I had to attend a conference in Prague earlier this week and while on my way back to my hotel I walked past an Apple Authorized Retail Store near Andel Metro Station. I did some window shopping and was happily converting Czech Koruna to Euro, but just wouldn’t believe my calculations. Prices here were considerably higher than at home.
The next day I asked a Czech friend, whether I was missing something and he confirmed that indeed there had been quite a bit of bad press about Apple’s pricing policy in their country. According to his recollection of the press coverage only Brazilians were paying more for their iPod.
Continue reading »
I get quite a bit of email about our weekly podcast and one of the most recent question that listeners have been asking is a technical one: “How do you get your conversations with other people to sound like they’re actually in the same room with you?” Rather than send the same explanation to each person every time I get one of these emails, I thought it would be easier to just write an article and explain how we do it.
First, a little information about the audio gear that we use.
In our main studio, Chad Perry and I use good quality XLR-type microphones. Because these microphones are not USB, and require phantom power to operate, we use the M-Audio MobilePre. http://www.smalldog.com/product/12651700/mymac The MobilePre plugs into the Macintosh via USB. Our two microphones plug into the MobilePre.
Continue reading »
For the past couple of weeks I have been discussing the different System Preferences, and how you can use them to customize your Mac. The Appearance System Preference allows you to change how parts of the computer interface look and act. It also has a lot of parts, which is why I chose to discuss it in its own article.
As a reminder, to access any of these preferences I have discussed go to the Apple menu, and choose “System Preferences.” Next, choose the preference you want from the window that opens, in this case the Appearance.
Continue reading »
USB 2.0 Universal Drive Adapter
Company: Newer Technology, Inc.
Price: $24.95
http://www.newertech.com
If you’re like me, you have a collection of old hard drives.
I’ve been using Firewire externals since forever, and $29 USB enclosures from compass since I got my G5 tower. Carbon Copy Cloner happily backs up my Documents folder (You DO keep your desktop clean, don’t you?) onto the hard drive named “USB” every morning at 4 a.m.
Every Saturday, I swap out the drives and put that week’s in the fire safe.
Continue reading »
Download the show here
Mazen Al-Angary joins Tim and Guy for a chat about the state of Macs in Saudi Arabia. Do you use a Mac in a Windows world? David Cohen has the segment for you. Robert has a review of C03U Samson Audio microphone, and Nemo looks at four new Photoshop books. Plus, Tim reviews the iTalkPro from Griffin Technology.
Continue reading »
Continue reading »
It’s February and Grace always tells me that since it is a short month, spring is right around the corner. Maybe so, but here in Vermont we have continued to have frigid temperatures. After I mentioned that last week one customer wrote to berate me for not recanting my position regarding global warming. Yes, it got as low as -17° F at my house for an evening but I clearly remember Januaries when the temperatures rarely got above zero and when the nighttime lows were more like -40° F. In fact, my original plan for Small Dog Electronics was to start this company as a way to raise money to turn a hobby (home-brewing beer) into a vocation. I remember the best beer that I brewed was brewed on the coldest winter night and earned the name Prickly Mountain -40° Ale. So, I do not recant anything about global warming. The impact of man’s warming of our environment is not going to be felt all at once like in the movie “The Day After Tomorrow” but gradually as the normal weather patterns are disrupted. Regardless of the cold weather last week, it was still one of the warmest Januaries on record here in Vermont and if wasn’t so busy doing other stuff (like going to MacWorld) I could have ridden my motorcycle for the first time in January in Vermont.
This article may piss-off a lot of people, and it may generate a lot of hate mail. Send it to me at MazenAlangary@gmail.com
But before things get messy, let me give you a quick background about myself. I am an independent corporate advisor, who has had the pleasure of working with multi-national companies, start-ups, and governments around the world. Mostly in dealing and handling contracts and projects that has cost, in some cases, over a billion US dollars. But what really matters here is that I am a passionate Mac-user.
The sad fact is that Apple has no true presence in the Middle-East market. I have yapped about this numerous times before, especially when I talked about the iPhone and its Tsunami effect in a previous article. Apple’s official dealer, ABM, is hiding behind the walls of the two MacStores they’ve set up since they got the exclusive dealership.
Continue reading »
DVD2oneX2
Company: DVD2One
Price: 39.99 EURO
http://www.dvd2one.com
When DVD burners became popular in Macs, around four years ago or so, I was a happy camper. I couldn’t wait to make copies of my DVDs so that I could put the original away and watch the copies instead. This is especially appealing with the kid movies, as my kids tend to scratch up those DVDs pretty quickly. And at almost twenty dollars a pop, that can get expensive very quickly.
The problem I quickly learned, however, was that the common blank DVDs were single layered discs, while the movie DVDs are dual-layered. So I couldn’t fit a movie DVD onto a blank DVD. There was also no easy way back then to actually copy a movie DVD, a problem solved by the program “MacTheRipper.” Oh, and there’s the illegal aspect of it, in that you have to strip out the copy protection parts, which is a big no-no.
Continue reading »
Resolv 50a Active Powered Small Studio Monitor Speakers
Company: Samson Audio
http://www.samsontech.com
Price: $240 US
(for quality discount speakers click here)
The concept of neutral or flat or “reference” audio response is neither important nor well-known to home music listeners. Rock music fans want brain-piercing guitar solos and foundation-shaking bass and drums. Classical music lovers appreciate soaring instrumental and vocal solos. Pop music must grab you and never let go. And so on: jazz, show tunes, disco, salsa, world music, easy listening, younameit. Home stereo speakers should make your favorite music sound like you want it to sound, whatever the “it” is.
In the recording studio, engineers require as little built-in coloration as possible when monitoring live or recorded music. The performance needs to have its own sonic identity, without being influenced or tweaked by speaker design and construction. Mixing boards are used to enhance a finished recording, with engineers and speakers serving as the supporting cast, not influential guest stars.
Continue reading »
Comments. Be heard!
Review
Review
Review
MyMac Podcast 400-5!
App Review