Wiimote!

On TechNight 24: new Apple touch patents, our official Wii review, your live calls, and all the news and commentary that's fit to broadcast. It's the news you need, the tech you love! To subscribe or to get shownotes, go to the podcast page. | Listen Now (direct download)

DD's TechNight 23: Coolest Patent Ever

Episode 23 of the Different District's TechNight on the feed! This week: Firefox 2 goes public, MacBook Pros get a Core2, cool video iPod patents, Quicksilver, and all the news and commentary that's fit to broadcast. It's the news you need, the tech you love! To subscribe or to get shownotes, go to the podcast page. | Listen Now (direct download)

DD's TechNight 22: TWiT in Trouble

Episode 22 of the Different District's TechNight on the feed! This week: I talk about TWiT's sticky situation, the iPod celebrates its 5th birthday, we take Skype for a spin, and all the news and commentary that's fit to broadcast. It's the news you need, the tech you love! To subscribe or to get shownotes, go to the podcast page. | Listen Now (direct download)

Apple Releases Core 2 MacBook Pros

Apple released its first Core 2 Duo portables today with the announcement of new MacBook Pros based on 2.16 and 2.33 Ghz processors. The upgrades bring speed-bumps to all three models, along with Firewire 800 standard on all models, hard drive bumps to 120 and 160 GBs (with 200GB available as an option) and 2GB of RAM standard on the second 15" and the 17" model. While Apple squeezed in 39% more power, they also added a faster, 6x Dual-Layer Superdrive to the 15" MacBook Pros. The new models are available immediately with 2-4 day lead times on shipments from the Online Store.

DD's TechNight 21: Praise The Cube

Episode 21 of the Different District's TechNight on the feed! This week: Apple lets out the red iPod nano, Muslims have a problem with the Apple Cube store, we look at MyDreamApp.com, and all the news and commentary that's fit to broadcast. It's the news you need, the tech you love! To subscribe or to get shownotes, go to the podcast page. | Listen Now (direct download)

Apple Updates Tiger to 10.4.8

I know what you're thinking: We missed the boat on this one. Fear not! While it would be silly to simply prattle on about how 10.4.8 came out Friday and that it can change the world and cure cancer, we've instead elected to give you a quick tip: 10.4.8 is a huge update on Intel Macs (200+ megs), reboots the system twice, and takes about 5 minutes for those reboots to complete. So don't be alarmed if your system doesn't boot back right away - It's merely installing the goodness that is an OS update. Go get it now on Software Update. Or you could read the changelog here.

DD's TechNight 20: One Year and Counting

Episode 20 of the Different District's TechNight is ready to go! This week: Ian Rogers of Yahoo Music joins us for an interview, we review Feeder (a fantastic podcasting app), new co-host Brad Mattison tells us if Windows Vista is ready for prime-time, and all the news and commentary that's fit to broadcast. It's the news you need, the tech you love! To subscribe or to get shownotes, go to the podcast page. | Listen Now (direct download)

Apple Updates iLife and iWork for Aperture 1.5 Support

Nothing fancy here - Apple pushed out Software Updates last night for iLife and iWork 06 to support Aperture 1.5 and fix a few bugs along the way. All are available on Apple's Support site and through Software Update on your Mac.

Apple Announces Aperture 1.5

At a pre-Photokina press conference today, Apple announced Aperture 1.5, a major update to their popular professional photography workflow application. Aperture's file system has been updated to support external drives and RAID arrays or even CDs and DVDs. Aperture 1.5 also launches a plug-in API, with plugins from Gettyimages, iStockPhoto, and Flickr available now. The zoom feature and color controls have also been enhanced, as has the integration with iWork and iLife. Aperture 1.5 also does more fun things with meta-data, such as "offline" editing and automatic export. All the details on new features can be found on Apple's Aperture "What's New?" site. Aperture 1.5 will be a free update later this week for current Aperture users, and $299 for those who have yet to buy a copy.

The DD Podcast Evolved: TechNight

After months of downtime on the site and the feed, I am proud to announce that The Different District Podcast has returned�in a new form. Our new name is �TechNight: The Different District Podcast� or just �TechNight� for short. We think the new name reflects our intent for the show better than the old name and it also describes our show for anyone who sees it. We�re broadening our show content a bit as well. While our main focus is still the Mac (of course), we�re going to begin including more stories and segments about other technology topics, including the internet, gadgets, and more. Fear not Mac-heads, we�re still true to you. Among other changes to the show, we also have a new co-host. Brad Mattison confounded DD and he has returned from his absence at the site to be our right-hand man on TechNight. You may have heard him before as a guest on older shows, but we welcome him as a full fledged member of the podcast. There are many more exciting things in store for the new show, but I�ll let you wonder about those for one more week. TechNight premiers next week (the first week of October) and we�ll be unveiling the new show and celebrating the DDP�s one year anniversary! Woot! Anyway, we can�t wait for our first show, so stay cool, and most importantly, stay subscribed. P.S. Over the next week, please don�t be alarmed if our feed goes a bit weird. We�re just going to change the name and description around a bit. Everything should be in working order by next weekend.

Belkin introduces new iPod cases

Belkin introduced several new cases and stands for the new iPod nano and the iPod with video. Cases include fliptop cases, armbands, slider cases, and a kickstand. According to the Belkin press release, each case is �designed to fit every lifestyle, the cases reflect a more contemporary feel with colors, designs, and materials that complement current fashions.� The cases will be shipping in September in North America, with launches in Asia, Europe, and Australia to follow. Click here for a complete rundown of the new cases.

iTunes Store sells 125,000 Disney films in ONE WEEK

Disney CEO Bob Iger announced to Reuters today that Disney has garnered $1 million dollars in revenue from 125,000 movie sales on the iTunes store in just one week. He goes on to predict revenues of $50 million dollars during the first year. With results like this, perhaps more studios will soon jump aboard.

Mac Pro Firmware Updates

Apple today updated the firmware for the EFI and SMC chips on the Mac Pro. The EFI update fixes issues with Boot Camp and startup, and the SMC update adjusts fan behavior on the Mac Pro. Both should be available in Software Update. On a related note, Parallels has released a new Beta of their popular Windows virtualization software which improves Mac Pro and 64-bit iMac support.

Three new Apple stores to open this weekend

Apple announced the grand openings for three new retail stores. September 23 will be a big day for Apple as the following stores will open to the public: Apple Store Columbia, Columbia, MD; Apple Store Providence, Providence, RI; and Apple Store Village Pointe, Omaha, NE.

Mac Office 2007 shaping up...for another year

APC Magazine (whoever they are) got an exclusive interview with Mary Starman, the Group Product Manager at the Macintosh Business Unit. She let slip a few juicy details about Office 2007, including the suggestion that the Mac suite might see something akin to Office 2007 PC's "ribbon" interface. She's quick to point out, however, that following Apple's UI guidelines is priority number-one: whatever interface they do design, it will look quite at home in OS X. She also talks about the trouble porting code over to XCode to make it universal and hints at a Summer/Early Fall 2007 release date. We'll keep you up-to-date on this long-awaited product!