Posts Tagged apple
MacHiest Nano Bundle Review
I’ve been really jazzed about this latest round of the MacHeist bundle. They have some really useful software that I have already started ing in my workflow. For $20 you can’t go wrong, Not to mention that a percentage of the sale goest to charity, it’s a win-win.
- MacJournal – This is really great software that allows you to write not just blogs but also video and recordings as well. You can even do your own personal journals that are password protected. I can see this being great for students who need to write notes for classes. You also have the ability to import Word Documents, images and PDFs into the journals.
- RipIt – Looks like a really cool app. It will take a DVD and create an image of the DVD on your hard drive so you can watch it in Front Row or Boxee or another media player. I haven’t used it the app yet but I can’t wait to give it a try. It looks really slick.
- Flow – This is a pretty slick looking FTP client with a very Mac like interface. What I like about this app is that you can set up droplets for specific directories so you can just use finder to just drag and drop to upload. Really cool stuff. It currently supports the FTP and SFTP protocol, but it’s very nice.
- Tales of Monkey Island – All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. This is an adventure game that is using the charachters from Lucasarts fun The Secret of Monkey Island game. I just played it for a little bitt but it looks like a lot of fun.
Those are the apps that I have used. There are also Clips (a clipboard manager) and Coverflow that are in the bundle but to be honest if you only use one of these apps, it’s worth your money.
There is only 1 day left to the sale and (as of this writing) there were 43,960 bundles sold. If there are 50,000 bundles sold there is another app that will be released. Rapid Weaver – a web site design app. It looks really slick and I hope that it can get to the 50,000 bundles.
Tech Support the easy way
Last year I posted about my mother and how I decided for her new computer that she should buy a Mac Mini. This was mainly a selfish decision on my part since it would allow me to use iChat to share her screen whenever she has a problem she wants me to look at. Such was the case on Saturday night when she called me and wanted to know how to do a few basic things.
As is my wont, I was complaining to a friend of mine about being tech support for a family member when he shared his tale of family tech support from Saturday. It seems that his father bought an Acer computer and was having some problems. My friend was on the phone with him and was trying to help him download the updated driver and whatnot. As you can imagine, helping a family member (a non computer savvy one at that) to download and install new drivers is not for the faint of heart. In the end it turned out that it wasn’t a driver issue at all.
This is why I decided that my mother get a MacMini instead of a Windows box. I’d much rather be dealing with questions of how to print or email something instead of having to lead her through downloading the latest drivers only to find that they aren’t needed.
iPad thoughts – why I don’t want one
I was out of the office all day driving up and down the coast line of New Jersey so I didn’t get the chance to watch the live blogging that of Apple’s Special event. After our lunch meeting and driving to our next meeting, my colleague picked up his iPhone and started looking at the coverage and what we missed. I have to say that I was left with an underwhelming feeling. Here’s why:
- The name – it’s not the worst name in the world but it’s not the best either.
- Lack of Multi-task – In something the size of the iPad, you are going to want to actually do more with the device. Not having that ability in a phone is one thing, but not having it in a 9.7 inch device? I think that it’s something you need. I do have a conspiracy theory about this and it has to do with Apple wanting you to buy music and not listen to Pandora and similar services.
- The genre of device – I am still not convinced that there is really a need for an iPad. I don’t mind using my laptop to watch TV (via Hulu – something you still can’t do on the iPhone or iPad) or showing off pictures on my iPhone. The latter since it’s especially portable and you have it with you at all times. To me there is just no place that I see a tablet fitting in my life. The only place that I can see it fitting is as an eBook reader and I’d rather just get a Kindle or a Nook, if I decided to go that route. We all know how torn I am about that.
- Wireless – I know that it comes with Wi-Fi but to pay an extra $15 or $30 for 3G? Really? That is just a plain old money grab. I mainly blame AT&T for that but I also blame Apple for not saying no. In my case, if I am just going to use it as an eBook reader, I’d rather have to not pay extra when I want to download a book and I’m not on an open Wi-Fi network.
- eBook – I’m grateful that Apple decided to use the epub standard but what about side loading other non encrypted epub books? That is the big question and I suspect the answer is that you won’t be able to get them onto your iPad.
Am I missing something?
Apps I can’t live without
It’s amazing how when you use someone else’s workspace or computer that you suddenly feel useless. I was in that postion today when I used Rivky’s Macmini. I have an account on her machine and I’ve tried to duplicate the workflow that I have on my main machine (13″ MacBook Pro) but there are some that I have forgotten to put on that computer and I missed them greatly. Here are the utilitues that I find the most useful for workflow.
- Quicksilver – Quicksliver is a great launcher like Butler or Launchbar but for me it’s better than the others. It’s not a question of what it can do, it’s more of a questions of what can’t Quicksilver do?
This is almost the first non Apple application that I’ll install on new computer. I almost feel naked with out it, as scary as that thought may be. - Dropbox – It’s more of a service than an application but what is cool about it is that you can install it on as many computers that you want and it will synchronize the dropbox folder (which you put whatever you want. You can also share folders, files or pictures.
- Stuf – I never thought that I would actually need a clipboard manager because they always seemed to take up a whole lot of memory. Then I bought Stuf as part of a bundle and have I been happy ever since. It stores the last 20 things that you have copied. I can’t tell you how many times I have found this little app useful.
- Typinator – This is similar to other applications that let you type a few letters and then have a whole bunch of text appear. It’s similar to TextExpander but it also allows autocorection for commonly misspelled word and includes several useful dictionaries like the one from Tid Bits.
Maildrop + Mail.app = Salesforce bliss
This may sound like an infomercial, but it’s not going to be one. However if it makes you feel any better feel free to use your inner Billy Mays (RIP) voice to read this article.
HI! Billy Mays here for Mail Drop. The app that you can use with Mail.app and Salesforce.
My job uses Salesforce and although it is nice to have all your information on the Internet for easy access, sometime a Mac user is left in the dust since there is no easy way to get incoming emails into salesforce. That is until recently when doing some research for a client I stumbled upon Maildrop, an application that you can use to get your emails from Mail.app (or Entourage) into salesforce with out having to go through multiple steps.
It’s pretty straight forward, there is either a window that floats above your mail application or you can access it through your AppleScript menu up in the menu bar. Select the “Add Email” option and Maildrop will then go ahead and try to find the correct contact based on their email address. If it can’t find the email address you have the ability to add the person or you could just add it to an account, case, opportunity, or contract. It will also take any attachments that are in the email and upload those as well. This is a real plus for me since I am dealing with contracts and to have them automatically attached to the record is wonderful.
There is one little gotcha with Maildrop and that is you need to have a Salesforce “token” attached to your password in order for it to work. Don’t worry though, it is an easy thing to get and Maildrop will give you the necessary directions on how to get this token.
So if you are like me and use an Mac and Salesforce, give Maildrop and try. The price is right (free) and you’ll thank me later.
Snow leopard woes revisited
Well, since my last post I decided to bite the bullet and do a fresh install of the operating system know as Snow Leopard (or as its friends call it OSX 10.6). I have been gathering little files here and there for many years, most likely since I had my titanium PowerBook and had just been continuing to migrate time after time. After a while it is time for the slate to be wiped clean and start from scratch, and so last week I did just that.
The install process was simple and painless since Apple doesn’t really give you any choices about how to install the OS, it just does what it needs to do. Things are running a lot smoother now that the nuke and pave was done although there are some slow downs every so often but I attribute that to the slow hard drive that is in the MacBook Pro as opposed to anything else. I also decided to go back to the stock version of VMWare fusion and not the beta that I have been running since I want to keep the machine running as well as possible.
As far as the woes go, it looks like they are over.
Snow Leopard woes
I finally upgraded my MacBook Pro to Apple’s latest operating system release, Snow Leopard and for the most part I am pretty impressed with the OS. As the reviews have said, it’s not a revolutionary upgrade but it’s an important one nevertheless since it sets the stage for future releases because this upgrade leaves anything that isn’t an intel processor behind.
That being said I have a few problems that have cropped up with the large snowy cat. Some of them are things that I can work around and others are things that I am having a hard time coping with.
Take the flakey bluetooth support for example. At my desk at home I like to use a bluetooth keyboard and mouse however after I wake my MacBook Pro up from sleep it sometimes will find the keyboard and mouse and sometimes it won’t find it at all no matter how much I try to coax it to work. I suppose that a trip to the genius bar would solve this issue but I just don’t have the time to head over to one right now.
Another example of a problem is that after I upgraded, my favorite utility decided not to work. If you don’t think that this is a big deal then you need to consider that Quicksilver is what I use to get a lot of things done on my Mac. Need to send an email with an attachment? No problem, just set it up in Quicksilver in three simple steps. Need to launch an application? In about 4 keystrokes it’s launched. I could go on and on about my love for Quicksilver but I think that it would get boring after a while.
I did manage to solve this issue by deleting the app and it’s preferences and then reinstalling the app. I also downloaded the latest version which enabled the app to work.
The final problem that I’m having with Snow Leopard is that there are a lot of temporary freezes that have been happening. I’ll be doing something and then all of a sudden I’m getting the spinning beach ball. It’s only for minute or two but it’s really frustrating when you are trying to get things done.
I think that the best thing to do would be a nuke and pave (a complete reinstall) but I just don’t have the time right now.
Why I won’t be getting an iPhone GS
You may have missed it but there is a new iPhone that was released this passed Friday. It’s becoming an annual rite of summer where Apple releases the latest and greatest hardware and software for their smartphone platform. Unlike the last two years I have decided to take a year off of the upgrade cycle. At first my reasons were purely economic, I wasn’t willing to pay what AT&T wanted me to just so I can upgrade the phone (iirc it was about $399). Now that AT&T has changed its tune a bit and I would be able to upgrade for only $199 (a cost that my company would cover) I still don’t feel like upgrading.
The reason is simply that with the 3.0 software my current iPhone does what I want it to do. I am now able to view additional calendars via both CalDav and subscriptions. This means that I am now able to view not only my work calendar (via ActiveSync) but I can also view my home calendar and co-worker’s calendars as well. It’s very, very handy. Of course there is also the whole copy & paste thing now and that is nice and works quite well.
So what about the features that the new iPhone 3G S has that the iPhone 3G doesn’t? Well, the camera something that I would consider but I really don’t use it all that much as it is so it’s not that big of a deal, ditto for the video capability. Especially since I have a camera that will take video that has a more mega pixels and take video. The compass is actually something that I could use while I travel (to find where east is for religious reasons) but it’s not something that I am dying for.
I could go on like this for every new feature but I’ll get very repetitive very quickly. Let me just sum it up by saying that the iPhone 3GS is going to be an excellent upgrade for owners of the original iPhone but I’ll wait for the next revision to upgrade my iPhone 3G.
Family (Tech) Support
Most of us who like technology have been in this position one time or another, giving out technical support for family members. Usually it would wind up like the beginning of this scenario.
Color me surprised when my mother told me that she ordered DSL for her home and she wanted me to get her computer (circa 2001) hooked up to the DSL modem. That was an experience that I wasn’t looking forward to in any way shape or form. Then an idea came to me, if I was going to have to support her computer, why not give her a computer that would be easy to support. And, if I needed to see what was on her monitor it would be easy to do so? It sounded like a good idea to me and so I bought my mother a MacMini.
Sunday I went over to her house and set up the MacMini. The first thing I did (after I turned it on) was set up my mom with an iChat account via AIM and signed her into iChat and that was all I needed to get the screen sharing done. After that I installed NeoOffice so she could write papers and other word processing goodness. She was already used to OpenOffice from her old job so it is a seamless transition. I then took care of all the other stuff like setting up her printer and showing her how to use Safari as her web browser.
The only thing that I wasn’t able to set up (for technical reasons) was her email account on the benedictfamily.org domain and set up Mail.app. I set the account up last night and then I was able to set up her email account using iChat and the screen sharing ability that is baked into the application. Then later in the day, she called and I was able to walk her through another question she had.
I’m glad I made the right decision.
iPhone 3.0 Thoughts
Posted by aaron in Uncategorized on March 17th, 2009
If you follow any tech news you’ll know that today at 1:00pm EDT Apple will announce their blueprint for the iPhone 3.0 operating system. There are a lot of predictions and places you can catch a live blog, I’ll be refreshing the Macworld one constantly, and places you can read “expert” predictions. I thought that I would join the prediction madness and let you know what I’m expecting to be announced today.
- Copy (Cut) and Paste – This is almost a no brainer since everyone and their uncle have been asking for this since the iPhone was released almost 2 years ago
- Tethering to Computer – You’ll now be able to connect your 3G iPhone to a computer to get an internet connection. I have now idea about what AT&T will be charging for this.
- Multi tasking apps – This has been requested almost as much as copy and paste
- Background notification – Another long requested feature. This was promised to be out by the end of September ‘08 but that passed with nary a word about it’s status.
- MMS – This would be great to have
There you have it, I know that I’m not breaking any ground here but I wanted to throw my two cents into the ring.
Holy Mixed Metaphore!
