Here’s a really interesting take on the Apple vs. AT&T relationship.  As an avid Apple and iPhone user (yes, you may call me “Fanboy” if you absolutely have to) I’ve been a vocal supporter of the iPhone, but since the iPhone 4 was released (no, I haven’t bought one yet) I’ve noticed the my AT&T reception has been TERRIBLE.  No, like really terrible.  I have an iPhone 3GS, and it drops at least 6 calls every day, sometimes up to 15 calls per day, and the crazy thing, is that often times my phone will indicate FULL SIGNAL STRENGTH when dropping the call.  What’s up with THAT?

Well anyway, here’s an article I found at Wired that explains what’s likely going on there.

Enjoy.

For iPhone fans, it really was too good to be true. A pair of Apple executives had just described the latest model of the iPhone — the 3GS — onstage at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conferencein June 2009. The audience loved it. The 3GS was twice as fast as its predecessor, it included a camera that shot video, and the updated iPhone operating system enabled multimedia messaging and tethering — the ability to use the phone as a modem. Just one problem: While many customers in Europe and Asia could enjoy all those features, AT&T, the iPhone’s sole US carrier, wouldn’t allow video messaging or tethering at launch. In other words, the most advanced features wouldn’t be available to AT&T customers. What’s more, some current iPhone users who wanted to upgrade wouldn’t get the subsidies that new customers enjoyed. Incensed iPhone fanatics vented their fury on Twitter. “AT&T has been one disappointment after another.” “Is AT&T trying to squeeze more money from us poor suckers?” And they punctuated their complaints with a hashtag — the Twitter convention for grouping conversations — that became an eight-character protest slogan: #attfail.

About a week later, AT&T backed down and agreed to extend the subsidy to some existing iPhone users, but that didn’t appease its many critics. In the following months, the #attfail tag would serve as a kind of primal-scream therapy, a chance to rage against every perceived indignity that AT&T had forced upon them. Dropped call? #attfail. Data service unavailable? #attfail. Bad customer service? #attfail. The hashtag popped up on Twitter more than 5,000 times over the next six months, according to research firm Trendrr. In an attempt to assuage its critics, AT&T produced a video featuring its online spokesperson,Seth the Blogger Guy, to explain that the company was facing “an astounding amount of data demand” and to detail the “time-consuming process” involved in enabling video messaging. But Seth didn’t seem to win many converts. “AT&T LIES to consumers! Seth is not a REAL Blogger Guy!” one tweeter wrote in response. “#AT&T #FAIL miserably.”

AT&T had seen something like this coming. Almost as soon as the first iPhone was introduced in 2007, the carrier realized it might run short of bandwidth. Within just a few months, the first wave of iPhone customers was already sucking down about 15 times more data than the average smartphone customer and 50 percent more than AT&T had itself projected. In a bid to avert the looming problem, a team headed by senior vice president Kris Rinne met with Apple to ask for help. Of course AT&T was planning to upgrade its network to handle the increased demand, Rinne’s team told Apple executives, but that was going to take years. In the meantime, would Apple take measures to help throttle back the traffic? Perhaps Apple could restrict its YouTube app to run only over Wi-Fi. Maybe the iPhone could feature a smaller, lower-resolution videostream or cut off YouTube videos after one minute. Rinne, who had already met with Apple’s iPhone team at least half a dozen times, fully expected the company to play along. After all, manufacturers agreed to such restrictions all the time. It didn’t make sense to build phones and offer features that carriers couldn’t support.

But in meetings with Apple engineers and marketers over the subsequent year, Rinne and other AT&T executives discovered that Apple wasn’t playing by traditional wireless rules. It wasn’t interested in cooperating, especially if it meant hobbling what had quickly become its marquee product. For Apple, the idea of restricting the iPhone was akin to asking Steve Jobs to ditch the black turtleneck. “They tried to have that conversation with us a number of times,” says someone from Apple who was in the meetings. “We consistently said ‘No, we are not going to mess up the consumer experience on the iPhone to make your network tenable.’ They’d always end up saying, ‘We’re going to have to escalate this to senior AT&T executives,’ and we always said, ‘Fine, we’ll escalate it to Steve and see who wins.’ I think history has demonstrated how that turned out.”

Continue Reading this article at Wired.com

Author Credit: Fred Vogelstein

Apple released their iOS4 operating system for iPhone on June 21st, and many of our clients have been asking if they should upgrade their iPhones to iOS4 yet, or if they should hold off until some bugs are found, and updates are released.

I’ve been testing iOS4 out on my 32GB iPhone 3GS for the past 48 hours, and I recommend this update for any iPhone 3GS owners.  I would, however, recommend that owners of iPhone 3G skip this upgrade, as the iPhone 3G runs the new OS really really slowly.

I have had only one issue with the update.  I was in Los Angeles yesterday, where AT&T data coverage is notoriously terrible.  In fact, I didn’t even have a 3G signal where I was.  I had to settle for the EDGE network. (remember the EDGE network? 2G data speeds?  Sheesh…)

I landed at a client’s house in Santa Monica, and put my iPhone 3GS on their WiFi network, and then downloaded a full album from the iTunes store. Now, this should have been an easy process since I was on WiFi, right?  Yeah.  Not really.

My signal strength meter (AT&T’s, not my WiFi) kept going up and down, because, again, AT&T’s service is awful in LA, and my phone kept getting really confused and would hang other processes.  Eventually the album finally did download, but after the download, the iPhone’s iPod app would crash upon launch.  I restarted my iPhone several times to no avail.  The iPod app crashed every time I launched it, without fail.

This, of course, was not cool, as I was relying upon my iPod being able to play my brand new album on my 2 hour trip back up to Santa Barbara from Santa Monica.  I tried instead to listen to Pandora, but that didn’t work well, because — a point I’m laboring to get across effectively here — AT&T’s signal sucks in LA.  I digress..

The solution for this, unfortunately, was to sync my phone to my iMac upon my return home, to ensure that I didn’t lose the music I had just purchased.  Once synced, (the iPod still crashed) a complete iOS4 restore was necessary.  Luckily, this took all of about 15 minutes.  I moved all of my music back over (view THIS article for tips on how to best protect the music on your iPhone) and my iPhone and I were back in business.  I’ve since stress tested the new iOS4, and haven’t found any other issues with it.  I’m pretty happy with it so far, and I’m looking forward to testing it out on a new iPhone 4!

For more information about Apple’s iOS4, check out this great article from Michael Santo, which appeared on the 21st on examiner.com

June 21st has come and gone, and iOS 4 arrived with it. The latest version of Apple’s smartphone platform will bring with it a laundry list of long-desired features, so we have to wonder how many will update immediately?

Frequently, as we have said before, it’s not a bad idea to wait a while, and let the dust settle, along with the bugs found by early adopters. Certainly, those with jailbroken devices shouldn’t update, and they’ll lose their jailbreak: they will need to wait for a new jailbreak for iOS 4 to be created.

Meanwhile, for those who have decided to “go for it,” before you do anything, you should update your iTunes software to 9.2, the latest version. If you haven’t done it already, and are anxious to install, you’ll probably be annoyed: it generally takes quite some time for an iTunes install.

Typical of an iOS update (and yes, it is difficult to type iOS rather than iPhone OS for Apple’s newly renamed operating system), you’ll be notified via iTunes when you plug in your device and click “Check for Updates” (except for the original 2007 iPhone and iPod touch models, as well as the iPad: none of those are compatible. The iPad will get the iOS 4 features in its own release later this year).

This differs from Palm webOS and Android devices, which usually get their updates over-the-air (OTA), although some Android devices have seen standalone installers.

Assuming you’ve clicked “Check for Updates” and iTunes has told you there’s one available, and assuming your device is compatible, iTunes will lead you through the rest of the process. If your settings don’t back your device automatically when you plug it in, you should back it up manually.

To do this, right-click on the device icon in the iTunes sidebar and select Back Up. It should only take a few minute to create a backup. It’s a good idea, as being the early adopter you are, if anything goes wrong you can use the Restore from Backup option.

What is the incentive to upgrade to iOS 4? First, as developers continue to release software using iOS 4, they will require you have that on your device to run their software. There is also the incentive to be on the latest and greatest OS. Finally, there are a number of new features, some of which people have been craving for a long time.

Some of the new features are actually present in the iPad’s version of the OS, 3.2. The most notable of these changes include:

Multi-tasking: Unlike most multi-tasking OSes, iOS 4 isn’t a free-for-all. As we discussed earlier when we covered iOS 4 in detail, Apple has “distilled” multitasking to seven core services. Apps are already being posted to the App Store that support multitasking, but be aware that the vast majority will not yet do so.

That said, if you fire up a game and answer the phone and come back to the game, don’t get annoyed just yet if it doesn’t return to where you were. Time will fix this issue. Oh, and don’t forget: the iPhone 3G will not support this feature.

Folders: Finally, although this will close down the cottage industry that was Folder Support on jailbroken devices. Instead of having screen after screen of icons, you can combine them into folders, so that all your games, for example, are in one folder.

Orientation lock: The iPhone doesn’t have a hardware switch like the iPad, but iOS4 adds a software lock. This keeps the iPhone from changing orientation, and is particularly useful when reading lying down (which is why the iPad had the feature out of the gate). Double-click on the Home button and swipe to the left to find it.

Read the rest of this excellent article HERE.

By Chris Foley

The first question out of people’s mouths when they see me hanging out in a café, working with my iPad, after we get past the “Wow that’s heavier/lighter than I expected” and of course, the “Wow, that is just COOL..” has been, almost unanimously “Can I replace my computer or my netbook with one of these iPads?”

Well, I didn’t really think much of it at first, but by the 3rd or 4th time I was asked this question, I started to realize that there was really something here.

Can the iPad seriously replace a laptop computer or a Netbook?

Well can it?
Most of my consulting clients are creative professionals; Filmmakers, Designers, Photographers, Music Producers, etc, and the simple truth is no, the iPad will not replace a professional-level workstation any time soon. However, as I think more and more about our normal customers, who represent the majority of all computers sold, whose technology needs are far simpler than these creative professionals, I realize that the story is somewhat different.

What IS the iPad?
Q: Is it just a big iPhone, or a big iPod Touch?
A: Yes. And much more.

Q: Is it just an underpowered laptop computer running a mobile phone operating system?
A: Yes. And much more.

Q: Is this thing the future of computing?
A: Yes. And much more.

The iPad will easily (and elegantly) handle the basic needs of many computer users. Let’s take a look at what we can do.

Web
Email and Web browsing are handled with the Mac Mail email application, and Safari, respectively. If you currently access your email via a web browser, than you can continue to do so on the iPad. The device connects to your Gmail, Yahoo mail, Hotmail or MSN, AOL, etc.

The Safari web browser on the iPad is NOT a crippled mobile version of a web browser, as you’ll find on many mobile devices INCLUDING the iPhone. Some sites do recognize iPad’s Safari as a mobile browser, and will deliver a mobile version of the site, but these sites very frequently have a control at the bottom of the page while allows you to switch from mobile view to normal page page view. Twitter.com is a good example of this. I’ve not run into any issues with this yet.

NOTE: I’m not a very big fan of safari on the iPhone, though I do recognize that before the iPhone came out, we were all trying to access the internet on mobile web browsers which really shouldn’t have been called “web browsers” at all.

Safari for iPad is a full-sized web browser which interacts well with every website that I’ve visited — with the obvious exception of all pages containing Flash content, which the iPad does not support.

Click HERE to view a showcase of Top-Level websites that function beautifully on iPad.

Social Networking
There are many Twitter and other social networking applications available for the iPad, similar to the assortment currently available for the iPhone/iPod. Also, the iPad will run all of your iPhone applications as well, though they don’t look very good on the iPad. There are thousands of apps already available for the iPad, with more coming every week.

Workflow
iPad does not support Microsoft Office products, such as Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc. There are several Office-compatible applications available, however, such as Apple’s own Pages (a replacement for Microsoft Word), Apple’s Keynote (a PowerPoint replacement) and Numbers (an Excel replacement.) Now, I’ve already replaced my own need for Microsoft Office products by moving my workflow into Google Docs, which I can access from any computer no matter where I am in the world. There are already a handful of superb applications for the iPad which enable you to access and edit your suite of Google documents from the iPad.
Bottom line, you can work with word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, make flyers, etc.

The Calendar App fully syncs with your computer and your iPhone (either through a sync cable, or via an optional Mobile Me subscription) and is quite elegant and easy to use.

Typing
Using the iPad’s virtual keyboard does take quite a bit of getting used to, and in all honestly, I don’t use it, except to tap out a web address, or to peck out a brief response to an email. I carry a compact Apple bluetooth keyboard along with the iPad. This enables me to type as quickly as I can with my MacBook Pro, or my iMac. It’s actually the ability to use a wireless keyboard that makes me consider the iPad to be a seriously usable communications device.

I’ve always been impressed with how much work I can do on my iPhone, but I would never consider it to be a possible replacement for a laptop computer. The iPad changes my mind about that.

Media
The iPad is a full-on iPod too. Any music, audiobooks, or Movies or TV Shows that you currently have in your iTunes library are portable to the iPad. The iPad also supports most YouTube content.

The Photos application is a superb way to view, organize and share your images with friends and family, though it does not provide any tools with which to edit your images. This is a view-only photo application, though there are many 3rd-party applications available that will allow you to edit your images and then import them back into the Photo program.

eBooks
The iPad comes with Apple’s own iBooks store. iBooks are an excellent way to read your favorite books. I tested it out with the 700+ page System of the World by Neal Stephenson, and found that I didn’t experience the eye strain that I had expected. The additional features (such as built-in dictionary and Wikipedia support) make reading an iBook a very full and informative experience.

The iPad also supports Amazon’s Kindle application, so you have access to all of your Kindle titles too. My poor Kindle now lives in a draw by my bedside. (Psst. anyone want to buy a used Kindle?)

Gaming
The iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad are emerging as major players in the portable/handheld gaming industry. I’m not a gamer myself, so I don’t feel qualified to touch on this topic. Visit the iPad Apps page for a more in-depth view of what all is available for iPad.

My Favorite Apps
• Netflix – This is by far one of the coolest apps available for the iPad. Because of it’s extreme portability, I can watch a movie wherever and whenever I want to, providing I have a WiFi connection. I like to put the iPad on my kitchen counter, and watch old TV shows while I prepare dinner.
• Evernote – The iPad version of this app is excellent, and syncs up with my other ever note apps on my laptop and my iPhone. I don’t have to worry about syncing files up with my iPad. Between Google Docs and Evernote, whenever I sit down to work on my iPad, all of my files are already there waiting for me!
• GoDocs – This is my favorite Google Docs app for the iPad.
• Urban Spoon – Find great new eateries in your area by region, nationality, and price range. A fun way to experience new cuisine.
• NetNews Wire – a Fantastic (the best, in my opinion) RSS reader for the iPad. This is how I get most of my news, and stay atop trends which effect my industry.
• Wikipanion – A super Wikipedia application, offers a smoother browsing experience than the Wikipedia web site does.
• Pandora – Streaming music on your iPad.
• Thomson Reuters and AP News – great news apps with fun and intuitive interfaces for quickly locating stories of interest.

What the iPad will NOT do
The iPad doesn’t run a full Mac Operating System, so you can’t install any application that would ordinarily run on your Mac. You are limited to apps available inside the iTunes App Store. Many view this as an extremely limiting experience (the sorts of people who don’t like being told what they can and can’t do have a big problem with this limitation.) I honestly don’t care, as I’ve been able to quickly buy or download a free app which handles whatever I’ve needed.

The iPad will NOT support Flash media, which means that Flash-based web games, and many web video elements will not be visible to iPad users.

———-

Bottom line: The Apple iPad is a viable alternative to a computer, for users with simple needs. If you use your computer primarily for email communication, web-browsing, watching TV shows and movies from iTunes and/or YouTube and TED, sharing your photos with friends and family, word processing, book reading, and research, than I recommend seriously considering an iPad with 3G/WiFi connectivity as your next computer. And if you this description fits you, I definitely recommend the iPad over a Netbook.

Oh, by the way, this entire article was written on my iPad.

———-

How I Roll
I’m Rocking this Incase travel case for my iPad, which gives me room for the iPad, its power adapter, my bluetooth keyboard, and a travel charger. It even comes with a little plastic stand which allows me to prop the iPad up in Landscape orientation while I work. I highly recommend it.

Inspired by @kenleyneufeld, who posted a photo of his best iPad apps picks on his Facebook page, here is a screenshot of my own iPad, taken just a few moments ago.  These is my home page, and contains the apps I like the most for the iPad.

Here’s an excerpt from an article which appeared this morning at Computerworld.com
by Mitch Wagner

I agree with Mitch on every item, with the sole exception being Tweetdeck for iPad.  I was sorely disappointed with it, and have been using Twitterific instead.

Enjoy!

Computerworld – Apple’s iPad has been available for a short time, and you can already find apps to watch streaming movies, manage your Web passwords, use Twitter, do word processing and more.

But it’s still early days yet. Apple gave only a chosen few developers early access to the iPad — everybody else had to make do with software simulators and homemade cardboard mockups. They rushed their apps to market, and it shows. Many of the early apps are buggy and missing features.

These are the best apps I’ve found so far. They are all iPad-optimized, not iPhone apps stretched to fit the iPad. They get the job done, they’re fun to use, and several of them are free.

1Password for iPad
1Password encrypts, stores and organizes your passwords and other private information, and it automates log-ins for Web sites and other Internet services. You can also use it to store credit card numbers, bank account numbers, ATM PINs and more. 1Password is an extremely useful app for both the Mac and the iPhone, and now it’s available for the iPad too.

Continue reading HERE.

Every once in a while a software application comes along which turns out to be so mind-bogglingly useful that it leaves you scratching your head and wondering how you had ever lived without it. Dragon Dictation for the iPad is one of those applications.

First, a lot of users have complained that the iPad keyboard is a little weird to type on for any extended period of time. I personally disagree with this complaint, and find myself typing on the iPad’s virtual keyboard with fair accuracy, but I’ve found that pairing an Apple bluetooth wireless keyboard to my iPad turns the device into a seriously powerful communications device. Still, there are times when it’s simply inconvenient or impractical to pull out my iPad and a wireless keyboard.

For these times, there’s Dragon Dictation. So.. What IS Dragon Dictation? Have you ever wished that you could simply talk to your computer or to your cell phone, and have the device magically transcribe your spoken words into accurate text? Well, as it turns out, you won’t have to wait for the future to arrive, we have the technology. Instead of typing on the iPad, you can use Dragon Dictation to type out your text for you, using the power of your voice.

Dragon Dictation from Nuance Communications has been around for several years, and has been available only for Windows users until early 2009, when Dragon’s awesome voice to text engine was rolled into MacSpeech’s Dictate software for the Mac. Macspeech’s previous Mac-only speech to text product, iListen, was a huge disappointment, and really wasn’t very usable or accurate at all.

Nuance Communications was recently in the news for releasing a stellar version of Dragon Dictation for the iPhone, and they’ve raised the bar again.

What surprised us the most when we tested the iPad application, was that the program worked great on first launch with no need to train the software. See, both Dragon Dictation for Windows, and MacSpeech Dictate for the Mac require an initial training process, by which you read several pages of text into the system, and the software familiarizes itself with the unique nuances of your voice. In this way, you really customize the software to your own way of talking.

The iPad version of Dragon Dictation doesn’t require any training, and somehow works really well right out of the box. We tested it out with both male and female voices. We noticed that it had a bit of trouble tracking the voice of a child, and could tell the difference between a real person and a recorded playback of a person talking.

How does it work?

The application design is very nice as well with a marked focus on simplicity and ease of use.

There are two areas in the program, a sidebar on the left, which lists all of your previous sessions, and then the main body to the right where your recorded text appears, in real time, as you speak. To start a new session, one has only to tap the big “record” button in the middle of the main window. And then, just speak.

When you’re done, tap anywhere in the main window to stop recording. Your session is then stored in the left-hand sidebar, with your other sessions. Pretty easy. Tap on the Arrow button on the very right for some options. You can send this session to an email, or you can Cut or Copy the Note in order to Paste it an entirely different application on your iPad, such as Apple’s Pages, Evernote, Notes, etc.

If you choose to Send Email with your Note, the iPad creates a new email message without even leaving the Dragon Dictation Application. As you can see from the image below, the system pastes the body of the Note into an email message, complete with my default signature at the bottom. Pretty slick! I do have a little bit of editing to do, as no voice to text program is perfect, but with it’s minor inaccuracies, Dragon Dictation has released a product that is truly ready for Prime Time!

They also have a great DEMO page set up to give you help getting started.

Thanks for reading!

One very interesting side effect of belonging to this “Cult-of-Mac” is that I suddenly find that I can’t live without a product that didn’t even exist as far back in history as last week. Apple has only just announced their brand new “Magic Mouse,” and already my beloved “Mighty Mouse,” has become horribly obsolete; feels like a leaden paperweight in my hand.
Must.. have… a.. Magic Mouse! I feel like Eric Cartman pining after a Nintendo Wii. Yet, I digress.

(This just in, I have learned that Apple can no longer use the “Mighty Mouse” name for its wired mouse, because of a copyright infringement, so now the “Mighty Mouse” is simply known as “Apple Mouse.”)

This morning I received an SMS from my mole on the inside,

“Hey,” it read, “Magic mice in today.”

Quick like lightning I raced down to my local Apple Store and snatched mine up.

Configuration was a snap, but it’s important to note that the setup process did require some feedback from my existing mouse, so don’t pack the old one up until you’ve got new one working.

Once configured, I did have to run a software update, and get the new driver software. This update required a restart. *sigh* okay. Close a million windows, restart my MacBook Pro, and there we are: a fully functioning Magic Mouse.

On to the review.

My first impression of this extremely cool device is that I hate it. I loath this thing. It hurts to use.

Let me break the moment for a moment and mention that my initial distaste for the Magic Mouse quickly disappeared and was replaced with a joyous, sort of blissed out experience immediately after I discovered that I was holding it wrong. I say this now only because I don’t feel that product reviews should keep the reader in suspense. Carry on…

Because the Magic Mouse is so thin, I found that I could not operate it in the same way as a traditional mouse.

I used to hold my Apple Mouse as pictured here, and would rest much of the weight of my arm on the mouse itself.

Now, keep in mind that I spend most of my day in front of my Mac, with my hand on the mouse, so it’s vitally important that I sit comfortably.

My arm was exhausted after an hour of attempting to hold the Magic Mouse like this. Ouch.

After some experimentation, I realized that I would have to use my Belkin WaveRest Gel mouse pad, and push my arm a bit further up the pad then I was used to. This did the trick.

Alright then, back to the review.

This mouse is extremely cool. It’s very very low-profile, is much lower to the desktop than was its predecessor, and is, in fact somewhere between an iPhone and an Apple Mouse in thickness.

Its design is absolutely gorgeous. It’s white and perfectly smooth, with a brushed stainless bottom that runs on a pair of rubber rails. It seems to eat light, and I found it to be extremely difficult to photograph for this post.

The mouse does not seem to require a mouse pad, though I certainly recommend using one for the wrist support. Apple seems to be shifting away from round and white. It’s interesting that Apple is using screen grabs from the Star Trek movie in their marketing for the new iMacs and displays, because their new products are starting to share some lines with the new Starship Enterprise.

There is a dedicated left and right-click button inside the mouse. By default, the right-click button is set to OFF, but a quick trip to the Mouse Preference Pane fixed that up quickly. Former and current Windows users will really appreciate this feature.

Creative Professionals will find this mouse an absolute joy to use. One of the things I really appreciated about the old Apple Mouse was that the trackball was capable of right to left scrolling as well as the up and down scrolling. The addition of this left/right scroll feature was an enormous time saver for anyone using applications such as Final Cut Pro, Logic, Aperture, Photoshop, or even iMovie, iPhoto, and GarageBand.

The Magic Mouse continues with the right/left scroll feature, but does it all without the annoying rubber trackball, which would always get dirty and gummed-up, especially if, like my wife, you use hand lotion or moisturizer throughout your workday. (I can tell you, there’s no more annoying service call, than to clean Intensive Care hand lotion out of your wife’s mouse for her…” ) Again I digress.

Gestures are amazing with this mouse. It’s all of the best parts of the new trackpads that Apple has included in new MacBook and MacBook Pro models. When you flick your finger across the mouse’s surface to scroll up and down, or left to right, you can program it to end when you lift your finger, or you can program it to continue scrolling after you lift your finger. Just like with the iPhone’s touch surface, the scroll command will lose momentum, and come to a gentle stop, until you flick to scroll again. So.. Very… Cool…

Flicking two fingers at once across the mouse’s surface while in Safari or FireFox will toggle the Back or Forward button in the browser. In iPhoto, doing this will advance to the next photo in your library or album, or will back up to the previous photo. You get the idea..

(can you tell I’m completely geeking out over here?)

I put it the Magic Mouse through its paces in Aperture and iPhoto for a little while, and when I fired up Final Cut Pro, I seriously forgot how I ever lived without it.

It remains to be seen whether Apple is going to release a wired version of the Magic Mouse, or will keep it wireless.

Bottom line: well worth the $70 price tag
This devices is on par with the iPhone itself for design elegance and it’s “WOW!” feature set.

Creative Professionals will LOVE the Magic Mouse, and chances are, you will too.

For my regular clients, I’ll be carrying this mouse around with me in my computer bag, so just ask!

Thanks for reading!

~ Chris

Do you use RSS?  Do you know what that is?

For those of you who do not know,  Wikipedia defines RSS as a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works – such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video – in a standardized format.

In short, there are a bazillion excellent blogs out there on the web today, and the easiest way to stay on top of all of the content provided therein is the RSS technology.  (read the rest of the Wiki entry HERE.)

For example, this FoleyPod eZine site that you’re reading right now is a blog, and you’ll notice my own RSS icon over on the right, and at the top of the page.  By employing an RSS Reader, one can click on that RSS icon and subscribe to a blog; the RSS Reader software will alert you when your subscribed blogs are updated with new, or edited content.

There are many excellent RSS reader applications out there for you to use.  In fact, Safari and FireFox both have RSS functions built right into them, as does your Mac Mail application.   Many of my colleagues prefer to use the web-browser-based Google Reader, which is one of many free cloud applications offered by Google.

I’ve never really enjoyed Google Reader very much, for a couple of reasons.  First, I’m extremely underwhelmed with it’s look and feel.  Google applications are certainly not known for their slick interface, and let’s be honest, I’m a sucker for a slick-looking application that’s easy to use and looks cool.  There’s a reason that I’m an avid Mac fanboy.  There’s a reason I own an iPhone.  It’s all about the User Interface!

By way of example, here’s a screenshot of Google Reader’s ugly interface:

The second reason that I’m not a big fan of Google Reader as an RSS application is that I still have not been able to fully support “cloud computing.”  I often find myself with my laptop somewhere that does not have a reliable internet connection, and in that period, getting any work done is impossible if you’re relying on cloud applications overmuch.  Perhaps I’m just old-fashioned…

The upside of using Google Reader is that it’s a very solid program.  Being that it’s Google, it offers additional features that most other RSS applications do not, such as the ability to deliver targeted Keyword Alerts right to your RSS reader.  Let’s say that you’re very very interested in Soy Milk.  You can add a keyword alert for “Soy Milk” to your Google Reader, and it will deliver up any article published to the web and indexed by the Google engine, in real-time.

This feature alone is a pretty compelling reason to use Google Reader.  What better way to stay up on a particular topic than Google keyword alerts?

Anyway,

I’ve always been a really big fan of News Gator’s NetNews Wire application.  The interface is great.  It’s setup very much like iTunes or Mac Mail is.  It has a very “Mac OSX” feel to it, and new blog posts are delivered right into your left-hand sidebar, just as your new mail comes into your inbox in Mail.

Well, NetNews Wire just got a LOT better.  First, NewsGator has just released a brand new iPhone app, optimized for iPhone 3.0, and now NewsGator for Mac and for iPhone now sync to each other via Google Reader.  Now you get the best of both worlds: you get a great looking, easy to navigate RSS reader for your Mac desktop and for your iPhone, and you get the awesome functionality of Google Reader.

Why Sync?  If you’re anything like me, you’ve got about 80 (yes really) blogs that you follow every day/week/month.  Now, I naturally don’t read every single blog post that gets published to all of these sites; I just read the stories which interest me.  The power of synced RSS readers is that when I read, or skip a story on NetNews Wire for my Mac, it reports my activity up to the Google Reader servers, so later that day, when I have a few minutes between meetings, and I pull out my iPhone to catch up on a few blog posts, I don’t have to deal with reading or skipping that same story again.  This sync works the other way as well.  Stories read on the iPhone app will not show up in your Desktop app unless you bookmark them for later, or add them to your Clippings folder.

The NetNews Wire product page provides a complete list of features:

The product features:

• Access to RSS feeds from your iPhone
• iPhone-native user interface
• Centralized access to your feed list and folders along with an indicator of how many unread news items are associated with each feed or folder
• Feed list shows title and time of most recent post to quickly highlight the most recent article
• “Next Unread” button, which goes from story to story with a quick tap of a single button
• Google Reader sync including Starred items synchronization
• Twitter integration – send your favorite articles as tweets
• Instapaper integration – save pages for later reading in your browser
• New application icon (um.. yippee?)
• Latest News view – gives a “river of news” showing the articles from the last 24 hours
• Great new article view – better handling of images in articles
• New up and down arrows for navigating through your news list
• Richer display: title and date of most recent item on Feeds screen. Excerpts and dates on news item lists
• Send articles via email without leaving NetNewsWire

In past articles, I’ve talked about the power of server-synced content.  I’ve reviewed applications such as Evernote, and Things.  Both sync between their respective desktop and iPhone apps which prevents the double-handling of information, provides immediate access to the information that is important to you no matter where you are.

Along these lines, I also use the IMAP protocol for my email, which is to say that my Mac Mail syncs with my iPhone via my mail server to protect me from having to delete the same email message in two places.

The relevance of using a synced RSS reader is that you are now able to choose what news comes to you.  The old newspaper model is disappearing fast, and is being replaced by exactly this kind of technology.  I for one support this method very much, because in the past I’d have to subscribe to dozens if not hundreds of newspapers to access all of the content I now enjoy through RSS technology.

Now I can decide what subjects I learn about, and I can organize them all inside of a single “newspaper,” one that lives on my computer and on my iPhone, and gets delivered to me the moment that the story has been uploaded.  I like that a lot.  If you do too, check out NetNews Wire HERE.   It’s great, and what’s more, it’s FREE.

Thanks for reading.  Questions, issues, comments?  Leave a comment below!

When you get your RSS reader up and running, be sure to subscribe to this blog site from the link to the right.

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~ Chris

Here’s one I get pretty frequently:

What dSLR should I buy, Canon’s Rebel T1i or the Nikon D5000.  Well this excellent post from Mac|Life’s Zack Stern covers the details very nicely.

Here’s an excerpt:

Coke versus Pepsi. Mac versus PC. Canon versus Nikon. Among these great rivalries, we can only pick out one clear winner. (Here’s a hint: It’s not the colored sugar water.) In the latest Canon-versus-Nikon entry-level digital SLR (single-lens reflex) battle, both cameras score hits against the other.

It’s the DSLR version of Mac vs. PC–except without as obvious a winner.

But in the end, they’re much more similar than different. If you already use a film camera from either camera maker–and own a few lenses–don’t bother switching sides. If you’re not already invested in hardware that only works with one of them, your decision is much more nuanced. After much debate, we give a tiny edge to the Nikon D5000 for its impressive high-ISO performance. But you could just as easily fall in love with the Canon Rebel T1i for its slightly brighter, clearer LCD.

Canon Digital Rebel T1i

The T1i is light in your palm, weighing about 1.5 pounds with the bundled lens. We felt comfortable slinging it around and shooting with just one hand in one of the auto modes. Like the D5000, the T1i uses a single LCD screen to show your exposure data. (Most midrange and high-end DSLRs include a top-mounted screen too.) But the clear markings give enough details for manual photos, and you can also see the most important information inside the viewfinder.

The T1i LCD edges out the D5000 in a direct comparison. Canon’s slightly larger screen sports a higher resolution and looks great when reviewing recent images. It also looks a little better outdoors, but just as the D5000’s, this screen washes out in bright sun. When you sight through the eyepiece, the screen automatically turns off, which is a major benefit at night.

Images look good overall, although the T1i has a few weaknesses. We shot clean colors in many different lighting conditions, but the auto settings look more muted than higher-priced cameras. While bright daylight can wash out the hues, and night images without a flash run too warm, they are common problems that can be combated with manual controls. Earmark a lot of storage space for best results: The T1i’s 15.1-megapixel RAW photos can run 20MB each.

Mid- and high-ISO night photos mark the T1i’s biggest weakness. Images show moderate noise–random, colored pixels in dark areas—at about 400 ISO. Significant noise enters past 800 ISO, a setting you’d try to use to compensate for minimal lighting.

Nikon D5000

The D5000 is roughly the same shape and weight as the T1i. Nikon’s camera felt just as comfortable to shoot with, and its versatile LCD helps you shoot in awkward positions.

Like the T1i, the D5000 includes a live-view shooting mode, so instead of looking through the eyepiece, the preview image gets diverted to the LCD just like a point-and-shoot camera. But since the D5000 LCD swivels and turns, you can hold the camera high above your head, around a corner, or at ground level and still get a clear view of the screen. The 2.7-inch screen unfortunately stays lit when you compose shots through the eyepiece. But you can rotate it against the body, giving up exposure details for just the viewfinder information.

We thought that colors in photos shot with the D5000 popped a little more than those shot with the T1i, although the 12.3-megapixel D5000 scored only a subtle edge. And like the T1i, fine details looked excellent, such as the furry texture on a flower’s leaf.

In low light, the D5000’s clearer high-ISO modes perform better. We cranked the setting up to 2500 ISO before the noise seemed too distracting, but you could go even higher in a pinch. Images brightened up in this mode, helping us shoot in certain night conditions–indoors or with a streetlight–with no flash.

Click HERE to read the rest o the article, and see who wins the race (it’s a photo finish..)

I read Mac|Life regularly, and you should too.

~ Chris

For anyone out there using Mobile Me as a personal or a professional file share server, this article is for you!

Apple just strengthened their Mobile Me software package with the release of a FREE iDisk app for iPhone and iPod Touch.
Users can now access files and documents stored on their iDisks, and also share these files with others right from their handheld devices.

Once you’ve got it installed, you can go into Settings and enable “Show Extensions.”  I find this to be a helpful way of distinguishing between differently formatted files that may have similar names.  (See below).  Be sure to keep “Show System Folders” off, or else, you’ll be encumbered by all of the system-based folders which you can’t (and shouldn’t) be messing with unless you know what you’re doing.

My favorite part of the file sharing feature is that you can quickly view which files you’ve shared with others, and if you need to, you can easily unshare those files, with a single tap.  This feature alone makes iDisk a much better way to share files with clients or vendors than your typical FTP system.

When you grant someone FTP access to your server, they gain permanent access to a certain folder full of files, until you decide to revoke their access.  With this system, you can give a client or a vendor access to the files they require, and you can set an access expiration, which will revoke their access to selected files after a period of time, or you can revoke their access to a particular file while leaving them able to access others.  The control is yours.

Below is how the iDisk app displays a file which has been “Shared.”  Note the green text in the description field, and the green icon to the right, similar to the icon Apple uses in iCal to denote calendars which have been published to a shared server.

To stop sharing a particular file, or to send out a new link to the file in an email from your iPhone or iPod Touch, simply tap on that green icon.  (see below.)

When you send out a link via email, the recipient will receive an email containing a download link.  (See below)

You can also password protect files before you share them, for added security.  Not all files can be viewed on your iPhone or iPod touch.  Viewable file types include Microsoft Office, .pdf documents, Apple iWork documents, .mp3 and .m4a files, and Quicktime movies, to name a few.  Flash video files are still unviewable on the iPhone.

I’ve been playing with this app for the past hour or so, and find it to be a very useful addition to my Mobile Me and iPhone experience.

You can download this app directly from the iTunes App Store from your iPhone or iPod Touch, or you can click on this link HERE and download from iTunes on your Mac and then sync it over to your handheld device later on.

Here’s a list of features provided by Apple:

• View files on your iDisk

• Access Public folders

• Easily share files from your iPhone

• Quickly access recently viewed files (this feature is also very cool)

• View iPhone – supported file types – including iWork, Office, PDF, Quicktime and more.  (Files larger than 20MB may not be viewable.)

REQUIREMENTS:

• MobileMe subscription

• iPhone or iPod Touch

• iPhone OS 3.0

Thanks for reading!

~ Chris

Yet another great article from Mac|Life.  Arvind Srinivasan covers a handful of super-useful plug-ins no Mac user should be without.

Who says you need an application? Sometimes, all you need is a plug-in to make your regular apps run harder, better, faster, and stronger. However, plug-ins don’t get the respect and recognition that full fledged apps do. And while there are applications to do most things, who needs an application when a simple plug-in can do everything behind the scenes?
We introduce the ten “Flugins” (free plug-ins) that will make you forget there were ever shortcomings in your favorite OS X apps…..

Read the full article at Mac|Life HERE.

Enjoy
~ Chris