The little fucker that's been driving me mad!

After a bit, I decided to enlist some help to figure this out. I asked my Mac expert friend and she was clueless. So, I decided to enlist the help of John & Dave from the Mac Geek Gab podcast from The MacObserver. For weeks we tweeted & emailed back and forth. I followed their advice, look here, look there, and sent them log files. They were stumped. Completely and utterly. I stumped the guys from Mac Geek Gab. I did it.

I assured them also that it wasn’t anything to do with iStat Menus (great piece of software from bjango).

After a few tweets not even an hour ago, they had me email them a list of items in a few folders (LaunchAgents, LaunchDaemons, & StartupItems). I sent off the list to them and decided that I’d Google “mysterious menu bar item” one more time.

A-HA! A new post from the Apple Support forums from the end of January 2011! And in that thread there was a link to another thread in the Apple Support forums. I read and I read. BOOM! Check Intego’s VirusBarrier. After a recent update to their software people started seeing this mysterious menu bar item that showed network traffic. HEY! That’s what MY mysterious menu bar item was.

In the Preferences for VirusBarrier X6 click on the “Traffic” tab. In the bottom section there is a checkbox called “Display network traffic in menu bar”. I unchecked that and BAM! The mysterious menu bar item was GONE from my menu bar.

DAMN YOU INTEGO! DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL! You drove me crazy over the period of months trying to figure this fucking thing out!!!! YOU BASTARDS!

John & Dave from Mac Geek Gab, THANK YOU for all of your help! Please share the info I emailed you with the rest of your listeners!

2 fans, Bilal & Godzfire, have worked hard to get working updates out for the Mac (not sure if they’ve done a Windows update), but unfortunately they’re only way to get word out is via the user comments section of the official System 47 website. The original creator of System 47 has been unreachable by all attempts made. Bilal & Godzfire are working on taken ownership of System 47 on MacUpdate and maybe Version Tracker soon. Right now, you can grab the Fan Updated Mac version of the System 47 screensaver here.

Hopefully Bilal & Godzfire will let me know when they have some updated info to share. Great work so far guys!

Now available in retail stores and through the publisher’s GameAgent digital distribution arm, the game puts the player in the role of Darth Vader’s secret apprentice during a story set between the prequel and original trilogies.

The Ultimate Sith Edition adds three new levels, as well as new costumes and characters not seen in the previous version of the game. Players get the opportunity to explore the ruined Jedi Temple on the city-covered planet Corsucant, where the secret apprentice learns new information about his past and must confront his inner demons.

I’m actually waiting for my copy of this game for the Wii that I scored for cheap on eBay the other day and if I like it, I might get the Mac version.

Total iPhone sales are now at a total of 42,445,000 as of the press release today. Apple sold 8,700,000 iPhones in during fiscal Q1 of 2010. That’s up 100% unit growth over the year-ago quarter. AMAZING! That’s over 1 million more than Apple’s best iPhone selling quarter, fiscal Q4 2009, which saw 7.4 million iPhones sold.

Apple Reports First Quarter Results

CUPERTINO, California—January 25, 2010—Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2010 first quarter ended December 26, 2009. The Company posted revenue of $15.68 billion and a net quarterly profit of $3.38 billion, or $3.67 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $11.88 billion and net quarterly profit of $2.26 billion, or $2.50 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 40.9 percent, up from 37.9 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 58 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

Apple sold 3.36 million Macintosh® computers during the quarter, representing a 33 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 8.7 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 100 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 21 million iPods during the quarter, representing an eight percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.

During the quarter Apple elected retrospective adoption of the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s amended accounting standards* related to certain revenue recognition. Adoption of the new accounting standards significantly changes how the Company accounts for certain items, particularly sales of iPhone® and Apple TV®.

“If you annualize our quarterly revenue, it’s surprising that Apple is now a $50+ billion company,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “The new products we are planning to release this year are very strong, starting this week with a major new product that we’re really excited about.”

“We are very pleased to have generated $5.8 billion in cash during the quarter,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the second fiscal quarter of 2010, we expect revenue in the range of about $11.0 billion to $11.4 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share in the range of about $2.06 to $2.18.”

Other worthwhile facts from Q1 of 2010:
Mac:

• 3.36 million Mac sales, beating our record by over 300,000 (up 33% from a year ago).
• About half of Macs sold were to new customers.
• Portable sales robust – up 18% year over year.

iPod:

• 21 million iPods (down 8%). Less than a year ago.
• Traditional iPods went down, but iPod touch still growing well. Revenue growth due to that.
• Share is still over 70% of U.S. MP3 players. Continues to gain share internationally.
• iTunes Store had a record quarter. Its the largest online catalog with 11 million songs. 8,000 films, 2,000 in HD.

iPhone:

• 86 countries for iPhone distribution.
• Added 17 new carriers throughout the world in the quarter.
• App Store has more than 3 billion downloads.

Retail Stores:

• 283 stores in 10 countries.
• 10 new stores opened in the quarter – including the Louvre in Paris.
• 100 remodels in the calendar year.
• $7.1 million is average revenue per store.
• 40-50 new stores in 2010. Half international.

Trading in Apple shares, which were halted earlier, has resumed. In late trading, the stock is up $5.46, or 2.7%, to $207.63.

Info from Baron’s, TechCrunch, and IntoMobile.

The new 2.0 update includes:
- Application launcher/switcher: All your running programs will appear inside Mobile Air Mouse and allow for easy switching between running programs, as well as the ability to launch your favorite programs.

- Relocated Function Keyboard: Moved the extended keyboard to the main keyboard toolbar, allowing for easier switching between keyboards, and the ability to use modifier keys with function keys.

- Numeric Keyboard: Allows you to enter true numeric keyboard numbers.

- Revised media screen interface: Redesigned the media screen.

- Media Eject button: Now you can eject CDs/DVDs from your internal drive.

- New custom media keys: Added 8 additional custom keys along the left and right side of the media screen. These are fully customizable and can be given names, which will show on the media screen for each program they were assigned to.

- Revised the Web screen: Added buttons for opening a new tab or window.

- URL Open button: When pressed, it will highlight the address bar text and bring up the URL keyboard on the iPhone, making it very easy to enter a URL on your computer.

- Double Tap To Zoom: To zoom in on your screen, double tap the scroll pad but hold your finger down on the second tap and run it up and down to zoom in and out. (Only supported on OS X 10.5+ and Windows 7)

- Sleep/Wake your computer: When starting up the app, it will automatically try to connect to the last connected server. If the server is sleeping, it will attempt to wake it before connecting. If you want to manually try to wake a sleeping computer, go into the preferences screen, then press the power button in the upper right hand corner. You can also put your computer to sleep by holding your finger over the OS icon in the application switcher.

- Auto-updating remote definitions: The server program can now download new and updated remote definitions off our server.

- User published remote definitions: Added the ability for users to submit their own remotes.

- Consolidated program list: Revised the server UI to list all supported programs together.

- Custom scripting: Added the ability to write scripts for any of the custom buttons. In addition to being able to assign keystrokes, you can now assign Applescript on the Mac, or VBScript on the PC.

- New protocol: Changed protocol to TCP. This will allow for more reliable communication and smoother mouse response, while also preventing lost packets over unreliable networks, which can cause dropped keystrokes.

- Improved Mac keyboard compatibility: Programs which were only typing a’s, should now work properly. Dvorak keyboards are now supported also.

- Status messages: Now shows when you are searching, resolving and connecting to servers.

You can get Air Mouse Pro from the App Store for $1.99.