A present for y’all at this festive time! A new website with a place where you can download our exclusive podcasts ! Thats right ravevloggers do podcasts! We upload a new podcast every 2 days. Due to webspace (we have 2gb) We cant keep the files up for long! So we leave the podcasts up for 3 days BUT! we do have them packed away on our little external hdd and if you want a certain podcast well we’ll see about putting it on some filesharing programme! Isn’t that nice of us! Yes it is! So we’re getting in this festive spirit by giving stuff away! If you havent seen we have a contest going on at the minute on the youtube page. Make sure you go and check that out for chance to win !

Cya guys

Joe

Easy solution.  Just delete what is in the caches folder.  Click here to read the forum post at Apple.

Fortunately the fix is easy.  Just reboot in safe mode by holding down your shift key when you restart your Mac.  Then restart your computer.  It should be fixed.  Click here if you want more info.

With 2010 around the corner, Apple is poised to begin a new year that should yield lots of great advancements in its consumer software arena. Here’s our predictions for what could be in store for the latest versions of iLife, iWork and iTunes. (These predictions are not substantiated by rumors or other “inside evidence” and are purely speculation based lots of experience with these applications and their histories.)

iLife X

Probability: Guaranteed
When the last version of iLife launched, it adopted the moniker “iLife ’09.” Recently however, Apple has modified most of its website to drop the date from the title. Now simply called “iLife,” I wonder if Apple will be quick to release a new “yearly” iteration at the outset of 2010.

Based on previous versions, the next iteration of iLife will require Mac OS X 10.6. By requiring Snow Leopard, this does make iLife an Intel-only release. Though some users will be left behind, significant performance gains should be recognized by taking advantage of 64-bit technology included in Snow Leopard.

Within the apps themselves, I believe we’ll continue to see significant updates. Here’s the roundup.

iPhoto

Probability: Possible
The addition of Faces and Places to iPhoto ’09 was just the beginning. The next version of iPhoto will support more accurate facial recognition and integration with Twitter. Those who enjoy the photo slideshow themes that were added to the last version will enjoy a larger selection of new themes that will be added in the new version. I also predict that the next version will bring support for bulk renaming of files (similar to how Aperture can do this upon import) and better performance when dealing with larger libraries. I also predict revised or better photo editing controls with additional effects.

iMovie

Probability: Possible
I believe the next version of iMovie will boast support for posting videos directly to more Internet services, such as Facebook and Flickr. An expanded set of new themes as well as more advanced title options will be present as well. The user experience of the application will be refined, for those who are still frustrated by the intense switch from iMovie HD to the last two versions.

iDVD

Probability: Guaranteed
iDVD will likely see one of the most significant updates that it has ever seen in quite a while. 2010 will mark the beginning of new ways of enjoying media. From the possibility of the first out-of-the-box Blu-ray drives on the Mac to iTunes Extras & LPs to the elusive Apple Tablet, the presentation of digital content remains a key focus for Apple.

The next version of iDVD will help push this agenda forward, allowing users to create Blu-ray discs or optimize their video content into formats like iTunes Extras. Such a dramatic update would likely warrant changing the name of the application, but that’s also within the realm of possibility. iDVD has definitely been late to the party for the past two years, seeing only small maintenance updates. While many speculate that Apple plans to axe DVD creation altogether (foreseeing the death of the digital disc in favor of digital distribution), I believe Apple has been working on a successor application to take advantage of new forms of distribution (a la Blu-ray or iTunes Extras-styled media).

iWeb

Probability: Possible
iWeb is one of those apps that is difficult to pack full of compelling new features every year. I predict the next version of iWeb will support more themes and a few more widgets, including a widget that provides a live feed of your Twitter stream on your website.

GarageBand

Probability: Possible
GarageBand will likely see an expanded music lesson store with more artist lessons and lessons for drums and bass. I also predict Apple will make it easier to share GarageBand creations beyond iTunes and iWeb. Similar to the other apps, I believe we will see support for exporting to other web services such as Facebook or YouTube.

iWork X

Probability: Possible
I predict the biggest improvement to the iWork suite will be a tighter integration with the iPhone and iPod touch. On the short side, I see iWork.com coming to the iPhone as an app to allow quick browsing of documents. In an ideal world, Apple will eventually build lightweight mobile versions of its iWork apps to allow users to create and edit Pages, Keynote and Numbers files on the go.

I believe we’ll see an update to the “beta” of iWork.com, including a paid plan if Apple deems the project a huge success, or inclusion with MobileMe if Apple feels the product isn’t strong enough to stand on its own footing.

All three applications will see new templates and a refined Inspector palette. It seems very un-Apple like to mandate users bring up a palette for colors, a separate one for fonts, another for media and yet another master Inspector to control everything else. Additionally, I predict the Media Browser will be updated across all apps to support Faces and Places from iPhoto.

I also predict Pages will provide support for (or perhaps work directly with) third-party applications like bibliographic software such as Endnote or Refworks for academic publications.

iTunes

Probability: Guaranteed
iTunes is an interesting application as every version seems to bring about a large number of extra features that many people don’t expect, or at first glance, really need.

I predict the next major version of iTunes, iTunes 10, will bring support for syncing with the mythical iTablet, as well as better syncing support (including over the air syncing of content if on a Wi-Fi network). Furthermore, iTunes 10 should feature better support for managing larger libraries of content and the need to split those libraries across multiple hard drives in a simple but effective manner.

Conclusion

Finally, I’d like to see iWork and iLife dropping in price back to the familiar $49 from years past. In light of economic conditions and Apple’s vocal attempts of providing quality products to more and more users, a price drop seems wise as it would also help generate better market penetration.

Again, many of these predictions are pure speculation and hopes and dreams on my part. What do you think we’ll see in these areas over the coming year?

It has some very good features.  Click here to find out.

I have been doing some researching on iWeb and how well iWeb pages can be seen by search engines. Basically they are invisible without some added work like adding a sitemap and adding your site to Google Webmaster Tools. This research has led to further work on my site turning images into text as much as possible. Specifically:

• every time text is given a shadow, iWeb turns it into an image which makes the text invisible to search engines – turn off shadows;
• to check which elements on your page are text or images, go to iWeb > Preferences and check the box for “Show text imaging indicator” - this is essential for doing a thorough job;
• whenever an image is added inline to text, the whole thing is turned into an image. – remove images from inline;
• lastly, when a text box is hyperlinked, it turns into an image – hyperlink the actual text by selecting it.

More and more search engines are basing their rankings on actual page content rather than meta tags in the header. This means an app like iWeb SEO Tools is becoming less and less helpful. What really matters is what’s on the page. So, make sure you have a s much text as possible by turning off shadows except where they are really needed – especially for things like navigation bars and links since they often carry important keywords.

Register your site with Google WEbmaster Tools and  a basic sitemap by following the instructions at iWebfaq.org.

I am presently conducting a WordPress workshop here in Kuala Lumpur. This editor is quite useful. It allows you toi format the text.

Never underestimate WordPress. For years I basically created web sites using Claris Home Page and later, Macromedia Dreamweaver. I used another tool there for a bit but it’s name escapes me. My skill extends to nested tables, copy and paste JavaScript, a little XML and that is it. I can hack code after I have “read” it carefully. I can also tell the difference between acceptable and unacceptable design. I think.

My web site has looked like old brown web pages for two and half years now. It is actually based on a template called Gazette in iWeb. I liked the look and feel of “Gazette” and I reproduced it to some extent using Dreamweaver. It had an “old” look that was in keeping with my teaching of history. Well that look is cluttered I feel. I now wish to simplify site and page construction.

Document upload: Educause & Things About Blogs

For quite a while now I’ve been neglecting my blog. With the growth of facebook (in particular) and twitter personal blogs seem to have become a thing of the past. If you don’t have something to share with the masses, then social networking sites really do seem to be a better way to share with your friends, especially friends who aren’t techo nerds.

But the social networking sites don’t really allow you to tell stories in the way that a blog does either. facebook might have ‘notes’, but the functionality just isn’t quite the same.

So having decided there is a benefit to maintaining a blog I have just created this new WordPress-hosted blog to, hopefully, overcome the other reason I’d neglected my blog—that being my previous blogging software and hosting. Previously I’d been using an application called RapidWeaver to maintain my blog, which was published to my MobileMe account. RapidWeaver is an excellent web site creation tool, but as my blog became larger it was harder to publish—RapidWeaver blogs are made up of static pages, rather than drawing on a database to store the posts. As a result, when publishing a new entry it was necessary to republish every existing entry, which was a fairly clumsy exercise. But with no database or php support on MobileMe my only other alternative was iWeb, which shares issues that limit the spontaneity of posting.

These issues made me realise I needed a database-powered blog, and preferably one that facilitated spontaneous posting. Having looked at some of the available options (e.g. WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, Squarespace) I’ve decided on WordPress for the time being. This decision was based mainly on cost (I’m still paying for MobileMe), features (e.g. ability to have additional non-blog pages, flexibility in the layout of blog entries, and blog comments), and the ability to post more spontaneously (from the web, my iPhone, or from a native OS X application—I’m testing out Blogo at the moment).

The test now will be whether I maintain this new blog or whether it also falls into disuse (for the time being my old blog can be found here—I’ve yet to decide whether to try and migrate my old posts).

]]> http://luxborealis.wordpress.com/2009/11/20/iweb/ Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:13:21 +0000 luxborealis http://luxborealis.wordpress.com/2009/11/20/iweb/

I have been working hard over the last month updating my website: luxBorealis.com. Have a look if you haven’t done so lately. Many people have asked how I created such an interactive website with lots of photos. They wonder how I could ever have time to do all that.

It’s easy… I use iWeb. “What’s iWeb?” is the next question. And I tell them about this great app that comes free with every Apple Macintosh computer as part of their iLife suite. then sounding somewhat chagrined, they say “Oh, your a Mac user.” “Is there anything like that for Windows?” Not that I know of…

Listen, iWeb isn’t perfect. It is easy to make webpages and do all kinds of cool things, but it’s not great on maintenance and it’s lousy for blogs (at least, I found it clunky although I know others who swear by it, but then they work directly through MobileMe; I don’t). “What’s all this MobileMe stuff?” you ask. Let me back up…

The things I love about iWeb are:

• I can make a very cool webpage in minutes – colours, boxes, fonts – it’s free-form design without the constrictions of typical web authoring software. It’s as easy as word processing – well Mac word processing which is so much more fun and creative than Office word processing. You see, Macs have fun and creativity built into every application they create. You can always tell a Windows/Office document from a Mac doc (whether it’s word processing, a presentation or a webpage). Mac creations are, well, creative, because Mac has made adding graphics and shadows and colours so easy. So it shows up in the work Mac people do.
• I can add photos directly from iPhoto (another Mac app that comes free with every Mac – very powerful photo library software with very good editing capabilities – more on iPhoto another time because it’s not the be all and end all, but then again, it’s free!!). When I add photos, they are already formatted for viewing as thumbnails, or in a slideshow – all with the click of a mouse. Actually, come to think of it, I can drag and drop images from almost anywhere onto a photo page and have iWeb give them structure. It really is a great app for photo galleries!
• I can add Google maps and Google Adsense links with only a few clicks.
• I can easily create my own page design. iWeb comes with dozens of great templates, but I’m a bit of a maverick when it comes to design. I like to tweak things which I can do with iWeb. At times, the pages try to revert (e.g. whenever I create a new textbook it defaults to the template’s text) but a few copy and pastes or style copy and pastes and I’m back to where I want to be. iWeb is actually far more flexible than most people realize – just take a look at my pages. Sure there are constraints, but remember – it’s a free app!!
• I have complete access to my font library – any size, colour or font I want. If I want shadows, I just click the checkbox for shadows then adjust them however I want. Fonts that don’t display properly on other computers are, for the most part, converted to graphics.
• It’s free. I have I told you yet? It’s free with every Mac. Sure Macs cost more to begin with so yo would expect some freebies, but the again, when you buy a Mac you don’t usually need to upgrade anything else because it comes with enough ram and a large enough hard drive and a decent video card and all the connectivity your need including wireless right out of the box. You see, Macs are cutting edge – they lead the industry in most aspects.

Things I don’t like about iWeb. Hey it’s not perfect, but it is free!

• As I mentioned above, iWeb is slow for maintenance and updating web pages. Because of the file structure, every time I create a change, I need to up more files then necessary and that takes time. If I make one small graphical change on a number of pages on a site (like I’e been doing recently) I really need to upload the whole shebang to avoid missing content.
• iWeb is the pits with search engine optimization (SEO). You cannot put in custom titles or metadata such as descriptions or keywords. I do this through Rage iWebSEO. It’s a great little app and it’s free. Why Apple doesn’t build this into iWeb is a mystery.
• iWeb is too tied to the MobileMe service – at least iWeb ‘08 is which is what I’m using. Apparently, iWeb ‘09 has an FTP client that allows more web freedom. That being said, I’m a MobileMe subscriber and love the ease of use, but uploading can be a bit slow sometimes. Also, some services with iWeb such as counters and comments are also only available if you upload directly to MobileMe – which is something I don’t do because I want to optimize my pages using iWEbSEO. So, I need to publish to a folder first, the run iWebSEO, the upload. Not the smoothest, but definitely worth it in the end.
• iWeb pages seem a bit bloated. They are big bits of code and it uses png file format for graphics (larger than jpgs), but I don’t have a workaround yet. Thank goodness most people are on broadband now.
• iWeb pages do not always zoom well. I can’t do much about this, either.

So I’m using iWeb and can’t really see an alternative in my future. I’ve tried Rapidweaver but it’s not wysiwyg enough for a visual guy like me. I’ve tried Shutterbug, but it seems too clunky for me. For years I made all my websites with Adobe GoLive. It has since been replaced with Dreamweaver which I really should learn but it seems overly complicated for what I want to to. I invested many, many hours into learning html and web authoring only to have that knowledge become obsolete. Rather than reinvesting that time, I’ve decided to use iWeb and get great-looking pages right out of the box.

Is this an advert for Macs? Well, yes and no. I’m not paid to say this. But I believe the more people know about a product, the better they can come to their own conclusions. This is what works for me; if it doesn’t work for you, well, that’s okay too.

Nackdelarna med iWeb är att det inte går att uppdatera genom något annat än iWeb och med tanke på att jag aldrig är hemma och orkar inte släpa med datorn överallt, så var det ju bara att byta. IGEN. Så nu bloggar jag på portal igen, men skillnaden är att nu kan jag använda min Ajfön (läs: iPhone) för ytterligare en grej.

Min Ajfön har ju blivit en kroppsdel.
Amputationsångest infinner sig när jag råkat glömma den hemma.
Vi lever i perfekt symbios.
I alla fall innan 20% batteritid infinner sig och jag panikar.

Och nu ska jag kunna blogga genom den också.
Oh, happy day!

E’ quasi un anno che sono legato a mobile me, e volevo tentare di fare un bilancio dell’esperienza, anche per decidere se è il caso di rinnovare l’abbonamento annuale, ormai prossimo alla scadenza.

Dunque vediamo, che cosa offre la cara mamma apple con questo sistema?

Rileggendo la tabella mi sono accorto di essere piuttosto critico, ma forse sto cercando di razionalizzare una semplice sensazione che ho, ovvero che le singole parti del servizio sono solo mediamente passabili, e che il totale fornisce tuttavia una serie di comodità alle quali ci si abitua facilmente. Il dubbio è, tutto questo vale la spesa annuale, molto superiore alla concorrenza?

Oggi forse sono di umore risparmioso, e dico di no, magari a gennaio quando dovrò rinnovare l’abbonamento sarò di diverso avviso; è certo comunque che di tutti i prodotti apple che ho sperimentato, ed ormai sono diversi, mobile me è il meno entusiasmante, tanto da dover riflettere bene per trovare motivazioni a mantenerlo. Ma penso lo sappiano anche loro, che questo servizio non è insanely great, e quindi confido che prima o poi vi porranno rimedio.

Fun idea.  Click here to find out how.

@MACWORLD
Your iWeb site and Facebook profile represent you and your interests to the world. Wouldn’t it be great if they worked together? Fortunately, it’s easy to go beyond the basic Facebook integration in the latest version of iWeb () to boost your site’s visibility to friends, family, and associates. Here’s how.

Create Facebook badges for iWeb

Badges are widgets that automatically refresh to add Facebook information to your Web site. To get started, open your Facebook Profile and click the “Create a Profile Badge” link beneath the left-hand column (you may have to scroll down to the bottom to see this).

Click the edit screen’s checkboxes to customize the badge’s layout and content (which can include your picture, status, contact information, and more). After you save the badge, you can create and save additional Profile badge designs, as well as Photo badges that display pictures you’ve uploaded to Facebook. To export your badge to iWeb, select Other as its destination and copy the resulting code.

Next, open your site in iWeb and select the Media Browser’s Widgets button. Drag the HTML Snippet widget into the page you want it to appear on, paste in the code, click Apply, and close the box. Then upload the revised page.

You can change the default Facebook badge by editing its code directly.
Now when your information is updated on Facebook, it will update in your badges, and give visitors a direct link to your Facebook profile.

This can get quirky. Sometimes, the code snippet that Facebook generates contains content you may not want. In this case, the code contains the user name and type that says “Create your badge” at the top. If you don’t want that information to appear with your badge, you can remove it.

To fine-tune the badge’s appearance, you can edit its code directly, as shown above. In iWeb, click the widget on your page to expose the code, remove the part you want to get rid of, apply, save, and re-upload the page. If you make a mistake, it’s easy to start all over again. If you want to, you can save the original code in a sticky note for safekeeping.

Facebook Badges add dynamic content to your iWeb site.
Add iWeb’s RSS feeds to Facebook

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds let visitors subscribe to updates from your iWeb site’s photo, movie, and blog pages. RSS can also bring links to this content to your Facebook profile.

You can find many dedicated RSS applications on Facebook (such as Social RSS) that can show multiple feeds simultaneously or offer sophisticated display and subscription options. However, if you keep just one blog, Facebook’s own Notes application is a simple alternative.

First, open your blog in a browser and copy its URL, then log in to Facebook. At the bottom left corner of the screen, click Applications and select Notes (you may have to click the More button for Notes to be visible). Your Notes Settings are on the right of the resulting page.

It may not be as pretty as an iWeb page, but Facebook’s Notes can bring your blog to the readers who matter most.
Click the “Import a blog” link and paste your blog’s address in the Web URL field. Facebook finds your blog’s RSS feed and presents a preview for you to confirm. New blog posts will now appear automatically in Notes and on your Wall, complete with images and links back to your iWeb site. There may be a delay between the time you post an update and its appearance on Facebook. Note that if you add photos to your post, only the main photograph will appear in Notes. Embedded videos and additional photos won’t. However, since each post links back to your original iWeb blog, this content is only a click away for your readers.

One womans post about her inner geek.  Click here to read.

This post is a good example of how you can use iWeb, Cyberduck and a third party company to make your web site dream happen.  Click here.

iWeb halloween

Wer noch auf die schnelle ein Halloween Template braucht für seine Webseite der kann sich Kostenlos bei Jumsoft den Halloween Template für iWeb laden.

http://www.jumsoft.com/goodies/#

You know what a website is. What do you need?

1. Access to a computer and internet.
2. Domain Name
3. Web Space (included in .Mac accounts, otherwise you’ll need to pay for an online host.

• Domain Name: your unique website name. When you choose your domain name you are also asked to choose .net, .com, .org, etc. If in doubt, choose .com. There are websites that just sell domain names and there are host sites that will offer you domains when you rent out web space from them (recommended).

• Host Site: a website where you rent web space. Realtors for the web. Basically it’s a password protected profile on a remote server.

Great Online Resources to help you:
Wikipedia Defines “Website”
Lynda.com
W3

Then you want to look here.  Interesting.

This is awesome.  At and always great blog.  Click here.

Very nice.  This blog always has interesting stuff.  Click here to find out how.

Then you need to read this tutorial at a great blog!  Its very educational.  Click here to read more.