Download and listen here
Tim and Chad announce an all-new contest! This week, listen to the show for your chance to be one of three winners for our B2Stuff.com prizes. Up this week, each winner will receive a miJam Mini Guitar, a miJam Drummer, and the Wassup! Also, David Cohen looks at VPN using a Mac to connect to a PC network. Finally, Robert reviews both the The i.Sound Dream iPod speaker system and the everki The Plung iPod case.
Podcast-only RSS feed for all other RSS Podcast readers
Links from this show
b2stuff.com
Everki
iSound
FRITZ!Fon 7150 -
Company: AVM Computersysteme Vertriebs GmbH
Price: €149.00
http://www.avm.de
The FRITZ!Fon 7150 is a DSL modem and wifi router combination. So far not really spectacular enough for a review. The reason I am still sitting down to write one is that this is more than just a wifi router, it is a cordless VoIP phone as well.
AVM is the market leader in DSL hardware in Germany, they have about 50% of the market. They have achieved this dominant position by working closely with ADSL providers to ensure that their hardware is bundled into contracts. So if you go out to eBay there are literally hundreds of their boxes available. I purchased mine from a big online store, after I had grown tired of my “standard” VoIP phone, which neatly sat on my desk and kept me there, while making a call.
Continue reading »
OWC Mercury On-The Go Portable Hard Drive
160 GB SATA Model reviewed
http://www.macsales.com
Price: $279.99
I’m a bit of a nut when it comes to external computer storage, I can’t seem to have enough. I have 6 OWC Mercury Elite Pro HD enclosures, as well as an OWC Mercury Elite AL Dual enclosure. In addition, I also own an OWC Mercury On-The-Go 2.5” SATA enclosure, and finally, a MacAlly 2.5” IDE enclosure.
Yeah, I’ve got lots of storage. Maybe we’ll go into “why” I have that much in another article. For now, let’s take a hard look at the OWC 160GB SATA Mercury On-The –Go (MOTG) portable.
I think the stuff you get with the drive is rather impressive, so let’s take a look at what’s in the box other than the drive:
Continue reading »
Every little kid knows that there are good surprises and bad surprises.
If the Christmas package hides a box, it’s probably a toy and, therefore, a good surprise.
If it’s a soft package, it’s probably clothes and that’s a bad surprise.
The iPhone comes in a box and will probably be a good surprise with lots of neat features and more downloadable goodies promised later.
But more ominous, is the fact that we are locked into AT&T and, as of a week before release, that company has still not published the rate plan for the iPhone.
This could be a bad surprise . . . a very bad surprise.
This could actually be a deal-breaker of a bad surprise.
Here I sit, money in hand, ready to plunk down $499 x 2, plus buy my way out of SunCom for a hundred or two, plus sign up with AT&T for two years. I’m obligating myself for at least $2,200 EXTRA for a couple of cell phones.
Without knowing how much AT&T will charge?
Not bloody likely!
I’m not springing two grand for those iPhones for me and my wife until I know what AT&T is going to soak me each month.
AND! If it’s too much? — well — there’s nothing actually wrong with our current phones.
This week I’ll cover the third menu you can use in your web browser. I’ll call this the Link Menu, since it appears when you control-click (or right click) a link. As with the prior menus, the terms might be different from browser to browser.
Dear MyMac.com readers,
This column started in July 2006. The intent is to give MyMac.com readers a resource to use when they need help with problems. Over the past 11 months I have been proud to help people all over the world. It’s fun to hear from people in other countries and other parts of the US, but there’s always been one little problem – the quantity of email received hasn’t usually been enough to sustain the column.
Maybe the problem is all the other help resources available on the internet. There are web forums galore, and the response from those can be quicker than waiting for a reply from me, although the advice can be questionable. There are podcasts. Dave Hamilton’s Mac Geek Gab and Adam Christiansen’s MacCast do a great job answering questions weekly. There’s some overlap between this column and Macspiration from Donny Yankelow here on MyMac.com, but I can’t think of any other web columns like this one (although the magazine help letters are usually online too), but Google can be very helpful when you’ve got a question. Google, of course, is instant. Waiting for me to answer your email generally isn’t, although I usually am able to reply within a day or occasionally two.
Continue reading »
I’m going to stretch my prognosticatorial wings here and write about that of which I know very little. (Yeah! I do know the sentence sucks.)
Who Uses Beta Software?
What the Teufel Is Steve Jobs Thinking!?
The use of beta software is not for the faint of heart. Beta software (as most MyMac.com readers know) is software that is not quite ready for prime time . . . but the developers think they have the most egregious kinks ironed out.
AND, (This part is important) they know there are still going to be issues; so they put it out there for the beta testers to find out where those little varmints lurk, and report back so the slippery rascals can be properly dealt with.
Continue reading »
Last week I discussed a browser contextual menu to use for images in websites. Well, there is also a “Basic Menu” (what I am choosing to call it) you can use to navigate your way through a site, and more. Like the menu discussed last week, this menu has different options in different browsers. It also might have different phrases for various actions. I’m just going to cover the standards.
FastTrack Schedule 9.2
Company: AEC Software
Price: $349
www.aecsoftware.com
Project Management – one of the business buzz terms you often hear being bandied about. A project can be defined as any one-off attempt to create a unique product or service that will impose some sort of benefit or added value. But you can strip all the jargon away – a project is about getting something done, and project management is about doing it while balancing time, money and workers.
Those of you not in the business world may think that we will never have to deal with Project Management, but the truth is that many things in life, even doing taxes or planning a meal, can benefit from the discipline of being run as a project. But realistically, we do those things as a one or two-person project in an ad-hoc way based on personal experience.
Download the show here
WWDC is over, and Tim, Chad, Guy, and special guest David Biedny from Mac Life looks at what happened. David Biedny also talks about his time with Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) and his thoughts on the Mac in general. David Cohen returns with Fenestration, and talks about both the new releases from Parallels and VMWare.
We would love to hear from you. Call 801-938-5559 and leave a message, or send email to mymacpodcast@gmail.com
Podcast-only RSS feed for all other RSS Podcast readers
Links from this show
David Biedny
VMWare
Parallels Workstation for Mac 3
Celesta “Titanium Silver” Keyboard
Aevoe/Moshi
Price: $120
aevoe.com/moshi/celesta
I have read and heard about premium keyboards, but never used one until recently. Celesta by Aevoe/Moshi is a class act, expensive and worth every penny, especially on a per-keystroke basis. Construction is high-tech rugged, and design and styling are high-tech gorgeous. If you are unhappy in any way with your current keyboard, set your dollars, euros, or yen aside until you can come up with the $120 US to purchase Celesta in black-on-black or white-on-silver. Black is currently sold out at the Aevoe Universe store, but I can personally recommend the white model. It’s easy on the eyes and on your fingers.
Granted I’m not your typical Mac user.
It can be argued persuasively I’m not your typical anything.
However, I am fond of the Mac Mini and recommend it frequently to my clients. Photographers, graphic artists, and web developers especially need what the Mini offers.
Many power users have a G5 Tower or Mac Pro. Many more have iMacs.
What they also get with their professional-grade machines is heat. According to Apple, even asleep, my G5 tower consumes 140 watts and puts out 410 BTU. (Your mileage will vary) Awake, It’s a as much as a whopping 604 watts and over 2,000 BTUs, making my office five degrees warmer than the rest of my house! You haven’t lived until you hear all the fans ramp up and my G5 goes into hovercraft mode at 3 a.m.
Continue reading »
Ubercaster V 1.1
Company: Pleasant Software for the People
Price: $79.99
ubercaster.com
I’ve been following Pleasant Software for the People’s (no, I’m not making that name up) Ubercaster with great interest for some time. From the very first, the layout for workflow and the potential for what it could accomplish piqued my curiosity and as the betas flowed forth, I was with them every step of the way. Unfortunately each time I was disappointed by what it was actually able to do. I was greeted with crashes and poor quality recording, along with echos from some of the different inputs. Not much of a recommendation right? Well, I’m singing a different tune with the latest version. Before I go on, I’ll get what the program is out of the way.
Continue reading »
Have you ever found an image on a website that you wanted to print, or save, or do something else with? Saving the entire webpage won’t help, and printing the entire page for a little image is a waste of ink. Well, you can use a contextual menu which I will call the Image Menu for the purpose of this article. This menu is built into every browser, and accessible by control clicking (or right clicking) on an image in a website.
Mindjet MindManager 7 for Mac
Company: Mindjet
Price: $129.00, $69.00 to upgrade
mindjet.com
Just shy of a month ago, David Cohen reviewed MindManager 6 for Mac. I won’t bother explaining the basics of mindmapping, instead I suggest you read David’s review here. Below is a sample mindmap I created for my upcoming trip to MacWorld Expo ’08 using MindManager 7.
Concert To Go
i.Sound
Price: $135
isound.net
Hearing is believing. Concert to Go is the best one-piece audio system of the iPod generation. If it cost twice as much as $135 US, it would still be superior to its competitors. Every college dorm, kid’s bedroom, and urban/suburban kitchen should be endowed with one. We’ll abbreviate it as C2Go in this review.
I brought my white C2Go unit into a crowded Apple retail store one busy afternoon, and quickly compared its sonic output to Apple’s overpriced $350 iPod Hi-Fi single-purpose speaker box. Just as quickly, I was gone, convinced the i.Sound is better. You can buy nearly three iPod shuffles with the $200 difference in savings.
Continue reading »
Poker anyone?
If you’re interested in playing a game of poker anytime you want, then mosey on over to http://www.candywriter.com/ and check out Kevin O’Neil’s Imagine Poker and try your hand (couldn’t resist a little pun here) at taking on Kevin’s artificial intelligence system that learns about you and others as you play in the game.
Imagine Poker is Kevin O’Neil’s configurable “Texas Hold ‘Em” game that allows you to play in a poker tournament against 16 characters plucked from amongst history, legend, fantasy, and even fairy tales. You’ll find yourself playing against the likes of the Abominable Snowman, Julius Caesar, Little Red Riding Hood, Merlin the Wizard, Abraham Lincoln, the Mona Lisa, Napoleon, Blackbeard, Cleopatra, Dracula, Joseph Stalin, Neptune, Rendlesham the Alien, Robin Hood, the Tooth Fairy, and even the Wicked Witch.
TrafficJamZ
NewerTechnology
Price: $34.95 – White or Black
http://www.newertech.com
I think it was the middle of year that I was searching for a wireless FM transmitter to use with my iPod Mini. If I remember correctly, I went through half a dozen before I found one that I liked and thought it worked well enough for me. I’ve mentioned before that I am no audiophile, but I do listen to quite a few podcasts and audiobooks, and switch to music when I tire of the spoken word.
Each FM transmitter I tried had a different problem. Some were difficult to program, or did not cover all of the frequencies on the FM dial. Some broadcast so weak a signal, that I was constantly moving the thing around, or switching stations (not advisable) to try and keep a connection. Others that had an LCD did not illuminate, which meant changing the station at night was impossible. One did not have an LCD and only two frequencies were available. One or two also distorted the spoken word or the music so badly that each “s” sound made me think I had a snake in the back seat.
Continue reading »
This week’s Macspiration is a short one, but on that has the potential of saving you A LOT of money. A LOT of money, as in having to pay for computer repairs or buy a new one.
What am I talking about? I’m talking about a few steps to follow for those times when you turn on your computer, or attempt to, and get nothing. No chime sound, no fan spinning, no power.
You first instinct, after you say a few words not appropriate for this article, would be that you need a new computer. This is not necessarily the case. Before ordering your new Apple or buying one at your local Apple Store try the following:
1. Check the power cord. Is it plugged in? Is it securely connected to the computer? Unplug it from both sources and plug it back in.
2. Is your surge strip turned on or plugged in?
Continue reading »
Tugo Wireless MP3 Headphones
Koss Corporation
Price: $300
http://www.koss.com
* * * * *
Don’t let the similarity between Tugo and Yugo prejudice you. Instead, think: “To GO!” Tugo is a clever, if less than perfect, way “to go” anywhere, anytime, with any music. If you can conjure a generic iPod shufflesque player embedded within a pair of premium over-ear stereophones, you are heading in the right direction. Keep reading.
But first, study or skim the marketing info and specs for Tugo, located here. This official product description is accurate, especially “deep bass and a balanced midrange.” Treble output is somewhat lacking, meaning Tugo is consumer non-audiophile gear for on-the-go listeners with deep pockets to match their passion for deep bass response. The “specifications” chart is not helpful, because it only says Tugo’s audio delivery is dependent upon the quality and compression of your original tracks, transferred to Tugo from your Mac or Windows computer.
Comments. Be heard!
MyMac Podcast #385
MyMac Podcast #384