Fire and Rain

Our thoughts are with the people of Louisiana and Mississippi who are struggling with the effects of hurricane Katrina. Meanwhile, in the west wildfires continue to rage, ravaging millions of acres of forest and plains. As we go to digital press, almost 7.5 million acres of land in the US have already been burned this year.

The advent of high-speed Internet access and media-rich content have helped save lives as early warning information and up-to-the-minute Internet-based disaster reports keep people informed and help those affected by natural disasters plan and prepare for action.

It’s no wonder so many Macintoshes are being purchased by college students and higher-education institutions. There’s no better learning tool for the Information Age than a Macintosh computer connected via of the Internet to news sources and libraries located all over the world.

The third calendar quarter of 2005 may be a banner season for iBook sales, as students returning to campus are buying Macintosh laptops in surprising numbers. A Macintosh computer and iSight combination may be just the solution for college students desiring to keep in close contact with family and friends at home. This year’s natural disasters are just a reminder there’s no one further away than a loved one who can’t be reached from back home, and no one so close as someone separated by distance who calls, e-mails or video conferences to say “The rain has stopped,” “The fire has moved on,” or “Hey, I passed the test!”

No Peas in the ’Pod?

One of our favorite regular columns at ATPM is Pod People. We invite you to join our monthly madness by sharing your iPod experiences with our readers. Please contact our managing editor for more information. Without your help, there might be no peas in the ’Pod column next month.

More Peas for the ’Pod?

According to media reports Apple Computer will be announcing a new portable product on September 7th. Much speculation focuses on a new iPod shuffle with up to 4 GB of flash memory. Meanwhile, Apple Computer appears to be buying as much flash memory as the company can ahead of the new announcement.

iTunes Phone Home?

The long-anticipated iTunes cell phone may soon be here (or hear), depending on how you like it. Although Apple and Motorola’s CPU partnership may have waned, Motorola and Apple may soon debut an iTunes phone that can play music purchased at Apple’s popular online music store.

Eight Is Great?

We’ll soon find out. FileMaker, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Apple Computer, had just rolled out version 8 of its popular database product. Skipping the half-step to 7.5, the new product offers a number of new features and enhancements that may have compelled the company to set-aside its usual upgrade nomenclature and offer this release as a full version advancement.

Our Latest Issue

This month thousands of public and private learning institutions welcome students back to school. At ATPM we never stop learning. Our staff works around the clock and all over the world to bring you the latest Macintosh news and views in our friendly, easy-to-read monthly format. We don’t test your patience, but we do examine the facts. Our standards never take recess. Please enjoy our latest issue.

Our September issue includes:

Bloggable: Intel-ligent Design

When a bunch of hackers sent word that OS X for Intel CPUs wouldn’t run fully on their grey-box PCs because Apple was using Trusted Computing, a kind of DRM for operating systems, the only sound Wes Meltzer could hear for many miles was thousands of hands wringing. Was Apple about to become the Kansas of the computer world? Also, news about future PowerBooks, bad jokes, Internet Explorer news, and more, in this month’s Bloggable.

Desktop Muse: Robert Moog: A Tribute

Remembering synthesizer pioneer Robert Moog.

Pod People: Adventures of an iPod: How I Became One of the Pod People

No matter how much willpower you have, one long road trip with an iPod will make you too one of the Pod People. Resistance is indeed futile.

FileMaking: Calculations in Depth

After a discussion of FileMaker’s field types, this month Charles discusses fields and calculations.

Desktop Pictures: Textures and Big Apple

Macintosh enthusiast Francisco Leung shares his view of the moon over Manhattan, and Contributing Editor Matthew Glidden offers street and building textures from Louisville, KY, as well as New Orleans, LA—locations which, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, we may not see for quite some time.

Cortland

Cortland decodes corporate buzzwords while missing a golden opportunity. Meanwhile, the plan of the evil geniuses is temporarily foiled due to their inability to read a map.

Frisky Freeware: Nvu

Frisky the Freeware Guinea Pig checks out the Nvu Web authoring software.

Review: ABSmini

David Blumenstein checks out a small external drive with one-touch backup capability that is totally USB-powered.

Review: Mighty Mouse

“[The Mighty Mouse is] Apple’s first attempt at making a mouse with more than one button. With any luck, it won’t be its last.”

Review: Neocase

The RadTech NeoCase is a nicely-made neoprene carrying case for Apple laptops, and it is much better than its Matrix-style advertising makes it appear.

Review: PhoneValet 3.0, PodCast, and Anywhere

PhoneValet 3.0, PodCast, and Anywhere offer a significant upgrade to the previous PhoneValet products, and they offer the same ease-of-use in previous versions while greatly extending the features.

Review: Tron 2.0

For any video-game geek growing up in the 80s, Tron was one of those defining moments. Now Monolith and MacPlay bring us the sequel: Tron 2.0—and this time you are on the game grid!

Review: You Control: Desktops 1.1.1

Think about Apple’s Fast User Switching feature. Now imagine the same concept, but not switching to a different user.