Airfoil, our tool for transmitting audio, to AirPort Express units, Apple TVs, and other Macs and PCs, has never been better. We’ve talked about Airfoil 3 a lot lately, with good reason. Airfoil 3 is our most recent major update, full of new features. After just a month, we were ready with Airfoil 3.1, with still more new features.

As I often see, however, you don’t need to take our word on how good Airfoil is. Indeed, today, Macworld.com has a double-dose of Airfoil news. First up is Dan Frakes’ latest review. He’s reviewed Airfoil 1 in 2005 and Airfoil 2 in 2006, and he’s done an even more through job this time around for version 3. You can read his entire 4.5 Mice review right on their site.

Meanwhile, Chris Breen has been busy defending the honor of Internet radio. With products like Radioshift, expressly designed for recording Internet radio, and Nicecast, a tool for creating Internet radio stations, you know we’re proponents of the medium. In his article, Chris specifically mentions his use of Airfoil in conjunction with the Rhapsody music service, and indeed, Airfoil works great with web-based audio from Rhapsody as well as sites like Pandora.com.

If the biggest name in Mac journalism says Airfoil is pretty great, shouldn’t you check it out? Download Airfoil and try it out now.

I’m always delighted to chat with Chuck Joiner of MacVoices, so when he emailed to do a show on Airfoil 3.1, I said sure. This time, I brought along Mike Ash, who’s served as lead programmer on Airfoil 3. Mike was able to provide some more technical details on what we did inside of Airfoil, and get some of the publicity and credit he deserves for a job well done.

You can listen to the show right here. As always, you can grab the very latest versions of Airfoil for Mac and Airfoil for Windows from the Airfoil page.

The iPhone SDK is due by the end of this month. Or maybe it’s late. Either way, the iPhone SDK is coming soon; by the time you read this it may already be here. I posted about our pending plans for the iPhone already. But while contemplating the iPhone, I realized something simple, but important: the iPhone is a Trojan horse.

The iPod Halo Effect
Since the iPod gained Windows compatibility, there’s been talk about the “halo effect”. This idea says that Windows users who use an iPod will gain positive associations with Apple, eventually leading them to consider switching to a Mac. While Apple’s market share has crept up over the past few years, it’s difficult to say just how much the iPod had to do with that.

The problem is that the iPod is largely a stand-alone device. Users are also exposed to iTunes, but their day-to-day interaction is by and large with the iPod. All screen-based iPods (except the Touch¹) run a custom operating system from a company called Pixo, an OS which bears no relation to Mac OS X. While PC users might like the iPod, they aren’t experiencing anything like the Mac itself.

Enter the iPhone
Like all iPods since 2003, the iPhone is platform-agnostic – it works with Windows machines just as well as it does with a Mac. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of iPhone users primarily or exclusively run a Windows machine.²

Compared to the iPod, however, using the iPhone is much closer to a Mac experience. The operating system on the device is what Apple calls “OS X” and it features virtually all of the same underpinnings as Mac OS X. The software draws from the Mac as well: MobileMail is reminiscent of Mail, while MobileSafari is very clearly built on Safari, Calendar works just like iCal, and many of the other applications mimic Dashboard Widgets.

The iPhone Halo Effect
In terms of overall user experience, the iPhone is as close to a Mac as any non-Mac device has gotten. It’s far closer than even the Apple TV, which actually runs Mac OS X. All that makes the iPhone much more likely to exhibit a halo effect than the iPod ever did. Both iPods and the iPhone exhibit Apple’s dedication to quality and design. Only the iPhone, however, gives something close to the true Mac experience.

Beware of Geeks Bearing Gifts
As such, the iPhone is a Trojan horse in the land of Windows. That innocuous little cell phone is running OS X coupled with other Apple software. Better still, the iPhone will soon be showing off some of the best software in the world, made in large part by indie Mac developers³.

The iPhone’s cell phone origins belie a simple truth – it’s a Mac in disguise. iPhone users are coming as close to using a Mac as possible, short of actually using a Mac. Going from using an iPhone to trying a Mac will be a much shorter mental leap than going from an iPod to a Mac. Apple’s getting into the minds of PC users via their pockets and the growing popularity of the iPhone can only help the Mac’s market share. That’s good news for Apple, developers, and users alike.

Footnotes:
1. Henceforth, take iPod to mean “non-Touch iPods” and iPhone to mean “iPhone/iPod Touch”. ↩

2. I’m not aware of any official breakdown on Mac vs. PC iPhone usage. Regardless, I think it’s clear that the iPhone is a hit with everyone, not just Mac users. ↩

3. It’s very likely you’ll need a Mac to develop for the iPhone, and that developing for it will be much like developing for the Mac. While developers from other platforms are fighting to learn Xcode, Mac developers will already be shipping. ↩

Podcasting has come a long way since it was first mentioned on our blog in 2004. Instead of a separate podcasting app, we’ve worked to improve Audio Hijack Pro, making it the premier tool for recording podcasts. There are now hundreds of podcasts being recorded with help from Audio Hijack Pro and Skype.

Now, Doug Kaye and Paul Figgiani have posted a fantastic tutorial on recording Skype from Audio Hijack Pro.

This tutorial goes into great depth, providing step-by-step instructions for checking your net connection, configuring Skype and setting up Audio Hijack Pro. If you’ve been looking to get into podcasting, or just need to record Skype conversations for any reason, check out this tutorial then grab Audio Hijack Pro to get started.

It’s been nearly two years since we hired employees number #005 and #006, Joseph and Guy. Now Rogue Amoeba is looking to grow once again, by adding another Mac programmer. Join us as we build some of the greatest software available on the Mac today. For more information on the job and how to apply, please see our jobs page.

Speaking of hiring, I’m also happy to present our newest team member, seen to the right. That’s Rogue Amoeba Employee #007 and his name is Longwell, Justin Longwell. Justin is our newest support technician, so if you email for support, you’re likely to get a speedy and helpful reply from Justin. Justin’s actually been handling the support load since December of last year, on a contract basis. He finally joined us full time just a few weeks ago, and we’re happy to have him aboard. Welcome to the Rogue Amoeba team!