The July issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available. The issue kicks off with some amusing, original artwork from former staffer Grant Osborne. I need to pester him for some high-resolution copies to use as desktop pictures. Crikey, but did we get a lot of reader e-mail last month. Keep those e-mails coming, folks. We love interacting with our readers! This issue marks a milestone, as we move from what has been our traditional publishing method for many years to a new system. Michael explains it all in a fascinating look back at our old publishing methods, and the transition to the new one. Having had a front seat to the development process, looking at alpha and beta publications over the course of a couple of weeks, I can tell you that Mr. Tsai poured a lot of effort in to our new publishing system, which should allow ATPM more flexibility for the future. On behalf of the entire staff, thank you, Michael! I agree with Ellyn's take on the Apple-to-use-Intel brouhaha, and wish her well on her upcoming Jeopardy appearance! Ellyn also notes a worthwhile project wherein you can "adopt" a serviceman: Books for Soldiers. My personal favorite program is Adopt a Sniper; snipers have different equipment needs than most other soldiers, beyond simply the difference in arms. Yet the inflexibility of the military's purchasing process precludes snipers from getting a lot of this more flexible and specialized equipment before they are deployed. Kudos to the individual citizens who have banded together to help provide what the most cost-effective warriors in our services require. (One shot, one kill.) And thanks to Ellyn for pointing out another program supporting our soldiers I was unaware of. I've got some books winging their way to the Middle East very soon. Sorry for that tangent; let's veer back on track. Angus Wong delivers an introspective look at the Mac's history and current market, in light of the recent move-to-Intel announcement. Paul Blakeman offers up his iBook love story. We welcome David Blumenstein as a full-time ATPM staffer, and he reciprocates the love with a look at podcasting. Charles Ross has a great FileMaker database How To, and Marcus J. Albers goes Dashboard widget hunting. We are pleased to offer desktop pictures from ATPM reader Mark Montgomery. Thanks for the guitars, Mark! My favorites are the Dobro and the Rickenbacker. Cortland's parents come for a visit, and Frisky's freeware pick this month is MacMAME. Chris Lawson has a pair of speaker reviews, and Matthew Glidden explore's graphic design aid Curio. Paul Fatula gets to know Wacom's Graphire Bluetooth edition, while David Zatz compares headphones from Pro Tech Communications and Sennheiser. Finally, Andrew Kator details vSpace Master 2.0, a 3D/VR presentation system.

Thanks to a tip from a MacInTouch reader, my PowerBook, running Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.1, is successfully printing to my HP OfficeJet d145 again. It was quite simple. First, in the Hewlett-Packard folder that would be installed in your Applications folder, run the HP Uninstaller application. When it's done, restart your Mac. Next, make sure you have the latest HP driver software for your OfficeJet, in my case the d145 on Mac OS X. After mounting the disk image, quit all other running applications. Or just run the HP All-in-One Installer, as it is going to ask to do this for you. Let the installer run as normal, and run through the Setup Assistant stuff at the end. The Setup Assistant saw my OfficeJet sitting on its assigned IP on the internal network. After that was done, I launched TextEdit, typed in a line, made several copies of said line, and sent it to the printer. Voila! Happy days are here again in the Phisch Bowl™. Your mileage may vary, but this is what worked for me. I have not tested any other functions, such as faxing or scanning, from the HP Director software, since I didn't really use those functions before.

Michael announces the release of DropDMG 2.6.1. This update of the easy-to-use disk image creation tool adds support for bzip2-compressed disk images, for those of you in to that sort of thing. The usual assortment of bug fixes and tweaks abound. Go. Download. Register. Help an independent software developer out by buying his worthy product. The usual disclaimer: I have no vested interest in C-Command and its products other than I like seeing my friends happy and sane, and when you reward their hard work, that's what they are.

I wholeheartedly agree with Dave Golden that syncing in Tiger is a step back from what it once was in Panther. Before, if I wanted to sync my PowerBook with my phone and .Mac, it was a one-shot deal. Click on the iSync icon in the menu bar, tell it to "Sync Now," and it was done. When that finished, it was a simple matter to switch over to the Cube to sync it and my iPod with what had just been uploaded to my .Mac account. This has now become a two-step process on the PowerBook, which runs Tiger, while it remains the easy one-shot on the Cube, which still runs Panther. (The reason for the latter still running the older operating system is that with a HP d145 OfficeJet all-in-one printer in the house, it would be nice to have at least one Mac that can print. Where are those drivers, HP?) The iSync button in the menu bar now only runs the sync to .Mac. To get changes to sync to my T616, I have to manually launch the iSync application, and tell it to sync with the phone. Can we please fix this in 10.4.2?

The June issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available, and apparently Rob was in a rhyming mood when he wrote the Welcome. Ellyn looks at the advantage of age, through the eyes of a sport I have recently rediscovered as a favorite. Amongst myriad other happenings, Wes covers the release of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger (there's a mouthful) in this month's marathon Bloggable. Our Reviews Editor, Paul Fatula, takes his turn with the Pod People column, doting on his first-generation iPod. We're looking for writers who wish to contribute to the Pod People column, so if you're interested, [drop me a line](mailto:cturner@atpm.com?subject=Pod People column). Ted discusses outlining and styles in this month's ATPO, while Scott Chitwood, of ResExcellence fame, looks at skinning your OS X interface with Appearance Themes. David Blumenstein delivers another thought-provoking column, as he ponders the possibilities presented by the Mac Mini. No, I cannot bring myself to not capitalize the second word, at least on my own blog. Tom Bridge presents readers with an overview of the new features in Tiger. Lee has a good how-to column on getting widescreen output in iDVD 5, or at least as close as you can come. Sylvester delivers a Tiger installation instruction manual for those who haven't gone through the upgrade process yet. Cortland proves he knows where his towel is, while leaping the hurdles of the design world. College student Dan Klein was gracious in providing photos from Moraine State Park for this month's desktop pictures section. Frisky Freeware discusses Apple Jack, a utility that has piqued my curiosity. Eric lays out the goods on the AppleScript Missing Manual, Michael provides yet another keyboard review, this time with the iceKey, and Frank H. Wu offers his review of the iLugger, designed for you to tote your iMac G5 around the town. Eric reviews a staff-favorite, the news reader NetNewsWire, while Lee shows that Shoebox Pro isn't quite deserving of the professional moniker just yet. Marcus J. Albers wraps up this month's reviews section with his take on Unreal Tournament 2004. I want to thank the staff and all of our writers. This month's issue is solid and well packed, and you should all be proud.

I have noticed that Safari 2 likes to launch and not remember where its last window position was. I like my application windows to "stick" to the bottom of the menu bar, and Safari was launching with it quite a few pixels south. Damien and I discussed the issue via instant messages, as he was noting the same issue. Turns out the problem is with Safari's plist preference file, and the good Mr. Barrett has the gory details.

Two new Dashboard widgets in service tonight: Courtesy of Erik, the Gun Self Defense Counter, which uses a formula developed by Gary Kleck and Marc Gertz of Northwestern University to show how many times in a calendar year firearms are used to save lives. The other Michael I call friend IM'ed me about the SysStat widget, which is now in use, replacing MemoryStick. If the developers at iSlayer are feeling adventurous, I'd love a field that would show the front-most application's (sans Dashboard) memory usage, a la MemoryCell.

Michael Gartenberg:

If you spend too much time organizing your stuff or just can't find it, you need to take a close look at Tiger. There's a real experiential difference. What's missing? Not much. I'd like to see more RSS support so I can better read and search off-line, and I wouldn't mind seeing Microsoft add Spotlight support for Entourage. Otherwise, this operating system is near nirvana for productivity.

There's no doubt that a lot of similar concepts will be included in the next version of Windows. But Longhorn won't be here for at least 18 months. It will be interesting to see what Apple has for us by then.

So rather than futz around with having to mail in a rebate form by ordering from Amazon, I ordered my copy of Mac OS X Tiger from OWC. Having done business with them in the past, I have always been pleased with their level of customer service, and their prices are always competitive. OWC sent out an e-mail last week to its customers explaining they were having issues getting stock of the new operating system, and would ship orders on a first-come, first-serve basis. Some orders might not ship until May 5th. Fair enough. Please note I'm not upset with OWC here. I'm a wee bit ticked at Apple and/or Ingram Micro (or whichever distributor is responsible) for leaving out the smaller vendors in getting the stock they need, especially in light of MacMall having received and shipped Tiger to customers days in advance of the official release. I realized my savings of $30 by ordering from OWC would likely mean I wouldn't see the new OS until today. But at this rate it's going to be next week. Live and learn...

The May issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available for your reading pleasure. Ellyn discusses generic vs brand-name, and though she never states it--and maybe I'm just reading my own bias in to it--I'm sure there's a Mac vs PC thing in there as well. Wes's romp around the Mac blogosphere covers Photoshopped Apple products, how more Unix-heads are turning to OS X, stupid accessory manufacturers offering cash for someone to write a Mac virus, Apple plagiarizing CSS tutorials, and oh so much more. Paul's roaming through the ether reveals a solar-powered van, the excitement of watching lard via the web, the dumbest girl in on the planet (she's riding through Chernobyl's radiated zone), finding out just what the file extension's application is, and where to find a place to get a cup of coffee other than Starbucks. Tom Bridge checks in with this month's Pod People, and for that, we are grateful. David Blumenstein looks at how he has turned the Apple Store SOHO in to his own private office. Matthew Glidden, though tempted by the Mac Mini, decides to upgrade his Cube instead. (Ah, another kept within the brotherhood!) Cortland notes the Adobe-Macromedia "merger", reader Bill Jastram shares photos he and his wife took in the Canadian Rockies, and Frisky Freeware takes the plunge with Cyberduck. Chris Lawson continues his impressive slate of product reviews with Kensington's Expert Mouse 7.0, the Keynamics Laptop Stand, and the latest 15-inch PowerBook G4. Wes puts MacJournal through its paces, Paul shares his thoughts on Mind Hacks, and yours truly reviews the TransPod FM. As usual, the issue is available in a variety of formats for your reading pleasure.

Jeff Harrell has a good article on things to keep in mind when using Mac OS X Tiger's new Spotlight.