The panel for this show includes:

Katie Floyd: Mac Power Users Twitter
Bart Busschots The International Mac Podcast Twitter
Chuck Joiner The MacVoices Group Twitter

The Mac Roundtable discussed the announcements from Apple’s September 1st Music Event. Including the new iPods, Apple TV, Television Rentals, iTunes 10, iOS and more.

iPod Shuffle

Pod Nano

iPod Touch

iTunes 10

Apple TV

Keynote Video

The panel for this show includes:

John F. Braun The Mac Observer’s Mac Geek Gab Twitter
Victor Cajiou: Typical Mac User Typical Shutterbug Twitter
Katie Floyd: Mac Power Users Twitter
Tim Verporten The Mac Reviewcast Twitter
Chuck Joiner The MacVoices Group Twitter

Safari 5.0.1 and Extensions

About Safari Extensions on Apple’s Developers site

Safari Extension Recommendations:

• Twitter for Safari

• TinEye Reverse Image Search

• New York Times Breaking News

• ExifExt

• Rotten Tomatoes

• Shortly

• Coda Notes

• A Cleaner YouTube

• YouTube5

• NoMoreiTUnes

• BugMeNot

• AutoPagerize

Sources for the Extensions:

Apple’s Extensions Site

Tumblr

Safari Extensions.org

Bandwidth Throttling - how to do it and why you should care.

SNMP Status

Bandwidth throttling in OS X on Mac OS X Hints

Apple’s Magic Trackpad – thoughts and experiences.

Apple Magic Trackpad

The Need for Higher End Macs – The group discusses how the newest Mac Pro desktops do and don’t meet the needs of the highest-level Mac users, and why Apple’s support of this market segment are important

Picks - the crew choose some of their favorite hardware and software.

Katie – Hulu +

John – Namebench

Victor – Zoom H4n Portable Digital Recorder

Tim – Turbo.264 HD Software

Chuck – MailPlane

Allison Sheridan of the NosillaCast Mac Podcast http://podfeet.com Twitter @podfeet
Don McAllister – ScreenCastsOnline – http://www.screencastsonline.com
Tim Verpoorten http://www.surfbits.com, http://www.macreviewcast.com, @surfbits
Bart Busschots – International Mac Podcast (http://www.impodcast.tv), http://www.bartb.ie Twitter @bbusschots

Don’s SSD Failure

Are there drives it’s not logical to back up?
Is it better, worse or no different that SSD’s don’t warn you when they fail?
how do you deal with friends  and their backups?  what have you used to convince them to back up? any  sure fire strategies? I’ve had a bunch of people I set up with time  machine, but since they have laptops they just don’t seem to get around  to plugging that drive in!

iPhone case refund/acquire process

very cool and super efficient!
helping people make a decision on the iPhone cases
Apple bumper case doens’t have a dock connector hole big enough for the dock connector on many cables, even those from Apple
Katie bought the Scosche Charging Adatper for iPod & iPhone fromscosche.com, fixes not-fitting dock connector and charging problem.

New Mac Pros, iMacs and MacBook Airs

What’s our wishlist for these?

iPad hits and misses after the first 90 days

Goodreader from http://www.goodiware.com/goodreader.html
Wall Street Journal App isn’t nearly as bad as it was early on!

Picks:

Allison – Altaz HD Network Multi-Media Player ($100) http://www.altazdesign.com/Altaz-HD-Network-Media-Player-AZNMP101.htm

Tim – Freeware Video Converters:
MPEG Streamclip: http://www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-mac.html
FLV Crunch: http://flvcrunch.awardspace.us

Don – FlipBoard for iPad  – http://www.flipboard.com/

Bart – Fraise – port of the now defunct Smultron programming editor – http://wiki.github.com/jfmoy/Fraise/

John F. Braun

The Mac Observer’s Mac Geek Gab http://www.macgeekgab.com/

Monday’s Mac Gadget http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/features/mondays_mac_gadget/

Twitter: @johnfbraun

Steve Stanger

The Mac Attack http://www.themacattack.tv

Twitter: @tmasteve

Jonathan Cost

Mac Tips Daily! and Thinkmac Reviews

Thinkmac.net - www.thinkmac.net

twitter: @MacTipsDaily

Chuck Joiner

The MacVoices Group http://www.macvoicesgroup.com

Twitter: @chuckjoiner

Bart Busschots -

http://www.bartb.ie

The International Mac Podcast – http://www.impodcast.tv

Twitter: @bbusschots

MEASURING TEMPS IN YOUR MAC

smcFanControl http://www.eidac.de/

A cool CPU is a happy CPU.  I’m actually wondering if there’s any quantitative data showing the benefit of a cooler CPU versus minimal power consumed by running fans a bit faster.

CoolBook  http://www.coolbook.se/CoolBook.html

Reduce processor voltage to reduce clock speed

ThermographX (no update since 2008, doesnt’ see all temp sensors, but does graph)

http://www.kezer.net/shareware/thermographx/

TemperatureMonitor (free, current)

http://www.bresink.com/osx/TemperatureMonitor.html

Shows values, can store history as well.

iStat Menus (now pay), MenuMeters (free), Matias iRizer (portable stand)

http://matias.ca/irizer/index.php

Thermapak  http://www.thermapak.com/

Podium CoolPad and Traveler CoolPad  http://www.roadtools.com/index-2.html

Griffin Elevator  http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/elevator

Be careful if the little rubber “feet” fall off your laptop – replaced my lost one with a penny taped to the bottom of my MBP!

Even if you’re not experiencing a heat-wave, it’s worth monitoring your temps and fan speeds anyway. If they begin to creep up over weeks or months, your machine may be full of fluff and crap! I vacuumed out my G5 iMac because it over-heated and always had fans going, now it runs much much better.

(Side note: UPS protects computer equipment against brown outs and possible power surge during heavy peak power use times.)

CABLE MODEM ISSUES DUE TO HEAT

Many cable modems offer a status page here:

http://192.168.100.1 or  http://192.168.1.1 typically.

(nice if your cable modem isn’t locked down)

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.d.h.walker/cmtips/signal.html

**Some important figures are**

Receive Power Level and Transmit Power Level (in dBmV)

Downstream/receive should be between -15 and +15

Upstream/transmit should be between +5 and +58 (below 50 is best)

Another important figure is SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio) may not be available, have to break out the big guns to get this value:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.d.h.walker/docsdiag/

This is a Java program that will extract many values (via SNMP I assume) that web status page may not make available.

Run from command line:

docsdiag -jar docsdiag.jar (-vvv)

SNR should be 30 dB or higher, mine is 34.5 right now.

There are also error figures

SigQu: received without error        = 1737538425 codewords

SigQu: correctable errors            = 106961 codewords

SigQu: uncorrectable errors          = 9387 codewords

I was told if the last two values steadily increase, this can also indicate an issue.

iPhone 4 Antenna Thoughts:

Article on Engadget from their experiences.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/13/yes-the-iphone-4-is-broken-no-the-iphone-4-is-not-broken/

Our Picks:

John: 3M MPro 150 Pocket Projector ($395 retail)

http://www.3m.com/mpro/products150.html

Steve: http://safariextensions.tumblr.com/ – list of available Safari extensions to tide you over until Apple opens their gallery.

Bart: Apple World Travel Adaptor kit – http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB974ZM/B?fnode=MTY1NDA4NA&mco=MTA4NDYwMDk ($39)

Jonathan: Sirius XM APP: http://www.siriusxm.com/oniphone/indexd.xmc

Requires Premium streaming account, but allows you to listen on your computer and your iPhone/iPod.  Free 7 day trial.  You can add it onto your SiriusXM account for an extra $3 a month.

Chuck: Virgin Mobile Broadband2Go MiFi with pay-as-you go plan

http://www.virginmobileusa.com/phones/mobile-broadband-2200.html

Chuck’s Review: http://www.chuckjoiner.com/2010/07/14/virgin-mobile-broadband-mifi-portable-connectivity-with-no-contract/

Allison Sheridan:
Nosillacast Podcast http://podfeet.com
Twitter: @podfeet
Katie Floyd:
Mac Power Users http://www.macpowerusers.com
Twitter: @katiefloyd
Adam Christianson:
Maccast http://www.maccast.com
Twitter: @maccast
Bart Busschots:
International Mac Podcast http://www.impodcast.tv http://www.bartb.ie
Twitter: @bbusschots
David Sparks:
Mac Power Users http://www.macpowerusers.com http://www.macsparky.com
Twitter: @macsparky

iOS 4

Good:

• Folders are pretty cool and definitely useful
• Camera speed is INSANELY fast not! BOL folks thought it was iPhone 4 that had the faster phone, but it’s iOS4 that causes the speed, worth the upgrade just for this
• Unified inbox

Bad or So So:

• Allison – “multi-tasking” not as cool as I thought – I keep finding 20 apps waiting, stresses me out!
• Limited fucntionality on 3G – no multitasking, background apps or wallpaper (what’s up with the Wallpaper?)
• Finding it very slow on my iPhone 3G, and battery life has been poor
• 65 security updates in iOS4, but what about iPad and older devices?
• Exchange calendar color issue

iPhone 4

• David Pogue’s explanation of the different discount prices by AT&T: http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/how-much-it-costs-to-upgrade-to-an-iphone-3g-s/

Good:

• Dang, that screen be beautiful
• Gyro in one game is pretty darn fun
• Speed
• Camera – w00t!
• Adam’s iMovie 4 example: http://www.youtube.com/user/themaccast
• Allison’s Taco Bell Thursday 720p video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0R0Pk4Xreq8

Bad or So So:

• Battery life – unimpressive! – I’ve found battery life to be great.
• Poor reception – dropped calls and 1-2 bars in areas I use to have 4-5 bars and no problem
• No GSM buzz noise when connected to non-shielded speakers
• First iPhone to work with my car audio system w/ iPod dock (Charging not supported – but should be corrected with the PASSport) http://www.scosche.com/products/productID/1667
• Works well with original iPhone dock
• Problems with using a case – won’t fit in the dock!

iPhone Death Grip Problem

• very real. I can watch my iPhone go from 5 to 1 bar.
• Who all is having problems?
• Software vs. Hardware or both?
• Problem persists with MicroCell but seems worse in areas with flakey AT&T coverage (like all of my town.)
• 4.0.1 Coming soon (Monday)

Picks of the Week

Katie – Jiggler – http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/20791
Allison – Disk Warrior http://www.alsoft.com/diskwarrior/
Bart – TechTool Delux – free with Apple Care on a Mac
David – OmniFocus iPhone
Adam – SonicPics, http://www.sonicpics.com/

John F. Braun
The Mac Observer’s Mac Geek Gab http://www.macgeekgab.com/
Monday’s Mac Gadget http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/features/mondays_mac_gadget/
Twitter: @johnfbraun

Chuck Joiner
The MacVoices Group http://www.macvoicesgroup.com
Twitter: @chuckjoiner

Steve Stanger
The Mac Attack http://www.themacattack.tv
Twitter: @tmasteve

Victor Cajiao
Typical Mac User podcast http://www.typicalmacuser.com
Typical Shutterbug Podcast http://www.typicalshutterbug.com
Twitter: @victorcajiao

WWDC Keynote – We discuss what we feel was left out of the keynote as much as what Steve Jobs announced during the keynote.

PICKS

John
TotalFinder http://totalfinder.binaryage.com/

Steve
AirVideo ($2.99) http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/air-video-watch-your-videos/id306550020?mt=8
Fast PDF ($.99) http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fast-pdf/id365270223?mt=8

Victor
Camera + iPhone app. ($2.99) http://campl.us/

Chuck
Take Control of Apple Mail in Snow Leopard by Joe Kissell ($15)
http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/snow-leopard-apple-mail

Katie Floyd
Mac Power Users http://www.macpowerusers.com
Twitter: @katiefloyd

Allison Sheridan
NosillaCast Mac Podcast http://podfeet.com
Twitter: @podfeet

Don McAllister
ScreenCastsOnline http://www.screencastsonline.com
All About the iPad Blog http://allabouttheipad.tumblr.com
Personal Blog http://themacscreencastguy.com
Twitter: @donmcallister

Bart Busschots
Blog http://www.bartb.ie
International Mac Podcast http://www.impodcast.tv
Twitter: @bbusschots

WWDC isn’t having the annual  design awards for OSX developers (only doing it for iPhone and iPad  Apps) so ArsTechnica is doing the Ars Design Awards.  To see the top  nominees for the categories of Best New App, Best User Experience, Most  Innovative App, Best K-12  Education App, and Best Student-created App,  and to vote on the  Reader’s Choice Award go to:
http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/05/readers-choice-poll-for-2010-ars-design-awardsmac-os-x.ars

Recording Apps
Audio

• Wiretap Studio $69 http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/wiretap/
• Audio Hijack Pro http://www.rogueamoeba.com/audiohijackpro/
• Garage Band
• Call Recorder (specific to  Skype) $20 http://www.ecamm.com/mac/callrecorder/
• Quicktime 7 and X

Video

• iRecord quick and easy  way to get video from your isight – developer site vanished though, so grab it quick! http://dl.macupdate.com/final/multimedia/23939/irecord1_1b.zip
• ScreenFlow – overpriced ($99) and annoying to use, but the least-crap I’ve found for screen Casting http://www.telestream.net/screen-flow/overview.htm
• QuickTime X – now Built in to  OS X
• iShowU $29.95 http://www.shinywhitebox.com/home/home.html
• Snapz Pro X 2 $69 http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/
• Camtasia for Mac $99 http://www.techsmith.com/camtasiamac/
• Jing free & cross-platform from http://www.jingproject.com/

International iPad launch

• Don and Bart give us the scoop from the source.
• Point 2 View $69 and cross-platform Windows/Universal Mac: http://www.ipevo.com/IPEVO-Point-2-View-USB-Camera_ep_58-1.html

Home Theaters

With the AppleTV rumors buzzing about, we talk about our home theater setup, our  experiences with  AppleTVs, Mac Minis, Boxee, ATV Flash, and others.

Picks:

• Katie – iTiVo and PyTiVo http://code.google.com/p/itivo/ http://pytivo.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/PyTivo#Download
• Allison – PaperDesk for iPad  from http://mypaperdesk.com Lite version is free, paid  is $2. create notebooks with text and drawing, change colors and line thickness, record audio, sync with text and drawing, change colors and line thickness,  sync with mypaperdesk.com, can download pdfs, multiple pages
• Bart – MarsEdit 3 ($39.95 or $14.95 to upgrade from MarsEdit 2) http://www.red-sweater.com/marsedit/
• Don – ReelDirector for iPhone/iPad ($8) – http://www.nexvio.com/product/ReelDirector.aspx

John F. Braun
The Mac Observer’s Mac Geek Gab (http://www.macgeekgab.com/)
Monday’s Mac Gadget (http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/features/mondays_mac_gadget/)
Twitter: @johnfbraun

Victor Cajiao
Typical Mac User (http://www.Typicalmacuser.Com)
Twitter: @victorcajiao

Adam Christianson
Maccast (http://www.maccast.com)
Twitter: @maccast

David Sparks
Mac Sparky (http://www.macsparky.com/)
Mac Power Users (http://macpowerusers.com/)
Twitter – @macsparky

Are Solid State Drives worth the upgrade?
Victor got an 8GB RAM upgrade and an OWC 200GB SSD drive for his Macbook Pro 13″ and worked up some upgrade benchmarks. John has also been comparing the SSD options vs. moving from 5400 RPM to 7200 RPM drives. In this episode we dive deep into the pros and cons of each solution. We test the theory that upgrading your RAM is the most cost effective way to get more performance from your Mac. Does going over 4GB still give you the same bang for your buck? Is an SSD worth the investment or can you max your Mac with other options? Listen in to find out.

Links
Victor’s post on upgrading to 8GB of RAM
Snow Leopard Performance (Mac Performance guide)
MCE OptiBay
OWC Mercury Extreme Pro RE SSD
200GB SATA 3.0G/s Solid State Drive
Crucial 8GB 204-PIN PC3-8500 SODIMM DDR3 (4GBx2)
HITACHI Travelstar 7K500 HD20500

Software/Hardware Picks
Victor: Apple iPad Camera connector kit – $29.00 (if you can find one
Adam: Audioengine W1
John: 3rd Generation Wi-Fire
David: iTeleport (Jaadu VNC)
Jump Desktop

This episode was hosted by:

Katie Floyd – Mac Power Users http://www.macpowerusers.com Twitter- @katiefloyd

John F. Braun – The Mac Observer’s Mac Geek Gab http://www.macgeekgab.com/, Monday’s Mac Gadget http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/features/mondays_mac_gadget/ Twitter – @johnfbraun

Allison Sheridan – NosillaCast Podcast http://podfeet.com Twitter @podfeet

Adam Christianson – http://www.maccast.com Twitter – @maccast

Victor Cajiao www.Typicalmacuser.Com Twitter – @victorcajiao

In this episode we discussed the iPad:

How we got our iPads

preorder vs. reserve vs. show up?

how was it?

First impressions

Happy Impressions

• books
• maps
• typing is better than I thought

Negative impressions:

• heavier than I thought
• hard to plug in the connector
• can’t figure out how to sync up my podfeet.com email
• tried creating calendar event – add invitee, but NO….
• gathers dust and finger prints pretty easily
• Apple case: $39, bought it instead of a dock, weird flap, very thin, roundy standing up, maybe it will get a crease? not very Apple-like, kinda hinky.
• Fail on download of Pages. Had to download via iTunes. Didn’t tell me it failed, just stopped and didn’t show up. grrr… trying to download again told me I had to go to iTunes

Mini rant 2: I did go out and get 1PW for iPad and then found out I did not have to do that. 1PW did send out a link to clarify but I had not seen it before. I put a post up to let people know and that has a link to the iTunes store to get a refund.

iPad Apps

• Some are VERY expensive
• Ability to do hybrid Apps
• Some developers (1Password) are offering iPad upgrades for those who have alerady purchased.
• Other developers are requiring you to purchase new versions at a premium

Mini-rant about apps, a well-written app, be it on a iPhone/iPod Touch, Mac, PC or iPad, should not make assumptions about screen size. If companies are just charging extra for something they should have done to begin with, that’s a ripoff. If it takes advantage of the features of the iPad, that’s different.

Font Scaling?

• The old raster (bitmap) versus vector (paths) font issue
• iPhone apps at (2x) size suck

Charging issue

• http://www.tuaw.com/2010/04/03/consumer-reports-discovers-ipad-charging-issues/
• Seems older cables will charge when connected to AC adapter, but not computer
• Older cables will not sync
• You will get a “not charging” message

Accessories

• Bluetooth Keyboard
• Apple Case
• charger for car – USB Kensington http://store.apple.com/us/product
• AppleCare?

LCD Visibility Outdoors

• Any different than any other LCD screen?
• Mac OS X 10.5.8+ required

iPad Internals:
http://i.imgur.com/It9To.png

iPad versus Baseball Bat:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGUppxoJUVg
Best and Worst apps:

Worst – we give them 60 days to fix them

• Netflix but we applaud them for being there
• Wall street journal – expensive AND popup ads! plus it’s slow, unintuitive

Best

• Marvel (free with some free comics)
• Google Maps
• Drawing Pad
• USA Today
• ABC App (no scrubbing through the movie tho)
• Twitterific

Bart Busschots – www.bartb.ie, www.impodcast.tv, @bbusschots
Tim Verpoorten MacReviewCast.com and Surfbits.com : @surfbits
John F. Braun – The Mac Observer’s Mac Geek Gab, Monday’s Mac Gadget, @johnfbraun
Steve Stanger – http://themacattack.tv, @tmasteve
Katie Floyd – Macpowerusers.com, katiefloyd.me, @katiefloyd

Geotagging – be careful!

• Not all services to share photos strip out GPS data from the meta data (EXIF Data) in the photos you post (edit EXIF data with the free app Reveal)
• Many cameras now have GPS in them, including the iPhone, so many images have GPS data when they’re taken
• iPhone and iPod Touch apps should ask for permission any time they try to use your location
• Many Eye-Fi cards do this with WiFi, compatible with other schemes
• Note that location services are required for Find My iPhone/iPod Touch

The iPad

• Apple badly misses it’s target of “world-wide availability” in 60 days
• US get it a few days late
• UK & a few other large countries get it about a month late
• No release date at all for other countries like Ireland

What version of the iPad are people getting?

• Verizon using the opportunity to sell 3G data plans
• Broadband Access Day Pass -$15 a day
• Confirm availability before purchasing
• High cost per use, but may work for occasional users
• Benefit of having another wireless carrier besides AT&T
• No iPad Tethering

App Store

• Through some very clever trickery the EFF have legally, publically, released the iPhone dev agreement
• Selective rejection and removal of apps
• Why is Apple handling this so badly?

Picks:
Bart – 3D Sun – NASA iPhone
Katie – TextExpander 3
John – New 4GB RAM chip (OWC) and new Hitachi 500GB HD with case (OWC)
Tim – Fujitsu S1300 Scanner
Steve – HDRtist