Podcast number 27 is now online, which you can download in MP3 HERE
This week, Tim and Chad look at the top stories from MacMinute.com, our new podcast news sponsor! Check out MacMinute.com for your daily Macintosh news, updated as the news happens.
This Podcast is sponsored by SmallDog.com
This week’s feature is Rate The Rumors. Tim and Chad take on six of the most persistent Mac rumors floating out there, and rate which ones they think have zero chance of being true, and those that probably have some grounding in reality.
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Neale Monks, author of Buying Used Macs, considers the dual-USB G3 iBooks to be the best value Mac portables about. Find out why in the third of his articles on Classic Macs.
Mac portables have come and gone, and many will be remembered as high-water marks in the evolution of the personal computer. The G4 PowerBook as “portable supercomputer” redefined what users expected from their machines: big, widescreen LCDs, blazingly fast processors, and do-everything optical drives. The G3 PowerBooks combined sleek, black looks with performance genuinely comparable to a desktop machine, and probably deserve the name “Blackbird” far more than the PowerBook 500 series that actually carry that tag. But when it comes to balancing performance, looks, and price, my vote goes to the dual-USB G3 iBook, perhaps the first Mac portable to bring all the joys of mobile computing to the masses without having to make any serious compromises.
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Dashboard is a metaphor for what’s right and wrong at Apple.
First, let me say Dashboard is cool, it’s sexy, it’s got neat transitions, and it is the number one selling feature of Tiger. I will use it, others will use it and I could never imagine something this cool coming out for Windows or one of the other UNIX, at least not first. Now that Apple has it, they’ll rip off the idea, poorly. So this isn’t a “Bash Apple/Dashboard” article. However all those positives doesn’t change what’s on the other side of this coin.
Second, let me say Dashboard is crappy User Interface design, especially compared to what it could have been. The old Apple (before NeXT) would have been embarrassed to ever release anything this narrow in scope, and totally missing the bigger point. It is what happens when Sales/Marketing designs UI’s and won’t listen to the engineers.
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Drag Bag Streetwinder – laptop backpack with wheels and telescoping bar handle
Review by Owen Rubin and John “Nemo” Nemerovski
Company: That Pack
Price: $189
http://www.thatpack.com
My search for the perfect 17” PowerBook continues, and as it does, “Nemo” finds a very cool new bag at the same time. I have said all along that I wished someone would make a 17” PowerBook bag that had wheels, and John has wanted something to make carrying around all his equipment much easier than carrying it over the shoulder. The large size and weight of the PowerBook just screams out for wheels, as does any large amount of “stuff” against that sore shoulder. And here are those wheels on a very cool black, white, and red rolling “backpack” for John, and an almost all black with red stripe model for me (this bag also comes in blue and black as well.)
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iPhoto 5 The Missing Manual
by David Pogue and Derrick Story
O’Reilly Media
US $ 29.95
CA $ 41.95
ISBN 0-596-10034-5
388 pages
Looking for computer books?
Buy the books with the picture of a dog holding a book in its mouth on the cover.
MyMac Podcast – 26
This is our 26th show, which you can download in MP3 format HERE.
This week, Chad and Tim talk about all things Mac. We also change up the format a little bit, and introduce our new Focus segment. This week, we look at the .Mac question. Should you get .Mac or not?
Links from this week – Continue reading »
SmallDog.com
MacMinute.com
The Mr. Nice Guy Show http://mrniceguy.org/
iCon Steve Jobs The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business
By Jeffrey S. Young and William L. Simon
Publisher: Wiley
Price: $24.95
ISBN: 0471720836
308 pages (soft cover)
Virtually every Macintosh or iPod owner knows that Apple’s founder and current CEO is Steve Jobs. He’s got more name recognition than any other high-tech CEO can ever dream of. Jobs is known for his patented “reality distortion field” which allows him to persuade doubters of almost anything he wishes, as long as the listener is in his presence.
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IceTune Speakers and Dock
Company: MacAlly
Price: $69.99 US
http://www.macally.com
IceTune is one of most clever, useful items of iPod-Ware ever produced. It’s a three-module iPod speaker + charger with different inserts (three are included) for each current and most previous models of iPod, including the Mini but not the Shuffle. If you want a battery-powered iPod speaker, buy something else, but if you want a stylish, versatile non-audiophile powered stereo speaker + charger, IceTune is a very good choice.
What it isn’t: super loud, or adjustable for treble and bass.
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Click here to download this weeks show in MP3 format.
33 Minutes in length
This show is sponsored by SmallDog.com
This week, Chad and Tim talk about this, that, and the other thing.
Check out Warped Thoughts, our buddy Jason Hansen’s PodCast. We played his promo on the show. If you want to hear your PodCast promo, email it to us at the email link below.
Not Mac News #10 by Chris Seibold.
Want to help us out in the next MacMOD Video program? We are looking for ideas on what we should turn into a Mac, modify a Mac, or what have you. Listed to this show for more information, then email your suggestions to MyMacPodCast@Gmail.com
This week Neale Monks, author of Buying Used Macs, looks at the Macintosh SE, the first of the compact Macs to sport the line-up of serial, ADB, and SCSI ports and probably the best value machine around for anyone wanting to start a classic Mac collection.
The Macintosh SE was a landmark machine in many ways. Although similar in size and shape to the previous compact Macs such as the original Mac 128, the Mac SE has the same colour and styling as the later Macintoshes, and there is an obvious family resemblance to between the Mac SE, first produced in 1987, and something like the first generation of G3 Power Macs released ten years later. Both the Mac SE and the earlier Power Macs used the Apple Desktop Bus (or ADB) interface for input devices such as mice and keyboards, and despite a few styling changes over the years, a mouse from a Mac SE will work fine with the G3 Power Mac, and vice versa. Similarly, the keyboard changed little over time (the most notable changes being the introduction of a numerical keypad and function keys) and the ADB keyboards used by the Mac SE and later Macs are fully interchangeable. Although present on earlier Macs, the SCSI and serial ports on the Mac SE are another point of similarity with later machines, replaced in the late 1990s with FireWire and USB but still among the most popular add-ons to modern Macs and PowerBooks, either through expansion cards or plug-in adapters.
OWC Pioneer DVR-109 DVD Drive
Company: Other World Computing
Price: $75.99
www.MacSales.com
If you’ve got an older Mac or a lower-end newer Mac you may be looking at iDVD and thinking “I sure would like to use iDVD but I’ve got a combo drive!” Or perhaps you just happen to be one of those people who just have to have the maximum performance from your computer’s drive. In either case you’re not stuck buying a new machine to get that DVD burning capability. Well you’re not stuck if you’ve got around eighty bucks and a screwdriver lying about.
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In the first in a new series about collectable and easily obtained Macs from the past, Neale Monks, author of Buying Used Macs, takes a look at the PowerBook 3400, arguably the first portable produced by Apple that was good enough to replace a desktop machine.
Anyone looking for a portable Mac for under $200 is going to be hard pressed to beat a PowerBook 3400 in good condition. In lots of ways, this series represents a threshold value as far as usability goes: it has just enough speed, memory, and expandability to be usable with the Internet, wireless networking, and productivity applications such as Photoshop and Microsoft Office. Sure, the PowerBook 1400 has the bonus of being upgradeable to a G3 processor, but finding these upgrades is difficult and expensive, and a standard issue 1400 is much slower than even the base model 3400. The earlier PowerBooks, including the 5300 Series are far too slow for any kind of demanding work, and are best left to the collector. Working up the timeline, we come to machines like the Wall Street and Pismo G3 PowerBooks, but as yet these machines are still relatively pricey, and you’ll be lucky to get a decent specimen for much less than $400. Obviously, once you’re budget gets above this, you have the option of a used iBook or Titanium PowerBook, but here you need to balance the price of a used machine against a brand new one, the current G4 iBook retailing currently for $1000 and up.
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It is no surprise to readers of my rants that I own several PCs in addition to several Macintosh computers. I use to NEVER own a PC. And if Apple wants to ensure that I own even more PCs, it will continue to act as it has these past few weeks, basically like a spoiled, rotten child! And that is EXACTLY what Apple is doing these days. As I said before, Dell has THE BEST service warranty in the business (based on my experiences to date) and damn good hardware, and while XP will never be truly a Mac, they get closer every year, and I just need a few more reasons to drop Apple all together. And Apple is sure making it easier every week to hate them.
Lets face it, Unix on the desktop is both a good and bad idea, and while Apple did an amazing job of hiding it from the user behind OS-X, the old Macintosh Computer for beginners is no more. Apple is now MORE complex to use than a PC in many ways, has its share of problems, especially around installing and removing files, and is, I believe, a very short time away from being attacked by viruses on a large scale. Not to mention VERY complex for most users to solve problems caused by the Unix system. On the flip side, Windows XP has become even more user friendly, plug and play technology now works as well on a PC as it does on a Mac, and in some cases even better because more drivers are available for Windows. And the upcoming release of Longhorn will contain even more features bringing it closer and closer to the Mac. So owning a Mac is not the great ease of use advantage is use to be, and if you ever need to fix it, not as easy either. (Not to mention the ability to add all sorts of cool things to a PC!) And lets face it, there are still way many more programs for a PC, including some cool games, than Mac could ever hope for. So what keeps us coming back to Mac? Well, I would say the coolness of the computer and the company Apple are the key factors. Apple makes cool computers. But guess what, so does Sony!
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Skin Tight for iPod Shuffle
Company: Speck Products
Price: $19.99
http://www.speckproducts.com
Speck is a swell company in my book. They have taken to making some really innovative and attractive iPod cases, and have done so for a few years now. No Johnny-Come-Lately to the iPod bandwagon is Speck.
They also have this tendency to ship me every new product they come out with, which is fine as long as they don’t expect a review for each product that I didn’t request. For instance, I own only a second-generation iPod, so the cases for the new iPods or iPod Mini they send is not really something I can review. Sure, I could say “It looks nice” but that’s not much of a review.
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MyMac.com PodCast 5-5-05
Download the May 5, 2005 PodCast HERE in MP3. Be sure to subscribe to our RSS feed by coping THIS link and plugging it into your iPodder software.
This weeks PodCast is sponsored by SmallDog.com. For your chance to win a Mac mini, check out SmallDog.com!
Tim and Chad get caught up with some Contest winner announcements, including naming the winners from last weeks contest with Bob LeVitus! Who won? Did you? You got to download and listen to the show to find out.
Please send any feedback on this PodCast (MP3 files welcome!) to mymacpodcast@gmail.com.
40 Years of the Amazing Spider-Man CD-ROM
Company: TOPICS Entertainment
Price: $49.99
http://www.topics-ent.com/
As a comic book reader, I was very interested in this product when I first started seeing advertisements for it six months ago. As the title suggests, 40 Years of the Amazing Spider-Man CD-ROM is just that, all the issues of the Amazing Spider-Man comic on eleven CD-ROMs. Actually, the series also includes the original 1962 Amazing Fantasy #15, which is the first appearance of Spider-Man. From then on, however, it’s all Amazing Spider-Man.
Each issue on the CD-ROM is an Adobe PDF file. You do need Adobe Acrobat 6.0 or later to view the files, which is included on the disc #1 in both Mac and Windows versions. If you try using another PDF viewing application, such as Apple’s own Preview, you get to see the watermark Topics Entertainment placed on every page of every issue. I don’t know why they bothered to put the watermark in the files, as that constitutes the level of anti-piracy they employ. Otherwise, these are simple PDF files.
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by Owen Rubin and David Weeks
Pro 12/15 and Pro 17 Apple PowerBook case.
Company: Brenthaven
Price: $149 for Pro 12/15, $179 for Pro 17
http://www.brenthaven.com
The search continues for that perfect bag for my 17” PowerBook, and it continues with a serious contender for the top spot, the new Pro series from Brenthaven. While this may look like your typical over-the-shoulder bag, the Pro is lot more than that.
The first thing I noticed when I opened this bag was the VERY WELL PADDED slot for the PowerBook. Called the CORE™ Protection System, this pocket is well designed so it should easily protect your PowerBook from any unexpected drops, bangs or bumps, of which I had several that caused no damage. The CORE pocket has substantial padding on all sides to offer extra side, front and back protection for your computer, and the 12/15 has spring loaded, curved pads inside to firmly hold either a 12” or 15” PowerBook securely in place. CORE’s spring tension is firm, but not so strong that you can’t easily remove the computer. The bag is constructed from a military grade ballistic nylon, so it should be able to easily withstand whatever punishment you can throw at it, and will continue to look good for years as well. Thank you Brenthaven for leaving Velcro out of this bag as a way to secure the computer!
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In a recent Podcast, MyMac.com editor Tim Robertson mentioned the fact that the introduction of the Mac Mini might well have made my recent Scroll Down Book “Buying Used Macs” somewhat obsolete. The argument boils down to this: with the Mac Mini offering Internet connectivity, enough horsepower to run most home and office software, and support for all the modern USB and FireWire peripherals, is there really any need to buy a used Mac at all? After all, for $500 you not only get a fast, modern Mac that should work well with the keyboard, mouse, and monitor you already have, but you also get peace of mind knowing your purchase comes with a twelve month warranty and compatibility with the Mac OS for at least the next couple of years.
Bolstering Tim’s argument was his observation that sales of used Macs on eBay seem to have been depressed for a while, with Macs that might have sold briskly a year ago now sitting around for days without being bid on. But is this observation really to do with the Mac Mini? Is this really the end of used Mac market?
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Lexmark E332n Laser Printer – Review
Company: Lexmark
Price: $499 US
http://www.lexmark.com
As I write this, the last Lexmark printer I reviewed was the C510 Color Laser Printer almost a year ago. I very much enjoyed that printer, as I generally have all the Lexmark printers that have found their way into the Michigan MyMac.com Review Labs. (Or my home office, if you will) The C510 was a large printer, and in contrast, the E332n is small, not much larger than a common multifunction printer. There is where the comparisons end.
The E332n is a monochrome (read, no color) network laser printer that takes up a small amount of desk space. It sports a USB 2.0, a parallel port, and 10/100Base T Ethernet ports. (Users of older computers with USB 1 will also be able to connect to the printer, although sending print jobs will be a little slower). With 32MB of internal memory and a 100MHz processor, this is a powerful compact laser printer.
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MyMac Podcast #385
MyMac Podcast #384