Photo courtesy of Notebook Review

Apple Computer has issued an update designed to address the lingering problem of unexpected shutdowns of its MacBook notebooks. 

The MacBook SMC Firmware Update 1.1, which was finally released for download this past Thursday, tackles a problem that has plagued the notebooks for the past four months. The shutdown problem was first noted in July, a couple months after the 13-inch wide-screen MacBook debuted.

Apple advises people to install the new software on all MacBook systems, including those that have received warranty repair.

It also said that users of Mac OS X 10.4.7 can download and install the SMC update, but all others will need to first upgrade their operating system to Mac OS X 10.4.8, the latest version.

Owners, frustrated by the random shutdown situation, began logging complaints on a user site, MacBookRandomShutdown.com. More than 1,500 people have registered on the site since its launch in August.

 
EglooMedia has released a new easy-to-use desktop application which lets users personalize their own comments and graphics according to various formatting options such as font face, size, color and effect, and then send them directly to personal web pages and comment sections in social networks such as MySpace layouts.

The Cool Comment application offers the user a chance to express his or her creativity without any prior knowledge of html, as well as impress their online friends with cool and original content. The user simply enters the text he or she wants to state into the Cool Comment text field and then chooses from preset style menu parameters such as text pattern, size, special effects or specific themes. The Cool Comment widget targets anyone with their own website but is particularly appealing to active users of social community sites. Target audiences include highly active users who send comments on a regular basis, as well as popular users whose personal profiles attract a large amount of traffic and receive frequent comments.

With the increasing number of users on community sites and social networks, Cool Comment provides those users with a chance to express their individuality and get noticed in a fun and creative way.

Google launched a test version of a service that lets users create documents or spread sheets online instead of needing to install word processing software on their computers. The Google Docs and Spreadsheets service was a combination of its Spreadsheets program as well as word processing capabilities from Writely, which Google bought earlier this year. The move was part of a “Web 2.0″ trend where software applications are hosted online by companies instead of bought by users and installed on home or workplace computers.

“We took Writely, the web word processor, and integrated it with Google Spreadsheets,” Google product marketing manager Jen Mazzon said in her company blog. “The result is one place where you can create, store, share and publish your documents and spreadsheets online. Keeping your documents and spreadsheets online is a treat because you can access them from anywhere via a web browser.”

Google’s new service was seen by analysts as a rival to the ever-present Word and Excel programs by software giant Microsoft. “I’m looking forward to the day when all my applications are online,” Ken Leebow, author of the book series 300 Incredible Things to Do on the Internet, wrote in a review of the Google service. “Whenever I have an idea or information to place in the book, I just go to the nearest computer.”

Google has revised the respective Writely and Google Spreadsheets interfaces so they are “more identical than fraternal”, and unified the two with one log-in, one help center and a list that shows all the user’s documents and spreadsheets online.

The New York Times discussed yesterday the business model of one of the leading TV networks of this year: YouTube.

With about 100M clips per day, which represent I assume more than 50M viewers per day, YouTube is very close to the large American networks: NBC, CBS, ABC and FOX. The top rated show these days, American Idol, brings rating of 18% which means a little bit less than this number. YouTube brings this rating on different 100M shows, each clip – is a show of itself, and in different locations. But can the content industry ignore this TV network? I think not.

Mark Cuban claimed yesterday in his blog that YouTube is nothing more than just copyright violation. And he is right. Most of the user generated content in YouTube is stolen generated content – part of it from TV, part of it music lipsync which is stolen.

But the question is not whether YouTube generated their traffic by stealing copyrights. This is in the past. The question is what they will do with their traffic which is similar to the most viewed prime time show in US. It’s a lot of traffic which in the near future will be generating a lot of money from advertising. If the content industry will choose to take legal actions, they defiantly would kill YouTube. But will it be good for this industry? Imagine what would happen if instead of killing Napster, the majors would allow them to give music for free for a share in the advertising that Napster would sell. The piracy would have been stopped and record labels had been gained revenues from digital music for years. I-Tunes model won’t even been born.

The content owners should decide whether they mean war or they prefer peace. In war, everybody loses. They might succeed in killing YouTube, but a new one will emerge. In peace, they can use it as a new channel to the customers and a new stream of revenues.

And I won’t be surprised if YouTube’s next move will be becoming a player in the TV industry. They won’t be the fifth network, but they will become VOD player on the TV screen.

K.