Screencast #3 - Quicksilver Timers and Alarms

This is my third screencast. This one explains how to set alarms and timers with Quicksilver so it will appear in large text on your screen or play a song from iTunes. This screencast is in high definition format. The version that goes up on the iTunes feed will be in the iPod format. It is best viewed if you download first.

 You can Download it Directly Right Here

or better yet subscribe in the iTunes store

Review - Airfoil

I really love all the creative things I can do with my Mac. Before going to college I used to play the saxophone and piano professionally. Somehow I’d lost touch with music over the past 20 years but since the Mac makes it so easy, I’ve found myself really enjoying a resurgance of music in my life. I’ve even posted a few of my songs up on MacSparky.com.

Anyway, one problem I ran into when recording music was decent playback. Specifically, when I’ve to several instruments playing at once it is hard to get a feel for the right levels through my MacBook’s speakers. Sure I can plug in headphones but I wanted more. I wanted to rattle the house with my subwoofer . I have an airport express that allows me to play iTunes through the stereo so why not Logic and GarageBand? I kept looking for a way to hack around my airport express but never quite got it to work. I was explaining this problem to one of my favorite Apple Store geniuses when he just smiled and said ... “Oh .. you need Airfoil”

Well he couldn’t have been more right. Rogue Amoeba’s Airfoil is the perfect way to unleash your Airport Express from iTunes only playback. Using this application you can route any source of audio from your Mac to your Airport Express. It worked with every Media Player I have, dashboard widgets, system audio, and even web sites. This really dovetails with my latest obession, Tim’s link to Soundsource.com in episode #115. I’ve been using that site, along with Airfoil, to make all sorts of strange sounds come out of my home stereo ... from nuclear explosions to balloon animals. It's all good. My wife, by the way, thinks I am crazy. But I digress.

Airfoil even can drive multiple Airport Express units. So lets say you have two stereos attached to Airport Express units in different parts of your house. The program synchronizes them both so you can really get the neighbors upset. It also has an equalizer and Applescript support.

One limitation on this application is delay. While normally this is not a problem, it does prevent you from watching video on your Mac with sound through your Airport Express. Rogue Amoeba explains this delay is built into the Airport express and there is no way around it.

Using this $25 application I got my wish. I can now hear playbacks when working in logic through my home stereo and much much more.

Edit 8.10.07

Just a point of clarification. Airfoil's delay applies to everything you pipe through it so when using it with Logic or Garageband it doesn't work in real time. It plays through the stereo on playback. It doesn't pipe through the stereo real time while I am playing the keyboard. Cheers, D

Final Score … Mac 3, PC 0

Just when I thought I couldn't give the Apple Store any more money...

My wife, along with her partner, runs her own internet business where they sell paper crafting and stamping supplies. I am very proud of her. Anyway, she has been running her store on a PC box that has given us nothing but problems for the last year. I've replaced the video card, the sound card, the hard drive and just about everything else but the motherboard and the darned thing still blue screens despite our best efforts through re-installing windows and routine maintenance. Well everytime it dies on her she finds herself on my daughter's iMac and it has made her a believer. So tonight she joined the growing legions of Mac users with her very own MacBook.

It is funny because the sales guy who set us up was the same guy who sold me my first Mac. I really like the great people at the Irvine Apple Store. It is of note how much easier this purchase was. When I bought my first Mac I was a bit worried about making a mistake. I need a computer every day for my work and Apple was a big leap for me. Buying my wife's computer was not stressful at all. It is actually a relief to be free of all those PC blue screen problems.

I'll spend this weekend tricking it out for her. She bought one of those red plastic protective cases on which she plans on doing some serious customization. I can't wait to see what she does with it.

MacSparky’s Favorite iPhone Applications

I have been collecting an eclectic mix of web based applications on my shiny new iPhone and I thought I'd share a few here:

GasApp

I realize the terms "cheap" and "gas" have become mutually exclusive. Regardless, GasApp is great. Works fine on an edge network and finds you the least expensive gas in town. The google map integration is a nice touch.

One Trip

This was my first iPhone app and still one of my favorites. An excellent shopping list web app. It looks very nice but still manageable on the Edge in the vegetable section of my supermarket

iPhone Digg

I never really "got it" with Digg but sitting on the couch thumbing through it on my iPhone is a whole new story.

iActu

This is a great newspaper mashup organized like a newsstand. Not all that Edge friendly but still very nice over tea.

AccuWeather

The weather widget is perfectly fine for most of my needs. But if I really want to geek out on weather, I go here.

Telekinesis

This looks to be the most interesting of the bunch. I can't really recommend it since I haven't had a chance to try it yet but it is supposed to be able to allow you to remotely access and control your Mac from your iPhone. This should allow you to do things like remotely control iTunes, run applescripts, or access your iSight camera. I'm a little concerned about the security of it all but I'm going to be looking into it soon.

There are so many new ones being posted every day I am sure this list will get revised over time. As an aside, I organize these by a seperate tab "iPhone" applications. Please drop me an email or comment as to your favorite iPhone applications.

OmniFocus Check In

I've been using the Sneaky Peak of OmniFocus exclusively now for several weeks for task management and I'm very pleased with the progress Omni is making with this program. If you have any interest in it, get yourself over to the Omni Group web site and get your name on the list. It is "different" from what I was doing in iGTD, but generally better for my workflow with a few small (hopefully temporary) annoyances. It is still just Alpha after all.

MacSparky Podcast

I've been having fun making the screencasts and decided to give them a podcast feed. Granted it is nothing near the quality of Don McAllister's excellent "ScreencastsOnline", but I'm having fun making them. I'm really figuring this out as I go along so I'm sure there will be changes. Moreover, it will not be a weekly podcast but as more along the lines of a few a month.

I have an email from Apple saying "MacSparky Screencasts" has been approved and is on iTunes but I sure can't seem to find it except for using Apple's link right here. I'm using a PodBean account, at least temporarily, to host it which can be found here. I'll keep you posted.

MacSparky’s iPhone Review

If you would like to hear my dulcet tones, this review was broadcast on Surfbits Macreview Cast #115.

This week I'm going to talk about a newly released product that you might have heard about, the iPhone.

Those of you that have visited my blog have read about me explaining how I had no plans to buy an iPhone and was going to try and stick it out with my Treo. Well between that outstanding video on Apple's website and all the excitement I got sucked in.

So I braved the crowds and actually made a few friends on iDay and got myself a shiny new iPhone. I have now been using it for almost a week. Since just about every web site on the Internet has reviewed this gadget I thought I would just talk a bit about how I use my iPhone.

Setting up the iPhone was a breeze. I plugged it into iTunes, electronically pledged my business to AT&T for two years and picked what data I wanted synced over. It took about 10 minutes. Once it was done I unplugged the iPhone and started using it. There was no manual configuration at all, it was already done. My three email accounts, photo albums, calendar and video were all set up. As of the time of this writing I still haven't bothered with the manual.

The user interface of this phone is nothing less than stunning. If you haven't already, watch the 20 minute video at Apple's website. It has to be seen to be believed.

I know a lot of people have been saying the iPhone is not a "business" phone but I'm not really sure that is true. I have been using my new phone to keep in touch with clients and my office via email like never before. Email is just easier with the iPhone. I particularly like the built in word/excel/pdf attachment viewer.

Also, for the first time in my career I can go to legal websites without a laptop. For example I was standing in the hallway talking to an attorney who said a certain statute supported his argument. I pulled out my iPhone, fired up Safari and found the statute right there which, coincidentally did NOT support his claim.

I've never had a GPS device and google map integration doesn't track where I am, but it certainly is nice getting directions to some of the far off places I drive too, even if I have to click it at each turn. Living in Southern California, the live traffic is great.

It is also a joy finally being able to sync with iCal to my handheld device. Everytime I used to sync my Treo I would knock on wood, throw salt over my shoulder and a host of other rituals in effort to please the sync gods. Now I just plug in my iPhone and it is seamless.

Of course it also has a phone. I haven't noticed any real difference in switching from Verizon to AT&T. I think both have pretty good coverage here in Orange County. I really like the user interface and visual voicemail is great since I usually have quite a few messages. It is really much nicer than my old phone.

There are a few things about the iPhone that I would change to accomodate my work. First, I wish it would support my portable bluetooth keyboard. I'm actually okay with the on screen type pad but I have a portable bluetooth keyboard that is really convenient for banging out text while sitting on a plane and not worrying about the lady next to me spilling her juice and nuts all over my MacBook. While it works fine with the bluetooth hands free device in my car, it appears the iPhone does not support blootooth keyboards .. yet at least. Second, I would really like to have a program on the iPhone that holds secured data. I have some text files with sensitive information and I can't put them on my iPhone without some sort of security. This is a feature that goes way back on the Palm and should be on the iPhone. Finally, where is my task list? The calendar is fine but it should get my tasks out of iCal. I've solved this last problem by emailing myself pdf print outs from OmniFocus. Fortunately all of these problems are software based and, hopefully, temporary.

Play on the iPhone is a complete Joy. The screen is so vivid, my pictures look fantastic as well as my little vignette videos of my kids that I occasionally use to torture friends and colleagues. I watched the last Harry Potter movie on it and it was an enjoyable experience. I never really cared much for movies on my wife's video iPod. I never really paid much attention to YouTube but now that it is on my phone I must admit it is a guilty pleasure to sit around and watch some of those crazy videos ... has anyone watched Chad Vader?

There has been a lot of talk about the inferiority of the Edge network but fortunately I'm nearly always around an accessable WiFi spot. A few times I've done some browsing with WiFI turned off and it is doable but not nearly as fast as WiFi. I really don't have many complaints on that issue.

In summary the iPhone is not perfect but has been a huge upgrade for me. It really is the Macintosh experience on a phone and that, in itself, is a wonderful thing.

Screencast 2 - Encrypted Drive Images

Here is my second screencast. This one features a short explanation of how to create encrypted sparse image drives to hide your secret files. It is all built right into OS X. Enjoy!

 You can Download it Directly Right Here

or better yet subscribe in the iTunes store

Happy Fourth of July!

Happy Fourth Friends. I plan to spend my day resting, barbecuing and watching my entire extended family play with my new iPhone.

But I digress. I wanted to stop a moment and pay tribute to the Founding Fathers who decided to engage in high treason against the most powerful nation of the 18th Century. A crime that carried the punishment of being drawn and quartered. These were, in general, very rich men who had a lot to lose and a cause which could have easily been futile. So in between the burgers and fireworks, raise a glass to those guys and the King who ultimately decided to let those colonial upstarts go independent and in doing so created one of the strongest and longest lasting alliances ever formed between two nations.

Those guys were so forward thinking ... don't you think they would have been Mac users?

iPhone at Work

Well today was the first time I used my iPhone for work and a busy day it was. I had to wake up at 4:30 am and be in Court about 100 miles away from my home. The gogle map application got me there without benefit of a printed map (a first for me) and web browsing while waiting for the judge to show up was too fun. There are a few warts but I am enjoying this phone. Ill be reviewing it this weekend on the MacReviewCast in detail.