The new AirPort Extreme still carries the same product description and specs as the old version, so it isn’t exactly apparent what has changed about the Wi-Fi router. It still provides 802.11a/b/g/n wireless networking, and simultaneous dual-band 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequency support for improved network performance and decreased interference. It also has the same three Ethernet ports for wired connections, and a USB port for hooking up a printer or external hard drive.

It’s likely that Macworld is right when it suggests that any changes made to the AirPort Extreme happened under the hood, and are likely meant to boost performance. Wireless technology hasn’t stood still for two years, after all, although it also hasn’t exactly seen dramatic changes in the consumer electronics sector. The successor to 802.11n is in the works, but it’s still probably quite a ways off in terms of general use and wide adoption.

The bottom line is that if you’ve been waiting for an AirPort hardware update in order to get a new router, now’s probably a good time to buy. The new Extreme might not boast revolutionary changes, but if Apple’s track record proves correct, it’ll most likely be better than its predecessor.

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Apply Software and Firmware Updates

While many check for iOS releases and Mac OS X updates, it is a little less common to remember to update your AirPort products.  In addition to the security updates that you get with OSX and iOS releases, there are actually two additional components that you need to track of, the AirPort Utility application, and your AirPort products’ firmware.  To determine if your AirPort devices are all up to date, launch the AirPort Utility and select “Check for Updates…” from the AirPort Utility menu.

Setting Up Your Wireless Network

There are five basic things to keep in mind when setting up your wireless network. Once a device is on the network, these settings will not make any devices themselves secure from an attack.  These particular settings will just make it a little harder for rogue devices to find and connect to your wireless network.  To access these settings, launch the AirPort Utility, select your AirPort device from the left and click on “Manual Setup.”

1. Disable WAN Setup — This feature of AirPort allows one to configure their network from the internet.  By disabling this feature, you will be limited to applying updates from inside your network.  This setting is located on the AirPort configurations under Time Capsule or Base Sation (depending on which product you are configuring):
2. Set a Hidden Network Name — While many network client access software packages seem to do a pretty good job of locating hidden networks, it is still a good idea not to broadcast your networks name.  This setting can be found under the AirPort configurations under Wireless, by clicking on the Wireless Network Options button:
   
3. Use WPA2 Encryption — Wi-Fi Protected Access II (WPA2) is now mandatory on all Wi-Fi devices.  It is based on the IEEE 802.11i standard which includes “government-grade” data encryption. It’s much more effective than either WEP or WPA protection.  This setting is located on the AirPort configurations under Wireless:
4. Choose a Strong Password — Apple provides a password assistant to help you establish a strong password for your network.  Be sure to use a mixture of uppercase, lowercase, numbers and characters when choosing your password.  It is also a good idea to use at least twenty characters.  When setting your WPA2 security settings, click on the Key icon to display a password helper:
5. Establish MAC Address Filter — This configuration when used properly can be thought of as a managed list of exactly which devices will be permitted on the wireless network.  If your device’s MAC address is not on the list, it will not be alb e to joint the network.  This is only manageable when working with a finite number of devices on a network that has the same users day in and day out, which is often the case in a home.  This setting is located on the AirPort configurations under Wireless.  Click on the “plus” sign to add a new device. See the next section for advice on finding your device’s MAC address.

Determining your MAC Address

A Media Access Control (MAC) address is a series of six groups of two hexadecimal digits separated by a colon.  On a Mac, you MAC address can be found by clicking on the Apple in the upper left corner of your menu and selecting “About This Mac.”  From there, click on the “More Info…” button and navigate to the “AirPort” section under “Networking.” Be sure that your AirPort is turned on in order to see the settings.  On your iOS device, launch the Settings App and navigate to “General” then select “About.”  Here you will be able to locate the Wi-Fi address.

Securing Your Devices

This gets a little more complex as it depends on how functional you want your devices to be on your local network.  As soon as you start sharing printers, files, and screens, you open up each device a little more and make it less secure.  Enabling Bonjour services, allowing remote login, and configuring services like Back to My Mac over the internet also compromise security.  If you want maximum protection, the only option is to disable all of those services, block all incoming connections, turn on your firewall and enable stealth mode. For most users, of course, this is probably overkill, so pick and choose these options based on how you use your network.

Conclusion

With all of the new Apple products and other connected devices available, it is quite a hassle to register each devices MAC address as well as configure your hidden network settings with a strong password.  But once set up and configured properly, you will have about as secure a network as is possible for consumer-based, off-the-shelf wireless security.

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Without much fanfare, and over a day later than it usually announces products, Apple has released a new version of its integrated network storage/Wi-Fi router today.

The new Time Capsule sports an industry pace-keeping 2TB of hard drive space, and can be yours for a mere $499. Not bad, considering your average external USB 2TB drive will cost you around $250 at the low end, and an Airport Extreme on its own is $199.

The coming of the much beefier Time Capsule also results in a price drop for the 1TB model, shaving off a solid $200, to $299. The 500GB, which up until today commanded that very same sum, gets discontinued completely, which hopefully will translate to deep discounts from retailers still holding onto existing stock. I know I’d pick one up if it went for, say, $179? Just a suggestion, licensed distributors.

Like the previous models, the new 2TB comes equipped with the dual-band router present in its predecessors and the newest Airport Extreme, which lets you work on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz band simultaneously, for optimal network efficiency. I’m not sure about your setup, but mine has so much static from the sheer volume of connected devices that dual-band networking is a huge selling point. Not sure if the value proposition is quite attractive enough yet at the high end of the scale, but at $300, the 1TB model feels like it might’ve hit a sweet spot for consumers like me who’ve been holding out for a better deal.

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Feeling the cash crunch around this particular time? Not to worry, most of the applications mentioned here are free or just a couple bucks. A nice print-out of your gift tucked or wrapped nicely in a festive Father’s Day envelope will more than likely communicate your genuine appreciation for your dad. So since all dads are obviously not the same, breeze through our list and find our top picks for your kind of dad.

The Stay at Home Dad

iHandy Level (Free)
For the Stay-at-Home Handy Dad — utility belts and their attachments are so passé! Consider surprising your stay-at-home Dad this Father’s Day with gadgets that reside in his iPhone.

iHandy Level is a free application brought to you by iHandySoft Inc. This stunning application exploits the iPhone’s Accelerometer and Proximity sensor to bring your stay-at-home Handy Dad a truly unique handyman experience. From balancing and centering picture frames on the wall, to leveling a floor tile — this is definitely one unique application that no handy dad should be without!

If you’re feeling extra generous this Father’s Day, you may consider the iHandy Carpenter which includes five handyman tools in one for the ridiculous price of $1.99!

iHandy Carpenter Notable Features

• iHandy Level
• Plumb Bob – the easy method of verifying the verticality of walls
• Surface Level – the best tool to level any flat surface
• Steel protractor – OK so it’s not made of steel, but it sure is pretty and measures angles beautifully
• Steel Ruler – again, not real steel – but smarter and more compact than any steel ruler you may have come across and it actually measures a few times longer than the iPhone, too

Allrecipes.com Dinner Spinner (Free)
If your stay-at-home Dad isn’t particularly the handyman type, but perhaps more of the kitchen connoisseur, the Allrecipes.com Dinner Spinner app may be more his taste.

He can swipe away at the Spinner sorting by Dish Type, Ingredients, and Prep/Cook time to view recipe matches of his choice — or, if he’s feeling “saucy,” he could simply tap the Spin Categories function for a totally impromptu pick. One thing is for sure, the recipe of choice will definitely be one to delight since all recipes are based on ratings and reviews of millions of home cooks. To top it off, each recipe comes complete with its own Nutritional Information chart to keep a stay-at-home Dad’s family happy and healthy.

Notable Features

• Choose by Dish Type from Appetizers through to Dessert (cocktails included)
• Choose by Ingredient
• Choose by desired Prep/Cook time
• A light shake will present random recipe ideas

The Sports Fan Dad

ESPN ScoreCenter (Free)
Forget about losing your sports fan Dad’s attention to the TV, that’s a worry of the past. A glance is all it will take to get the latest scores, results and stats of his favorite sports team — all from a one-tap access interface. With the recent release of the iPhone and iPod touch 3.0 software update, the new ESPN ScoreCenter will also feature push notifications.

Results are available for:

• Football/Soccer
• Baseball (MLB)
• American Football (NFL)
• Basketball (NBA)
• Ice Hockey (NHL)
• NCAA College Football, Basketball
• NASCAE, Formula 1, Indycar
• Golf
• Tennis
• Cricket & Rugby are both coming soon

Sports Radio (99 cents)
Is your sports fan Dad a multinational sports fan Dad? Place the world of sports radio into the palm of his hand with a single app for the iPhone and iPod touch. Not only can your dad tune in to over 6,400 sports radio stations around the world, but with the newly added Facebook and Twitter integration, he can keep his friends in the know as well.

Notable Features

• Includes users favorite MP3 iTunes stations
• Pick from favorites or recently played stations
• Includes Public Radio streams and over 2,100 MP3 stations from Europe, Australia, and Canada
• Dynamic directory for adding new directories and stations without application updates, 
email links to a station stream to friends using iPhone or iPod touch Mail application,
 Radio for iPhone supports MP3 and AAC stream formats and then some

The Athletic Dad

Yoga STRETCH (99 cents)
Now don’t let the womanly image fool you; these days yoga is a very acceptable, manly athletic activity (and I’m not saying so just because I do it — cough).

Having the mind in tune with the body through yoga has proven to yield many benefits, especially for me. These include lowering blood pressure, weight normalization, and an increase to energy and endurance levels. This progressive app displays traditional yoga poses at individual intervals and comes complete with a personal yoga instructor that walks students through a successful session. Since the application is designed exclusively for the iPhone and iPod touch, your athletic Dad can strike his pose in his office or from the comfort of his own hiding place.

Notable Features

• Consists of traditional yoga poses sequencing with a Vinyasa flow
• Designed to improve strength, balance, posture and flexibility
• A personal yoga instructor walking each through a full session including audio commentary, images and music

iFitness ($1.99)
If your athletic Dad doesn’t happen to be the posing, flexing type, iFitness may just be what he needs for an all-around healthy, accurate and comprehensive workout. Forget about breaking the bank to get your dad a personal trainer for Father’s Day — a single solution has been developed just for the tech- (and financially-) savvy individual and it’s available on none other than the iPhone and iPod touch.

Notable Features

• Over 110 beautifully illustrated exercises with accompanying text
• Favorites option to create your own custom routine
• Preset routines that our experts have made for reaching different goals
• Exercises organized by the muscles they target

The Business Dad

TravelTracker with TripIt ($7.99)
With just one tap you can download all of your trip information into TravelTracker. Not only will it download each of the your critical trip details, such as flights, hotel reservations and car rentals, but it also goes the extra mile to fetch the pertinent details of your trip, such as your meetings, activities, notes and yes — even your restaurant reservations. Yum!

Does your airport lack sufficient mobile coverage and/or is not yet equipped with free Wi-Fi? Never fear! TravelTracker with TripIt works sufficiently offline just as beautifully as it does online. Oh, and if you’re still trying to figure out what exactly TripIt is, check out this amazing free add-on: tripit.com.

TravelTracker is your all-in-one virtual travel assistant and companion. It stores all vital information for your trip and displays it in a convenient optimized itinerary screen that allows you to record all of the key aspects you need before, during and after your trip. This is every business Dad’s winner.

Notable Features

• One-touch flight status
• Customizable packing lists
• Records all details of your travel expenses
• Record-keeping of all of your frequent traveler award programs
• Airplane database with link to seating charts
• Email your itinerary and expenses to contacts
• Download current weather conditions & forecasts for your chosen airport
• Download current exchange rates to determine your trip total in your own currency

Currency (Free)
These days, with business deals flowing like water across oceans, the Internet has skyrocketed business transactions into oblivion and the only way for your business Dad to keep up with the world’s currencies is through a single intuitive application such as Currency. This app provides the latest conversions in every exchange language (18 languages, to be exact) and in every currency (which total 90 currencies for over 100 countries).

Notable Features

• 18 exchange languages
• Up-to-date exchange rate information for over 90 currencies and 100 countries
• Common currencies: Dollar, Pound, Yen, Peso, Dinar, Yuan, Baht, Dirham, Real, Kuna, Riyal, Lira plus many others

The Single Dad

Urban Spoon (Free)
No single Dad will ever be without ideas as to where to take the kids (or a hot date) for the best eats in town! With similar functionality as Allrecipes.com Dinner Spinner, the shake of the iPhone or iPod touch will jolt Urban Spoon into emulating the function of a classic slot machine to present a random restaurant pick in the vicinity. Another shake will simply pull up another selection — and just keep on shaking until satisfied. Arm getting tired yet? Just set a lock on any of the three criteria items (Neighborhood, Cuisine, Price) to narrow the selection.

Notable Features

• Use GPS to find a restaurant nearest you
• Filter by Neighborhood, Cuisine and Price
• Search and browse local restaurant and check out their reviews
• See a list of all nearby restaurants
• Compare restaurant picks with your friends

NYTimes App (Free)
For the single Dads (or really any dad) who are always on the go, they’ll never miss a beat (or an important news update) from the newly polished NYTimes App. No longer is this news application painfully sluggish, as its version 1.0 predecessor was. In fact, NYTimes App zips across the wire to download up-to-the-minute news in a flash and even works just as feverishly offline or in airplane mode (just as long as the app has downloaded the articles previously, which is still quite instant).

Notable Features

• Gorgeous and sophisticated interface
• Access to the latest articles and photos of the day
• Customizable toolbar with favorite sections of NYTimes.com
• Read anywhere – After a quick sync, articles and photos are available offline

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Your head might be spinning from the torrent of Apple happenings at WWDC this week, but fear not, I’ve got the cure: fresh picks from the App Store.

It’s been an exciting week for TheAppleBlog, with our correspondents posting live from WWDC in San Jose; we’ve been covering the event from all angles. Before we look at this week’s apps, let’s take a moment to summarize the latest Apple news.

We kicked off the week in style with Apple’s official keynote at WWDC. Behind the scenes we had Henry Balanon and David Koff with live reportage from the event. Streamed live to our WWDC coverage page, we hosted over 74,000 readers. If you missed it first time round, replay it here.

In an entirely unexpected turn of events, the 13″ MacBook has now gone professional. Indeed, the new 13″ MacBook Pro includes an SD card slot, up to 8GB of RAM, and a backlit keyboard as standard. Early adaptors of the 15″ Unibody MacBook Pro can join me in irking 13″ MacBook Pro owners by collectively running our greasy fingers down their glossy 13″ screens.

And, as if that wasn’t enough for us early adopters, the 15″ MacBook Pro has also been updated. In a nutshell, the update means more storage and improved battery life. Plus, the pretty much redundant ExpressCard slot has been replaced with a more useful SD card slot. Readers looking for an overview of the updated MacBook Pro line should head on over to Tom Reestman’s article.

Apple has also announced that Snow Leopard, the latest upgrade to their desktop OS, will be released this September. It’s fully 64-bit, features Exchange support, and is basically pretty wonderful, but the best thing about it isn’t the feature set, it’s the price: Current Leopard users will be able to upgrade for just $29. In the meantime, those looking for a quick software update hit should download the official release of Safari 4.

Then there’s the big news, the product announcement that I’ve been waiting months for: the iPhone 3G S. It’s exactly the same form factor except there’s more RAM, greater storage and — this is a big deal for me — a better camera. The iPhone 3G isn’t going anywhere yet, though; it’ll still be available, at least for a limited time, at the new price point of $99.

Just like the MacBook Pro family, it’s not only the iPhone hardware that has been updated, it’s the software, too. Apple is officially releasing iPhone OS 3.0 on June 17. There are tons of new features, more than I can mention here. Rest assured, though, that crowd-pleasers such as cut/copy/paste, MMS and shake to undo have been included in the update.

To celebrate the launch of the iPhone 3G S and OS 3.0, the folks at Polar Bear Farm have given us two promo codes for their latest app. The app is called Face Match; for a chance to win, simply leave a comment telling me why you’d like to use this face recognition tool for the iPhone.

Moving on to the picks, this week I’ve been looking at Photo Zen, Tumblr Gear, Swiss Maker and Spinal Tap.

PhotoZen (Free)
Until I bag myself a new iPhone 3G S, containing upgraded camera and integrated video-editing, my iPhone photography lineup consists of Quadcamera and Flickit. The idea is that since the camera on the iPhone 3G isn’t so hot, I want to take quick, fun shots and upload them efficiently, without having to sync and manage via iPhoto. PhotoZen captures this quick and fun photo-sharing ethos, allowing you to post your own images to a social bonsai tree, receiving images from strangers in return. Sweet, simple and free.

Tumblr Gear (Free)
I’m particularly interested in Tumblr Gear because it’s an alternative to Tumblr’s official iPhone app. That’s not to say I have a problem with the official app, quite the contrary; it’s great for posting new content whilst on the move. Rather than for creating new posts, Tumblr Gear was devised for browsing your dashboard and seeing what your friends have been posting. It’s optimized for the iPhone and efficient to use. For the avid user, this could be an essential app.

Swiss Maker (Free)
In reaction to the Swiss design style — stark typographic imagery featuring Helvetica — the Boston-based marketing agency Dirk+Weiss started a site: anyonecanswiss.com. Their clever site, now available as an iPhone app, lets you design a Swiss-style poster in seconds — just enter a few words and it does the tough job of changing the font to Helvetica and printing the text on a black background. Creative folk will appreciate the app for sure, those who don’t get the joke should download the app regardless — show it to your friends, they’ll think you’re erudite, topical and witty.

Spinal Tap (Free)
Around the release of their 1982 album, “Smell the Glove,” their music was described by one journalist as such, “This pretentious ponderous collection of religious rock psalms is enough to prompt the question, ‘What day did the Lord create Spinal Tap, and couldn’t he have rested on that day too?’” It doesn’t matter what the critics said though because Spinal Tap is back and they’re ready to rock. Alongside finally releasing “Saucy Jack,” the band has put out its very own iPhone app. The app is a hub of Tap-related information, there are new tracks to listen to, a Fan Wall for chatting with other listeners, brand-new videos, and even tweets. It’s good to have Spinal Tap back, both fans and those unfamiliar with the band should download the app immediately.

That’s all the picks for this week. I’ll be back in seven days with more news from the week and picks from the App Store.

In the meantime, what apps have you been using this week?

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Along with all the hardware updates, Apple has released a few software updates as well.

• AirPort Client Update 2009-001
• AirPort Utility 5.4.1
• AirPort Utility 5.4.1 Windows

The Airport Client and Airport Utility Updates add support for the latest Airport Extreme and Time Capsule models announced earlier today and provide some further details about how dual-band networking will be implemented. The Airport Client Update helps Apple laptops work better with the dual-band networking features. The release notes succinctly explain that:

This update is recommended for all Intel-based Macintosh computers running Mac OS X 10.5.6. It addresses issues with roaming and network selection in dual-band environments.

The Airport Extreme features page says:

Instead of choosing one of the bands, AirPort Extreme now operates simultaneously on both bands, and your multiband devices automatically use the best available band.

I took note of this because I was curious how they were going to accomplish this feat. There isn’t any procedure (that I know of) in the 802.11n spec that specifies how a client should decide which network to join if they both have the same name (SSID). Apparently, Apple is going to roll that functionality right into their wireless drivers so the client device will decide which network to join based on the frequency band of the available networks.

This likely means that it won’t work seamlessly for Windows or Linux users on your Wi-Fi network and they will have to manually switch to the 5GHz 802.11n network if they first join the 2.4GHz 802.11b/g network. I am curious to see how Windows and Linux drivers will handle wireless network priority when there are two networks on different bands with the same SSID and WPA password. I imagine it can be set, but it would depend on the drivers and the features that the operating system exposes to the user.

I am sure it will work great for Apple users, but may disappoint those supporting mixed-platform environments. Truth be told, it is not any worse than other available solutions because everything else will continue to see two separate networks. Just something to be aware of when you wonder why it doesn’t work the same way on your netbook as it does on your MacBook Pro.

It will be a lot more interesting when we see the firmware update for the previous Airport and Time Capsule models so we can see what is different. Early speculation is that the MobileMe sharing features will be enabled on the old devices, but that dual-band networking will only be on the new devices. No word yet if Guest Networking will be available on the older Airport Extreme.

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Now that recent rumors of a $99 iPhone seem to have been settled — Wal-Mart will sell the 8GB model for $197 — we can get back to the broader discussion of just what an eventual $99 iPhone could mean to Apple.

I believe the answer to the question depends on just what a $99 iPhone is. Prior to the latest rumors, it was usually discussed as some sort of “iPhone nano.” Maybe a flip phone, and generally acknowledged to be much more limited than the current iPhone. I’m sure these rumors will creep up again soon. 

An iPhone nano

I think an iPhone nano is a bad idea:

• Would it have touch? Surely there is some point at which the smaller screen this device demands would render the iPhone interface useless. 
• Even if it has touch, it’d be limited. The buttons may be similar for taking and answering calls, but most of the iPhone interface just wouldn’t work well.
• Will a smaller phone like this have the thermal envelope necessary for a processor required to run Mobile OS X adequately? If not, then it either has no touch, or something very different than the current iPhone, and this difference is my biggest problem with it. 
• There’s not a lot of profit in these things. The analysts are all about market share, blithely ignoring the market share lessons Apple has taught them the last 20+ years. Apple doesn’t need huge market share figures to have an extremely successful, profitable, and growing business. Apple refused to build the low-ball $700 laptop everyone wanted, and now people expect them to do the same with phones? 

A phone of this type might have better than average build quality, and maybe some touch or unique features, but it would really be little more than Apple’s Razr. 

The biggest problem with an iPhone nano is that, while the iPhone is a platform, the iPhone nano is not. That is primarily why Apple shouldn’t go there. All the marketing and buzz about the App Store, the full internet, etc., fade into the background when Apple has to start footnoting everything to exclude the baby of the family. 

I think the confusion in different iPhone hardware models would hinder the app market. Many apps would not run on the nano. In my opinion, Apple should be very careful about fragmenting the “iPhone” name in terms of varying models with different app and feature capabilities. They should keep the platform in tact. 

Finally, I do believe Apple could do something “cool” with a smaller phone while keeping what’s great about the current iPhone. There is plenty of room for innovation there and I suspect Apple will provide it. But such a device would not be the low-cost phone analysts are screaming for right now.

Which brings us to the “other” $99 iPhone discussed in the latest rumors…

An existing iPhone 3G

The Wal-Mart rumors circle around not a new iPhone, but rather another model of the existing iPhone 3G. The original rumor was of a 4GB iPhone at the lower price, but my point isn’t about how much storage it has, but rather that a low-cost phone based on the existing design would be a good thing no matter how Apple pulls it off.

I’ve seen some comments that pan the idea; but I disagree with the arguments I’ve seen against it: 

• It cheapens the iPhone brand. How? Did the price reduction on the 8GB model over a year ago “cheapen” the brand? Does the 8GB model now “cheapen” the 16GB? Not at all, it opened it up to a wider audience, just as a $99 price will do.
• No one wants a “cheap” phone; remember the iPhone launch? Yes I do. When you’re spending $500 for a device it’s not a stretch to spend $100 more for additional memory. It was 20 percent more money for 100 percent more storage. The landscape has changed since then. The iPhone is already much more affordable (at least, it’s perceived that way), and to get in at $99 is a good thing. 
• Selling at [insert retailer here] ruins the Apple buying experience. As far as I’m concerned, unless you’re online or at an Apple Store there is no Apple buying experience (until you get it home). All the major chains that have ever sold Apple products couldn’t care less about them. They push the house brand more than anything else. I’m not sure how any retailer you choose could be any worse. This isn’t praise for other retailers so much as my opinion of your average electronics outlet may be lower than most. 

Meanwhile, I make these arguments for the device:

• With the $99 price point Apple reaches a different audience.
• Instead of abandoning the iPhone platform, it enhances it. This is big.
• These things still require $70+/month data plans. This new audience is one with money to spend, and likely to buy apps, accessories, etc., which is more than anyone should expect of an iPhone nano’s audience. 

Conclusion

Apple, I’m sure, has their own reasons for not going the $99 route at this time. They may not want another SKU in the iPhone lineup yet (possibly because of new devices they’re working on). It may be as simple as just waiting a bit longer and dropping the 8GB model’s price. Heck, for all I know AT&T is begging Apple not to put millions more users on their 3G network until they (AT&T) get their network fecal matter collected. 

Still, potential roadblocks aside, it seems to me if Apple wants to play the low-cost iPhone game, something that keeps the existing platform’s primary characteristics (no matter how they do it) is much more desirable than any “iPhone nano” they could produce. Leave the Razr market to Motorola, for all the good it’s doing them.

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EventBox is an application created by The Cosmic Machine, which aims to provide one place from which to manage all your online social networking activity. It can ‘pack all your social networks in one box’.

I think that an application performing the function that EventBox aims to could certainly be very useful. There are a host of advantages to having several different websites all tied together, not merely the convenience of them ‘all being in once place’. The possibility of being able to move data between networks would be very welcome (integrating Facebook and Flickr photos, or having Pownce know all your Facebook contact details could be really useful).

At present, EventBox ties together six different social networks:

• Twitter – What are you doing?
• Facebook – Connect with the people around you.
• Flickr – Share your photos.
• Digg – Digg it. Get Dugg.
• Pownce – Send stuff to your friends.
• RSS – Content aggregation.
• Reddit – What‘s new online.

However, I’m not sure whether EventBox has quite perfected the ‘mix’ of different networks. There are many more networks which could really increase appeal, such as LinkedIn, Delicious, and countless others. In addition, I don’t really see RSS as a social network — more of a notification/news source, which seems slightly out of place amongst the other counterparts.

The User Interface

On the whole, the user interface to EventBox shows a very promising start. It fully utilizes some of the effects available in Leopard and goes a long way to providing a very usable and sleek-looking system. New updates ‘slide’ in-between existing content, fonts are well chosen and readable and content that you’ve already visited fades away into the background.

My only complaint about the user interface is a lack of a ‘loading’ icon or spinner, meaning there’s no way to know when the application is doing something and when it simply isn’t responding.

Improvements Needed

While EventBox seems to be a good concept, there are quite a few improvements which I’d need to see before it takes the place of using the websites themselves. First and foremost is the support of a wider range of networks. While I’m aware that this takes time from a development point of view, it’s needed for the application to really serve as a valid replacement.

Second, the functionality of certain applications is lacking over what could be put in place. The Facebook section, for instance, is able to only show status updates and photos. Compared to even the iPhone Facebook application, there is a lot of additional functionality which could be integrated in the final version.

The EventBox site heralds the fact that the app is in the early stages of development and new features are planned for the near future (including a ‘HUD’ style Twitteriffic display, which looks nice). I’ll certainly give EventBox another try as some of these new features are introduced. For now, however, I’ll be sticking with using the individual websites themselves.

EventBox is free to download and try for a few weeks and then it’s $15 to continue using it.

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Setting up two Macs to network and share files can be done wirelessly or wired (if you do it wired just run a regular network cable between the two computers). The following steps are generally the same for both Leopard and Tiger users. There will be a few interface differences, so if you have any trouble just post your question in the comments.

1. Open System Preferences on the computer that you want to share files from.
2. Under the Internet and Network section open the “Sharing” folder.



3. In Leopard, click the box that says “File Sharing”. In Tiger there should be a prompt stating “Personal File Sharing is Off” on the right hand side of the sharing folder. You should always turn personal file sharing off when you are not actively using it to protect your personal information. Under the prompt there should be a button that says “Start.” Click the start button.



4. Now that you are sharing your personal files with the other Mac (and any other computer around you) can see your public folder in Username/Public. Anything you put in that folder your friend will be able to get.
5. After your done sharing, be sure to turn file sharing off.

I often use this technique to quickly move mp3′s from my laptop to my desktop because it’s faster than ziping and uploading them to a server.

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ORIGINAL
md = m_pulldown(m, off, sizeof(*ipcomp), NULL);
if (!m) {

WHAT IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN
md = m_pulldown(m, off, sizeof(*ipcomp), NULL);
if (!md) {

A one character difference in source code in an open source component trickled it’s way up to our shiny new operating system.

Anti-virus software won’t help you on this one (and I’m sure someone will point that out and continue to defend the lack of need for client security), but it provides a clear example of how coding errors in the operating system can – and will – be exploited, which is a strong enough reason to put up defenses in other areas. Again, it’s completely based on your risk appetite and there is a contingent of OS X users that swear by the notion of not investing in security until there is overt reason to. This example should prod some of those folks to start thinking more about how vulnerable their invulnerable systems really are.

The problem exists only in the IPv6 networking layer, and – since most folks do not need IPv6 enabled – you can disable IPv6 in each of the network interfaces in your Network System Preferences to give yourself a bit of protection. Here’s an example of that via the Airport configuration panel:

Apple should be fixing this in the next security update.

More info on the exploit: Secunia, InformationWeek, digit labs

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The program works by either monitoring ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) traffic or issuing ARP queries. Where DNS maps names to IP addresses (e.g. test.example.com has IP 192.168.1.10), ARP maps IP addresses to the vendor-assigned MAC address of the actual device (so, in the below example, 192.168.1.47 maps to 00:1B:63:D9:CE:09).

Why is ArpSpyX useful? Well, with it you can:

• Actively or passively collect all the MAC & IP addresses of the devices on your network (with the ability to export this data)
• Quickly identify new clients on any network you’re connected to
• See if you are falling prey to ARP Poisoning attacks

The only real downside is that it requires modifying Unix permissions of your network devices, something Allen Porter (the author of ArpSpyX) has identified as a potential improvement.

While you’re tinkering with ArpSpyX, you can learn more about ARP via this helpful About.com page, download the source to ArpSpyX via it’s Google Code home or explore vendor MAC address prefix assignments via this helpful search utility.

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People showing up for deals on other stuff – and checking out Macs! – rather than lined up to buy Vista. Even a comparison (with photo) of the Tiger launch a couple years back.

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