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Apr 27 2009

Tracking Tiger

I’d like to start off by saying that Tiger has a lot of exciting new features, and represents a significant milestone in the development of OS X. With no disrespect to the year and a half Apple’s programmers have put in, we’re going to do our best to match some of the Tiger’s best features – for free, or close.

mu Tracking TigerQuicksilver

One huge bonus in each of this week’s picks is the excellent community support that make these applications so powerful. Quicksilver, like Spotlight helps you find things on your Mac faster. Through an extensive plugin library, Quicksilver finds select files and folders on your system, and provides you quick access to their contents.

quicksilver Tracking Tiger

You have to try Quicksilver to fully appreciate its convenience. The website hosts a bunch of plugins which give you commands and search data from your favorite applications. The next Tiger-only version will feature many new features, but the latest beta will be preserved for Panther users.

mu Tracking TigerAdium

Tiger will ship with a new enhanced version of iChat. This new version will support video conferencing. Adium does not support this. The new iChat is now Jabber-based, and Adium is probably the best Jabber client for OS X.

adium Tracking Tiger

Again, part of what makes this such a great application is the community supporting it. Adium is much more than a multi-protocol chat client. On Adium’s site users share sound sets, window themes and scripts. The forum is full of users too. Did I mention a strong community?

mu Tracking TigerOnMyCommand

Now, this is not quite Automator, but this custom contextual menu system could save you all kinds of time on repetitive tasks. In fact with the plethora of commands available from the website, you can create contextual menu items to do everything from Force Eject to Track a UPS Package. This great utility should save you at least as much time as you will waste playing with it (and trust me, that’s a lot of time).

mu Tracking TigerKonfabulator

Okay, this one is neither a surprise, nor is it free. However, I’m willing to make an exception here if you’ll indulge me. Konfabulator is a konfabulous way to both make your desktop more useful and attractive and is hauntingly similar to Tiger’s Dashboard. There are more user-contributed widgets than you can shake a stick at, and the community support is great. If all you want from Tiger is lick-able widgets, save yourself some money and go with Konfabulator.

There you are. It’s not quite Tiger, but you can’t argue with the price.

Brian

mu Tracking TigerDownloads provided by MacUpdate

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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.

8) 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

iPod phone Part 2– Get Phone Messages on your iPod

The iPod phone may be calling, but until Apple answers we’d best make due with what we have. You’d be surprised how phone savvy your iPod is already. In this two part series, we’ll explore the iPod’s phone skills.

Part 2: Pocket your Phone Messages

Compatability check: All version of iPod will work with this technique.

What you’ll need:

The above services are going to route messages to email. If the phone number you want to use isn’t from one of the above services, you can either set up calls to be forwarded to an account on one of these, or check out the deluxe version of this solution below.

Build an Scripted Message Folder

Now that we have our phone messages coming to our inbox (as attachments), we want to send them non-stop to iTunes and our iPod. To do this, we are going to write a simple AppleScript and attach it to a folder where we are going to save our messages.

addtoitunes iPod phone Part 2 Get Phone Messages on your iPod

Fire up Script Editor and enter the following:

on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving these_items
try
tell application “iTunes”
launch
add these_items to playlist “Messages”
end tell
end try
end adding folder items to

Hit compile and save this as a script in your /Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts/ folder. Create a Messages playlist in iTunes (be sure this playlist is set to sync with your iPod) and a folder just for messages anywhere on your drive. The above script will try to add anything that falls into that folder to iTunes, so make a folder you won’t be tempted to use for anything else.

Now, right-click the folder and select Enable Folder Actions, then Configure Folder Actions. Hit the plus on the left side and browse to your folder. Then hit the plus on the right side and select your script. Now we’re ready to test.

Download your Message Straight to your Pod

downloadmessage iPod phone Part 2 Get Phone Messages on your iPod

Call yourself and leave a message (no profanity, please). Once the message comes in, right lick and save the file to your scripted folder. If all went well, iTunes will fire up and you will find your message on your playlist (and iPod after the next sync).

messageinplaylist iPod phone Part 2 Get Phone Messages on your iPod

Now, instead of pacing your living room listening to your messages, you can breeze through them jogging or driving to work. Leave your hands-free (and maybe even your phone) at home. If they really want to get in touch with you, you’ll catch them on the next sync.

Deluxe iPod Messaging

Using software like Ovo Lab’s Phlink or Parliant’s PhoneValet you can have your Mac handle your calls and record your messages. These solutions will set you back about $150, but have a lot of functionality beyond what we use here (like multiple mailboxes and dial-in control of your Mac). Both support sending messages to your iPod. Check back at MacMerc for an upcoming review of PhoneValet 4.

Take it from the Luddites, man was not meant to be strapped to his phone. Not having an iPod phone may be a good thing. Handle your calls when you want to, and enjoy the freedom while it lasts.

Thanks for joining me for episode two of Pro Pod Power Tips. If you missed it, check out Part 1: Speed Dial with your iPod and stay tuned. There are more powerful iPod tutorials on the way.

Brian

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