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Ever wonder how a new podcast takes root from an idea to an actual show? This week, listen to the early ideas for a NEW podcast by Tim. Apple Q3 financial results are in, and we report all the good news. Plus, Dvorak writes about the Mac, and likes it. Also, creating backups of Virtual Machines by David Cohen.
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ToughTech XE Mini — Portable Pocket External Multi-Port Hard Drives
Company: WiebeTech
Prices: $120 – $425, depending on enclosure, speed, and capacity
http://www.wiebetech.com
This review has three parts: past, present, and future. The PAST was covered in David Weeks’ evaluation of the first generation of WiebeTech’s ToughTech Mini series drives, posted here. David’s conclusion was FireWire 800 doesn’t offer improved file transfer speed on this model, but every other aspect of this premium pocket drive is first rate.
The PRESENT is now, while I’m using and testing the XE series of ToughTech Mini. All WiebeTech XE models have three obvious ports on the rear, business end. What isn’t obvious is that the left-most port is dual-purpose: the same slot accommodates either a USB or an eSATA cable. I tested this new combo-port, and it works perfectly, when the drive has incoming AC electrical power.
FIREWIRE BUS ON ALL CYLINDERS
FireWire bus speeds are improved over David’s unit, so WiebeTech’s other two obvious ports are now both FW800. Not obvious is how easy it is to connect either FW800 port to any FW400 “traditional” FireWire computer jack via the included FW800-to-400 cable. I’m using every permutation of FW800/400 cables and ports on a daily basis, and the flexibility is grand. Be aware that using the included electrical power cable is a good idea if you’re pushing any external bus-powered drive to the limits of operation, whenever AC power is available.
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Hopefully, you have never gotten a message on your computer telling you that your scratch disk is full and you need to delete some files. If you do get this message it will bring your productivity to a halt. You won’t be able to burn a CD, you might not be able to save a project, and a slew of other things can happen.
What is this thing called a scratch disk? In most cases it is just your hard drive. When you run a program temporary files need to be stored someplace in order for everything to run properly . If you are burning a CD the contents of that CD or DVD need to be stored someplace while the burn takes place. All of this storage is done on your hard drive. Even if you have 1 or 2 gigabytes of space left while you aren’t doing anything, these last few gigabytes can be quickly eaten up by opening several files at once in Photoshop, for example.
So what do you do if you get this message? Well, there are several things to try.
1. Close any unneeded applications and documents and try to save what you are working on.
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Part two of our series. You can read part one here.
A small, portable two-button scrolling mouse is handy when traveling with a laptop, especially if you’re accustomed to using a mouse back at home or office. Iogear makes the best mini-mice, and you can read our reviews of their first edition porta-mice, posted many years ago, here and here, complete with photos. Newer versions of these mice are available from Iogear.com. Warning: older laptops don’t send out enough USB power to work with Iogear’s original USB wireless mice, but newer Mac laptops should not have this problem. RATING = 4 out of 5
My cousin Jim provided a Netgear 54 Mbps Wireless Router for our use during the San Francisco housesitting part of our current vacation. Setup procedure is confusing, but I eventually figured out how to secure the router and its wireless signal from casual intruders. Linksys wireless routers are still my first choice, but you can’t beat free, so thank you again, Jim. Extra thanks to David Weeks, for helping create and verify our security settings. RATING = 3 out of 5
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Have you ever deleted a podcast from iTunes and you are asked if you want want to move the deleted files to the trash?
I always say yes, thinking I would be recovering a lot of hard drive space. Well, it turns out I was wrong.
I don’t know why, but I recently decided to look into my “Podcasts” folder. (To do this go to your hard drive, open “Users,” open your username, open “Music,” open “iTunes,” open “iTunes Music,” and open “Podcasts.”) What did I find? A ton of audio and video files from podcasts I deleted ages ago. Some where old episodes from podcasts I still subscribe to, and some were podcasts I don’t subscribe to and I thought I deleted through iTunes.
I proceeded to delete all of these “previously thought to be deleted” files and cleared out 5GB of space! Yes, I said 5gb of space!
So what is the moral of this Macspiration? If you need more hard drive space, check your “Podcasts” folder. You never know what you might find there.
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Is the iPhone changing the cell phone industry? Some say yes, some say no. Tim, Chad, and Guy chime in with their opinion on the subject. Plus, David Cohen talks about the most recent version of VMWare’s virtualization software Fusion.
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It has been a while since I suggested a bunch of downloads, so I figured it was time. Here’s a few freebies for you to check out. Some of these apps are donationware, so if you like them you might want to consider donating to the developer.
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Speedmail by 1802
Speedmail does what the name implies. It makes Mail (the application) faster. It won’t download mail faster, but when you double-click an email message it appears on the screen a lot faster. This is one of those you have to try to see.
The Macintosh desktop is a special place. It’s the default target for incoming files, and things accumulate there. That is a good thing and a bad thing.
It’s good because it’s a handy place to put what you’re working on. It’s bad because the Mac keeps a constant watch on your desktop and if there are too many items there, it’ll actually slow down your computer.
Take a look at the screenshot below. Drag it to your desktop (If you can find a clear place to put it) for a bigger view.
Hewlett Packard G4010 Flatbed Scanner
Company: Hewlett-Packard
Price: $180
http://www.shopping.hp.com
My name is Art Schwartz and this my first MyMac.com review. I’m a Mac convert, a wannabe photographer, and a recovering academic. By “recovering academic” I mean I: (a) spent the greater part of my career pontificating to disinterested undergraduate students; and (b) am really trying recover my ability to communicate in a manner that is accurate, interesting and informative.
When I was contacted about reviewing an affordable flatbed scanner that did six color scanning up to 9600 dpi, I jumped at the opportunity. Since my Minolta Dimage 5400 scanner died and left me with the problem of still needing to digitize more than 5,000 images, I have been searching for a scanner that produces quality scans in a reasonable amount of time, that didn’t require a graduate degree in engineering to learn to operate, and wouldn’t require a home-equity loan to purchase. Therefore, I approached learning to use the HP G4010 to scan pictures, documents, film and slides with high hopes and great enthusiasm.
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Seagate Shared Storage II network drive
Company: Seagate
Price: $499
http://www.maxstore.com/product.asp?sku=3338670
(1 TB version reviewed)
Nowadays, people have more networked computers in their homes and small offices, so the need for backing up all their files has become far more important. Add in the increasing file size of photographs and video files, and you’ll want a “network attached storage” device. NAS is the acronym of choice for these gadgets.
NAS devices are hard drives that can be accessed over a Local Area Network (LAN), to eliminate the problem of having to move hard drives from one computer to another, or to have a separate hard drive dedicated to backup for each computer. The NAS can have accounts for individual users, or the files can be open to all.
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There are two markets for a phone case (the brand of phone is immaterial).
There’s the holster; then there’s the purse model.
If you’re like most men — and don’t carry a purse — you go for the holster type, which is further divided into the horizontal and vertical. As phones get bigger again thanks to increased screen size, the holster orientation becomes a factor.
It is at this point the physiognomy of the wearer comes into play. As much as we hate to admit it, we gots love handles and thighs. This means there is a limited amount of space for a cell phone on our belts. Too far forward and it get squooshed uncomfortably between belly and thigh . . . too far back and it get dislodged by seat belts and chair backs.
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This week, with scant Mac news, and tiring of iPhone chat, the guys host a pretty informal show. In the second feature, Robert talks about the Adobe CS3 Creative License Conference he attended in New York.
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Adobe Photoshop CS3: Classroom in a Book
By Andrew Faulkner and Judy Walthers von Alten
http://www.AdobePress.com
ISBN 13: 978-0-321-49202-9, 478 pages, soft cover
$54.99 US, $68.99 CN
If you’ve never had the pleasure of leafing through one of these Adobe Press “Classroom” books, you really should take a look at what they offer. Written with direct access to Adobe, these books are a great reference and training aid and are part of the Adobe official training series.
Adobe Photoshop CS3: Classroom in a Book contains fourteen lessons from: compositing images into artistic montages, to processing camera raw digital photographs, to producing web animations. Adobe Photoshop CS3: Classroom in a Book also covers everything that is new to Photoshop CS3. Each lesson provides step-by-step instructions for creating a specific project, and they all conclude with a review section and summation. This volume also includes a CD that contains the files for each lesson, tutorial movies in QuickTime, fonts, and stock photos.
I especially like the QT movies. It’s great to see a concept demonstrated as well as hear the authors talk about what they are doing step-by-step.
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Packing for summer vacation ain’t what it used to be. With less than a square foot available within our VW Beetle for technology gear, I had to be very precise when preparing for a long journey, followed by weeks of house sitting a thousand miles from Tucson, Arizona.
Using the “one of everything” rule is good, but what about redundant backups, or missing cables at the California house? I made lists. I made piles. I sorted into Ziploc bags. I pruned and culled. I told Barbara we were bringing MUCH LESS equipment than in previous years.
I purchased nothing new of consequence, figuring if I didn’t already own a piece of equipment, I could buy it in San Francisco, but I probably hadn’t needed it anyway. Here’s a rundown of what I’ve been using so far, with links (when available) to our MyMac.com reviews of the products, and an approximate 1 – 5 score of what I would rate it if doing a review today.
* * * * *
If you are like most people you get SPAM (email not the food). Even the smallest amount of SPAM drives me crazy. I don’t even want to see it in a SPAM folder in my mail program. In my battle against SPAM I have started filtering my email through Google’s Gmail. Gmail has one of the best SPAM filters I have seen. It is very rare that a piece slips through.
In order for this process to work you’ll need a Gmail account. Sign up for a free account here.
Once you have your account made, you need to set it up as a filter system for your email account. I’ll describe two options for doing this.
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PowerBlock Travel/PowerDuo Travel
Company: Griffin Technology
Price: PowerBlock Travel $34.99, PowerDuo Travel $39.99
www.griffintechnology.com
I bought my first iPod around three years ago – a second generation 10 gigabyte model. Back then, USB support was a twinkle in Steve Jobs’ eye, and it was Firewire that was the interface du jour. More importantly, the iPod also shipped with an AC charger.
Nowadays, you don’t get Firewire support or a charger. USB 2.0 is an adequate data transfer interface, but it is not a good way to charge a power-hungry device with a colour screen. It is fairly low voltage, so it charges an iPod very slowly – and in fact, on my machine it won’t charge at all (due to the number of devices on my USB hub). And I hate having to sync my iPod just to charge it! Apple do offer an AC charger for the iPod range – a small block with a USB port. However, all you get is the charger, so you have to use your existing iPod data cable, which is not very convenient if you have it hooked up to the back of your Mac.
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OWC Mercury PowerBook G4 SuperDrive – Review
Company: Other World Computing
Price: $109.99
http://eshop.macsales.com
When I bought my PowerBook G4 a couple years ago, I purchased the lower priced 15″ model with the combo drive. I figured if I wanted to burn a DVD I’d just do it at work. Early this year, I got the incentive to upgrade – I replaced my slightly dodgy DVD player with a DVD recorder that supports DVD-RAM discs and dual layer DVDs. Combo drives can’t read DVD-RAM. What you can do with DVD-RAM and a Mac will be the subject of a follow up article.
Whatever gives you cause to upgrade (upgrade from a combo drive, dual layer support, or just faster burning), there are a few options to choose from. Most of the available PowerBook upgrades include a Panasonic drive mechanism, the most commonly used brand in laptops, so while this will be a hardware review it will also touch on the support provided by OWC.
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This week, both Guy Serle returns after a months long sabbatical (okay, a two week vacation, but it seemed like a couple months) and we wrap up our B2Stuff.com contest by calling and talking to three winners! Check it out.
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I’ve received several positive comments on my use of a written email signature. Nemo suggested I share the technique; to which I responded . . .
320GB eSATA, Firewire 800/400, USB 2 External Hard Drive
Oyen Digital
Price: $169.99
http://www.oyendigital.com
If you’ve read some of my past reviews, you know that I have lots of external storage. To recap, I own six 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.
I was very interested in reviewing this hard drive from Oyen Digital. Oyen has been around for about two years and is an innovative developer and manufacturer in the portable storage industry, specializing in fast, secure storage of all forms of information including digital video, audio, and system files. They have some interesting hard drive solutions on their website, so make sure you pop on over there and take a look at what they offer.
http://www.oyendigital.com
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MyMac Podcast #385
MyMac Podcast #384