Macgasm

Now that Snow Leopard is out you might want to check to see if your existing software, printers, and scanners are compatible with Snow Leopard.  There are two different sites that can assist you with this.  The first being Apple’s Knowledge Base.  They have two knowledge bases that will tell you what software is incompatible, and what printers and scanners are compatible.  The second is Snow Leopard’s Wikidot site.  This site is not affiliated with apple.com.  Here you will find a list of compatible applications and their status.

Facebook and Twitter have become necessary evils of the 21st century. If I don’t check my Twitter feed and FB updates more than 16,453 times a day, I feel hollow inside. It’s a disease, it’s wonderful, it’s awful and it allows our parents to pry like never before.

So when I bought my iPod Touch, the fist app I loaded was Facebook – The second was the iBeer app, but that’s a story for another happy hour. The first Facebook app was a nice stripped-down version of my FB page. I could update my status, see what comments that update yielded and even chat with online friends. Eventually, however, I wanted to view my photos without waiting 26 hours for them to load, make them my profile picture and tag the idiots who ended up in the photo with me.

THESE ARE VERY IMPORTANT PARTS OF MY DAY.

BAM! My desires are fulfilled! With the release of the Facebook 3.0 for iPod and iPhone, you can now tag your photos, add them to your page and replace your profile photo at will. You can also see your friends’ birthdays, view calendar events and write “notes” to post to your profile. The new software features a menu page to access all this, and it took me a second to find, but once I realized the grid icon in the upper left hand corner meant something, I was all set. There is also a “notifications” bar at the bottom of the menu, so you can now know the second a friend challenges you to a useless movie quiz. Handy.

Your profile page in 3.0 is filled with less clutter, featuring an easier interface by moving the tabs for “wall”, “info” and “photos” to a menu bar at the bottom of the page. The status bar now allows you upload pictures right from your photo library. Status updates with urls can be viewed in Facebook’s own integrated web browser, which is pretty cool – Used to be you’d open links in Safari, but have to quit and reopen FB to get back to your profile – SOOO much extra work that none of us have time for, obviously.

My favorite part of the FB 3.0 is the landscape mode. EVERY app for the iPod/iPhone should allow for landscape viewing/typing. Typing on Apple’s mini keyboard in a SOBER state was near impossible until the advent of landscape mode. Now I can drunk text, drunk FB and drunk Tweet all my sleeping homies with ease. Works well when I’m sober, too.

My biggest gripes about the new 3.0 software are:

• The load time seems a bit slow. Anything that takes more then three seconds to pop onto my screen is worthless to me.

• The chat feature now list your available friends in alphabetical order. I liked it better when they were listed by my ‘active’ friends and ‘sleeping’ friends, but that’s just me. Plus, the alphabet has never been my strong suit.

• There’s no place that dispenses free money. This is pretty much a universal complaint I have for all Apple apps.

That’s my short and sweet review of Facebook’s free 3.0 update for the Apple iPhone/iPod Touch. I’m sure there’s a whole bunch of cool “developer” crap that I didn’t talk about, but I’m a tech idiot, so I’d just be making stuff up to sound smart.

See you on Facebook! Don’t send me quizzes, or I’ll send you dead animals in the mail!

You can be Corey’s FB friend here: Fakerockstar Pandolph

You’ve just had the most amazing summer of your life, again. Same every year when you get a break from school right?
To top off that break, what would be better than to go back to school with a brand new Mac. These things can help you get better grades after all *lies*

In this article, I’m going to go over the basics all the way up to the top spec Mac fanboys dream machine, and as I’m based in the UK, you’re going to have to make do with the links going through to the UK store, but I’ll convert the prices into dollars too. And if you’re not in the UK or America, it’s up to you to convert.

Quick links
Jump to ‘Budget Mac’s’ – Low Price
Jump to ‘Dont wanna look cheap’ – Mid Price
Jump to ‘I’m blowing my loan’ – High Price

Budget Mac’s – Low Price
Now I know there isn’t really a budget priced Mac, as they’re all more expensive than that fugly grey box you could buy from ‘Bob’s Used Computers’. But bear with me here, you do still have a few options if you’ve saved hard all summer and can maybe scrape together a bit more cash.

The trusty Macbook. This is the least expensive of Apple’s notebooks coming in at a respectable £714/$999. It’s still a pretty powerful machine, featuring a 2.13GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB DDR2 Memory and a 160GB hard drive. If this is still a little too expensive for you, there are always deals on at the Apple Refurb Store, which can save you quite a bit sometimes. I’ve had stuff from the refurb store myself, so don’t feel dirty about using it, you’re actually getting a 1 up on everyone else.

Next up comes the Mac Mini. These are actually a little cheaper than the Macbooks at £499/$599, but you’re only getting half a machine here remember. You need to find yourself a keyboard, mouse, monitor etc to go with them, so you could end up spending more taking this route, not to mention its not portable. Still, the lowest end of these little beauty’s has a slightly slower processor at 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1GB memory, and a 120GB hard drive. Don’t forget to check the Refurb Store for these as well, my dad got one of his from there and has been a small powerhouse ever since.

Don’t wanna look cheap – Mid Price
You had a pretty good job all summer, lived off noodles at school all last year and now you’re ready to make the move and buy that new Mac.
In this section I’m again covering one portable and one desktop, and both ends of the mid range price scales.

The Macbook Pro. In Apple’s last product refresh, when they got rid of the black Macbook completely, they also gave the rest of the Macbook line a boost up to Macbook Pro status, giving them all the same features as you used to only get on the higher end machines. The lowest end of this line is now the 13″ 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB Memory and a 160GB hard drive. This has all the same features as its bigger brothers, and comes it at £899/$1,199. You can step those specs up and get yourself the 13″ with a 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB Memory and a 160GB hard drive and that will set up back £1,149/$1,499.

Still got some more cash? Why not get a few more inches and get the 15″, or maybe even a 17″ model. That’s going to set you back £1,849/2,499 for a 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 4GB Memory, a 500GB hard drive but unlike it’s smaller brothers this one has an ExpressCard/34 slot instead of the SD Card slot.

Up next we have the iMac, what i’d call Apple’s family desktop computer. Like the Macbook Pro, this comes in a variety of sizes, from a £949/$1,199 20-inch with a 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB memory, and a 320GB hard drive, up to a £1,799/$2,199 24-inch, 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 4GB memory and a 1TB hard drive.

Last on the mid priced list we have the Macbook Air. This things so thin and sharp it can cut a cake. But don’t let that put you off, maybe the price or its lack of features can instead? The lowest of the two models on offer comes in at £1,149/$1,499, and crammed into that 0.16-0.76 inch body fits a 1.86GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB Memory and a 120GB SATA hard drive. Now, we say it’s a SATA drive because on the 2.13GHz model you get a 128GB solid-state drive instead, £200/$300 more that one costs you though. You’re also going to need to buy the Superdrive for another £64/$99 if you want to install any other software that you don’t opt to have pre-installed on the computer like, iWork and Aperture and heaven forbid you actually want Microsoft Office, you’re definitely going to need this as Apple to offer that as an extra.

Of course, you can opt to upgrade some of the feature of your Mac when you buy direct from Apple, opting to have a bigger hard drive, or more memory are just a couple of things, so it’s best to really check them all out and go for one that fits your budget and your needs.

I’m blowing my loan – High Price
Now comes the fun part, the bit every apple fan boy dreams of. Money is no option, be it because you’ve decided to live on someone else’s floor for the term to save money on accommodation, been given hand me down books to save buying expensive new ones, and your ready meal and noodle supply has never looked better. Maybe a lottery win, or just parents that really don’t mind spending loads of money on you.

You want to be the best, everyone that visits you at home or in your college dorm room will look on in awe at the beast of a machine you have opted to get for this year. It’s not going to be portable, not by a long shot, so you better have a big supply of pens and paper and really like typing if you’re taking this route.

All you have to do if you wanna be the best there is, is visit the Apple Store, and select the 8-core Mac Pro and never look back, select everything they have in the ‘Configure your Mac Pro’ section. Of course you need Two 2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors, who doesn’t? You’re going to need 32GB ram to go with that, a Raid card because you can, nothing wrong with having 4TB of HDD space either, i have more than that in external drives, so you might as well get it built in, 4x NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512MB graphics cards to power the 2 x Apple Cinema HD Display (30″ flat panels) you’re getting, and maybe the 6 more you might want later on, Two 18x SuperDrives, a wireless keyboard and mouse, airport, a Quad-channel 4Gb Fibre Channel PCI Express card, along with all the software, cables, Mobile Me and Apple care. Then grab that credit card, and start filling in the details for your brand spanking new £16,289.98/$22,036.85 machine. There are a few different options between the UK and USA ones, i just maxed them all.

I don’t really think it’s wise anyone just does that though to be honest, but we can all dream right?

Whatever you do choose to buy as your back to school computer, make sure you check out all your options and the refurb store, and as much as it pains me to say, check out the PC’s as well if you’re on even more of a budget, no one will hate you for it when you’re graduated and not still paying it off, just until then you’ll be frowned at :)

Article inspired by one in September’s T3 magazine in the UK. I also used their images for the header and big budget section. Great gadget mag, check it out sometime.

[Download This Episode]

In this episode, Josh talks about the end of development of Smultron.

[01.8 MB] [0:03:50] [Hosted by: Josh Schnell & Grant Brunner]

It’s that time of year again. The time where you need to get up and out of bed before midday like you’ve been doing for so long over the summer vacation. Speakers can make all the difference when it comes to waking up and getting the motivation to get out of bed because whether they’re sounding the alarm or plainly sending sweet music to your ears, good speakers will do the job. To help with choosing the best audio equipment to suit you, we’ve compiled a nice list of the best speakers from a low price to a high price.

1) iHome iHM77 Stereo Mini Speakers – $49.95

Small but powerful, these mini speakers are a perfect match for your Macbook, iPod or iPhone. They magnetically stick together to make portability an easy task, and separate and extend to get maximum usage and sound. If your Macbook is starting to sound a little tinny and weak then these might be for you as a starter to build up that awesome party feeling. If their friendliness towards portability wasn’t enough, they also come with built-in rechargeable batteries, vacuum bass expansion, USB charging, and a carrying case! Also, they’re available in black, silver, purple, and red. These are a true testament to size not being an issue, after all, it’s what you do with them that count.
2) iHome iP41 Rotating Alarm Clock – $79.95

First off, you don’t have to play Lady GaGa through these speakers (and really, we’d rather you didn’t) even though that would be a shock to wake up quickly to. By docking your iPhone or iPod, you can safely charge and listen to music or watch videos by rotating the dock itself. If you’re a late riser and need a little boost to get out of bed in the morning, this alarm clock is sure to give you plenty of musical warning with its iP41′s Reson8 speaker technology and EXB expanded bass circuitry. It’s sleek and sophisticated, and you don’t have to rob a bank to get your hands on one.
3) iHome iP71 Computer Speakers – $129.95

I bet you’re thinking we really like iHome aren’t you? Well, yes, when it comes to value for money iHome have got it in the bag. When you’ve spent all your Summer pocket money on penny chews and cans of mountain dew there’s not a lot left for audio gadgets. Boasting ‘premium sound’ and an iPod/iPhone dock, these Reson8 computer speakers sound great with 15 Watts of stereo power output. Whether you’ve connected them to your Macbook Pro to watch a movie or are listening to the album of a catchy new band you just discovered, the quality of sound will truly catch you off guard.
4) Harman Kardon Soundsticks II – $169.95

No speaker run-down is complete without a set of these bad boys. Not only are they aesthetically beautiful, but once you play the first song on them you’ll discover sounds you never heard before (particularly if you play Imogen Heap, Harman Kardon only add to her genius). Sleek and advanced, we’re not ashamed to call these speakers sexy, and if you’re looking to splash out on something special as well as good-looking these are it. You can thank computer-optimized multi-band parametric equalization for the excellence of these speakers, and you can also thank the designer for the ease of use. Simply plug in the stereo jack and you’re away. Easy.
5) Razer Mako 2.1 THX Speaker System – $299.95

Another set up where size doesn’t matter, and if you’re a gamer these speakers will really make you tremble. This 300-watt, THX-certified system has omnidirectional speakers to make surround sound really reach the far places. Developed by audio scientists (oooh), these speakers deliver rich audio that make your desktop experience a cut above the rest. Fed up of distortion from the mini plastic iPod speakers you bought last year? Well, distortion is a thing of the past when it comes to these. The price tag leaves a lot to be desired but really if you’ve got the money to spend, you’ll be wise to spend here. Featuring classHD digital amplifier technology with digital DSP control, a downward-firing design with optimized acoustic enclosure, and an all-in-one remote control pod with touch-sensitive LED dial, these speakers will deliver the goods with authority as well as sitting pretty on the desk.
6) Bose SoundDock Series II Digital Music System – $299.95

This is the big one, the Godfather of all music systems. Don’t let this one out at night, really. In fact, it’s worthy of a few bullet points…

Featuring:

Don’t say we didn’t warn you! If that was a lot to take in just breathe deeply and have another read. Oh, and have another deep breath if you want to peek at the price! (we’re having palpitations over here). However, Bose are known for their amazing products and amazing quality so to be completely honest, if you’re thinking about blowing the budget on this music system, congratulations. You’re in for a hell of a sound experience.
So thats it, the countdown of the best speakers from a low price to a high (yeah, pretty high) price. Trust us when we say there’s nothing like experiencing a well crafted album through a fantastic pair of speakers, the world sounds so much better.

Most of us wear different hats today.  Some of us are Web Developers, Full Time Students, Bloggers, Consultants, and Philanthropists.  It gets pretty tiring trying to switch between one set of tasks to another.  Time spent making the switch between sets of applications and web apps are all down the drain.  For instance, a web developer might need coda, transmit, photoshop, illustrator, and omnifocus, but once that hat’s taken off and the blogger hat gets thrown on I don’t need coda, transmit, or illustrator.  Instead, I’ll likely have Feedly open, OmniFocus, Photoshop, Smultron, MarsEdit, Skype, Adium, DropBox, TweetDeck, and a whole slew of other resources.

The key to success today is making the switch between each “hat” as quickly and effectively as possible. This is what Concentrate does, and it does it seamlessly–a click of a button and you’re immediately wearing another hat, I don’t even need to waste time figuring out how to resize the hat. It already knowns my preferences for that hat.

You can set the settings up to Launch Applications and kill others, open documents, open websites, block access to other websites, set your chat status messages, change desktop backgrounds, run scripts, play back sounds and messages, and send growl notifications, all at a click of a button.

You can also set up a nice little timer so that you can ensure that you’re not spending your precious time too much on one topic, but neglecting another too much.  It keeps everything in balance for you.

Who’s ready to upgrade to Snow Leopard?  With only days before it goes on sale, you might be asking yourself, will Snow Leopard work on my PowerPC Mac, or if I still have Tiger on my Intel Mac, can I use the upgrade DVD?  You might also be thinking about backing up or cloning your existing Leopard Volume.

The question I hear a lot is, “Will Snow Leopard work on my PowerPC Mac?” the answer is “No”.  This will be the first operating system since Apple switched to all Intel processors that will not support the PowerPC Mac.  But, don’t get discouraged because Leopard runs very well on a PowerPC Mac.

As for Mac users that still have Tiger on their Intel Macs, you can still install Snow Leopard.  The caveat, though, is that you will not be able to use the $29 Snow Leopard upgrade.  Instead you will have to use the Mac Box Set.  This Box Set includes the full version of Snow Leopard along with iLife ’09 and iWork ’09, all for $169.  If you break down the cost of each software you’ll be saving around $118 with this Box Set.

As an added assurance, I recommend making an image of your current computer.  I find making an image is far better than making a last minute backup.  Because inevitably, you will miss files here and there.  To clone your Leopard Volume you’ll need two things.  First, you’ll need an additional partitioned hard drive.  I use an external hard drive because I have iMacs and a MacBook.  Second, you will need cloning software.  There are two I recommend.  The first one is SuperDuper! from Shirt Pocket.  This application will cost you $27.95.  The other application is Carbon Copy Cloner from Bombich Software.  This application is free.  Both applications work very well.  I personally use Carbon Copy Cloner.  It’s free and does the job fine.

I hope these steps will make your upgrade process a smooth and simple one.  I would like to hear your upgrade experience, or maybe you have different steps to upgrading.  If so drop a line in the comments section.

It is my favorite utility app, and I am sure it is your favorite. At least, it should be. 1Password has been preparing for its next big release with 3.0. They have been keeping very busy. Not only do they have a great desktop app, but also a fantastic iPhone app that has been seeing pretty regular updates.

But let’s get back on track. 1Password 3 is on the horizon and Agile is offering early upgrades. If you upgrade early you will save 33% off the regular upgrade price. But that’s not all, you will also be able to be part of the beta process. Now if you have purchased a license after February 1, 2009, you already have a version 3 license. Remember though if you use the beta, that it is not fully functional and may have some bugs. So if you are depending on 1password for a lot of things, I would wait until the final release.

Now like every one, Agile was caught a little off guard by the release of Snow Leopard. Everyone was made aware that it would be mid to late September for its release, so 1Password is not quite ready for Snow Leopard. But they do have a wonderful post on how to use 1Password and snow leopard You can find it here.

For up to the minute details from 1password just go to their site at 1Password.com