I think, therefore iPod: all things Apple and beyond.

Free Aperture Trial

ithinkthereforeipodcast@gmail.com (Perry Ge) — Thu, 2 Nov 2006 23:11:00 -0500

Again, apologies for not posting in ages - I've been super busy and I'm still making the transition to ithinkthereforeipod.net. I need to switch hosting providers to get rid of the darn ads, but hopefully the look and feel of the site is nice and familiar-looking!

In the meantime, Apple just released a fully-functional, 30-day trial of its magnificent Aperture software, which you can get here. If you've been curious about Aperture, but haven't wanted to fork out the money before properly trying it, this is the perfect chance to give it a spin. I know I'll be giving it a thorough testing. I particularly want to see how it performs in comparison to the excellentAdobe Lightroom, which I use for my photography, and will definitely consider purchasing when it comes out of beta.

Update

ithinkthereforeipodcast@gmail.com (Perry Ge) — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 03:28:00 -0400

You may have noticed I haven't updated too much recently. This was partly because of a very busy summer holiday, but also partly because I'm working on a move to ithinkthereforeipod.net, so I'll let you know when that change happens!

Apple 'Showtime' Event

ithinkthereforeipodcast@gmail.com (Perry Ge) — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 15:18:00 -0400

New iPods. All 3 models.

iTunes movies.

iTV announced - the Apple home theatre?

'Nuff said.

Just kidding - much more later!

Random Miscellany, Widgets on desktop

ithinkthereforeipodcast@gmail.com (Perry Ge) — Mon, 4 Sep 2006 10:14:00 -0400

Personal bits and pieces
Well, a wonderful summer has come to an end, and tomorrow I get on a plane and fly back to jolly old Toronto, leaving Hong Kong behind. Apparently they've opened a third Apple Store in Toronto in my absence, what nerve :P! But lucky ol' Toronto is now home to all 3 of Canada's Apple Stores.

What has been a very fruitful summer me ended with a production of Jean Anouilh's interpretation of Antigone, in which I acted and had an absolute blast. Why is this even remotely relevant to Apple? It isn't really, except for the fact that every laptop in the theatre was a Mac, which was very pleasing. Two Powerbook G4s and my iBook G4 were ubiquitous throughout the entire duration of the production, and the sheer percentage of the actors and crew who were Mac users was quite staggering. It's quite possible that we were a majority for once! Three cheers for the arts!

Dashboard Tip
One tip that's been floating around on sites like Digg and podcasts like the MacCast is how to get your Dashboard widgets on your desktop, permanently.

Now, by default, you can pull one widget onto your desktop from your Dashboard. All you do is simply click and hold a widget whilst in dashboard, move it slightly, and whilst still holding down the mouse button, deactivate Dashboard. Then you can drop the widget on your desktop. However, you can only do this with one widget at a time by default, and as soon as you activate Dashboard again, it goes back.

It is possible, however, to get multiple widgets out of Dashboard and onto your desktop, permanently, using the same method. All you have to do is enable Dashboard developer mode. To do this:

Open the Terminal.

Type defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES and press return.

Then either log out and log back in, or type killall Dock and press return.

To disable developer mode and make things go back to the way they were just type defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode NO and then logout and log back in or type killall Dock again.

Now if you repeat the process mentioned earlier - click and hold a widget in Dashboard, move it a bit and then deactivate Dashboard whilst still holding down the mouse button - you can drag as many widgets to the desktop as you want, and they'll stay there, even if you reactivate Dashboard.

One word of warning with this tip - enabling the Dashboard developer mode will make widgets use up a bit more memory than they would otherwise do (which perhaps is why it's disabled by default). The amount of extra memory used varies between widgets. But the thing to bear in mind is that if you use a lot of widgets, enabling devmode could eat up a substantial amount of your system's RAM.

And now to finish packing and get on that plane...

Google's Eric Schmidt joins Apple's board

ithinkthereforeipodcast@gmail.com (Perry Ge) — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 00:11:00 -0400

Apparently Eric Schmidt of Google has joined Apple's board of directors in what I see as a very interesting move. Of course, Apple's board of directors already includes some very big names including Al Gore, and of course Steve Jobs himself. Steve Jobs highlighted Google's innovation and Schmidt's experience as the main reasons for wanting to bring him on board to help Apple in the future.

I see this as a very positive and interesting move on Apple's part. Apple and Google have always had a good relationship - Google is the default search engine in Safari, Google searches will return iTunes Music Store links, and perhaps Leopard will have Google searches integrated into Spotlight.

The biggest plus I see to this addition to the board is for the future. Both companies are aggressively innovating and releasing new products and services. Google is starting to offer a wide range of office-like web applications, from Google Calendar to Writely and Google Spreadsheet. On top of that, they have a fantastic range of downloadable apps too such as Google Earth and Picasa. One complaint I've had is that often, Mac versions of these apps are slow to be released. Hopefully with Schmidt on board, Mac and Safari compatability with Google apps and services will arrive more swiftly.

Of course, one could argue that joining the board does not necessarily make much of a difference, but given that Jobs specifically cited Google's innovation as something he wanted for Apple's future, I see this as a very deliberate move. Look at what happened when Jobs joined Disney's board - Disney owned content on the iTunes Music Store skyrocketed.

But perhaps there's more to it than that. There's been recent speculation about Jobs' health (which I wouldn't take too seriously), and one thing is clear - Jobs can't forever be at the helm at Apple. Without a figure like Jobs leading the company, with his drive and his desire for perfection and innovation, Apple wouldn't be what it is today. Any potential successor to Steve Jobs would have to be one hell of an individual, and the likes of Eric Schmidt just might be the right type to fill Jobs' enourmous shoes should the need ever arrive. I'm not saying Schmidt will take over from Jobs, I'm just saying that when the time comes for Apple to face life without Steve Jobs, a very big name would have to fill his shoes, someone perhaps, like Eric Schmidt.

'Snakes on a Plane' tattoos

ithinkthereforeipodcast@gmail.com (Perry Ge) — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 12:10:00 -0400

Completely unrelated to Apple, but I just got back from watching 'Snakes on a Plane' at the local AMC here in Hong Kong, and much to my delight, the cinema was giving away free 'Snakes on a Plane' tattoos (you know, the fake, stick-on kind). I managed to get my hands on 3! I wonder if this happens everywhere? Check it out.

I apologise for the image quality and the flash, but at least it's visible!

Now I have to decide what to stick them on, and if the answer is my skin...when...?

Apple product placement in 'Miami Vice'

ithinkthereforeipodcast@gmail.com (Perry Ge) — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 12:54:00 -0400

I just got back from watching 'Miami Vice', and whilst I won't comment on the movie too much, I noticed that it has followed the trend of such shows as 24, Sex and the City and many other films and TV shows by featuring Macs and glowing Apple logos. But it's not the fact that one often sees Macs in movies that amuses it me, it's who uses them. One common trend I've seen in numerous movies and shows is that the good guys use Macs, and the bad guys use PCs.

Miami Vice is a perfect example of what I mean (I'll try my best not to spoil anything for anyone who hasn't seen the film yet). Jamie Foxx's character and the girl that Colin Farrell's character falls for both use Macs, and there are at least 2 scenes in which the back of either a Powerbook or a MacBook Pro is featured, which of course means a glowing Apple logo onscreen. But on top of that, the bad guys in the movie don't use Macs. There's one scene in which one drug dealer shows a video to his boss, and to do so, he drops a clunky PC notebook on the table. Interesting eh?

Now I'm pretty sure that Apple doesn't pay movies to feature their products, if anything it might be the opposite. So why does this phenomenon exist? Why do good guys use Macs, and bad guys use PCs? It could have a lot to do with the images and ideas associated with Macs. I would speculate, and this is probably especially true in Hollywood, that Macs and other Apple products have the cool and sexy factor not associated with other PC manufacturers or tech companies. So what better way of reinforcing your main characters then to have them use shiny, sexy Macs, and have the bad guys use ugly, dull PCs?

Just a fun little thing I noticed that I thought I might share. What's even better is that when I pointed it out to my best friend whom I was watching the movie with, I received a prolonged groan in response and was asked why I had to notice things like that. Who wouldn't?

Wireless Mighty Mouse thoughts

ithinkthereforeipodcast@gmail.com (Perry Ge) — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 10:07:00 -0400

This morning, I woke up to find a nice little package waiting for me - the Wireless Mighty Mouse that I had ordered. I've been using it all day now, and there are some things about it that I absolutely love, and others...not so much.

Out of the box
On opening the box, I found 3 small packages: one containing the manual, warranty and Software Install disc; the mouse itself, and finally, much to my surprise and delight, two Energizer batteries.

I skipped the manual-reading step (it's a mouse for heaven's sake!) and immediately popped the Software Install disc into my iBook G4 and installed the Mighty Mouse software. After it installed, I had to restart my computer. I then popped the batteries into the mouse, moved the slider into the 'on' position and paired it with my computer via Bluetooth - all of this worked seamlessly.

Once I got the mouse working, I headed to System Prefences to configure it. In case you don't know already, the Mighty Mouse has a left click, a right click, a 360 degree scroll wheel (which can also be clicked) and it can be squeezed for one extra 'button'. The default settings are set so that clicking the scroll wheel launches Dashboard, and squeezing the sides invokes Exposé for all windows. I went right ahead and switched these round - tweaking the settings is incredibly simple.

Overall very nice out of the box, the Mighty Mouse was up and working in a few minutes.

Performance
Certain elements of the Mighty Mouse's performance are amazing, others less so.

The decision to replace the optical sensor with a laser one was definitely a great move. The Mighty Mouse's ability to track on various surfaces amazed me. I first used it on my wooden desk, no problems there. I then moved it onto my leg, it still worked flawlessly. But what impressed me the most by far was the final test I did. I took a transparent plastic DVD case and placed the mouse on top of it. It still tracked just as well as it did on the wooden surface. The thing works seamlessly on see-through plastic and glass!

The ability to run on one battery is a huge plus as well; it makes the mouse much lighter, which makes it easier to use for things such as gaming. Another cool feature that I applaud Apple for. The mouse's energy saving ability seems to be very advanced as well, and it manages to maintain flawless Bluetooth connectivity without draining the batteries.

Unfortunately, the Mighty Mouse is not without its problems.

First of all, I haven't been able to find a tracking and scrolling speed that feels both 100% accurate or comfortable; sometimes scrolling seems erratic, but most of the time tracking and scrolling is not really a problem. However, the right and left clicks need changing. The problem is, because there's only really one button, it is physically impossible to right click with your middle finger whilst keeping your index finger on the mouse. You can only have one finger on the mouse in order to right click, which feels very unnatural and it means that a large proportion of my right clicks end up being left clicks.

On top of that, the side buttons take an extraordinary amount of effort to activate. I have to squeeze the mouse quite hard in order to get the side buttons to work, and there isn't any way of increasing this sensitivity. I've also found the on/off slider very difficult to operate, it takes loads of effort to turn the mouse on or off. This might get easier with time as the slider loosens up a bit, but I'm not a huge fan of the slider switch on Apple's wireless mice.

Overall
Overall, whilst it has its problems, the Wireless Mighty Mouse is a purchase I'm happy with. The ability to track on almost any surface and to operate with only a single battery make the mouse incredibly versatile, and since I travel quite frequently, this is a huge plus for me. The ability to launch Dashboard, invoke Exposé or launch applications definitely increases productivity.

One thing I am trying to do is to use the Mighty Mouse to make drag-and-drop even more seamless than it already is. I want to use the scroll button to invoke Exposé for all windows, and the side squeezing buttons to invoke Exposé for the desktop, so I can use the mouse to drag things from my desktop to other open windows. This however is proving difficult, as it's impossible to click on more than one button at once! If anybody can teach me how to do this, or if anybody knows how to get a kind of drag-lock feature on the Mighty Mouse, I would be most appreciative! One thing I love doing is using Exposé to drag files between loads of different windows, but I want to be able to do this with my new mouse!

WWDC 2006 Keynote thoughts

ithinkthereforeipodcast@gmail.com (Perry Ge) — Mon, 7 Aug 2006 13:19:00 -0400

The World Wide Developer's Conference has well and truly kicked off now that Steve Jobs and his team have finished giving the keynote. If you haven't had a chance to check it out yet, head on over to Apple's site and watch it.

Now, I'm not going to go through every single thing covered in too much detail, but basically what we got were the Mac Pro - the successor to the PowerMac G5, new Xserves, and a preview of some of the features of OS X Leopard. There was an absurd amount of competitor bashing, Dell got some stick, but Microsoft and Vista bore the brunt of the harshness. It seemed a bit excessive to me, but hey, it's an Apple event, it's their time, it's their moment of glory! But anyway, let's take a closer look at what we've been shown.

Mac Pro
It might look just like the PowerMac G5 on the outside (why change such a wonderful case?), but believe you me, on the inside, these are complete new beasts.

Sporting the new 'Woodcrest' Xeon processors, the Mac Pro has a far better performance per watt ratio than the G5s had. What this means is that a lot of the cooling inside the enclosure has been removed...which of course means that a lot more other stuff can be put in! The Mac Pro can include two optical drives, up to four hard drives (we're talking 2 terabytes of internal storage), four PCI Express slots, and a whole lot of other stuff. What's awesome about this system though, is that the standard basic system only costs $2,499 (almost $1,000 cheaper than an equal-spec Dell, according to the keynote), although by 'basic' I mean a quad 2.66GHz, 1GB RAM, 250GB hard drive monster, but it's FULLY configurable, which is fantastic! I've always loved the customisability of systems you buy off the online Apple Store, but this brings that to a new level. One standard configuration. Customise it any way you want.

Now these machines are no slackers, these new chips are server chips, and pack quite a punch. They are all dual core, and EVERY Mac Pro has two of them, effectively making every single one a quad core system. Each core can reach frequencies of up to 3GHz, and finally, like the G5, they support 64-bit. On top of that, these things have massive 4MB L2 caches and 1.33GHz frontside buses. The internal buses on the Mac Pro also clock at 25GB/s, which is sweet, it's always nice when your internal components can communicate to each other at those kinds of speeds :).

But in summary...these machines are monsters, and I can't wait to test one out. The Xserves are very similar in their configurations, and I don't wanna spend too much time talking about them.

Instead...let's talk about...

Leopard!
Now the first thing to point out is that I am confident that we have not by any stretch of the imagination seen all that Leopoard will have to offer. Steve Jobs very conveniently pointed out that there are a lot of 'Top Secret' features in Leopard that haven't been revealed yet, because they don't want Microsoft to 'start their photocopiers' too early :P. So expect many more features, probably at Macworld. But let's take a look at what we have been shown in Leopard, because a lot of it excites me quite a bit.

64 bit support and Core Animation
A couple of treats for developers here. Leopard will support 64-bit apps up to the UI level, instead of just at the Unix level as was the case with Tiger. This means that 64-bit and 32-bit apps can run side by side, natively. This should open up a whole new level of applications for systems like the Mac Pro. Core Animation is added to the OS as well, which allows developers to develop animations and interactive sequences with far greater ease. I will admit to not knowing very much about this aspect of OS X, but I expect this addition to bring a lot more eye candy at the very least. I'm not a developer though, so I won't spend too much time writing about things I don't fully comprehend.

Time Machine
This is absolutely insane. There are backup solutions. There is date recovery. There are cool interfaces. This is all three of those. On crack. Built with Core Animation, what Time Machine does is it automatically backs up your system to a hard disk or to a server, and recover things that may have been lost in the past. Nothing special right?

Think again. Just check out this interface.

It's really difficult to explain just how cool this is. Time Machine allows you to actually go back in time and restore your system to the state it was in at some point in the past. What's even cooler is that you can restore individual folders, files or parts of applications to past states, whilst keeping the rest of your system the same. You can even do Spotlight searches into the past within applications like Address Book. This is far too cool and amazing for me to explain, you really just have to watch the keynote and check it out on Apple's Time Macine site. The kinds of situations and uses for Time Machine they describe are absolutely spot on. From finding that's disappeared from a folder you know it was in, to recovering data you unintentionally saved over, or to recover important photos, contacts or files, Time Machine's interface just makes all of this look easy.

All I'm wondering about is how much extra hard disk space this is all going to take up.

Spaces
Now if you've ever used Linux, you'll know that many distros have multiple virtual desktops that allow you to keep different windows and different applications in separate desktops. A great way to reduce clutter when multitasking. This is one of my personal favourite features of many Linux distros.

Now this has come to the Mac, with a whole new interface. You have the standard four desktops, and you can put different applications and different windows in each desktop, but the interface that Apple has implemented looks phenomenal. First of all, you can move between desktops, or 'spaces' with hotkeys, and you can tile your desktops in an Exposé-like fashion. You can also rearrange their order. But what's even better is that a) clicking on any application in the dock will take you to the 'space' that it's in, and on top of that, when you are viewing all of your spaces at once, you can click and drag applications and windows from one space to another - that is a great feature. I love Exposé, and this seems like a natural addition to it.

Mail
If you use Mail a lot, like me, it's about time we got an update. Three major changes to Mail were demostrated: a) 'Stationery', b) The addition of notes, and c) To-Dos.

Stationery sounds like a cool addition; this essentially gives you a bunch of templates (think Pages and iWeb) that allow you to send really good-looking HTML emails that you can customise. Whilst this is eye-candy more than anything else, what this might do is make it very evident when somebody is emailing you from a Mac. Gone could be the days of boring looking emails with attached photos at the bottom. If asked how your emails look so professional and so nice? The simple answer would be 'I'm a Mac user'.

Notes is a cool addition too. Basically you can take notes within Mail instead of having to email stuff to yourself. You can imbed things such as photos, PDFs and the new To-Dos within Notes, and there's a special mailbox for these. This is cool, because since so much information these days is exchanged via email, it'd be nice to be able to take notes within the same application.

But it's the final addition that really excites me - the To-Dos. Adding the ability to make any mail message or any line in a Note a To-Do (think iCal-style To-Do lists) could increase productivity a LOT! How many times have you gotten an email asking you to do something, and then jotted that task down somewhere and forgotten about it? I know I have a few outstanding email tasks as we speak. So this could be very useful. But what's best is that this is SYSTEM-WIDE! So any To-Do you make in Mail will show up in iCal's To-Dos, and vice versa. And developers can build this into their software, which would be a very useful feature in a lot of productivity software such as FileMaker Pro. I approve wholeheartedly. I still would like a way of using different kinds of flags, so I can flag certain emails as ones that I want to reply to, and others as emails containing important information. I've wanted this kind of feature for a long time...and it still seems like I'm not gonna get it.

iChat
iChat has been GREATLY improved, with some amazing additions. The most significant of these are to video chat, which is good, but unfortunately, until (or unless...rather) most of the people I know switch to Macs, it's going to mean that not everybody will get to experience all these wonderful new features, which is the only drawback to iChat (which isn't its fault, obviously).

Photo Booth's fun effects have been added to live video chat, which could make for hours of timewasting. But more significantly, iChat Theatre has been added, which allows you to show off Keynote presentations, iPhoto slideshows and more within video chats, whilst you talk people through them. Provided you have enough bandwidth, this could really revolutionise instant messaging and videoconferencing. And I use that word 'revolutionise' very rarely, but seriously - if more people used Macs, iChat would be the greatest thing ever.

iChat also lets you add a backdrop to your video chat, to make it look like you're chilling out in the Bahamas or anywhere else. The backdrop can be either an image or EVEN a video. This and the Photo Booth effects could really be quite fun.

Dashboard
Dashcode, a widget and general development tool has been released officially. I actually picked up a copy of this when it was leaked earlier, and it's pretty cool. If you know some Java, this is a really powerful tool for building widgets very quickly.

But the coolest addition is Web Clip, which basically lets you take any section of any webpage and make it a widget, which will update that piece of the webpage in real time. An AWESOME idea, great for doing things like keeping up with web comic strips, tracking activity or eBay auctions, watching webcams, and many other things. What's cool about this is that a lot of sites have really useful info in a very small space, which one might check regularly. But more often than not, the rest of the page is filled with useless junk and ads. Web Clip is the perfect solution! I like it, and it might make me use Dashboard much more frequently!

That's it!
Lots of other stuff was shown off, including improved Universal Access, particularly VoiceOver, and Spotlight and iCal have been improved too. But whilst these changes are good and cool, I don't want to go on and on about these in particular. If you're interested, check them out on Apple's Leopard page for the details.

So that's Leopard and the new Mac Pro. I can't wait till to see what remaining features there will be, and as soon as it ships in Spring, I'm definitely going to pick up a copy.

All in all a good keynote. People have been moaning about how there wasn't an iPhone or new iPods, but this is the WWDC! Developers don't care about iPods! If there are new iPods and even iPhones on the way, expect them to be rolled out in a different way. It's high time we had a new iPod, but a developer's conference is not the time to be talking about music players. They kept it about the hardware and operating system. Good stuff.

WWDC 2006 Banner

ithinkthereforeipodcast@gmail.com (Perry Ge) — Thu, 3 Aug 2006 11:14:00 -0400

Whilst harmlessly browsing Digg earlier, I happened to stumble upon this image, which is apparently a banner being set up for the World Wide Developers Conference, which kicks off on the 7th of March:

Most of the icons there are familiar-looking, and any secret ones are probably still covered by those black pieces of cloth, but there are some obvious additions. I haven't quite been able to decipher all of them...but the DVD with the big black X on it is clearly the logo for OS X Leopard, I would think. It's much darker than I thought it would be, but nonetheless it looks good. There's also a very noticeable '64-bit' icon, the same that Apple used when the G5 was released. This isn't entirely surprising, as Intel's newly release Core 2 Duo chips support 64-bit processing, but this probably means we're going to see at least one Mac with these chips in them. Not entirely surprising perhaps, but exciting nonetheless!

Some of the logos I just don't recognise. If anybody knows what they are, do let me know! These would be...(roughly from left to right) those 4 little spheres, the green ball with the part-border under the black MacBook (and the orange one above the Xcode hammer, and the blue under the 64-bit icon), and the orange thing above the Java cup. These...I don't quite recognise, but I don't think they're anything new, as they look quite familiar. I just can't quite figure out what they are; for example, it took me a while to recognise the Quartz Extreme logo above the Finder logo on the right.

But if this is anything to go by...Leopard was expected, but also expect at least a Power Mac (Mac Pro?) that looks more or less the same, but with new Intel Chips that support 64-bit. But, Robert Scoble claimed on the bottom of one of the entries to his blog that Apple will unveil a 'dizzing' amount of new products at the WWDC. To quote him exactly:

"Speaking of Apple, they are readying a dizzying amount of new products. I wish I could camp out at an Apple store during the World Wide Developer Conference on August 7th. I wish I could say more, but that'd get me sued by Steve Jobs and I don't need that kind of heck right now."

Exciting stuff eh?

Random app: kip - grab it for free while you can!

ithinkthereforeipodcast@gmail.com (Perry Ge) — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 10:53:00 -0400

I just stumbled upon this interesting looking new application, called 'kip', found here. This version (1.01) is currently FREE, but the next version will not be free and will require purchase.

The site describes kip (spelled with a lower-case 'k') as 'iPhoto for your documents', which strikes me as an intriguing idea. I've downloaded the application and will spend a bit of time playing around with it. What it does essentially is display PDF files much like iPhoto displays images, and it also allows you to tag the documents. This is similar to iPhoto's keywords, but having seen the way it's implemented, it's probably more accurate to compare it to bookmark tags on del.ico.us (which is a personal and social bookmarking site that is definitely worth checking out if you haven't used it before).

The reason kip strikes me as a particularly promising idea is the fact that it handles PDF documents. This doesn't surprise me, as the PDF format is tightly and excellently integrated into OS X: Preview is one of the best PDF readers around, and every application that you can print from gives you the option of saving as PDF. If you're like me, and you like to convert and save text files, web pages and other documents as PDFs, kip could actually be very, very useful indeed. One problem I have with documents is that they end up all over the place (I don't dump all my random documents in OS X's 'Documents' folder). If kip provides a simple way of storing, organising and displaying all of my documents, I just might find myself using it on a regular basis. We'll see...lots of great ideas for apps end up being poorly implemented.

If this application turns out to be fabulous, I will definitely come back and write about it again. For now, I need to spend more time fiddling with it to see what it can do. And remember, this version is free, and future versions will not be...so if the idea interests you, go and grab a free copy while you can.

Apple releases wireless Mighty Mouse

ithinkthereforeipodcast@gmail.com (Perry Ge) — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 10:05:00 -0400

Apple finally released a wireless version of their Mighty Mouse today, shortly after AppleInsider released photos of its prototype.

The wireless Mighty Mouse costs US$69, compared to the $45 pricetag on the wired version, and connects via bluetooth. All of its features are essentially exactly the same as the original Mighty Mouse, with one rather notable feature as well - it can run on either 1 or 2 AA batteries. This, I think, is pretty cool. Running the mouse with 1 battery in it will obviously mean that it has a shorter battery life, but it will also make the mouse lighter, which is a plus. A lot of people, especially gamers, steer away from wireless mice because they're too heavy with the batteries in them. A wireless Mighty Mouse, combined with 1 rechargeable AA battery, could be a wonderful combination, as it would likely be light enough to appease a lot of people.

I must say, this really is the best of both worlds. I am a fan of the Apple Wireless mouse, but the one thing I don't like about it is that it only has one button. I'm ok with a one-button trackpad, but I like my mice to at least have a scroll wheel. I like the Mighty Mouse too, but my only problem with it is with the cable - I don't have enough USB ports in my iBook G4 to be able to spare one for a mouse. This solves all those problems!

I think I'm definitely going to go and grab one of these. There's nothing nicer than carrying a bluetooth mouse around with a laptop; we all get sick of trackpads eventually. Now if only Apple would make an ergonomic mouse...

Microsoft finally confirms iPod rival, Zune

ithinkthereforeipodcast@gmail.com (Perry Ge) — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 01:41:00 -0400

It's official, Microsoft has finally confirmed that it will be launching 'Zune', it's much-speculated about iPod competitor. They had recently quite adamantly denied any plans to develop such a player.

Reports say that the player will be hard-drive based, and will feature extensive Wi-Fi technology, allowing Zune users to do things like recommend music to each other, view each other's playlists and purchase music via Wi-Fi directly to the Zune.

These features, to be honest, sound pretty cool. Apparently the guy running the project is the same guy who headed the XBox project, and to be honest, he did a pretty good job of it. It does look like Microsoft is pushing in the right direction in order to offer a true iPod competitor, but there are still a couple of problems.

Firstly, Microsoft really does lack experience in the consumer electronics department. Many of its 'ideas' seem cool, but when implemented, generate far more initial buzz than they do demand. Take, for example, the recently release 'Ultra-Mobile PCs', which I wrote about in this post. Lots of hype. Very little effect when released.

The problem I think, is that Microsoft honestly doesn't seem to fully understand the concept of the end-user experience, unlike say, Apple. Although to be fair, the XBox did seem to get it right - maybe they can continue with this momentum. Though if this is the case, I don't understand why they don't just market the XBox name as well. It's just about the only Microsoft product that can match the iPod in the 'cool' department.

Finally, if the Zune is to be paired with the Microsoft/MTV Urge service, I don't know how well that will go down. Why? Because Urge doesn't let you keep the songs you purchase; instead you are just granted the right to listen to the ones you 'buy' on a subscription basis. You don't technically own what you buy from it, unlike say, things you buy from the iTunes Music Store.

Either way, Apple probably needs to unveil some new iPod innovations at the WWDC in order to counterbalance this report from Microsoft. With the Nike+iPod sports kit, it does seem like they're pushing in the direction of Wi-Fi in iPods, which would be awesome. Now it's just a waiting game to see what both Microsoft and Apple do.

Happy iCal Day!

ithinkthereforeipodcast@gmail.com (Perry Ge) — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 10:32:00 -0400

July 17th. Sound familiar? That's because this date is the default date icon for iCal! Why? Because iCal was launched on July 17th! So today we celebrate iCal day. For those of us who use iCal religiously, it makes organising life a breeze. For those who don't, perhaps today would be an appropriate day to give it a try. For the free spirits who don't plan anything ahead of time...well...you guys can still toast iCal today with everyone else!

I may or may not be in the wrong time zone right now actually, but it's July 17th where I am, and that's good enough for me!

I'm back!

ithinkthereforeipodcast@gmail.com (Perry Ge) — Sun, 16 Jul 2006 12:48:00 -0400

Hey everyone! I know I've been a bit AWOL for a few weeks, but that's because I've been off travelling! Sometimes life gets in the way of Apple technology. But now I'm back and I promise there'll be plenty more regular posts and podcast episodes to come, once I get over jetlag perhaps.

Apple Releases Mac OS X 10.4.7

ithinkthereforeipodcast@gmail.com (Perry Ge) — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 00:20:00 -0400

Apple today released the latest update to Mac OS X Tiger, 10.4.7, which you can get via Software Update or via Apple's downloads page.

10.4.7 adds numerous fixes, which are documented on the site. If you are using a MacBook Pro, apparently it adds the feature that was released with the MacBook that allows you to Ctrl+Click (right-click) using the trackpad by placing 2 fingers on the trackpad and clicking.

I've installed 10.4.7 and my system appears to be running a little bit more smoothly. It was a bit sluggish at times under 10.4.6, with far too many spinning beachballs of death for my liking. But at the moment, it seems to be a bit more responsive, which is not unusualy after an update from Apple.

That's one thing I love about Mac OS X. When it updates, it's usually the case that performance improves, unlike many other operating systems, which increase the required system specs with each upgrade, thus rendering older machines less usable. Upgrading from Panther to Tiger, for example, usually improves performance substantially.

There haven't been many reported issues that I've seen with this update, so I had no reservations in just jumping in and downloading it; 10.4.6 was getting on my nerves. Did anybody else find OS X 10.4.6 very sluggish compared to 10.4.5?

WWDC approaching; Digg 3.0 released today!

ithinkthereforeipodcast@gmail.com (Perry Ge) — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 10:37:00 -0400

The Apple world has been noticeably devoid of news in recent days, but a lull in activity is not unusual before an important event. I'm talking about the World Wide Developer's Conference of course, which is coming up this August. Probably second only to the Macworld Expo in terms of significance in the Apple world, the WWDC has been one of Apple's favourite outlets for showing off awesome new products. This year is no different, and the most highly anticipated event at the WWDC will of course be the promised preview of the next version of OS X - 10.5 Leopard. Apple today announced, unsurprisingly, that Steve Jobs will be doing the keynotes speech - expect him to make Leopard look like the greatest thing ever, which it quite likely will be.

But since there hasn't been much going on in the world of Apple otherwise, I haven't had much to write about! One announcement worth a note though, is that Digg has launched the latest version of its website, Digg 3.0, today. If you haven't checked out Digg before, it's a great site. It's a social news network, where users submit and vote for stories, and the most popular get posted to the front page. Not too exciting for mainstream news, but Digg is the best source of interesting, amusing stories out there that you might not otherwise have discovered. It has a whole section devoted to Apple as well, so it's a great source of unique, user-submitted stories. And all the major stories make the front page too. I've been using Digg for a long time, and I really recommend that you go check it out if you haven't before!

HoudaSpot now free from MacZOT!

ithinkthereforeipodcast@gmail.com (Perry Ge) — Sun, 18 Jun 2006 02:05:00 -0400

HoudaSpot, which I reviewed in this post, is now available for free from MacZOT!

Hurry though, there are only just under 3000 free licenses left, and once they're gone, if you want a copy of HoudaSpot, you'll have to pay for it. When you sign up for your free copy, you get a license emailed to you, which you can then use to register your copy of HoudaSpot.

If you haven't heard of MacZOT before, I really do recommend that you go and check it out, and bookmark it. They have great discounts on great Mac software every day, and they have offers like this very frequently. I got my copy of AppZapper this way, for free. And one can actually understand why software developers support them. In order to bring the price of HoudaSpot down to $0.00, people had to blog about it, and for each blog, the price went down by $0.05. That's quite a lot of blog entries, considering that the original price was $14.95, and as such, quite a lot of publicity for the developers of HoudaSpot.

Even though the software itself isn't something I'd use regularly (it's not a bad piece of software though, very well designed), free stuff is always good, and MacZOT is just a fantastic way of promoting quality Mac software. It's a great concept that benefits developers and consumers alike.

Google Earth - downtown Baghdad light beam

ithinkthereforeipodcast@gmail.com (Perry Ge) — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 02:20:00 -0400

I was trying out the new Google Earth 4 beta, which runs beautifully on the Mac by the way. But anyways, I was browsing around downtown Baghdad, and I came across this weird looking light beam:

What the heck is that? There are coordinates on the bottom of the image so you can check it out for yourself if you have Google Earth (click the image to enlarge).

Edit: Apparently it's a charge overflow in the CCD chip in the camera of the satellite that took the image, i.e. there was a spot that was too bright.

Either way, if you haven't checked out Google Earth for the Mac, do check it out, it works wonderfully, and it's great fun to stare at your house from a satellite photo. It also has improved integration with the newly released Mac version of SketchUp, which is a 3D modelling and design application that I really like. You can download both for free from the links provided.

Review: HoudahSpot - on MacZOT

ithinkthereforeipodcast@gmail.com (Perry Ge) — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 22:22:00 -0400

MacZOT.com is offering a new application, HoudahSpot, today. And the deal is that for every blog entry that reviews HoudahSpot, MacZOT brings down its price by $0.05, with the eventual goal of having it available for free.

So here's my (brief) review of the software.

First and foremost, it's the interface of HoudahSpot that stands out. Upon launch, you're greeted with a crisp, simple looking Aqua interface that looks like this:

This window allows you to easily specify complex search terms, and once you're done, HoudaSpot essentially performs a Spotlight search on your system.

To be honest, whilst its interface is great, I don't see why this software is necessary. I don't see why you can't just create a Smart Folder and specify search terms within that to achieve the same effect that HoudaSpot does. Moreover, HoudaSpot didn't perform much better than Spotlight does, which would be necessary if I were to consider using it. For example, the reason I use Quicksilver (a phenomenal application which I can't live without) as a launcher, rather than Spotlight, is partly because it's lightning fast, among other things.

So whilst I wouldn't recommend the purchase of this particular software, it looks nice nonetheless. And if you haven't heard of MacZOT before, I definitely recommend checking it out; they offer great discounts on awesome Mac software every day, and sometimes you can get lucky and get free stuff. For example, I got AppZapper (which I have written about here) and SubEthaEdit for free off MacZOT, and they're both excellent pieces of software.

I'll probably be using AppZapper on HoudaSpot now - but whatever you make of this review, if you see this post on the 16th of June, do blog it and submit your review to MacZOT. Why? Because free stuff is always nice :).

From apple.com - Leopard to run Windows apps?

ithinkthereforeipodcast@gmail.com (Perry Ge) — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 04:38:00 -0400

I was navigating Apple's website and checking out the new 'Get a Mac' pages, when I came across something that excited me quite a bit. I went to the part of the website that tries to dispel reasons why one wouldn't buy a Mac, specifically the 'Macs aren't slow' page, which you can find here.

On that page, I came across this paragraph:

"Plus, since Apple designs and tests the operating system and new hardware at the same time, the company can optimize software and hardware to work well together. That means on such well-designed hardware, that MacBook Pro runs even some Windows software faster than PCs themselves, according to third party results. (They’re able to get these results with beta software from the next version of Mac OS X, Leopard. Apple Computer does not sell or support Microsoft Windows.)"

This both startled and excited me. What beta software are they talking about? Is this suggesting or confirming that Leopard will be able to run Windows applications without having to install Windows? So many questions spring up - if this is true, how has Apple been able to adopt the Windows API? Surely Microsoft didn't license it...is this their own virtualisation technology?

I normally don't really like rumourmongering, but this is off Apple's own website!

Now I really can't wait to get a peek at Leopard during WWDC.

Passwords trick

ithinkthereforeipodcast@gmail.com (Perry Ge) — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 23:18:00 -0400

In my last podcast, I shared one of my favourite tricks in OS X, which I use to store passwords and logins in one place in a secure, easy-to-access way. I thought I'd write it out for you, because it is definitely one of my favourite tips of all time.

It's the perfect solution to the age old problem of passwords and logins. Nowadays we have so many of them: for our email accounts, for our online banking, for individual websites and so much more. With so many passwords, it's difficult to keep them all safe. But at the same time, it's also difficult to remember the ones you don't use frequently, especially if you keep them too safe. This solution keeps passwords safe, but it also keeps them all in one easily accessible place - on your computer. By using an encrypted disk image, you can password-protect a text file, and use that text file to store all of your passwords and logins! Here's how to do it.

How to create the encrypted disk image:

Go to disk utility.

Press the 'New Image' button.

You'll receive a 'Save As' menu for your disk image.

Give your disk image a name and select where to save it.

Select the size of your new disk image from the first pull-down menu (for passwords, the smallest size will do).

Select AES-128 encryption from the second pull-down menu.

Make sure it says read/write disk image in the third pull-down menu.

Your final selections should look something like this:

Press 'Create' to finish creating the encrypted disk image.

Once you've done this, you'll be asked to enter a password (twice for verification) for the encrypted disk image. This will be the password you need to access the disk image and all of its contents. Create your password and enter it. Remember this password.

And voila! You have an encrypted disk image!

How to save and protect your passwords using this disk image:

Mount your disk image by double clicking it to open it.

You will be asked for the password that you entered when you created the disk image. Enter the password, and the disk image will mount like any other virtual disk image or external disk. You can now treat it as though it were such a disk, and edit its contents however you wish.

Create a text file (Word or TextEdit will do fine), enter all of the passwords and logins that you want to remember/protect and save this file to the mounted disk image. Do not keep an extra copy on your hard drive, that copy won't be protected.

Eject the mounted disk image.

Now your passwords and logins are protected! Nobody can access the disk image and its contents without your password. But at the same time, you can access all of your passwords and logins easily just by mounting the disk image and opening your text file! To edit or add passwords and logins, just mount the disk image, enter your password and edit the text file.

And there we go! A relatively simple way of keeping passwords both accessible and protected. I see this method as the perfect solution to the problem of keeping passwords and logins both a secret and easily accessible, and so far this is the only thing I use encrypted disk images for. However, this method can obvioulsy be used to protect any files that you might want to keep encrypted, and definitely feel free to do so (just make sure the size of your disk image is large enough to store what you want to encrypt).

Feel free to give me some feedback if you found this tip helpful!

Urge: Microsoft and MTV's iTunes competitor's terrible DRM

ithinkthereforeipodcast@gmail.com (Perry Ge) — Thu, 8 Jun 2006 02:05:00 -0400

Recently, Microsoft and MTV launched Urge, an online music service aimed aimed at competing with the iTunes Music Store. In doing so, they made a point of providing content in a WMV-only format, effectively alienating all iPod owners, as the Windows Media format is not recognised by the iPod. Some, including myself, would say that as a consequence of this, they are also shunning a large portion of their potential market. After all, most people who buy music online own MP3 players...and most people who own MP3 players own iPods, funny how Microsoft and MTV didn't do the math there. Thus, these people like myself argue that by using a format whose DRM shuts out the iPod market, Urge is essentially setting up its own demise. Why would you, as an iPod owner, switch to an online music service that doesn't support your MP3 player, when you have a compatible, easy-to-use alternative sitting right in the application that syncs your music to your library? I'm talking about iTunes of course.

Well it seems like Urge may have further shot itself in the foot with its DRM. According to this article, it seems that the Urge service has some odd DRM and licensing restrictions in its terms of use. First of all, it only allows you to authorise 3 PCs to use your purchased music, which isn't that bad...so far. But on top of that, the article claims that each PC is only allowed to authorise 2 MP3 players to hold your purchased music, which seems reasonable...but this restriction is apparently for life. So, as the article says, if your MP3 player breaks or gets stolen, or you simply want to buy a new MP3 player, Microsoft and MTV are essentially saying that you have to go and buy a new PC as well...which I suppose would sell more Windows licenses...or not.

Whether or not this article is accurate remains to be seen, and I do not attest to ever having used, considered using, or even checked out Urge, so I can't claim to be familiar with their terms of service. But if this article is true, then unless you want to stick with 2 MP3 players for life (and take extra good care of them), or risk having your music confined to your PC, never to be played on a portable device again (unless...you buy a new PC), then Urge probably isn't going to be the service for you. And heck, if you own an iPod, they don't want you either.

I think I'll stick with iTunes.

Apple relaunches Back-To-School program, offering free iPod nano

ithinkthereforeipodcast@gmail.com (Perry Ge) — Mon, 5 Jun 2006 09:17:00 -0400

Good news for all college students out there, Apple today relaunched their back to school program. Through this program, with any Mac (other than the Mac Mini) purchased between now and September 16th, you not only get the traditional education discount, but you also get a US$179 rebate - equal to the price of the 2GB nano with the student discount applied - on any iPod purchased with the Mac in the same order. This basically means that you get a free 2GB nano, or an equivalent discount of another iPod, if you buy a Mac in this period.

The way the offer works is that you pay for both initially in the same order, and then you submit a rebate form (keep the boxes of your products for this), and get the $179 back.

I took advantage of this offer last year, when I purchased my iBook G4 in August, and it is definitely worth it if you need to/want to get a Mac before the next school period.

Right now the offer seems to only exist on the US online store, but it's just been launched, so it should hit other countries' stores shortly.

Podcast #6

ithinkthereforeipodcast@gmail.com (Perry Ge) — Sat, 3 Jun 2006 06:44:00 -0400

In today's show:

News

Apple + Nike partnership

Competing with the iPod

Apple OS on Dell support site

Apple Fifth Avenue time lapse marriage proposal story

Rumours

Apple Gaming project?

Apple phone? Simple or complex?

Apple Quality Control

Is it getting worse?

MacBook Pro story

Trying to understand the problems - a period of transition

BitTorrent on Mac

Intro + 3 BitTorrent clients

Official BitTorrent

Azureus

Tomato Torrent

Tip!

Great way of keeping passwords secure and easily accessible

Using an encrypted disk image

Listen to today's show here.

Subscribe to my podcast! Go to iTunes, open the 'Advanced' menu, select 'Subscribe to Podcast', and paste the following URL into the box: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ithinkthereforeipod