Apple Thoughts - News & Reviews on all things Apple

"In a somewhat surprising move today, wireless carrier O2 Ireland announced that its customers would be able to unlock Apple's iPhone. Per the O2 forum, Rod Coleman, head of O2's Customer Care unit, discussed the decision surrounding the unlocking on iPhones, especially those who want to pass on old handsets."

You have to meet several criteria, which are:

• Registered on the O2 forum;
• Prepaid customers must have reached minimum of €150 on the registered SIM card (this excludes bonus credits);
• And you must have purchased the iPhone from O2 Ireland.

You can get more info on the O2 forum about this particular topic.

"Actor Richard Belzer found himself on the wrong side of the law after an employee at a Manhattan Apple store told cops the "Law & Order" star attacked her, police sources said."

After reviewing the tape of the incident, NYPD said at best it was harassment, not assault, since Belzer didn't "choke" her as the victim alleges. I haven taken more calls than I can count from victims of crimes that, to put it mildly, exaggerated what happened to them. I'm not saying she is doing this, and that she wasn't scared, but under the law it appears her charges are unfounded when it comes to saying Belzer "attacked and choked" her. I'm just anticipating a civil suit next from her, call me cynical.

"In its annual list of the world's billionaires, Forbes this year ranked Apple CEO Steve Jobs in a tie with six others for 136th place with a net worth of $5.5 billion. Jobs' net worth is up from $5.1 billion in an October 2009 Forbes ranking of richest Americans and up from $3.4 billion and 178th place in last year's world ranking."

Doesn't hurt that Apple stock is up more than 150% from last year. But he still has a ways to go to catch up to number one on the list, Carlos "Slim" Helú, who has net worth of $53.5 billion, bumping out Bill Gates. Just so you know, "Slim" was able to build up his wealth in the telecom industry and he takes in roughly $33 million....PER DAY! 

"I have the greatest respect for the men and women behind Apple's tech support. Despite having one of the toughest jobs in the industry, they've always been extremely efficient and courteous in solving my own problems."

And the subscribers to Consumer Reports apparently agree with your sentiments, ranking Apple number one in their survey that rated problems solved, phone waits, phone staff and online support. Approximately 3,700 subscribers surveyed in laptop and also desktop support ranked Apple tops in each. The laptop score was 86 out of 100, and for desktop they scored 87 out of 100. These are up from last years numbers of 84 and 81 respectively.

"New browser time -- and unfortunately, time to restart your Mac. Safari has been updated (for 10.4, 10.5 and 10.6 on the Mac side, and Windows XP/Vista/7 on the Win side); it includes the improvements noted: performance improvements for Top Sites, stability improvements for plug-ins, and for sites with SVG graphics and online forms and fixes issues affecting settings changes to some Linksys routers and iWork.com user comments"

Lots of security fixes with this update, all outlined here, and you can get the 31.8 MB download via Software Update or by going to the Safari download page here.

Head on over now to the Apple Store, online pre-orders are now being accepted. Woo Hoo.

"With just a few weeks to go before the iPad hits stores, here's the best way to ensure you're at the head of the line to get one (or three). If history is any indication, the iPad will be in short supply when it goes on sale April 3. Plus there are rumors of production delays that may further constrain supply."

To give yourself ample opportunity, visit AppleStoreCheck.com and they will let you know when things change and the familiar message above is displayed at the Apple Online Store. Once you sign up, they will alert you via email, RSS or Twitter. This doesn't appear to be limited to the iPad either, as they say "We'll check the Apple Store for new products and changes - so you don't have to."

"Good news for all of you Foursquare addicts, after a couple days of noticed absence, the Foursquare iPhone app is now back on the App Store."

This was regarding version 1.6, which was released into the store and then pulled when it was discovered to have been released too early. So they put it back in after fine tuning it, and now they have updated again, since as of yesterday version 1.7 is now available for free in iTunes.

"Remember iCalShare? The calendar-sharing site-once touted by Steve Jobs during a Macworld Expo keynote-seemed to have vanished for a while, but it's now back, and even easier to use. iCalShare now provides more than 3,500 free calendars in 40 categories, with its search tool and interface both undergoing improvements in its latest incarnation."

You can check out all their calendars at their site, iCalShare, and it is worth a look. I use several of these for sport schedules and holidays. It is pretty easy, and the only requirement after creating an account is to make sure you use the iCalendar (.ics) format. This is a sharing site only, it doesn't help you create or host any, but it certainly makes finding that special or obscure calendar. And it beats finding all the dates and entering them manually!

"According to a Microsoft security bulletin, seven privately reported vulnerabilities in Excel could allow remote code execution if a user were to open a specially-crafted file. By exploiting those vulnerabilities, an attacker could gain the same user rights as a local user."

So in order to fix this, Microsoft released two updates, Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.4 Update and Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac 11.5.8 Update. These updates will, as described by Microsoft, take care of “vulnerabilities that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer’s memory with malicious code.” The updates will also improve stability and slow performance.

Microsoft also brought out two other updates: Microsoft Entourage 2008 for Mac, Web Services Edition 13.0.4 (which will now allow you to synchronize notes, tasks, and categories with Exchange Server), and Microsoft Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 1.1.4 (which lets you convert Open XML files created in Office 2008 for Mac or Office 2007 for Windows).