Author Archive

by Diane Petersen, Kachemacs

Author: David Pogue

Publisher: O’Reilly Media

Publisher website: www.oreilly.com

Price: $24.99 retail (don’t forget about the MUG discount!)

I remember the day I got my iPhone. I upgraded from no phone to my iPhone 3G. I never knew how much I would come to depend on this little white gadget. I learned a lot on my own, but even almost a year later this book has taught me some new things.

I wish I would have had this book when I actually got my phone instead of waiting for the year that it took for me to get a copy. The book is written in clear and basic language. One doesn’t need to be a total geek to be able to use the hints in this book. I found the wealth of colored plates containing examples of screenshots very helpful in visualizing the tips that Mr. Pogue introduced in the different chapters. In the formatting I found plenty of tips inserted on the pages highlighted in yellow. Also the paragraphs themselves use color to highlight the paths for the user to take to mimic the examples.

One thing to note is that this book is the Second Edition. This means that the book covers the 3G version of the iPhone. When I got my iPhone 3G, the documentation in the box was extremely sparse. It’s almost a necessity to pick up a book like this in order to use the iPhone to its full potential. I highly recommend this particular book to serve that purpose. It provides great information for every one: newbies, cellphone junkies, and even geeks.

Overall rating: 5 (Excellent!)

by Cheryl Riley, Kachemacs

Title: MacBook Pro Portable Genius
Author: Brad Miser
Publisher: Wiley, Inc
Price: $25.00

As a beginner in the Apple Computer World and a new MacBook Pro user I found this book very useful. First of all it is set-up and written in such a way that a beginner can navigate through various tasks easily. It is also easy to find the topic you are looking for and written simply enough that a beginner can work through each step of a process without getting lost. It doesn’t give you that overwhelming feeling that you can’t figure it out without help.

Key Features:

Table of Contents:

The Table of Contents is a very important tool in finding your way around. I like the way each chapter starts with a common question and then gives you the tools to answer that question and more. It was easy to locate the information I needed to complete a particular task.

Visual:

The book is colorful and the pictures, screens, and layouts are large and easy to read and follow.

Layout:

The layout is easy to follow and written simply enough that a beginner can navigate without hesitation. There is not too much information that you get bogged down with detail. Once you have a good understanding of the basics it makes it easier to understand more advanced material.

Tips:

The Genius tips are very helpful once you have worked through the task you can then go back and read the tips to find an easier or quicker way to accomplish it.

I would highly recommend this book to a beginner MacBook Pro user. I have reviewed other books but this one was very user friendly.

Thanks for your time and allowing me to review this book.
Cheryl Riley
Kachemacs Computer User Group Member

BudFits

by Diane Petersen, Kachemacs

Manufacturer URL: www.budfits.com
Distributor: Amazon
Price: $8.99

Pros: Makes better use of an item most people already have. Discreet.
Cons: Takes up all the slack in the cord so built in microphone is behind the ear. Difficult to place around ear.

Anyone who has an iPod or an iPhone knows about those headsets you get with them. They look okay until you try to use them. They don’t even come with the foam earbud protectors anymore. They’re not cheap to buy, on the Apple website they cost $29 to replace. I always hate to throw them away, so they end up in a drawer somewhere. They would make good spares, I guess.

Now, before everyone gouges out their ear canals, there’s a new product which might make these headphones usable. Innovelis has come out with a new product called BudFits. The BudFits are silicone ear clips which hook to the earbuds in order to loop them around the ears and secure them snugly. They come in various colors; mine are white to match the white of the earphones. They look a lot like the earpieces of some of the fancy Bluetooth headsets they make for cell phones. But do they work?

The BudFits were rather easy to attach to my earbuds. The piece just clicks over the stem of the earbud and holds the cord within a groove. With some effort, the assembly can be maneuvered around the top ear lobe and the earbud can be fit into the ear. Once in place, the BudFits and earbuds do not seem to budge. The BudFits certainly alleviate the problem of the sharp edges of the earbuds being crammed into the ear canal. They seem a lot more comfortable than the earbuds alone.

On my spare set of Apple earbuds, which I keep in my car, I use a set of clip-on silicone in-ear adapters. These needed to be removed before the BudFits would seat properly. The jury is still out on which assembly is more comfortable, however, the BudFits take more effort in getting them situated properly.

If I’m going to be using my Apple headset for an extended period of time the BudFits will definitely make that time bearable. If I will be taking the headset on and off frequently, the BudFits will get in the way. For the price, the BudFits are an economical way to make the stock Apple headphones useful.

I give the BudFits by Innovelis a rating of 4.

MacSpeech Dictate v1.2

by David Marusek
Developer: MacSpeech
Developer URL: www.macspeech.com
Price: $199.00, includes headset

My config: MacBook, 2 GHz Intel Core Duo, 2 GB SDRAM
My review in a nutshell: If you want to dictate your speech directly into text, this is a good time to jump into voice recognition software. Dictate v1.2 is far from perfect, but it’s good enough to use now professionally, and it will only improve as it matures.
I am a professional science fiction writer with a peculiar handicap: something about a keyboard seems to rob me of my creativity. So I write out my stories and novels in longhand –two or three full drafts –before keystroking them into the word processor. No wonder then that I’ve been following speech recognition software for a while. Way back in 1993, I purchased a new Macintosh Quadra 840AV computer for my university office, the first Mac series to ship with voice commands (Speakable Items) and a built-in microphone. It didn’t work at all, no matter how loud I yelled at it. A few years later, I purchased v1.0 of MacSpeech iListen. It wasn’t much better. I decided to sit back and wait for the technology to mature enough to make it worthwhile to try again.

That time came last year when I had the manuscript for my second novel, Mind Over Ship, ready for keystroking. I had the opportunity to try Dragon Naturally Speaking v9 on my dentist’s office computer, and I was so impressed, I decided to buy a copy. DNS has no Mac version, and even though I already owned an Intel Mac, it would have cost about $500 to install it on my Mac (mostly to pay for Windows Vista). Instead, I loaded it on my daughter’s Dell laptop. I dictated the entire book into the Dell and copied it to my Mac for final editing. Dictating an entire book was a bumpy but successful operation, and I’m now a voice recognition believer. Which was why I was excited to hear that MacSpeech licensed the DNP voice rec engine and built a whole new native Mac application around it.

Dictate v1.2’s chief strength is its extraordinary accuracy. Almost no training is required. The headset included with the software is top-notch and comfortable to use. You can dictate directly into many software applications and navigate them by voice.

Dictate v1.2s chief weakness is its editing function. Granted, this function is completely new in this version, but it is so riddled with flaws that it is unusable. I’ll give just a couple of examples of this.

There are commands for moving the cursor forward or backward x number of words in your dictated text, and to the beginning and end of a document, but that’s about it. You can’t move back and forth by individual spaces, which one sometimes needs to do, or by a number of lines or paragraphs. There is no backspace command, which is very inconvenient. To select a word or phrase to edit, you speak it. Let’s say that the word “tiger” appears in your text three times and you want to edit its second occurrence. You say, “Select the word tiger.” If the software selects the first or third tiger, you’re out of luck. I could figure out no way of selecting the second tiger short of using my mouse. In DNS v9 (I know that v10 has been released, but I have no experience with it), you would simply repeat, “Select again,” until the desired tiger was selected, but Dictate lacks this option. If you run out of patience and select a word with your mouse, you have just ruined your editing session. The Dictate users manual emphasizes a “motto” for editing: If you’re talking, talk, and if you’re typing, type. This is by way of saying that Dictate uses some kind of mapping algorithm that only responds to voice commands. So the moment you use your keyboard or mouse to edit, you go off the internal map and the program loses its place –permanently, as far as I can tell. I consider this to be a fatal flaw and urge MacSpeech to fix it. There will be times when using the keyboard is the only way to do an edit, and if the internal mapping can’t handle it (as DNS seems able to do), you might as well forget about editing by voice altogether. Which is what I’ve pretty much done, for now at least. Dictate is so accurate that I’m satisfied getting the words in the word processor more or less correct as dictated the first time. From there I do all my editing with keyboard and mouse in Word.

Unfortunately, one needs to do a certain amount of editing by voice, especially at the beginning of the new document, in order to train the software to your writing style and further increase its accuracy. For example, let’s say you use a word that has homonyms (right, rite, write). If the software can’t figure out by context which spelling to use and uses the wrong one, and if you will be using that word frequently in the document, it behooves you to correct the error at the outset because Dictate is smart enough to learn your usage and keep from making the same error repeatedly. Therefore, editing is necessary, no matter how frustrating it is in the current version.

In conclusion, Dictate has a long way to go to match its rival, but I’m confident it will get there, and I’m in for the long haul now. Version 1.2 is already good enough to save me weeks of keystroking my next novel.

Social Networking with Your Mac

Claire J Rottenberg
CJRTOOLS ebooks

Social networking is one of the hottest topics in the computer and Internet field today. It refers to online communities where people share and interact with friends and colleagues, often developing new relationships. Social networking first became popular with MySpace, a youth-oriented network, but there are now many online communities geared toward adults who seek connections with others in their professional fields. Examples of these kinds of networks are LinkedIn and Facebook.

Mac users, who tend to enjoy social connections with other users, as evidenced by the large number of Apple user groups, have become widely involved in online social networking. There are even social networks just for Mac users. In this article, I describe one of the social networks specifically designed for Mac users, as well as two of the general networks that have large followings in the Mac community.

Facebook Groups
Facebook (www.facebook.com) is one of the most popular social networking sites. When you sign up for a Facebook account, you’ll be able to create a profile that can include as much or as little information about your personal and professional lives that you want to share with others. If you have a business, you can create a separate section just for your business. For example, I have a page for my ebooks business that includes information about my company, current news about the business and my RSS feed. Other Mac and Apple-related companies, such as O’Reilly books, also have business pages on Facebook.

Like many other social networks, Facebook has groups that people can join. This is one area of Facebook that might be of special interest to Mac users because of the large number of Apple groups and members on Facebook. For example, the “A is for Apple” group has over 13,000 members and the “Apple” group has over 18,000 members. Once you join a group, you can write messages on the group’s wall or start a discussion thread. You can also invite friends to join the group. There is probably an Apple or Mac group on Facebook that addresses your interests, but if you don’t find the exact type of group you want, you can create your own group and invite others to join.

World Wide Mac
World Wide Mac (http://macusers.ning.com) is a social network, similar to Facebook on a small scale, that is just for Mac users. Once you join the network (it’s free to join), you can create a profile for yourself, upload photos or videos, and invite friends to join. You also get a free blog and an email account. Your profile page can include your biography, a photo and links to your websites. There are applications you can add to make your profile more interesting and more personal. For example, I’ve added my RSS feed to let people know about my work and a fun application that shows me random pictures of adorable dogs. Every profile has a wall and you can write messages on your own wall or on other people’s walls.

If you want to make new friends on World Wide Mac, just visit someone’s profile and send them a message. Or you can join or create a group and find new Mac friends that way. There are currently 229 members on World Wide Mac, but, unfortunately, the site does not get much activity. Maybe if everyone who reads this article joins, together we can make World Wide Mac the Facebook of the Mac world.

Twitter
Twitter is a unique type of social network. On Twitter, you send very short messages, called “tweets,” to people who are following your activities on Twitter. For example, you might send a link to an interesting article or video you’ve viewed. Your followers can respond to your tweets, either with another tweet that can be viewed by anyone who visits your Twitter page or with a private, direct message.

Twitter is very popular with Mac “gurus.” Most of the experts in the field of Mac computers have Twitter accounts and regularly send interesting and informative tweets. For example, I followed Jason Snell, editorial director of MacWorld magazine, during the keynote speech at the recent MacWorld conference. He was tweeting live from the conference room and anyone following him could get up to the minute reports on the keynote speech. To see which Mac experts are on Twitter, view my list of “10 Mac Experts to Follow on Twitter.”

Conclusion
There are many ways that Mac users can join the online social networking revolution. In this article, I’ve described three options – Facebook groups, World Wide Mac and Twitter – but there are other types of social networking sites popular with Mac users. For example, many Mac users enjoy online bookmarking networks like Delicious. Take a dip into this new phenomenon with one of the sites I’ve described or search for “Mac social networking” on Google and explore some of the other options and you’ll probably find one that meets your social needs.

Copyright 2009 Claire J Rottenberg
All rights reserved

Claire J Rottenberg is the author of ebooks on Mac OS X 10.5, Safari, Mail, iPhoto ‘08, iTunes, and Mac OS X 10.4. More information on her books is available on the CJRTOOLS ebooks website (www.cjrtools.com/ebooks). Claire can often be found networking on World Wide Mac (macusers.ning.com/profile/ClaireRottenberg), Facebook (www.facebook.com/pages/Mac-OS-X-105-Leopard-ebooks/ ) and Twitter (twitter.com/cjrtools).

Z.buds by Zagg

by Diane Petersen, Kachemacs

Manufacturer: Zagg

Manufacturer URL: www.zagg.com

Manufacturer phone: 1.800.700.ZAGG (9244)

Price: $79.99

I live with earphones on. I’m an audiobook freak and when I’m home alone I multitask in the kitchen and around the house while listening to podcasts, books, and music. It is imperative that I have a set of earphones that are durable, comfortable for hours, and decent sounding. Now that I have an iPhone, a set with a microphone and mute would be a bonus.

My leading brand ($300) over the ear headphones fit that description, minus the microphone. My lower end sport earbuds ($40) work quite well, but I sacrifice a bit of sound quality and comfort for portability. The stock Apple headphones are tolerable, but I need to have a third party adapter on the buds ($25) to make them comfortable. Besides, they live in my car.

Zagg has come to the rescue with a set of third party earbuds for the iPhone which are priced reasonably, have decent sound, and an innovative design. I can answer my phone while using it as an iPod, and have limited navigation features in my library.

The Zagg Z.buds headset comes packaging as unique as the product. The triangular box is not really a good design for in-store marketing, and the mail order option to Alaska costs quite a bit. Shame on Zagg for using the plastic clamshell internal packaging. You have to be the Wolverine with Adamantium talons to get into the stuff, and it’s not the most friendly to our landfills. Inside that packaging, there is a vast array of tips for the earbud speakers. I have opted for one of the 3 sizes of silicone tips, there are memory foam ones for noise canceling as well. I was stymied by the strange Devo hat rubber tips, and was unable to successfully install them on my earbuds.

The innovative nature of Zagg comes out in the design of the cords. My first thought as I took them out of the packaging was of a primary IV set, with all the junctions and branches, even creepier was the fact that my set is red. The material of the cording resembles an anorexic bungee cord, with a stiff pliability similar to the Apple earphones while stored in the ashtray of my car in January. This is the mechanism by which Zagg can claim the “no tangles.” The cords don’t tangle as much as standard ones. There are 3 silver bb type beads that slide along the 2 cords of the set. They are designed to delineate the sections which allow for the set to be worn securely around the neck. There is also a junction that has a removable button hook to retain the cord so it doesn’t get caught. It’s just a thread loop, but I think the Kachemacs would be better served by a snap to attach to Carhartts of a mini carabiner. Who in Homer wears a button down shirt with their iPod?

I compared the set with my current earphones and also with my husband’s expensive set of in ear headphones. My over the ear set won hands down, but I paid dearly for them. My low end ones lose sound in the bass range a little more than the Z.buds. In my husband’s $300 earbuds, there is definitely more definition and bass. The Z.buds had surprisingly good sound for the price, albeit a bit tinny at times. There is no comparison with the stock Apple set, Z.buds are much better.

The design of the Z.buds was quite well thought out. All the complaints I have with regular earbuds have been addressed. The mute button on the microphone will pause, skip, and reverse the music. There is an in line volume control. The constant problem of the cord getting caught in the refrigerator was addressed, as was the fact that the buds themselves never stay in my control when I remove them.

As with any version 1.0 product there are some design flaws. That removable button hook is pretty useless to me. Besides, it is too removable. I lost it quite quickly, as the loose screw threads allowed it to wiggle free. The plastic volume control wheel appears rather cheap, and it seems like an afterthought. It also is very easy to bump and move, resulting in either an insult of decibels or of a loss of volume leading me to believe my battery died. The cord does not tangle easily, and the cord behind the head is a novel way to keep the buds in place. And did I mention, they’re red? Or they can be black. Either way, they’re snazzy.

I have faith that the design flaws inherent in the design of the Z.buds can be quite easily worked out. The sound and overall design are quite good for the price. My husband even bought a pair after trying mine.

Value: 5
Functionality: 4
Presentation: 4
Performance: 4
Utility: 5

Zagg has broken into a new market with the Z.buds, having made a name for themselves with the InvisibleSHIELD device protectors. For this new innovation, Zagg gets a 4.5.

InvisibleSHIELD for MacBook Air

by Diane Petersen, Kachemacs

Manufacturer: Zagg

Manufacturer URL: www.zagg.com

Manufacturer phone: 1.800.700.ZAGG (9244)

Price: $54.95

Pros: Tough protection, adheres tightly to MacBook (no room for grit and dust underneath), totally invisible.
Cons: Intensive application procedure, 24 hour downtime while product cures.

I already was familiar with the Zagg InvisibleSHIELD since purchasing one for my iPhone. From my positive experience with the iPhone InvisibleSHIELD, I decided I needed one for my new MacBook Air. A bulky case ruins the portability of the Air, and why would you want to negate the Mac’s biggest selling point?

The InvisibleSHIELD is a space age cling film that coats electronic devices. Developed from a product used by the military to cover helicopter wings, its consumer based use is to protect all of our valuable gadgets. I throw my keys in my pocket with my iPhone and InvisibleSHIELD, and have never scratched it.

My InvisibleSHIELD came to me in one of those cardboard tubes, probably due to the large size compared to a handheld model. I prepped my kitchen counter for the surgery I was about to perform. I rubbed down my hands with alcohol and cleaned the counter very well. I grabbed a clean towel and went to work.

The procedure did not go as well as it did with the phone. I am somewhat of an expert in the application of the film, having done 3 iPhone covers and a camera. Zagg delivers an ample supply of their lubricant spray for application, and I used copious amounts. The large area to be covered presented some problems for me. I would get a bubble caught in the middle, or about 6 inches from the nearest edge, and I had to work them all out with the rubber paddle they give you. I had to lift some of the pieces back off a couple of times to get them to line up. Strangely, I had a couple of pieces left over that didn’t fit anywhere, and the border around my screen didn’t seem to have a piece that fit it. That is acceptable, since that is the least likely area to get scratched up. When I was finished I had the bottom, the lid, the surface around the keyboard, trackpad, and button all covered.

It looked absolutely terrible. I had bubbles all over it, cloudy places where I had touched it too much, and I just about cried after working on it for over an hour. The best thing about this product is that it is so reversible, though. Pulling it off is about like skinning a halibut fillet. Once you get it started it pulls off with a bit of tugging.

I didn’t pull it off, however. I remembered from my previous experience that the stuff is rather forgiving. As of this writing, about a week later, 99% of those bubbles have dissipated as the product cured. The cloudy bits are totally clear now. My notebook has a tough coating, and you can still see the beauty of it underneath. The coating doesn’t seem to affect the use of the trackpad at all. It’s a little more tacky, but I’ve learned to compensate.

One issue I did have was that after I had finished applying my shield I left it to dry. While it was drying, it was accidentally left on top of a magazine, and some of the blue print from it left a couple of ugly scuffs on the bottom. There is no way on earth that these stains will come off, because the InvisibleSHIELD wasn’t cured when it picked them up. It’s merely cosmetic, but be warned to not be so careless. It’s certainly not Zagg’s fault this happened.

When buying an InvisibleSHIELD, one makes an investment. I say this because there is a lifetime guarantee. If the InvisibleSHIELD peels off, gets nasty (like my blue stains), or the product needs to be sent in for repairs, Zagg will replace the InvisibleSHIELD for free. The customer still has to pay $3.95 shipping and send back the old InvisibleSHIELD for proof. Also, the customer gets the lovely experience of reapplying the InvisibleSHIELD.

Value: 4, not the cheapest skin type cover out there but probably the best
Ease of Use: 3, but once applied it’s maintenance free
Support: 5
Performance: 5
Aesthetics: 5

Overall, a 5. This product is one of my favorite accessories. I don’t think I’ll have another gadget without one.

BusySync

by Diane Petersen, Kachemacs

Distributor: BusyMac
Distributor URL: www.busymac.com
Price: $25 per seat

Pros: Syncing can be tricky, but this software does it remarkably well.
Cons: Cost of product is per computer, can get pricey quite quickly.

Busy Sync

As the name suggests, BusySync from BusyMac helps busy people like me continue to be busy using our calendars. It has long been a complaint of Google users that the calendars won’t sync with iCal. Up until recently there has been a one-way solution for that problem, but if you can’t change a Google calendar in iCal, what’s the point? Now that Google supports CalDAV (standard format), we should all be able to sync freely with everyone and everyone from out Macs, iPhones and iPods. Why even bother with another application?

MobileMe users know all about using MobileMe to sync things between Macs, phones, and friends. It’s a great feature of the service. Calendars, however have been an issue. The free Google calendar has some great perks which make it worth using, but to give up the ease and functionality of iCal for my Google calendar has been too difficult. The lack of reliable syncing with Google, iCal, and MobileMe was an obstacle, until BusySync.

BusySync does just one thing but it does it well. BusySync installs as a preference pane in System Preferences and acts as a bridge for syncing multiple computers to the same calendars without using MobileMe. MobileMe, however, can be thrown into the mix with just a few caveats without compromising BusySync’s ability to sync.

The first application of BusySync I tested is two-way read/write sync of Google to iCal. It went beautifully. I could create something in iCal and have it appear in Google moments later, and vice versa. Just like a Mac, it just works.

The second main use of BusySync is synchronization of calendars over a network. True, iCal can do this wonderfully with MobileMe. However, to sync calendars one must grant full access to MobileMe (Mail, disk space, Address Book, etc.) That may not be acceptable. With BusySync, just calendar access is shared. Furthermore, it is easy to grant or deny read or write access to individual calendars.

With Google’s new compliance with the CalDAV standard, one could surely create a sync to do everything with just Google. With MobileMe, one can surely sync calendars in iCal. With BusySync, both are achievable with a minimal amount of configuration and effort.

Utility: 3
Support: 5
Ease of Use: 5
Value: 3

Overall this product is a 4. The price is $25 per computer, which can get a bit steep for a small business. BusySync is an innovator, but other services are catching up to the technology. If BusyMac stays ahead of Google and MobileMe in terms of features, BusyMac should be able to compete.

Thanks to all who came to the Kachemacs meeting in December. I hope you are all keeping touch with everyone using the social networking skills you all learned. Thanks, Mob, for leading our discussion this month. As you all may know, this website incorporates a WordPress blog into it. It’s easy and free to join many of these services, so why not try?

There are still a few more Kachemacs t-shirts available. We have another order placed, and will soon be getting new ladies’ slim fit cap sleeve t-shirts! Ladies, look sleek as a Leopard (or Tiger, Panther, or Jaguar) in your Kachemacs baby tee! Shirts are screened right here in Homer at Mananaprint/The Sweat Shop. All shirts are $12 for short sleeve, $14 for long sleeve. Here is are photos of the long sleeve front and back…