Spotlight received a big update in 10.5, bringing in many features to enhance the accuracy of your searching results. MacWorld has a guide on making the most of those new features.

People are vandalising Telstra's phone infrastructure, leaving people without a phone service. As much as I loathe Telstra, going around breaking their gear isn't cool, okay?

As Apple sells more Macs, Microsoft sells more copies of Office. Microsoft are selling three times more copies of Office 2008 than at the same stage of the product's life cycle as Office 2004.

RIM have some tricks up their sleeve to try best the iPhone (heh, yeah right, as if that suit-fest will ever top the iPhone). First up is the BlackBerry 9000 aka "Bold" a clear homage to the iPhone, but if that wasn't bad enough, RIM are bringing out the BlackBerry 9500, which looks a crap load like an iPhone to me. RIM also launched a BlackBerry Partners Fund, worth $150 million - the same idea as Apple's iFund to give a leg up to software start-ups developing for their devices.

Apple re-released their documentation for administering Open Directory in 10.5 server. About time - that thing was so inconsistent it was near useless.

Adium have added Facebook chat support! Soon you'll be able to chat with your Facebook friends, without needing to actually use the web-based client on the Facebook page. It's not in Adium yet, but expect it in an update soon.

Lots of big software updates lately too:

• Microsoft Office 2008 gets a service pack (Microsoft are in service pack mode lately with SP1 for Vista and SP3 for XP)
• Picturesque, made by MacTalk forum member AppleZac and which won an Apple Design Award at last year's WWDC, goes to v2.0
• Pixelmator goes to v1.2 also. If you've ever used Photoshop and thought, "This app looks archaic", Pixelmator is worth taking a look at as your new bitmap manipulation application.

And a bit of housekeeping:

• We've got meets going in Brisbane and Perth this Sunday - so if you're in those towns on Sunday, head on down to get a free feed on MacTalk and meet up with other forum users.
• MacTalk Micro is an RSS feed of highlighted threads on MacTalk updated many times a day by Currawong and I to let you all know about threads we think are cool - sorting the chaff from the wheat so to speak. If you're short on time but still want your forum fix, subscribe to the RSS feed and you'll get directed to the latest threads we recommend.

What the fuck is with that Blackberry? is that... no. wait you can explain it :O

I don't know, but it accurately reflects what I think of RIM and the Blackberry - repulsive

It "won" an Apple Design award... sorry, I've just been reading Apostrophe Abuse...

Where would I be without people like you pointing out my brain farts? Thanks

hurrah....I wonder if they will back-port it to Office 2008 or if we have to buy a new version all over again (like people won't do that anyway)

Yay for fb chat on Adium! Now all my stalking needs are in one place....

RIM may have copied Apple, but Apple copied Google's original $10m for Android apps. Granted, Apple did throw in a lot more cash than Google, but I have a feeling that the iFund may not have happened at all if Google hadn't announced the Android Challenge.

Interestingly, the cash given out in the Android Challenge is no strings, yours to keep to continue to develop on your own. The iFund is funded solely by KPCB, and does not really give any indication what the deal is with the venture capital given out. With Google, it seems that you will still own the app at the end of the competition. With Apple's iFund, its not so clear.

Looks like fire damage to me. Charred from the smoke and glue/plastic bubbles all over it from the heat. No direct contact with the fire but enough to melt the innards. A bit of gravy and some potatoes and that's good eatin!

good way of putting it, thanks

Whatever it is, it made me navigate away from the Main Page quick smart!

Wouldn't surprise me if this was Telstra sabotaging their own equipment in order to avoid having to provide naked DSL.

I do wish that MacTalk members would stop bad mouthing the BlackBerry.

I've been managing BlackBerry devices in a corporate environment for just over 5 years now and have found them to be reliable, secure and very useful. Indeed, they have been one of the few products I've come across in the last decade that actually worked as advertised on the tin.

For corporate e-Mail, address, task and calendar, they work, and they work well, and the application functionality is pretty swish though it takes some effort to make use of it.

RIM pre-announcing the "Bold" (ugh - I don't like that name) smacks more of a pre-emptive move to curtail future iPhone sales. However RIM aren't the only company to have pre-announced a phone in an attempt to build up hype in the market and detract from competitor's sales.

I'm glad to see that Apple are adopting corporate features with their iPhone, such as remote wiping. The iPhone started off as a consumer device launched into Apple's target market of the end user and now they are moving it into the corporate world. The BlackBerry started off in the corporate world and only moved into the consumer market with the launch of the Pearl handhelds two years ago.

I just love Picturesque.
AppleZac and Co. are awesome.

(Another great example of AUC funding.)

Here here!