December 21, 2011

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Mac Roundtable 2011.12.20 Episode #108

Filed under: Podcast — take2 @ 12:04 am

Allison Sheridan – NosillaCast Mac Podcast podfeet.com @podfeet
Chuck Joiner – The MacVoices Group macvoicesgroup.com @chuckjoiner
Steve Stanger – stevestanger.com @tmasteve iSee, iShoot, iPhone & The Mac Attack podcasts
John F Braun – macgeekgab.com @johnfbraun @macgeekgab
Jeff Gamet – macobserver.com @jgamet

Tablets Everywhere!

Macworld | iWorld Plans

macworldiworld.com
* iFan Pass is SO inexpensive giving access to the Tech Talks that used to be hundreds of dollars to attend, now only $100:
* http://www.macworldiworld.com/packages-and-prices/
* Exhibit hall only is $30 – anyone heard of free passes yet? Traditionally there have been some
* What do you look forward to the most?
* presentations?
* exhibit hall?
* hanging out with other Mac geeks?
* Cirque De Mac? Friday 8pm Holywood Studios
* NosillaCastaways Party? 6-8pm on Friday @Jillians – register at podfeet.com listen to the show to hear the password!
* San Francisco itself?
* Who’s doing presenations, what about, and when? (check the schedule as it changes: macworldiworld.com/techtalks/)

  • Allison – Blindfolded! 11am Th 1/26
  • Chuck – Parenting in the Mobile Internet Age 1 PM 1/26; Mac, iPad and iPhone Essentials: The Stuff You Gotta Have 1 PM 1/27
  • Jeff – iCloud’s Little Helpers 2pm 1/27
  • Dave – Backing Up Your Mac, 11am, 1/26; Macworld RapidFire 5pm, 1/26, 5 minutes on using custom search to find pesky preferences.
  • Katie & David – Podcast: Mac Power User Workflows 11am Friday 1/27
  • David – 40 OS X Tips in 40 Minutes 10am Th 1/26
  • Don – Hidden Secrets of Quicktime – 1pm Thursday 1/26
  • Mac Roundtable Crew 10am Friday 1/27
  • John & Dave – Meet the Podcasters, Smile booth, Thu 1/26 3PM
  • John & Dave – Mac Geek Gab Live Fri 1/27 2PM
  • macworldiworld.com/techtalks/friday-overview/friday-agenda/#986
  • Final Cut Pro Super Users event supermeet.com

Holiday Tech Gifts

Allison

  • Magic Trackpad (not everyone has one yet!) http://www.apple.com/magictrackpad/
  • iTunes gift cards are even better now – buy iOS apps and Mac Apps! Like them because we can buy the silliest thing just because we have the credits

John – New toys I like

Steve

  • Buy yourself (or a loved one) more RAM! Still pretty inexpensive.
  • iTunes gift cards
  • A year of online back up (sexy, I know…)
    * Free options to get you started http://dropbox.com, http://sugarsync.com, http://box.net, http://pogoplug.com
  • Steve Jobs, Official Biography
  • Cool laptop bag or iPad, iPhone case

Chuck

  • Apple TV $100
  • Individual iTunes item gifts
  • A month or two of training from Lynda.com

Jeff

Play

November 11, 2011

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Mac Roundtable 2011.11.10 Episode #107

Filed under: Podcast — macroundtable @ 11:43 am

Mac Roundtable #107 from MacRoundtable on Vimeo.

Live at BlogWorld L.A. 2011, members of The Mac Roundtable gathered in person to discuss the show. In attendance were:

Victor Cajiao http://www.typicalmacuser.com @victorcajiao

John Chambers One Minute Tip Twitter: @tipman

Adam Christianson, MacCast http://www.maccast.com Twitter: @maccast

Dave Hamilton macobserver.com/ macgeekgab.com/ Twitter: @davehamilton

Chuck Joiner macvoicesgroup.com Twitter: @chuckjoiner

Don McAllister ScreenCastsOnline – http://screencastsoonline.com Twitter: @donmcallister

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

David Sparks macsparky.com macpowerusers.com Twitter: @macsparky

Play

October 16, 2011

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Mac Roundtable 2011.10.16 Episode #106

Filed under: Podcast — take2 @ 5:41 pm

Allison Sheridan – NosillaCast Mac Podcast podfeet.com @podfeet
Bart Busschots – www.bartb.ie impodcast.com @bbusschots
Don McAllister – www.screencastsonline.com
Katie Floyd – macpowerusers.com @katiefloyd
Chuck Joiner – macvoicesgroup.com  @chuckjoiner
John F. Braun – macgeekgab.com @johnfbraun
Siri – apple.com/iphone/features/siri.html

iPhone 4S

Who upgraded who didn’t and why?
Difference in AT&T Upgrade Elligability
Option to move to a different Carrier

  • Sprint offering some $125 credit to move (have to ask)
  • ETF less than subsidized price
  • Concerns about being out of cycle for iPhone 5 next year

Camera

Battery

  • Noticing very poor battery performance – need a few more recharge cycles? (Don)

Siri

iOS 5

General:

  • Finding lots of nice tweaks everywhere
  • Has really slowed down my original iPad :( – not QUITE as bad as iOS 4 on an iPhone 3G, but typing should NEVER be laggy! (Luckily it’s just for Bart)

Upgrade process – 10.7.2, iOS 5, iCloud, iTunes

iCloud

  • Disappointed that the iWork suite wasn’t upgraded to take into account iCloud sync’ing. Expecting a huge release in the coming weeks with new versions of apps plus full iCloud support for Numbers, Pages and Keynote on the Mac
  • Took several hours to make move (servers swamped)
  • Lost 20,000 archived email messages in the proces
    • Apple recovered – then lost again
    • questionable support experience
    • MailSteward and Time Machine FTW!
  • With a few exceptions like Photo Stream, this seems to be all just Mobile Me 2.0, but with loads of features REMOVED!
  • I’m afraid to migrate to iCloud since I still have one machine on Snow Leopard.

Reminders

  • Location reminders very cool – needs some setup in Contacts list
    • Can’t do location based reminders on an iPad or Exchange accounts
  • Very basic functionality
    • No ability to share reminders (household to do list)
    • No start/end times
    • Limited categories
    • Everything syncs to iCal

iMessage

  • So cool!  If recipient is capable, input field will say iMessage, otherwise, Text Message.
  • Settings | Messages | Receive At shows phone and email messages can be received at, need to use email registered as Apple ID?
  • Settings | Messages | Send as SMS will send via SMS if iMessage fails, I had this happen once with person who was iMessage capable
  • I have no disabled MMS – this is so great for people who HATE those massive bills.
  • Superb for people living in Europe with all those little countries!

Photostream

  • Love having photos show up in Aperture
  • No ability to selectively choose what syncs
  • No ability to remove individual photos from stream

Wireless sync

  • Settings | General | iTunes Wi-Fi Sync.  Says device must be connected to power, I found I could without power.
  • Only automatic sync needs power.
  • Problems with Podcasts – deleted off iPhone get re-synced with iTunes

Notifications
Text Tones by person
Maps alternate routes
Split keyboard on iPad
Camera

  • Like new AE/AF lock feature, was able to take pic of neon theater sign at night that iOS 4 camera app would fail on.

New Apps – AirPort Utility, Trailers, Find Friends (requires iCloud), Cards
iCloud charging us $40 this year?

Picks

 

 

John – Rubbernet €30 macobserver.com/tmo/article/rubbernet_shows_whos_hogging_your_bandwidth/
Al – Jettison $2 – eject external drives & put Mac to sleep. credit to Allister Jenks of Sitting Duck Podcast for the find: Jettison : in the Mac App Store
Katie – MailSteward $20 : itunes.apple.com/us/app/mailstewardapp
Bart – iMapMyRide 1.59 Euro: itunes.apple.com (also a free version)
Chuck – AppleTV  amzn.to/nHCtAW
Don McAllister: Box.net – 50GB Free storage for iOS 5 users – themacscreencastguy.squarespace.com

Play

October 4, 2011

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Mac Roundtable 2011.10.4 Episode #105

Filed under: Podcast — themacattack @ 5:39 pm

All about Apple’s October 4th iPhone event!

Your humble hosts for this episode:
Steve Stanger
stevestanger.com Twitter: @tmasteve
John F. Braun
macgeekgab.com/ Twitter: @johnfbraun, Twitter: @macgeekgab
Jonathan Cost
thinkmac.net Twitter: @MacTipsDaily
Chuck Joiner
macvoicesgroup.com Twitter: @chuckjoiner
Dave Hamilton
macobserver.com/ macgeekgab.com/ Twitter: @davehamilton
Jeff Gamet
mamacobserver.com Twitter: @jgamet
David Sparks
macsparky.com macpowerusers.comTwitter: @macsparky
Ken Ray
macosken.com Twitter: @macosken

This is the “print your own postcard” app mentioned during the show:
Bill Atkinson PhotoCard (paid version)
Bill Atkinson PhotoCard (free version)

Play

August 31, 2011

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Mac Roundtable 2011.08.31 Episode #104

Filed under: Podcast — take2 @ 9:34 pm

This show is hosted by:
Joseph Nilo – http://www.josephnilo.com http://twitter.com/josephnilo
Steve Stanger - http://www.stevestanger.com/ http://twitter.com/tmasteve
John F. Braun, Mac Geek Gab http://www.macgeekgab.com http://twitter.com/johnfbraun
Adam Christianson, Maccast http://www.maccaccast.com http://twitter.com/maccast
Bart Busschots, International Mac Podcast, http://www.impodcast.tv http://www.bartb.ie http://twitter.com/bbusschots

Topics in this show:
Steve retires!
OSX Lion, after a month
FCPX and iMovie
Come One Irene (Being prepared for natural disasters with your gear)

Picks:
John: http://www.virtualapple.org/ – Play Apple ][ games in your browser!
Joseph: Synthcam: https://sites.google.com/site/marclevoy/ FREE
Adam: Canyon Country National Parks (Free) Website: http://www.utah.com/ iTunes Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/canyon-country-national-parks/id458028890?mt=8
Steve: Snapseed – iPhone/iPad photo editing app. http://www.niksoftware.com/snapseed/usa/index.php?view
Bart: Trainz for iPad http://itunes.apple.com/ie/app/trainz-simulator/id405824661?mt=8

Play

July 24, 2011

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Mac Roundtable 2011.07.24 Episode #103 Lion Food Fight

Filed under: Podcast — take2 @ 3:38 pm

This week’s hosts are:
Allison Sheridan NosillaCast Mac Podcast http://podfeet.com @podfeet
Bart Busschots International Mac Podcast http://www.impodcast.tv @bbusschots
Don McAllister  ScreenCastsOnline – http://screencastsoonline.com @donmcallister
Adam Christianson, Maccast http://www.maccast.com @maccast
John F. Braun, Mac Geek Gab http://www.macgeekgab.com @johnfbraun

Lion Hits the Virtual Shelves:

The Good:

  • The app store download was painless, and you CAN easily move the PKG file around to the various machines in your house, so only have to DL once
    • If you know to move it to another drive before you run the installer
    • No problem burning bootable DVD
    • I don’t think I was charged, I had downloaded the developer’s GM version earlier, is it supposed to be free if you’re a developer?
    • Apple have announced a version of USB thumb-drive for those not on Snow Leopard or with bad internets – coming out next month at $69
  • Full disk encryption with FileVault2 is an absolute breeze – you can even keep using your Mac while the disk is encrypting itself
  • The OS-wide auto-correct is really nicely implemented – a great carry-over from iOS
  • On the whole, I think the new ‘natural’ scrolling is a very positive upgrade, it takes us from controlling the scroll bar which controls the page, to just controlling the page we want to read. The iOS-like scroll bounce is a lovely little touch
    • Hard to switch between Macs
    • If you do want to change it back, System Preferences | Trackpad | Scroll & Zoom | Scroll direction : natural -> UNCHECK
    • There is an app to add natural scrolling to Snow Leopard – Scroll Reverser: http://pilotmoon.com/scrollreverser/
  • Like the full screen apps a lot – more useful to me than Spaces ever were
  • Zoom in window is cool for visually impaired (but I can’t find how to zoom the whole screen)
  • Love love love email – threads so clean and crisp, I almost hope I get email from someone on aol!
    • Reverted to older layout (Preferences | Layout | Use classic layout -> CHECK) I prefer msgs on top content on bottom, not side by side – me too, so glad they left the classic option
  • The iOS-like auto-save is both really cool and really disconcerting – will be confusing for a while as apps are updated, but sould soon become the new normal.
  • Saving state when re-opened is nice, you can disable (hold down option to Quit and Discard Windows)

The Bad:

  • The total lack of any indication of what does and doesn’t scroll is very annoying – particully on web pages where just parts of a page scroll – don’t need scroll bars, but surely SOME indication is needed!
    • Scroll doesn’t work in Help!
  • Spaces has really been hobbled for power users – more people will use the feature now, but power users are taking a real step back
  • The new monochrome Finder with the most important stuff at the bottom (hard drives) is REALLY annoying <— YES!
  • Pitty you can’t do in-place encryption on external drives, has to be done when you format the drive (was linked to a Terminal hack – (http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/1935/lions-whole-disk-encryption)
  • Changing definition of three-finger swipe BOO.  System Preferences | Trackpad | More Gestures | Swipe Between Pages | Swipe left or right with three fingers, disable Swipe between full-screen apps
  • No AirDrop for earlier MBP (http://www.apple.com/macosx/specs.html)
  • The mysterious hidden ~/Library folder, hold down “option” in Finder and you’ll see it in Go menu.
  • Found some hiccups in Console, due to new Safari model, “sandboxd: ([323]) WebProcess(323) deny file-read-data … /Adobe/AIR/ELS/<file>” edited entries in com.apple.security.plist and they’re gone.
  • No “obvious” way to hide the “message” pane in the new mail layout. When I delete a message it jumps to the next one and marks it as read which I may or maynot want. Can switch back to Classic mode which does allow hidding the message pane.

The stuff that makes you go, “huh.”

  • There doesn’t appear to be Save-As any more – Save a Version doesn’t appear to do it, had to use Duplicate – and when you save your duplicate it does NOT remember where you were in the file system – REALLY annoying!
  • Launchpad – meh. I use search to find apps on iOS, use Alfred on the Mac because I don’t want to have to search around visually
    • I think it’ll be great for Windows users used to a Start Menu-like this, and for people who think desktops should be cluttered with icons, they can clutter Lanch Pad instead!

What Died During the Upgrade:

  • Existing MacPorts installations are destroyed by the upgrade – RC1 of Lion support released
  • TrueCrypt was killed by the update, seemingly because FUSE was killed by the update
  • iCal went nuts – entire duplicate calendars popping up, and then not disapearing when they were deleted
    • No problems here in iCal – 4 calendars syncing + 5 subscriptions
  • There are bugs in some Automator actions – so the automator scripts I rely on every day in work died (the Get Contents of Clipboard action gives currupted output for a start)
  • My Desktop changer app DeskLickr is no longer able to change my desktop wallpaper :(
  • Cleared out all old PowerPC programs (view with System Profiler) beforehand, only item that was identified as incompatible was Default Folder X.  More info here http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3258
  • Mail.app and add-ons (SpamSieve and Signature Profiler)
  • XCode upgrade (now free in app store? – yes) first install resulted in Xcode reporting inconsistent state, ran installer again and all is well.

Misc

  • Anyone else reminded heavily of Window7 on some of the OS animations? Nope
  • To really get the most out of this OS you need a mutlitouch trackpad – multitouch on the MagicMouse is a disaster – RSI-inducing hell!
  • Neat little add-on in /System/Library/CoreServices, Wi-Fi Diagnostics, includes data capture as a pcap file.
  • Also found Network Link Conditioner prefpane in Utilities folder, looks to be able to shape bandwidth based on pre-defined or user-defined profile.

Picks:

Play

June 12, 2011

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Mac Roundtable 2011.06.11 Episode #102

Filed under: Podcast — take2 @ 11:04 am

This week’s show is hosted by:

Allison Sheridan – NosillaCast Mac Podcast podfeet.com @podfeet
Katie Floyd – Mac Power Users macpowerusers.com @katiefloyd
John F. Braun – Mac Geek Gab macgeekgab.com @johnfbraun @macgeekgab
David Sparks – Mac Power Users macpowerusers.com MacSparky macsparky.com @macsparky

Lion – Questions/Concerns

  • Is there an ability to do a “fresh” install
  • We know there’s a “hack for the boot CD”
  • What if I don’t have Snow Leopard? What about grandpa, move him or not?
  • What if I have limited Bandwidth?
  • What’s with all the gesture stuff?  Will one *need* trackpad or touch surface to use OS X?   will this be too confusing? What about special needs users?
  • FileVault 2!  Done right, and works on external drives too
  • Windows migration, take that, Microsoft!
  • Autosave & versioning – particular about window locations this is good…or is it?
  • Will developers have to write to the APIs?

iOS 5 – Questions/Concerns

  • Many of these offered on other devices/platforms (PC-free, WiFi sync) about time
  • Hope Twitter won’t be a baby like they have been with third party devs when it comes to development of clients
  • Are we marking the iPad as a PC replacement now? Can iCloud really replace a PC for Backup, Software updates and Sync?
  • What about Podcasts? will they wirelessly sync
  • “Wireless Sync” to your Mac still requires a power cable
  • What about Game Center?
  • Importance of iMessage – is it important?
  • LOVE camera avail from lock screen

iCloud – Questions/Concerns

  • Here’s the article with details on the transition http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4597 (keep your me.com or mac.com email address and move your MobileMe mail, contacts, calendars, and bookmarks)
  • What about my other MobileMe stuff?  Publishing photos via iWeb?  Back to my Mac? what about iDisk? is iWeb gone? (Hope not)
  • Big Picture – Different visions
  • What if cloud isn’t available?  How does this work on local networks?  Will this make DropBox obsolete.
  • I think this will make the need for Dropbox even greater with no iDisk?
  • Will people actually spend more money on other services to replace iDisk?
  • Will people actually spend more money on other services to replace MobileMe functionality?
  • Novice users at my MUG were very concerned about MobileMe going away, they don’t want multiple services for cloud storage (dropbox), photos (flickr, and others) and their own domains (homepage). They want something simple and “Mac like”

Picks:
Katie: CardMunch cardmunch.comitunes.apple.com/us/app/cardmunch-business-card-reader – Free
David: Reeder for Mac - itunes.apple.com/us/app/reeder $10
John: Verbatim InSight 320 drive verbatim.com $119
Allison: Flexiglass from nulana.com/flexiglass $8

Play

May 27, 2011

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Mac Roundtable 2011.05.27 Episode #101

Filed under: Podcast — macroundtable @ 8:40 pm

This show is hosted by:

John F Braun Mac Geek Gab; Twitter

Katie Floyd – Mac Power Users; Twitter

Chuck Joiner – The MacVoices Group Twitter

The panel discuss the new Amazon Mac Software Download Store, iDevices dominating online video consumption, bandwidth caps and monitoring your usage, the controversy over AT&T’s data billing, the recent Skype and Twitter outages, and protecting yourself in an increasingly dangerous online world.

Amazon Mac Store
Special launch promotion Amazon is adding a $5 discount with the coupon code “SAVE5MAC” through June 1st.
The Amazon downloads require OS X 10.5 and higher. Purchases can be downloaded an unlimited number of times and are stored in Amazon’s Games and Software library.

Bodega

iPhone, iPad Dominate Mobile Video Viewing Market by Jeff Gamet on The Mac Observer

AT&T Hit with iPhone Data Charges Lawsuit by Jeff Gamet on The Mac Observer

Utilities to monitor bandwidth:

Mac
SurplusMeter

iDevice
DataMan Lite
DataMan Pro

To learn about current Twitter network issues – http://status.twitter.com/

Note that the current batch of malware requires the user to do something via an installer, be it clicking on a Continue button, and perhaps entering an admin username/password.

Securing your Mac from the new MacGuard malware variant by Topher Kessler on cnet

Mac Defender: Mostly Harmless by Chuck La Tournous on The Mac Observer

Picks:

Chuck – Western Digital 3 TB Drive

Katie – Stitcher Radio

John – Square

Play

May 15, 2011

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Mac Roundtable 2011.05.15 Episode #100

Filed under: Podcast — take2 @ 4:20 pm

This show is hosted by:

Allison Sheridan: NosillaCast at http://podfeet.com http://twitter.com/podfeet

Katie Floyd: Mac Power Users at http://macpowerusers.com http://twitter.com/katiefloyd

John F Braun: Mac Geek Gab at http://macgeekgab.com http://twitter.com/johnfbraun

Tim Verpoorten: Mac ReviewCast at http://macreviewcast.com http://twitter.com/surfbits

Woohoo 100 episodes!

Topics in this show include:

Skype bought by Microsoft – what does that mean to podcasting? is there a chance they won’t screw this up?

  • It’s Microsoft, how can they not screw this up?

Display problem with new MacBook Pros – screen flicker on Apple cinema displays using Thunderbolt & shift of the bottom 1/4 of the screen (not fixed by recent firmware update)

Confusion about where your applications came from when it comes time to reinstall

  • Mac App Store (MAS)
  • Direct from developer – where’s my license key/serial number
  • Direct from developer – but they used a web link for authorization
  • If you have CRL checking ON in Keychain Access | Certificates, many operations in MAS take FOREVER
  • What’s CRL? CRL is Certificate Revocation List, it’s a way for an application to see if any of the certificates it normally trusts have been Revoked. Here’s an article with more detail http://www.securitygeneration.com/security/safari-mac-os-x-and-fraudulent-ssl-certificates-comodo/

How excited are we about Final Cut X?

  • Very excited expect I won’t be upgrading until…
  • Lion is released
  • New Mac Pros are released
  • I’m finished with all the client jobs I’m in the middle of doing with the current FCP 3

Mac Security – is it time to worry?

  • Fake anti-virus download
  • Want to be clear that this was Malware, best defense is to just not automatically install an app, or disable “Open “safe” files after downloading” in Safari General preferences
  • Skype payload bug
  • Also good discussion, if someone you don’t know sends you an attachment, it could be this attack, more detail here http://thenextweb.com/apple/2011/05/06/a-bug-in-skype-for-mac-could-give-hackers-root-access-to-os-x/
  • Tim runs antivirus apps on all the Macs that other household members use, none on his own
  • But what’s in the virus definitions if there are still no viruses (defined as self-replicating malware)

Video/Audio movement between Macs and iPads and other media devices

Semi-proprietary hard drive in recent iMacs (temp sensor must be part of drive and attach to special Apple cable, otherwise, fans go nuts) should one expect being able to upgrade HD in iMac. Mac Pro, sure, that’s why there’s multiple drive bays.

Picks:

Play

March 29, 2011

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Mac Roundtable 2011.03.29 Episode #99

Filed under: Podcast — take2 @ 8:07 pm

This episode is hosted by:

Katie Floyd: www.macpowerusers.com, www.katiefloyd.me, @katiefloyd

Steve Stanger themacattack.tv, about.me/sstanger, @tmasteve

Victor Cajiao http://www.typicalmacuser.com @victorcajiao

Chuck Joiner http://macvoicesgroup.com @chuckjoiner

Mac OS X turns 10 years old!

  • Anything we still miss from the Pre-OSX days?
  • Where is OS X still lacking?
  • What features do you want to see added?

No iPhone, Macs at WWDC 2011 (rumor)

WWDC June 6th-10th

Apple?s 2011 World Wide Developers Conference has sold out after not even being open for more than 12 hours. The conference, which costs $1599 to attend

  • Sources claim no hardware announcements at WWDC.
  • No iOS5 announcement (another rumor of the release being moved to the fall).
  • I say good. Lets focus on the Mac and OSX!

Katie’s Recent AppleCare “Deal” Fiasco

  • Buying from a third party reseller on Amazon almost cost me.
  • Tips for buying AppleCare

Is there ever a perfect time to buy a Mac?

  • I want a MacPro but now waiting for Thurderbolt
  • I want a Macbook Air (heck Katie and David enabled me right into one,) but I’m waiting for Sandie Bridge
  • Apple I have money in the bank ready to give to you but your secrets keep me from doing anything at this point.

Picks:

Katie: Evernote: Relying on it heavily to organize my house building project,

Steve: PictureShow iPhone camera app.

Victor : Thanks to Tim Verporten and his posterous page for this.  Sendoid lets you instantly transfer big files up to about a gig  to another person through a browser connections .

Chuck: TopXNotes

 

Play
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