Starting from this week we will be posting the UK's iTunes FREE single of the week, and this weeks single is called Lights & Music from Cut Copy, and can be downloaded from here.

Tags: UK iTunes FREE Single of the Week

For anyone interested in the Case-Mate Clear Armor skin or the FullBodyFilms Protection Pack for iPhone*, then Case-Mate have a good video (see below) of how to apply this skin.


* Please note that the FullBodyFilms Protection Pack for iPhone is not supplied with the applicator bottle.

Tags: Case-Mate, Clear Armor, FullBodyFilms Protection Pack for iPhone

Case-Mate have just released their latest protective offering for the iPhone, but this time it's not a case, but a protective clear film they are calling Clear Armor. Clear Armor is the perfect choice for those who desire invisible protection for their iPhone. Originally created by 3M to protect Apache Helicopter blades from sand damage in Desert Storm, this high grade protective film is incredibly resilient. In fact, this is the same 3M Scotchgard film used to protect cars around the world from scratches, dings, and road debris. This is not the first product of this type, as FullBodyFilms released a similar product back in February, which was reviewed over at iLounge, and is currently available in the UK and rest of Europe from iCase Shop.

Tags: FullBodyFilms Protection Pack for iPhone, Case-Mate, Clear Armor

iDMG is an easy to use application to create .dmg files of a folder with a simple drag and drop interface. This clever little app which requires Mac OSX 10.5 (Leopard) has been written by Patrick Tomas Chamelo, a second year Software Engineering student at De Montfort University, Leicester in the UK.

iDmg is freeware, and can be downloaded from Patrick's website here.

Tags: iDmg

After months of delays there is good news for all fans of RapidWeaver, as in less than 17hrs version 4 of this long awaited web-design software will be released to the general public. For the past month or so RapidWeaver 4 has been available to a large number of beta testers, of which I was one, but unfortunately I had not been able to test as I am still running Tiger . It looks like I am finally going to have to bite the bullet and upgrade my OS to Leopard (but not just yet) to take advantage of the new features in RapidWeaver 4. RapidWeaver 4 will be a free upgrade to all version 3 owners, but I will not be migrating over just yet, as I am using a number of add-ons and themes, and want to be sure they are compatible with version 4, or wait for new version of these add-ons and themes to be released. I use RapidWeaver all the time for website design (including this blog), as designing and building a website can be as easy of as complicated and you want it to be. I personally use RapidWeaver because it is simple and quick to use, creating professional and polished website with minimal effort, and whilst there maybe some limitations to what you can do, overall this is a fantastic product.

If you are interested in RapidWeaver, the you can get you copy of version 4 from the 29th May 2008 here.

Tags: RapidWeaver 4

It looks like Apple are to increase its UK retail presence with another 3 stores announced, bringing the total number of current or planned stores to 19. In addition to the Bristol store that was announced back in April, Apple are now showing Liverpool, Belfast and Leicester retail stores on their retail jobs website. As soon as we have more information on these stores will post on this site, but if anyone has any more information or photos of these new locations, then email me.

Tags: Apple Retail

Dropbox is a multi-platform on-line backup/storage and file sharing service, that is currently still in beta testing, with clients for Mac OS X, Windows and soon to be released Linux. I have been using the system for the past few days, and I am very impressed with the ease of installation, and the seamless synchronisation. Over the next few days myself and Will Brummel will be testing the system, and in particular the file sharing part of the service, and will post a full review in the next week or two, but initial thoughts are positive.

I have 8 invites to the service left, so if you want one, post your request via the comments.

Tags: Dropbox, Online File Storage

The Mac Café has 20 EVERNOTE and 2 TwitterFone invites to give away, so if you want one add your request with contact email address to the comments box.


Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and searchable at anytime, from anywhere.


TwitterFone is free service that lets you update your Twitter feed using your voice from any mobile or cell phone. You call it, speak your tweet, and hang up. A short while later, your tweet will be posted on Twitter. Magic!

Tags: EVERNOTE, TwitterFone

For the past 2 weeks, and due to home commitments (home improvements) there has been a lack of news and reviews. To ensure that The Mac Cafe can continue to grow into one of Europe's premier Apple news, views and reviews website, we are looking for some writers to join the team, so if you are passionate about Apple, their products and live in the UK/Europe, and would like to join us, then contact me (the Editor). The good news is you do not need to be experienced in writing for for a blog, but your articles must be readable, and you must have a passion about all things Apple. The bad news is, we are unable to pay for any articles written, but you do get the chance to prove your writing skills, and help grow this new European dedicated website.

If you are interested in writing for The Mac Cafe, then contact us with some details about yourself, and we'll get back to you.

I'm fairly new to Social Networking, but one of my favorite applications is Twitter, allowing me to quickly post update notes to this blog. I have been using a combination of TwitterFox an add-on for FireFox, which allows me to quickly and easily post from my web browser, and Twitter on ThinCloud, a webapp for the iPhone. Now there is a 3rd way to post Twitter feeds, TwitterFone, a free voice to Twitter service from Cubic Telecom Group. It uses speech recognition to turn your voice, from any phone into tweets and then posts them to your Twitter account. Access to the service is via local country phone numbers, which are currently available in 10 different countries, including the US, UK, and Ireland. Further local phone numbers in another 40 countries are planned, and expected within the next 6 weeks.

The Mac Café has 2 invites to TwitterFone to give away, so if you would like one, then subscribe to our Twitter and add your twitter name to the comments. We will be giving 1 TwitterFone invite away this Sunday, 18th May, and the 2nd on Sunday 25th May.

Tags: Twitter, TwitterFone

With rumors of the new 3G iPhone due in June, and the many leaked (photoshopped) images of the supposed new iPhone, one issue that has not been raised, and that is what about all those case manufacturers and resellers that support Apple's customers by designing, making and/or selling cases. If as suggested the 2nd generation iPhone has a makeover, then where does this leave the makers and sellers of these cases. As a reseller I have many links to designers and manufacturers, and currently they are all being lead to believe there will be no design change, but based on Apple's past track record, it is almost certain that the iPhone will be different in some way. This leads me to the next issue, and that is of environmental issues. If the iPhone is different in anyway and the current crop of leather, silicon and plastic cases do not fit the new style, what will happen to the thousands of cases sat on dealers shelves, distributer warehouses and manufacturers factories? Whilst there will be a continued demand for cases etc. for the 1st generation iPhone, these will be restricted to current owners looking for something new/better, and owners of second user iPhones wanting a case. As a result will these large numbers of cases be destine for the scrap heap, or will they be recycled? With Apple having such a bad press in the past over its use of none re-usable materials, and environmentally unfriendly processes, you would have thought Apple would have at least advised these third party companies to scale back on their production, but based on my own current experience, I can say hand on hart that that Apple have not done this. They may have tipped of some of the bigger players, and in particularly those manufacturers that resale via the Apple stores, but they certainly haven't at time of writing this article advised the smaller or new start-ups of any design changes.

Lets hope that for the environments sake that the design is unchanged, and that the current stock-pile of cases will continue to sale.

Tags: iPhone Cases, Environment

Yet again the iPhone tops the news. Week after week we are reading about the iPhone, whether it is the new 3G iPhone or the iPhones ever expanding market. I for one will be glad when the new 3G iPhone and version 2 of the software have been released and the news can shift to some other Apple news, like maybe an aluminum MacBook!!

Anyway back to this weeks main news items. News this week has been all about the iPhones increasing market, with what now appears to be Apples target of global dominance in the smartphone market. This week saw announcements that the new 3G iPhone was heading to Latin America, Spain, Poland, Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa, Turkey and Austria. I don't think I missed any countries, but if I have please add to the comments.

In addition to the news that the iPhone is to go global, also came the news that the UK and USA have completely sold out of the 1st generation iPhone, and with the new 3G iPhone not due for release for at least a month, this will hit Apple and their carriers pockets.

One thing no one seems to have covered is, if, as is suggested the new 3G iPhone gets a facelift, what will happen to all the case manufacturers? as they undoubtedly have large stocks of cases designed for the current model. As a reseller of cases, this is a big financial concern, and something I will be writing about in the coming week.

Tags: iPhone

With the beta release of OpenOffice 3, I decided to download and try out this free fully fledged office suite. After playing the this version for a short while I decided to write a brief overview of this and the other office suites that I have used, and that are available to us Mac users. Currently there are 3 main office suite contenders, and depending on your requirements will depend on which products is best for you. I have not included NeoOffice in this overview, as whilst I have used it, and it is a very good free application, it is based on OpenOffice version 2.

OpenOffice 3 Beta First Impressions

I was pleasantly surprised at how much this Mac version had moved on from version 2, which is now completely native, and does not require X11. When you launch the OpenOffice you are presented with a splash screen where you select to open a document, or choose which application you want to start. Everything seemed to run smoothly, although the first time I ran OpenOffice it did stop responding, and I had to do a force quit, but from then on everything worked smoothly. The interface in version 3 is a clean as on previous versions, and I do like this cleanness , something that Microsoft should bare in mind. OpenOffice reminds me of an early version of Microsoft Works, back when I used Windows 95!! and it's this basic look and feel that will appeal to many.

I receive quite a few MS Office files from different people and these all opened with no major issues (providing the original file has been created properly). A spreadsheet originally created in Office 2003 for Windows, and then migrated to Office 2004 for Mac opened with no problems. This was only a basic spreadsheet, but contains a large number of user software license keys. A test on a MS Word document did show up a problem with OpenOffice, where the 1 page document rolled over to a second page, but this could have been due to a poorly created and formated document. Changing the header and footer margins easily fixed this problem, however would cause major formating problems if a multipage document.

I do not use PowerPoint presentations, so was unable to test compatibility of these files.

iWork '08

iWork '08 is Apple's office suite offering, which I have had installed for sometime now, but very rarely use. Whilst iWork looks smooth, and is ideal if you have used previous versions, or only need an office product for personal use, it is let down by its inability to support MS Office documents 100%. iWork had the same issue with the test Word document, as OpenOffice did, and did not like the spreadsheet at all.

Microsoft Office 2008

I have only just installed Office 2008, and as you would expect this is a true Microsoft product, that like all previous Windows versions has grown bigger and better (or so Microsoft would have us believe), and has adopted a similar look and feel of Office 2007 for Windows. The test Word document open with no problems and was formated as the sender had intended. The spreadsheet on the other hand opened reporting an error with the file and warning that data may be lost. Initially I could not find any missing data, so I Googled the error, and to my surprise (not) this was a known Microsoft issue. It turns out that Microsoft does not support hypertext links with in spreadsheets, and removes all hypertext links. For me this was not a problem, as the links were not essential, but if you have a spreadsheet with lots of links that are needed (i.e. hypertext links to other documents), then this will cause you a major headache.

As I said earlier I do not have a requirement for PowerPoint presentations, so I have not tried or tested this part of the suite. I have looked at but not yet migrated my email to Entourage (Outlook), but intend to do so when I have found a suitable way of migrating all my emails from ThunderBird.

Which Office suite?

I have only had MS Office 2008 and OpenOffice 3 Beta for a few days, but even though still in beta, for me OpenOffice gets my vote, as it costs absolutely nothing £0!! and is a great office suite. If however you need to exchange files regularly with users of MS Office, then I would suggest using Office 2008 as this will offer better compatibility and supportability, however if you just need a good general use office suite, then the free OpenOffice suite is the best bet. For me iWork '08 falls short with its compatibility issues, and with only a small price difference between MS Office 2008 and iWork '08, I'm afraid I would leave iWork '08 on the shelf (sorry Apple).

Tags: OpenOffice 3 Beta, iWork '08, Office 2008

For those of us in the UK, we all know about traffic jams, but now with the help of UK Traffic Reports the iPhone webapp from Ross McKillop, avoiding jams with the aid of your iPhone is possible. This webapp works very well over Edge, and the other day I was traveling by coach from London to home when we got stuck in a major jam, and whilst everyone including the driver was wondering what the hold-up was, a quick check of UK Traffic Reports told me that there had be an accident on the M3 and that there were major delays. Whilst there are other ways of checking traffic reports this clever little webapp works very quickly. The only criticism I have is that you need to know which county you are in to find the traffic information, where as searching by road would make getting the traffic reports much quicker and easier, but all-in-all this is a very useful webapp than should be bookmarked on all UK iPhones.

Tags: iPhone, UK Traffic Reports for iPhone

What is Times?
Times is a new type of newsreader for Mac OS X Leopard. By rethinking the way you read news, we've created the best possible news experience straight from the ground up.
Instead of treating news like email (as most RSS readers do), Times presents you with headlines and photos from a variety of sources all in one place, letting you more easily discover the news you want to read. Like your own personal newspaper, you can put feeds into separate areas, create pages for different subjects, and more.

Quick as a cup of coffee
Coffee breaks aren't endless - Times was designed with this in mind. Times makes it really easy to quickly scan through news; you can scroll each section individually to find articles that interest you. Photos help distinguish which articles you want to read or not read. And because Times divides news into pages, you can browse the updates only in the subjects that matter most to you at that moment.

Times also includes a feature called the Shelf, which allows you to save and sort articles for later reading. Simply start dragging an article to bring up the Shelf; you can then place it in any location. You can even create stacks for categorizing or prioritizing saved articles.

I've not tried this newreader yet, as it is Leopard only, and I still haven't upgraded from Tiger!! but if anyone is interested pop over to www.acrylicapps.com and grab yourself a copy of this software for $30 (£16 GBP approx), and let us know what you think.

With this new software, and the pending RapidWeaver 4, I may just have to bite the bullet and get upgrading

Tags: Times Newsreader