A press release from a third party seems to indicate that Apple will refresh its Mac Mini line tomorrow with hard drive options as large as 1 terabyte.

Apple is facing a new class-action lawsuit claiming the company’s iMac displays start to show unwanted vertical lines, which Apple is refusing to fix under warranty.

Apple subsidiary FileMaker on Monday announced FileMaker Pro 10, a new version of its database software billed as "breakthrough" release that delivers the most dramatic interface design changes in over a decade.

Roxio on Monday kicked off its Macworld introductions early by announcing two new versions of its Toast optical disc burning and digital media software that include new capabilities for creating, sharing, and viewing digital content.

After much frustration, I realized that the shell command pbcopy was destroying non-ASCII characters in an AppleScript that I was trying to write. Although pbcopy is an extremely convenient way to take the standard input and place it on the clipboard, I also needed access to accented characters.

Luckily, I found this blog post that explained everything. The important part was a comment there that explained how to set a default encoding by adding the following line to my .profile file:export __CF_USER_TEXT_ENCODING=0x1F5:0x8000100:0x8000100While this fixed the problem while working in the Terminal, it did not fix the problem within AppleScript. I did find that I could add the aforementioned export command inside the do shell script, and everything seemed to work as expected. An example is shown below ...

I live in Arizona and I occasionally get robocalls from one of the radio stations nearby that hosts a show by Alice Cooper. In the robocalls, Alice Cooper reads the message. To safely ignore these calls, I took the calling number and added it to my contacts. Now I know when I can ignore that number (and it does look kind of cool to see that Alice Cooper just called).

For general spammy calls, I've started using the 800Notes site to find out who called me. I also add the calling number to a contact called Scam Artist. Not sure how many numbers a contact will hold, but seems to work quite well as I get the same four or five numbers calling all the time.

Not quite as great as a telemarketing service/scam filter, but at least you know right away that you can ignore the call.

[robg adds: This previous hint explained another way to ignore repeated cal...

If you are lucky enough to be test driving ZFS on you Mac, you might find this useful. The latest ZFS build from Macosforge.com has a problem where ejecting a ZFS-formatted USB disk and unplugging it will crash Leopard.

However, I wrote an Automator action [286KB download] that will sudo and run a ZFS export on all mounted ZFS filesystems, so you can safely unplug your USB drive with ZFS on it.

[robg adds: I haven't tested this one.]

Certain applications have a very annoying (to me) feature -- they bounce their Dock icons. I keep my Dock hidden, mainly because I don't use it all that much, and I find the bouncing icons quite annoying. Some programs allow you to control Dock bouncing via their preferences (iChat comes to mind), but for others, control of the bouncing is out of the users' hands.

Thanks to a simple Terminal command, however, you can permanently prevent Dock bouncing by any application. In Terminal, enter these two commands:$ defaults write com.apple.dock no-bouncing -bool TRUE$ killall DockWhen the Dock restarts, you won't see any icon bouncing again, ever. An ideal solution would be a per-application setting, because there may be apps for which you want a bouncing Dock icon. Lacking that, though, I'll take the no bouncing solution. To reverse this, just repeat the command, replacing TRUE with FALSE, and then kill the Dock again.

For a...

In an open letter to Apple fans Monday, Steve Jobs revealed that he's being treated for a hormone imbalance that has contributed to his rapid weight loss, but says he plans to remain Apple's CEO for the foreseeable future.

A recently reliable third party claims that Apple plans to launch some NVIDIA-based iMacs at Macworld -- including a possible 28-inch model -- and that Intel's new Core i7 platform may play a greater role in the Mac maker's lineup than expected.

Apple as early as Tuesday will introduce a 17-inch MacBook Pro with a fixed internal battery and a new version of the Mac mini, both of which will feature chipsets from NVIDIA, AppleInsider has been able to independently confirm.

Last-minute claims would have Apple launching an update to its largest MacBook Pro model as early as Macworld -- and potentially with a crucial change to the computer's battery.

Despite lessened expectations for next week's Macworld Expo, the Moscone Center venue for the trade show already sports roughly a dozen sprawling, cloth-concealed banners that hint at several product announcements.

Bringing its least expensive system up to par with features in the rest of its lineup, Apple is due to revamp the Mac mini with multiple video outputs, AppleInsider has learned.

Addressing the complaints of nearly every iPhone owner in a northern climate, Apple has filed for a patent that would cover a means of using a multi-touch device with gloves.

In spite of fears of a late-year plunge, Apple has again beat its own market share record in December and now has a record 9.6 percent of web traffic as Microsoft's own influence continues to fall.

Mac OS X Hints will be closed for the new year's holiday tomorrow and Friday, returning Monday with the usual hints -- I'll be at Macworld Expo next week, checking out the latest in tech toys along with the rest of the mob. If you're going to be at the show, feel free to stop by and introduce yourself, as I love meeting readers and contributors. I've posted my currently-known schedule in the 'read more' part of this message.

For entertainment during our down time, please contribute to our latest poll about how much (or little) you use the Places section of the Finder's sidebar. Thanks to Perceval for the poll suggestion. My Expo schedule, at least as I know it now...

Tue Jan 6:
12:30pm - 1:30pm -- Podcast in the Macworld booth on the show floor
2:30pm - 3:30pm -- Podcast in the Macworld boot ...

While the verdict is out on whether Apple chief executive Steve Jobs will make some form of appearance at next week's Macworld Expo, the 'other Steve' that helped co-found the company more than 30 years ago will be on hand to throw his weight behind a third-party product launch.

FBR Capital Markets said Wednesday that it believes that Apple is gearing up to release several new products during the first half of 2009, including a new version of the iPod shuffle and cheaper versions of its flagship iPhone and MacBook offerings.

Apple may build on its success in delivering web-based applications for its .Mac internet service by taking its iWork productivity suite of applications online as early as next week's Macworld Expo.