A perusal of the Wikipedia entry for FireWire reveals it to be Apple’s brand name for the IEEE 1394 interface, initiated by Apple themselves as a serial bus interface standard for isochronous real-time data transfer, intended to replace SCSI for connecting data devices while also supporting audio and video applications.
However, in certain sectors of the tech enthusiast community, particularly those driven by either love or loathing of Apple and its mercurial leader, FireWire is used as a call to arms, a rallying cry to petition the world against the perceived injustices of a cruel and fickle master towards his loyal followers. Ever since the new laptop line shipped, there has been an ongoing mournful wail of protest at the cheaper, consumer-orientated Aluminum MacBooks with their twin USB ports but the traditional FireWire port deleted. How will we connect fast hard drives? How will we access Target Disk Mode for recovery purposes? How will we offload video from our DV Cameras? How will we survive with the sky falling in on us?????
Well, I am not going to rationalize why Apple visited this apparently appalling curse on us all. Limited case space? Shortage of interface chips? Mafia protection racket? A Federal conspiracy by the USB alliance? Frankly, I don’t give a fig why, how or wherefore, I just don’t care. And the fact is that most buyers of MacBooks don’t care either.
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Logitech QuickCam Vision Pro
Company: Logitech
Price $129.99
www.logitech.com
This past spring I made it a mission of mine to find as many Mac compatible webcams as possible. It hasn’t been easy. They seem to be few and far between. Recently, Logitech released the QuickCam Vision Pro, a Mac only camera, that is one of the best webcams I have tried.
The QuickCam Vision Pro is not cheap. It retails for $129.99, but you get what you pay for. The unit is a nice solid camera that has an easel like clip for mounting on a monitor, laptop, is resting on a counter surface. It has a camera with a Carl Zeiss lens and a built in microphone.
When I say you get what you pay for, I mean it. The picture quality on this unit is fantastic! It is capable of up to 720p images up to 1600×1200 resolution. I was blown away by the crispness and clarity of the image. Of course, when talking over the internet the image quality will also depend on the connection speed on both ends. In addition to the great quality, the camera has autofocus, which quickly adjusts as you move the camera around.
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For users straddling the Windows PC and Mac worlds, the question of seamless data interchange between the systems can be a challenging one. Of course, with the capabilities of OS X, the rise of USB and the availability of flash drives and external disks it is probably easier than it has ever been to pass data, but nevertheless there are still considerations of disk formats, file formats and application versions to consider.
Even when moving between applications from the same software house, compatibility is not guaranteed. Adobe applications are normally OK – but then you would expect that from the company that brought us the universal PDF format. (Editors note: production houses would tend to disagree) Microsoft, however is another matter – there are a variety of applications that they only offer in the Windows version of Office that are unreadable on the Mac platform – such as Access databases, Visio diagrams or Project files. This is frustrating as Microsoft does make reader applications available for Windows users, but does not give Mac users the same courtesy.
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2.1 Stereo Tower
Company: mStation
Price: $300 US (modest discounts are available online)
http://store.mstation.com/products/2-1-stereo-tower
When I asked a father-daughter guest listening panel to evaluate mStation’s impressive 2.1 Stereo Tower, Gordon, the dad, asked me “Is it as heavy as it looks, John.” Yes, I answered. Then Evee, the teenage daughter, asked me “Why does it look so weird?”
Gordon thought the Tower’s “nifty look” and “nice, tight footprint” were designed to make a strong statement in a living room or family media den. He predicted this one-piece jumbo speaker unit will sound best when positioned at a 45 degree angle to an uncrowded corner in a room, for optimum sound and projection.
Stereo separation is minimal with tweeters located only inches from one another. You can twist the tweeters and experiment. Treble high-end range is extensive, and the downward-blasting subwoofer provides potent bass. Gordon suggested mStation’s v.2 of this product should add extra tweeter speakers right and left, and/or include a high-quality midrange speaker in the black central cabinet column. I’m not sure about having more tweeters, but a midrange speaker will definitely help.
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If you are new to a Mac, for whatever reason, you might thing why write an article about ejecting media on a Mac? You only have to pull out a thumb drive or push the button on the CD tray to eject it, right? Wrong. Ejecting media on a Mac is a little more complicated than that, especially if you are used to using a PC.
First, by media I am referring to any external storage device or item you might connect to the computer. This would include thumb drives, CDs and DVDs (internal and external drives), external hards drives, iPods, and sometimes cameras.
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At MyMac.com, and other computer sites, terms like freeware, burn, jpeg, and more are being used all of the time. Sometimes we (the writers) take for granted that the audience understands what we are talking about. I figured I’d make a list of ten of the more common terms we might use in articles. You might look at a lot of the words below and think they are common sense. What might be common sense to you might be totally foreign to another person.
1. Download: When you view a website, or email, or anything on the internet, those files are being downloaded to your computer. In other words, they are coming from another computer, somewhere in the world, and being sent to your computer through your internet connection.
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SanDisk ImageMate USB
Flash/Smart Media Reader
Company: SanDisk
Estimated Price: $49.00
http://www.sandisk.com
Like Tim, I’ve suffered through very slow downloads when I’ve tried to move the images that are on my Smart Media card from my digital camera to my computer. I had also discovered that my USB capable system (6400/180 with G3 card and Keyspan PCI USB card) would not permit me to hook up my digital camera and download pictures through the USB ports. The camera manufacturer (Toshiba) attributed this to the fact that the camera works with iMac’s, G3s, G4s, etc. but not with a G3 equipped legacy Mac. So I was reduced to unplugging my printer after I had shut down the system, hooking up the serial cable, restarting my Mac and then slowly downloading the pictures through the software provided. Very, very frustrating to say the least, particularly when people want to see the pictures on the monitor right away.
After doing my research and hunting around for other options, I finally selected the SanDisk ImageMate USB SmartMedia reader as the best and least expensive option open to me. Initial installation of the unit was as easy as 1-2-3. Insert the Installation CD in the drive, double-click the Installer icon, follow the directions, then restart the system. Once the system had restarted, I just plugged the unit into the USB hub, inserted my SmartMedia card and then double-clicked on the SanDisk icon which appeared, opened the folder inside and found all my pictures waiting for me as JPEG images. After that it was just drag and drop the images inside to my desktop picture folder and I was done. Less then a minute to insert the card, double-click and then see what the pictures looked like, rather then spending what seemed like forever to download the pictures.
With the folder open on the desktop, viewing is easy, as is renaming each JPEG image. Trash what I don’t want, rename what I want, and then drag the images to the desktop picture folder. Definitely a major time saver as far as I’m concerned! The one thing I did discover is that you must have Apple’s File Exchange extension on if you want the unit to be seen by your Mac, so make sure you have it on when you go to use the reader. SanDisk has a very informative website and even carries the drivers and Mac FAQs on the site, so we’re not forgotten.
Now while the reader comes in the basic computer grey color with Navy Blue accents, it’s not that bad to look at when it sits there on your computer desk, kinda like it’s smiling at you. And while the unit has a suggested retail price of $49, I was able to get my unit for $29. I looked around for the best prices locally, went to the closest store that handled the product (Best Buy) showed them the flyer with one of their competitor’s pricing and they honored the price difference.
Requirements:
MacMice Rating: 5
Russ Walkowich
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