In this edition of MacFormat This Week...

It's our year-end review of all the news that impacted the Mac, iPod and iPhone world. Chris Phin and Graham Barlow of MacFormat magazine join us to recap 2007. We've also got Q&A with Trevor Middleton.

Here are your links for this week's show...

You can subscribe to the enhanced edition of MacFormat This Week through iTunes. To do this, click here.

Or you can download the files directly: For the enhanced edition of this show, click here.

For the MP3 edition of this show, click here.

If you'd like your questions answered in a future edition of MacFormat This Week, then please email machelpme-AT-futurenet.co-DOT-uk.

We'd love to hear your questions or comments regarding MacFormat This Week. E-mail us at macformatthisweek-AT-futurenet.co-DOT-uk.

As the year draws to a close it's time to reflect back on how Apple has fared. The answer is pretty well. The Apple TV may have missed its mark, and Leopard may be the most difficult install of any version of OS X yet, but it's still leaps and bounds ahead of Vista. People have started to switch to the Mac too. Apple sold 2.16 million Macs during the company's forth fiscal quarter, which ended 30 September 2007. That's 400,000 more Macs than in any three-month period ever, since the Mac launched in 1984.

Exact figures on market share are hard to pin down, but both IDC and Gartner put the Mac's global share at around 3.2%. This might not sound much, but it is a significant rise compared to the 2.6% that Apple was claiming just three years ago. In the US, IDC puts Apple' market share at 8.1%, making Apple the third largest PC maker in its home market, beaten only by HP and Dell.

Then of course there's also the iPhone. I was just reading on the Net today that the iPhone already accounts for more of the web browsing market than all the Windows Smart Phones put together. Another report claims that it has already overtaken Windows Mobile phones in North America. That's pretty impressive. The iPhone has been an unqualified success, and it's pretty stupid to pretend otherwise, however that hasn't stopped PC Magazine listing the iPhone as one of the disappointments of 2007. Luckily its decision has already been widely ridiculed, so I don't need to do it myself .

All in all it's been a great year for Mac fans and Apple. And of course there's MacWorld Expo coming up in January, which will see Apple release yet more exciting products. Rumours of a small, maybe even sub-notebook portable abound, but what are you hoping for? iPhone nano, anyone?

Steve Jobs the man as opposed to Steve Jobs the CEO is a fascinating character, and this photo, taken in 1982, of him relaxing at home during the whirlwind development of the Lisa and original Macintosh, gives us at least some insight into his character. Of course, the shoot and quote are still stage-managed to some degree, but it's nevertheless a glimpse into his private life that we rarely see.

Seen the Apple website today? There's a great Christmas advert that's worth a look. Very funny, Apple

What is it with the BBC? They're always doing something to annoy Apple users. It's almost like they do it on purpose.

Take today as an example. I just saw a link to a story on their (excellent, it has to be said) Technology page about an iPhone user who got an $85,000 phone bill phone bill... or so I thought. I assumed (as any reasonably minded person would) that it was an iPhone user from the picture next to the story.

It looked like this:

It wasn't until I got to the end of the story and thought, "hang on, they didn't mention the iPhone once", that I twigged that the BBC had just put an iPhone picture next to the story, even though the guy with the $85,000 phone bill didn't use one!

That's just blatant use of an iPhone image to "jazz up" a less than interesting story, and worse might put people off buying an iPhone.

So, the BBC's iPlayer (Beta, of course) is finally out on the Mac - tried it yet?

Just go to www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/

I'm pleased to report that it appears to work surprisingly well - just choose a day and see what you can watch. It's going to be a great way to catch up on interesting things you missed on BBC television the night before. The quality of the picture seems to be impressive as well.

Let me know what you think!

Get your hands on a new Mac loaded with award-winning apps, courtesy of MacFormat

This month, MacFormat has teamed up with equinux to offer a brand new MacBook and an entire suite of equinux products. The bundle includes TubeStick, MediaCentral, CoverScout, iSale, On Air and equinux’s brand new Leopard-only Stationery Pack.

If you’re not familiar with equinux, the company concentrates solely on the Mac OS and produces software that looks and feels like Apple’s own software. In fact, Apple even gave equinux two Apple Design Awards in 2005 and 2006.

Unlike iLife, which gives you control over broad areas of your media, equinux’s products drill down into more niche areas. Take iSale, for instance, which gives a Mac turbo-listing ability for eBay; or TubeStick, which is a combined hardware and software solution for watching and recording TV on a Mac. Both do things the OS can’t do by itself, while using coding and graphic interfaces that feel at home on the Mac.

Also in the package is MediaCentral, which is the main competitor to Apple’s own Front Row media browser, and CoverScout, which works with iTunes, iPods and the iPhone to acquire and distribute cover art for your songs. The latest addition to the line-up is Stationery Pack, a collection of more than 100 high-quality templates for Leopard’s Mail application. It allows you to drag and drop your pictures into the templates, resize them and give your emails your own personal style.

For more information on all of equinux’s software, please visit www.equinux.com.

How to enter
For your chance to win a suite of equinux products and a brand new Apple MacBook, simply click here. Submit all answers by 8 January 2008.

The new edition of MacFormat This Week for 10 December 2007 is now available for download! Sorry for the slight one day delay in posting this podcast - we had a small technical issue that is now resolved.

In this edition of MacFormat This Week...

Are European .Mac subscribers getting a second rate service? We investigate. Also: the BBC defends its soon-to-be released iPlayer for Mac that offers limited feautres, we've got three great hardware reviews, and the usual Q&A!

Here are your links for this week's show...

You can subscribe to the enhanced edition of MacFormat This Week through iTunes. To do this, click here.

Or you can download the files directly: For the enhanced edition of this show, click here.

For the MP3 edition of this show, click here.

If you'd like your questions answered in a future edition of MacFormat This Week, then please email machelpme-AT-futurenet.co-DOT-uk.

We'd love to hear your questions or comments regarding MacFormat This Week. E-mail us at macformatthisweek-AT-futurenet.co-DOT-uk.

Speed up your Mac

Give any Mac a boost with our expert tips.
This issue's main feature shows you how to get more from your older Mac (pre-Intel G5s). Whether you're prepping it to install Leopard, or you just need more from your trusted machine, our hands-on guide will help.

We also take a look at MacLive Expo 2007. We share our thoughts on the UK's biggest Mac event and also hear from other attendees at the show.

If you're the sort of person who likes making New Year's resolutions, why not do the same for your Mac? We have devised a list of ten things you could do with your Mac in 2008, from simply adding more RAM to completely re-organising your Desktop.

Also this issue

Tutorials

Create stunning panoramas in Photoshop
Revive dull portraits in iPhoto
Master Time Machine
Go further with Web Gallery
Troubleshoot your Mac
And more…

Reviews
Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard
Apple Logic Express 8
LaCie Golden Disk 500GB
Nikon Coolpix S51c
Canon HG10 HDD camcorder
And more…

Mac questions answered
Fix modem connection problems, sort out iPhoto Events, use your Mac with a Nintendo Wii, play ZX Spectrum games on your Mac and more…

On the DVD
Three full programs: Geekbench 1.00, Panoweaver 3.0.1 Pro, PhotoScore MIDI Lite, plus shareware, games trials, hot demos and more…

It’s all in MacFormat issue 190, on sale now!

Visit the MacFormat forum by clicking here
Subscribe to MacFormat and never miss an issue again!

It might have escaped your notice, but thanks to hacking attack on major hosting company Fasthosts, it made the decision to reset the passwords of those customers who had not already done so, and send them these new passwords using snail mail. The problem is that many people still haven't received their updated passwords, so they're locked out of their sites. MacFormat reader Paul Ripley spoke for many when he wrote to us to say:

I have not received the letter, cannot login to my account to change anything, and so am left high and dry. I have customers screaming at me to update web sites and there is nothing I can do. If you use their password reminder, a page tells you it is down due to this event. If you try calling them, the phones are so busy you get a network busy tone on all their lines. When I tried earlier in the week, I did get through but was told by an automated voice I was at queue 86! I didn't wait.

I'm personally in the same boat, and I just called up again just now to find myself at position 43 in the queue. We got in touch with Fasthosts, and this was what it had to say:

Affected customers whose websites may have been affected by this should now have received their password and would be able to rectify any issues. Customers who have not received their new password letters may call the Customer Care Helpline (0870 888 3600) and once authenticated, can be provided with their new passwords over the phone.

It did also, however, provide the following statement which was issued on November 29; if nothing else, the company seems to be genuinely apologetic.

Fasthosts are working with all affected customers to help them receive their new passwords as swiftly as possible.
Fasthosts would like to apologise once again for the inconvenience to its customers affected by the recent password changes. Unfortunately, the measures were necessary to fully ensure our customers' websites and data were secure.
The password change was applied to a significant portion of the Fasthosts customer base who hadn’t changed their passwords following our initial announcement about a network breach in October. It was applied following a very small number of customers who did not change their passwords having experienced a compromise to their FTP or website space.
Affected customers may have incurred a delay in being able to access their Fasthosts Control Panel, for which we apologise. In addition, certain customers who did not change their passwords as was previously recommended, and whose websites utilise automated databases, may experience website downtime as a result of their database passwords being automatically changed. However, any such customers whose websites may have been affected by this should now have received their password and would be able to rectify any issues.
The significant majority of Fasthosts customers websites and email are unaffected, it is just access to their online Control Panel that has been restricted.
We apologise to those customers affected for any inconvenience caused during the issuing of new passwords.
Fasthosts customers who did not change their passwords as was previously recommended, have now all been sent their passwords. Affected customers who have not received their new password letters may call the Customer Care Helpline and once authenticated, can be provided with their new passwords over the phone.
Whilst Fasthosts has seen high call volumes, the company will continue to provide additional resource over the next 48 hours in response to the demand and actively call the most affected customers directly to resolve any issues as soon as possible.
As a precaution, Fasthosts will also change all unchanged email passwords for email services hosted with Fasthosts automatically on Thursday 13 December. We therefore recommend that all affected customers change their email passwords as soon as they regain access to their Control Panel. We are emailing instructions to all affected customers with clear instructions on how to do this, and which mailboxes are affected.
We apologise unreservedly to those customers affected for any inconvenience caused during the issuing of new passwords. Unfortunately, the measures are necessary to fully ensure our customers' websites and data are fully secure. The security of our customers website data remains of paramount importance to Fasthosts.

It's all too easy to view big, faceless companies as soulless, dollar-obsessed corporates, and so it's thoroughly refreshing to read, on the blog of John Nack, product manager for Photoshop, that passion and drive are still held in high regard no matter how big the company.

I've been lucky enough to meet and enjoy the company of the senior product managers for all the Adobe apps, and it's safe to say that John's zeal is not unique to him. They're all great guys, and with them in charge, the future for Adobe's apps looks very bright indeed. Are you as reassured as I am?

Great news! There's a special one day shopping event this Friday, 30th November with special offers throughout the day in all UK Apple Retail Stores and on the Apple Online Store.

Conveniently in time for Christmas, you'll be able to find dozens of great iPod, iPhone and Mac gift ideas and can start your research now by visiting Apple's Holiday Gift Guide to find iPod, iPhone, and Mac gift ideas.

Apple say that there will be some excellent specials on the day which will be a surprise until Friday 30th.

How to install Leopard

Read our complete Mac OS X 10.5 start-up guide before you install the latest version of Apple's operating system. We'll show you how to get organised before you start, choose the right installation options, and make sure your first steps with the new OS are enjoyable.

Also in this issue, if you're stuck for ideas when out Christmas shopping, then check out our Christmas Gift Guide. It features all the best products from the past year, and some new ones, for all budgets.

We also investigate the European .Mac service to see whether we're getting a second-rate service compared to its US subscribers.

Also this issue

Tutorials

Give your images a watercolour effect
Get more from your iPhone
Create an iPhoto calendar
Customise iMovie transitions
Remote control your Mac
And more…

Reviews
Apple's Wireless Keyboard
Apple's Logic Studio
Griffin Amplifi
Canon PIXMA iP4500
BlackBerry Pearl 8100
And more…

Mac questions answered
Deal with kernel panics, fix poor quality printing, share internet connections between Macs and PCs and more…

On the DVD
Three full programs: ConceptDraw MINDMAP 4.5, Dream REcorder 1.3d, Invoice 1.2, plus shareware, games trials, hot demos and more…

It’s all in MacFormat issue 189, on sale now!

Visit the MacFormat forum by clicking here
Subscribe to MacFormat and never miss an issue again!

Our sister magazine Mac|Life in the US has produced a great feature on four possible concepts from Apple. It's well worth a look.