MacMerc.com

The iPod too small to need a case, now has a case

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 12:09:35 EDT

There's far from anything revolutionary about silicon iPod cases anymore. This one only merits comment because it's for the new iPod shuffle: a device so small, it doesn't need a case. The iPod shuffle is barely noticeable at all and has only one port and one switch to defend, so the Sumajin 3rd Gen iPod Shuffle Silicone Case seems a bit much.

For USD$14, you get 2 flip-top sleeves to prevent your shuffle from getting scratched or dinged. The cases come in 6 colors plus "glow in the dark" which may be the most useful one--it might help you find your shuffle if you lose it!

One day left to grab the MacHeist 3 Bundle. 14 Mac Apps for $39

Mon, 6 Apr 2009 22:39:06 EDT

The controversialoem software MacHeist 3 is coming to a close. It began, as it always does, with a series of secret agent-style missions that end in the reward of free Mac applications.

After the missions were completed, the 12 app bundle was announced--iSale, Picturesque, SousChef, World of Goo, PhoneView, LittleSnapper, Acorn, Kinemac, WireTap Studio, BoinxTV, The Hit List, and Espresso all for USD$39.

Since the then, there have been two bonus apps added (Cro-Mag Ralley and Times). Two more applications are available to those who have purchased and participate in the Tweetblast--they will receive Delicious Library 2 and Multiwinia.

All this is coming to a close in the next day or so, when the MacHeist 3 promotion ends. So far over $600,000 has been raised for charity through sales of the bundle. If you haven't picked yours up, you'd better hurry.

25 iPhone 3G How-Tos

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 00:10:23 EDT

While I'm temporarily distracted with other things, have a look at this great list of the 25 (Most Wanted) Tips For IPhone 3G.

I found the item on "How To Switch Punctuation Keys To Alphabet Keys Quickly" to be very useful.

[ Via Digg ]

While your flexing your iPhone muscles, did you know that you can Use iPhone headphones as a remote for Keynote?

Controls on Apple's 3rd-Gen-iPod-Shuffle-style replacement earbuds work on most iPods

Sat, 21 Mar 2009 17:58:00 EDT

When Apple announced the new 3rd generation iPod shuffle, it moved the device's controls to the earbud cables. The fragility of these earbuds necessitates the availability of replacements. The new replacement earbuds not only include the shuffle's controls, but they also feature a mic for use with the iPhone.

Obviously, the mic won't be of any use for iPod shuffle users, but will the controls work with the iPhone or any of the other current iPods?

Yes, they will...and maybe that's a tad obvious, but I thought it was worth a mention.

Below the fold, I've included a simple chart of what the Apple Earphones with Remote and Mic does on iPods and the iPhone.

New talking iPod shuffle released. Talks funny to PC users and annoys Apple earbud haters.

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 22:38:27 EDT

Apple announced its newly designed iPod shuffle today. It's nearly half of the size of the previous model and now it talks to you. The same VoiceOver technology found in Mac OS X now enables the iPod shuffle to speak your song titles, artists and playlist names (oh, yeah, you can have multiple playlists now!!).

This is now the third generation iPod shuffle and you'll find all of its controls have moved from the device to the earphone cord. This means, with the press of a button on the supplied Apple earbuds, you can play, pause, adjust volume, switch playlists and hear the name of the song and artist. It also means if you're one of the multitude of people that prefer not to use Apple earbuds with your iPod, you're out of luck when it comes to the shuffle until third party adapters come along:

Apple says there will also be third-party adapters that will let you add a remote to your favorite headphones.

The new iPod shuffle comes in silver or black at a capacity of 4GB selling for USD$79. The new iPod shuffle requires a Mac with a USB 2.0 port, Mac OS X v10.4.11 or later and iTunes 8.1 or later; or a Windows PC with a USB 2.0 port and Windows Vista, Windows XP Home or Professional (Service Pack 3) or later and iTunes 8.1.

As this is a Mac website, I don't usually list Windows PC requirements in the posts I make here, but thought I would this time since I'm going to talk about an interesting difference in using the 3rd Gen iPod shuffle on a PC than on a Mac: it talks funny on a PC. Watch this guided tour and at about 3 minutes and 24 seconds in you'll hear what VoiceOver sounds like for PC users.

MacMerc.TV: TextExpander

Thu, 5 Mar 2009 22:06:26 EST

AutoCAD 2009

Get more from every keystroke with Smile On My Mac's TextExpander. Rick Yaeger puts the Preference Pane through its paces in this edition of MacMerc.TV.

If you decide to register TextExpander, use the code MACMERC09 when you check out and you'll get 20% off!! This offer is only good until March 31, 2009, so hurry!!

Be sure to subscribe to MacMerc.TV in iTunes to get the latest edition as soon as it becomes available. We offer an iPod version and an HD one for AppleTV.

If you have ideas (software you'd like featured or tech concepts you'd like explained) for future episodes of MacMerc.TV, send me an email.

TuneBoard: Speaker Keyboard for Mac Reviewed

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 23:11:49 EST

Verbatim isn't known for their Mac-only products, but that may change with the introduction of their speaker-keyboard for the Mac.

Join me for a review of the TuneBoard for Mac and see just what happens when you add an audio experience to your primary input device.

Apple TV version 2.3.1 now available. Boxee users, I hope you turned off auto-updates?

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 22:36:47 EST

Apple has pushed an Apple TV update tonight that brings the device's software to version 2.3.1. Unfortunately, the software update procedure on Apple's home theater device does not offer any list of what changes with each upgrade, so we are forced to just download and hunt around until we find improvements.

One change that has been noted by those who neglected to disable auto-updates when they installed Boxee, is that the update unceremoniously removes the third-party add-on. I can't say I'm surprised.

If any of you readers discovers any new and exciting additions to the Apple TV's abilities brought about by the application of this update, please tell us what you've found in the comments.

[ Via Apple TV Junkie ]

Is there anywhere Apple won't put Cover Flow? Safari 4.0 Beta Announced

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 20:52:03 EST

Today Apple announced the public beta of Safari 4 for Mac (under Tiger or Leopard) and Windows (XP SP2 or Vista).

Apple claims the Nitro engine in Safari 4 runs JavaScript 4.2 times faster than Safari 3. Safari 4 also has other new features like "Top Sites" (which gives shiny thumbnails of frequently visited pages), Full History Search, Cover Flow (because everything has to have Cover Flow), and Tabs on Top (with no option to put them back where they were).

Safari 4 is available immediately as a free download. A more complete list of features is listed after the "Read more."

WhatTheFont for iPhone takes font identification on the road

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 22:55:37 EST

I have a bit of a sickness when it comes to fonts: if I see one I like that I've never seen before, I have to identify it and, often times, buy it. I can't control it. Sometimes the obsession prevents me from enjoying my favorite shows.

Well, thanks to MyFonts.com, I can now employ my iPhone to further my habit. Their new iPhone app, WhatTheFont for iPhone, allows me to take a picture of the font in question with the iPhone's built-in camera. After cropping the image to just the part I want identified, the software uploads the sample to MyFonts.com where it is analyzed. It asks me to verify and identify the letters shown in the sample I photographed. Then it comes back several suggestions as to what font I was looking for. It's like a magic trick for font maniacs: pick a font, any font...

WhatTheFont for iPhone is free to download from the iTunes App Store.AutoCAD 2009

Freeverse shows off video of upcoming Days of Thunder iPhone game

Wed, 4 Feb 2009 23:14:38 EST

I had the pleasure of meeting with the the guys at the Freeverse booth at Macworld last month and one of the games they showed me was Days of Thunder, a joint venture with them and Paramount Digital Entertainment, that will be coming out very soon.

I'm not much of a gamer but I found the iPhone accelerometer-based steering of this game to be very natural--so much so that I think I probably tuned out everything the Freeverse folks were telling my while I immersed myself in the game.

Here's a video to give you an idea of what is to come.

Google Quick Search updated--supports Twitter

Wed, 4 Feb 2009 22:25:35 EST

The app I'm hoping will pick up where Quicksilver dropped off got updated today. Google Quick Search is a very Quicksilveresque application that searches for files, launches applications, explores the file system to discover content and perform actions like Spotlight, but also does Google searches as well.

The new version released today is Google Quick Search Box 2.0.0.918 (Titanium). Here are the changes:

Added support for pivoting on System Preferences to see Preference Panes.
Add Large type action.
Fixes issues with pivoting on directories
Fixes issue where QSB couldn't be run in two login sessions at the same time (thanks to jacobc for tracking this down).
Fixes issue where QSB would use a huge amount of memory when Camino and Safari Bookmarks were updated (thanks to motownavi for tracking this down).
Developer Documentation source now waits for more data before returning results to cut down on noise.
Improved UI responsiveness when typing in queries.
Shared File List source now updates properly.
Results are now more comprehensive with less duplication.
iTunes actions should now be easier to find at top level, and will appear when pivoting into the iTunes.app result.
Icons now load more efficiently trying not to block the user interface.
Real Memory usage is down significantly.
Refactored account management to ease the addition of new account types through the introduction of account plugins and HGSSimpleAccount.
Added a Twitter account and a Twitter 'send status' action as an example of an account plugin using HGSSimpleAccount.
Contacts now return subfields such as email address, phone number etc. as results when pivoted on.
Added a filter box for Searchable Items in Preferences.
Fixed up issue where composer, artist, etc in an iTunes search could be listed as (NULL).

You'll notice that Quick Search now supports Twitter�very cool! For a little more on Google's Quick Search, see our previous article on the subject.

Dragon Bones: Blambot's FREE font for February

Tue, 3 Feb 2009 01:02:57 EST

I can't believe it's February 2009 already.

It's a new month and that means a new FREE font from Blambot. For February 2009, it's Dragon Bones.

Says fontmaster, Nate Piekos, With regular, italic and bold included, Dragonbones is perfect as the voice for your ancient wyrm or snivelling goblin. On an interesting side note, I challeneged myself to create a font from start to finish in 24 hours. Dragonbones is it! Of course it helped that I needed a font like this for the voice of Frog Thor in a new Marvel book. Necessity is the mother of invention!

Download and enjoy this now font. Also check out Balmbot�s Comics Grammar & Tradition. Great article.

Apple plans the official obsolescence of a few of their older Macs

Mon, 2 Feb 2009 23:51:25 EST

On March 17th, the following items will be officially deemed "vintage" or "obsolete" in Asia-Pacific, Canada, Europe, Japan, Latin America, the United States and retail Apple Stores. After that date, Apple will not provide service parts or documentation for these products and the items cannot be sent in as Mail-In Repairs to AppleCare Repair Centers. Time to hit your parents up for some new tech, boys and girls.

Here's the "vintage" list:

Xserve RAID
Xserve (Slot Load)
Xserve (Cluster Node)

...and here's the "obsolete" list:

PowerBook G4
Power Mac G4 (Digital Audio)
Power Mac G4 (Quicksilver)
Macintosh Server G4 (Digital Audio)
Macintosh Server G4 (Quicksilver)

Yup, the G4s are almost done as far as Apple support is concerned.

What's the difference between "vintage" and "obsolete"? It's kind of a legal thing. Service parts for vintage products are only available to repair older Apple products purchased in the state of California, as required by statute.There is no difference between vintage and obsolete products anywhere else.

MacMerc.TV: 1Password

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 17:43:05 EST

In this edition of MacMerc.TV, I take a look at 1Password from Agile Web Solutions, and discuss what goes into making a strong password.

Be sure to subscribe to MacMerc.TV in iTunes to get the latest edition as soon as it becomes available. We offer an iPod version and an HD one for AppleTV.

If you have ideas (software you'd like featured or tech concepts you'd like explained) for future episodes of MacMerc.TV, send me an email.

Peel back the layers on your screenshots, window by window

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 01:18:30 EST

I don't know what I'd use this for, but it is very, very cool.

A Madrid-based software developer called wuonm has announced the release of Layers 1.0, a unique screen capturing utility. It creates Adobe Photoshop compatible screenshots where each desktop icon, menu item and each window from every open application is isolated on its own layer.

Layers 1.0 is priced at USD$19.95 for a single-user license. A full-featured, demo that generates water-marked images is available. For a limited time, wuonm is offering a discount on licenses as launch promotion...just USD$14.95.

Merlin Mann explains what he keeps in his menu bar

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 22:05:27 EST

Merlin's First Desktop Tour from Merlin Mann on Vimeo

My hunch is that the people who devote most of their time to productivity are the ones for whom the act is a constant battle. These are the people who have high demands on their time but have the most trouble staying on task and "getting things done." I think this may be true of productivity guru Merlin Mann of 43 Folders fame. And it is because of this that I think Merlin is so effective: he's not an authority on which productivity methods work because the processes comes easy to him, but because they do not. It's as if, if Merlin can use this method/gadget/application and be more focused, it should work for everyone.

So, when I found that 43 Folders had posted Merlin's First Desktop Tour, I was hooked. In the video, he goes icon by icon and explains what each application or menu item does and why it's great.

After watching the tour, I've committed myself to looking in to BusySync and FuzzyClock, but I'd like to offer an alternative to Spirited Away in the form of Desktopple Pro which has all of its functions and then some.

[ Via Lifehacker ]

Orbiting numbers tell the time while your Mac dreams

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 00:29:59 EST

Jesson Yip's latest screensaver features a typographic clock which "fuses the immediacy of digital with the visual-spatial quality of analogue into a hybrid format." Does that make any sense to you? It will once you download and install Analogy.

[ Via MacScreenSavers ]

The latest Mac Trojan can be avoided by not pirating software

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 00:19:29 EST

An Intego Security Alert warns of a new exploit to threaten the tranquility of the Mac universe: OSX.Trojan.iServices.A Trojan Horse.

The new Trojan Horse is currently hidden in pirated copies of Apple's iWork '09 available via various BitTorrent tracker sites. While the software is complete and functional, the installer contains a "bonus" called iWorkServices.pkg. This software is installed as a startup item where it has read-write-execute permissions for root: in other words, it has all the powers of a system administrator. This malicious software connects to a remote server over the internet, alerts its maker that it has been installed and gives this person the ability to connect to the affected Mac remotely.

Given that this alert came from Intego, it is no surprise that their software, VirusBarrier X4 and X5, will protect you against this Trojan horse as long as your virus definitions are dated January 22, 2009 or later. Meanwhile, over at SecureMac, they have made a free and handy iWorkServices Trojan Removal Tool that will... well... remove the Trojan for you.

I should mention that the preferred method of dealing with this Trojan is avoidance: go buy iWork '09 legitimately!!

Bohemian Coding releases FontCase font management app

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:12:21 EST

I'm a fairly new Linotype FontExplorer X user, but I'm not won over so much that my eye has not been caught by the beauty of Fontcase. This new app made by Pieter Omvlee of Bohemian Coding is a font management application that offers a more Leopard-like interface to help you organize your fonts. Omvlee says it has been designed to be an iTunes for your fonts.

Since Fontcase can preview any font whether it is activated or not from all over your Mac's filesystem, you can keep all your fonts in Fontcase and preview and activate them when you need them. The app also allows you to print TypeBook-style previews.

As I write this, Fontcase is importing my font data from Linotype FontExplorer X and it has already alerted me to a few damaged fonts. So, it's not just a pretty face; it's got your back too.

The one problem I see for my own workflow is the lack of automatic activation. Hopefully, plug-ins for common design applications are in the works, but until such time, I'll stick with Linotype FontExplorer X. Still, I'm intrigued at some of the features Bohemian Coding has added to this app and I'll be keeping an eye out for updates.

Fontcase sells for 42 Euro, but for a limited time it's going for 35 Euro. The license gets you free updates until the next major update.