Category: technology

Apptivate!

Post author By Isaac
Post date 01/20/2011
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My latest purchase from the Mac App Store is a little dandy called Apptivate. It’s $2.99 and worth every penny. Essentially, it is a hot key activator. What’s that? It allows me to assign a key combination to launch applications, folders, etc. For example, I have “cntrl m” set up to activate the blogging program I use called Marsedit. So I just hit that key combo and BAM! the program is launched. If it is already running, that key combo brings it to the front of all of the windows I have active.

It doesn’t sound like much, but I now have these combos for Chrome, Safari, and Firefox browsers (cntrl 1,2,3), iTunes, iCal, Graphic convertor, Pixelmator, Address book, Join Together, and the Mac App Store. I also have my downloads folder at my fingertips. I’ve made heavy use of the control button cause it doesn’t seem to have a lot of things assigned to it yet. Apptivate also allows you to do sequential key commands. So while I have “cntrl j” to activate Join Together, what do I do with all of the “i” apps” Easy, I hit “cntrl i” first and then touch the letter for the next part of the app. So for iCal, I hit “cntrl i” and then the letter “c”. It makes it easy to keep track of where everything is.

Where this can get pretty interesting is that I can also use Automator to create custom actions on my computer. Automator creates Applescript programs to automate actions on your computer. So I could create a program to open a folder, rename the pictures in it, and then upload them to whatever site i want them to. Then every time I want to do that, I can just run the applescript. Now, with Apptivate, I can run that with a quick key combo. The possibilities are almost endless….

Another great, cheap app from the App store!

technology

Wow

Post author By Isaac
Post date 01/19/2011
No Comments on Wow

“In the last two quarters, Apple sold 30 million iPhones — half of what it sold in the previous three years (60 million units).”

And it looks like Apple is just getting started, what with Verizon coming on board soon.

There are some analysts that expect Apple to sell 100 million phones in the coming year.

Wow.

technology

Some other apps in the app store

Post author By Isaac
Post date 01/17/2011
No Comments on Some other apps in the app store

I noticed a bunch of other apps in the app store that either I already had, or that had significant discounts on them. First off is the iWork and iLife suits of programs from Apple. It used to be that if you wanted to upgrade these programs you had to buy all of them over again even if you only wanted one of them. Now you can buy iPhoto, iMovie, Garageband, Pages, Numbers, and Keynote individually. If you just want a word processor, 20 bucks for Pages is a lot better than $79 for all of iLife or $100 for MS Office.

Apple has also priced its advanced photography program Aperture at $80. That’s an amazing discount. Not only is that much less than the usual $200 price of the program, it’s even less than the usual $100 for the upgrade! That means that when the new version comes out, you’ll be able to buy it through the app store for less than you used to be able to! Apple has also slashed its price on remote desktop software to $80! Granted, that’s a lot more specialized piece of software aimed mostly at system administrators, but wow, what a price!

There are several other apps that I already own in the app store as well. I use Rapidweaver for my website, and the 5.0 version is up in the store. They have the purchase price the same as the upgrade price in their website. that’s rankling some folks, but I think it makes sense to transition everyone over to the app store. Socialite is a handy program for keeping track of your Facebook, Twitter, RSS feeds, and Google Reader. It’s only 10 bucks, a great price.

If you can’t tell, I’m mighty psyched about this. It’s one more way that Apple has managed to make things easier for us.

technology

The Mac App Store

I talked a bit about some of the things I bought from the App Store, but some of you may not be real familiar with it. Apple has taken the lessons it learned from the app store for the iPhone and iPad and brought it to the Mac. Unlike the iPhone and iPad stores, you are still free to get your apps for the Mac elsewhere, but the Mac app store adds a lot of convenience and makes it easy to find things. I wasn’t so sure about this approach, but after having used it, I think this will be absolutely huge.

The app store makes it super easy to find apps, but it also makes it really easy to buy them, install them, and update them. It’s essentially all done for you, and it’s all done through the same account you use for iTunes and the other app stores. Another nice thing is that since all of these are vetted by Apple, there’s no worry about spyware or trojans.

Initial reports seem to be very favorable from both the consumers and developers. The only issues revolve around apps that you already have installed on your Mac and then they appear in the App store. Unless they were actually bought from the app store, they will not qualify for the easy updates that you can get through the app store. So for now, you will still have to update like you always have. The good news is that a lot of software companies are selling their apps at their usual upgrade prices. That means that when it’s time to upgrade to the newest version you can convert over to the app store version I did that with Graphic Convertor. I’m a little jealous of the people starting from scratch, they will be able to use the app store for almost all of their app purchases without the messiness of us legacy users.

So if you have 10.6.6 (and if you don’t, why don’t you?), you should definitely check out the app store and see how Apple is changing how we buy programs. God, I love this company…

photography technology

Oh my Wallet! (Mac app store edition)

Post author By Isaac
Post date 01/17/2011
No Comments on Oh my Wallet! (Mac app store edition)

The app store for the Mac launched back on the 6th. I took a look at it that day and the next and wondered if it was going to do much. Several days later I did something I probably shouldn’t have done, I went through the app store again, category by category. Ouch! Here’s what I got…

Clippy. We’ll start out with an inexpensive app, this one is only 99 cents but it’s brilliant. I don’t know how many times I’ve wanted to copy and paste multiple things, but since the clipboard can only store one item at a time I had to constantly go back and forth between the sources and the destination. Clippy to the rescue!

Screen shot 2011-01-17 at 1.42.46 PM.PNG

Now I can copy as much as I want and have all of the snippets at my disposel at once. Like I said, simple, but awesome. Well worth the 99 cents. It would be perfect if it could do pictures as well, but the text only mode is still a Godsend.

This next one is probably at the other end of the value scale. It’s 5 bucks and it’s called insight. What is it? Ummm, I guess you could call it a visualizer. What does it visualize? The workings of your computer. It takes readings of your CPU activity, free memory, memory wired (whatever that is), and memory active and turns them into a moving shape.

Screen shot 2011-01-17 at 2.05.07 PM.PNG

You can’t see it in that screenshot, but those colors are constantly moving. It sort of reminds me of the “Bit” character from the original Tron. Yes, this is about as geeky as I hope to ever get, but I like it.

IP Scanner is a a free app and it’s a simple one. It essentially shows me who is on my network. Since I’m the gatekeeper to the internet and the other folks in the house are supposed to pay me for it, I want to see who is using it. This is a quick way of checking. And you can’t beat the price.

Sketchbook Express is a free app I downloaded on a whim since I don’t have any other drawing apps. This is the baby brother to the Sketchbook pro app and it will most likely do what I need it to do.

Now we get to the ouch portion of the post… Years ago, a program called Graphic Convertor was bundled with the mac OS. Maybe 10.2, 10.3? I don’t remember. I do remember that it was useful and easy to use, so I bought a full license. It is a lot cheaper than photoshop, and it could do the stuff I needed it to do. I saw it on the app store and noticed it was version 7.03. I had 4.1 installed, so I went ahead and bought the current version for $35 or so.

Screen shot 2011-01-17 at 2.16.39 PM.PNG

They have really cleaned up the interface and have put in a ton more functionality, it’s well worth the $35. In particular, I love the smart trim feature. They have also put in a browser and organizer. I haven’t gotten a chance to use it yet, but it looks good.

Pixelmator is another graphics program that I had heard of, and had heard good things about. Once again, it has a lot of the functionality that mere mortals need out of photoshop like curves adjustments, layers, etc., but at a fraction of the price. I took a look at the screenshots and the home page and went ahead and bought it even though I had just bought Graphic Convertor.

Screen shot 2011-01-17 at 2.24.30 PM.PNG

I think the UI is more polished in Pixelmator, but what really won me over was the support pages for the program. They have tons of video and text tutorials as well as a thriving forum. I think Graphic Convertor is a little hampered by the fact that they are a German company. There may be more help available in German, but that doesn’t help me much. So which one is better? Well, I did buy both, so I think they’re both pretty good. I may not have bought Graphic Convertor if I already had Pixelmator, but I am glad I have both, even if Pixelmator is in the $35-$40 ranger as well. I’ve used Graphic Convertor for so long that I’m pretty comfortable with it. If you’re a graphics newbie like me, you would probably be better served picking up Pixelmator first and then see if you need the conversion features or the organization features of Graphic Convertor.

The last app I downloaded was the current Stuffit Expander. it’s a handy app for expanding compressed files, and it’s free, so it was a no brainer. I downloaded a few more free program to see if i liked them, but I didn’t so I deleted them. No harm, no foul. I’m sure there will be plenty more new apps in the app store as time goes along. I hope I can afford this…

audio technology

Best Buy

Post author By Isaac
Post date 01/11/2011
No Comments on Best Buy

While I was waiting for my stereo to be installed, I wandered around Best Buy. I hadn’t done a full store tour in a while, and it was illuminating. After hearing about all of the tablets released at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas (I think it was 40!) I wanted to see what a non-Apple one looked like. I could only find one tablet computer, the iPad. I think the competitors are going to have a difficult time, the iPad has a significant lead right now and it doesn’t sound like a lot of them will be out before the middle of the year. There was a lady getting some information about the iPad there. I was pleasantly surprised to hear the Best Buy guy not talking nonsense. I deliberated a little, but decided not to be the jerk that cost him a sale by mentioning the free set-up at the Apple store:-)

Best Buy might as well be called the TV store. TVs were easily the biggest part of their sales floor. Once again, I was blown away at how good some of them looked. I had to keep repeating the mantra “You don’t watch TV, you don’t watch TV” in order to avoid buying one. I caught myself thinking that $2000 really wasn’t too bad a price for that TV… Yes, Hockey would be amazing on one of those, but really, I can spend my money on better things. If I were a bigger movie kind of guy I probably would already own one… I checked out the 3d TVs too. Some of them, especially from Panasonic, were impressive. I really can’t see wearing glasses all the time though. The LED backlit displays really do seem to be worth saving up for, there does seem to be a real difference.

Of course, places like that have always played games with TVs in order to mover certain ones. It was fairly obvious as I walked down the aisles that some TVs had their saturation turned down, brightness lowered, etc. There were several others that had the video equivalent of “boom and tizz.” In the audio world, speakers that have impressive bass and sizzling highs really stand out. Of course if you listen to them for a while, you get tired of them. The most natural speakers sound boring when you first hear them. People tend to buy the speakers that get their attention, subtle loudness adjustments are all it takes to steer people towards certain speakers. The same goes with TVs. The classic ploy was to bias the pictures towards blue, guys seem to be attracted to that. Nowadays, excessive brightness, garish colors, and lousy comparisons are the things used to get people to pick one TV over another. The TV section was the only place where people made eye contact with me, let alone offer any help.

What else… I saw several audio bits that were interesting. They sell Martin Logan and B&W speakers, both brands have long been high end audio staples. While I know that the models they sell at Best Buy aren’t their best models, it’s good to know that you can get decent speakers there. I also saw a pair of active speakers I had briefly considered getting called Rokit. They have gotten pretty good reviews… They are also carrying electronics that have always been considered solid mid-fi brands like Denon, Marantz, and Yamaha. Pioneer is still there, but I no longer see any Onkyo, or Kenwood. It looks like you can get a nice sounding system there. When I used to sell this kind of equipment, you really couldn’t.

I was shocked at how many of their electronic displays simply weren’t working. All of the cameras I picked up were dead, and all of the smart phones were static displays only. You couldn’t try any of them out, they just had a sticker showing you what it could look like. Pretty lousy way to show stuff. Honestly, after walking through there, I’m saddened at how low the bar is set in electronics retail. No wonder Apple is kicking tail. I don’t think I’d go there for anything but a TV. Even then, I’d have to have my guard up so that I’m not unduly influenced by their display antics. Are there any other big electronic stores around anymore?

audio technology

New car stereo!

I have been enjoying playing my iPod in my car ever since I got it. The factory CD player had an auxilery port in it and it allowed me to listen to whatever I wanted. After some early issues, I got the sound quality to as good as it was going to get. It was miles ahead of using an FM transmitter, but there were still a few problems. Factory systems are never any good. Even if you get a decent sounding one, you pay way too much for it. The amplifiers in those things are anemic and lead to irritating and headache inducing distortion when you turn them up. I was also using the headphone output from the iPod which while it worked, was hardly ideal from a sound quality perspective. Going though the iPod’s amp before the main one just added to the noise. The biggest issue was a control one. The only way to really change stuff was to pick up the iPod and fiddle with it while I drove. Hardly a safe situation. Well, all of that has changed…

This thing is awesome. There is no CD player in it. Along with plugging in my iPod, I could use the analog input, or pop in an SD card. It sounds like I could potentially plug a flash drive or portable hard drive into it as well, I’ll have to explore that a little bit more. The sound quality has gone up a ton, tighter bass, louder, cleaner, and more understandable. I can control the iPod with it, so no more fiddling with touch controls while driving. It also has some sound shaping controls, their “sound retriever” really does smooth out some of the rough edges that you get with compressed audio. I’m also looking into getting a microphone they make. Using it, the deck can create a custom EQ for your car. For $20 or so, it is probably worth it.

I had considered installing this, along with a pair of speakers, myself… for about 10 seconds. Crutchfield has assured me that it was no problem, but after looking at the instructions I decided that discretion was the better part of valor. I had Best Buy install it instead. Good thing too, they had to do a few things to make stuff fit, I wouldn’t have had the ability to do it. it’s funny, in these days of $300 headphones for iPods, installing a stereo that can control it in your car would seem like a no brainer. All told, the deck, a pair of new speakers, the hardware for installing it, and the install came to a total of $350 or so. If you didn’t get new speakers, it would probably only run a little over $200. Very, very excited about this. Oh, and thanks mom for the great Christmas present!

free market technology

The FCC Should Not Regulate the Internet | Cato @ Liberty

Post author By Isaac
Post date 12/21/2010
No Comments on The FCC Should Not Regulate the Internet | Cato @ Liberty

A great summation of my unease over the FCC rules about the internet is from this article from CATO. Here’s the money quote:

“The arguments against government regulation in the name of “net neutrality” have not changed: A good engineering principle is not made better if dogmatized and given to lawyers and bureaucrats to enforce as law. The FCC and its regulatory regime are almost sure to be captured by major ISPs and turned to their benefit, used to suppress competition and blunt innovation.

A premise of net neutrality regulation—and much other regulation—is that consumers can’t be relied on to defend their own interests. Taking that premise, which I don’t, it follows that regulators must step in. But that syllogism skips over an additional premise: that regulators can do a better job.”

I wonder if people will ever catch on to the fact that regulation is frequently steered by the very groups that are being regulated. What appears to be onerous to big corporations is usually embraced by them because of their ability to absorb the costs. Smaller firms, and/or newer ones can’t so the regulation ends up reinforcing the status quo. There are other good points brought up in the article, give it a read!

The FCC Should Not Regulate the Internet | Cato @ Liberty: “”

(Via .)

freedom of choice technology

More net neutrality worry (Fed edition)

Post author By Isaac
Post date 12/19/2010
No Comments on More net neutrality worry (Fed edition)

This shocked me, it really did. Here’s a quote from Sen. Al Franken talking about some FCC regulations coming up:

Under the language of the draft Order as I understand it, it would be entirely acceptable for a mobile ISP to prioritize its own such such applications and either degrade competing applications, or, quite simply, block them outright. To use a hypothetical, under this framework, Verizon could initially allow iPad owners access to a streaming Netflix video application over their 3G or LTE network—but then block that same Netflix application the very day that V CAST, Verizon’s mobile video on-demand service, becomes available and offers competing content. In fact, they could have blocked the Netflix application the day they thought of offering V CAST on iPad.

First off I want to point out that this is a US Senator worrying about Netfilx availability. Yes, I know it was a hypothetical, but when a Senator is trying to make waves by trying to scare people over entertainment availability, it makes me wonder if there’s something a little more important he should be working on.

OK, with that out of the way, let’s assume Verizon does exactly what he imagines, what would happen? In Franken’s world, the evil Verizon corporation would have absolute control of streaming content, no one would have any options, and millions would surely die… In the real world, people that value Netflix would simply leave Verizon. If Verizon was the only game in town, then they would, horror of horrors, be stuck with VCAST. The upshot here is that if Netflix really is in hot demand by their customers, Verizon would do nothing but shoot themselves in the foot if they got rid of it. People would leave, and the others would hate Verizon. The ones that are stuck with Verizon would be a very tempting target for Verizon’s competitors… The same goes for any other content you can name. Verizon has to stay on its toes in order to stave off current and potential poaching of their customers.

In any case, there doesn’t need to be any law or regulation put into place to protect Verizon from itself. If people demand openness to the internet, ISPs will have to provide it if they want customers. Net neutrality will always exist, maybe not on every network, but it will always be available because it is desirable. Let companies offer whatever services they want and let the chips fall where they may…