Macgasm

Drobo releases Twins, they’re kinda like the old twins, but with better genetic engineering this time around. At first, I was a little shocked that the fine folks at Drobo were announcing two new models to their lineup instead of replacing the current models with new updated editions. On first glance, the specifications being offered for the Drobo S and the Drobo Elite didn’t seem like it was worth it, but after chatting with Mark Fuccio over at Drobo, their decision actually makes a lot of sense. They’re attempting to offer both a consumer and pro-sumer/small business model with the Drobo S. When I started to actually think about it, it made a ton of sense for them to do that in todays market.

How many home users are struggling with backups today, and more importantly how many home users could afford an S model at $799.00 USD? The extra drive, duel disk redundancy and esata availability in the S model might not be all that necessary for someone backing up at home. Keeping the price at $399USD starts making all the sense in the world.

So, if you’re interested in backing up some files at home you might want to stick with the regular Drobo model, but if you’re looking to get this into a more professional environment the Drobo S model might be right up your alley.

Drobo S Specifications

• 50% Faster than the current Drobo model
• Now has eSATA connection
• 5 Drive Bays instead of Four
• Dual-Drive redundancy

Most of those things might not be that big of a deal, but once you factor in the extra drive redundancy and the 50% speed increase, the Drobo S starts looking like it’s worth the price increase if you’re using this in a professional production environment.

The ‘Other’ twin is for people in large offices who need to share information across multiple machines, and multiple settings. If you work at a design firm, or an editing firm of any kind then this is the device you’ll be looking at. It allows multiple users to check in and check out resources so that changes can be made to files.

Drobo Elite

• Dual Gigabit Ethernet
• 8 Drive Bays
• Supports 255 Smart Volumes
• Supports Single or Dual-Drive redundancy
• Upto 16 Hosts

If money was never an issue the Drobo Elite would be mounted under my desk, but unfortunately it’s not exactly in this years budget. I’ve drooled over xServer Raids in the past, and the Drobo Elite might have replaced that as my new item to lust after. But, to be quite honest, most of us won’t need something more than a regular Drobo, or at the very most a Drobo S. When it comes to backing up your machine 300-700, might seem like a ridiculous price to bare financially, but I guarantee you won’t feel that way if you lose your graduate thesis because you were relying on some voodoo like backup practices. If you’re in the market for a back up failsafe, you need to at the very least check out the Drobo product line.

Awesome Gallery of the New Linup

I wrote a seven part series about the features I want in the web browser of my dreams. For easy access, here is the content of those posts here in one consolidated post. Enjoy!

I am something of a whore for web browsers. If there is a build of it on Mac OS X, I have used it. Here is the million dollar question, though: What do I want out of a browser? I have stewed on this for quite some time, and I have accumulated a list of features that my dream browser would have. It doesn’t exist yet, but Safari comes the closest. So without further ado, here is my list:

• Rearrangable Tabs
• Small Visual Footprint
• Customizable Search Bar
• Adheres to the Latest Web Standards
• Basic Add-on Capability
• Bookmark, History, and Cookie Syncing
• Private Browsing Mode
• Each Tab Spins off its own Process
• Plug-ins are Sandboxed
• Full-Page Zoom
• Keychain Integration

Those are really the features that matter the most to me. Safari, Firefox, and Chrome all meet different criteria on that list, but none of them meet all of the criteria. Some day my prince will come…

Rearranging Tabs

For a long while, I didn’t even realize how important this feature is to me. I always have a handful of tabs open, and I’m usually doing some sort of research. As soon as I have more than three or four tabs open, it starts getting hard to manage what information is in what tab. Being able to pick them up and move them is invaluable. It makes organizing your data an order of magnitude simpler.

Not only is it important to be able to reorder the tabs in one browser window, but it is also very important to be able to drag a tab to another window. Keeping multiple tabs open in different windows is a very easy way to categorize what information goes where. If you do any sort of multitasking, this feature is a must have.

Small Visual Footprint

For nerdy folks like myself, there is an impulse to have every button, slider, and doodad displayed at all times. Who knows when you might want to fiddle with something? That might sound good at first, but you’ll quickly realize that too many clickable items makes it hard to function. You’ll end up spending a lot of time trying to manipulate simple things that shouldn’t require a second thought. Also, it is important to be able to see as much of a web page at a time as is possible on your monitor. When you start dealing with multimedia sites, scrolling around to see the rest of an image or movie becomes ridiculous. I truly believe that everyone can agree that minimizing scrolling is beneficial to both content creators and consumers.

Customizable Search Bar

At first, you might think “Why would I need a search engine other than Google in my toolbar?” Mostly, I agree with you. I am fine with only having Google for 90% of my searching needs. However, I need to search specific websites a couple of times a week. Having the ability to add Wikipedia or Flickr search to my search bar would be a big help. For now, I use a bit of a work around with Safari Stand, but this is clearly something that would make my life considerably simpler if it was included with Safari. Do you hear me, Apple? Anyone? No?

Adheres to the Latest Web Standards

This is extremely important to me, but it doesn’t necessarily have any practical or noticeable impact on the end user. Even if your rendering engine doesn’t pass the latest acid test, it probably displays almost everything correctly on the web (Thanks to the hard work of web developers). That said, if every browser was standards compliant, we could be browsing much cooler websites. The developers could be spending their time innovating instead of tweaking. Also, there is something to be said for supporting the best of the best. If a browser is consistently pushing the envelope in implementing standards, that is something I want to get behind. In some ways, it is more of a cosmic reasoning than a practical reasoning.

Basic Add-on Capability

The number one reason, in my experience, why people refuse to switch away from Firefox is the add-ons. However, add-ons might also be the downfall of Firefox as well. I hear constant chatter about memory leaks caused by rogue extensions. I don’t necessarily think that the Firefox model of add-ons is perfect, but I certainly would appriciate having a way to tweak Safari that was less hack-y than SIMBL. Some features like keyword search and flash video capture are important to me, and they can easily be handled by third-party add-ons.

Bookmark, History, and Cookie Syncing

I use two Macs every single day. Regardless of which computer I am using at the time, I want my browsing experience to be seamless. I don’t want to spend five minutes hunting for a bookmark that I saved on my other computer. I don’t want to waste time logging in to the same websites every time I switch computers. If my browsers synced all of the important data with each other, my life would be immensely easier.

Sandboxed Plug-Ins

In Safari 4 in Snow Leopard, Apple implemented plug-in sandboxing. If you’re running flash, it is its own process instead of being included under Safari’s process. If flash crashes, it won’t take down the browser. This feature is brilliant in its simplicity. I wouldn’t want to use a browser that didn’t implement this in one way or another.

Separate Processes for each Tab

This was first popularly implemented in Google’s Chrome browser, and then copied by the fledgling Stainless browser. This feature, similar to the sandboxed plug-ins, keeps one out of control tab from knocking out the rest of the browser. That is extremely useful, and I would be surprised if every browser didn’t move towards this in the near future.

Private Browsing Mode

Yes, this is probably best known as “Porn Mode,” but it is extremely useful. Whenever you want to avoid leaving a cache, history, or cookies from a web site, you can just turn on Private Browsing Mode. With this feature, there is no need to go through, and wipe out the files later on. Also, this keeps awkward situations from happening. I highly suggest using this if you share your computer with anyone.

Full-Page Zoom

The way zooming used to work in Safari, only the text would be enlarged. Now, when you zoom in or out inside the browser, it dynamically scale all of the content on the page. Vector-based items (Text, SVGs) will remain crisp, but raster-based items (JPEGs, PNGs, GIFs) will degrade in quality when they enlarge. When you have full-page zoom, the layout of the page doesn’t break. It will remain consistent, and that is what I want more than any else: consistency.

Keychain Integration

So, we’ve been through every feature I wanted in the web browser of my dream except for one. This feature, I feel, is the unsung hero of Mac OS X. Keychain Integration! This is a simple, central way of keeping all of your important passwords at the tip of your fingers, but completely secure. The fact that some browsers on Mac OS X don’t have Keychain integration yet is appalling to me. Okay, maybe not quite “Appalling,” but very disappointing to me. This is a fantastically useful feature for everyone from Granny with her first iMac to Joe iPhone-Developer with his dual-quad Mac Pro. Everyone uses passwords, so everyone needs as simple way to manage them. There is no good reason not to use it!

Photo Credit: hamilton.lima

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I haven’t had a mouse slide around so seamlessly like this since my first laser mouse. The Razer Orochi model kinda blew my mind. It’s small, it’s light, and it certainly moves around with ninja like speed. I was a bit skeptical when I opened the box up, the mouse was small (Approx. size in mm: 99(L) x 67.8(W) x 35(H)) and awkward looking. I don’t have the biggest hands on the block, but I was worried that I’d struggle with comfort. Turns out that my fears were unfounded and that the mouse is actually a lot more comfortable than the new magic mouse, a lot more comfortable.

Something else to consider here is that mouse is bluetooth, much like the aforementioned magic mouse, but the Orochi actually ships with a USB cord to connect the mouse directly to your computer during times of low battery availability, which makes it a perfect travel mouse on top all the other tasks it can be slated for. It’s marketed as a gaming mouse, and it definitely worked quite well in our gaming tests, the reaction time was a lot quicker and smoother than our trusty Logitech mouse.

The mouse weighs in at $79.99 USD and knocks the socks off my Logitech Mouse, and my not so Mighty Mouse. It comes in relatively the same price as both, but it surpasses them in a host of movement test that I did.

Ranking mice is a difficult task, and it’s something that should be done on an individual basis, but for for me, the Orochi Razer has found itself stapled into my work flow.  This mouse might not be as “Magical” as Apple’s latest mouse iteration, but it certainly gets the job done.  Given  Apple’s history with Mouse peripherals, I’m reluctant to purchase the new Magic Mouse until some long term reviews start to come out, but until then, this Orochi mouse is going to hold the fort just fine.

With the holidays fast approaching, I thought I would give everybody some ideas for holiday gifts for the Apple users in their lives. This will be a series of articles that will allow anybody to purchase a gift for an Apple user, no matter if your budget is under $25 to over $2500. In this article we’ll try and find some Gift ideas for those that have a budget between $25 and $100.

If your Apple user is running more than one Intel Mac and has not upgraded to Snow Leopard, you can always get them the Snow Leopard Family Pack which is currently $42.99.

If they have upgraded to Snow Leopard, but they do not have the Latest iLife ’09 Suite there is the Single user upgrade for $63.99. If the user has more than one Intel Mac you could always get them the Family Pack for $80.49. This will allow for five Intel Macs to be running the latest iLife suite.

However, if the Apple user on your list has already upgraded to Snow Leopard and is running the iLife ’09 suite, but thy have not yet gotten iWork ’09, you can purchase it for them. It’s currently available from Amazon for $64.49. Do not forget about the Family Pack for $80.49.

If you would rather get the Apple user some hardware there is a myriad of choices. These choices include, but are certainly not limited to, an External hard drive for some backup, like the Iomega Prestige line. The prices range from $64.95 for the 250GB portable to $96.10 for the 1 Terabyte desktop edition.

If your Apple user would like to be able to listen to their music anywhere in the house you can always get them an Airport Express that will allow them to stream their iTunes collection to any particular set of speakers with AirTunes. It can be theirs for $94.95 on Amazon.

If Music is not necessarily their favorite thing, but sitting on their computer while out and about, you can always get them a bluetooh mouse. A few examples include the Logitech V470 (blue) for $37.95, the Microsoft Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse for $34.00. Or, if they are a gamer, there is the Razer Orochi Bluetooth mouse for $79.99.

As always there are the two standards, the iTunes Store gift card, or an Apple Store gift card. Also remember these are just some ideas for Holiday gifts. There are thousands of other great ideas out there.

With the holidays fast approaching, I thought I would give everybody some ideas for holiday gifts for the Apple users in their lives. This will be a series of articles that will allow anybody to purchase a gift for an Apple user, no matter if your budget is under $25 to over $2500. In this article we will focus on great gifts for under $25.

iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon is a book describing the way that Steve Wozniak built the first Personal computer and created a whole new area of hardware. The price as of this writing is $9.69.

iCon Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business. This is a controversial book that goes into the history of Apple with Steve Jobs leaving and how with his return he produced one of the most Successfully companies of the 21st Century. The price as of this writing is $10.17.

For the iPod Classic owners there is the DLO HipCase Leather Folio Case for $14.99.

For the iPod Nano owners there is the Incipio EDGE Slider Crystal Case for $12.99.

For those with an iPod Touch there is the Speck PixelSkin Rubberized Case line. There are six different colors available in prices ranging from $12.87 to $18.14 as of this writing.

For the iPhone owners there is the iFrogz Luxe Case They come in either Blue/Black or Red/Black. They are both priced at $10.00 as of this writing.

If you have a movie buff who is also an Apple user there is the classic story Pirates of Silicon Valley. This movie deals with the beginnings of both Microsoft and Apple and the story that goes behind the two biggest computer companies. This is currently $13.99.

For a more accurate historic picture there is Hackers – Wizards of the Electronic Age. This documentary focuses on the hackers of the late 70′s that created the computer revolution. It’s currently priced at $14.95.

Of course there is always something from the History Channel, Modern Marvels – Computers. This is an hour long Modern Marvels that discusses the history of computers. It can be gifted for $13.99.

If your Apple user is running an Intel Mac and has not yet upgraded to Snow Leopard, Amazon has the Single user licensed copy for $24.99.

Of course there are always the classic standards, an iTunes Store gift card or just an Apple store gift card. Remember, these are just some ideas for Holiday gifts. There are thousands of others out there.

Keychain Integration

So, we’ve been through every feature I wanted in the web browser of my dream except for one. This feature, I feel, is the unsung hero of Mac OS X. Keychain Integration! This is a simple, central way of keeping all of your important passwords at the tip of your fingers, but completely secure. The fact that some browsers on Mac OS X don’t have Keychain integration yet is appalling to me. Okay, maybe not quite “Appalling,” but very disappointing to me. This is a fantastically useful feature for everyone from Granny with her first iMac to Joe iPhone-Developer with his dual-quad Mac Pro. Everyone uses passwords, so everyone needs as simple way to manage them. There is no good reason not to use it!

That wraps up all of the features I want out of my dream browser, but that doesn’t wrap up this series. I’ll be making one more post with all of this content combined. In the mean time, you can peep the overview of all of the features in Part I. Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, and Part VI drilled down on the other features that I want out of a web browser.

Photo Credit: PhotoOptik

I’m about to defend Microsoft, so please excuse me.

I’m not sure what’s wrong with Microsoft these days. They obviously create some excellent devices, the Zune HD got a lot of buzz, the 360 is the console of choice for many gamers, and Windows 7 has been pretty successful according to the numbers. But, they need to brace themselves for something, and if they do it, then this whole Mac Vs. Microsoft thing can finally be laid to rest.

First, the MAC is a PC. So now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, we can focus on something a little more important here. Why is Microsoft threatened by a hardware company? The Cult of Mac folks posted a picture today from a Microsoft event, where 5 out of 7 of the laptops displayed in the picture were Macs. I’m sure Ballmer had a hard time not blowing a gasket when he saw that, but frankly, he should be seeing those machines as an opportunity to sell some more software. To… PC users.

Apple touted the first intel Macs as a machine that was best of the three worlds, it wasn’t because they had the best operating system (which I’d argue they do), but it was because the machines ran OS X, Linux/Unix, and Windows. All three, on one device. Heck, if you really want to get down to the nuts and bolts of it all, Apple plugged Windows in an attempt to get traditional beige box users to check out Apple’s products. Why couldn’t Microsoft do the same thing? That picture from the Cult of Mac could be the perfect marketing tool for Microsoft. “5 out of 7 Journalists are using a Mac, but how many of them are also running Windows 7 on their Machine?” I’d be willing to bet that a large majority of them have a virtual machine with Windows running on their laptops.

The traditional fight over operating systems is coming to an end. More users are realizing that it’s not about the brand on the OS, but it’s about the tools for the job. My job forces me to occasionally use Windows to check browser compatibility, and I’m alright with that. It time Microsoft starts thinking in these terms, and starts catering to consumers hardware choices, instead of this 1980s ideological divide that simply doesn’t exist anywhere but in the Valley and on the internet.

I’m not advocating that we all run out and switch to Windows, but I am advocating using the right tools for the right job, and Microsoft needs to realize that.