Destructor
Razer USA Ltd.
Price: $39.99
www.razerzone.com
When is a mouse pad not a mouse pad? When it has a case of its own and is more expensive than most Mice. The Destructor from Razer USA is such a mouse pad, but to call it a mouse pad is a little disingenuous.
The Destructor is a pro-gamer control surface. It’s designed to allow much more precise mouse control than a conventional mouse pad. In the month I’ve been using it, I can honestly say it does that very well.
There is a surface on the Destructor that uses a propriety coating that allows for very precise and even mouse movement. I used both a standard Apple Mighty mouse and another Blue Tooth mouse, both optical, and found the results, when compared to a standard foam backed mouse pad, to be far superior.
Large in size, it is about the size of a 15″ wide screen monitor. This allows for maximum movement, although on my desk half of the pad is tucked under my keyboard.
The bottom of the Destructor has a rubber coating that makes it stick to most surfaces very well. The pad did not slip at all, even without part of my keyboard sitting on it, even during some hard-core Spacecraft action.
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Back in 1999, for our 50th montly issue of MyMac Magazine, I decided to do an article that would somewhat chronical the history of the Macintosh digital press up to that point. On of the pioneers of the time was Stan Flack, who was running MacCentral at the time. He would later go on to sell that website to Mac Publishing. On May 9th, 2001, Stan created a new Mac website, MacMinute.com.
I greatly enjoyed communicating with Stan over the years. He will be missed by many. Below is the interview with Stan from 1999, which at the time he was still running MacCentral.
Many of the websites you visit today originally started out as a downloadable ezine. In fact, some sites are so different today that you would not recognize them in their past incarnations. However, even back in 1995 some were just so good you knew it was only time before their creators took their creations to the next level.
One such creator was Stan Flack, and his creation was called MacCentral. Started in mid-1995, Stan used DOCMaker and the latest fad called the World Wide Web to launch his newest creation. It didn’t take long for it to become extremely popular. Today, MacCentral is one of the most popular Macintosh websites on the Internet.
Like Adam, I also had the chance to ask Stan some questions about MacCentral’s past and its future.
___
Stan, when did you first start MacCentral and who/what was it that gave you your inspiration way back when?
Well, there was an idea before there was MacCentral, but I think that is the case with most things. I guess I first thought of doing something Macintosh related on the web in the summer of 1994. At the time, I felt that there wasn’t much available online for the average Macintosh user. Today, of course, things have changed dramatically.
MacCentral officially launched its first DocMaker monthly issue on September 4, 1995.
MacCentral has become a necessary-read for Mac users today, including myself. With people like Bob LeVitus, Andy Ihnatko, and others, it’s as if you have picked up where the print versions of MacWeek and MacUser left off. What is your goal for MacCentral, and where do you see it in the next few years?
My fundamental goal for MacCentral has never changed—not from the beginning. The name I choose for the site will give you the clue… Mac Central—the center of all things Macintosh. Will we ever accomplish that? Clearly not. No one site can be all things to all people, but that is our mission. That is what we strive for.
Like My Mac, MacCentral at one time had a downloadable edition. Do you feel a PDF or DOCMaker edition is no longer wanted by your readers?
It isn’t so much a question of our readers not wanting it. It’s more an issue of our focus. When we made the transition from a monthly edition to a site which is updated several times a day, it didn’t make a lot of sense to continue to provide a monthly download. It isn’t something we have ruled out for the future, however.
Advertising. Like any other heavily-visited website, it costs money to operate. MacCentral has sponsors to pay those bills. Do you find companies more readily embracing online advertising than a year ago?
It has been our experience that as vendors become more familiar with life online, they are more willing to invest in an Internet-based advertising campaign. MacCentral has seen a significant growth in this area.
What made you want to start in the Macintosh Digital Press? And was going to print at anytime a goal of yours?
That’s an easy question to answer – I think digital media gives us an opportunity to interact very closely with our readers. What MacCentral has evolved into is due in no small part to their participation.
As for a MacCentral printed magazine, we have looked into it on several occasions, but haven’t committed ourselves to anything definite just yet. Our main focus at the moment is making the MacCentral website even better.
What was the turning point that made MacCentral such a big hit? Any one thing or just perseverance?
That is a very hard question to answer, as there were many contributing factors. If I had to pinpoint one thing, I would have to say that it is the staff. I have been tremendously blessed in that area. As we continued to add new personalities and talents to our menu, it really helped to shape the site into what it is today.
What part of publishing MacCentral today gives you the most satisfaction?
The most satisfaction… hmmm… Well, I love what I do, so I am very lucky in that respect. To answer your question, I would say that I get the most satisfaction when I get an email from a reader who has been helped by one of our stories, columns, or forums. That is why I started MacCentral in the first place, and I take great pride in knowing that we have accomplished that.
Many thanks to Stan Flack for answering some questions. Of course, most of you know where MacCentral is online, http://www.MacCentral.com We encourage everyone to take a look at MacCentral. It is, personally, one of my favorite Mac websites online today. And from my own personal experiences with Stan, I don’t need a crystal ball to see into the future and predict that MacCentral will be at the top of the Macintosh websites for many years to come. Also see MacMinute.com
Sennheiser HD 650
Company: Sennheiser
Price: $599
http://www.sennheiserusa.com
Yeah, I know. You just did a double take at that price, right? I don’t blame you. Spending that much money on headphones, for most rational people, would be, well, crazy. But then those people would not be audiophiles. And let’s get something straight right up front: these are NOT headphones you wear connected to an iPod. That would be like putting a Hemi in a Honda Civic.
The HD 650′s are the best headphones I have ever used. Period. And don’t take that lightly. I have been using high quality headphones for twenty years. Long before I got "into" computers, I was into high quality audio equipment. I remember when I was in High School, my friends would come over just to listen to music. They would hear sounds in their favorite albums that they didn’t even know was there when listening to the same music on their Walkman, boombox, or even their father’s Hi-Fi gear.
The problem was that my father liked good sounding music. When I was growing up, Dad had a really nice sound system that he had picked up right after he got out of Vietnam. He had purchased his Bose speakers in Japan at an Air Force duty-free store. Still, at the time, he spent over $500 for them, and that was 1968! Imagine how expensive those would be in today’s dollars. He also had a nice pair of headphones, the make or model escapes me now, but they also sounded really, really good. So good, in fact, that when the Sony Walkman became popular in the 1980s, and I took to walking all over town wearing mine on my hip, I knew even then that the sound of the headphones were nowhere near the quality I could and would get when I used my dads headphones at home.
Later, in the 1980s, I spent a lot of money (for me!) on a pair of Koss Pro/4X headphones. They sounded great! Far superior to anything you could get with a Walkman. I would plug these into my Pioneer amplifier and rock out to my music without getting yelled at by my parents. Later I picked up a used pair of PortaPro from Koss for portable music listening, but I sat on them one day and never replaced them.
Fast forward to today, and the vast majority of my music listening comes in either my car or from my iPod / iPhone. Not the high quality music reproduction I ‘m really used to, but with four kids and a wife, well, I take what I can get. So when it came time to review the Sennheiser HD 650, a pair of headphone renowned for their reproductive quality, I jumped at the chance. The only negative I can really say now is that I have to send these back to Sennheiser soon. That, and there is no way in the world my wife would ever, short of winning the lotto, buy these headphones for that much money. And that, I am sad to say, really is the biggest tragedy.
We all love the idea of carrying our entire music collection around wit us, or at least a large part of it, on our iPods. It is kind of comforting knowing our favorite song, album, podcast, etc. is just a scroll wheel away. For my two older kids, that is how it has always been. No more do they have to listen to the radio for hours at a time hoping to hear their favorite song, as I did when I was their age. Now they can fit hundreds of songs on a tiny iPod shuffle, or thousands on an iPod classic. But there is a price to be paid for having that much music at your fingertips, and that is compression. Compression, in this case mostly MP3, reduces the quality of sound in music. For the average iPod music listener, that is a fair trade for the convenience to having so much music on such a small device. For audiophiles, not so much.
I originally plugged the HD 650′s into my home (Onkyo) sound system and listened to a CD. WOW did they sound fantastic. (Dark Side of the Moon – Pink Floyd) The sound is… well, almost perfect. They sounded better than anything I have listened to in years. I almost forgot how good music could sound. There was a depth to the sound quality I don’t think my kids have ever heard from prerecorded music before, but it was a depth of sound, an ocean of it, that I have been denied living in an iPod and MP3 world for so long. Rich, melodic bass was complimented by crisp, clean treble. The sound stage was not just in front of me, but all around me. Inside me. With my eyes closed, I was completely and utterly drawn into the music totally. I was so impressed, I wanted to hear more!
Then I plugged the HD 650′s into my Mac, and played some tunes from iTunes. And that trade-off I was writing about above? Yeah, there it was. Music that sounded just fine on a decent pair of headphones sounded better with the HD 650′s, but the flaws in digitally compressing music also became much more apparent. The difference between even a high quality MP3 encoded at 256kpb was no match for the remastered CD version of the same song. Apple’s Lossless compressed music fared a little better, but not by much.. And I know that, if I still had a good turntable and vinyl, my CDs would fare just as poorly in an audio test.
Man, I miss high quality sound.
At 9.3 ounces, the HD 650 are both lightweight, and very comfortable. They have a very soft and supple black velour around each can, with just the right amount of padding, which is to say not too much, nor too little. The over the headband is also comfortable, providing soft padding.
Adjusting the size is easily done. A gentle tug will move the cans right over your ears, fitting perfectly.
The Aluminum voice coils in the HD 650 produce the best vocal quality I have ever heard. Spoken word content, if recorded well, gives the feeling of actually being in the same room as the person talking. Audio books get a whole new depth of quality here.
Like true audiophile headphones, these have a 1/4-inch gold plated plug, and ships with a 1/8-inch gold plated adapter for use with iPod type headphone jacks. (Sorry iPhone users, that adapter does not work with Apple’s cell phone.)
Bandwidth: 10 – 39500 Hz
Sensitivity – 103 dB
Total Harmonic Distortion – 0.05%
Impedance – 300 Ohm
Warranty – 2 Years
The Sennheiser HD 650 are the best headphones I have ever used. Ever. I used to visit Hi-Fi audio dealers to test out equipment, and as impressed as I was back in those days with some of the audio reproduction, I don’t ever remember being so completely blown away as I was listening to the Sennheiser HD 650.
Amazing.
We score on a 1 to 5 rating system here at MyMac Magazine. I am giving the Sennheiser HD 650 a 5 out of 5, but even that does not really do them justice. If you love music, and can afford them, you will never regret purchasing these headphones. They are, as many other reviews and owners have point out elsewhere online, the best headphones money can buy. Simply stellar.
Periscope
Company: Freeverse
Price: $39.95
www.freeverse.com
During this year’s Macworld Expo, I was asked on the MacCast podcast by host Adam Christianson if there was one product that I was excited about. I said yes, a program by Freeverse Software that turned your Macintosh with a built-in iSight (like an iMac) into a security system. I could not remember the applications name, but Adam did. Periscope. That was a month ago, and in that time, I have had the chance to sit down and use the application for a few weeks.
Periscope is an amazingly easy application to use. It’s also amazing how versatile it is. Let’s go over what I wanted to use Periscope for, and why it works for me.
When I leave the house, I set our alarm system. Will the home alarm system prevent people from breaking in and stealing everything? Of course not. No security system can do that. So with that in mind, what could I do? One idea I have always had was to set up the computer and have it record everything it could see via the iSight camera. (using iMovie) But really, what good would that do? If a thief was going to steal the computer, they would get the video file of themselves stealing the computer. And besides, my hard drive would fill up so fast that this was an impractical solution.
Taking pictures would work. It would take up far less space on the hard drive, but again, a thief would take the computer with the photos on it, so what’s the use? Also, HOW would the Mac take pictures? I could set up some sort of Apple Script and have PhotoBooth take a snap shot every, say, 30 seconds. But that is both impractical and a waste of hard drive space.
What I needed was an application that would take pictures, but only if it sensed motion. And it also needed to take advantage of my high speed internet connection, uploading any photos it takes to a server. Well, what do you know; Periscope does all that, and much more!
Periscope senses motion passing in front of your iSight, or any other camera that works on your Mac, and takes a picture. It sounds simple enough, and it is. But the power of Periscope is well hidden behind an easy to use interface.
Once a picture is taken, Periscope can do a number of things with that photo. If you have a .Mac account, you can set the program up so that it will upload the photos there. You can also have photos sent to your own FTP site, as well as a Flickr account. Even better for iPhone users, Periscope has the ability to email the photo, so you can get updates on what’s going on in front of your Mac quickly and easily.
Another option is to have Periscope take photos when it hears noise, when a timer goes off, or when the remote is pressed. You can also set the camera to either look at everything within the camera lens, or specific areas the user designates. This is handy when, for instance, you are not the first person home and you don’t want to have multiple pictures emailing to you every time someone walks by the doorway in the background. But highlighting a designated area on screen, which does not show the doorway, would be much more practical.
Time stamping is another feature. It will place both the time and date on the picture, so you can know when the photo was taken. You can also have an image embedded within the photo, such as a company logo, and Periscope will let you control the opacity of the graphic. (See example below.)
Example of the picture Periscope takes in action
Obviously, I like the security aspects of Periscope. That is the reason Freeverse created the software to begin with. But it can also be a fun toy as well. I set it up one day, and forgot to designate an area, so that every time someone walked by my office door, Periscope would take a picture. After thirty or so snap shots, it was kinda neat to look at.
There are so many useful applications you can use Periscope for. I feel that I have only discovered a few good reasons for this application. I really think Periscope is a great product, and I cannot see much I would change in a newer version. It’s an extremely useful tool that takes advantage of newer Macintosh models with an iSight camera. It is very simple to use and set up. And at $39.95, it’s very affordable. The only draw back is, for me, picture quality was not that great.
How much is peace of mind worth to you? For me, forty-bucks is cheap!
I’ve been thinking about the upcoming iPhone store, the openness of the iPhone software development, and the level playing field those two things bring. Combine that with the three video games that Apple showcased during the iPhone SDK event, and I feel that the iPhone and Apple, Inc. will have a significant impact on gaming.
First, let’s look at the current state of video games.
PC and Mac gaming
There was a time, not too long ago, that every great game could be found on the PC side of computing, and these games were selling in the millions. It was a huge industry, and the best games were PC games. Mac users, long forgotten in the video game world, were left with either buying a Windows machine just to play games on, or forgoing them altogether.
My, how things have changed.
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Mia Reading The Bugaboo Bugs
Company: Kutoka Interactive
Price: $25
http://www.kutoka.com
My four-year-old daughter was very excited the day The Bugaboo Bugs arrived in the mail for review. She loves games, but little did she know this was an educational title. While the product is rated for 5-9 years of age, I had hopes this would help my four-year-old as well. It did, but more on that later.
The game needs to install onto your hard drive, and this was a very SLOW process. Firing up the game for the first time, with my daughter waiting to play, she was very disappointed to have to wait almost ten minutes while the program installed itself. I can’t remember the last time any program took that long to install. Even Microsoft Office 08 and Adobe Creative Suite 3 took far less time. It was ridiculous. Every few minutes, she would ask “Is it ready yet, Dad?” only to be told “Not yet, kiddo. Soon.” That got old quickly.
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Harman Kardon Drive + Play 2
Company: Harman Kardon
Price:
www.Harmankardon.com
In the summer of 2006, with the help of Chad Perry, we did a video segment for the original Drive + Play from Harman Kardon. Almost 5,000 people watched that video on YouTube, not to mention those who received it via our Podcast iTunes feed. While I liked it a lot, and gave it a 4 out of 5 at the time, there were a few shortcomings with the device. No color screen and no support for the iTunes and iPod features added after version 4.7 of iTunes. (Such as reading the podcast directory on the iPod.) But the first version of the Drive + Play stayed in my car ever since, and was still, for me, the best solution for controlling the iPod in a car.
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JBL Reference 510 Headphones
Harman Multimedia
Price: $149.95
www.DrBott.com
Back in 2003, I reviewed the Sennheiser PXC 250 noise-canceling headphones. They were some of the most comfortable headphones I had used in years, and four years later, I still use them more than any other headphones I own. They have become the headphones that I compare all other over-the-ear headphones to. That being said, I was really excited to check out the JBL Reference 510′s, a very similar pair of headphones.
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iH24D Deluxe Table AM/FM iPod Speaker
Company: iHome
Price: $49.99
DrBott.com
There is a place for high-end quality audio. There is also a place for inexpensive audio. Somewhere in the middle there is a sweet spot for most iPod music lovers, and the iHome iH24D Deluxe speaker fits right there.
Looking at pictures online at DrBott.com, I knew the iHome iH24D was a small unit, but just how small was not apparently clear until I set it up with an iPod connected to it. This is a very small, but surprisingly robust, speaker. It looks like an older Boston Acoustic shelf speaker I owned back in the early 1990′s, but turned on its side.
The look of the iHome iH24D is the most appealing aspect. While not great audio quality, for the price and what it is, it is more than adequate for a small room, or sitting on an office shelf. The woodgrain compliments the black front grill and control knobs well. This is one iPod speaker that does not look cheap or inexpensive.
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Ped3
Company: Thought Out…
Price: $39.95
http://thoughtout.biz/PED3
I had meant to do a video review of the Ped3 iPhone rotating stand, but with a new baby and loud older kids, plus the holidays and Macworld expo, it seems it was not meant to be. But this product is too cool that I have to at least get a written review posted for it!
First, full disclosure. I know the guy who runs Thought Out, the company behind the Ped3. I have chatted with him often, and I have always wanted him to succeed. That being said, when it comes to reviewing a product, I put all that aside. I cannot let anything to stand in the way of honesty in my review, or any review at MyMac.com for that matter.
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Owen Rubin got some hands-on time with the new MacBook Air. (No audio in this video). Check it out!
What to do on the first day of the Macworld Expo in a hotel room? Grab a video camera and pay a surprise visit to your fellow writers!
Want to hang with the crew from the MyMac.com Podcast? We are inviting any and all Macworld Expo attendees to join the MyMac crew for an get together on Monday, January 14 at 3:00 PM. Just show up outside the Moscone South building! We plan on doing a Podcast, and would love to have YOU there!
Mac users only, please!
Need For Speed Carbon
Company: Electronic Arts
Price: $39.99
www.ea.com
This is actually the second time I have written this review. You never read the first. The first few weeks of playing Need For Speed: Carbon was done using the keyboard as the controller, and in truth, it sucked. Need For Speed: Carbon (just Carbon from this point on) is a racing game and, like any other racing game, really requires a good controller to play it. While a keyboard and a mouse may be perfect for a WarCraft type of game, it really does not work well for a racing or driving game.
So in my original review, I spent a lot of time complaining about the controls. No need to complain now that I am using the XBox 360 Wired USB controller on my Mac thanks to Colin Munro’s Pref360Control software that allows it to be used with a Mac. If you have need for what I consider one of the three best game controllers out there, check out the Mac drivers at www.tattiebogle.net.
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There are times when you know Apple does something right when, at first, you really don’t see the point. Case in point, Photo Booth.
When Apple first demonstrated Photo Booth, I really didn’t see the point. Sure, it looked like a cute little application that took advantage of the built-in iSight camera on Macs with a built-on camera, such as the Macbook, Macbook Pro, and the iMac. But what was really the point in it?
Sometimes, not having a real point is, in fact, the whole point. As a father of three girls, with a boy on the way, I now see what a new iMac and Photo Booth can do. For the last half-hour, all three of the kids (ages 13, 12, and 4) have spent a delightful time sitting in front of the iMac, making themselves look crazy. They have all been laughing heartily the entire time, taking turns making up the funniest pictures. Here are some examples:
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Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars
Company: Electronic Arts
Price: $49.95
http://www.commandandconquer.com/
This feels like deja vu. Back in 1997, I remember editing and publishing a review of Command & Conquer for the Macintosh from Shay Fulton. He gave it high marks. In fact, shortly after his review, easily within a year, I purchased the game myself, as well as the follow-up games in the series. But it has been, literally, six years since I last played a game in this series.
Back then, the game was made by Westwood Studios, who was acquired by video game maker powerhouse EA back in 1998. So at the last Macworld Expo, when Steve Jobs talked about games coming back to the Macintosh with EA leading the way, I was very interested in playing Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars. Would it be like revisiting an old friend? Have my days playing all three of the new consoles (Wii, PS3, and XBox 360) spoiled me from playing computer games? Will the Beatles every show up in iTunes?
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Adobe Illustrator 13 (CS3)
Company: Adobe
Price: $599 ($199 upgrade)
www.adobe.com
I have been using Illustrator for almost a decade now, first coming aboard with version 8. I also did a review of the CS2 version, which I really liked using. To get up to speed on what Illustrator CS2 brought to the table, check out my review here:
The first major upgrade for Macintosh users is that, like all of CS3, Illustrator is a universal binary application, meaning it will run natively on both PowerPC and Intel-based Macintosh computers. It was originally released while Mac OS 10.4 Tiger was all the rage in the Mac universe, but it works fine under Mac OS 10.5 Leopard. I found no problems or slowdowns with the application under Leopard. Good news for design firms that use Illustrator extensively and worry about upgrading to Leopard. At the time of this review, however, there are some workflow issues with Adobe Acrobat, so be sure to check out the Adobe website if CS3 is your production suite of choice. (As if you really had many other choices).
After my last review of Adobe Illustrator CS2, I received a few emails about stability problems users of the software were having. While at the time I had no problems prior to that review, I did start to see some stability issues crop up from time to time. Usually they involved the activation of fonts, or third-party plug-ins. As with that review, I’m presently not having any stability issues with Illustrator CS3, although I am using the base program with no plug-ins or odd house fonts.
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Tim Robertson reviews both the iPhone Silicone Case from USBFever.com and the Jam Jacket for iPhone DLO.com.
HP Photosmart C4280 All-in-One Printer
Company: HP
Price: $99 (US)
http://www.hp.com
I remember hearing once, long before computers became so popular, that they would become so fast and powerful, with a storage capacity and connectivity, that we would essentially live in a paperless world. And so here we are today, in a world dominated by computers of all shapes and sizes. Computers are so common now that, if we know someone who does not have one, we are mystified how that could even be possible. But the promise, or prediction, of the paperless world has never come to pass. If anything, the commonality of computers has only increased our need for paper. Be it for documents or pictures, printers of all shapes and sizes can be found plugged into most computers, whether using a direct USB connection or over a local area network.
Comments. Be heard!
MyMac Podcast #403
Review
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