Welcome to the latest edition of 'Ask the MACist', the column where I answer your Macintosh and other technology questions. Our question this week comes from Ryan in Silverlake. He asks: I'm seriously considering a new Mac but I always hear rumors about newer ones coming out so I always end up waiting. Should I just bite the bullet and do it or should I wait? When to upgrade or get a new piece... more ›

Wow, this has got to hurt a little. People were a little miffed over at Digg last night, to say the least. Although, its interesting to see the power of the internet when people pull together in the same direction. Yes, piracy is bad but so is censorship. In truth, this number has been around the Internet for months so really, what's the big deal and why try to ban it now? Besides, its... more ›

Welcome to the latest edition of 'Ask the MACist', the column where I answer your Macintosh and other technology questions. Our question this week comes from Jill in Silverlake. She asks: I travel quite a bit for work and need to check my email on the road. What's the best way to do that? Accessing your email while out of town and away from your home or office is usually pretty easy to accomplish.... more ›

Some interesting tech-related news from around the web this week. • Imitation may be a form of flattery (the sincerest kind, so they say) but AOL, I think you might have taken it a bit too far. • AT&T Chief Edward "Moneybags" Whitacre is retiring. His going away present? $158.5 Million. Not a bad present. I bet he won't try to return it. • Apple issues a fix for the battery issues that plague... more ›

Welcome to the latest edition of 'Ask the MACist', the column where I answer your Macintosh and other technology questions. Our question this week comes from Jim in Santa Monica. He asks: I have a bunch of PDF files that I need to combine into one document. How do I do that? That's a good question that I get asked frequently. In fact, I had to do this just the other day with several... more ›

Welcome to the latest edition of 'Ask the MACist', the column where I answer your Macintosh and other technology questions. Our question this week comes from Josh in Los Angeles. He asks: There's no problem downloading .avi files, converting to .mov, and playing on the Apple TV, is there? Or showing .mov files generated by iMovie? Also, does it run with 10.3.9? The answer to your questions are pretty simple, fortunately. Anything you can... more ›

Welcome to the latest edition of 'Ask the MACist', the column where I answer your Macintosh and other technology questions. Our question this week comes from Sam, who lives all the way in Portland. He asks: "Even though Apple and EMI are not going to have DRM on their songs, is there any way to have songs from other companies in your iTunes without DRM to? With Apple announcing yesterday that they, along with... more ›

• Its official, June 11th is iPhone day. Start saving now. • Is Google too powerful? Business Week speculates that it might be. • The Treo 755p in the wild. If you still care at all. • SonyBMG music retires the requirement for new artists to submit a demo tape -- at least in Europe. Now, artists can upload demos to the company's website instead. They will probably still be rejected but at least... more ›

Welcome to the latest edition of "Ask the MACist", the column where I answer your Macintosh and other technology questions. Our question this week comes from Jeff in Santa Monica. He asks: "Ok, I'm tempted to get an Apple TV but what will it do for me and is it worth the price?" Well, as always our readers come up with the best questions. And in this case, the most topical as well considering... more ›

• Apple, Inc. takes another step into your living room with the AppleTV -- which started shipping this week to eager early-adopters (like me). Should you get one? I'll let you know very soon after I beat up on it for a few days. • Speaking of AppleTV, over at 'Make', one of my favorite "do-it-yourself" sites, they show you how to violate the warranty on your shiny new AppleTV in four easy steps.... more ›

Welcome to the latest edition of "Ask the MACist" the column where I answer your Macintosh and technology questions. Our question this week comes from Larry in Culver City. He asks: "I've got a Mac and I've got an XBox 360. Is there any way to get them to talk to each other?" Like Larry, I to am an avid XBox 360 user as well as a Macintosh lover so I have also been... more ›

• The legal dispute between media giant Viacom and Google owned YouTube just gets more unpleasant. • Is Viacom engaging in a bit of hypocrisy when it comes to enforcing copyright on its programming? Maybe so. Take a look. • Did Viacom overstep its bounds a little when issuing those takedown notices for videos over at YouTube? Some people think so and are suing. • In other more pleasant Google news, one of its... more ›

If the title of this post confuses you, don't be too worried because these terms probably confuse, or completely escape the notice, of most people. So, what then do they mean? Well, they refer to different types of cyber attacks on you and your computer that take place every day here in Los Angeles. Attackers use these types of attacks, and others, to gain access to your computer and your data with sometimes unfortunate... more ›

Welcome to the latest edition of "Ask the MACist" the column where I answer your Macintosh and technology questions. Our question this week comes from Steve in NoHo. He asks: "I'm using Apple's Mail program and I want to check my Gmail account using the program as well. Can I do it and if so, how?" Google offers so many great features and one of the best is, of course, Gmail. Some people like... more ›

• Social giant MySpace is prepping a new news service that may require users to verify their ages before entering. • Worried about the upcoming change to Daylight Savings Time? Find out what it means to you in the handy FAQ. • Sony launches its "Home" and "Little Blue Planet" services for PS3 users. And the world reacts with a thunderous yawn.... more ›

Welcome to the latest edition of Ask the MACist, the column where I answer your Mac and Mac-related questions with hopefully more clarity and insight than you could ever need. As always, I want to thank those of you who sent in questions this week. They are much appreciated. Please, keep it up! This weeks question comes from Susan in Encino. She asks: "At the moment I'm on Verizon but I think I really... more ›

Welcome to the LAist weekly tech news roundup. Each week I'll be bringing you the latest, and hopefully most interesting, technology news from around the city, the state, the country and the world. Also, if you have any news, tips or things of interest you want to point out, feel free to drop us a line at: themacist [at] gmail dot com. Ok, let's get to the news: The Bush administration is at it... more ›

Welcome to the latest edition of Ask the MACist, the column where I answer your Macintosh, Macintosh-related and other technology questions with hopefully more clarity and insight than you could ever need. We'll get to your questions in a moment but first I just want to thank those of you who sent well-wishes to me during my bout with pneumonia last week. I'm happy to say that I'm well on the road to recovery... more ›

Welcome to the LAist weekly tech news roundup. Each week I'll be bringing you the latest, and hopefully most interesting, technology news from around the city, the state, the country and maybe even the world. Also, if you have any news, tips or things of interest you want to point out, feel free to drop me a line at: themacist [at] gmail dot com. Now, let's get to the news: Microsoft was ordered by... more ›

It's that time again friends. Time for a helping of the tech news from around the city, state, country and universe. As always, these are not always the most important stories but are the ones that particularly caught my eye during the week. So, sit back and relax and now that I'm somewhat recovered from last night's bug LAist "meeting" at Ye Rustic, here's the tech news for ye. The mayor of our fair... more ›

Welcome to the latest edition of Ask the MACist, the column where I answer your Mac and Mac-related questions with hopefully more clarity and insight than you could ever need. As always, I want to thank those of you who sent in questions this week. They are much appreciated. Please, keep it up! And remember, if you have a question about anything Mac, Mac-related, or even something about other technology like TiVo, cell phones,... more ›

Welcome to the latest edition of Ask the MACist, the column where I answer your Mac and Mac-related questions with hopefully more clarity and insight than you could ever need. As always, I want to thank those of you who sent in questions this week. They are much appreciated. Keep it up! And remember, if you have a question about anything Mac, Mac-related, or even something about another technology like TiVo, cell phones or... more ›

Many of us here at LAist use one or more tools provided by Google every day. For the most part, we all have a Gmail email account and some of us use Google Calendar to keep track of our appointments, story deadlines and most importantly, vacations. You might also have a Gmail account, may be familiar with Google as a search engine to find things on the internet and perhaps you use Google Calendar... more ›

Welcome to the latest edition of Ask the MACist, the column where I answer your Mac and Mac-related questions with hopefully more clarity and insight than you could ever need. As always, I want to thank those of you who sent in questions this week. They are much appreciated. Keep it up! And remember, if you have a question about anything Macintosh, Macintosh-related, or even something about another technology like TiVo, Blackberry, XBox 360,... more ›

Welcome to the latest installment of Ask the MACist and my special Macworld Expo 2007 coverage. After many hours in the car last night and a long stop at the grapevine because of an accident, I made it back to LA around 2AM this morning. It's good to be home. San Francisco is a nice place to visit but LA is my home. Although, as a Mac fan, it would be cool to live... more ›

Hello again and welcome to the second installment of Ask the MACist Macworld Expo Edition. Last time I thrilled you with some of my predictions for this year's keynote speech given my Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Well, the keynote is over and so let's see just how I did. As Elina pointed out earlier, Apple introduced a few new and exciting products this year including the new Apple TV and a new iPhone which... more ›

Welcome to part one of a special week of "Ask the MACist" coming to you live-ish from beautiful and rather warm San Francisco. I'm here because this week all things Macintosh converge and the faithful enjoy a full week of all-Mac goodness known as Mac World Expo. At the expo, all the newest Apple goodies will be reveled for all to see and touch and yours truly will be right in the middle of... more ›

Even though I call LA home, I didn't always live here. Over the years, I've spent time in various other parts of Southern California. Encinitas, Del Mar, San Diego and Fullerton are all places I once lived. Actually, I still think of Encinitas as my other home but as this is LAist and not Encinitasist, that’s not really relevant at the moment. When I first started coming to LA in the early 90s it... more ›

Yes folks it that time of year again when people make lists of the top whatevers that did something, didn't do something, inspired them, made them laugh, cry, sick or any number of other things. For better or worse, I'm no different and am caught up in the whole list thing. So, I will be providing a list of my own for your enjoyment, distraction, derision or otherwise perusal. My list is the top-ten... more ›

One of the most talented, controversial and often brilliant directors of all time (and one of my favorites), Robert Altman, has died. He was 81. In his career, Altman directed some of the best and most popular movies, across many different genres, including M*A*S*H which took place in Korea but was a thinly disguised attack on U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, one of the best "revisionist" Westerns of all... more ›