Bush Government implements sanctions for North Korea's "Dear Leader" - Kim Jong-il, Apple's iPod is banned to export to North Korea.

Besides, there are many items prohibited to ship to North Korea, including plasma TVs, yachts, French cognac, Rolex watches, cigarettes, artwork, expensive cars like Mercedes Benz & BMW, Harley Davidson motorcycles or even personal watercraft, such as Jet Skis.

Responding to North Korea's nuclear test Oct. 9, 2006 that the U.N. Security Council voted to ban military supplies and weapons shipments — sanctions already imposed by the United States. It also banned sales of luxury goods but so far has left each country to define such items. Japan included beef, caviar and fatty tuna, along with expensive cars, motorcycles, cameras and more. Many European nations are still working on their lists.

Tags: iPod

Another rumor and speculation to stir up with Apple.

After U2 iPod launched a couple of years ago to the market by Jobs, Mac users always ask me who will be the next iPod Star? and I always claim that the forthcoming idol will be the Beatles.

The Beatles, under the management of Apple Corps, has been tangled up with Apple Computer in courtrooms for more than 20 years. And yet, it is about time to make peace for both companies to benefit themselves in a mutual solution, that put the Beatles' music exclusively in iTunes Music Store for the public. The Beatles music sell like hot cakes!

Make Love, No Wars! PEACE!

Tags: Apple

Phase One Capture One Pro 3.7.6
http://www.phaseone.com/



Ichikawa Soft Laboratory SILKYPIX Developer Studio 3.0
http://www.isl.co.jp/SILKYPIX/english/



Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 1.0b4
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom/



Apple Aperture 1.5.1
http://www.apple.com/aperture/

Tags: Photography

(Picture shown an artist illustration of forthcoming Apple iPhone)

Mac users and market analysts take wild guesses on Apple future products, rumors and speculations are all around these days. Let's review these exciting bubbleware and cross our fingers, one of these days, they might turn out to be true.

1. Apple iPhone, a black and a white iPod nano form-factor, 3G & GSM cellular phones.
2. Apple Intel-based dual 4-Core Kentsfield architecture super Mac Pro Desktops.
3. 15"-inch MacBook, black model and white model.
4. All new Apple HD Cinema Displays, starting 20", 24", & 30"-inch.
5. Apple AMD CPU powered notebook computers.
6. Apple reveals Blu-ray drive in Mac Pro Desktops.
7. Wireless iPod.
8. Wide-Screen video iPod with touch screen controls.

Tags: iPhone

I heard it through the grapevine. Apple's new iPod shuffle 2 has been selling like hotcakes.

In the meantime, let's take a look the gorgeous iPod shuffle 2 TV commercial. Enjoy!

More on iPod shuffle....

(This post is being updated on Nov 08, 2007)

Tags: iPod

Wow! Google breaks US$500 mark, soars to US$505 level. Bullish!

GOOG price rises at U$504.16, 11:44 AM EST.

Tags: Stock Shares

Thanks to the glorious success of Apple's brand-new digital music player, iPod shuffle 2. AAPL, shares of Apple Computer, Inc. closed at US$85.85 all-time high on Nov 17 (Friday).

AAPL will go strong and expecting bullish at the holiday shopping season, supporting by the facts of strong demand for Intel-based Macs, iPods, and MacBooks.

Tags: AAPL

I bought this iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED Special Edition, 8 GB version from Apple Store Hong Kong. (HK$1,900)

This slim size iPod nano will ship to Halle Tsai, one of the active Mac fans now residing in Beijing.

Tags: iPod

I have plans to go to Hong Kong for a couple of days, scheduled to return home on Nov 18 (Saturday). This blog will soon be updated.

Come visit again on Saturday, see you guys!

Tags: Greetings

CUPERTINO, California—November 14, 2006—Apple® today announced it is teaming up with Air France, Continental, Delta, Emirates, KLM and United to deliver the first seamless integration between iPod® and in-flight entertainment systems. These six airlines will begin offering their passengers iPod seat connections which power and charge their iPods during flight and allow the video content on their iPods to be viewed on the their seat back displays.

“There is no better traveling companion than an iPod, and now travelers can power their iPods during flight and even watch their iPod movies and TV shows on their seat back displays,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide iPod Product Marketing. “We’re excited to work with Air France, Continental, Delta, Emirates, KLM and United to offer iPod users an even better in-flight experience.”

In-flight iPod connectivity will be available to Air France, Continental, Delta, Emirates, KLM and United passengers beginning in mid 2007. Additionally, Apple is working with Panasonic Avionics Corporation to bring even more leading airlines in-flight iPod connectivity in the future.

Tags: iPod

TOKYO (Reuters) - Sony Corp. sold 88,400 units of its PlayStation 3 game console in the first two days after the launch in Japan, leaving most stores without any stock, video game magazine publisher Enterbrain said on Monday.

The PS3 is up against Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360, which has been on sale for the past year, and Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s upcoming Wii game console, which is scheduled to go on sale on November 19 in the United States and December 2 in Japan.

The basic model of the PS3, equipped with a 20-gigabyte hard disk drive, sells for 49,980 yen (US$425), while a more advanced 60-gigabyte version is retailing for about 60,000 yen.

Suggested Retail Prices in Hong Kong:
PlayStation 3 HDD 60GB Model: HK$3,780
PlayStation 3 HDD 20GB Model: HK$3,180

Tags: Gadgets

Will Microsoft's Zune survive in the portable music and entertainment war? I doubt.

Microsoft always be a copycat, from OS to hardware, now launching the 30GB Zune digital media player, a similar portable gadget like Apple's iPod and trying hard to share a slice of pie from Apple's dominant territories. Good luck, Zune!

Microsoft's Zune Facts:
- 30GB digital media player, built-in FM tuner, preloaded multimedia contents,
- 3 choices of color in Black, White or Brown,
- 3-inch LCD video screen, 320 X 240 pixels,
- Featuring 802.11b/g Wireless Zune-to-Zune sharing,
- Multimedia platform supported through Online music store, the Zune Marketplace,
- 4.4 in. x 2.4 in. x 0.6 in. (H x W x D)
- 5.6 ounces (159 grams)


Zune software can import audio files in unprotected WMA, MP3, AAC; photos in JPEG; and videos in WMV, MPEG-4, H.264. Requires a PC running Windows® XP with Service Pack 2 and high-speed Internet connectivity.

Zune 30GB, due for sale on Nov 14, 2006 (Tuesday) US$249.00
Apple iPod 30GB (5.5th Generation Video), US$249.00

So, this sleek copycat is not for Mac? anyway.

Tags: Gadgets

Reliable sources told Tomahawk that Dual Intel Quad-Core (Clovertown) processors have been transplanted into Mac Pro Desktop. I have reasons to believe that Apple's 8-Head Monster will be revealed at the first quarter of 2007.


Intel Kentsfield Architecture Processors
2.66 GHz Core 2 Quad Q6600, dual 4MB L2 cache, 1066MHz FSB.
3.33 GHz Core 2 Extreme QX6700, dual 4MB L2 cache, 1066MHz FSB.

Tags: Apple

The complete line of Apple notebook computers are finally upgraded to Intel Core 2 Duo processors.

Apple reveals the 13.3"-inch MacBook using Intel Core 2 Duo,

MacBook in Black, Core 2 Duo 2GHz (T7200, 4MB L2 Cache) 1GB RAM 120GB SATA HDD
MacBook in White, Core 2 Duo 2GHz (T7200, 4MB L2 Cache) 1GB RAM 80GB SATA HDD
MacBook in White, Core 2 Duo 1.83GHz (T5600, 2MB L2 Cache) 512MB RAM 60GB SATA HDD


Reliable source provides MacBook's System Profiler below:



P.S. And yet, I can hardly wait for the Mac mini Lunch Box for a brain transplant of Core 2 Duo.

Tags: Apple

Mr. Steven Paul Jobs of Apple plays Santa Clause.

Uncle "Santa" Steve gives free iPod shuffle 2 to his employees during the season, everyone works for Apple will be pleased to get one as a token of appreciation from Apple.

Apple iPod shuffle 2 (1GB) retail price at HK$650.00

Tags: iPod

PLAY.COM from U.K. offers a Pre-order of Apple MacBook powered by Core 2 Duo (Mobile Chip), and claims that the MacBook is due for release on Nov. 13, 2006.

Pre-Order MacBook configuration as follows:

Apple 13.3"-inch MacBook, Core 2 Duo (T7200, 4MB L2 Cache) 2GHz 512MB RAM

Apple 13.3"-inch MacBook, Core 2 Duo (T5600, 2MB L2 Cache) 1.83GHz 512MB RAM

Tags: Apple

Symantec reported that Mac OS X is being threatened by a virus named OSX.Macarena, discovered on November 02, 2006.

OSX.Macarena is categorized as a low wild-level virus, that considered at Risk Level 1 Threat Assessment. Number of Infections is limited and Geographical Distribution still at a low spread situation.

The OSX.Macarena appends itself to files in the current directory on the compromised computer, in which the virus duplicates itself to affect the system at a mild damage.

Tags: Mac OS X

Apple released the Digital Camera RAW Support Update 1.0.1

Mac OS X Tiger provides support for a variety of popular digital camera and image file formats. Applications such as Aperture, iPhoto and Preview utilize this support to work with digital camera RAW files. This update improves RAW file format compatibility for the following digital SLR cameras:

-Canon Digital Rebel XTi / 400D / Kiss X Digital
-Nikon D80
-Pentax *ist DS

Other issues addressed:

-Handling of large Canon RAW files (.CRW)
-DNG compatibility on Intel-based Macs
-Lines sometimes appearing in images exported from Aperture

MacTel Download.....(2.4 MB)

Tags: Photography

Apple® today announced a new 8GB model of the iPod® nano (PRODUCT) RED Special Edition.

(RED) was created by U2 lead singer Bono and Bobby Shriver to engage business in the fight against AIDS in Africa by getting the world’s most iconic companies to make uniquely branded products. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was established in 2002, with the support of the world’s leaders and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, to dramatically increase resources to fight three of the world’s most devastating diseases, and to direct those resources to areas of greatest need by supporting locally-driven strategies. To date, the Global Fund has committed $5.2 billion (US) to more than 363 programs in 131 countries. For more information about (RED) please visit www.joinred.com.

Tags: iPod

A pretty interesting technical article from Apple Developer Section describing on iPod Notes Concepts. We have reasons to believe that the 6th generation iPod will be a Touch-Screen model.

You may check it out at Apple's ADC website, take a peek here...

Webpage Path:
ADC Home > Hardware & Drivers > iPod

then, look for iPod Notes Feature Guide (PDF) and download the PDF file (1.5 MB) on your desktop.

Go to Page #10 titled "Advanced Uses of Notes",

Voila! Read the contents of the gray box as follows:

Tags: iPod

Apple Store Hong Kong indicated that the 2nd Generation iPod shuffle 1GB should be ready for the public, ETA will be on Nov 03 (Friday) accordingly.

Gosh! This tiny dirty gadget is too seductive. I can hardly wait for it.

Tags: iPod

Thank you for visiting Tomahawk Website. The honor is mine!

Tags: Greetings

I add a brand new topic "Goodies & Freebies".

Goodies & Freebies is a category filled up with lots of finest Freeware and Shareware software in the Mac community. And now, let's get started with Instant HandBrake for iPod.

Please check on it at the right column.

Tags: Software