MacHeads the Movie - A story about a community

Just got a heads up on "MacHeads the Movie" a documentary about the Mac community which is due to be released shortly. The movie promises to cover a history of the Mac and features interviews with a number of well known MacHeads including:

Raines Cohen, Co-Founder of the first Macintosh user group BMUG,
Guy Kawasaki, former Apple Evangelist and savior,
Bruce Damer and Galen Brandt, owners of Digibarn Computer Museum,
Shawn King, host of Your Mac Life,
Adam Engst, publisher of the first Apple newsletter,
Leander Kaheny author of Cult of Mac,
Andy Ihnatko Chicago Sun-Times' technology columnist,
Daniel Kottke Mac engineer and the first official employee of Apple Inc,

Having read a range of books on Apple and the development of the Mac this documentary looks like it could offer an interesting twist on the topic of what makes Apple and Mac such icons. Simply put it seems like the team at Chimp 65 Productions is onto the answer which is the community of Mac users. Having been a Mac user since the beginning and having been involved in Macintosh User Groups and bulletin boards in the mid-80s the reality is the thing that has always made Macs different are the devotion of the users. I'll write a post once the movie gets released and I have a chance to watch it - in the meantime check-out their site.

Leopard - Useful new feature Webclips

One useful feature that is included as a native part of Leopard is the ability to build a custom widget that is displayed in Dashboard. In Safari v3.0 a new icon appears in the toolbar
(a pair of scissors with a dotted box) that once clicked on allows you to select an area of the current web page to be monitored. Once you've selected the area you click the ADD button which puts a new Widget on your Dashboard. There are limited formatting options at this point in terms of the type of box that the web clip is displayed in. One thing that would be useful would be the ability to label the Widgets.

Overall, a small feature that previously you needed to use third party software and a couple of hacks to have this functionality. At this point I'm still experimenting with web clips having setup two 1) to monitor the current inventory of refurbished Macs on Apple's online store and 2) to monitor the ongoing auctions of vintage Macs on eBay.

New Blog - Spin-off Classic Mac

Just a quick note to say that in an effort to improve this blog I've made the decision to spin-off the Apple, Mac and iPod related content and focus Thoughtful Wheaten on topics of Investing, Finance, Book Reviews, etc... Hopefully you'll enjoy the changes here is a link to the new blog:

Classic Mac

Time Machine First Experience

I had my first experience using the new back-up utility included in OSX Time Machine the other day and thought it would be worth posting my impressions here. For some reason my iTunes library was corrupted in the last couple of days so I got the first opportunity to put Time Machine through its paces. In terms of usage once you launch Time Machine you get a glossy interface that offers you a view of your Finder in the middle of the screen and a time scale running off into space on the right side of the screen. Use of the application is very clean and seamless simply scroll back through different dates on the right hand scale till you find the appropriate date and you'll see the files updating dynamically as you scroll. Once you've found the file you want simply select it and click on the restore button which will restore the file to your desktop or specified file folder. 

My take is that Time Machine hits the target in terms of its stated purpose in providing OSX users with a great tool for easily and simply backing up their files to an external drive. What Time Machine isn't is a full back-up tool that would displace SuperDuper! or CarbonCopyCloner in terms of making a bootable back-up of your entire hard drive.

While it's hard to get excited about a file back-up utility - Time Machine is likely one of the more subtle improvements in this release of the operating system. Since the majority of users never bother to back-up I think that the ability to turn Time Machine on, select your preferences (e.g., which folders to back-up) and simply let the program run. I will say that Time Machine is disk hungry and I'd recommend picking up a large hard drive (best to get a minimum 2x larger drive than the one that is internal to your Mac). 

Leopard A Few Thoughts After Living With A New OS

After living with Leopard for a while I thought that it would be worth coming back and posting some additional impressions of the latest Mac operating system.


GUEST ACCOUNT - Last night, I made use of one of the features that I'd quickly looked at and dismissed but found extremely useful the ability to enable a Guest account on your Mac. The great thing about this is that you can allow a visitor who is over to use your computer safely and securely for a short period of time. Basically, its a single use account in that anything done during the session will be cleaned up when the Guest account is logged out or the machine is shutdown. I didn't expect to use this feature but found it extremely handy - have a look.
Here is where you go to activate the Guest Account.
Go to the Apple Menu > System Preferences > Accounts
Select the Guest Account in the sidebar to the left.
Check the checkbox next to Allow guests to log into this computer and configure Parental Controls if you're so inclined.

iChat 4.0 - Over the past few weeks, I've had the opportunity to spend more time using the latest version of iChat and must say that I'm impressed with the improvements that Apple has worked into this version.

• In my opinion the iChat Theatre function is one of the biggest improvements in this release. Basically you're able to drag photos from iPhoto, your desktop or another program and drop them onto the chat window enabling you to show them as a slideshow to the person you're chatting with. In addition, you can also play movies from iMovie or .AVI and .MOV files saved to your desktop (I assume support is broader but I've only tested .MOV and .AVI files). This feature is great if you don't want to be bothered uploading a lot of photos to Flickr or videos to YouTube!
  
• I've had chats with another user running Leopard so we were both able to experiment with the Computer Sharing functionality that enables another user to take control of your Mac remotely. I must admit this seems like a great option for those not interested in setting up Chicken of the VNC and much easier to administer.
• The new backgrounds in iChat are fun but sensitive to the positioning of the lighting in your environment otherwise the effects don't come off as cleanly as they otherwise should.

What Mac apps broke under Leopard?

I started thinking about which applications broke under the migration from Apple's Tiger operating system to the newest release Leopard. In general my transition to Leopard has been fairly pain free given past operating system migrations that I've undertaken on the Mac and under Windows.

At this point there are still a number of applications that I use that haven't fully made the move to Leopard including:

• SuperDuper! While I am running TimeMachine, there is still a place for ShirtPocket's SuperDuper! backup program. This is the program that I'm looking forward to having updated by far given the importance of having full back-ups.
  
  
• FetchArt - This is a freeware program that allows you to automatically update your iTunes library for missing album art automatically from Amazon's music store.
  
  
• Adobe Creative Suite 3 Lots have been said about this elsewhere in the blogosphere in terms of Adobe's lag time in releasing this application suite.
  

I'd blame most of the lag in having applications Leopard ready on Apple since it sounds like they made fairly major changes to the final gold master release from prior developer releases. It seems from reading most of the sites of the affected applications that the independent development community is hard at work seeking to address the changes required to run under Leopard.

What apps do you use that didn't make the journey to Leopard yet?

Addicted to iMovie08

As I mentioned in an earlier post I've started to experiment with iMovie '08 and have been having a blast editing and building my own videos. At this point I'm using short video clips taken from our camera (a Canon SD800 IS - the image stabilization is well worth it). While I know that some traditional iMovie users are less then thrilled with the 2008 version I must admit that it seems like a great application (albeit this is the first version I've used).

I wanted to highlight a few of the features that I've been spending the most time with outside of editing

• I'm by no means a master video editor but the ability to quickly drop in a nice title, create slick transitions between clips and overlay music or sound effects (either from iMovie, Garageband or iTunes) is a winner in my books.

• The synchronization feature with iTunes which enables the user to select the quality of the output and enables you to export to an iPod Touch or iPhone. Previously I'd used iSquint to convert the files from .avi files to movies that could be played on my Touch.
  
  
• The built-in synchronization with either YouTube! or .Mac for video sharing that enables one-click publishing to the web is a major plus when you just want to create the content and push it out there. I am currently testing YouTube! as an alternative to .Mac given the relatively hefty price $109 that Apple wants for a one-year subscription. There have been a myriad of complaints from people about the hefty price tag and relatively light feature set for .Mac. My take is that after trying the .Mac trial for the past 60 days they're justified complaints since the service is of limited value to those of us that already have alternate email addresses. I will admit that the one-click publishing from iPhoto and iMovie are the main reason that I'd consider signing up for .Mac. Drop me an email and let me know the online services you're using for photo and video sharing and your experiences.

For those that want to get into iMovie in more detail have a look at Unlocking iMovie '08 a great site with tons of tips and tricks for producing your own movies.

My machine does lag a little when importing the video from my iPhoto library and this may be helped by bumping the RAM on my Macbook Pro up to 4GB. I'm planning to upgrade over the next month and will post an update on the improvement in video processing that bumping the RAM makes. Given that video processing is fairly processor intensive I'm hoping that extra RAM will help free up some more space in managing the conversion process.

Fun with iMovie 08

I've been somewhat delinquent in my postings over the past week as things have been fairly busy at work and I've been working on finishing reading and writing reviews of several new books. However after spending some time tonight working with iMovie 08 I wanted to post some quick thoughts on the tool and the future of digital media. For those that don't own a Mac, iMovie 08 is part of the iLife 08 suite of consumer digital applications sold by Apple for use on the Macintosh. iMovie is an application that enables you to import, edit and publish your own digital movies recorded from either a camcorder or digital camera. Historically, I've never been a big user of digital video editing applications but iMovie has changed that given it's simplicity and ease of use.

I've never been a big home movie fan or camcorder fiend but here is what has changed my mind with iMovie:

Ease of Use
- the interface is simple to use and powerful in its ability to enable even a novice user like myself to quickly edit and build an impressive looking movie
- the ability to incorporate music from your iTunes library means that you can really dress up your clips with your favorite music

Publishing
- integration with Apple's .Mac web hosting service that enables one-click publishing to the web and easy maintenance of clips in the event that you update them in the future
- integration with YouTube provides you with the ability
- built-in ability to export your movies to iTunes and have them preformatted for your various iPods (e.g., Touch, Nano, iPhone, Classic) makes it very simple for the new user and allows you to skip the need to use third party apps such as iSquint

My take is that the editing functions are a major step forward for the average consumer. However, the big reason that iMovie is a major step forward is the seamless publishing and integration with various playback devices (e.g., iPods, external websites) making this a very powerful tool. I'm now at risk of getting hooked on developing and publishing lots of Movies to the web!

Follow-up: In spending more time working with iMovie08 I wanted to provide a link to a great resource the Unlocking iMovie '08 blog offers a variety of great tips and useful tricks for getting the most out of iMovie.

Thoughts on Apple's latest cat - a week with Leopard

My copy of Leopard finally arrived via the "Up To Date" program offers to recent Mac purchasers. Once I'd received my copy I sat down to undertake the upgrade process only after I had a complete bootable backup copy of my existing 10.4 drive. Rather than undertake the traditional "clean" upgrade that I'd undertake with a Windows PC I opted instead to migrate from 10.4 to Leopard. The process took approximately one and a half hours as it went through the upgrade steps..

As I've gotten to know Leopard better here are some of my top observations:

Preview.app - as someone that actively reads large PDF files and edits images this is a great update of Apple's built-in viewing application. Some series changes have taken place and will enable users to discard Skim! a great application that let users mark-up and annotate PDFs.

Automator - while I haven't had a lot of time to experiment with the new version of Automator. A number of significant changes have been implemented making it even easier for the average user to perform repetitive tasks. I'm looking forward to working with Automator in greater detail but they've improved integration across applications and the operating system.

Stacks - this was a feature that I was skeptical about using since it seemed more like glossy feature-ware than a useful addition. However so far I've started to use Stacks to help organize my desktop since I leave a number of high priority documents sitting on my desktop. I took these documents and placed them in a folder that sits on my dock making it faster easier and neater to access these documents.

iChat - Apple has made a number of positive improvements to iChat beyond including access to more networks to connect with buddies. A number of interesting features have been added to the application with the ability to utilize a much wider range of backgrounds including custom back-drops from a user specified picture. Our testing indicated that the application can effectively change the backdrop to a user selected picture(s). The application also allows you to transfer files directly to your buddy via file transfer or sharing through iChat Theatre - both of which worked well. The most useful function included in iChat was the ability to share your computer with your buddy. As a replacement for Chicken of the VNC an open source remote administration application the latest version of iChat is equally useful for an average user. We were able to utilize screen sharing to prove out the ability for a remote users to execute a variety of commands across various applications (e.g., Finder, iPhoto, Safari).


More thoughts later.

Convert old cassettes to digital and listen on your iPod - Mac Version

If you're like me you've got a number of cassette's still kicking around that don't exist on your iPod or in your digital music collection. I finally decided to address the problem and convert a number of these tapes into digital. Here's how its done:

What you'll need:

• 1 Cassette Player with a standard mini out jack - in my case a fairly cheap Cassette Deck (if you have a higher end cassette deck you may need a slightly different patch cable)
• 1 Patch Cable - in this case a Mini RCA to Mini RCA Cable with two Male attachments on either end
• 1 Mac - in my case a Macbook Pro
• Cassette Tapes
• Audio Capture software - in my case I used the Audacity an open source software package that supports Mac, Windows and Linux platforms. Garageband will also handle this task.
• Download libmp3lame which is a plug-in for Audacity that enables it to export files to MP3 format
  

How to convert a cassette:

1. Connect your cassette player to your Mac (depending on your version you may have an audio line-in jack as is the case with the Macbook Pro or you may need to purchase a third party cable that operates through USB - I'll leave you to Google this elsewhere on the web).
2. Next launch Audacity and start a New Project (from the File Menu)
3. Go to the Audacity Menu and select Preferences select the Tab "Audio I/O" under the Recording section set the drop down menu to "Built-in Input" then click OK.
4. Next press play on the cassette player and push the Record button in Audacity you'll see the log begin to move with the Wave form varying with the level of the audio on your cassette.
5. After you've sampled a small section of audio hit stop and listen to your result. At this point you'll likely want to play around with the different levels within Audacity to get the optimal recording.
6. Once you're happy with the line levels and you're ready to start begin a new project and record the entire cassette.
   
7. Now that you've got you're cassette file in you may find some artifacts in the recording that you don't like such as that annoying cassette recorder hiss. Here is how to remedy this: find a section of your clip that is a pause that contains just the hiss then select that section and go to the Effects menu and select Noise Removal. Hit the Sample Noise button it will then close this dialog box - don't worry it just sampled the noise. Now go to the Edit menu and choose Select All next return to the Effects menu then select Noise Removal again this time click on the Remove Noise button. Once completed listen to the project again and the prior steps should have removed that annoying hiss if not play around with the noise removal options some more.
8. Next go to the File menu and select Export as MP3. Follow the dialogs and save your recording as an MP3 file.
   
9. Launch iTunes and go to the File menu and select Import navigate to the MP3 file you just created select it and click on import.
10. Finally synch your iPod and listen to your newly digitized recording.

You may also be interested in this post if you're looking to enhance the audio on your iPod.

Discounts on Apple Product - Still Waiting For Leopard

Well I'm still stuck waiting for Leopard since I recently bought a new MacbookPro I purchased the upgrade under an Apple program called "Up to date". Which is a great deal deal $9.95 vs. the regular $129 price tag. One other great tip on finding a discount on Apple gear is the Corporate sales program that Apple offers customers. If you work for a large organization check around since as I've discovered Apple has cut deals with major corporations to allow them and their employees to purchase new product at a discount. While the discount isn't as good as the Educational discount offered to those in College/University or Teachers the Corporate program could save you real $$$ on new Apple product.

While I wait I've been keeping myself busy searching for a good deal on another large external Firewire drive to accomodate TimeMachine (the interesting back-up program included in Leopard). I should be going to Costco this weekend to pickup two different Western Digital external hard drives that offer great value. Once I've purchased the drives and have them up and running I'll post some thoughts.

Prepping for Leopard - Only a week to go!

Okay, its only a week to go before Leopard hits the street at 6pm!

Have you pre-ordered your copy? I'll admit I have a copy on the way and will be getting the discounted version since I recently upgraded to a Macbook Pro from the white Macbook I'd been using for the past year. Hopefully, the web orders will ship in time to arrive for next Friday. Although, if you're near an Apple store and don't qualify for either the education discount or have bought a Mac that qualifies (in the past month) and you want the full fanboy experience you may want to line-up supposed free Leopard t-shirts are being handed out to an early number of buyers.
If you need a fix Apple has posted a guided tour that covers the key features watch it here

Alright time to talk about getting prepared. The following are some useful links that I've encountered in thinking about prepping my machine (since it was a migration of my previous OSX image from my Macbook).

1. Start with this article from MacWorld
2. Next I'd move on to reading this set of tips from Lifehacker
3. A great post about cleaning up your hard drive
   
4. My starting advice would be to back-up you Mac to an external drive using SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner.

Huzzah! Apple announces SDK for iPhone & iPod Touch

GREAT NEWS!

Following on the heels of the rumors from yesterday regarding the potential for Apple to relent and open up the iPhone and iPod touch platforms to third party developers - this announcement was posted on Apple's site today:

Let me just say it: We want native third party applications on the iPhone, and we plan to have an SDK in developers’ hands in February. We are excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users. With our revolutionary multi-touch interface, powerful hardware and advanced software architecture, we believe we have created the best mobile platform ever for developers.

...

We think a few months of patience now will be rewarded by many years of great third party applications running on safe and reliable iPhones.

Steve

P.S.: The SDK will also allow developers to create applications for iPod touch. [Oct 17, 2007]

Digital Signatures: The other interesting topic that is directly addressed in the posting is the topic of mobile security and the desire on the part of Apple to control. Nokia is cited as using digital signatures issued to developers as an initiative to allow third parties to develop for their handsets yet still enable Nokia to ensure control over content in the name of security and stability. While I'm sure there will be some that snipe and grouse about the lack of unfettered freedom my take is that this is a logical and should cut down on the level of frustration for all concerned.

I think that everyone in the Mac community owes a HUGE hats off to the dedicated set of hackers that forced this issue by developing some interesting and compelling apps beyond Apple's initial weak "Web 2.0" excuse of using browser based apps. My take is that the future for this platform looks bright and in general Apple's creativity and moves have given the handset manufacturers a wake-up call. We're starting to see some interesting innovations related to user interface as opposed to the thin, bland and often weird designs the handset makers have been putting out over the past couple of years.

As a side note - stop by Engadget and have a look at the recently released Nokia 810 definitely some nice advances on an interesting device that I think will continue to point to the direction of personal computing.

A call for Apple to open the iPhone & iPod touch platform.

Well, we knew it was bound to happen sooner of later the iPod Touch was hacked last week through a browser exploit that created a small enough hole in the OS and the hackers forced their way in. There is now a full scale automated hack with a OSX and Windows GUI versions available in the form of iJailbreak for the Mac - see TUAW for links to the Windows app.

I will say undertaking the hack process when not sick would be a good move and having sufficient patience to ensure the hack goes smoothly helps. My best advice is to ensure that you start with a clean iPod Touch that has been restarted before beginning the process. The good news is unlike the iPhone there is a much lower risk of "brickage" on the touch since it lacks the need to connect to a cellular network.

I will admit that the touch apps are definitely worth the effort and highlight the potential that a haptics based touch screen interface has in terms of potential. Apple is in a very interesting position at the moment having surged ahead of the rest of the cell phone market with Nokia, Motorola, RIM and others in a frantic dash to catch-up with their innovation. Clearly, the competition has seen the threat and is reacting as in this great video clip showing a cleaned up version of Nokia's upcoming S60 Touch.

While Apple needs to be sensitive to its carrier relationships and the need to ensure a high degree of stability and reliability in its devices the biggest weapon it has at its disposal is a large and willing body of third party developers interested in building cool apps for its platform. Hopefully Apple, won't make the same mistake that Sony made with the PSP in sticking so rigidly to a view that it must maintain a closed system that the potential of the device as demonstrated by inventive third parties will wither on the vine.

I think Apple should be able to see the interest and desire from its customers for these enhancements to its product that it will see the light and open up the platform. It shows that customers are willing to invest their time in jumping through technical hoops to open up their device to new applications. I would even hazard to guess that if the process of installing, managing and certifying applications that Apple would even be able to make some money most easily in the form of driving significant market share gains in what now looks to be an emerging market for personal mobile devices. The rumors now circulating today are that Apple will introduce an SDK for developers in January 2008 - let's hope they're right!

Can't wait for Leopard

I must admit I am eager to get my hands on Apple's next release of its operating system Leopard. I recently, upgraded my laptop to a Macbook Pro after using a white Macbook for the past year and was planning to wait until the release of Leopard but couldn't hold off on the upgrade. Since the demonstration of Leopard at MacWorld this summer providing a glimpse into the new functionality I've been eagerly awaiting this upgrade.

At this point the main items that I'm most interested in upgrading to take advantage of include:

• Stronger real-time back-up via TimeMachine aided by the new file system
• Improved processing and load times with a return to OS 9 speeds
• Enhancements to Mail
  

I will say that AppleInsider has been running a good series of updates on the release of Leopard that offer an interesting history lesson to provide context for this launch and an update on the new features. Here are some useful links:

Mail 3.0
Time Machine
Spaces
Dock
Finder 10.5

I also want to point out a good article from Blackfriars Marketing (a former Forrester analyst) with a passion for Apple who does a solid job outlining the ZFS file system inside Leopard.

Here is a great list of all 300 features in Leopard from Apple's site.


When Leopard launches which at this point remains rumored for October 26th at 6pm (makes sense since its a Friday night) I'll likely go and pickup a copy that night and migrate my Mac. A word of advice before attempting any upgrade make sure you have a full backup of all your files - in case things go wrong!

UPDATE - Looks like its official Macrumors just reported that the launch will be Friday Oct 26th @ 6pm

How to make your iPod a great study tool!

Students listen up! Here is another use for your iPod and possibly a great way to get your parents to upgrade you to a new iPod with more capacity. My significant other is taking a graduate level university course and records all the lectures due to a hearing impairment. In this case I'll walk you through the quick and easy steps to record your lectures and transfer them to your iPod for on-the-go studying.

In our case we purchase the model that preceded the Panasonic RR-US500 which provides a number of recording options (dictation mode, meeting mode) to date the recordings have been done in dictation mode which seems to somewhat cut down on the ambient noise levels.

Step 1. Go to class and record the lecture (I know this can be the toughest part sometimes :-) )

Step 2. Connect to your Mac or PC and download the lecture. Once the lecture is completed bring home your voice recorder and hook it up via the USB cable that came with the recorder and download it. Most of the voice recorders seem to offer a proprietary software package (unfortunately not Mac compatible) for downloading the recordings in this case they come in a format known as .VM1.
Step 3. Convert lecture file to MP3. Once you've captured the file you should convert the file to WAVE (.wav) format to enable you to transfer the file for use outside the voice editing software (depending on your recorder you may be able to consolidate the number of file conversions - check the web before you buy). The next step is to convert the .wav file to .MP3 to compress the size of the file - for this purpose I use Switch on the Mac. Switch is a great easy to use piece of software. If you want to know why I move the files across platforms in our case its because my Mac is far more powerful and speeds up the conversion process.

Step 4. Import the MP3 file into iTunes. Now that you have an MP3 file its time to import it into iTunes. Launch iTunes and from the File menu and select Import navigate to your file and you're in business.

For ease in terms of finding your lectures in the event that you have a large music library do the following label the file the name of the course and the date of the lecture. For example, Economics201_Oct01.mp3

In iTunes setup a Smart Playlist from the File menu and have it filter on file name (e.g., Economics*) and presto you have a Smart Playlist containing all your lectures for your specific course. This will make it much easier to quickly find your lectures and listen to them on your iPod.

Step 5. Sync your iPod. That's it - now sit back and enjoy the latest lecture as you prepare for your exam.

By the way if you're lucky your university or college may be posting the lectures to iTunesU and you won't have to manage the above process.

Note - in our case my SO seeks out permission of each professor prior to recording the course and has supporting documentation from the University's special needs department. People can be touchy about someone recording the content of their lectures with concerns about reuse - always best to check first then end up with problems. To date there have been no issues and since the recordings aren't being redistributed its not an issue.

iPod touch Thoughts & The Future!

This is the third post in the series on my experiences and impressions of the iPod touch look here for:
Part 1 and
Part 2.

Ok now that I've lived with the iPod touch for several weeks I thought it would be worth coming back and revisiting some of my initial thoughts on the product

What's great about the touch?

• Video Playback & Quality - this remains the biggest key benefit to the device so far in my view is the clear high resolution of the screen and the video playback capability. I've experimented with a variety of content (both podcasts and videos downloaded from our Canon Powershot SD800) and can say that the results are simply great. I haven't witnessed any of the issues mentioned in other reviews about the tone of solid blacks or greys on this device.
  
• Touch Interface - in short "IT ROCKS!" - while the smugs can be annoying nothing can replace the fun of endlessly flipping through pictures, double tapping, pinching and a number of other gestures that you quickly begin to realize this is what a user interface should be.
  
• iPod Functionality - a very solid audio player - definitely an improvement in terms of navigation and listening over previous iPods (the 1G & 2G Nano and the 3G Classic that I've owned).
  

What's Not So Hot?

• Safari & Web browsing in general - by all means this is far more useful than the browsing experience on other handheld devices (e.g., various Blackberries, Palm and Windows mobile phones/PDAs). Web browsing is still fairly limited and I continue to have issues with the touch dropping Wifi signals in areas where other machines are fine (maybe I just got a dud on this count).
  
• Lack of External controls - while this isn't huge its enough of a pain to make my list. For a firm that normally thinks and builds hardware that has a better handle of customer usage scenarios that most others in tech land Apple missed the boat on adding a number of very simple controls to this device.
  

What to Hope For In A Software Update?
While I've seen others comment and blog on the fact that this isn't an iPhone I think its important to keep in perspective that the iPod touch isn't meant to be a phone. I wouldn't expect Apple to muddy the waters between the different devices by stacking on a number of features that are meant to establish the iPhone as a SmartPhone including - phone, camera, email management. However, there are a number of things that come to mind that could make a good device even better but here are a few thoughts on what could make this a GREAT device.

• Open Access to Third Party Developers - I firmly believe that the functionality and innovation that will allow this next generation of iPods/iPhones to be fantastic devices will not come from innovation inside Apple. I think that the native apps included on the device are for the most part but in places feel somewhat rushed (read the missing Add function in the Calendar - although Apple is now calling this a "bug"). My take is that as a community the value of strong third party development brings much more to Apple's customers than the value of having a strongly controlled absolutely crash-proof device (which seems to be one of Apple's key arguments). My point is simply that the market has a clear want for third party apps and there seems to be a willing supply of developers interested in investing the time to work on an interesting new hardware platform. I urge you to click on the following link if you have a DIGG account and add your voice to those asking Apple to do the right thing for their customers.
  Inundate Apple with your dissatisfaction
  

• Widgets/Dashboard for iPod touch - One way to make this device far more usable in my mind would be to enable the use of widgets for the look-up of specific information. For example, a number of times I've used the touch to quickly look-up things on the go such as phone numbers, directions and a map. Given that Safari on the Mac can sometimes be a frustrating experience (I remain a committed Firefox user!) and even more so on a smaller device the potential of dedicated Widgets seems to be a much cleaner solution.
  

Overall, two weeks in I'm happy with my touch and would repeat the purchase and will likely hack the device to add new apps once the iPod Touch dev team cracks it. Based on the latest posts from TUAW.com it looks like they're getting close. Even without the hacks I'd still say for those of us outside the US or even those in the US that simply want a solid portable media device the touch is well worth serious consideration.

Ready for that new iPod - how to monetize that old iPod

With Apple's launch this past week of a newly revised iPod line-up in time for the holidays I thought it was worthy of pointing out a couple of tips about your existing iPod. Given that you may be looking to upgrade your iPod here are some suggestions about what to do with your old one.

• Sell it on eBay or Craigslist. I have moved an old iPod on eBay and found that competition in this case for a fairly new iPod meant that I got a great price and didn't mind forking over the auction/listing fees to eBay. I'd only recommend this move if your iPod is a more desirable model
• Apple will give you a discount. "A free iPod recycling program, conducted through Apple’s retail stores, offers environmentally friendly disposal and a 10 percent discount on the purchase of a new iPod." see here for more details http://www.apple.com/environment/recycling/
  Unfortunately, If you're not buying through an Apple store then no discount but you can still get Apple to recycle your dead device which is a plus for our environment.
  
• Donate it to a friend or family member. In certain cases if the iPod is not in primo condition to eBay and doesn't have a dead battery or component (thus not worth handing back to Apple for a discount on your new iPod) then this may be a good option to consider.
  

Personally, I'll be using Apple's retail store discount when I upgrade to a iPod Touch since one of the Nano's that I have has a near dead battery.

Any other ideas on saving on your new iPod - leave them in the comments.

Personal Finance Software for the Mac

The key hassle that hit when the Wheaten moved back to the Mac a year ago where Windows continues to hold a meaningful advantage is Personal Finance software. A keen devotee to managing his money both daily spending and investments the Wheaten is a firm believer in the power of using a PC to help track and manage his spending. The goal in shifting back to the Mac was to get away from many of the hassles involved in owning and operating a Windows based PC (e.g., viruses, firewall, klunky software that doesn't behave properly - the list goes on). In general the transition back to the Mac has been relatively painless with music, pictures, and other documents all migrating seamlessly. The one area that seamingly lags far behind the Windows world is the area of personal finance software.

Thus the Wheaten started an on-going quest for a solution to his financial software woes - for the most part Mac efficiandos have tended to really only push vendors for very basic financial management software with Quicken dominating the landscape. Unfortunately Intuit, normally a forward thinking company that has done a great job over the years in helping develop this category and create user friendly personal finance software is the dominant player in this market. While Quicken for Mac comes bundled with most new Macs the Wheaten's advice is that if you live outside the U.S. you might as well remove this app since they're no longer supporting country specific versions (at least in Canada). In addition if you're a Quicken user on the PC the disparity in features between the two versions is wide and noticeable leading you to hair pulling frustration. Thus started what should have been a simple journey the options for personal finance software on the Mac come down to the following:

MoneyDance = a multiplatform product that offers Linux, PC, and Mac versions of the software. This is the product the Wheaten ultimately migrated to and offers a fairly robust set of features covering budgeting, bill management, investments, reporting. In using MoneyDance over the past 18 months and evaluating a number of alternatives this product still manages to hit most of the Wheaten's requirements but does come up short in terms of the sophistication of the Investment management functionality (that said relative to the PC none of the Mac products really seams to have gotten investments as a category). Overall, the open source nature of MoneyDance's product means that there is a fairly lively community on Yahoo Groups! and hosted on MoneyDance's own forums for support. The product team at MoneyDance seems committed to improving the product and has significantly improved the reporting engine in the most recent release. Downloads from a large list of financial institutions are supported and for those that aren't the ability to import files in .OFX (a widely supported file format used by most financial institutions) is available.
http://www.moneydance.com

Other apps that were explored and dismissed as being caught somewhere in the middle of being basic but frustrating to use were: LiquidLedger; iBank; and Moneywell.

Cha-Ching = an interesting product that offers a basic metaphor for managing your money could be a great alternative for the novice user that is looking for basic expense tracking and budgetting. Having not spent a lot of time with the demo the Wheaten has not tested the functionality relating to the ease of downloads from your financial institution. An inexpensive product at $40 that is ideal for those looking to cleanup their desks and better manage the flow of day to day household expenses.
http://www.midnightapps.com/


Other options - at the end of the day you could leave your personal finances on a Windows based machine and manage this via use of virtualization software such as Parrallels or VMWare for the Mac. However, in the Wheaten's view this negates many of the benefits of migrating to the Mac and in his case the need really only to run one operating system on his Macbook. For now the Wheaten is sticking with MoneyDance the most advanced of the Financial Software apps for the Mac. However he remains frustrated at the fairly rudimentary
nature of the investment functions in most Mac software.

What are you using to manage your personal finances on the Mac?

What's on the Wheaten's Mac?

In returning to the Mac last year, after a fourteen year absence from the platform the Wheaten found lots of familiar elements that drove the switch away from Windows. As well as a significantly enhanced operating system in OSX that makes the experience much more stable and less frustrating than living in the Windows world. This post will provide a list of some of the better applications that the Wheaten has on his Macbook with the best part being that a large number of these apps are open source!

Text Editing
Skim - every wanted a more advanced version of the native Preview.app included with your Mac? Well Skim is the app for you with the ability to highlight, outline and better annotate PDFs Skim is a must have for students, researchers or anyone that needs to read and manage PDFs.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/skim-app

Utilities
Firefox = an alternate browser for your Mac and open source. A must have for any Mac user since you still need two browsers given that Safari still doesn't always work well with others.
http://en.www.mozilla.com/en/firefox/

iStumbler = the easiest way to check-out the available Wifi networks in range and get all the relevant details about the network. iStumbler is much stronger than the the native Airport Manager that is built into OSX making life on the go much easier. Two Paws Up!
http://www.istumbler.net/

TextWrangler = need to edit and manipulate text files on your Mac or quickly manage .txt or other text based files then look no further. TextWrangler allows the Wheaten to make short work of manipulating text files. Another free tool that should be on your Mac.
http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/index.shtml

Seashore = a free image editor that allows you to handle many of the basics that go beyond the simple tools in iPhoto but is short of the overkill that Photoshop represents for many users. Seashore is a GIMP based open source editor that has been modified to run on the Mac and may prove handy in those situations when a photo needs a bit more extensive touching up.
http://seashore.sourceforge.net/


Chicken of the VNC = allows Mac users to setup remote access to between their Mac and other computers. Very handy for helping a friend out with fixing their computer.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/cotvnc/


SuperDuper! = remember to backup your Mac or any computer for that matter. Until Leopard arrives SuperDuper is a must - there is a free version and a more feature rich product for a modest upgrade fee.
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/


MenuMeters = a handy tool that installs in system preferences and displays on the upper menu of your Mac showing a variety of system data (e.g., hard drive space, CPU utilization, memory management and much more). Definitely worth a download.
http://www.ragingmenace.com/software/menumeters/#intro


In all fairness to Apple a number of small lesser known apps that come bundled with OSX definitely deserve mention and use given the ease of use and their ability to boost your productivity.

Image Capture = useful for quickly importing pictures to your Mac. Also the Wheaten uses Image Capture to download his pictures and rename the files before importing into iPhoto.

Automator = a great addition that allows the novice Mac user to record a macro and have your system manage routine or repetitive tasks. This was one of the biggest positive surprises for the Wheaten upon his return to the Mac.

TextEdit = A built-in basic word processor included with your Mac well worth putting on your dock. The Wheaten has taken to writing in TextEdit on the Mac and WordPad on Windows as a means of boosting productivity (more on this in a future post).