Download the show here, or listen in the player above.
Tim and Chad go over the weeks Mac news, including the iPhone update, the Amazon MP3 store, and Emoticons in school. We also go over some reader feedback, and say goodbye to Chad for at least one show, possibly many more.
As always, we would love to have some feedback. Send us an email here, or simply call 1-801-938-5559 and leave a message.
Fifty bucks? That’s not much chicken scratch these days. It will buy you two years of AppleCare for your iPod, or a pair of replacement iPod batteries. It will pay for the difference between the 8GB and 4GB new “wide body” iPod nano. It will get you into Moscone Center next January for a week of Macworld 2008 Expo fun and games, with enough change to pay for a cookie that was baked fresh at Halloween.
Or you can pay $50 for some world class software. I have written separately about the three applications being discussed below. This Nemo Memo will focus on their utility and value.
I just bought an iPod Classic. Well, not quite. My Wife bought me an 80 GB iPod Classic for my birthday. I could have gotten any of them, but the new iPod nano that is video capable was swallowed up in my huge hands and the click-wheel felt very fragile as compared to the previous versions. She also asked if I wanted to wait until the iPod Touch was out, but after playing a bit with its more expensive brother the iPhone, I decided against it. I use my iPod mostly in my car and the comfortable and easy to use click-wheel is better for what I wanted an iPod for.
So good for me, I now have a full-sized iPod. So what? Well, this is the first iPod I’ve owned that was video ready and this necessitated some changes in how I manage the media for it. I do have two iTunes purchased movies (Star Trek: Generations and The Sixth Sense) and a boatload of TV episodes (Heroes, 3 seasons of Battlestar Galactica, a few South Parks), but I keep them and most of my other QuickTime/iTunes compatible video files off my main drive. Why? Because they take up a LOT of room.
Tim, Chad, and Guy talk about the latest happening in the Mac world, and put a call out to the listeners: what do YOU think the big Apple announcement will be for Macworld Expo 08 in January? Robert also sends in his comments on the new line of iPods and the iPhone. David Cohen returns with Fenestration, in which he talks about the difference between Parallels and VMware Fusion.
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LInks from the show:
SWsoft Parallels
VMware Fusion
I’ve read reviews about Dreamweaver, comparisons between it and GoLive, and even comparisons between different versions of Dreamweaver. What I haven’t read is how people use the program. So rather than write another review about its’ features I decided I would write about how I use Dreamweaver (DW) CS 3, version 9.
First a little background Continue reading »
I began using DW back at version 3 when Macromedia owned the program. I was new at web programming, taking some classes to create some web pages for a company I was employed at. The first class I took started me programming directly in HTML. Yes, writing code in this fashion was a good experience, but slow for me since I wasn’t doing it all the time. The next class introduced something to me called “Dreamweaver.” I remember how excited I was to not have to write code for a rollover. All I had to do was use drop down menus and tell the program what pictures I wanted to use, and where, and there it was on the page. Most of the time it worked as advertised. So I decided to use this newfound skill to share one of my hobbies, weather watching. My site can be viewed here.
This URL is primarily what I use DW for. I do a little freelance web programming, but the vast majority of the time I spend using DW is for my own site.
The Adobe Photoshop CS3 Book
by Scott Kelby
473 pages
ISBN: 978-0-321-50191-2
New Riders Press
www.newriders.com
Like so many other photographers and Photoshop users, I always look forward with delight when Scott Kelby publishes a new book or updates a previous edition of one of his works.
President of the National Association of Photoshop Users, Kelby has a canny knack for explaining things in short order form. You can always expect him to bring the latest techniques and useful shortcuts for getting things done. This new book, The Adobe Photoshop CS3 Book follows that tradition.
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When I thought about what I should do for Macspiration 100 I though about making a list off 100 links, or 100 terms, or asking readers to pick your favorite articles from the past two years (WOW!). In the end I decided to pick ten of my favorite articles.
In picking the articles I gave myself some rules. I was looking for articles that had uncommon tips. I wasn’t looking for the “burning a CD” article, or the “changing icons” article. I wanted to find ten articles that cover more uncommon topics. I also tried to pick older articles. Why list something that was posted in the last month? I wanted something that might be off the radar.
So, without further ado, here’s ten of my favorite Macspiration articles, in no particular order.
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After spending some time with iMovie ’08 and writing a series of articles on it, I thought I’d use this week to explore Apple’s Numbers ’08, the newest addition to Apple’s iWork ’08 suite of office applications.
Now, I must admit upfront that I have little or no prior experience with spreadsheet applications. My basic numbers calculations have been done in programs like Quicken and the analog pen and paper method. I think in the past I may have opened up Excel or tried to use Apple’s AppleWorks spreadsheet program, but not only did the programs look boring, but I had no idea where to begin in using these applications.
Leave it to Apple, however, to create yet another useful production program for the rest of us. That is, a program which is intuitive, practical, and stylish. Numbers ’08 is another fine program that can help you transform the analog fashion of pen and paper calculations and create functions that can help you become more efficient with various projects involving money, data gathering and calculations.
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Download the show here, listen above, or rock it with iTunes.
Guy gets a new iPod, while Chad waits patiently for the iPod Touch. We also look at the possibility of iTunes movie rentals. Robert Hazelrigg takes a look at Adobe InDesign CS3. Plus, a new audio question from Dan Rodriguez!
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Give us a call at 1-801-938-5559 and leave a message, or send email to mymacpodcast@gmail.com
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Continue reading »
LaCie FireWire Speakers
Company: LaCie
Price: $99.95
http://www.lacie.com
Ok, I was intrigued by this unique idea, speakers that do NOT connect to the audio output jack on your computer, and did not use the already overcrowded USB, but rather are bus powered, getting power from your computer, connected to the FireWire port instead. But why do I need this? Every computer I have ever owned had an audio output port, and so far, I have not had reason to dislike the audio coming from it. I wanted to know why I needed these over other USB or direct audio speakers.
So I started iTunes, kicked off The Beatles LOVE soundtrack, and was ready to find out why. Music came pouring from my rather good Sony desktop speakers, which I immediately unplugged. I knew what they sounded like. Audio switched to the rather poor speakers inside my iMac G5, and it was time to put a stop to that lousy sound by hooking up these cute little things from LaCie.
Packaged well, much like a MacBook computer from Apple, in a small black box, these (5.3″ high by 3.9″ wide by 3.5″ deep) white and black speakers were easy to hook up. Well, sort of. I simply plugged the already attached FireWire cable on the “Main Speaker” into my Mac. Then, from the secondary speaker I took the audio cable and connect it to the main speaker. That is all there is to connect. There is no power brick and no batteries are needed because these will get their power and audio from FireWire. Listed as the world’s first bus-powered speaker, the small, 8-watt amp (4-watts per channel) is powered directly from your computer via FireWire. For me, one less AC power brick is an immediate plus right off.
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RTX-100-Q TrayFree SATA Drive External Bay
Company: WiebeTech
Price: $230.00 US (without included SATA drive)
http://wiebetech.com/products/RTX100.php
If you are a gearhead who has loose SATA drives scattered throughout your work area; or a media creator who can never get enough external storage; or one of the smartest, most efficient computer professionals on the planet, then WiebeTech has a new class of external drive that will immediately compel you to scream, “Why didn’t I come with such a great idea myself?” If your swappable multi-drive backups are giving you heartburn, then your heart and tummy will sing the praises of RTX-100-Q.
Here’s how it works — brilliantly:
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Today I joined my son on a field trip to Pack Monadnock here in New Hampshire.
This is Hawk Migration time of the year and the hawks follow the migratory path along the spine of the Monadnocks here in Southern NH. We saw plenty of Hawks, but they move too fast to get a picture, so I thought I would share the view from the top. We live about 7 minutes from Pack Monadnock.
This first shot is looking west towards Mount Monadnock
iFuntastic 3.0.3
Company: bitSplit(tm) Enterprises
Price: Freeware (donations accepted)
http://www.iphonealley.com/
I’m the Mac Guru for Charlotte. Which isn’t too hard as I seem to be the only one in Charlotte actively doing it. So I make a reasonably good living as a Mac consultant. I’m not a tech. Oh, I can swap out a hard drive, add RAM, and even disassemble the occasional iMac to upgrade the wifi to 802.11n. But the boys with the Golden Screwdriver in the back room at the Apple Store have nothing to fear.
But I do have the reputation around town for being on the cutting edge of things Macintosh . . . and that includes standing in line (however briefly) for the iPhone. Continue reading »
ABOBE PHOTOSHOP CS3 ONE ON ONE
By Deke McClelland
ISBN-10: 0-596-52975-9
ISBN-13: 978-0-596-52975-8
DEKE PRESS O’REILLY
deke.oreilly.com digitalmedia.oreilly.com
US $49.99 CAN $64.99
515 pages
To quote Scott Kelby, President of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals: “As a Photoshop author, I hate picking up a book and learning things I didn’t already know. But Deke McClelland done it again! If you want to learn Photoshop CS3 from the ground up, look no further.”
With the introduction of iLife 08 you can now have your iWeb sites use your own personal domain that you have registered rather than using web.mac.com/username. For example, my domain, hedgehogalley.com, now points to my web.mac.com site that I have made in iWeb. Previously, the way to have this work was with domain forwarding through your registrar, but you would need to turn on something called masking to hide the web.mac.com address once the web browser got to your site.
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“The Beer Back” Computer Pack for 15″ and 17″ Laptops
Company: Crumpler Bags
Price: $170.00 US
http://www.crumplerbags.com
Artie’s recent review of Crumpler’s smaller “The Salary Sacrifice” sibling to “The Beer Back” (abbreviated here as TBB) says it all, so please read his rave here — with action photos! — before you proceed.
You can buy and drink a lot of beer for $170 US, but it won’t last as long as this TBB case. You can fill Crumpler’s TBB with six bottles or cans of beer and have plenty of room remaining for your 15″ or 17″ MacBook Pro or PowerBook. You can pour some beer over this pack and your computer will laugh it off, being protected by multiple layers of impenetrable beerproof material from anything short of Hurricane Michelob.
The Beer Back can easily hold both a 15″ and a 17″ MacBook Pro, plus perhaps a couple of smaller MacBooks, with all their power cables, and a dozen or more iPods, if you’re careful. The pack will be heavy, but its padded shoulder straps can manage the weight, even if your geeky shoulders can’t.
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NR-10 produces a clean, powerful sound, with balanced emphasis in the midrange, where voices and instruments are heard. Remix’s bass is booming, treble is soaring, midrange is excellent, without any obvious concentrations through the entire audible and harmonic spectrum.
* * * * *
Comply Noise Reduction Earphones NR-10
Hearing Components
Price: $80 plus shipping
http://www.complyintheear.com
Comply / Hearing Components is a small company with many years of experience and a high pedigree in this field. Their booth was tiny but bustling at last January’s Macworld Expo, and now I know why. Listeners receive solid audio performance from NR-10, and their foam tips are the most comfortable of their kind we’ve tested. The $80 cost is reasonable for the quality achieved. An added feature is the in-line volume control on the portion of the cable that attaches to your iPod or other music player. Black is the only color offered.
NR-10 produces a clean, powerful sound, with balanced emphasis in the midrange, where voices and instruments are heard. Audio falloff is fairly steep to the upper frequencies, so you won’t be knocked over by shattering treble. Bass is substantial — be careful with the volume. Sonic presence is intense once your squishy foam tips are secure.
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miniStack v3 500 GB
Company: NewerTech
Price: $249.99
http://www.newertech.com
Are you looking to add external ports and more storage to your home office set-up? Then look no further than Newer Technologies miniStack v3. This unit works very well with a Mac mini, but other Mac users will also find this unit a worthwhile addition.
The miniStack v3 measures 6.5” square x 1.5” tall. It has a ring around the top that allows the mini to sit right on top. With no logos, except on the top, the clean, brushed aluminum band around the unit, which matches the Mac mini, is all that you see. I think a Mac mini would look nice perched on top. The only thing visible on the front is a blue LED that flashes as the drive is being written to/from.
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First things first; iPhoto has completely hosed my photo library. After installing iLife 08 I noticed three things: there are now 200 photos in a library folder called “ recovered photos” dated 1998. I didn’t own a digital camera until 2001. Then I noticed none of my pictures taken in 2007 can be found under 2007 “event” dates. Moreover, a number of other pictures have been misplaced in other “events”. For instance I have one photo of my daughter Emily from when she was first born that is sitting in the same event that contains images of her when she was 4 years old.
iPhoto didn’t remove any photos (as far as I know) but it’s as if the application just dumped my neatly organized photo collection all over the floor for me to resort. Luckily for me I have an organized backup. I seem to be having success re-importing the originals one folder at a time.
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PDO Reviso iPhone Case
Company: PDO
Price: $29.99
Continue reading »
Style
PGO’s Reviso receives 2 1/2 out of five stars for style. This black leather case sports two attractive racing stripes . . . on the inside where no one can see them. Unless you talk on the phone in the case up to your ear. But then you have to take the case off your belt . . .
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MyMac Podcast #385
MyMac Podcast #384