Macs in the Saudi Arabia
Sitting in a local Starbucks in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, surfing the web while downloading my favorite Podcast, a young man approaches me, apologizing for the interruption.
“Do you work with Apple?” He asked.
“No, why?!” I reply.
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MacDesign out of the box,
by Jim Elferdink
Inside Mac Press/Pearson Education
ISBN 0-321-37574-2
252 pages
US $29.99 CAN $41.99 UK £21.99
http://peachpit.com
Part of the purpose of the MyMac Design for Non-Designers is to show that Apple’s consumer applications, particularly iLife applications, provide enough tools for basic and some advance level design work. Just as I started this series, I discovered that Andrew Shalat’s book, MacDesign out of the box would soon be published. It’s a book that is exactly in line with what I’m writing about this series.
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Tim and Chad talk to our contest winner of the iPort FS2. Also new, we now have a feedback phone number. Call and leave feedback at 801-938-5559. We look at the latest happening of the Apple vs. Apple lawsuit in the U.K., and the new volume control update for the iPod.
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NEC MultiSync 20WMGX2 Display (for both computer and video)
Company: NEC
Price: $799 (with $50 rebate available through April, 2006)
http://www.necdisplay.com
When new Macintosh owners leave the store, they’re usually toting Apple Cinema Displays in their shopping carts. But many people don’t know there are alternative choices for LCD displays, many of which are quite competitive in both price and quality.
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ScreenRecord
Company: Mien Software
Price: $20
http://www.miensoftware.com
SnapzProX2
Company: Ambrosia Software
Price: $69.00
http://www.ambrosiasw.com
I get phone calls and emails from family and friends all of the time asking “How do I…on the computer?” I do the best I can to walk them through it, or I might email them one of my Macspiration articles. Most of the time, I end up going to that person’s house and showing him/her what to do in person. In the winter, I can’t really go down to Florida on a moment’s notice and help my grandmother when she is on her annual trip south. Wouldn’t it be nice to send my grandmother, and my other family and friends, a video to show them how to solve their Mac problem, without leaving the house? The two pieces of software I am going to review in this article can help me, and anyone else in the same situation, do exactly that.
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With the 30th Anniversary of Apple coming up on April 1st, we thought that we might talk with Owen Linzmayer, author of Apple Confidential and Apple Confidential 2.0, the insider stories of the company called Apple Computer. So sit back and relax.
My Mac: Mr. Linzmayer, thank you for taking the time to speak with us about Apple Computer. Can you provide us with some background on you and your association with all things Apple/Mac?
Owen L: My interaction with Apple began back when I was a teenager in the early 1980s. I was working at Creative Computing magazine, covering the Apple II. Over the years, I wrote for every major Apple II magazine, then made the jump to covering the Macintosh in the late 1980s. I’ve been writing about the Mac exclusively since that time, having worked at and contributing to most of the major Mac magazines. I have also authored a number of books about the Macintosh and Apple itself, including Apple Confidential 2.0.
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For this week’s Macspiration, here’s another list of tips that are too short for an entire article on their own, but are still worth mentioning.
1. What’s Today’s Date?
Ever have the need to find out what today’s date is? Sure, you can open iCal and find the date that way. However, if you only want to know today’s date, just click the time at the top of your screen. A small menu will come down with the date at the top.
VirusBarrier X4
Company: Intego
http://www.intego.com/home.asp
Worms, trojans, malicious code and viruses, oh my! In the midst of the turmoil of the past several weeks, here I sat with VirusBarrier X4 running on my system, an upgrade to Intego’s previous version.
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MacMod – The Atari 2600 Macintosh
Building the iAtariMac
What the heck is this? Actually, it is the LONG overdue, been sitting in development hell purgatory, first MacMod.
What is MacMod? An idea and concept that sprung to life in the minds of Tim Robertson and Chad Perry way back in the summer of 2003. The idea? Wouldn’t it be cool if there were a video show online that was like a combination of American Chopper and Junkyard Wars, but about Macs?
What? You don’t think that is a cool idea? Obviously, we did, so we actually did it. We created a show, named it MacMod, and filmed the whole thing over a six-week period starting October 2003 and finishing December 2003.
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March is steadily marching on! We haven’t yet had any of that spring weather that makes one want to throw open windows and rid the home of stale winter air, but its only a matter of time now. The forecast keeps hinting that it will be here soon, barring any late snowstorms.
Podcast 74 features a conversation with Phil Ariza of iPort. Not only do we talk about the latest products from iPort, but we are giving away an iPort FS2. To enter the contest, listen to the show for details. Chad and Tim also talk about the latest in Apple and Macintosh news, playing with the Mac mini in an entertainment system, and much more. Also featuring the Dashboard Minute from Guy Serle, and the return of Not Mac News by Chris Seibold.
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Macally Icebud
Company: Macally
Price: $19.99
http://www.macally.com
The Macally Icebud combines a protective pouch, a neck lanyard, and headphones for the iPod Nano or iPod Shuffle, into one product.
You may have noticed I used the word pouch instead of case. That is the term Macally uses, and I would have to agree. The product is a pouch- not a case. As a protective pouch, the Icebud will protect the iPod from scratches, fingerprints, and the like. It is made of a clear and flexible plastic material, and closes with a plastic button. The clear look allows for easy viewing of the screen, and the click wheel. I would liken the plastic material to what might be the screen protector material on some iPod cases. It is thicker than acetate, but thinner than a silicone case. It is also thin enough to allow full functionality of the click wheel through the pouch. However, it is not a case and it is not made to be the heavy-duty case that other companies make. If you want a heavy-duty case, this is not for you.
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There are three books in a series about network security and hacking that I decided to review:
- Stealing the Network : How to own the Box
- Stealing the Network: How to own a Continent
- Stealing the Network: How to own an Identity
From the title, you get an idea of the subject — and from the subtitle, you can get a an even better peak into what they’re about. I didn’t bother to mention the authors, because they are all done by a pool of writers, often with more than one technical editor. These combination books tend to be more thorough, because they had many experts working on them — but often not quite as clean in tone (feeling more fragmented). Fortunately, these books worked quite well in this format, chapters are often about different stories and people — so any fragmentation or stylistic differences is less bothersome, or even unnoticeable.
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Mac OS X Help Line Tiger Edition
Ted Landau and Dan Frakes
Peachpit Press
www.peachpit.com
ISBN 0321334299
US $49.99
I’ve been reading Ted Landau’s Mac OS X Help Line book since it first came out, and each edition gets better and better. I raved about the Panther version, and this edition is equally good, if not better.
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Photoshop Elements 4
Company: Adobe Systems Incorporated
Price: $89.00
Previous owners can upgrade for $69.99
(Check around the web, I’ve seen it listed for less then this with special deals!)
http://www.adobe.com
Since January, I’ve had the pleasure of working with a final pre-release version of Adobe’s Photoshop Elements 4. While it may have taken Adobe a while to get a version 4 for the Mac, they’ve spent their time very well in working in new items for users to enjoy.
I have been using Photoshop Elements since it first appeared in version 1.0. (Read my review from 2001 here) Photoshop Elements continues to provide us with amazing capability at a very reasonable price. For those of us who can’t afford to run out and buy Photoshop CS, PSE 4 provides a lot of the same assets at a price that we can live with.
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After reviewing my Macspiration #24, which was about bookmarking websites, I decided to write an article about how to get to a website, and what to do when you get there. Of course, if you are reading this article you most likely know how to do this, or maybe someone has bookmarked MyMac.com and other websites for you, In any event, hopefully, this article will be helpful to someone out there, even if you print the article for a family member.
Before you go to a website, you need that website’s address. Most likely it is www.name.com, or some variation (it might be .net or .org instead of .com). Once you know the address, you can open your web browser and begin. Your browser might be Safari, or Camino, or Firefox. It doesn’t matter. You also want to make sure you are connected to the internet before you begin. If you have high speed internet (DSL or Cable) you are most likely always connected. If you use a modem, you will have to dial in to the service.
When you open your web browser, there will be a text field at the top called the address bar. This is where you want to type in the address of the website you want to visit. Even services like AOL or Compuserve have this bar.
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Hello, everyone!
Since I’m writing this on March 17th, I have to mention St. Patrick’s Day. This made me wonder what happened to the shamrock shake served by McDonalds? I’m a child of the TV era, one of the baby boomers who grew up with Gilligan’s Island reruns and the Brady Bunch in prime time. When the shamrock shake ads first appeared, we HAD to have one. Not liking mint, I didn’t particularly care for the shamrock shake but my brother loved them. Every year we’d make the family trek to McDonald’s, with three kids in the back of the station wagon. A sure sign that spring was around the corner was the shamrock shake.
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Iogear Wireless RF Keyboard/Optical Mouse
Company: IOGEAR
Price: $59.99
http://www.iogear.com
A lot of products on the market state they are Mac compatible, but really aren’t. Sure, they might work on a Mac, but most of the functionality is Windows only. This is the case with the IOGEAR Wireless RF Keyboard/Optical Mouse. The IOGEAR website states that this set is Mac compatible from 10.2 on, but this set is really made for a Windows machine.
Out of the box, this set comes with everything you need to get started. It even comes packaged with rechargeable batteries for the mouse, and AAA batteries for the keyboard (a nice touch).
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Item: IP-N801
Company: Macally
Price: $4.99
http://www.macally.com
One of my biggest fears for my iPod is scratching the screen. Next in line would be scratching the body of the iPod. For this reason I keep my iPod in its case 90% of the time. Macally’s Clear Protective Overlay for the iPod Nano (also available for the 5th Gen iPod) is a way to ease my fears of scratching the iPod when it is not in the case.
The Overlay is made of a clear film that covers all 4 sides of the Nano. It does not cover the top or bottom where your ports and hold key are. It attaches to the iPod with an adhesive, which, as advertised, does not leave behind any residue. I lifted the Overlay many times off the Nano while I tried applying it, and it left a nice clean surface.
I just mentioned that I lifted the Overlay many times while applying the overlay. The Overlay is not the easiest thing to line up and apply. It is also very hard to avoid air bubbles while applying the screen. I repeated the application process several times, without being able to get all of the air bubbles out. This could be due to the fact that I was using a newer Nano, which now has a little lip around the edge of the face. This lip might have been causing some of the air bubble issues I was having. Macally’s website has a photo suggesting no air bubbles, but I did not find this to be the case.
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MyMac Podcast #385
MyMac Podcast #384