Macgasm

January is the month of fresh starts, new beginnings, out with the old and in with the new. But, if you didn’t get a shiny new Macbook Pro for Christmas, here are my top tips for detoxing your overindulged Mac.

Disk Space

Just like de-cluttering my wardrobe, I often find my laptop is full of little bits floating around that I either never use because they’re so out of date or I had no idea they existed in the first place. So to solve the problem of a computer full of crap (e.g. that Coldplay album I downloaded, got lost in iTunes and eventually got forgotten about) taking up valuable space, there are plenty of apps about to do all the dirty work for you. Disk Inventory X uses what they call ‘treemaps’ to show you visually what your computer has been chomping on, and allows you to see where all the unwanted files and folders are lurking so you can quickly ban them to the trash. You still have to do a lot of sifting about with this app, making it a bit of a jumble sale at times, but the handy selection list lets you see all files of a specific kind, so you can work out if there’s too many files in a certain area doing the clogging. The best thing about this app is that it’s completely free, but of course you can donate via paypal to say thanks for their hard work.

If you’re looking for a one-click type of solution to tech spring cleaning, CleanMyMac is a two-click helper (almost…) with no sorting or sifting of numerous files, making it the perfect solution for the type of Mac user who simply wants everything done for them. Much like having your own maid to dust around your chair whilst you sit watching comedy show re-runs (admit it, we all want that), CleanMyMac is a welcome helper whose easy interface makes it super-easy to dump all those files you never even knew you had. For 6 months cleaning, you pay $14.95 and for a lifetime commitment (you’ve gotta make one someday) it’s $29.95. Not bad for something that does everything for you.

The cutest of all disk cleaners is DaisyDisk, an app promising to find and delete big, useless files. By far the easiest visualization of your computer, DaisyDisk shows you your files in a sunburst map where segments are proportionate to the file’s size.This way you can click on an individual segment, reveal in finder, and trash away. A truly mesmerizing interface greets you upon opening and the flash of colours gets you straight in the mood for cleaning once the scan is over. If DaisyDisk were a pinup, she’d be Bettie Page for sure. At $19.95 for a download, it’s a bargain but if you want the CD version, you’ll have to cough up an extra $14.95 for the priviledge.

Another fantastic app for getting rid of unwanted files is App Zapper, which Josh wrote about recently. Read his great post here.

Icons and Backgrounds

After the upgrade to Snow Leopard my macbook began to look a little lacklustre due to the losing of my saved background. This still hasn’t changed, but the best way to perk up a dull desktop is to whack an interesting picture on it. I usually use one of my own photographs, or I trawl through Flickr for a seasonal picture. Sometimes opening my laptop to be greeted by the smiling faces of my family can be the best pickup, and can start conversation in a cafe. Plus, it looks a hell of a lot better than Aurora!

The best app I’ve found so far for icons is Candybar, which allows you to customise and organise all your icons in one easy programme as well as your dock. Some great free icons can be found at InterfaceLIFT, and are all generally well designed with the most simple black and white packages being quite popular. I’m a fan of the crisp and clean look, not too many colours or garish animals peeking out, but liked customizing my hard drive icon with a love heart. Main folders, namely my CV folder and Portfolio, were appropriately twinned with love heart icons to make them stand out instantly. If you’re not too keen on the love hearts, there are plenty of less-girly icons for you to choose from! CandyBar can be bought from the site for $29, or you can download a free trial and register to use the services later.

The Outside

One of the best bits about owning a laptop is being able to customise it, not only on the inside but on the outside too. With the white macbooks, you’ll often find a quick clean with wipes and spray restores grey smudges to their original bright whiteness, and then you’re free to add anything you like. People often go for stickers of their favourite social sites or brands, but there’s also the option to invest in some real art to show off with. Urbanretro and Etsy sell some great vinyl skins including this Little Big Planet and exploding dog art. If you’re like me and know you’ll get bored easily with one-use only stickers, you can go for the hard case option, giving you a variety of colours to pick and choose from. And, if you have a bit more money than sense and aren’t afraid to show it, there’s always Colorware to give your Macbook or iMac a full makeover paint job.

Way back in my very first post, I told you about iPhone icon paperclips I’d found on Etsy. Now the creator of those little designs has made my headlines again with these iPhone icon magnets. Proving very popular, they’re sold on Bear Duck Designs and cost a nifty $38 (that’s about £23).

The pack contains all 20 standard icons (SMS, calendar, mail, safari etc.) and comes in a handy little tin shaped like an iPhone! Trinkets like these can brighten up a room or desk-space of the most die hard mac fan, and Bear Duck Designs advise you cover your fridge, lamp, garbage can, or anything metal.

Like the paperclips, these magnets are made from strong materials like neodymium, so you won’t see anything falling loose from their grip. Measuring 13mm square and standing 3mm tall, they’re perfect for holding up the shopping list, and since it’s that time of year they’re ideal as stocking fillers!

If you don’t fancy owning all 20 of the icons (but I really don’t know why…), Bear Duck Designs offer 4 icons of your choice from the 20 listed for $8 (£4)

With every new product and revamped lines, Apple never cease so amaze us. So much so that their announcements attract a huge amount of attention and people flock to their nearest store in order to try out the latest update. I went down to the flagship store on London’s Regent Street to have a play with the new Magic Mouse.

First Impressions

We’ve come to expect nothing less than ‘sleek’ and ‘shiny’ from Apple, and the Magic Mouse is no exception. Clean lines and a crisp shade of white makes the mouse stand out from its counterparts. The weight feels no heavier than the Mighty Mouse yet it manages to make itself feel more robust, proving to feel less plastic-like than its predecessor. Compared to other mice on the market, the Magic Mouse definitely looks to be the flattest, which has its pros and cons. It can make for easy movement, helping your wrist sit without the discomfort of long periods of bending, or it can prove difficult when scrolling without a nice sized curve to take the force of your fingers.

Multi-Touch

I was looking forward to trying out what is now, very basically, a handheld touchpad. Of course, Apple like to make things the easiest they could possibly be so this mouse without the ‘nipple’ should be far simpler to use. One thing though…after being so used to holding the Mighty Mouse so firmly in my hand in order to scroll without budging itself off the desk, I’m tempted many times to use the Magic Mouse much like the trackpad and just rest my hand on it lightly. Because of its light weight and flatter body, budging was at its maximum and I had to keep reminding myself to keep holding on whilst I scrolled! Here the flatness compared to the Mighty Mouse caused some unnecessary problems. It was quite hard to position my hand in the right way in order to keep hold of the sides and scroll whichever way without needing to re-position or without the mouse moving, not a major problem but one that makes my wrist want to lie loyally with the Mighty Mouse.

The two-button click is as normal, and it’s always helpful to have that left-handed assignment if needed. I do like it when companies have all their users in mind. Two-finger swipe is also pretty simple, making it easy enough to pass back to previous history and forward again, though I’m not a huge fan of putting too much into one very sensitive product. 360 scroll seems really handy compared to the stickiness of the Mighty Mouse, which frequently irritated me. The loss of the ‘nipple’ makes for a smoother experience, albeit quite a flat one. If you’ve got big hands, beware!

Overall Rating – 4/5

Whilst I’m all for Apple’s obsession with smooth and shiny, I can’t get fully on board with their insistence on making everything thinner and flatter. It might be the way forward with technology becoming more slimline, and the constant competition on who can make the smallest of whatever, but a satisfactory browsing experience must be at the comfort of your hand. The flatness was almost too much for my wrist to cope with, forcing me to keep re-positioning my hand at every scroll and my fingers to release the mouse instead of holding on. This, to me, was its only con. Overall, browsing Macgasm has never been so easy ;)

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.

The clever guys at Twelve South have thought up yet another fantastic invention for us Mac users. This time it’s a little shelf for the back of your iMac or cinema display, called the BackPack™.

With the tag line ‘out of sight, but not out of reach’, you can pretty much gather what the intended purpose of this gadget is, and a very good gadget it is indeed. If you’re like me and prefer your workspace clutter free and clean, with plenty of room to swing whatever you like, then the BackPack™ might just be your savior. Use it to hold external hard drives as an easy place to keep whilst backing up, leave your iPhone sitting pretty, or keep a secret stash of moonpies on it if you really wish (Twelve South recommend Transformers).

I’ll leave the technological talk to the folks at Twelve South to explain how the shelf works:

The BackPack rests on the back of the desk stand on flat-screen iMacs and Apple Cinema Displays using gravity and two simple, adjustable clips. This allows you to position the sporty shelves at the perfect height without a screw ever touching your iMac. Because the BackPack uses gravity to stay in place, it will not leave any scratches or marks on your machine.

Easy. Available from Twelve South‘s website for $29.99 or from the Apple Store itself for $29.95 (plus shipping), this simple technology can make the world of difference to a workspace.

via Geeky Gadgets

When you love your laptop so much, you want to treat it like a member of the family. You want to give it the best care, the best software, and the best accessories out there! I think I’ve found my 13-inch macbook the prettiest, coolest, and most original sleeves and cord pouches from Lollington on Etsy. The green dino sleeve is seriously cute and for the girlie girls out there – the migratory birds sleeve is one to squee over. They’re always adding new stuff so keep checking back for new colours and designs, and as they say: “Don’t be shy about asking for custom listings.” Maybe I should be worried that I know my boyfriend will absolutely love the pink unicorn netbook sleeve, but they’re all so darned cute to care!

I’m a sucker for cute little trinkets, especially when they have something to do with an iPhone, so there was no doubt I’d fall head over heels for these icon paperclips.

Made from the creative material that is Fimo clay, a complete pack consists of icons for:

- Camera
- iPod
- Weather
- YouTube
- Text

and can be used as a general paperclip or even as a bookmark. Created by Bear Duck Designs, they arrive in a little decorated matchbook and can be bought from the Etsy store for $8.00