This morning I got a pretty funny eastward - chain mail about the Mac mini picture story I posted yesterday afternoon . I have to admit , though , that I see this eastward - post coming .

really , unless you’reSwedish , the web internet site and powder store isMacworldwithout the Das Kapital W. ( And by the direction , how great is the net ? My Mac miniskirt take - apart has already spawned aSwedish news story ! )

This web log , meanwhile , is indeed Mac Word . We held a contest among members of theMacworldstaff to name my new , all - Jason - Snell - all - the - prison term blog on Macworld.com , and obviously nobody won . So … Mac Word it is , then !

But enough blog talk . Therealsubject of this entranceway is Apple ’s Front Row software . When Front Row was to begin with announced , I was reasonably excited . I had spent most of last summertime try out to program a Keyspan USB remote control to work with my first - multiplication Mac miniskirt , and it was not a great experience . With Front Row , I think , Apple was finally providing that lose link : a simple , outback - dominance - drive software package platform that lets you take a multimedia Mac while sitting on your lounge . But as I found out upon reviewing the Front Row iMac , Front Row was most definitely a 1.0 product , one with plenty of hope and plenty of holes .

So here ’s the good news . Yesterday , Apple released a Front Row update that adds support for navigating through and streaming content from the iTunes and iPhoto library on distant systems .

That ’s the feature Steve Jobs mention at his presentation Tuesday in Cupertino . What Jobs did n’t advert is that the young version of Front Row lastly sire iPhoto slide show veracious . The new version of Front Row honors your iPhoto slideshow preferences , including sustenance for sepia feeling and bleak - and - white image , observe of your Ken Burns Effect preferences , and even custom conversion . Of course , Front Row should ’ve patronage this right hand out of the gate , but it ’s good to see that it ’s finally gotten where it require to be . I ’m encourage that Apple ’s technologist continue to improve Front Row .

If I can make a request , the next no - brainer addition to Front Row should be adding the complete iPod exploiter interface to the Music part of Front Row . You still ca n’t shamble within a play list or creative person using Front Row , leaving you with the disastrous - and - white options of Shuffle All or a linear progression through a play list , artist , or album . The iPod ’s user interface is really quite unspoiled , and Front course drug user are most probable going to be intimate with it . So go ahead and replicate it , menu for carte . Then user can do what they know — go under setting , choose Shuffle Songs , and shuffle to their hearts ’ message .

I really , really want to love Front Row . But there ’s more to be done before it can set forth living up to its potential .