What does an iPhone Photo look like? Something like this.

Here’s how the story goes as posted by MacRumors… Someone did a Google  search for “taken with an Apple iPhone” and found a few images on a Flicker account that ended up having this EXIF data from the camera:

* Camera Make = Apple
* Camera Model = iPhone
* Picture Orientation = rotated 90° (6)
* Lens F-Number/F-Stop = 14/5 = F2.80
* Color Space = sRGB (1)
* Image Width = 1600
* Image Height = 1200
* Unknown tag: Tagnum = 0xa500 ===> data = 11/5
* Compression = JPEG compression (6)

That on it’s own really doesn’t prove all that much, there’s more… As expected the images where removed from Flicker. On further investigation of the Flicker account holder it was revealed that he had a LinkedIn account with his profile claiming to be “Program Manager at Apple in the Consumer Electronics industry” So now it’s getting a bit Juicy! The fellow who originally uploaded the images is “Bill Baron”. Bill, I think your days may be numbered at Apple, I hope Apple finds this all very amusing for your sake!

Apple recently posted Battery Update 1.2 for The MacBook and MacBook Pro laptop series. This is a Firmware update that according to Apple will improve battery functionality.

This update is for most Intel notebooks:

• MacBook
• MacBook (Late 2006)
• MacBook Pro (15-inch)
• MacBook Pro (15-inch Glossy)
• MacBook Pro (15-inch Core 2 Duo)
• MacBook Pro (17-inch)
• MacBook Pro (17-inch Core 2 Duo)

According to a statement posted by Macworld, Apple has identified a possible issue that caused poor battery performance in some MacBooks and MacBook Pros. This is not safety issue related.

“We have issued a software update that is designed to improve battery performance, and consumers can receive a new battery free of charge if their battery continues to have performance issues after installing the software update, even if their computer is out of warranty,” said Apple in a statement provided to Macworld.”

More info from Apple on this

We’ve had a few comments about how to get Switching to Mac Swag like shirts and mugs with our Switching to Mac slogan “Once you go Mac - You Never Go Back”. Well, we’ve come up with a few more thanks in part to some of your suggestions and opened a cafepress store account. So check-out our brand new Switching to Mac Swag Store and pick out some gifts  for you or a friend…

Like many others you are considering Switching from PC to Mac - Here’s some key points to help you make your decision

PC Inertia - Don’t let it keep you from a Mac!

Many people remain stuck with PC’s because…

• They’ve been using PC’s at home and work for years and feel it’s easier to stick with what they’re used to.
• They are not aware of the better alternative Apple can provide for them.
• They feel that Apple is too expensive for them (Not true, in fact the new MacBook’s offer more features and performance than the competition for a lower price.
• They feel that switching over is difficult and that they’ll be lost with a new way of doing things. (Again, programs like Microsoft Office are available and the new Mac OS X is far more intuitive than anything preceding it.)

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If you missed Part 1-5 of the Van Gogh Diaries make sure to read them first to keep everything in context:

Hey! Last time I was complaining about my Sony Handicam and my mpeg converter that I was using on the old PC. Well, I got my rebates back on the mac, and of course – I immediately put that money back into circulation! I’m happy I did too. My Sony was not a bad camera at all. Although I never bothered to learn how to truly use it, just like my cell phone, too many damn buttons. I always used it on the “simple” cam setting. I just needed to get the memories recorded for posterity. (and you know the historians are gonna wanna know about me!) It’s just that I was using this mpeg converter, and with the switch over to Macintosh, that converter was one of the casualties of the switch. No OSX support for that, shame too after I clunked down the twenty bucks to Apple for the mpeg-2 codec so I could convert the movies I do have. No the Mac’s fault the converter isn’t compatible, it’s the manufacturers fault for not writing a mac version of the application. Chalk it up to another victim of the Osism.
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Want to run Windows on your Mac without having to Boot Camp reboot every time? You could pay about a hundred bucks for a copy of Parallels Desktop for Mac or you can download free Virtualization software from innotek called VirtualBox.

Apr 23, 2007. innotek today released a beta version VirtualBox for OS X, bringing its highly successful open source virtualization package to the Apple Macintosh platform. OS X is the third major platform that VirtualBox supports and Mac users can now benefit from the most powerful and best performing virtualization software on the market with the ease of use which Macintosh users have come to expect. VirtualBox for OS X is also the first professional virtualization product that is available free of charge, marking the start of a new era on the the Mac platform. VirtualBox for OS X is based on a beta of the upcoming VirtualBox 1.4 and is expected to be completed in the 2nd quarter of 2007.

Now that’s an iPod! Pick your 24 Carot Gold iPod up at amosu starting from only £299.00

Do you have a Sweet Mac Setup or maybe you’ve captured your Mac ultra-artistically and want to share your precious Mac moment with the rest of us. Send us an email with your Sweet Mac photo to hey@switching2mac.com. To start it off, here’s one from Vangogh62.

Seems like everyone has an opinion about what Apple is going to do these days so I might as well have one too!

What better topic to start my Speculation Series off with then the much talked about and most notoriously hacked Apple product, the Apple TV.

My big question is, why is the Apple TV getting so much attention? There are other “Stream your stuff to your TV” devices out there and many of them even support way more files and formats then the Apple TV. After all the Apple TV really only plays what iTunes supports or in other words, what an iPod supports. I think where the other non-Apple TV devices fail is where Apple succeeds… Apple seems to have created a name for themselves (with the help of the iPod) as the company that offers your Digital Content where you want it. So what if your content is on your computer, who wants to sit in front a computer all day listening and watching their multimedia content? People love the way their iPods free them from all of this, that’s why people are looking to Apple to make the killer device to take what is on their Computer and watch it from the comfort of a couch on their TV.
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Fixes & Recoveries - Hard Drives

Today’s hard drives are marvels of technology. They store billions of bits of data on tiny magnetic sectors, and spin as much as 24 hours a day, yet the vast majority of time they work without any problems, and can last for years. Unfortunately, things can - and do - go wrong, but even then there are things you can do to keep your drives running smoothly, and to fix them when they decide they have had enough.

A number of third-party hard drive repair and maintenance utilities are available for OS X; the truth is that it can get pretty confusing trying to figure out which ones do what. I don’t have the time to give you a ‘how-to’ or ‘walk-through’ of each, but by giving you a taste of which utilities to consider for particular uses, you’ll be better able to decide which you might want to purchase for yourself. Note that almost all disk utilities currently available for OS X are incompatible with the ‘UFS’ volume format. (’HFS Plus’ is the default for Macs, but ‘UFS’ is an option if you manually reformat a volume.)
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