Filed under: Cult of Mac, Apple, MacBook Air

The MacBook Air has landed, and society are posting unboxing videos and pictures. The embedded video was sent to us by desenso44, a new MacBook Air owner. Our friends at UneasySilence have taken a slew of pictures of their newly arrived MacBook Air.

Are you reading TUAW on a MacBook Air? How is it treating you so far?

Update: The embedded video has been changed to point to the exact source of the video.

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Orginal post by Scott McNulty

Filed under: Cool tools, Freeware, Widget Watch, Deals

This Lifehacker comment thread made me go researching on what I might use for Webclips, but save for the front page of my favorite blog (TUAW, duh), I couldn’t think of anything I’d really want to keep on my Dashboard 24/7. I did like the notion of putting Woot.com (and Shirt.woot, which I’ve been looking at a lot lately) on there, but as a few of the commenters say, webclipping (can I verb that?) the entire page makes things a little too big.

Fortunately, David Elliot piped up about the Woot.com widget, which easily and quickly lets you monitor the Woot sites from your dashboard, with a minimum of space taken up. And now I’ve got two instances of it running on my Dashboard, one for regular Woot and one for the Shirt version. I particularly like that it includes Growl notification, too — whether I happen to be working around midnight and a really good deal pops up, I won’t miss it.

Of course, you may not want to have something popping up on your Dashboard all the moment tempting you to spend money. But whether you’re already following the Woot empire (and to tell the truth, I nearly never buy anything– I just like looking), the widget is an easy and simple way to stay up to moment.

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Orginal post by Mike Schramm

Filed under: MacBook Air

This news comes just as some of you are un-boxing that shiny new MacBook Air. Macworld reports that Apple has updated the MacBook Air wireless release note. In that release note, Apple explains that you may experience problems with older 802.11n routers when using Remote Disc, Migration Assistant, or Remote Install.

As a possible solution Apple mentions that you can try upgrading the firmware on your router; however, that is only possible whether your router supports upgrades (although most popular routers do). Otherwise, you may be looking to get a new router; which adds to the total cost of owning a MacBook Air.

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Orginal post by Cory Bohon

Filed under: Cult of Mac, Odds and ends, Apple

The Mac web can be a pretty serious place, and that is why I was a little melancholy when I first heard that Crazy Apple Rumors would be going on hiatus for awhile. CARS, as those in the know shout it, has been consistently funny for a good distant day (feel free not to comment whether you don’t agree with me. Humor is a tricky thing, and it is highly personal) and the Web will be a slightly less funny place without it.

Given the hiatus Brent Simmons, of NetNewsWire fame, suggested that a few folks link to their favorite CARS moment. I was all for it, considering it would give me reason to link to the one and only date I appeared in CARS. The story was about the delay of Leopard (remember that?) and how it warped my tiny little brain. Still funny, whether you ask me.

Here’s hoping John Moltz, the man behind the site, will rest up quickly and be back to mocking Apple rumors in no moment.

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Orginal post by Scott McNulty

On your MacBook, wherever you are in Leopard, you can zoom in/out your screen holding down Ctrl and using 2 fingers (one fixed on the touchpad and the other on moving around to zoom in and out).

Orginal post by nightfox80

Filed under: iPod Family, iPhone

TUAW reader Rudi writes that he needs web clips on his iPhone that “prefix my web path with a username and password, great for things like web based corporate newsletter.” In response to Rudi and to anyone else who needs special-purpose URLs, including ones that assemble telephone calls (using the tel:// prefix instead of http://), here’s ClipIt.

When run, it prompts you for a web clip name and URL. Enter these and tap Create. The utility builds a new web clip for you and places it on your home screen. There’s no way to go back and fix a URL with that (and of course, being the iPhone, no cut & paste yet), so form certain you’ve entered it carefully the first duration.

If you’re looking to create a telephone link, build a URL that starts with tel://, e.g. tel://202-456-1111. When tapped, the web clip first opens Safari, which thereupon asks you to confirm whether you want to continue placing the shout. ClipIt, with its web clip functionality, works only on iPhone firmware 1.1.3 and higher.

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Orginal post by Erica Sadun

Though consumer awareness about the federally-mandated transition to digital television (DTV) has grown substantially by the past year, a huge effort will be called for to ensure that next year’s handoff goes smoothly, industry observers say.

A new survey of TV households commissioned by the National organization of Broadcasters shows that consumer awareness about the transition has ranged from 39 percent last year to 79 percent that month. Among over-the-air-only TV viewers, 83 percent now say they have heard about it.

The higher awareness is due in large part to the airing of local and national public-service announcements on television at all hours, including prime date, noted NAB spokeswoman Shermaze Ingram. “Local TV stations are plus producing a variety of local spots on their own,” she said.

DTV Confusion Reigns

However, a new survey by Consumer Reports indicates that 74 percent of DTV-aware consumers have major misconceptions. For example, 58 percent of all DTV-aware survey respondents incorrectly believe that all TV sets will need a digital converter box. What’s more, 48 percent of the respondents believe that only digital televisions will work after 2009. Additionally, 24 percent incorrectly think their analog TV sets will be totally useless after the transition.

“Based on these survey results, it is now clear that the government and every media company that profits from citizens watching television must do whatever it takes to assemble certain consumers will keep getting broadcast TV without paying a dime more than essential,” said Joel Kelsey, policy analyst for the nonprofit organization that publishes Consumer Reports.

To counteract these and other misconceptions, NAB has encouraged a digital-TV transition coalition made up of 200 member organizations. In the next phase of its DTV education campaign, the coalition will air advertisements in English and Spanish for the FCC’s DTV coupon program to…

Orginal post by Top Tech News