"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." - William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

If we applied Shakespeare's logic to today's digital age, then it would also mean that watching mis-tagged or untagged videos on your Apple device (be it a Mac, iPhone, iPod or Apple TV) would be just as enjoyable. Okay, you got me, they'd probably be just as good. But this doesn't mean you're excused from tagging your videos appropriately.

First, a bit of background. The vast majority of videos purchased from the iTunes store, as well as "digital copy" (iPod/iPhone pre-formatted videos that are sometimes included on DVDs and Blu-Ray discs), will come pre-tagged. So, the situation for those in this camp (myself included) is peachy, especially when using an Apple TV. Your videos show up on the screen screen with proper titles, season and episode numbers, actors, and descriptions. Just the way Steve likes 'em.

But what if you already own the DVD and want a version for your iTunes library? For those of you with the time and patience to rip an MPEG-4 version (and believe me, this takes some patience, especially if you use H.264 encoding) of your favorite videos, a HandBrake-MetaX martini make tagging your videos a bit more of a pleasurable experience - as if it wasn't fun enough already.

Videro is one of those silent-but-cool application suites you've probably never heard of, but you may see it being used every day. I met some of the Videro team at WWDC, and they were happy to demo a little of what the tools do: electronic signage and interactive kiosks. If you happen to need an animated in-store (or museum) display, fed from a server, easy to set up and deploy, complete with iPhone access to check on the servers (so they say), then Videro is an impressive tool.

To start, Videro has a composition tool that allows you to drag and drop your animations, complete with images, video and audio. In fact, Videro has extensive in-app tools for cropping, rotating and otherwise "fixing" your assets for display. But wait, there's more! This isn't just Keynote all gussied up. Videro is designed for business, and a server application makes sure mission-critical displays are functioning properly. There's solid asset management support both in the client and the server applications, making sure your displays never fire off with a dreaded "black box of nothing" where a product shot should be.

Videro mentioned an iPhone app in the video but I have been unable to locate it in the store and a search on their website revealed nothing. Still, it wouldn't be terribly difficult to provide some baseline stats via password-protected web app. We weren't able to get Wi-Fi at our location, so some features weren't visible and this might have been one of them.

Unfortunately Videro's site mentions nothing about price. In my experience that means we're talking about an expensive solution, and likely a custom one for the high-end customers. If you're looking for something simpler, don't miss Dave's excellent post about using Keynote and Dropbox to create an updating and easy presentation solution that would work in a pinch.

I had a moment to talk to Technical Director Christina Wick at WWDC. She told us about the Mapquest app, plus a cool lifestreaming feature coming soon to AIM. Christina was featured in a video by Apple about developing on the iPhone, and it's clear AOL has embraced the platform, with several apps performing exceptionally well on the store. We've covered AIM, DailyFinance and MapQuest in the past, but there are others as well (and we think a certain blog will get one someday...). Christina's team has been working hard not just on the iPhone, but polishing up the old AOL client for Mac too in a push called "Back to the Mac" -- it has been completely re-written and is much more Mac friendly than... well, it just wasn't Mac friendly at all 3 years ago. We can't wait to see what apps and desktop software her team releases in the future.

Note: AOL is also the corporate parent of TUAW & Weblogs Inc.

In the world of Mac telephony software, there's one leading product -- Parliant PhoneValet. Parliant today released version 6.0 of PhoneValet with some new features that make it even more attractive to small business owners. Those features include:

• Live receptionist -- Want to have a real person answer and direct calls? PhoneValet now allows a receptionist to perform those functions.
• Call out to deliver voice mail -- To keep employees in the loop when they're on the road, PhoneValet will call their cell phones to deliver important voice messages.
• Change greetings remotely -- Prior to version 6.0, PhoneValet users had to be sitting at a computer to record new outgoing voice mail greetings. Now they can do this from any phone.
• Mailbox privacy -- Messages for others on a shared PhoneValet server are now hidden.
• Network dialing -- Desktop dialing is now available to any PhoneValet or PhoneValet Anywhere user on the network.
• Shared phonebook / call log editing -- PhoneValet Anywhere users can now edit phonebook entries or trim call logs.

PhoneValet 6.0 is available for US$169.95, which includes a USB phone adapter, or to existing owners of PhoneValet for US$39.95. PhoneValet Anywhere, which allows users to access their PhoneValet messages from Windows PCs and iPhones among other features, is an available add-on for US$59.95.

The MacUpdate Promo Spring Bundle has been revealed, and it is, as the kids say, wicked (or sick, or whatever the kids say). This thing is packed with truly useful applications. If you were considering buying any one of these apps, the $49.99US pricetag makes the rest of them a high-value proposition.

There's been some controversy surrounding bundles of this type, but I believe that it's great exposure for developers, and I'm hoping that everyone's getting a fair cut. MacUpdate is my current favorite source for great software deals and they've been doing a great job of providing really useful, intrinsically valuable apps. This bundle is no exception.

I don't know much about the inner workings of bundle assembly, but I assume the bundle sponsor contacts developers and has some kind of engineered plan, even if it's just an inward bias toward certain genres of applications. Whereas the last MacHeist bundle had a somewhat "creative" bent, this MUpromo bundle has a definite technical angle, with a heavy dose of DVD ripping/remastering/viewing tools.

Read on for the list of included apps...

Author Joe Kissell has been informing and entertaining Mac users for years through his books, TidBITS columns and Macworld articles. He's recently finished a pair of books for the Take Control ebook series that will help you learn how to keep your Mac running at its most efficient pace, as well as tell you what to do when something does go wrong.

In the first book, "Take Control of Maintaining Your Mac, Second Edition" (US$10), Joe describes actions you can take weekly, monthly, and annually to enjoy top performance from your Mac. He also tells you what not to do, illustrating tasks that take a lot of time and provide few benefits.

The second book is an update to Kissell's "Take Control of Troubleshooting Your Mac" (US$10). Joe's expertise really shines in this ebook as he tells you what to do with Macs that won't turn on, how to react when you're getting repeated kernel panics, and actions to perform when internet connections go down or printers are balking.

If you already own an earlier edition of either one of the books, you can get a discount on the upgrade. New buyers can bundle the two books for just $16 for a top-notch set of guides.

In the interest of full disclosure, TUAW blogger Steve Sande has written several titles for the Take Control series.

This article is old, but is still full of inspiration. I stumbled across it a few weeks ago when I was turning my dining room into a home office, and it's always neat to see how other people set up their work spaces.

The News in Print selected these in 2008, but the advice in here in still relevant and you can see how people tackle different issues -- everything from small spaces to multiple monitors and how to use your Mac Mini in conjunction with two 50-inch plasma screens. My favorite? Check out the one featuring a MacBook Pro, four Apple Displays and several digital SLR cameras with zoom lenses.

Unplggd also did an article back in 2008 on desk/computer combos, including pairing a MacBook Pro with a SOLo Lounge, a side table that uses solar power to charge your laptop if you have a spare $9,900 in Canadian dollars lying about. TUAW also had a Rig of the Day feature showcasing reader's setups. How have you dealt with the issue of finding a desk that's worthy enough for your Mac? Please share your thoughts (and photos) in the comments!

FileMaker, Inc. provided one of the surprise announcements of the last couple of weeks with the introduction of Bento for iPhone and iPod touch. Designed a both a standalone database management application and companion app to the Mac version, Bento for iPhone is an inexpensive, well-designed, and usable app for collecting, searching, and displaying information.

TUAW has been able to put Bento for iPhone through its paces both as "just" an iPhone app, and as a synchronizable add-on to the desktop Bento. Check out my review of the app by clicking Read More.

One of the most common ways to customize your tried-and-true desktop is by changing the wallpaper. While easy and effective, the wallpaper switcheroo is not the only trick up the sleeves of the customizers among us. For some, the most rewarding customization results from replacing icons.

There are many reasons to do this, including replacing system and application icons to create an overall aesthetic, easing the identification of a particular external hard drive by using its product image as an icon, or even replacing poorly-designed icons entirely (we're looking at you, Adobe).

We Love Icons aims to make it easy for icon lovers to discover new icons from around the web that are free for personal use. In their own words, designers Dan Wiersema and Nando Albuquerque started We Love Icons because, well... they love icons! The site itself is very well designed and easy to navigate; there is even an easy-to-spot option for filtering icons based on type: Mac-compatible, PNG file format, or Windows-compatible.

Further adding to the greatness of this site, the How-To page is a great resource for those new to the icon-customization game. There are links to external content on the history of icons, tutorials on changing icons, and even design-related icon articles. The How-To area also features an Apps section which lists several useful programs for replacing and creating icons. Each application list item includes a one-sentence summary, the application's platform (web, Mac, or Windows), and also the application's price.

Overall, I am impressed with the content of the site and the quality of its presentation. We Love Icons has secured a bookmark in my "Icons" folder right next to the link to InterfaceLIFT's icon section. Dear readers, I present this question to you: in my never-ending search for the best icons, do you have any favorites that you have either designed or found? Hit up the comments and share the love.

A reader recently contacted us with a question regarding her decision to recycle an older iMac computer. She wanted to know how she could clear/reformat the hard drive, but didn't have the disks that came with the system. So, we thought we would take a minute to tell you how you can cleanse your hard drives before getting rid of your computer. I'm going to show you how to wipe the hard drive using Target Disk Mode, since this will work even if you don't have the install disks.

Step 1: Get a FireWire Cable
Both of the Macs will need to have FireWire, which means everything between the iMac DV and the current lineup (except for the MacBook Air and unibody MacBook) is eligible. You will also need a FireWire 400 cable so you can connect one end to the old Mac, and the other end to another Mac. If you don't have one of these cables, you can easily pick up one online or at a retail store. If both of the Macs support FireWire 800, you can use one of those cables as an alternative to 400; it will be faster. If one has only a 400 port and the other has only an 800 port, a converter cable (available online for less than $10) is what you need. Once you have the FireWire cable, just simply connect the two computers together.

Step 2: Boot into Target Disk Mode on the old Mac
Shut down the old Mac that will be receiving the hard drive cleaning, and reboot it while holding down the "T" key on your keyboard. After a few moments, you should see a FireWire symbol appear on the screen -- when you see this, you are in FireWire Disk Mode (FDM). When in FDM, your old Mac's hard drive should show up on the new Mac as a connected external FireWire drive.

Step 3: Do some Disk Utility magic
Open Disk Utility.app on your new Mac (located in /Applications/Utilities), and click on your old Mac hard drive in the selection area on the left. Note that you should click on the drive, and not the partition (often called "Macintosh HD") to ensure a complete disk wipe. The disk drive will most likely have a FireWire icon to denote that it is connected as an external disk. Once you select the drive, click the Erase tab, and click Security options.

In this section of Disk Utility, you will be able to select a few different erase options that will also add security to the standard disk erase. First, lets specify a name for the drive -- in the name field type what you would like the drive to show up as when it is erased, otherwise it will default to "Untitled."

Continue reading to learn about security options and how to fully erase the hard drive on an old Mac.

Earlier this week, PC security app vendor Trend Micro announced a new product aimed at Mac users. Smart Surfing for Mac (US$69.95 per user per year) provides antivirus, anti-spyware, anti-rootkit, and web threat protection, and also has a two-way firewall built in.

This, of course, brings up the old debate for Mac users. On the one hand, our 10% of the personal computing market is virtually free of the virus and malware attacks that plague the Windows world. On the other hand, should you be concerned enough to consider purchasing protection that might be overkill?

Some of the features of Smart Surfing for Mac could be very useful for users who might otherwise be in danger of certain nefarious schemes. For example, it blocks visits to dangerous websites and has anti-phishing capabilities. While I know enough to check the real URL of links in emails by simply hovering my cursor above them, there are a frightening number of people who don't do this and who are at real risk of phishing scams. Parents might like Smart Surfing for Mac for their kids, as it restricts access by content categories, controls IM access, and also lets you block certain websites.

Are products like Smart Surfing for Mac expensive overkill, or are they cheap insurance against the remote chance of actually getting hit with a Mac virus, malware, or a scam? Let's hear your opinion in the comments section!

The tubes are ablaze today with news from CNN of the first ever latest malicious program to be found on the Mac. The trojan was first discovered in January but it did not receive wildfire-like popularity until recently when two experts at Symantec published a bulletin on the subject of the malware.

The trojan, named "iBotnet" (get it?), has only affected a few thousand Macs in the wild and it is currently not known to do any real harm. Should you be concerned? Well, the answer to that depends on whether you're a software pirate or not. The distribution method for this particular piece of malware is through the downloading of certain bootlegged copies of Apple's iWork.

Brian Krebs over at the Washington Post details some information about the actual first botnet specifically for the Mac. He points out that the current media storm is for a trojan that was actually discovered in January. He goes on to mention that the first botnet for the Mac was actually released in 2006 and targeted both Macs and PCs alike.

In other news, sales of Symantec's Norton AntiVirus shot up following the release of the security bulletin and subsequent frenzy of coverage. Actually, this is not true (at least to this humble blogger's knowledge); but it does pose an interesting question. Who profits most from the release of malware on any platform? One thing we know for sure, though, is that the end-user is definitely losing out in this game.

The moral of this story: stop all the downloading! Thanks G.I. Joe! In all seriousness, though, the majority of malware on the Mac (and on the PC) is distributed through nefarious chains of content acquisition. Be careful out there when clicking links and downloading files or programs from sites that you may not trust.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Today was a landmark day for the good ol' boys (and girls) at 1 Infinite Loop as they again posted record-breaking quarterly results. Profit was a svelte $1.21 billion for a grand total of $8.16 billion in revenue; or, as the guys in Wallstreet see it: $1.33 per diluted share. All of this is apparently good news as after-hours trading has shares of AAPL up about 4 points from the days close of $121.51. If you haven't already, you can check out some of our highlights of what drove those numbers as well as the full press release from Apple here. Also, MacJournals did a fantastic job covering the call via their Twitter feed, which can be found here.

One continuing theme through the course of the call was the economy's overall effect on Apple's numbers. One noticeable effect was that professional and education sales were down during the March quarter. Even with the release of an entirely refreshed line of Mac desktops, the quarter saw an overall decrease in Mac marketshare. It wasn't all bad for Apple, however, as iPod sales (particularly the iPod Touch) were up enough to seemingly offset the bulk of the lagging Mac sales.

While the results themselves are always nice to hear, the most interesting section of the quarterly call is the question and answer section that follows. The answers, while somewhat scripted, give the listeners a chance to hear Apple execs think and speak on their feet regarding Apple's results and plans for the future.

One of the more notable topics during this discussion was Apple's opinion on the netbook market. Tim Cook took the question and in an answer that was truly Apple said, that netbooks are "junky ... not a consumer experience that we would put the Mac brand on," while quickly following-up with a good, old-fashioned "If we can find a way to deliver an innovative product ... then we'll do that." If you remember the days before the video iPod, then this conversation should be very familiar to you. For a good overview of the Q&A check out MacRumors' excellent post on the subject.

If you don't care about the financial results and have grown tired of hearing Apple dance around whether they're going to release a netbook, then there is at least one bright spot in all of this. According Peter Oppenheimer, Apple is pleasantly awaiting the joyous return of Steve Jobs in June (we miss you Steve). I don't think anyone was really expecting any more or less information than that, but here's to hoping Stevie J. returns and brings with him all-new iPhones, netbooks, and pots of gold.

Overall, the results were very positive for a company that deals in "luxury" products given the current economic climate. I hope that in the future Apple continues to succeed and that this is the last quarter we hear of in which Apple loses marketshare to anyone.

[Via Engadget, MacRumors, and MacJournals]

Last year I resolved to start keeping track of my business expenses more accurately. I bought NeatReceipts for Mac, but found that even with the diminutive size of the included scanner I didn't want to take it on trips with me. The result? I still ended up with a pile of receipts at the end of each business trip that I needed to scan. What I needed was a scanner that was always with me and didn't take up any additional space in my laptop bag.

Creaceed has come up with a solution in the form of Prizmo, which allows you to use any digital camera -- including the one built into your iPhone -- as a scanner. Once you've taken a picture of any item, you drop it onto Prizmo on your Mac. The application then corrects for lens distortion and perspective, essentially "flattening" the item you're scanning, and provides tools for cropping, changing brightness, and tweaking contrast.

The lens distortion algorithm uses a calibration that is created for specific cameras. As users calibrate their own cameras through a process described in the Prizmo user manual, they can add them to a calibration library that is being created.