CES 2010!
CES is coming around the corner. I will be there to cover all Apple related news and interesting developments. Stay tuned for video interviews and exclusive content from CES 2010!
I’m Baaaaaack!!
After much whining and complaining from some of you, I have decided to get back to my blogging. It has been a long break from My Mac Geek, but I now will try to keep up. Alot has happened in the Mac World, and you can believe I have been on top of it. I have gone through 5 (count them) 5 iphones.
I am now on the 32 GB 3Gs. Loving it.
We will have some announcements today about some ipod releated products and services. I will update when those come in. Until then. Thanks for your support and your emails threatening me to come back.
New iMac Design
The new imac desktops were released yesterday.
I have been able to play with them briefly and here are my thoughts:
Obviously from the looks of it it is the same basic design as before. The imac kept it’s Leno Chin on the bottom of the mahine under the screen. It has gotten significantly thinner. and has received a new color and material change. It is now Aluminum and black.
Most importantly it has been upgraded with slightly faster processors as well and a better graphics card and more ram. The keyboard is a completely new design. WAAAAAY thinner with dedicated keys for certain function that are used regularly.
Check out the pics below for a visual.
Apple Phone Show Podcast
If you want to know everything there is to know about the apple iphone go over to www.applephoneshow.com for the latest news, tip, & tricks.
It’s now easier to upload to Flickr from your Mac
You are all familiar with Flickr, Yahoo!’s photo sharing site, I assume. Flickr provides Mac users with a free utility to upload, tag, and group photos called Flickr Uploadr. Sadly for Intel Mac users it wasn’t a Universal Binary, but the wait is over. Flickr Uploadr 2.3 is a Universal Binary, starts up faster, and has a few new bells and whistles.
Flickr Uploadr 2.3 is free.
A few pics of the interface are waiting for you, after the jump.
Photo upload:
Batch upload:
Product Review: Sanyo HD2 High Definition Camcorder
OK. This is not exactly mac related but I figure anyone who can appreciate a nice apple product will appreciate this one too.
This Camera is made by Sanyo. Itis their third revision of the HD Line. This is not your grandmas camcorder though. This one does not use a tape and it does not even use a hard drive like a lot of newer camcorders do. It uses SD memory cards. I have been looking at this camera for several months and finally made the purchase last week.
Here are a few details that stand out:
Camera accepts Secure Digital and SDHC cards. up to 8GB in size I use a 4 GB and a 2 GB card
Camera records 720P which means it records in HIgh definition and will play on all HDTVs directly and natively
Camera is small and fits nicely in the palm of your hand or in your pocket.
Camera ALSO shoots 7 megapixel still photos on the fly. No switching modes. just press the button and you are shooting stills. (love that)
Best of all…. It is cheap!!! It sells as low as 609.00 at Amazon.com I picked mine up for $650 at Costco online for their return policy, but wow what a deal!I have been shooting with it 3-4 times and am very impressed.
I popped in the card, took it to disneyland with the kids, shot 20 minutes worth of HD on a 2 GB card , went home, stuck the camera in it’s convenient dock (with HDMI out) and Iphoto automatically opened and was ready to import my photos AND movies. after they transfered, I opened up the clips and played them right out of iphoto. could not have been easier. I also turned the tv on and watch the video straight off the camera via the HDMI cable and it looked incredible!!
All in all this is a Great Camera with a tons of potential. In my case, I wanted a camera for my upcoming trip to Sweden in June so I would not have to lug around a video camera and a still Camera. I will just pop it in the pocket and shoot when needed. Love It!!!
5 of 5 on this one!
Tons of Great Apps to make your ipod better
CantoPod: get favorite lyrics on your iPod (with over 200.000 lyrics to choose from)
Dictionary: hook up your ipod with dictionary that includes over 40,000 definitions and pronunciation guide ($9.95)
Encyclopodia: this incredible tool can get wikipedia.org into your iPod, if you’re one of those who can’t imagine web without wikipedia defintely check it out
GoogleGet: weather+news combo tool. When it comes to news, best option would be to have something like RSS reader that can convert feeds into iPod readable format, however I wasn’t able to find any free tool for that, what I got is Igadget which will cost you ($15). Post it in comments in case you know about any other alternative
iDirectionz: store driving directions on your iPod
iPodGym: turn iPod into your gym advisor; iPodGym is a website where you can find over 80 exercise videos (incl. descriptions) all of which can adopted to the iPod format.
iPodwizard: windows program that let’s you change fonts, graphics and text on you iPod
Ipod-notes | Ipod-ebook-creator: these 2 nifty tools let you easily create iPod compatible ebooks from regular text files. Actually, Ipod-notes goes even further by letting you create ebook from a webpage, check it out. In case you need some free ebooks to start with, drop by Project Gutenberg Library
piPod – guide to the best pizzerias in the five boroughs of NYC
Senuti (Mac OSX): this application syncs files off your iPod and sends them directly to your iTunes library. It can also play songs directly off iPod
Weather for Me: downloads weather forecasts from Myforecast.com and puts it on your iPod
Ipodlinks: variety of icons and wallpapers
Ipodwizard: ipod themes
Video Converters
videora iPod Converter: free video conversion application, you may use it to convert regular PC video files (avi, mpeg, etc) into iPod compatible format
Media-Convert: web based media converter
HandBrake: Rip DVD movies to your iPod. (MacOS X, Linux and soon Windows)
Top 30 Mistakes Windows Users make on macs
The Unofficial Apple Weblog has posted a short story on the top five mistakes made by new mac users. It includes closing an application window, thinking it has quit, downloading software and then running it from the disk image (runs slowly, can’t eject disk image), Windows .EXE files littered around the desktop after they’ve tried to download software and install it.The comments attached to the article are entertaining, and pick up many other common mistakes.
The thing that strikes me is that most of these problems could be resolved by Apple. For example, when a user downloads an EXE file, Safari could easily give the user a quick warning that it’s a Windows program and won’t install on Mac. (Before you say, “ha! What if it’s in a ZIP file?” Safari already checks inside ZIP files to see if something is a “program” that Safari should give a security warning about.)
Here’s a precis list of things that TUAW and its users said in comments, and a few of my own:
iPhoto 101
If you’ve got a digital camera, iPhoto is the perfect companion. It enables you to import your pictures into your Mac, view them, edit them, and share them with ease. You can make good photos look stellar and turn your not-so-good ones into something better. iPhoto 6 features advanced editing tools (including RAW support) for professional photographers and amateurs alike. Here are some of the cool things you can do with iPhoto 6.
Import Photos
Once you connect your camera to your Mac, just click Import in iPhoto to download your pictures.
CDs & DVDs.: How to dress them up.
So here is a quick tip on a great program that helps you to design professional looking cd/dvd covers and labels.
First of all I have used dozens of programs or techniques to create nice looking covers and labels for tapes or dvds or cds. None of them have been as smooth and easy to use as this one. Disc Cover is a slick and intuitive Mac OS X software to create labels and covers for CDs, DVDs and more. Variety of professionally made designs are just fine for a quick start. The program imports data and images from iTunes, iPhoto, Finder, iDVD and many other sources. You can easily experiment with styles and graphic tools. It is a great program and is so easy to learn. Check it out.
The URL is http://www.belightsoft.com/products/disccover/overview.php
