Late yesterday and without so much as a well timed press release, mega-giant seller of all things on the Internet (aka Amazon.com) released the first Kindle application for the Mac. The free application works on Intel Macs running Mac OS X 10.5 and above, and is version number of 1.0.0 beta 1.

The app allows you to download Kindle books you already own and read them on your Mac. In addition, and this is a nice feature, your progress through a particular book is kept synchronized between the application, your iPhone and your Kindle. This is especially great for people like myself who often take their Kindle somewhere but not a Mac. Although, in truth, I usually take both.

The application is defiantly of the simple variety and doesn’t really offer much in the way of bells and whistles. Although, what do you really need? It allows you to read your books on your Mac, adjust the size of the fonts and it keeps track of where you stopped so you can pick the book up later on another device. Plus, did I mention it costs nothing?

This is a great step in the right direction for Amazon. It is a shame that non-Intel Mac users and those not running Leopard or better can’t enjoy the app. But given the way things are moving, maybe those people are going to go ahead and upgrade themselves with a shiny new iPad instead? Hey, with over 150K pre-orders so far, it’s a real possibility.

Speaking of the iPad. I ordered one and will have a full review once its in my hands. Until then, try out this new app from Amazon right here.

Late yesterday, Apple released an update to its flagship operating system OS X 10.6, also known as Snow Leopard. We’ve been expecting Mac OS X 10.6.2 to ship soon since developers have had it for some time. Well, it has finally arrived.

Some the things fixed and/or updated with this new version of OS X include the following:

• An issue that might cause your system to logout unexpectedly
• A graphics distortion in Safari Top Sites
• Spotlight search results not showing Exchange contacts
• A problem that prevented authenticating as an administrative user
• Issues when using NTFS and WebDAV file servers
• The reliability of menu extras
• An issue with the 4-finger swipe gesture
• An issue that causes Mail to quit unexpectedly when setting up an Exchange server
• Address Book becoming unresponsive when editing
• A problem adding images to contacts in Address Book
• An issue that prevented opening files downloaded from the Internet
• Safari plug-in reliability
• General reliability improvements for iWork, iLife, Aperture, Final Cut Studio, MobileMe, and iDisk
• An issue that caused data to be deleted when using a guest account

For detailed information on this update, head over to Apple’s website. To download, go here for the Combo Update and here for the non-combo.

This week on The Flickcast the band, um, team is back together as Christina rejoins Chris and Matt for the show. This time around, the trio talk about even more cool and interesting topics including the recent troubles with Apple’s Snow Leopard and “Guest” account, the T-Mobile Sidekick’s data loss and the marketing strategy, merits, and box office success of Paranormal Activity. Plus, Joss Whedon’s Cabin in the Woods being converted to 3-D, Chuck coming back to TV sooner, Bryan Singer returning to the X-Men franchise, the ending that Zombieland could have had and a whole lot more.

The team also made some great picks, as they always do. This week its Christina’s pick of the FX comedy Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Matt’s pick of Jim Henson’s 1986 film Labyrinth and Chris’ pick of Aaron Sorkin’s Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, which you can now watch in its entirety on Hulu.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques or offers of sponsorship, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter and at Facebook, MySpace or via email.

Thanks for listening.

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After only a short time of release in the wild, Apple has today issued an update to its brand new version of OS X — code named Snow Leopard. This update, which should now be live in Software Update and at Apple’s website, provides several bug fixes and security enhancements which in typical Apple-speak could mean almost anything.

Here’s a list of at least some of the items this update addresses:

• Printer compatibility fixes for printers that do not properly appear in the “Add Printer” browser.
• Fix for DVD playback (when playback stops abruptly)
• Fix for the Dock (bug prevents removal of icons from the Dock)
• Fix for account set up and sending mail via SMTP servers in Mail
• Fix for Sierra Wireless 3G modems
• Adobe Flash Player update (new plug-in version 10.0.32.18)

Apparently, the Flash update is of particular importance because the version shipping with Snow Leopard has a number of security vulnerabilities fixed by this update. For the scoop on that, head on over to Adobe’s website. As with any OS update, we suggest you download and install the Combo Update instead of doing an update via Apple’s software update. Sadly, as of now, the Combo update doesn’t seem to be live at Apple’s download page yet so you may consider waiting until tomorrow to do the update.

This week on The Flickcast Chris, Matt and Christina talk about a whole bunch of new topics including the Disney/Marvel deal, Rob Zombie making a new Blob movie, Star Wars comics on the iPhone, the remake of the classic film Heathers as a TV show, Summer Glau heading to the Dollhouse, Apple’s latest OS Snow Leopard, Avatar tickets already on sale and much, much more.

The team also made some great picks again this week including Christina’s pick of The Simpsons Season 12, Matt’s pick of the sci-fi thriller Cube and Chris’ pick of Dollhouse Season One.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques or offers of sponsorship, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter and at Facebook, MySpace or via email.

Thanks for listening.

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Fans of Apple’s advanced operating system known as OS X have another reason to be happy this week. Besides the OS X’s stellar reputation for ease of use, security and reliability, its now going to get a brand new update in the form of OS X 10.6 (aka Snow Leopard). This new OS, which we’ve talked about before, is being released by Apple this Friday, August 28th, so you can go to the store and pick up the $29.00 upgrade version — if you’re already running Leopard — and go to town.

Conveniently, you can also pre-order the update version at Apple’s website for delivery on the 28th. Shipping is free but it will still cost you sales tax. No getting around that one. Finally, you can do what I did and pre-order it from Amazon and wait until Monday for it to show up. If you do that, you wait a couple extra days but pay no sales tax or, if you’re an Amazon Prime member, no shipping. That’s the best deal going right now.

Remember, before you go ahead and buy the upgrade version, you can only install the upgrade if you’re currently using Leopard on your Mac. If you’re not, you’ll need to buy the Mac Box Set, available for $169 for a single user or $229 for a Family Pack.

We’re pretty excited for the release of Apple’s next version of its flagship OSX, code named Snow Leopard,  here at The Flickcast fortress and apparently, we’re not the only ones who feel that way.  At the moment, the software is the number one pre-order at Amazon (having become available a scant few days ago) and at only $29.00 for a single user license, its a darn good deal as well. While there’s no “official” release date as of yet, if you do pre-order today, Amazon assures you can expect your shiny new version of OSX to arrive “…sometime in September.”

Apple, which bills Snow Leopard, as “The world’s most advanced operating system. Finely tuned” will offer a host of new and improved features including support for multi-core processors with a new technology code-named “Grand Central” and further support for modern hardware with Open Computing Language (OpenCL), which lets any application tap into the GPU computing power previously available only to graphics applications. Snow Leopard, according to Apple, also “raises the software limit on system memory up to a theoretical 16TB of RAM, introduces QuickTime X, which optimizes support for modern audio and video formats resulting in extremely efficient media playback.”

Finally, for the first time, Snow Leopard “includes native support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 in OS X applications Mail, iCal and Address Book, making it even easier to integrate Macs into organizations of any size.” Well, that all sounds pretty awesome. If you think so too, head on over to Amazon and place your order for Snow Leopard. I know I did.

Last time on The Flickcast, your favorite trio discussed all kinds of interesting topics including the Twilight phenomenon, the MTV Movie Awards, the Megan Fox as Wonder Woman “controversy”, who we think should star in a Wonder Woman movie and that Matt, for some reason, doesn’t seem to like Jessica Biel or Hallle Berry.

This week the team discusses and debates a slew of new topics including Monday’s Apple announcements from the World Wide Developer Conference including cool, new iPhones and an update to OS X, what was cool and worth a look from the recent E3 gaming convention, the success and greatness that is The Hangover, Kirsten Dunst joining Spider-Man 4, the merits of movies in 3D and a whole lot more.

Chris, Matt and Christina also made some picks this week including one of Christina’s favorite reality shows Bridezillas, Matt’s pick of one of his favorite reality shows, Star-Ving featuring David Faustino of Married with Children, and Chris’ pick of Rob Zombie’s reboot of Halloween — which, believe it or not, he really liked.

Its a big episode, but one you won’t want to miss.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques or offers of sponsorship, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter and at Facebook, MySpace or via email.

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Today, at its World Wide Developer Conference, Apple announced many things including new iPhone hardware and software and new laptops, that will have fanboys (and girls) rushing to their local Apple stores for new laptops or saving their pennies until next month for shiny new iPhones.

Following is a summary of the major announcements. For a much more in-depth overview, check out my colleagues over at TUAW. Also, be sure to tune in Wednesday for The Flickcast where we will discuss all these announcements, and more.

- New iPhone 3G S – The iPhone 3G S — the “S” stands for speed. Much faster. Data speeds are upped to 7.2Mbps HSDPA, 3 megapixel camera with tap-to-autofocus and auto white balance, ow supports 30fps VGA video recording with editing features.

Also has built-in compass, Nike+ support and a new battery that offers 5 hours of 3G talk time and 9 hours of WiFi internet use. $199 for 16GB and $299 for 32GB when it goes on sale June 18th. Current 3G model will remain on sale for $99, effective immediately.

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