shuffle December 2006 content

[Magnus]

A word from the editor - Growing pains
by Magnus

I can’t believe we’re only at the second issue of our newsletter because it feels like a lot more. In some ways this was a lot harder to produce, perhaps because we did a pretty good job with the first and expectations are higher. Perhaps because time was tighter this time and I had to put it together in less than a week. Despite that, I think we have some good stuff to bring you once again, with some more reviews, another recipe, Adobe tutorial, and much more.

EmiratesMac.com is doing very well. Since last time we’ve passed 500 registered users and we’re now at almost 6000 posts. Increasingly the site is becoming a valuable repository of Apple-related information and knowledge, and I hope we can help Mac and iPod users with their questions and problems. Traffic overall is increasing month by month and especially encouraging is to see that the number of unique visitors to the site is going up. New users are signing up almost every day and we’re now averaging over fifty new users per month. End of March 2007 it will be one year since the site’s been up and running so it’ll be interesting to see how many users we have then.

Someone asked me what I thought the impact of the site on the Apple-related business community in the UAE was? My answer was more than likely not much of any impact so far, but I think we play an increasingly important role as a third-party mediator and a consumer activist organization. By third-party mediator I mean we can work as a third-party between a customer and a business, and we have a few cases been the go-between and managed to resolve situations to the satisfaction of both parties. We’re also bringing a new element to the everyday life of Apple-related businesses in the Emirates by giving customers a public forum where they can voice their displeasure and dissatisfaction with how they’ve been treated by some business. As willing as members are to voice how unhappy they are with something, we wish they will also tell us when they are really happy with a business. It’s equally important to spread the good as well as the bad, I think.

We sincerely hope that you will enjoy this newsletter. The next one will be out in a month’s time and we hope we can fill it with just as much exciting stuff as this one. We’re also working on some pretty big surprises for the next edition, so please check back with us soon to see what’s happening.

Magnus Nystedt
Founder and Administrator EmiratesMac.com

[Magnus]

Grey market imports: interview with Apple IMC
by Magnus

Grey imports, or items from the grey market, sometimes also called direct or parallel imports, seem to be a frequent occurrence in the UAE as well as in other parts of the world. Recently I had an experience with a grey market Mac so I thought why not look into it a bit and write something in the attempt at educating consumers.

If you didn’t know it already, a grey market item is most likely exactly the same item you would buy from authorized channels, but there is no guarantee it is. They could be manufactured in the same factories, but they could also be refurbished, demonstration products used by salespeople, stored in inappropriate conditions, some specifications may be different, it may not come with the same accessories, etc. In short, you may save some money, but you’re also on your own to some extent and you are taking a chance.

Grey markets exist because for most products from most companies, there is an authorized or licensed distributor that has the sole right to import those products and sell them to consumers or other companies in a particular part of the world. Anything imported outside of that authorized distributor is grey as in outside the authorized channels. That is not to say it’s necessarily illegal - therefore grey and not “black”. Apple sells to authorized distributors, the authorized distributor sells to authorized dealers, and you buy your Mac or iPod from an authorized dealer.

Even if grey import items are not illegal, buying them may mean that you end up with problems with warranty and service. For some products you may be limited in terms of where to go when you have problems with the product you purchased, and service and support may only be available through authorized businesses and they may only accept to work on “white” items. If the product has a serial number, chances are they can check if your stuff is “white” or “grey”.

I mentioned earlier that I had an experience recently that prompted me to write about this. What happened was that I visited the showroom of a Apple retailer in the UAE to check on the price of a product and there was a brand new MacBook sitting there, still in its box. The box was open and the MacBook was sitting there, unfolded and very inviting. I talked to a sales person and he noticed my interest in the MacBook. He mentioned that it had an English keyboard and it was cheaper because of that. I don’t know whether this MacBook was grey market or not, but it got me thinking about this issue, and my main thought was how can a customer make sure they are not buying grey market if they don’t want to?

To look into this issue further, I interviewed (via email) Ghassan Bendali. Deputy General Manager, Apple IMC Middle East about this issue and here is the complete text.

EM: What is the grey market?
GB: Grey market is basically when a certain dealer/reseller/individual import some products into a certain region through a different channel then the lawful one set by the main office of a certain company. Basically importing a genuine product (not a fake or imitation) and selling in to the local market without this product being important by the licensed distributor to do that. Sometimes it is also called parallel import.

EM: Apple IMC Middle East is the only Apple-authorized distributor of Apple products in the UAE. What does that mean for businesses wanting to sell Apple products? Does it mean that they can only get the Apple products they sell through IMC?
GB: It means that anybody who would like to deal Apple products have to get its product either directly or indirectly from Arab Business Machine Ltd [IMC]. And obviously from the list of products that Apple has authorized ABM to sell.

EM: Is it illegal for a UAE company to import grey products on their own and sell them in the UAE?
GB: This is a simple question with a complicated answer :-) but basically UAE have an open policy toward importing products and companies can import products even if they are not officially licensed to by the head office of the company whose products are involved. This is an oversimplification of the question, but basically this what it all boils down to.

EM: The common benefit of a grey market item is that it’s cheaper than the authorized product. Why should consumers pay more for an authorized item? What’s the benefit to the consumer of buying an authorized item?
GB: I will answer this question in two folds. First and foremost is the price issue. It is true that sometimes, and I have to stress the word “sometimes”, price is better when you buy from the grey market. The reason behind that obviously is that grey market by definition is opportunistic, and if they did not see a certain gap, they would not be there in the first place, It is like how wrong phone numbers are never busy :-) But it is not true that the grey market price are always cheaper, on many occasions prices from grey market are similar to “official” prices.

But even when prices from grey markets are a little cheaper, in my opinion, they are not worth the hassle. I am not speaking from my position in ABM alone, but also my opinion as a consumer as well. We have seen many many cases where unsuspected customers where under sold some items saying they are cheaper. Like obsolete products, refurbished products, and on a couple of occasions (fortunately only a couple) defective products. The problem arise when the consumer try to find the “agent” for this product to report the problem, only to find out that the said dealer or retailer is not part of their channel, and hence no retribution possible for the dealer of such products unless the consumer decided to litigate which is not the easier of the routes in the first place.

Even if the product that the consumer is purchasing is the fully functional, latest release, genuine product, and still a bit cheaper, the question remains, is it worth it taking a risk? I guess each of us will have his own answer to that.

EM: Do you have any estimates on how much grey market Apple products are sold in the UAE?
GB: Unfortunately, no we do not have any estimates, but we have trends. I know that when a new product is introduced we have a spike in the grey market, then it falls down sharply after two to three weeks. Also portables are the main products that are being grey imported, you will hardly see any desktops. But with the iPods it is a totally different ball game. The sheer popularity of the product is making the grey market on it very strong.

EM: What’s the implications for the market as a whole of this grey importing?
GB: The most vocal implication, i.e. the one that the people hear a lot about is frustration. Frustration from customers who cannot get their products serviced properly, frustration from dealers having to answer calls they usually feel they do not have to, frustration from employees wasting their time trying to solve issue that are not supposed to be there in the first place, etc. Setting a price structure and finding the right channels to do that is a very complicated process, and grey market have big implications on this structure. Which means again implication on the image and market share of the brand. Obviously we try to take measures not to let this happen even with the existence of the grey market.

EM: Assuming grey importing of Apple products into the UAE is not in IMC’s interest, what does Apple IMC do to fight this grey importing?
GB: There are many very well known ways to fight grey market. The first one is to always stay competitive on the price, to add value to your product, allow people to easily distinguish your product from the grey import, work closely with the large retailers. add extra services to your products, etc.

EM: What about warranties for grey imports? For example, if a customer buys a new grey market Apple computer in the UAE, what warranty cover do they have?
GB: We follow Apple’s policies to the letter, so if Apple say that a product is under warranty even if it is grey, we cover it, If they say it is not then we don’t. It is important to understand as well, that Apple is a global company and has its own image that they want too keep. We try as much as possible to contribute positively to this image.

EM: For a customer, is there any way they can verify that an Apple product that they want to buy is not grey market?
GB: Regarding the Macs we have a very well established channels of dealers and retailers where you can buy with ease of mind. with the iPods we have a hologram with our logo on each of the iPods to distinguish it from the grey import.

EM: What action, if any, do you recommend that a customer that finds grey market items on sale in the UAE, take?
GB: As I said, people in the UAE selling Apple products from the grey market are not doing anything illegal, so there are really little a customer can do beyond gently voicing his/her opinion to the shop keeper to try to source out his product from the correct channel.

And that concludes our interview with Ghassan Bendali from Apple IMC. I went to a Radio Shack store to inquire about iPods and acted like I was interested in buying one and looked at a nano, a 30Gb, and a 60Gb. All were without IMC’s hologram. Talking to the sales guy about this, I said that I had been told that a legit item has to have the hologram sticker on it. The sales guy just said that’s what the MacStore puts on there because they are the official dealers. I asked if I buy an iPod from Radio Shack and there are problems with it, can I bring it back and is it covered by warranty? He answered that anyone buying from Radio Shack could just bring it back to Radio Shack and they would fix or replace the iPod.

It’s clear that grey imports is not a simple issue. Depending on who you talk to you’re probably going to get different views. What is clear is that it’s an issue that consumers should know about so they can make an informed decision.

[Magnus]

How to keep your iPod clean and shiny
by MacUAE

iPods, you might own one, two or more. They are everywhere these days. People take them everywhere they go. I own a collection of iPods that I use frequently. Every iPod I own get its fair share of daily use. Before I leave home every morning, I take one. Maybe a shuffle today or a nano... maybe I’d like to watch some video on my lunch break. I like to keep my iPods as pristine and shiny as possible. I use Apple socks or overpriced Leather Cases to protect them. Other cases like the ones made from silicon just scratch the iPod as they trap dirt which rub against the shiny case. People might ask why bother? Well, I consider Apple products to be a work of art first of all. I usually keep all my toys in good shape and Apple products deserve to be treated in a special way. Who cares? I do! I have come across two products that help me in this. One is a mobile cleaner and the other is an electronics cloth by 3M. The mobile cleaner, shown here in a yellow and green pouch contains small napkins with what seems to be special formulated solution diluted to be used to clean mobiles without causing damage. They do a great job in removing dirt and fingerprints. The 3M Electronics Cloth is made from Micro-Fiber which is a material made to capture dust particles without causing any static while rubbing. I tried to simulate fingerprints and dirt on my iPod to demonstrate my method. Using the wet napkins, lightly clean the iPod making sure all surface area is cleaned. Usually no pressure is needed. The solution will dry instantly, but might leave some water spots here and there! Complete this by polishing the iPod with the electronics cloth. Now the iPod is as good as new. Repeat this process to keep your iPod clean. Other cheaper methods might work, but through experience other methods might scratch the iPod and produce multiple small scratches that will multiply in no time! I also use the same method to keep my other Apple hardware clean. Enjoy our iPod(s).

[Magnus]

Review: MacPilot and DataGuardian
by Magnus

MacPilot

Koingo Software claims that MacPilot can “unlock over 300 hidden features and other advanced UNIX commands with ease” and I don’t doubt that is true. When you start the application you’re shown a bewildering array of buttons and options. You can with a click of a button control settings in the Finder, Safari, Mail, and more, and set how your Mac operates when it comes to disks, networking, sharing, etc. As an example, MacPilot will enable Safari’s debug menu with one click on a button. You can accomplish the same thing yourself by typing “defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeDebugMenu 1” in the Terminal. Most if not all of what MacPilot offers can be accomplished in different ways by the users themselves but it often requires entering commands in the Terminal and not everyone is comfortable doing that. What MacPilot offers is a one-stop-shop for all such customizations. Clearly, MacPilot competes with similar applications like TinkerTool (http://www.bresink.com/osx/TinkerTool.html) and Onyx (http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs/english.html). It seems pretty evident that MacPilot includes more functionality than either of those applications. What you have to decide I guess is if it’s worth $20 for the all-in-one-place convenience offered by MacPilot.

DataGuardian

DataGuardian offers 448-bit encryption for some of your most personal and sensitive information such as usernames and passwords for web sites. Basically DataGuardian manages databases in which you put your content. The content can be anything in text, meaning it could include usernames and passwords, journal entries, brief personal notes, etc. These databases can then be protected with username and password and pretty advanced encryption. You can create different databases in DataGuardian and keep related information in separate databases. For example, you can put all your web usernames and passwords in one database, your personal diary security in another database, etc. Each database can have it’s own structure and contain different kinds of fields of text. One of the nicest feature of DataGuardian is that it integrates with the Mac OS X Keychain. This means that information you store in a DataGuardian database can be automatically filled in on a web site when you have to enter username and password. It’s also nice to see that Koingo Software has included an export feature with which you can export the content of your databases to standard textfiles. This enables you to get your data transfered into some other system if you so choose.

You can find more information about MacPilot and DataGuardian at http://www.koingosw.com/. You can also download an evaluation copies from there, and buy licenses if you want to. Both applications cost $19.95 per license.

We will be giving away a licensed copy of both Data Guardian and Mac Pilot at a future EMUG meeting so make sure you attend.

[Magnus]

What's this thing called universal binary?
by Magnus

A computer has one or more CPUs, Central Processing Units, which are often described as the brains of the computer. Although that’s not really a very good analogy it does give non-technical users some idea of what the functionality of a CPU is in a computer. The current models of Macs all run some CPU made by Intel, most commonly the Core 2 Duo processor. Before switching to Intel, Apple used the G4 and G5 families of PowerPC processors manufactured by IBM. The thing to know right from the start here is that different families of processors speak different languages. A PowerPC processor cannot speak the same language as an Intel processor. It’s a bit like a conversation between one guy speaking Arabic and one guy speaking German, without either one knowing the other language.
During the mid-1990s Apple was going through a transition similar to the present one, where they switched from the CPU-family they had been using, the 68000 series, to the up-and-coming PowerPC family. In 1991 Apple joined forces with IBM and Motorola to develop the next-generation of CPUs, commonly known as the PowerPC processors. In 1994 the first Mac was launched with the PowerPC 601 CPU. That Mac was the Power Macintosh 6100/60.

That transition was also lined with compatibility problems similar to now. Software-manufacturers faced a situation where they had to make their 68000 software run on PowerPC architecture. Apple’s solution was Fat Binaries where an application contained code compiled for both platforms. Then when the application started it was decided which code to execute.
In a similar way the current Mac OS X can decide which code to run on an Intel Mac. A Universal Application, or a Universal Binary file format, contains executable code for both Intel and PowerPC processors. The operating system can decide when the application starts what code to run.
A difference from the previous transition is that Mac OS X now includes something called Rosetta. Basically Rosetta is a technology that translates PowerPC code into Intel code, meaning that an Intel Mac can run PowerPC applications. This all happens transparently and without you having to know or do anything about it. It’s because of Rosetta you can still run software like Microsoft Office on your brand new Intel mac.
That sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? And it is, by and large. The problem is that the translation from PowerPC code into Intel code takes time for the computer and not everything is translated 100% correctly. This can lead to your Intel Mac feeling a bit slow at times, slower than it should be.
One remedy is to put as much RAM in your Intel Mac as possible. Rosetta seems to really love taking up a lot of memory so your Mac will do better with more RAM available. Another thing you can do is to look at what’s actually running with Activity Monitor (found in Applications > Utilities). It will show you everything that is running and if it says “PowerPC” in the column “Kind” it will more than likely slow your Intel Mac down. If you have PowerPC programs running you can then decide to uninstall them or to force-quit them.

[Magnus]

Adobe is busy developing for Mac
by Magnus

We all know about the problems Adobe is having getting Universal Binary versions of their main software like Adobe Creative Suite out the door. Our best guess at this moment in time is sometime in 2007. For designers, graphic artists, photographers and other professionals who rely on Adobe software the day cannot come soon enough when they can run their Adobe software at full speed on their Intel Macs. In an attempt at showing you that Adobe is actually pretty busy working away on Mac software, here is a collection of their more recent releases. With version eight, the Acrobat family of software became Universal Binary. Acrobat also receives a long list of improvements and additions. According to Adobe they’re trying to satisfy business users as well as creative professionals, who are two of the main groups of users of Acrobat. It seems that Adobe has made progress especially in terms of usability, with wizards to walk users through features, for example. Adobe keep cranking out new beta versions of LightRoom in what seems to be a steady schedule. LightRoom is clearly meant as a competitor to Apple’s Aperture and it’s in many ways similar in look and functionality. It seems focused on advanced amateurs and professionals, and offer a streamlined workflow solution for someone who shoots a lot of pictures. Another beta version is Adobe’s SoundBooth. SoundBooth stands out compared to the other applications here because it’s Intel only. This means that it doesn’t run on older PowerPC Macs. When this became known Adobe was accused of all kinds of things by many people, but they probably have their reasons for doing this. SoundBooth is branded as an audio-editing tool for non-audio professionals. If you’re, let’s say, a Flash or web developer and you need to do some audio editing, then SoundBooth is probably a viable choice. The most obscure of the applications we talk about here is arguably FlexBuilder. Flex is Adobe’s name for their tech-
nology for developing Rich Internet Applications (RIAs). I guess to put it simply, Flex is the development tool with which you can develop interactive, dynamic Flash applications that talk to other web sites, databases, and servers to give the user a “rich” experience. Version two of FlexBuilder is available as a beta for Mac and it is Universal Binary. The final Adobe launch we’ll mention is Contribute 4. In comparison to the other applications we’ve mentioned, Contribute 4 is not Universal Binary, it’s PowerPC only. That may seem strange to many since Contribute 4 was introduced in October 2006, over a year after Apple announced that they would switch to Intel, and even after all of Apple’s Mac line-up had become Intel-based. Contribute is all about publishing content to web sites. It’s not about designing web sites, Adobe leaves that to DreamWeaver. But with Contribute different users can have different access to update a site’s content. Why it is still not Universal Binary is anyone’s guess.

Read more about these products and download trial or beta
versions at:
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flexbuilder2/
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom/
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/soundbooth/
http://www.adobe.com/products/contribute/
http://www.adobe.com/products/FlexBuilder

[Magnus]

BumperCar protects your kids online
by Crystal

Every parent is concerned about what their kids do online. And I think parents realize that there is only so much they can do to protect their kids but they want to do what they can. When it comes to browsing the web it’s easy for anyone to accidentally stumble into a site with less-than-acceptable content. It could be bad language, inappropriate topics, pictures with things kids shouldn’t see, etc. Mac OS X has parental controls built-in but they are pretty limited. What BumperCar does is extend those controls by having you create a new user account and setting BumperCar as one of the few applications the new user can run. You could even set BumperCar to be the only application that can be run by the new, limited user account. With your Mac OS X admin account you can then configure BumperCar. Finally set the Mac to automatically log in to the new account and you’re done. At the heart of BumperCar is a customizable homepage. There are ready-made home-pages with links to various resources suitable for different age groups. It probably makes sense for you to customize one of the homepages and add the URL of your kids’ school, and possibly also some of their favorite sites that you approve of. You can customize a white list (approved sites) and a black list (denied sites). There are also quite advanced settings for language where you can customize the filter settings to what you feel is appropriate. One cool feature is that you can monitor your kids’ online activities via BumperCar’s ability to connect to .Mac. And really handy for many parents is the options for controlling when BumperCar can actually be used online. You can limit the time your kids can use BumperCar to certain hours. So even if they sneak up at night they can’t get online. I was impressed with BumperCar and can warmly recommend it to anyone with a Mac that wants to limit what children can do on the Mac. BumperCar is a good choice for parents wanting some control over their kids’ online time, but I think schools should also consider getting it.

BumperCar 2 is available from http://www.freeverse.com/bumpercar2/. You can download a trial version and if you decide to keep it you pay $29.95. Apple has some information about their family-friendly features at: http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/family/
KidsBrowser from App4Mac (http://www.app4mac.com/kidsbrowser.html) is a competitor to BumperCar. It’s slightly more expensive at $49 but we recommend you try it before you decide to invest your money in either application.

[Magnus]

Review: Devon Agent and Devon Think
by Magnus

Devon Think and Devon Agent from Devon Technologies are not the best known applications for Mac.They are good examples of high-quality Mac software that many users would benefit from having on the hard drives and we hope we can give you some idea of what they can help you with.

Devon Agent
Most of use depend on search engines like Google to find information every day. But don’t you often feel frustrated about not being able to find what you’re looking for and be able to “drill down” into the data? It’s like you’re prospecting for gold in Alaska and you want to find that nugget of gold and Google only pours lots of sand in your washing pan without helping you much weed out the dirt. Devon Agent can actually help you zero in on the golden nugget in ways that the online search engines can not. In Devon Agent you type in what you’re looking for and the program will connect to a number of online search engines and databases, retrieve the information they have, analyze it, group and related it, and finally display a list of hits. The application groups the results by keywords and in the Digest view you can see a list of the pages the result was found together with a brief summary. Then under the Pages tab you find more detailed information about Reviews every page in the results. Clicking on any of the topics (keywords) displays a spider-wed like picture of how Devon Agent thinks they relate to one another. By clicking on the topics in they web, the web changes, and can possibly reveal new relationships you had not considered previously. If you regularly perform the same searches you can save your search-parameters in a Set which then can be called up at any time. Devon Agent has a built-in web browser and supports a plug-in architecture which you can use to connect it to pretty much any data source. I don’t think Devon Agent is immediately and intuitively user-friendly and it takes some working with to get any real benefit out of. But if you are searching the web a lot, Devon Agent may just help you find better results.

Devon Think
Describing what Devon Think is all about is easier in a way than Devon Agent. Devon Think is sort of the catch-all repository for any and all information and files you have that you want to save, index, so you can go back and find them later. I threw all the files for this newsletter into a Devon Think database and it indexed them all nicely. And this was text files, Word files, Pages files, all kinds of picture formats, etc. Devon Think couldn’t read an Illustrator file, and an EPS file, but the rest was no problem. So Devon Think is a database where you can keep all your digital files, but it’s also a pretty good text editor (with a full screen editing mode), a web browser (using Safari’s technology), and more. Perhaps the most interesting part of Devon Think however is the search technology that is built in to the software. Devon Technologies claims that advanced artificial intelligence can help you sift through your databases and retrieve information in various ways. The database I worked with was not very large so I couldn’t really verify this claim, but I have no reason to doubt that it’s true. If you have a lot of digital information that you want to collect in one place, try Devon Think.

You can find more information about these products at http://www.devon-technologies.
com. Devon Agent is $49.95 and Devon Think is available in Professional version ($79.95) or Personal version ($39.95). You can buy Agent and Think Professional together for $99.95. We will be giving away a licensed copy of both both Devon Agent and Devon Think Professional at a future EMUG meeting so make sure you attend.