Based purely on aesthetics, Apple's new $69 Magic Mouse is a crowning achievement for the company's design team, and its Multi-Touch features work well. But it may not be incentive enough to abandon your current mouse.
Multi-Touch technology acts in place of a scrollball. You can use the whole surface above the Apple logo for finger swipes. Scrolling with Multi-Touch is easy and feels natural. The other helpful Multi-Touch functions are two-finger swiping left or right for moving forward or bak in iPhoto or Safari, and holding down the Control key on your keyboard and swiping up and down to zoom.
Multi-Touch works smoothly, but it doesn't feel any more or less advantageous than a scrollball. I hope driver updates or third-party applications will include more functions that will demonstrate the input advantages of Multi-Touch.
There are only two buttons on the Magic Mouse, a severe limitation especially for anyone who's already using a mouse with more than two buttons, like the Apple Mouse.
I had no transmission problems with the Magic Mouse's Bluetooth, which has a range of 33 feet. After sitting idle long enough to trigger the mouse's sleep mode, the mouse reconnects with the Mac virtually instantaneously a pleasant surprise.
The biggest disappointment with the Magic Mouse is the way the mouse feels as you move it on a table, mouse pad, or desktop it's a grinding, rough feel.
Although it's not perfect, the Magic Mouse successfully combines design and usability. It's great as a two-button wireless mouse, but if you need more than two buttons, the Magic Mouse is not for you.
Friday, December 25, 2009
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Notify 1.0.5
Checking in your Gmail account can be a hassle if you don't access it from a dedicated e-mail client. Notify is an elegant utility that sits unobtrusively in your menu bar and periodically checks for new messages. When new mail arrives, Notify informs you via either the menu bar or Growl notifications. Click on the menu for a preview of each new message; double-click on a message to view it in Gmail in your Web browser. Once a message is marked as read, it's removed from Notify.
You can add up to four Gmail accounts to Notify; each one gets a separate tab in Notify's interface. Because of the technology that Notify uses to interact with Google, the program shows only a short preview of the 20 newest unread messages, but it's still a handy way to keep an eye on your Gmail account.
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You can add up to four Gmail accounts to Notify; each one gets a separate tab in Notify's interface. Because of the technology that Notify uses to interact with Google, the program shows only a short preview of the 20 newest unread messages, but it's still a handy way to keep an eye on your Gmail account.
Copy Games, Backup Games On Most Famous Consoles PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, Gamecube, Psp, Nintendo Ds, Playstation, Ps One, Ps2, Xbox, Dreamcast, And Game Boy/GameBoy Advanced! It Even For PC Games.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Jobs hated the name "iMac"?
Were it not for Ken Segall, you might be going to the Apple Store to buy the new 27-inch FlatMac. Instead, Segall's team convinced a reluctant Steve Jobs to go with the name "iMac"... and the rest is history. At least that's the way Segall, a former TBWA/Chiat/ Day executive, remembers it. In an interview with Leander Kahney (of the Cult of Mac Website) he says that Jobs unveiled the first Bondie Blue iMac for the TBWA team and asked them to come up with a name quickly the boxes had to be printed within a week.
Segall's team came back with five names, but four were ringers for the one he liked best: iMac. He says that Jobs rejected the iMac name at first, but changed his mind when he modeled what it would look like engraved on the side of the computer. Segall also says that Jobs had an idea for the name himself, but it was, in Segall's words, "blood-curdling".
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Segall's team came back with five names, but four were ringers for the one he liked best: iMac. He says that Jobs rejected the iMac name at first, but changed his mind when he modeled what it would look like engraved on the side of the computer. Segall also says that Jobs had an idea for the name himself, but it was, in Segall's words, "blood-curdling".
Save YouTube Videos To Your Computer. Automatically Converts To Avi, Mpg, Mp3, Mov, Wmv. Watch YouTube On Your Xbox360, Ipod, Iphone, Psp, Or Cell Phone
apple: what recession?
Laptops, iPhones lead the way to (another) record quarter
While the rest of the American economy staggers along, with weak consumer demand and scrawny profits, Apple continues to cruise, with robust sales and brawny balance sheets.
In the quarter ending September 30, 2009, the company sold 3.05 million Macs a 17 percent increase over what it sold in the same three-month period in 2008. The previous high-water mark was 2.61 million Macs sold in the fiscal fourth quarter of 2008.
That success was due in part to the June 2009 overhaul of Apple's notebook lines, when prices were cut on almost every laptop model. Apple sold nearly 2.3 million laptops in the quarter, accounting for 74 percent of all Macs sold.
"Last quarter was the quarter of the portable," chief operating officier Tim Cook said during the fourth-quarter earnings call with analysts. In response to one comment that "the [laptop] price cut worked," Cook responded loudly, "Yes, it did!"
Apple executives also credited strong back-to-school sales and growth in overseas markets.
Mac sales outpaced the 2 percent growth of the PC market as whole, according to market-research firm IDC; Mac sales have grown faster than the overall PC market in 19 of the last 20 quarters.
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While the rest of the American economy staggers along, with weak consumer demand and scrawny profits, Apple continues to cruise, with robust sales and brawny balance sheets.
In the quarter ending September 30, 2009, the company sold 3.05 million Macs a 17 percent increase over what it sold in the same three-month period in 2008. The previous high-water mark was 2.61 million Macs sold in the fiscal fourth quarter of 2008.
That success was due in part to the June 2009 overhaul of Apple's notebook lines, when prices were cut on almost every laptop model. Apple sold nearly 2.3 million laptops in the quarter, accounting for 74 percent of all Macs sold.
"Last quarter was the quarter of the portable," chief operating officier Tim Cook said during the fourth-quarter earnings call with analysts. In response to one comment that "the [laptop] price cut worked," Cook responded loudly, "Yes, it did!"
Apple executives also credited strong back-to-school sales and growth in overseas markets.
Mac sales outpaced the 2 percent growth of the PC market as whole, according to market-research firm IDC; Mac sales have grown faster than the overall PC market in 19 of the last 20 quarters.
Maverick Money Makers - Get Paid For Life!
Monday, December 21, 2009
Boot camp late to windows 7 party
As the rest of the world greets the release of Microsoft Windows 7, Mac users will need to wait a little longer. According to an Apple Support document, the company will support Windows 7 home premium, professional and ultimatec in its Boot camp softwar. But it appears that only users of Snow Leopard (which includes boot Camp 3.0) will get official Apple drivers for the new Windows operating system. Apple has said those drivers should be available before the end of 2009.
Owners of some early-generation Intel Macs will be unable to get the required drivers at all.
Apple's support document lists nine models in three different Mac lines (three iMacs, five MmacBook Pros, and the original mac Pro, all released in 2006) that "will not be supported for use with Windows 7 using Boot Camp." It's unclear why the nine models were excluded, though one could assume they contain some piece of hardware (perhaps a logic-board controller) that Apple chose not to support.
That said, I've been running a prerelease version of Windows 7 on my early 2006 Mac Pro with few problems. (It occasionally wakes from sleep for no reason) On a brand new 17 inch MacBook Pro, the Boot Camp drivers for Vista included with the Mac system installed flawlessly in Windows 7.
Owners of some early-generation Intel Macs will be unable to get the required drivers at all.
Apple's support document lists nine models in three different Mac lines (three iMacs, five MmacBook Pros, and the original mac Pro, all released in 2006) that "will not be supported for use with Windows 7 using Boot Camp." It's unclear why the nine models were excluded, though one could assume they contain some piece of hardware (perhaps a logic-board controller) that Apple chose not to support.
That said, I've been running a prerelease version of Windows 7 on my early 2006 Mac Pro with few problems. (It occasionally wakes from sleep for no reason) On a brand new 17 inch MacBook Pro, the Boot Camp drivers for Vista included with the Mac system installed flawlessly in Windows 7.
Swiss hit: Apple's Overseas Success
The recession didn't stop at America's shores: The past year's economic meltdown has been felt worldwide. But, as in the United States, Apple doesn't seem to care.
Overlooked in the hubbub over Apple's record-setting Mac and iPhone sales and the company's recession defying financial performance in the United States were the stellar numbers Apple turned in from overseas.
Take, for example, Europe. Apple brought in $2.49 billion in Europe. (To put that number in perspective, Apple posted $4.3 billion in sales in the Americas.) Revenue from Europe jumped 45 percent double the rate in North and South America combined.
Switzerland provides a particulatly interesting example of Apple's European success: With a market share of more than 30 percent, Apple is now number one in home computer sales; factor in business sales, and Apple is third overall, behind Hewlett-Packard and Acer.
Overlooked in the hubbub over Apple's record-setting Mac and iPhone sales and the company's recession defying financial performance in the United States were the stellar numbers Apple turned in from overseas.
Take, for example, Europe. Apple brought in $2.49 billion in Europe. (To put that number in perspective, Apple posted $4.3 billion in sales in the Americas.) Revenue from Europe jumped 45 percent double the rate in North and South America combined.
Switzerland provides a particulatly interesting example of Apple's European success: With a market share of more than 30 percent, Apple is now number one in home computer sales; factor in business sales, and Apple is third overall, behind Hewlett-Packard and Acer.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
ScreenFlow 2
ScreenFlow is a screencast recording application with particular emphasis on iMovie-style simplicity. While it might not have all the bells and whistles found in rival screencasting application Camtasia for Mac, its feature set is complete enough to make very polished videos quickly and without fuss. The app's simple presentation helps a lot to bring that about.
New in version 2 are extra tools and features that really pull the application up a few notches. That said, some of them have been a long time coming and really should have been included from the start.
Pause during recording is one such feature and very welcome now that it's here, but long overdue. It doesn't have a keyboard shortcut by default, but you can easily add one in the preferences. Elsewhere, new shortcuts have been added for a variety of functions such as resizing and zooming, which make a big difference during editing.
Another welcome new addition is transitions between clips, and here's where ScreenFlow's simplicity really starts to demonstrate its value. Adding new clips is easy and they simply drop into place in the clip manager at the bottom of the ScreenFlow window. To create a transition between two clips, just drag them together so they overlap. The length of the overlap on the timeline will determine the time of the transition. A default transition is applied automatically, but there are 16 to choose from and they can be edited with a Ctrl-click on the transition zone.
Thew new Curve Type contextual command adds a professional finishing touch to any visual or audion effects you apply to your recording. Instead of fading in at uniform speed, you can tell ScreenFlow to adjust this speed with a small number of presets.
Unfortunately, there's no way to edit these or add your own curves, but the presets offer sufficient flexibility for most people.
Audio controls are improved, too. A ducking effect is easy to apply and activates automatically when one audio clip meets another. It's also now possible to detach the audio from a combined audio-and-video clip, and edit the two separately ( or discard one and not the other).
People who make a lot of screencasts will be pleased to hear that they can now copy and paste individual audio and video clips, complete with all their applied effects, between ScreenFlow documents.
There's still room for improvements, of course. Effects, once added, can be fiddly to remove. The only way to return everything to default values is to add another effect and adjust your sliders accordingly; it would be nice to have a built-in 'return to defaults' effect that could be applied with one click.
ScreenFlow is very similar to rival Camtasia and the two are priced identically. Choosing one over the other is difficult, as each has its onw strengths. Camtasia has few more features but ScreenFlow is slightly easier to use. and this update is worth seeing. Our advice is to try both before buying
New in version 2 are extra tools and features that really pull the application up a few notches. That said, some of them have been a long time coming and really should have been included from the start.
Pause during recording is one such feature and very welcome now that it's here, but long overdue. It doesn't have a keyboard shortcut by default, but you can easily add one in the preferences. Elsewhere, new shortcuts have been added for a variety of functions such as resizing and zooming, which make a big difference during editing.
Another welcome new addition is transitions between clips, and here's where ScreenFlow's simplicity really starts to demonstrate its value. Adding new clips is easy and they simply drop into place in the clip manager at the bottom of the ScreenFlow window. To create a transition between two clips, just drag them together so they overlap. The length of the overlap on the timeline will determine the time of the transition. A default transition is applied automatically, but there are 16 to choose from and they can be edited with a Ctrl-click on the transition zone.
Thew new Curve Type contextual command adds a professional finishing touch to any visual or audion effects you apply to your recording. Instead of fading in at uniform speed, you can tell ScreenFlow to adjust this speed with a small number of presets.
Unfortunately, there's no way to edit these or add your own curves, but the presets offer sufficient flexibility for most people.
Audio controls are improved, too. A ducking effect is easy to apply and activates automatically when one audio clip meets another. It's also now possible to detach the audio from a combined audio-and-video clip, and edit the two separately ( or discard one and not the other).
People who make a lot of screencasts will be pleased to hear that they can now copy and paste individual audio and video clips, complete with all their applied effects, between ScreenFlow documents.
There's still room for improvements, of course. Effects, once added, can be fiddly to remove. The only way to return everything to default values is to add another effect and adjust your sliders accordingly; it would be nice to have a built-in 'return to defaults' effect that could be applied with one click.
ScreenFlow is very similar to rival Camtasia and the two are priced identically. Choosing one over the other is difficult, as each has its onw strengths. Camtasia has few more features but ScreenFlow is slightly easier to use. and this update is worth seeing. Our advice is to try both before buying
Parallels unveils 300% faster Desktop 5
Parallels have announced Desktop 5 for Mac, the latest version of its virtualisation application.
The company claims Desktop 5 has more than 70 new features, including a new Crystal mode that removes all traces of the Windows environments from the host Mac. Also new is Mac Look, which takes Crystal mode further by altering the application windows in Windows applications to make them look like Mac applications, including the red, amber and green buttons.
'As the OS battles rage between Microsoft, Apple and Linux, we provide a completely customisable solution that enables people to use the applications they need with the fastest performance available, regardless of the operating system,' said Serguei Beloussow, chief executive of Parallels.
Parallels claims Desktop 5 for Mac is up to 300% faster than version 4, and its tests using the 3Dmark 2006 graghics test suite showed it to be seven times faster for graphics performance than version 4. The company also said research carried out by Crimson Consulting showed Desktop 5 to be '22% faster than the nearest Windows-onMac competitor in standard productivity testing of Windows 7 64-bit on a MacBook Pro'.
New features in Desktop 5 include support to trackpad gestures such as pinch, swipe and rotate, the optimisation of virtual machine size for best performance using Parallels compressor, and support for eight virtual CPUs with support for 64-bit Windows and 64-bit Snow Leopard Server.
Parallels desktop 5 include a one-year subscription of Parallels Internet Security 2009 by Kaspersky. An upgrade version is available for 19.99$.
The company claims Desktop 5 has more than 70 new features, including a new Crystal mode that removes all traces of the Windows environments from the host Mac. Also new is Mac Look, which takes Crystal mode further by altering the application windows in Windows applications to make them look like Mac applications, including the red, amber and green buttons.
'As the OS battles rage between Microsoft, Apple and Linux, we provide a completely customisable solution that enables people to use the applications they need with the fastest performance available, regardless of the operating system,' said Serguei Beloussow, chief executive of Parallels.
Parallels claims Desktop 5 for Mac is up to 300% faster than version 4, and its tests using the 3Dmark 2006 graghics test suite showed it to be seven times faster for graphics performance than version 4. The company also said research carried out by Crimson Consulting showed Desktop 5 to be '22% faster than the nearest Windows-onMac competitor in standard productivity testing of Windows 7 64-bit on a MacBook Pro'.
New features in Desktop 5 include support to trackpad gestures such as pinch, swipe and rotate, the optimisation of virtual machine size for best performance using Parallels compressor, and support for eight virtual CPUs with support for 64-bit Windows and 64-bit Snow Leopard Server.
Parallels desktop 5 include a one-year subscription of Parallels Internet Security 2009 by Kaspersky. An upgrade version is available for 19.99$.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Nokia could get $12 for each IPhone sold
Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray, estimated to be as much as $12 per IPhone sold. Other industry analysts have variously predicted that Apple could pay Nokia between $200 million and $1 billion if it loses the lawsuit.
Nokia said it had taken the decision to sue Apple after a breakdown in negotiations between the two companies. Apple appears to have no intention of backing down. In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the IPhone maker said it intended to 'vigorously' fight Nokia's legal action, which is in the US.
Such fights between mobile phone companies are not unusual and are likely to become more common as handsets incorporate ever more technologies.
InterDigital, a US mobile telephony research and development company, licenses many of its technologies to handset makers and network operators. However, it recently lost a US court case against Nokia alleging patent infringement.
InterDigital CEO Bill Merritt predicted the Nokia law suit with Apple would last at least a year and maybe two or three it Apple countersues, which it may do, as it also owns a large portfolio of technology patents relating mobile phones.
Nokia and Qualcomm fought a legal battle over technology patents from 2005 to 2008 in the US.
Apple already pays licensing royalties to Ericsson and Qualcomm, so the company isn't philosophically opposed to paying technological rivals. Merritt said Apple was likely baulking at paying a licence fee to Nokia calculated as a percentage of the iPhone's selling price, which is significantly higher than typical smartphones.
Nokia said it had taken the decision to sue Apple after a breakdown in negotiations between the two companies. Apple appears to have no intention of backing down. In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the IPhone maker said it intended to 'vigorously' fight Nokia's legal action, which is in the US.
Such fights between mobile phone companies are not unusual and are likely to become more common as handsets incorporate ever more technologies.
InterDigital, a US mobile telephony research and development company, licenses many of its technologies to handset makers and network operators. However, it recently lost a US court case against Nokia alleging patent infringement.
InterDigital CEO Bill Merritt predicted the Nokia law suit with Apple would last at least a year and maybe two or three it Apple countersues, which it may do, as it also owns a large portfolio of technology patents relating mobile phones.
Nokia and Qualcomm fought a legal battle over technology patents from 2005 to 2008 in the US.
Apple already pays licensing royalties to Ericsson and Qualcomm, so the company isn't philosophically opposed to paying technological rivals. Merritt said Apple was likely baulking at paying a licence fee to Nokia calculated as a percentage of the iPhone's selling price, which is significantly higher than typical smartphones.
Mac users warned over game that erase files
Security experts are warning Mac users over a Space Invaders-style game that deletes files from the computer while they play.
Dubbed OSX.Loosemaque, the program only works on its host website, but has the capacity to cause serious damage if it gets into the wrong hands.
'The game looks to be a throw-back to the classic Space Invaders/Galaga style of games from early 1980s,' explained security company Symantec, which discovered the threat. 'However, what brings this game into the realm of malicious code is that for every alien ship you destroy, the game deletes a file from your home directory.'
bizarrely, the author of the game explains the consequences on his site, which observers believe is a strang art project. The website carrying the game describes it as, 'a game about choice and consequence, and by extension what it means to succeed or fail.'
According to Symantec, although the game is not a major threat, it could be modified to create a more sinister form of malware. 'While interesting in its own right, there's nothing stopping someone with more malicious intentions from modifying it slightly and then passing it on to unsuspecting users,' claimed a company spokesperson.
Dubbed OSX.Loosemaque, the program only works on its host website, but has the capacity to cause serious damage if it gets into the wrong hands.
'The game looks to be a throw-back to the classic Space Invaders/Galaga style of games from early 1980s,' explained security company Symantec, which discovered the threat. 'However, what brings this game into the realm of malicious code is that for every alien ship you destroy, the game deletes a file from your home directory.'
bizarrely, the author of the game explains the consequences on his site, which observers believe is a strang art project. The website carrying the game describes it as, 'a game about choice and consequence, and by extension what it means to succeed or fail.'
According to Symantec, although the game is not a major threat, it could be modified to create a more sinister form of malware. 'While interesting in its own right, there's nothing stopping someone with more malicious intentions from modifying it slightly and then passing it on to unsuspecting users,' claimed a company spokesperson.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Google announces Chrome for Mac to be ready by year's end
More than 13 monthes since Google first introduced its professed game changing browser for Windows, the company has still to release a finished version of Chrome for the Mac. The company has, however, released an alpha - or "Developer preview" version of its browser for the mac. Google said that it expects to release a finished version of Chrome for the Mac by the end of this year, which will be an Intel-only version, that will work on Mac OS X 10.5.6 or later.
'A lot of very sophisticated people are using Macs now and we need to get a version of Chrome out for that, which we'll have in a couple of months,' explained Google CEO, and former Apple board member, Eric Schmidt recently.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin appeared at last month's Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. During Q&A session, he revealed that he uses an alpha version of Chrome for the Mac, intended for developers, and revealed his dissatisfaction about the search giant's progress on supporting the Mac platform with the company's browser.
'I am using it. Anyone can. You have to go to a page that says you should't use it, but you should. To be fair, it's not as stable as I'd like it to be. The timing has been an issue. I'd be much happier if we launched at the same time [as the Windows version] or had a beta now. We are all suffering from this. I do use it a lot now, but it's somewhat unreliable,' said Brin.
'Be sure to read the Known Issues if you are running Chrome for Mac,' warns Google on its Chrome release page, which is available from googlechromereleases.blogspot.com/2009/10/dev-channel-updated-with-fixes-and.html.
On the other hand, some early reviews have praised the developer version of Chorome for its fast performance on the Mac, even if its feature set is not yet complete.
Some pretty basic features like a bookmark manager are not yet included, for example.
On the other hand, chrome supports features like dragging and dropping tex straight into text editing applications, something which supposedly mature browsers, like Opera do not support.
Other new features over a previous not widely available version include support for printing and a QuickTime plug-in for enjoying multimedia content that now works.
'A lot of very sophisticated people are using Macs now and we need to get a version of Chrome out for that, which we'll have in a couple of months,' explained Google CEO, and former Apple board member, Eric Schmidt recently.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin appeared at last month's Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. During Q&A session, he revealed that he uses an alpha version of Chrome for the Mac, intended for developers, and revealed his dissatisfaction about the search giant's progress on supporting the Mac platform with the company's browser.
'I am using it. Anyone can. You have to go to a page that says you should't use it, but you should. To be fair, it's not as stable as I'd like it to be. The timing has been an issue. I'd be much happier if we launched at the same time [as the Windows version] or had a beta now. We are all suffering from this. I do use it a lot now, but it's somewhat unreliable,' said Brin.
'Be sure to read the Known Issues if you are running Chrome for Mac,' warns Google on its Chrome release page, which is available from googlechromereleases.blogspot.com/2009/10/dev-channel-updated-with-fixes-and.html.
On the other hand, some early reviews have praised the developer version of Chorome for its fast performance on the Mac, even if its feature set is not yet complete.
Some pretty basic features like a bookmark manager are not yet included, for example.
On the other hand, chrome supports features like dragging and dropping tex straight into text editing applications, something which supposedly mature browsers, like Opera do not support.
Other new features over a previous not widely available version include support for printing and a QuickTime plug-in for enjoying multimedia content that now works.
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