>>[Background noise] Okay guys, you know that we are on top of our stuff here at [inaudible], so if you haven't heard already, Steve Jobs will not be speaking at MacWorld. In fact, it'll be Apple's last MacWorld, so you could probably say goodbye to MacWorld. But on Apple's side, it's good, they could release the products whenever they want on their own timetable. But for all those fans out there, and people like me, I mean all those long, you know, long lasting relationships that you've made, like, you know, back to you in the studio.
^M00:00:28
[ Music ]
^M00:00:37
>>[Background music]You know what time it is. I'm Brian Tong and welcome to the AppleByte. It's everything good and bad inside the world of Apple. So let's get to the news. The iPhone is no longer the top dog. Now that's if Time magazine's top ten gadgets means anything to you. It claimed the top spot in 2007, but is now at number three. So which two toys surpassed the iPhone? At number two it's Mitsubishi's Laserview TV. Now I saw it first at CES 2008, and it's the first TV using lasers for its display. And, oh yeah, it's 7,000 bucks. Okay, at number one, it's Optima Pico's Pocket Projector. For 400 bucks, you can plug it into your iPod, or iPhone, and you can view a clear image up to eight feet away. Pretty cool stuff. Now Time gives the iPhone props, but says it still doesn't handle email as well as Blackberries. And as a phone, it's no better than most on the cell phone market. And that might have to do with that great AT&T service, maybe. Okay, Apple might be going 3D. The big A files plenty [inaudible], but one of them titled multi-dimensional desktop got a lot of internet attention. The diagrams show features where you can drag a window and it shows up on multiple surfaces of the 3D desktop. There's a dock, but it has icons on different levels so you can see files or icons stacked on top of each other in 3D space. The effect reminds me a little bit of what they had done visually in time machine. Now a lot of times never turn out to be anything. But it does give you a look inside of Apple's head, so some pretty cool stuff. Now you might not get OS10 to look 3D, but have you ever wanted to trick it out? Tom Merit shows us how.
>>[Background music] Hey Brian, I know you like to personalize your stuff. But just changing the picture on your desktop isn't enough. Here's a quick tip for using Visage to customize your desktop, log in panel and more. I picked up this tip from the fabulous life hacker blog. Go to sanity software at Keakaj.com/visage.htm. Download and extract Visage. Then click on Visage.prefpane. Let OS10 know if you want the preference to be available to all users, or just you, then press install. You'll need to put in your password, then the Visage will show up in system preferences. Click on it and let OS10 know it's okay. The first panel of options is desktop affects. It'll put all kinds of things in motion behind your deskstop. I tried RSS feeds, photos, and album art. There are several others. The next pane changes the log in background by allowing you to add your own image. Similarly, the log in panel let's you replace the Apple logo with a picture of your choosing. There's also a panel to customize alert messages for things like shutdown, confirmation, restart, etc. Just a few things to make that Mac feel a bit like your own. Back to Brian.
>>[Background noise] All right. Thanks Tom. And brown, it looks good on you. Okay, let's update you quickly with a few things we've covered in past shows. Apple released two firmware updates that supposedly address some of the MacBook issues we talked about. So let us know if they helped you out or not. Now a few episodes back we talked about the HDCP issues with Apple's display port connection. And they released a QuickTime update that at least allows your SE content to play over the connection. But you're still screwed if it's protected HD content. So, yea, well kind of. Okay, let's take a look at our iPhone app of the week, brought to you by our friends at download.com. Will you play with the Sea Dragon. Well, Microsoft, yes, that Microsoft has released their first iPhone application. It's based off their photosins technology that links pictures together into a single mosaic image that's as large as a giga pixel and then you can zoom into it seamlessly. It's pretty fun, it's free, and it's worth checking out. And you can officially put some Microsoft loving on your iPhone. Now you know we want to hear from you, so send us an email at the AppleByte at CNET.com. Tell us whatever you want and we'll answer them. I'm Brian Tong for CNET.com. Thanks for watching and come back next time for another bite of the Apple.
^M00:04:33
[ Music ]
