New and Noteworthy: A first-hand iPod halo effect experience; Motorola gets FCC approval for iTunes phone; more

A first-hand iPod halo effect experience James Derk of the Scripps Howard News Service counts himself among those lured in by the iPod Halo Effect, switching to the Mac platform through the purchase of an Apple iBook. " According to a comprehensive study by S.G. Cowan, of more than 1,400 households studied who owned iPods and planned to buy a new PC, more than 7.5 percent were going Mac. That's not a lot until you consider Apple's market share is only 3.3 percent. For those doing the math at home, that's a doubling of the current Apple market share. Well, count me among the pile. I am writing this on a (so far) gleaming white iBook G4, which I have to say is pretty cool. So, yes, after 15 years of Windows computing and repairing I am taking a left turn into wow and a right turn away from rebooting." More.

Motorola gets FCC approval for iTunes phone CNET reports that according to documents posted to the Federal Communications Commission's Web site on Saturday, Motorola has received regulatory approval to start selling a cell phone that runs a mobile version of Apple Computer's iTunes software. E398. "A user manual posted on the FCC site shows that the Motorola E790 can run a cell phone version of iTunes and will contain stereo speakers, removable flash memory and Bluetooth technology for short-range radio communications with other devices." More.

Buying software for Macs can be cheaper A Boston Globe article says that back-to-school shoppers may be able to save some money on software by purchasing Macs instead of Windows PCs. "When it comes to buying software, going Mac could save you money. Microsoft Office for Mac generally sells for more than $250, and we found the student-teacher version on-line for $125 at Shopping.com. But if all you really need is Microsoft Word, you can get Apple's iWork '05 Academic for $50. Its Pages word processor is completely Word compatible. As long as you save your papers in the right format, your teachers won't know the difference." More.

Previously on MacFixIt:

• Toast Titanium 7: Issues with Motion Pictures
• Security Update 2005-007 v1.1. (#5): Repairing startup disk while booted from Tiger DVD (or other Mac OS X volume); more
• iPhoto keywords not saved when library backed up

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