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Go get an Apple TV already!

Brendan McKenna — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 00:13:05 +0000

A wealth of Free content in iTunes U and Podcasts!

HD TV on Demand

No Subscription Costs! Own the Media forever, Bring it anywhere, store it online, no catches…

Movies of the Week

Brendan McKenna — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 16:13:41 +0000

You’re probably getting used to the very easy to use interface of iTunes, it’s undoubtedly the most tempting metthod of selling entertainment that I’ve come across in a long time, and with an installed base of millions of iPod users, 15 million iPhone users and more people getting Apple TV, iTunes is now making purchases more tempting.

Tuesday 11/11/08 marks the introduction of Movies of the Week, and Music of the Week in the iTunes store, you can visit the iTunes page here

For this week, Apple are offering Terminator 2, Total Recall, The Last Action Hero, Red Heat, Air America, Basic Instinct, The Karate Kid, Air Force One, A Guy Thing and St Elmo’s Fire

With Bittorrent notoriously difficult to use, particularly for older classics like these, this is a very good deal, you’re buying a digital file that you’ll own for many years, and, indeed is more portable than Blu-Ray, DVD, or any of their predeccessors.

Apple provides incredibly easy access to the iTunes store through the Apple TV, but doesn’t always highlight the special offers, this may be because Apple TV users are a captive audience and don’t need to be sold so hard, or it may be for aesthetic reasons, regardless, I hope Apple comes up with a way to show these specials to those who’ve got Apple TV’s already!

I’m thinking about buying a macbook for personal use, can you advise please? Thanks.

Brendan McKenna — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 23:29:52 +0000

That’s great news! We’re going to be having lots of conference video chats now! It’s really nice to be able to see Mom and Dad often!

It’s a great time to buy a macbook now as Apple just released brand new models with a sturdy and radical new design. They’re a single piece of Aluminum that feels so solid when you hold it or type on it.

I’ve always bought the base model of Macs and been very happy with them, so the $1299 MacBook is what I’d buy today if I went to the store. I myself have a MacBook Air, which is $1799, and for me, biking around all day, it’s worth the $500 premium over the $1299 model even though the $1299 MacBook has more power and features.

A lot of people (Which Apple Retail must love) go for the MacBook Pro model for $1999 over the $1299 MacBook model, only for the fact that it has a 15inch screen compared to the 13″ of the $1299.

Historically, tere were huge reasons to buy a PRO model over a standard model, the graphics capabilities were much better, the PRO models were built out of metal instead of plastic, the keyboards were backlit and PRO laptops could work well with huge external displays.

Now though, All Macbooks from $1299 have metal enclsures, can power big displays, and feel very similar, so you can feel comfortable buying the $1299 model and being happy, I’ve tested it and it’s very powerful feeling.

If a Backlit Keyboard is important, then spring for the $1599 backlit keyboard model of the $1299 model, which has other things that make it worth the money.

Remember to buy from Amazon for a nice price and a tax free purchase

or shop Apple’s refurb section for a good deal on a refurbed Mac, these are supported by the same warranty Apple provides to new machines, are eligible for Apple Care (extended warranty) and they’ll let you return them too, any I’ve ever seen are immaculate condition!

There’s good deals on Amazon and Apple for the last generation of MacBooks, they’re fantastic deals, like $1499 down from $2499 for a really strong macbook pro, but, just know that when you buy the mew models, you’re buying a new generation in the sense that the last generation had a legacy of 5 years, and you’re getting in with the first of a new generation, hopefully meaning they’ll hold there value both to you and in resale for a longer time. Last years MacBooks are going to look very old fashioned within 24 months I’m sure…

Good Shopping…

Brendan

Set up the Minolta 2300DL printer on OS X

Brendan McKenna — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 21:12:42 +0000

To print to the QMS magicolor 2300 DL via Ethernet:

Download and install the Magicolor 2430DL drivers from Minolta’s website.

PLEASE NOTE: If you are running Mac OSX 10.2 then you will first need to download and install Ghostscript from http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/macosx.php3 (espgs-7.07.1.ppc.dmg is a precompiled version, so you just run it and install from the ESP Ghostscript.mpkg file).

1. Make sure that the printer is powered on and connected to the network via Ethernet and is in the same IP range as your network. My network is using DHCP on 192.168.1.xxx, so I have assigned 192.168.1.248 to the Minolta as a static IP address using the menu on the printer.
2. Reboot the Mac system if the printer was connected after the last reboot.
3. Open Print Center.
4. Click the “Add” button while holding the ALT key.
5. From the pop-up menu choose Advanced.
6. From the second pop-up menu that appears, choose “AppSocket//HP JetDirect”. You will then need to provide a meaningful name (eg Minolta Magicolor 2300DL) in the Device Name field below the menu. After that insert the IP address of the printer after the text “socket://” in the “Device URl” field below that. (Mine reads socket://192.168.1.248)
7. From the “Printer Model” pop-up menu choose “KONICA MINOLTA”
8. From the list of models that appears below the Printer Model selection choose the “KONICA MINOLTA magicolor 2430DL” driver, then click the “Add” button at the bottom of the dialog.

You should then be able to print OK.
I have tested this myself on a Mac G4 450DP and a Powerbook G3 300 (both running OSX 10.2.8) with the Minolta Magicolor 2300DL through my home network connection. The print quality is as good as it is on a PC with the genuine Minolta 2300DL drivers, although the images are printed slightly darker on the MAC (only noticeable when the prints are side-by-side).
I have also tested this on a Macbook 2.2Ghz running OSX 10.5.2. I have been using this setup on various Macs on my home network for over 3 years now.

Exchange business cards between iPhones

Brendan McKenna — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 22:09:02 +0000

Handshake 1.0

New free iPhone app lets you exchange contact cards over the air with other Handshake users. Should be a built-in iPhone feature.

Via Gruber

Apple earnings climb 26%, iPod, Mac sales rise

Brendan McKenna — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 21:16:00 +0000

Key points:

Apple sold more phones than Rimm (makers of the Blackberry)

Apple now has $25 BILLION in CASH sitting in the Bank!!! and NO debt

Mac Sales are up 21% over the same quarter last year, that sort of growth is unheard of!

More at Marketwatch

1Password for iPhone now available for FREE in the App Store1

Brendan McKenna — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 18:03:33 +0000

The great and wonderful password manager 1Password by Apple Design Award winning Canadian developers Agile solutions (switcher Developers) is Free from the app store for a limited time, go get it!

1Password for iphone image

omnimailmessageserviceenabler

Brendan McKenna — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 20:47:26 +0000

Updating to the latest nightly builds of Omnifocus is neccesary for us who want to sync our iPhone’s and iPod Touch’s with our task management lists.

Everytime the new omnifocus is dragged into applications under Leopard, the error message omnimailmessageserviceenabler is in use, pops up, here’s how to solve it.

Quit Mail

and try again! That’s it!

Walt Mossberg reviews Xobni

Brendan McKenna — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 19:17:43 +0000

at the WSJ

The key points of the software he reviews here, are features that the mail application, that comes built into your Mac already does in wonderful ways. Xobni, is an add on for that application “Outlook” that is default on Windows XP and severely frustrating for many users, and so if one used Outlook, one may use Xobni. Interestingly, most clients of mine have long ago moved to Gmail(if they’re Windows Users or Apple Mail) since both of these provide really fast indexing, sorting, calendar and meeting integration and more.

Mail, the humble program down in the Dock, that looks like a samp has super powers.

It stores unlimited archives of Mail back to years and years ago.

It Indexes emails by Date, Subject, sender, Content and more.

It has data detectors that let you create events from dates mentioned in emails.

It detects addresses in emails and lets you Map them with a single click.

It associates the sender with your Address Book entry for them so you can see their picture, Birthday, Spouse and any Notes you need.

It allows you to create Notes or To-Do items from lines, words or any content inside an email, these To-Do’s go straight into iCal to give you reminders.

This is just the highlights of Mail that I find useful, for more on Mail, there’s Apple’s Page:

http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/mail.html

and a wonderful Blog:

http://hawkwings.net/

iPod Touch

Brendan McKenna — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 18:58:11 +0000

I have a question for you, this weekend I’m purchasing a Mac Notebook and with it comes a free 8 gig iTouch. I have been doing a little research and am a little confused. Does the iTouch have calendar capabilities and is it able to sync with the notebook? I’ve read blogs with people saying it does and others saying it doesn’t. Looking for a little clarification.

The iPod touch is damn cool and does almost everything the iPhone does, bar taking photos and making calls, iCal absolutely syncs with the mac, just like the iphone does, and if you use “mobileme” then it syncs through the air, which is nice.

Notebook never synced (sank?) but thanks to the app store, there are a slew of alternatives for notes, like evernote, or jott, and they sync with the internet or “cloud” and your mac can then sync with the cloud too.

I had thought the mac comes with a 16gb iPod touch, isn’t the rebate good for $299???

A New Wall.E Trailer

Brendan McKenna — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 05:39:12 +0000

See here: http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/walle/medium2.html

Net destruction

Brendan McKenna — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 20:35:04 +0000

These UFO’s are zapping away some of the webs finest sites, see here

If you're going to San Francisco…

Brendan McKenna — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 23:05:00 +0000

If you’d like a few tips regards San Francisco, here goes:

You can reserve a Super Shuttle from either of the big airports to wherever you want to go from these guys: http://www.supershuttle.com/ , it’s a really good service and a pretty good way to do the 20/30 min journey.

There are a bunch of interesting and beautiful neighbourhoods in San Francisco, the most famous district is Fishermans Wharf where you can take ferries to Alcatraz or Sausalito (the little bayside village on the north side of the gg bridge).

Haight Ashbury is really close to where I live and is the legendary home of the 60′s hippie revolution, it’s full of vintage and funky stores and is quite fun.

Coit Tower, Yerba Buena Island, The Presidio, Golden Gate Bridge, North Beach and Twin Peaks are all nice spots to see and will be super memories, a great way to catch a lot of these in one day is to bike from Fishermans Wharf along the north shore, past the famous Fort Mason and Marina District through Crissy fields and by the Palace of Fine arts as far as Fort Point (a great viewpoint thats just below the Golden Gate Bridge), that would be a one or two hour ride, with plenty of nice places to get Ice Cream along the way, if your legs can take some more, it’s totally worth biking up the trail to the golden gate bridge entrance where you can bike across to the Marin Headlands, there’s a good vista point just beyond the end of the bridge, but for a REALLY awesome view, continue past the vista point and take the first right, go left under the freeway and continue up the hill, it’s absolutely worth it.

Also, remember to see the Cable Cars, Transamerica Building, Vesuvio, The Mission, The Castro, Pacific Heights, the Museum of Modern Art, The De Young, the Conservatory of flowers, phew! I’m out of breath, so better run on, I hope this mail is helpful and wish you good travels!

WWDC begins June 11

Brendan McKenna — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 16:21:04 +0000

…