Apple's iPod may just turn out to be your best traveling companion. And that's not just because it can keep you from getting bored with all the music and videos it can store but also because it may also serve as your airplane's flight data recorder, a.k.a. black box.

LoPresti SpeedMerchants is looking into integrating Apple's white wonder into the avionics systems of their Fury piston aircraft.

Acting as a hard disk, the iPod is expected to record over 500 hours of flight time data, which may be used for system monitoring, training, and (knock on wood) crash investigation. Exactly what type of data the iPod will store has not been revealed.

An internet company may be stopping Apple from dubbing their upcoming phone as iPhone, but that doesn't stop the hype on the said Apple product. In fact, the hype is just about to get bigger as supposed images of the forthcoming Apple baby surface in the netvine.

Gruuve.com has posted what they say are iPhone photos passed on from an Apple employee. The phone does look like an Apple creation yet some keen eyes noted that the pictures look fake - especially since the iPhone seems to be using the old gen's multi-button system. Considering that today's iPods are now using the click-wheel design, most Apple watchers (or fans) feel that it's logical for Job's company to use click-wheel instead of multi-buttons. Also realised was the possibility that the iPhone pictures may just be Photoshopped versions of the iPod. Just take a look at this:

Well, we're not sure what to make of the iPhone prototype. What we're sure of, though, is that many out there (us at QJ included) are awaiting the release of this latest Apple concoction. How about you, what do you think of these iPhone images?

Sure, you all know that the iPod is now on its fifth generation and that the Macs are now getting Intel processors. But just how well do you know the Apple products? Just when you think you know enough to make a smart decision on an Apple purchase, something comes along to let you know that there are more to Apple products than meets the eye.

If you're out to make an Apple purchase, you might want to check out Designed in California beta - an Apple reference that documents 24,298 details of 299 Jobs-era Apple products. As stated in its "About" section brags, this Apple library "aims to be more detailed, more comprehensive and more searchable than existing databases".

As Designed in California is "in no way affiliated with Apple Computer", the team admits that there may be some errors and omissions. But you can still enjoy scanning the database for the following:

• All retail Mac models available in the US featuring G3, G4, G5 and Intel processors. Xserves are included; Server versions of Power Macs are not. Certain build-to-order, education and other special models are also included, but several are not.
• All models of display introduced on or after November 10, 1997. There is some confusion about the availability of Colorsync AV models, so currently they are excluded.
• All retail models of AirPort equipment and iPod.
• The introductory price of almost all models, plus many - but by no means all - price changes.
• Events in Apple's history concerning changes to the above models. Information about other events will be added later.

Designed in California will let you compare the five generations of six iPod models and the different Macs now out in the market. Standard and even disappearing features in Apple computers are also in display. News about Apple products can also be searched in this Apple database.

Check out the Designed in California database here.

"If you want a stylish, great, capable portable, buy this one. You won't be disappointed." That's Washington Times' Mark Kellner's final verdict on the Apple MacBook. And reading the full review, it seems like the only thing he had against Apple's laptop was its heat.

Having the $1,600 notebook functional after a 2-foot drop was pretty impressive but that's not the only reason that got Kellner hooked. He loved the 13" glossy screen (a good change from the previously favored matte displays, says Kellner), the "Chiclets" style keyboard (which he was previously apprehensive about), the ample multimedia features, and the built-in WiFi antenna.

Of course, the product was not perfect, but one can forgive its imperfections. The built-in speakers may not be a high-end audio system, but as Kellner wrote, "in a hotel room with little else available, the music playback is quite nice".

The touch pad, which "doesn't send the cursor flying around the screen anywhere nearly as often as other computer's touch pads have done", can be forgiven by people who are quite good at with just the keyboard. Although, Kellner admits that "having external options, wired or wireless, is quite nice".

Check out Mark Kellner's full review of the Apple MacBook here.

Eleven steps. That's what it takes to convert a Boot Camp install to Parallels. Eleven may come off as a small number, but the courageous colddiver, who made the successful transition, said the whole process was a "painful" one. Trading off the Boot Camp's partition for the virtualization offered by Parallels offers two major challenges: first, backing-up the Boot Camp partition and converting it into VM .hdd file; next, repairing your Windows install so that it can work under the significant hardware change.

If you feel like you can brave through the eleven steps - after all, reviews say that Parallels is indeed better than Boot Camp - then check out the steps here. If you think the process is too much of a hassle, you can always start from scratch in Parallels.

It has been rumored that Apple will be coming up with Macs carrying Intel's Conroe Core 2 Duo. If this turns out to be true, future Mac upgraders may have to choose between the current Conroes (Conroe E6000 series) and the upcoming Conroe E4xxx models, the two being different in FSB speed.

The E6000 series have either 2MB or 4MB of L2, running over a 1066MHz FSB. The upcoming E4300 Conroe will support only an 800MHz clock, with 2MB of L2 and clocking in at 1.8GHz - 0.06 notches below E6300's 1.86GHz. It also has no Virtualisation Technology support.

MacScan Software offers an application that scans your hard drive for spyware and that cleans up the traces of your Web browsing. Neat. But before you dole out that $25 for this Mac OS X application, you might want to check out this review. MacWorld's Mark H. Anbinder tried out MacScan 2.1 and came up with the following conclusion: there's no real need for the said software.

Although MacScan delivers exactly what it advertises, it runs really slow. Unlike anti-virus apps, this software rescans files it has previously scanned eventhough the files haven't been modified since the last scan. But the biggest issue with MacScan is its necessity. As Anbinder wrote, "Of the 40-plus threats listed on the MacScan Web site, for example, many apply only to OS 9."

With regards to the cleaning up of the Web history, cache, and cookies, one can already configure their browsers to not collect them, making it unnecessary to have a separate application to erase browser traces.

Eventhough the MacScan "takes care of its business reasonably well", its functionality can be carried on by Mac users for free. Maybe when Mac OS X users get more malware threatening their OS, then this application may come in handy. But for now, we can keep that 25 bucks and save it for the next 'must have' software.

Charles Schoenfeld gives us this freeware that serves as an Automator action for changing location-related settings and preferences. LocationSwitch v1.0 affects the settings of network location, sound volume, SMTP servers, automatic fetching of mail, enabling/disabling of individual e-mail accounts, and default printer selection.

The author of this app suggests that if you're routinely switching between two locations, better make two copies of this app - name each one to reflect your locations (e.g. SwitchHome and SwitchOffice). When starting up your computer from one location, click on your location's action to get started.

Customization is needed to have this software working. To apply personalized settings, LocationSwitch makes use of Applescript. Drag the icon for LocationSwitch onto the Automator icon and Automator will open, allowing you to customize it. Here's the detailed instructions from the download file:

In Steps 1 & 2:
Customize the alert and the network location to represent the relevant physical location.

In Step 3:
Customize your volume settings for the amount of ambient noise at the specified location.

In Step 4:
If you have more than two mail accounts set up, duplicate the line that changes the SMTP server as many times as necessary, editing the name of the account and the SMTP server for each.

In Steps 4 & 5 (yes, this also applies to Step 4):
Customize the names of your e-mail accounts (matching what you called them in Mail.app) and your SMTP servers.

In Steps 5 & 6 (yes, another instruction that applies to Step 5):
You may need to change some instances of the word "false" to "true" if you're trying to turn things on rather than off.

In Step 7:
Change "Home Queue" to the name of your default printer at the specified location (exactly matching the name of that printer in your Printer Setup Utility application).

Finally, delete any steps that you don't want to use. I recommend doing this last, so that the numbering of steps in the instructions above still makes sense. (Seasoned Applescripters will realize that I could have combined Steps 4Â?7 into a single step. This is why I didn't. Some people will not want to use every step, and separating them makes them easier to delete selectively.)

Download: [LocationSwitch]

They may be little people but they sure are cute and I'm not gonna let them suffer and die. I'm talking about the villagers that roam around Last Day of Work's latest game for Windows and Mac computers, Virtual Villagers.

Virtual Villagers is a village simulator - set in the fictitious island of Isola - that puts you in charge of a tribe of little people. You'd have to teach the villagers of the basics of survival allowing for the growth and prosperity of the village. Just like normal people, these villagers will have housing, food, and technological (!) needs to fulfill. Of course, diseases hound the tribe as well. As the little people gain knowledge, they'll also grow curious about the island they live in - so you'd need to help them explore and restore Isola as well.

This game will run in real time and the villagers continue to live, grow, and (sadly) die even if the game is off. The only way the game can be suspended is by setting it on pause. Other features of the game are as follows:

• Hundreds of unique and customizable villagers.
• Breed your villagers and raise your own tribe.
• Unique and unpredictable "Island Events" to keep you on your toes.
• Uncover mysteries and milestones as you unravel the hidden story of Isola
• Runs in True-Real Time: new surprises every time you turn the game on
• Control the destiny of your survivors! Create your own adventure
• Amazing original soundtracks and ambient sound effects

Currently, there is a free Windows trial version of the game with the download at 16MB. The Windows full version is available for $19.95. The Mac OS X version is still in development but Last Day of Work promises it's coming pretty soon. If you want to know more about Virtual Villagers, visit the official site here.

R.Tyler Ballance's blog say that he sucks at computers, yet he's been giving his readers the nitty-gritty about Mac computer. Recently, due to an inquiry by BuildFactory icon graphics designer Fernando, he explains why the kernel_task contains too many threads and takes up a high percentage of the virtual memory.

First, Tyler gives us a bit of background on Mach. He shares, "Mach is one of the more successful stories in microkernel development, Mac OS X is based around the Mach microkernel, as well as the NeXTStep of old, as well as DEC's OSF/1, and IBM's frequently deceased OS/2 (at least for RS6000 machines). In accordance with the basic concept of a microkernel, Mach manages memory, and handles inter-process communication but not much else."

After this backgrounder, Tyler start answering the question, "What exactly is a kernel_task"? Since the kernel_task is a mere "representation of the microkernel itself" it is not, therefore, really a "task". It being a PID 0, we can all assume it is not userland-related.

There may be little documentation on kernel_task but from the little info available, Tyler was able to assume that the kernel task may be the basic (virtual/)memory manager for Mac OS X on top of Mach, which is similar to L4 microkernel's sigma0 concept. He confidently declares that "kernel_task is responsible for handling the allocation of pages of memory in the Xnu kernel (Mach+IOKit+whatever else Apple threw in), which would explain why it has an amazing amount of threads".

Yet another process, dynamic_pager, shows up and it is possible that this task is the one that handles swap file for Mac OS X. If this is indeed true, what is dynamic_pager's connection with kernel_task? Tyler assumes, "It's quite possible that kernel_task and dynamic_pager work together of a Mach port, and when necessary, kernel_task runs out of available resources, it serves up memory from a swap file managed by dynamic_pager."

Although most of the info provided Tyler have no strong document back-up, and some even being mere speculation, he hopes that he was able to put some light on what kernel_task is. Check out Tyler's other article on the Mac OS X internals here.