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An Apple event next week has the guys guessing what’s coming, and we spend quite a bit of time on what we hope to see. We also talk Fat Nano’s, what’s missing in the iTunes store, more on iMovie 08, some MyMac.com history, and product reviews.
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Adobe InDesign CS3
Adobe Systems, Inc.
Price: $699.00 USD, $199 upgrade
LAZY AND CRAZY, TOO!
Until I started working on this review, I’d never used the software. (Uh-oh.) InDesign CS3 isn’t for beginners, yet I’m no beginner as a writer. From my perspective, I take it as a given that InDesign CS3 is a professional-level layout and desktop publishing program with far more capabilities and control over all aspects of typography and design than any word-processing application. If I could craft a better manuscript with it, I wanted to try — no one should be afraid of using the very best tools. Hearing that I was going to write a review, however, my brother Bob in Austin emailed me to say,
With features like indexes, libraries, table of contents, links, & bookmarks that you probably won’t notice and might not ever appreciate unless you actually wanted to build a table of contents, an index, publish in both print & eletronic formats with a fancy PDF containing “click-able” table of contents or multi-media features, it’s a daunting assignment. I know you’re not asking, but I’d recommend you at least try to touch on the Library palette, Paragraph Styles, and Character Styles. Also check out Drop Shadows, Corner Effects, Transparency, Word Wrap, Glyphs, Find/Replace and Drop Caps. That way your review will appear like you know what you’re talking about. ;-p
When I shop in the iTunes Store I use the shopping cart feature in iTunes. This way I can keep a list of what I might buy, and not empty my bank account by clicking “Buy Now” on an impulse buy all of the time.
Recently, I had a problem with my cart. I had an item in it that would not delete. I had to report the problem to iTunes support at this link: http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/store/connect/.
In a couple of days I got an email from Support saying my iTunes cart had been reset. As a result, everything in the cart was lost. The email suggested making a playlist of iTunes items instead of using my shopping cart as a storage spot for items I might buy.
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iN STUDIO 5.0
Company: Sierra Sound
Price: US $399.00
www.sierrasound.com
The very first thing you will notice upon opening the box containing the Sierra Sound iN Studio Dynamic Sound Smart Speakers is the fit and finish of the cabinets. My set came to me in white. They are also available in black, and red. I like the starkness and modern feel of the white color used, but when I saw the very classy black, and the high voltage red I thought that any of these models would be welcome in my rather eclectic home. The edges and corners are smooth and curved nicely giving a modern and pragmatic look to the speakers.
Sierra Sound uses tough steel mesh over the speakers and tweeters which should protect those components should the unthinkable, such as poking an umbrella through the speaker, happens. I like the way the tweeters are slightly beveled inward giving the cabinet face a multidimensional feel. The white piano-finished paint is bake-hardened on to the unit which should keep the speakers looking bright and new for a long time. And they are sized proportionally (10 3/4″H, 7 1/2″W, 8″D) to give the speakers a chance to do their thing efficiently. The bass ports in the back help enlarge that sonic range, while the tightly fitted speakers and tweeters project their frequencies easily. Weighing in at just over 23 lb. these units are built tight and right. With their built-in 50W dynamic bi-amp, get ready to rumble, but clearly.
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Tim, Chad, and Guy talk all about iLife ’08, the new iMacs, and the new Apple keyboard. Guy gets a lot of hands-on time with iWeb, which Tim and Chad have been playing with iPhoto. Plus, Tim has a new toy!
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Say you’re working on a long-term project in which you’re creating and saving a number of different files over time, and you want to make sure you have those files copied to a back up source after you’ve saved them to a specified folder. Well, if you don’t already have a backup system in place to do this, you can create backup folder in less than ten minutes by following the steps below. This workflow will instantly backup items you save or put into a specified folder.
1. Open up Automator (in your Applications folder.) A new action workflow window will open up.
2. Click on the Finder actions located in the Applications folder (left column) of Automator. Next, click on the Copy Finder Items action in the middle column.
In a tragic turn of events and in an effort to reinvent the Mac bringing it into a vicious circle of conformity, the Apple logo has been relieved of duty as the once proud symbol that graced nearly every Mac keyboard for the better half of 20 years in the form of the Command key. At the Mac event last week where new keyboards were announced, the awful discovery became a reality. I’m mad to say the least…
Over the years, the Mac has lost more and more of its identity in an effort to make the Mac more attractive to the dark side. While a lot of the change has no doubt helped, a lot of it has stripped the Mac of its once totally unique persona. Macs for years were considered more of a friend than a computer. Lets start with the startup sound, which I affectionately call, the Bong sound. You didn’t have a mundane beep like PC’s… You had a vast array of different sounds throughout the Mac line. Macs still have this, but this is one of the few things which still remain. Then the Happy Mac… For 18 years, it was a symbol of the joyful exuberance and personality that made the Mac the Mac. With Jaguar came a new symbol… A dull, gray, boring, emotionless Apple logo. And who could forget the Power key on the keyboard? What PC could do that?
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All photos below were taken using a Casio Exilim EX-Z50 camera. Some of the images were fine-tuned by cropping and Levels adjustments in Adobe Photoshop Elements 2 software. No flash on any of these pictures.
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SEEING DOUBLE
This installment of Macspiration is less on instruction and more on explaining. You see, recently, I have had to troubleshoot the internet for several family members. During the process the topic I am about to discuss came up over and over again. Based on those discussions, I figure there are others out there who could benefit from this Macspiration.
Most people use the internet for visiting websites and/or email. What some people don’t realize is that an internet connection is required for both visiting websites and checking email. You need the internet to check your email (through an email program like mail or through a website like www.gmail.com). The internet is not using Safari for visiting webpages with email being a totally separate entity. The internet is both of these things.
If you lose your internet connection due to faulty hardware or connection issues you will not be able to check your email and you will not be able to visit any websites. If you can do one of these and not the other then your internet connection is working and there is a software issue (probably a setting is off).
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(warning – this is written entirely in lower case – the writer is not responsible for any emotional damage done to english teachers, who should be thankful it is not also written as a txt msg. er. its not that i am lazy or anything . . . yes it is.)
beth lock. i have forgotten where or when i met her online more than a decade ago. i had always been in graphics, in aerospace. writing was something i did part-time, and without much thought to going anywhere with it. i guess it was my english teacher in high school, who turned me off of writing. i would write short stories, which my friends in school loved to read, and that really upset her for some reason, so she told me never to write again. “you are no good at it, and you never will be.” so i did not, for a very long time, until 1990, when i could no longer keep from writing. beth, and others liked my writing, strange, odd and crazy though it was.
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Elan Holster for iPhone
Company: Griffin Technology
Price:
$29.99
http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/elanholster/
Style
Griffin’s Elan Holster receives 3 out of five stars for style. Its black leather sheath is embossed with two rows of dots that visually sets off what must, by necessity, be a box with a belt clip. As we would expect from a name brand such as Griffin, attention to detail has produced a well-made product.
Substance
Substance gets 3 1/2 stars. The biggest drawback to the Elan Holster is one of the necessities. It holds the iPhone snugly. and you feel confident that it won’t slide out of the open-end holster during normal movement.
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Guardian MAXimus 500 GB Model
Company: NewerTech
http://www.newertech.com
Price: $429.99
The very first article I wrote for MYMAC.COM was about the main internal hard drive (HD), in my G5 Mac, failing and what I had to do to replace it. I was backing up, but due to a variety of reasons, I had not backed up that drive for several weeks. While I got back about 98% of my “stuff,” I still lost some pictures and other items I wish I had not lost.
Nowadays, I religiously back up my internal HD every week. I live by the following mantra, “It’s not IF the HD will fail, it’s WHEN.” All things mechanical will fail at some point. However, I wish I could back up more often, and the process I use does take a little time. I clone my drive to two separate external HDs, which is why I am always on the look out for a better process.
NewerTech recently introduced the Guardian MAXimus RAID series of drives for backup and performance storage.
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BENEATH THE NEON
Author: Matthew O’Brian
Publisher: Huntington Press, Las Vegas NV
ISBN D-929712-39-0
Price: $19.95
Writing a book about tunnels under a city can almost always spark interest in readers. There are so many tunnels, and so many cities that have them – an astonishing number, in nearly every country of the world. However, most anything written about underground spaces of the cities that have them range from ultra-dry Corps of Engineer type-documents to historical works of varying merit, some of which slide more into myth instead of fact. In other words, there is little written about under city tunnels that is both interesting and factual.
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I need an iPod.
Well, I don’t really “need” one. I still have my iPod mini–what I need is a NEW iPod. An iPod with a LARGER screen. Of course, I could buy an iPhone, but I don’t need a phone. Besides, the iPods have much more storage space than the iPhone. I don’t like the screens on the current crop of iPods, I think they are too small.
When is Apple going to offer up a large screen iPod??
Or not….
For those of you that ran out and bought an iPhone and you’ve been using it for everything, start checking your mail box for your bill. Then again the post office may not be able to fit it inside your mail box.
Check out what happened to this iPhone user and her first iPhone bill… go to
http://www.tastyblogsnack.com/2007/08/13/iphone-bill/
On Tuesday, August 7th, 2007, the Mac world was all abuzz with the announcements at the recent Mac event. One item of importance bears mentioning… First, I’ll tell you what item of importance was NOT, at least to me…
The iMac finally got a complete overhaul. An aluminum body with a glass surface, oh and it’s glossy too. Yeah, it’s cool, yawn… big whoop… Let’s see, what else… Oh yeah, iWork ’08 with Numbers! Wow, an office suite that finally has a spreadsheet called Numbers! Who’d of thunk it? To quote a line used in an advertisement from Apple in 1995 in which Apple pointed out that Windows has the Recycle Bin, “Imagine that.” Please… Oh and who could forget the rousing upgrade to iLife ’08. This sort of peaked my interest, but this isn’t quite what I had in mind in regards to the importance of this event. Which leaves one other announcement. The Mac mini was given a stay of execution with bump in specs. This is a bittersweet day for fans of the bottom end Mac of the lineup…
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With the .Mac update announced on August 7 I imagine a lot more people will be joining the .Mac service. Hidden in the .Mac website is a page where you can change a lot of your .Mac settings. This includes controlling iDisk space, email preferences, and more. Even if you are an old .Mac member, you might find these tips useful.
To get to these settings do the following:
1. Log into your .Mac account via a web browser at www.mac.com.
2. Click “Account” in the top left, and login again.
Last weekend, Chad Perry (of MyMac.com Podcast fame) and I ventured up to the new Apple Store in Ann Arbor, Michigan to check out the iPhones, iMacs, the new keyboards, and pick up copies of iLife ’08
First, the new Apple Store in Ann Arbor is a nice place, not much different at all than any other Apple store in any other mall in America. Small, clean, and full of people. The staff were very nice. While paying for iLife ’08
After looking at the new iMacs, and wanting one a lot, Chad and I spent the most time playing with the iPhone. I had only seen one in person up until now, and that was under glass at the Macworld Expo back in January. I had not actually had the chance to play with one. And I kind of wish I hadn’t. You see, I can’t think of any justification to give Julie (my wife) why I should buy it. None. And that’s a problem, as I now want one. VERY badly. As does Chad.
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TuneStik with remote for iPod
Company: Digital Lifestyle Outfitters
Price: $59.99 MSRP
http://www. www.dlo.com
OK, you’ve really grown to love your iPod and you use it all the time. You exercise with it, you run with it, you read a book listening to it, you ignore your significant other listening to it… but you really can’t throw your headphones on and drive around listening to your iPod in the car because most jurisdictions have certain prohibitions about wearing headphones and not being able to listen to the world around you. You know, like the sound of the siren on the police car or the ambulance that is approaching you but you can’t hear anything because you’re too busy zoning out to the music.
Options available to you to solve the problem? Well, you could run out and buy a brand new car offering iPod compatibility, buy a brand new car stereo system with iPod compatibility and either install it yourself or pay to have a tech do it or you could just get an external FM transmitter that you plug your iPod into and then broadcast your signal to your car’s FM radio and you’re off and running. As they’ve done in the past, DLO again offers iPod users another way of listening to their music, this time with a change or two.
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MyMac Podcast #385
MyMac Podcast #384