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Aug 25 2010

Teleport …and a Feat of Geek Strength

If you don’t know about Teleport from Abyssoft, you should. It’s a donationware application that allows you to use one keyboard and mouse to control many Macs—a virtual KVM switch of sorts. In the video below, I show how I am able to drag a single folder from one iMac across the screens of two other Macs to a fourth Mac situated across the room from the mouse I’m using to control it.

You probably have no use for such a Feat of Geek Strength, but one situation where I’ve used Teleport with great success is when I’m sitting at my desk using my iMac for some serious video rendering while my MacBook Pro sits in front of the iMac’s screen. I use the mouse and its built-in keyboard to control the MacBook Pro and also use them to control the iMac. With Teleport configured to let me move my mouse to the top of the MacBook Pro screen as the portal to the bottom of the iMac screen, the interface is slick and seamless.

I have to admit and caution that, when using Teleport to control another iMac to control a MacBook to control another MacBook as I did in the video, it can become very easy to lose your cursor and become confused as to which Mac is in control at any given time. But, hey, that’s why they call them Feats of Geek Strength

Have you accomplished any Feat of Geek Strength? Let me know in the comments. Better yet—challenge me!!

No Flash? No problem—click here!»

By RickMacMerc • Featured, Geek News, hax0r, MacMerc.TV, Mini Video, News, osx, productivity, tips • 2 • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Aug 20 2010

Xtand and LogMeIn Ignition

I give credit to my buddy Brent Flink ( @indivisual ) for showing me LogMeIn and it’s super cool (and somewhat overpriced at $29.99 US) iPhone/iPad app LogMeIn Ignition.

LogMeIn is a web-based VNC service that allows you to install its free software on your Mac (or PC) and not only access, but control that computer from a supported web browser. Unfortunately, though Mobile Safari on the iPad and iPhone is one of those supported browsers, when you try to control the cursor within LogMeIn’s web-based VNC, you only end up controlling the view of the screen in the browser.

So, in order to control your Mac at home from your iPad in a coffee shop, you first need to have signed up for a FREE LogMeIn account, installed and activated the software on your Mac. Then you can share your Mac through LogMeIn. Now, when you launch LogMeIn Ignition on your iPad or iPhone, you can control your home computer from the road.

My favorite thing I’ve done with LogMeIn is use it to help me send files to clients that I couldn’t keep with me on my iPhone or iPad. While controlling my home Mac, I save the file to my Dropbox folder. This sets Dropbox to work making that file available to me online via the FREE Dropbox App on my iPad or iPhone. I still don’t actually have the file on those devices, but I can get a link to where it has been stored online by Dropbox that I can paste in an email on my iPhone and send it to my client. Problem solved.

No Flash? No problem—click here!»

My little joke at the start of the video below made use of a very cool iPhone stand called the Xtand.1 It’s a nice iMac-like stand that will hold the iPhone 3G, 3GS or 4. It sells for about $39.99 US2

As I mentioned at the end of the video, there is another service called TeamViewer that offers many of the same features of LogMeIn but offers FREE lite versions of its apps for iPhone and iPad …though its full-featured apps sell for $99.99 US for the iPhone version and $139.99 US for the iPad version. Suddenly, $29.99 US doesn’t seem so bad to me.

  1. I’m actually not sure if I’m supposed to pronounce it “EKS-tand” or “ztand”…clearly I chose “EKS-tand” [↩]
  2. the one I used in the video is available for $35.99 CDN if you can get to MacStation in Abbotsford before they sell it icon biggrin Xtand and LogMeIn Ignition [↩]

By RickMacMerc • apps, Featured, gadgets, iPad, iPhone, MacMerc.TV, Mini Video, News • 3 • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Aug 4 2010

Mac Tip: Command-Drag-and-Drop to Move files… not Copy

Sometime when you’re dragging files from one drive to another, experiment with holding down some of the command keys (Shift, Control, Option and Command) and you’ll notice that the cursor will change to indicate that you’re about to do something a little different than the usual.

If you hold down the Option key as you drag-and-drop files, you’ll create copies of those files whether you’re dragging from one drive to another or even within the same directory. The cursor changes to show a plus in a green bubble to let you know what’s about to happen.

If you hold down the Option and Command keys while dragging and dropping files, the cursor will be appended by a little curved arrow—the same curved arrow that you see on files at are aliases to other files…because that is what you are about to create. You won’t actually move the file at all but you’ll instead create a kind of link to the original accessible from the alias.

But if you hold down the Command key while you drag-and-drop, you’ll see now change to the cursor at all. Odd, since this maneuver does do something special. Usually when you move files from one folder to another within the same drive, the file disappears from where it was and will now be found in the place where you dragged it.

But, if you drag a file from one drive to another, you make a copy—the same file on both drives…unless… Unless you hold down the Command key while you drag the file. Then you move the file. It is removed from its original resting place and is now to be found only in its new home.

Just a little tip for you.

By RickMacMerc • osx, productivity • 3 • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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