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One of my favorite features in iPhoto is its ability to compare changes you’ve made to the original with the press of a button. In previous versions, it was assigned to the CTRL key. With iPhoto ‘08, this no longer works. For days I was hating the new iPhoto because it seemed they removed this feature. After a little digging around, I found that Apple has not removed the feature but just moved it to the SHIFT key. I’ve actually found this to be a welcome change as I check against the original a lot and the SHIFT key is much easier to locate and press.

NBC Universal is looking to not renew its contact with Apple in regards to its Television content this December. Last season I purchased full seasons of Lost, Heroes, The Office, Studio 60 and Battlestar Galactica, mostly all NBC shows, from iTunes. I canceled cable and even bought an AppleTV. So you can expect, I’m a little pissed about this. If NBC wants more money, they are in ever right to ask for it and take it somewhere else if they are not happy. But if they pull from iTunes, I’ll have to resort to torrents for these files now. So Universal, since you’re so interested in dollar figures, what’s better…$1.99 of my money in your pocket or losing the war on piracy? When will companies learn that downloading shows via bitorrent isn’t about stealing, its about convenience. And I would gladly pay $1.99 an episode for convenience, especially with all the promising upcoming shows this season.

I finally picked up iLife ‘08 and iWork ‘08 this weekend after Apple’s announcement last week. I’ve been waiting for iLife ‘08 since Macworld as I use iPhoto on a daily basis and Garageband when I record my podcast. iDVD and iWeb are pretty useless to me but iMovie was something I always wanted to get into but never did. Mostly due to not having a video camera. iWork on the other hand i rarely use and really have no idea why I picked it up but I did anyways.

First thing I did was try out iPhoto for obvious reasons. Now mind you, I never really “got” iPhoto but in the past 8 months I’ve gotten use to it. The first thing you notice is that Events now replace rolls. I think this will actually work out for me in the long run. My favorite upgrade so far is the keyword, no more drag and dropping. It has a more traditional tagging interface now which i love. I’ve only really played with the new iPhoto for a little bit so far and its mostly due to the fact it now runs like shit on my Macbook. As I write this I am rebuilding all the thumbnails, database and permissions hoping it will help. When scrolling and editing pictures, the CPU jumps to 100% and everything crawls. Anyone else having the same issues?

The other iLife apps I haven’t played with too much yet. iWork I’ll probably almost never use due to Google Apps but I have it if i need it.

Apple’s long awaited iPhone was released yesterday after much hype. From most of the reviews I’ve been reading, it lives up to the hype too. Even with all the glowing reviews, I’m going to pass on the iPhone, for now atleast. My dependance on my Blackberry is enough to keep me away. I currently have a Blackberry Pearl and I’m still In love with my phone after 9 months. Its coming up on having the phone for a year so I’m itching for a new phone but the iPhone’s lack of Exchange or OWA support makes it a deal breaker to me. I’m definitely jealous of anyone who has an iPhone but I can’t justify paying $600 to lose a feature I depend on so much.

On a side note, its been confirmed that a 2nd gen Blackberry Curve will be coming to T-Mobile in September. I will be getting this phone once its released for sure. New features in the updated Curve include:

• Wi-Fi
• 3.2MP camera
• Stereo Bluetooth
• Improved build quality

As long as I’m at my current job, I’m going to be sticking with a Blackberry but damn do I want a iPhone.

Bandwagon, the iTunes backup program, has finally released their version of software that supports backup to an FTP server. They have had a version that supported Amazon’s S3 service for a couple months now but now you can backup to any FTP server including another computer on your local network. I tested it last night by backing up my iTunes music to a Buffalo Linkstation I have on my LAN. The 40 gigs of data took about 2 hours to backup so speed was good. I’m probably going to try a backup to my Dreamhost site soon but thats going to take some time. Everything worked great except the app was always at 100% CPU usage when it was running. The program is in beta so bugs are expected. For a first release tho, it offers a great way to backup your iTunes library locally or offsite.

Also they are offering a free 6 months to any blogger who posts about the release. Just make a post, not unlike this one, and post a trackback to the post on their blog and you will get a code good for a 6 months free.

My favorite remote control software, LogMeIn, has released a preview of their upcoming client for Mac. LogMeIn is similar to GoToMyPC in it provides 24/7 access to your computer from any web browser. I’ve used LogMeIn for years when I was doing computer consulting to remotely access clients PC and its nice to finally see it come to Macs. The client only supports LogMeIn Free accounts right now which allows access to one computer. But since its free, there is no reason not to signup for an account and have access to your home Mac anytime, anywhere.

Mozy was one of my favorite programs on Windows. It’s an automatic online backup system that worked very well. It was small, easy and just worked. They give you 2GB free or unlimited for $4.95/month which is incredible.

Mozy features:

• Open/locked file support
• 448-bit Blowfish encryption
• 128-bit SSL encryption
• Automatic or scheduled backups
• New and changed file detection
• Block level incremental backups
• Bandwidth throttling
• File versioning
• Public or private key encryption

Well the folk over at Mozy released a beta for Mac today. As soon as I seen the news, I started the install. Install was a breeze and in a few minutes it was searching my hard drive for “Backup Sets” which are pre-determined file types. These include Word and Excel files and Mac specific items such as iCal, Address book, iTunes Library and iPhoto Library. You can also choose individual files and folders if you would like too. I choose my Documents and SItes folders in addition to some Backup Sets as you can see below.

So far I’m only 62% done with my initial backup so I haven’t had a chance to try a restore yet. But if its anything like the Windows client was, it will be easy and seamless. So far I’m impressed by the beta. I haven’t run into any issues yet but I really haven’t done too much yet. The program runs in the menu bar so its out of the way. With 2GB’s of space for free, you really have no reason not to be backing up important files now.

[Mozy Mac Beta page]