Hawaii Web Consulting » Apple

Mac Software Deals On Now

Mark — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:28:54 +0000

There’s several deals on some great Mac software:

MacBuzzer is giving away a free copy of the archival app, Rucksack, for the price of one of your Twitter tweets. Click that MacBuzzer “Get It Now” button and tweet away.

Etude is giving away a license to their Mac music app, SimpleChord for one of your tweets. Learn more here.

MacUpdate Sofware Bundle

MacUpdate has another great Bundle right now: 11 Mac Apps valued at over $425 for $49.99. Apps include Parallels 5 (run Windows while running Mac), MacScan (A/V), Hydra (HDR imaging), MacDVDRipper Pro, and Timeline 3D. First 10,000 buyers also get DVDRemaster Pro. Sale ends March 31st!

If you missed the excellent MacHeist Bundle that just ended, be sure to sign up to be an “agent” for their mailing list — you’ll get tips on discount bundles, new releases, and fun games to play for free Mac software.

iPad: Ebook Reader = yes, Netbook = no

Mark — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:08:53 +0000

iPad's iBook

Like a lot of people I was excited to learn about yesterday’s Apple iPad release. Steve Jobs had said it would be “one of the most important things I’ve ever done” [techcrunch]. Apple calls it “magical and revolutionary“. And, also like a lot of people, I was let down by learning the details of the iPad. I think I know why.

Many people assumed that this new device would be along the lines of a netbook — one of those small-screened devices that allows users to do MOST of what they can on their larger PCs, but using more cloud-based services to get around storage and processing limitations. In other words, netbooks are a perfect match for things like Google Docs, Dropbox, and Picnik to help get around less powerful CPUs and smaller drives.

That assumption — that iPad would be a netbook — was what led to my disappointment. The iPad doesn’t do a lot of the things you need a netbook to do: multitasking (multiple applications running at the same time), Flash in web sites, and file and document control. In fact, several sites have lists of why the iPad fail: gizmodo, pcworld. But I think they are missing the point.

Classics App page example

As far as most of the features on the iPad, they are available already (albeit in smaller screen space) on iPhones and iPod Touches: Safari, Mail, Video, Photos, YouTube, iPod, iTunes, App Store, Maps, Notes, Calendar, Contacts, Home Screen, Spotlight Search. The biggest NEW feature is the “iBook” which makes the iPad an eReader for electronic books. (Yes, iPod Touch and iPhone also have this ability — Classics app, for example, looks amazingly like what iBooks became.)

What the iPad does do, though, is “revolutionize” Apple’s money stream on iTunes. They will now be selling e-books (along with music, audiobooks, movies, TV shows, and apps). They will now be competing with Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes and Noble’s Nook Ebook Readers. They will also be (indirectly perhaps) taking on Google’s Books.

So, if you consider iPad as an eReader (with the ability to do some apps and multimedia) it’s a great, little device. Pricier than the competition, but with more functionality and style.

Just give up your notions of netbook (Apple has the Macbook Air for that (cough, cough)), and consider this iPad as the missing eReader device in their already excellent music (iPod) and cell phone (iPhone) device line.

Amazon has Snow Leopard and Windows 7 for pre-order

Mark — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:16:18 +0000

Amazon has Snow Leopard Mac OS X version 10.6 (the upgrade to Leopard) available for pre-order on its site for $29. Their Free-Shipping option works even to Hawaii!
Amazon also has Windows 7 available for pre-order. Prices start at $119.99 for the Home Premium Upgrade, or $199.99 for the Professional Upgrade. The difference depends on the features you need, see this chart for more information.

Note however, if you are thinking of upgrading directly from XP, head the warning from Walt Mossberg:

Happy upgrading!

HMAUS presents Mac Springfest: May 23rd

Mark — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 00:34:02 +0000

A full day of learning and fun is planned at the upcoming Hawaii Macintosh & Apple Users’ Society (HMAUS) Mac Springfest. JAIMS (6660 Hawaii Kai Drive) will be the site for all the Mac Fanboy Love you can spread around. Topics include:

Mac 101 for beginners,
Adobe’s Lightroom,
Social Networks and Livefeeds,
and Time Management with Apple products

If you’ve been thinking of switching to a Mac, or, been using one for years, it should be a great day with prizes, food, and all the Mac experts’ help you could ever need!

Learn more at HMAUS

Obama-styled Mac T-Shirts From FastMac: On Sale For $4.44

Mark — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 20:02:51 +0000

To commemorate today’s inauguration FastMac is selling four Mac t-shirts designed around our new 44th President. These Obama-themed t-shirts are selling today for $4.44. (Shipping to Hawaii runs close to $8.00)

There are two designs based off Shepard Fairey “HOPE” poster, and another with ”OS X, Software We Can Believe In.” FastMac may be running slow because of the traffic, but they are good looking shirt designs on sale today only! [FastMac via Gizmodo]

MacHeist: new “loot” for those that can solve puzzles

Mark — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 21:00:48 +0000

If you own a Mac and love solving puzzles, then you should check out MacHeist. Through solving a series of intricately designed puzzles, riddles, visual clues, and cryptograms, you can get several free programs, including Process. Sign up for an account, and off you go solving clues found in the Briefings.

I tried my first one this week, after learning about MacHeist from their holiday giveaway called, Mac Giving Tree. Reading the briefings, following some of the hints others had left in the forums, visiting the various web sites they had set up, and checking my “Loot” area, I found I had solved one puzzle to get Process.

Be forewarned that if you aren’t familiar with these kinds of puzzles, it will be confusing to begin with. Hang with it, get help from others, and have some fun! Learn more at: MacHeist [This is a great idea for building a community, generating lots of "buzz" (including tons of tweets), and keeping membership high.]

Can Pre save Palm?

Mark — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 01:05:23 +0000

Palm released their newest touch-screen smartphone yesterday called the Pre. And while their site is short of details still, there’s been several stories (Gizmodo, ars technica) about it and that it *might* be an iPhone killer. I don’t doubt that Palm can do touch-screens; they have built excellent ones for years. And the reviews from their other cell phones have been fairly positive also.

For me, in order to really get close to iPhone, Palm will have to build up a delivery system similar to iTunes. iTunes makes it brain-dead simple to download music, and more importantly, apps (applications), quickly and easily in one centralized location. This delivery system of iTunes means that developers get paid quickly and can see their competition easily. Users of iTunes can rate and comment on each app. While Palm is going to allow downloads via the phone, as Apple does on the iPhone, this may not be enough to get more apps to more people. Without something similar to iTunes, Palm will either have to rely on third-party sites to promote and sell apps (as was the past with Palm programs), or, try to completely control it themselves via the Pre and their web site. Will it be enough…?

Also, the Pre will have to make better efforts at syncing between various OS, or, at least get one Operating System down completely. (I’ve had too many bad experiences of trying to get Palm to sync with Outlook/Exchange that didn’t end up with me spending hours de-duping contacts.) iPhone was supposed to work seamless with Outlook/Exchange (via MobileMe), but that has yet to happen well. However, iPhone (and Touch) work wonderfully with a Mac (fancy that). While most OS work with Palm, and make the effort to play nicely together, there are still going to be glitches with upgrades… The Pre may sync with Gmail as they say, and that might be enough for the demographics (mobile, cloud-based, social media users) they are targeting, but, it won’t open up new demographics, like my parents for example…

So, will Pre save Palm? I think most people would like to hope so… but…

New Targus Bluetooth Laser Mouse for Mac: Good!

Mark — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 19:00:36 +0000

I’m testing one of the new Targus Bluetooth Laser Mouse for Mac. They’ve designed a whole series of accessories for Mac users, all are streamlined, using the same design styling.

My previous mouse was the Kensington Slimblade Presenter Mouse. It’s a small, compact bluetooth mouse that looks good and works fine. However, it seems to eat through batteries like there’s no tomorrow.

The Targus mouse feels more like a bar of soap in your hand — longer and taller than the Kensington. Getting it paired up with my Macbook Pro was effortless. However, the disc that came with it — to make use of the extra two side buttons — was unreadable. I had to use a Windows machine to grab the .dmg installation file.

Extra options

After installation into the System Preferences, you have to reboot. Then you can set those buttons to a variety of options; the default being forward and back in Safari, but you could set up AppleScripts to be triggered, or launch a specific application.

One of the biggest pluses for me was the “quick scroll” that is available in the four-way “touch scroll” button. It makes scrolling through long web pages a breeze! That “touch scroll” works well if you can get over the fact it’s more like a touch-pad than the standard scroll wheel on most mice.

Overall this seems like a good mouse for someone wanting to make use of bluetooth on their Mac, while getting extra functionality from the additional buttons and touch scroll. And, it has something the Kensington needed, an OFF switch!

Update 10/25/08: The scrolling on this mouse is sometimes a bit too much; it scrolls too fast, too far at times. Perhaps there’s a setting or button to help this. Also, the mouse is very particular as to WHERE you click on it. So, for me, when I type, then go to click with the mouse, I don’t always reposition myself in the correct position, ending up with some unexpected results, such as ending up with a right-click when I tried a standard left-click, or a side button when I was just trying to move it. I’m not sure if it’s a design problem or a (new) user problem yet.

iPhone/iPod Touch Platform: Apps a’plenty

Mark — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 19:52:47 +0000

I recently purchased an iPod Touch and have REALLY been enjoying it. Besides the beauty of the form factor — fits in your hand so well and lets you control it with simple finger movements on its touch screen — is the application platform. Visiting iTunes App Store, you can see the huge variety of what’s currently available. And this is all still new for developers.

Last Tuesday, HMAUS (Hawaii Mac Users), held a presentation with Rich Warren on the iPhone platform. Besides picking up some great tips on cool apps and why the SDK is worth signing up for, Rich demonstrated the Japanese keyboard entry with word/character suggestions. Very cool! For example, just typing (in Romaji) “iyu” came up with “一週間”. For me, that’s really handy. (Of course, there is the problem of learning to type on a “virtual” keyboard where there are no buttons, but the auto-suggest does help, in any language.)

One of the beauty points about the iPod Touch is that it has all the features (except the camera! ) of the iPhone without the phone part — and therefore, no worries about having to sign up for an expensive monthly contract with a company that doesn’t always have it’s customers’ best interests in mind. In other words, you can get the same “coolness” of the iPhone (using wifi) but using your existing phone and plan.

Even if you don’t buy one, at least visit an Apple store to see for yourself how they feel to operate.

MobileMe: Walt was right…

Mark — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 03:03:25 +0000

Being a Mac guy at home, I decided to try out Apple’s new MobileMe during their extended trial period. I had heard from lots of support blogs, and even from Walt Mossberg’s column that MobileMe was just too shaky to be reliable. Well, I tried it anyway. And, Walt was right.

In the two days of testing I did using an XP connecting to the Apple “cloud”, I lost contacts, calendar events, and my patience. The last straw was, I lost all my contacts except three; myself and one other that was a duplicate!

Then this morning I noticed this article (“last modified 8/18/08): ” MobileMe: Syncing with Microsoft Outlook and Exchange” which says:

MobileMe syncing allows you to sync your contacts and calendars with Outlook, unless Outlook is connected to an Exchange server. In this situation, syncing your Outlook data with MobileMe is not supported.

Oh. Now, I’m thinking, wasn’t MobileMe supposed to be for RoadWarriors, as Apple’s attempt to do Push Email to take on RIMs Blackberrys? And aren’t most of those folks using Exchange? So, then who is MobileMe for?

MobileMe Test Album

Yes, it seems that MobileMe has shifted to being a replacement from the .mac services for people who don’t have an “Enterprise” that uses Exchange… Disappointing…

On the plus side, it does make pretty photo albums.

Hawaii Web Consulting » Apple

Mac Software Deals On Now

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