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Apr 27 2009

Year Of the Mac– 2003

By: Jon Gales

This is the first annual Year of the Mac article. It covers what will happen
to the MAc during the next year.

2002 was a great year for the Mac. The new iMac’s were a smashing success, Jaguar
was and still is hot, the Switch ads are working to bring people in and are
working to change our image. A few years ago I got teased every time I said
I used a Mac. Now, people ask if it’s one of those cool ones on TV. Or if I
can make DVD’s. Now it’s actually cool to have a Mac (from the perspective of
an average PC user). I know several people who converted this year, and are
loving it.2003 is going to be a huge year for the Mac. Here’s what I think will
happen:

1) The Switch campaign will last through 2003. I bet there will be a few more
celebrity ads but a lot more good ol’ normal people ads.

2) The iPod will own the music player industry. Now that there is a Windows
version, nothing is stopping it. Look for more imitations but no one will settle
for anything but the iPod. I have a feeling this will pad Apple’s financial’s
for at least 2 quarters.

3) OS X will make big strides. Believe it or not but there are a lot of people
still using OS 9. They will switch over due to software makers switching over.
It’s going to be another hot year for OS X books and training software.

4) We’re going to see another iApp in 2003. Don’t know what yet, but the digital
hub is not yet complete. Of course iChat, iCal, and iSync will receive much
needed updates.

5) MacOS X 10.3 (code named Panther) will tempt even more IT professionals who
want to be able to run their favorite Unix goodies and still be able to run
Office and other programs from the GUI side of computing. OS X is already making
many a geek converts, but 10.3 will convert them in droves. Apple needs to market
OS X more towards geeks, some of who think it’s a kids OS because of the simplistic
nature. I’d like to see a commercial on Tech
TV covering Terminal.app, and some of the nifty Utilities that ship with
X.

6) Apple’s flat panels will dip in price quite a bit. The big end of the year
rebates were a test. I’d expect to see the 17" down to the 600-700 range
and the Cinema displays follow suit proportionately. In a perfect world I’d
like to see Apple monitors be able to work with PC’s, but that’s not going to
happen. If Steve Jobs was more of a business man than a revolutionary we’d see
a lot more Apple Displays around.

7) Cocoa software is starting to mature and will only get better in 03. Programmers
are getting more advanced every day and some of the new software coming out
is just amazing. Photo To Movie for instance is revolutionary (and so freaking
cheap). Other examples of great Cocoa software are: NetNewsWire,
iPulse,
Chimera,
Adium and LaunchBar.
A lot of the great programming is coming from free or shareware programmers.
The big apps from Adobe and
Macromedia won’t be
written in Cocoa for a long time, but until then the small guys are more than
enough to keep us happy. Expect a huge year for cheap or free Cocoa software.
Don’t forget to be generous to the programmers… If they have a tip jar don’t
hold back. Brian’s Freeloader
Friday column will keep you abreast of what’s new.

icon cool Year Of the Mac 2003 Apple stock will be above $20 a share at this time next year.Not great, but
it will be up for the year.

That’s it. This looks to be one hell of a year for the Macintosh!

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Apr 27 2009

MacManX’s Picks

Well, I’m proud to start the first of our personal picks this week. I’m sure that my collection is probably the most eclectic, but I find all of these freeware apps very useful.

mu MacManXs PicksMenuMeters

MenuMeters is a collection of menu extras, featuring easy, graphic monitoring of CPU, disk, network, and RAM usage. MenuMeters is simple, easy to use, and valuable. If you can’t seem to find a practical use for it, at least the CPU graph is pretty neat to watch.

mu MacManXs PicksVLC

VLC is a powerful multimedia player that can read a variety of formats including DVD, VCD, MPEG, and DivX. For those of you who are depressed by Apple’s lack of support for more than 2 channels with its DVD player, VLC is your solution and features support up to 5.1 channels. Currently, VLC’s GUI is more advanced and intuitive than MPlayer and unlike the current version of MPlayer, VLC tells you when and why it can’t play a certain file, rather than just quitting.

mu MacManXs PicksTux Paint

Do you have small children? Have you made the move to OSX? Do you and/or your kids miss KidPix? Then I strongly recommend that you try Tux Paint . Tux Paint is a paint application that is aimed towards young children (similar to KidPix). Tux Paint features basic drawing tools, designs, colors, and a downloadable stamp set.

mu MacManXs PicksCocktail

Cocktail is an undeniably valuable tool for every OSX user who is either afraid of the terminal, or just doesn’t have the time to bother with it. Cocktail takes control of nearly every terminal command available and presents it in a very easy and intuitive GUI. SOme features include prebinding, Cron scripts, delete archived log files, delete caches, and customizing the look and features of the Finder and Dock.

mu MacManXs PicksFreeSnap (fka, Snatcher)

FreeSnap (fka, Snatcher) is an easy to use and powerful screen shot application. It features the ability to take screen shots of the entire screen, window, or selection. FreeSnap also features AppleScriptability, scaling, timed screen shots, 10 different formats, global key combos, a completely invisible mode and more.

Well, I hope you enjoyed my picks for this week and find some of them useful. Have a great week!

James

mu MacManXs PicksDownloads provided by MacUpdate ??

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Apr 27 2009

Keyspan Goodies

After spending the afternoon grabbing a cup of bandwidth from my local Staples,
I came home to find a package on the doorstep addressed to me. (Gotta love that.)
Thinking it might be my long awaited iBook mod supplies, I hurriedly open the
box to find that, instead, it contained a Keyspan Presentation Remote, a Keyspan
USB 4-Port Mini Hub and a Keyspan Zip-Linq Retractable USB Extension Cable —
not what I wished for, but not too shabby either.

Thank you, Santa!

I guess someone must have read one
of my previous articles on USB gadgets and decided to send me a few for
review. So, with out further adieu, here are my thoughts on this collection
of gizmos:

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Kremote Keyspan Goodies

Keyspan
Presentation Remote – This silvery number consists of a radio frequency
remote and a corresponding receiver that plugs into a spare USB port.
The remote has four buttons, one pad and a switch which allow it to function
as a wireless two button mouse with PowerPoint slide control and a laser
pointer without any software installation.

The documentation (consisting of two 5″ x 6″ pieces of photocopied
paper) says that Macintosh users need not install any additional software
to use the Keyspan Presentation Remote. It also states that the remote’s
media mode, which under Windows allows control of Windows Media Player,
is not supported on the Mac. With very little digging on Keyspan’s
web site, I found a beta
release of the software in development for this remote under Mac OS
X. With this software installed, I was able to switch the remote to media
mode where I could configure the buttons, pad and switch to do my bidding
in the Finder, Keynote, iTunes, PowerPoint, Quicktime Player, or pretty
much anything else.

The software is still in beta and getting the drivers to recognize the
RF receiver without crashing my Mac was a bit of an ordeal, but once I
got it working it was really a lot of fun.

+: Simple, useful remote that takes up very little space in the
backpack. Carrying case included.
-: Laser pointer requires too much fiddling to activate. Attaching
the RF receiver can cause your Mac to crash.

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K USBHub1 Keyspan Goodies

K USBHub2 Keyspan GoodiesKeyspan
4-Port Mini Hub – USB hubs are just a fact of life if you carry and
use a lot of USB devices. The two USB ports on most portables get filled
way too easily. But, as I mentioned in USB
gadgets for your ‘Book, I have yet to find a hub that I recommend
without hesitation.

That situation has not changed. The Keyspan 4-Port Mini Hub has great
portability and usability, but the case fell apart on its first excursion
in my backpack. The plastic is very light, but somewhat less than durable.
And its “snap together” construction too easily succumbs to
“snap apart” destruction. I would still recommend this hub,
but I would suggest that it be tucked away in a safe and snug pocket to
prevent spontaneous disassembly.

The Keyspan 4-Port Mini Hub comes packaged with an AC adapter that allows
you to attach USB devices that draw more power than the Universal Serial
Bus can efficiently provide on its own. This is a valuable extra in a
portable hub and puts the Keyspan above other portable hubs that lack
this feature. On the downside, the AC adapter requires additional backpack
real estate. But if you need this option, you’ll just have to find the
room.

+: 4-ports of USB fun in a svelte package. Bus and AC power options.
-: Flimsy case. Optional AC power adapter not nearly as portable
as the hub itself.

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KZip Linq1 Keyspan Goodies

K ZipLinq3 Keyspan GoodiesKeyspan
Zip-Linq Retractable USB Extension Cable – I’ve saved the best for
last. This thing is awesome. “How good could a USB extension cord
be?” Well, it’s ability to extend my USB range isn’t the the part
that’s amazing, it’s the way that it does it. The Keyspan Zip-Linq Retractable
USB Extension Cable is just one of a
slew of retractable extendable portable wonders all based on the same
principle.

K ZipLinq2 Keyspan GoodiesThe
really great thing about the Zip-Linq’s isn’t so much what they can do
when you extend them, but how little space they require when they are
retracted. A while back, I purchased one
of Macally’s offerings to the retractable cable category. The Macally
offers twice as much cable length as the Keyspan but look at the picture
here–it also takes up more than twice as much room! If you need 5 feet
of USB extension, buy two Keyspan Zip-Linq’s and you’ll have the needed
cable length and more room in you backpack for other stuff.

And the Keyspan Zip-Linq’s are much more durable. In the time it took
me to lose my sales receipt for my Macally Retractable Firewire dealie,
the housing around one of the plug ends split open and I had to reach
for my SwissTool to sweet talk the broken plug out of my iBook’s Firewire
port. The Keyspan Zip-Linq has been much more forgiving of the tortures
I put it through and is just made of tougher stuff in my opinion.

+: Awesome! Asks for so little and gives so much. Also available
in Firewire, Ethernet, telephone, cel phone charger and travel mouse
models.
-: Will arouse envy of those around you. Easily stolen. Buy several.

That’s all for now!

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-Rick

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