What Next Apple?

So we've had a few days and the reality distortion field is breaking up. People seem to be generally excited about the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros. The one major complaint I've heard is the removal of firewire from the MacBooks. I can appreciate this complaint but also must admit I don't miss firewire on my MacBook Air at all. If I were to try and hook it up to my video camera and it was my only Mac however, I'd have two bags of hurt.

So I'm already now hearing people ask what Apple will possibly bring to Macworld. They've already released new iPods, new laptops, and they just updated the iMac design last year. So what is left? I've got no clue but I'm still burning a candle for the tablet device I asked for last year. Tim Robertson wrote an excellent article summarizing the last few Macworld announcements here. What do you think Steve will pull out of his bag of tricks this year?

Colored MacBooks?

Tomorrow morning is the big announcement for the new MacBooks and some sites are now reading the tea leaves to predict colored MacBooks. On a certain level this makes sense with the recent excitement over the new iPod Nano colors. I could almost see them doing something like this with laptops. I know a few people for whom color would make a difference. Time will tell.

Circus Ponies Notebook 3.0 Review

My ability to resist information management programs ranks right down there with Homer Simpson’s ability to resist doughnuts. I just can’t help myself. As such, when Circus Ponies’ Notebook 3.0 recently released, I was first in line.

In case you haven’t heard of it, Notebook is … well … a virtual notebook. It creates a digital version of that spiral bound workhorse you grew up using. You can pick the kind of paper, the color, even the type of binding. In addition to this eye candy, Notebook does a lot of things your traditional paper notebook couldn’t. You can clip to your Notebook straight from the web. It also lets you easily create bulleted lists and outlines and links to you data such as address book contacts. You can mark up your pages with a tablet or highlight sections with the highlight tool.

Version 3.0 adds several additional features including the ability to add and annotate pdf files. This feature is very useful to me although I would have liked it even more if I could use my tablet pen to add highlighting to my imported PDFs. The new version also allows you to create simple diagrams. The diagram tool does not raise to the level of OmniGraffle but if you want to sketch out simple relationships on a notebook page, you are good to go. Another new addition are sticky notes. With this you can paste a tab or sticky note right on your notebook. If your tab hangs off the end of your notebook, you can still see it with the Notebook closed and jump back to that page with just a click. You can also easily publish your notebook to the internet. One of my favorite features in Notebook is its robust indexing. Just about any data you stick in your notebook gets indexed including words, tabs, names, and links.

Notebook is probably the most mature application available for OS X. It was originally developed for NeXT and then it literally followed the operating system to Apple. That being said, there is a lot of competition for information management applications including online solutions such as Evernote.

I am still trying to sort out exactly the best way to manage my bits of information. I like Evernote but can’t see myself putting all of my data in the cloud. In the past, I’ve used OmniOutliner and Bento to keep information. With its new features, Notebook is now a also a contender. I think the advantage of Notebook is its open flexibility and the ease of use in combining different kinds of data and files. It is not as robust at its individual components as stand alone applications. For instance, the outliner in OmniOutliner is better than that found in Notebook. What makes Notebook special is that you have all of these tools in one place. In writing this review I sent out word to the Twitter nation asking fellow Mac users how they used notebook and got a variety of interesting responses ranging from managing lawsuits to blog posts to wine lists. I think it boils down to personal preference. My wife, for instance, has no interest an outlining program but completely “gets” Notebook. I’ve used Notebook to plan vacations, work projects, and simply to collect ideas. In the end, I don’t think there is any one perfect application for information management. I do think, however, Notebook is an essntial tool in the never ending battle against lost data.

You can download a 30 day trial of Notebook at circusponies.com. A license will cost $49.95 and an upgrade from the previous license will cost $19.95. They also have an academic licnse for $29.95. This application would be perfect for a student.

You can listen to this review on Surfbits episode 181.

Speaking and Carnegie Hall Require Practice

Today the Uncluterer website posted an excellent article on giving presentations. I do quite a bit of presentation work and following years of hard knocks I'd have to agree with just about everything the author says. Especially the part about practice. Presentations don't happen magically. Unless you are some sort of freak, the only way to come off smoothly is to practice. Believe me. I've tried it the other way and it always turns out ugly.

So when I know I'm about to give an important presentation, I practice. No one and no thing is safe from my practice. Mirrors, co-workers, traffic, family members, unsuspecting door to door salesmen: They are all liable to be dragged through an opening statement, a presentation, or a particular analogy that I have yet to get just right. It is good to know I'm not alone.

October 14 Apple Event - New Notebooks

The fact that Apple is updating its notebook lines appears to be the worse kept secret in technology. People were talking about an October 14 event last month and some websites already claim to have pictures of the new cases. There is even a lot of discussion about a new manufacturing process where the new MacBooks will be carved out of a single piece of aluminum* which should make them stronger.

Today Apple sent the official invite out for an event on October 14, 2008 at 9:30 a.m. where they intend to put the "spotlight on notebooks." I'm set on computers for some time but a friend has been seeking my advice on a new MacBook and I've been telling her to hold off.

I routinely ridicule people for making wild speculation of new Apple products but that never stops me from doing it myself, so here goes:

* All of the MacBooks (Pros, standard, and Air) will now be aluminum. There will be no more plastic laptops;

* All of the MacBooks will feature the LED screen probably standard or, at least, as an option;

* Despite speculation, there will remain to be Pros, Airs, and standard MacBooks.

I would love to see the prices drop to have one model at $999, but I seriously doubt it will. Apple has never been a company to play the margin game. I think they are more likely to say, "Hey they are so much better and still the same price!"

What do you think? Sound off in the comments.

* Am I the only person that wishes I could say the word "aluminum" with a British accent? Maybe Don McAllister should screencast THAT.

Macworld Bound 2009

Last year I was fortunate enough to get to spend a few days in San Francisco at the Macworld Expo. I must admit, however, that my Macworld experience did not follow the usual path you would expect. I spent the majority of my time slumming the halls meeting tons of great readers, podcasters, developers, and other miscellaneous mac geeks. Indeed, I would have to say the best part of the experience by far was all of the great people I met and new friends I made. I made a point of finding people to eat meals with, visit events with, and even troll the display booths with.

For the benefit of this website, getting to shake hands with individual developers and have them answer my questions made a huge difference in my ability to report and review for the past year. Another nice benefit of the trip was my inspiration for the resurrection of the Mac Roundtable which is doing quite well again.

I had so much fun that I just recently booked travel arrangements for my return. If any readers are going to be up there, let me know. I'll be there Tuesday through Thursday. I thought about going to the Steve-Note but when I realized the extra expenses for that would be about $450 plus a night on the sidewalk, I decided I could avoid the reality distortion field for another year. Also, if you are planning on heading up, don't miss visiting Macworld Bound, where you can get great tips and information for your trip.

Doozla Contest - 1 Week Left

There is still one week on the Doozla contest. Don't forget to get your entries in!

Wiretap Anywhere Review

In a different lifetime I was a studio musician and spent a lot of time with microphones and soundboards. As a result, I’m a bit of an audio nerd. The thing is, I remember how hard analog audio was to pull off. But today we live in the digital age and suddenly Audio gets much easier. This week I’m looking at Ambrosia Software’s latest application in its stable of audio tools, Wiretap Anywhere.

To put this application in layman’s terms, wind the clock back about 80 years and imagine one of those old telephone switchboard stations. You have a board on one side with incoming calls and the operator would then physically connect the plug into where you wanted the call to go. “Oh hi Eunice. You want to talk to Doc Jones about your lombago, let me patch you in.” Now imagine that same concept but much cooler on your Mac and instead of just patching one call, you can patch five calls into one line. That gives you a rough idea of Wiretap Anywhere. With it you can take any audio generated by your Mac and pipe it across to any destination. Do you want to share your latest GarageBand project with your pal in Walawala over iChat? Its simple. You just set a line from GarageBand to iChat and you are in business. If you are a podcaster and want to get a Skype call, your local microphone, and some funky iTunes background music into your audio application but leave your system alerts out of the recording, it is simply a matter of making the proper connections in Wiretap Anywhere.

Wiretap Anywhere turns all of your applications into audio inputs which you can then mix and combine and patch into any application on your Mac that accepts an audio signal. The concept is not really that complicated but, depending on your level of audio needs, extremely useful. You can put the individual source applications to their own channels or you can mix them to a combined stereo signal from within Wiretap Anywhere.

One use that I particularly enjoyed was routing my Midi keyboard, Logic, and iTunes into one feed for recording. Pulling this off “back in the day” would have have been possible without some very high end, and expensive, recording equipment.

In some ways it is like Soundflower. It is just easier to configure and more stable. The interface, presented through a preference pane, is obvious. I’ve been putting Wiretap Anywhere through its paces now for for several weeks. Processing and redirecting all of this audio did not seem to cause any latency problems for me. Ambrosia knows audio. For about 10 months now I’ve been recording my reviews on another Ambrosia product, Wiretap Studio.

Wiretap Anywhere is certainly not for everyone but is an excellent tool for for people who need this sort of granular control over their audio. A license will cost $129. If you are interested, there is a demo version available from Ambrosia Software’s website. Ambrosia also has some nice tutorial videos to give you a better idea of how to use the application.

Apple Notebook Sales Soar

AppleInsider reports today that one in five notebooks bought in the back-to-school period were Macs. A lot of Mac owners secretly worry about the bad old days when Apple marketshare was abysmal and people were talking about chopping up the company. With growing marketshare (especially with college kids), and the increasing OS irrelevance with cloud based computing, I think those days are over.

Vintage Mac Sickness

Lately, I've come down with the vintage Mac bug. "Back in the day", I first started using the original toaster style Macs. I then made a regrettable side turn into PCs before being able to return to the fold. The thing is, I still miss my old 512k Mac. The one with the tortoise and the hare preferences. The one that said "hello" to me when I turned it on.

I realize that this sickness is purely nostalgic. My "underpowered" MacBook Air can do more computing than an entire room full of networked vintage macs. Nevertheless, I've now caught myself several times haunting the vintage Mac sales on ebay and watched several very familiar looking old Macs sell in the $50-$100 price range. A part of me wants to buy one of these really badly. The problem is, I have no clue what on earth I'd do with it. I certainly don't have space in my home office for another computer and I have no idea how anything I would write on a 20 year old computer could even get onto my current rig. Frankly, I'm afraid to ask if anybody does use these old machines productively because I suspect it would just enable me. As things currently stand, every time I get tempted, common sense seems to take over. Does anybody else have Vintage Mac Sickness?