Archive for the ‘apple’ Category
Saturday, January 10th, 2009 |
After almost 3 years, I have ordered a new Notebook, my Macbook Pro (CD 2GHz) is not happy running Lightroom2, PhotoShop, Groupwise8, Groupwise Messenger, Adium, Thunderbird 3, and Firefox at the same time…. and it does not help if I switch Lightroom2 and PhotoShop with VMware Fusion…..
In about 4 weeks (I hope) I should be the proud owner of a Macbook Pro Late 2008 (C2D 2.8GHz) which should be able to keep me entertained for another 3 years…..
technorati tags: Macbook Pro
Posted in apple, computers, hardware | No Comments »
Saturday, January 10th, 2009 |
There are a few things I really do not like, some of them does not have to do with computers, and some of them does.
As a notebook use, with a frequent use of a external monitor, I’ve gotten around to live with the mess of cables on my desk, but on I cannot live with the scratch, boom noise when I plugin my external speakers (5 year old 2.1 system, which is working just fine – just ask the neighbors).
This means that I’ve been hunting high and low for some speakers which would work via either fiber (bloody expensive), or USB (also not cheap – until now – that is I’ve missed out on some things).
I was in the local MacShop yesterday to order a new Macbook Pro (more about that later), and asked if they knew of any USB speakers which where 1) ok’ish 2) working with OSX. And they pointed me in the direction of Logitech Z-5, but after some research I figured out that they do not come with a power supply (damn). They also mentioned Logitech Z-10 which officially are only supported with Microsoft Windows – dooh…
Well it turns out that the only thing which officially does not work with OSX is the info display on the right speaker (no you know – it’s the right one, and no it’s not mentioned in the documentation).
After a bit of research, I found a tool (LogitechLCDTool) which can show some information on the display, and the next step was to figure out how to switch from lineout to USB Audio…. AppleScript here we come.
If found this blog entry, which have a script which works, but as I do not need to switch back to lineout (disconnecting the speakers is enough), I modified the script to:
– snip –
tell application “/Applications/LogitechLCDTool.app” to activate
tell application “System Preferences”
activate
set current pane to pane “com.apple.preference.sound”
end tell
tell application “System Events”
tell application process “System Preferences”
tell tab group 1 of window “Sound”
click radio button “Output”
set selected of row 2 of table 1 of scroll area 1 to true
set deviceselected to “Z-10 USB Speaker”
end tell
end tell
end tell
tell application “System Preferences” to quit
– snip —
As you can see I also launch ‘LogitechLCDTool’ – less clicking around….
Just a small thing, due to some issues with OSX 10.5.x and iTunes 8.x you should have a look here and here
But back to the speakers them self, well as everyone says; they are good, the bad thing is the touch panel which is kind of crap… do a google and find a review or two….
technorati tags: USB speakers, Logitech Z-10, LogitechLCDTool
Posted in apple, computers, hardware, osx | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008 |
I’m the first one to admit that my short term memory is like a drainpipe, that is, not very good. I often hear some music which I think should be added to my collection, but 1 minute later I can’t remember what it was.
Now there is an app for the iPhone which can help with that; Shazam. When you hear something which you don’t really know, you run it, it will “listen” to it, and tell you what it is.
And also do other stuff like tag it, and it will enable you to buy it from iTunes (don’t like that part, but someone might do).
Great part is that it’s for free. But as it requires a microphone it will not work with the iPod Touch.
technorati tags: iPhone
Posted in iphone | 5 Comments »
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 |
Finally an App from the AppStore, which actually can be used for something, and at the same time is free.
I’m talking about the WordPress App, which was released yesterday.
Now I just need a way to do copy n’ paste, send vCards, and one last thing which I can’t remember what is.
technorati tags: AppStore, WordPress
Posted in apple, iphone | No Comments »
Friday, April 4th, 2008 |
One of the most annoying things with the iPhone is that on have to pay through the nose to get an unlocked iPhone (current only Orange in France, and they charge €699 – afair), and Apple have an silly idea about programs on it – the SDK is a great idea, but I’m still to learn Objective-C (it makes my head in)…..
But getting an iPhone, there are a couple of things which needs to be done to make it usable for the “normal” population (the people who either does not want an AT&T subscription, or does not live in the US.
Next install the following to get some usability;
- “Contacts | HomeScreen” which will allow you to access the Address Book without having to go though the Phone application
- and even more programs which looks interesting…..
More to follow…
technorati tags: Apple, iPhone
Posted in apple, iphone, osx | No Comments »
Friday, April 4th, 2008 |
Well I got one of these 21th century gadgets, up to now I’ve never really been in to ‘smartphones’, I in general find them way to bulky, and way to expensive. Then on top of that there are phones which are based on Symbian, Microsoft Mobile OS, and then there is RIM with their BlackBerries (or what ever they call them these days), that all make it difficult to chose. In general I do not want anything to do with Microsoft, Symbian is not the greatest (in my humble opinion) , and RIM well…. no thank you.
So I was in the US for business anyway, and being a Mac geek I went in to the local Apple store to have a look at this thing people have been talking about for the last year. And temptation came over me, and out I walked with a small box containing an iPhone…. (sometimes I do silly things).
But I have to say it’s kind of cool, not the smallest thing on earth, but it kind of fit, the screen is excellent, and when I think about about it – yes there is the iPod Touch, which can the same, except that it’s not a phone, there is the iPod Classic, which can play music and videos, but one cannot install applications (more on that later), and the screen is not really that great (I still use my 60GB iPod, as my music library cannot fit on neither the iPhone nor the iPod Thouch).
There are some miss haps, with the iPhone, there are no groups in the Address Book, no support for Flash in Safari Mobile, and no option for sending vCard (contacts). But when one look at the whole package one get a very neat device which can entertain one for a very long time.
Many people have have mentioned all of this before, and more will continue to do so, as it could look like the iPhone will do with mobile phones as the iPod did with portable music players.
technorati tags: Apple, iPhone
Posted in apple, iphone | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, February 12th, 2008 |
I wrote here about my happiness with Leopard (Apple OSX 10.5) and the implementation of PHP which they have put together.
Well Apple just released 10.5.2 (OSX 10.5 Update 2), and still there is no GD library in php, which means that it is still more or less useless to use for anything.
Let’s hope that they change that for 10.5.3…….
technorati tags: PHP, 10.5.2, Apple OSX Leopard
Posted in apple, osx | 1 Comment »