•
There are a couple things I’ve noticed about Time Machine that are worthy of mentioning. Yes, Time Machine is a great application and the Mac world will be a better place for it. And despite its admirable job of hiding all the nitty gritty from sight, the nitty gritty is still back there, making things happen. You can try to simplify backup — but the fact remains, backup isn’t simple.
Renamed Files and Folders
I’d read some speculation that Time Machine might be very, very smart. That it might somehow tag your files in a way that it knew when you renamed or moved one. The hope here was that Time Machine wouldn’t copy a renamed file to your backup drive and store it twice. Not so. Time Machine does make the copy. Read more »
|
Permalink
•
If you didn’t participate in Macheist you missed out on a great application called 1Password. With 1Password you can store your login credentials from multiple websites and log in with a couple clicks.
Do you have multiple Gmail accounts? 1Password makes it a snap to switch between them. (there are other applications for this purpose) Actually, if you have multiple usernames on ANY website 1Password will help you keep them straight. Watch the screencast to see how Murphy sets up sites for 1Password.
It seems like Murphy is creating new usernames and passwords all the time. Keeping them sorted can be taxing on the brain. The last thing you want to do is use the same password on multiple sites. Better still, 1Password can help you generate strong, unique passwords since you won’t have to remember them. Read more »
Watch Now
|
Permalink
•
If you need another angle on the iPod touch
hubbub take a look at what Mike has to say over at Silver Mac. Murphy finds himself in agreement.People have made valid points here and there: My car didn’t come with a GPS, shouldn’t I just steal one? Because obviously it’s ok to steal Mail, Stocks, Weather, Notes and Maps since everyone is doing it. From here on out we’ll refer to those as MSWNM.What really happened here is that Apple made a mistake. Yes, a mistake. MSWNM should have been included in the touch from the beginning. Apple left them out from the iPod thinking the move would help distinguish the touch from the iPhone. Their mistake was not realizing the PHONE would distinguish the iPhone from the touch. Do you know anyone who bought an iPhone instead of a touch to get MSWNM? Bottom line: Crippled devices at this price point are bad business. Read more »
iPod touch - Amazon - $219
|
Permalink
•
Murphy has long considered Macworld to be Second Christmas. All Murphy really wants for this year’s Second Christmas: Make the Apple-branded (FM) Radio Remote compatible with the iPod Touch. And maybe the iPhone.
Come on Apple, why isn’t it compatible? Think of all the cool stuff you could do with the big screen. Presets. An eye-candy dial. Presets. If someone around here had any Photoshop skills we’d whip up a concept photo. With presets.
Customers spent $50 on this thing. No doubt the profit margin was substantial. Give a little back and make it work with the touch. The Apple site says (as of Jan 13) it’s compatible with all iPods except the Shuffle. The touch is an iPod.
Along with the FM part not working, the remote doesn’t even work. The touch begs for a remote with its lack of hardware buttons for volume and / or pause. We won’t dwell on the obvious benefits of keeping the device in your pocket and using a remote.
I’m going to be optimistic and believe the Radio Remote will be activated in the next firmware update.
|
Permalink
•
Another Preview Tip, Using LogMeIn to Help Remote Users, Thoughts About Macworld
More with Preview in Leopard - Murphy already showed you some new tricks with Preview. But did you know you can combine multiple photos together in Preview now? Open photos X and Y. Select part of photo X and copy to the clipboard. Select photo Y and paste it in.You can even rotate the selection by holding the Command key while you drag a corner handle. You can do the same thing within a single photo too. Here’s an example.
2007 MVP - Picking the Most Valuable Product of 2007 was pretty easy for Murphy. LogMeIn.com is the winner. Murphy is a long-time user of cross-platform VNC. But
LogMeIn is the new go-to tool for supporting other users on Windows or a Mac. (linux users might want to
read this)
Murphy doesn’t provide phone support for friends anymore. He’s got them all added to his LogMeIn account. When Murphy signs in to LogMeIn he sees a list of computers - used by the people he routinely helps. A click on the computer name and he can start a remote control session.
Some people might find installing LogMeIn to be easier than getting VNC running and finding the IP of the remote machine. (whatismyip.com) Once installed, you don’t have to wonder about the remote machine’s ip, you just click its name and get a secure connection. There’s also full screen mode, and clipboard crossover. Nice.
Murphy has the people he supports install LogMeIn under his account. Then he changes the password. That way all the machines he supports are listed in one place. Even when Murphy is using someone else’s machine he has easy access to all the computers he supports.
There’s a big brother aspect to this: It’s easy for Murphy to see who is online and when. But then again, he’s providing a valuable service free of charge! By the way, you can get more features by paying for LogMeIn - but Murphy has been getting by just fine with the free version.
So far, LogMeIn has been much easier to use for support than VNC or MSN Messenger(for Windows friends). But VNC is still Murphy’s choice in the house. It’s much faster to open up a desktop on a machine upstairs with VNC than it would be with LogMeIn.
Note: Leopard has a new screen sharing tool that Murphy hasn’t tried yet.
Here’s more information on VNC.
Only Days Until Macworld - Murphy the Stockholder is hoping for big surprises next week. It seems like the press has gotten word of Steve’s announcements before he makes them lately. The iPhone wasn’t a big surprise. The Fatty Nano was leaked in advance. But sometimes we get a surprise. Remember when the ROKR was announced? Nobody knew Mr. Jobs was holding the first Nano in his pocket. (actually, maybe
engadget knew) Perhaps we’ve got a surprise brewing this time too. But what could it be?
It seems too early for 3G. The June iPhone buyers would cry. Not to mention last week’s buyers. The technology needs a few more months to bake anyway.A tuner on Apple TV? Doubt it. DVR? Don’t think so. But something. Maybe a Blu-ray player.
We’d really like to see a larger form-factor iPod touch. Not a tablet in the sense we’ve seen on PC devices, where it’s a laptop that the screen flips around on. Too bulky and awkward. Make the iPod touch bigger, maybe half a sheet of paper. But just as thin. Make it work with the new Bluetooth keyboard. Done.
aapl’s price has been beaten down. What’s going on there? Does Wall Street know there’s not much to announce next week? Movie rentals and a sub-notebook, ho-hum? Maybe. You’d think the impeding earnings report for the first quarter would prop the stock up a little bit! Not that it hasn’t done remarkably well, but it looks like Apple has been oversold this week.
We won’t have to wait much longer. But if there’s something you’d really like to see announced next week post it in the comments.
|
Permalink
