Lawyers Jump In on the Mac vs. PC Debate

My friend Ben Stevens over at the MacLawyer blog participated in a recent debate for the American Bar Association Journal about Macs vs. PC's. Of course Ben won the contest. As Ben explained, "Of course, I had a much easier position to argue since the facts were so strongly on my side."

The whole debate reminds me of a recurring experience I'm having with my Mac as of late. Everytime I pull it out at the courthouse or in deposition, I become the subject of curiosity and questions. It seems a lot of people in the legal profession are curious about switching. I attended a day long seminar recently in Los Angeles about a PC-only application that I use often in my practice (CaseMap). I run it in Parallels with no problems. I think I sold about 10 Macs that day. The funniest thing was the speaker hunted me down afterward and told me how funny it was for him giving the presentation and looking up at about 100 Dell logos with one shining Apple in the middle. Then he told me he wants to switch too.

New Preference Pane - Secrets from Quicksilver Author

The guy behind Quicksilver, "Alcor", has a new application out called "Secrets" which puts a nice shiny GUI around a lot of hidden customizable features for various OS X applications. It was released open source so I'm guessing we'll see quite a few updates with even more Secrets exposed. I've been running it all of 5 minutes and it is interesting. If you are a "tweaker", check it out.

Review - Snapper from Audio Ease

Let's say you are about to make the perfect voicemail message but it doesn't include the right background noise to convey exactly how things are in your home . Then suddenly it dawns on you. You need that audio file you had of screaming monkeys. You open a Finder window full of audio files with user friendly names such as xq235.mp3 and realize this is going to take awhile. Apparently someone at Audio Ease also lost the screaming monkeys audio file because their application, Snapper, is perfect to help you out of that pickle.

Snapper is a Finder add-on that pops up a little window below your finder or iTunes window. Whenever you highlight an audio file Snapper lets you preview and manipulate it. In addition to giving you audio previews, Snapper provides you a bunch of data on the file and generates a waveform. The time required to generate the waveform depends on the size of the sound file. For small files it is very quick. For a 128kbps encoded version of Miles Davis' "All Blues" it took about 8 seconds on my MacBook Pro.

Once Snapper has your audio file up you can then very easily crop and convert sections. This is perhaps Snapper's most impressive feature. It is quite intuitive as you begin selecting segments of audio and dragging it into your Finder window. For ProTools users, you can send a clip directly into your ProTools project. After little time you'll become quite conversant with Snapper clipping and converting to your heart's desire. There is something quite satisfying about selecting a portion of a song with your mouse and dragging it out. If you are looking to load up your iPhone with ringtones, this could speed the job up. Snapper's information panel can be customized and provides immediate access to just about any metadata you could ever need. While there are plenty of tools available in Snapper I thought the interface could use some polish.

I couldn't find any sound file on my Mac that Snapper couldn't play. The developer explains Snapper can open over 50 different file types. If you want the Snapper window to attach to your iTunes window you can enable that function in the preferences. I tried it and then turned it off because the wave form generation was slowing me down.

There are a few things Snapper doesn't do. It doesn't organize sound files. It really is made to latch onto a file more than organize it. Also, although you can manipulate the files, it doesn't really act as a sound editor in any traditional sense.

Snapper excels at quick and dirty clips and conversions in Finder organized audio. If you already have audio software on your Mac, there probably isn't anything that Snapper does that you can't already do with your existing software. For me, Snapper's best selling point was its convenience. It was much faster doing quick clips than any of my existing Audio software.

Unfortunately, at a price of $79.95, I think Snapper misses the mark. There is some very robust audio software out there at or around the same price that can do much more than Snapper. I suspect the ProTools integration may be its biggest selling point at its current price. While this is a handy application, I think it would be much more attractive around the $20 price point.

The good news is Audio Ease has a fully functional 100 day demonstration so you can kick the tires for over three months if Snapper sounds interesting to you. You can download it at audioease.com.

Audioengine AW1 Winners

The winners are TerryC and Dale Lymn. I've sent their names to audioengineusa.com and they should get their gear soon. Thank you everyone for participating. I really enjoyed reading all of the interesting ideas for using this unique product.

Also, thank you Audioengineusa.com. They were very generous with this contest and I hope you all consider them in the future for your audio needs.

The iPhone SDK Roadmap gets Unfolded on March 6

Ars Technica is reporting Apple has sent out invitations for a press event on March 6 where it is going to discuss the iPhone software development and Apple's "exciting new enterprise features." Hmmm. They missed the promised February date, but just barely. Furthermore, it is not even clear whether the SDK is done but at least we'll get some information and the tease about enterprise compatibility may be a game changer for a lot of folks. Guess we'll have to wait and see.

Just 2 Days Left ...

Just two days left until the drawing for Audioengine AW1's so if you haven't joined the contest yet ... do it now.

New MacBook and MacBook Pro

It is Tuesday again. This time Apple announced some very nice updates to the MacBook and the MacBook Pro. They include processor and hard drive bumps. Likewise, the MacBookPro 17" is now getting an LED display and the MacBook Pro line is getting the MacBook Air gestures on the track pad. You can see the product details here.

I know several people who have been waiting for this update (including my friend Victor from the Typical Mac User podcast) and I expect we'll be seeing reviews of the new hardware in no time at all.

I'm still quite satisfied with my slightly aged MacBook Pro. If any readers are buying one of the new machines, chime in on the comments.

Mac Slow Motion

Reader Anthony recently wrote me about the OS X slow motion features. That is, if you hold down the shift key while minimizing windows or activating expose' or spaces, everything moves very slow. It really gives you a better idea of how the animation works in terms of both motion and fade.

I always thought of it as eye candy but Anthony makes a good point. When teaching your switcher friends how windows minimize into the dock, slowing things down can be helpful to demonstrate exactly how it all works.

macsparky Widget Now Available

In addition to other pursuits, I like to fiddle with the OS X developer package. Dashcode is one set of tools that is particularly appropriate for me (dumbed down for someone without a lick of programming prowess) and, as a result, the place I spend the most the time. Anyway, I've decided to start publishing my self-made widgets so feel free to download and enjoy.

This widget gives you the macsparky feed right in your dashboard.

Dowload the macsparky Widget

Review - Otterbox Armor iPhone Case

This review was also broadcast on the MacReviewCast #148.

Remember when the iPhone first released and there were just 3 cases on the market? Well that was eight months ago and now there are more like 3,000 cases on the market. To be honest I had little interest in any of them. I have an invisible shield on my phone (although I’m often tempted to remove that as well) and that is it. It works fine. Fits in my pocket and gives me no troubles.

I must admit however that I was very intrigued by the products offered by OtterBox. They specialize in cases that are more functional than pretty. Put simply, Otterbox is in the protection business.

The reason I was attracted to Otterbox is that while I usually don’t need a case at all, I sometimes need one desperately. Our home is very near some of the areas that got burned out in the California fires this year and I’ve taken to hiking through the woods and taking pictures. Likewise, I often find myself chasing my kids through things like tidepools and beaches with my phone in my pocket.

This is why I got an Otterbox Armor iPhone case. This case is the Sherman tank of iPhone cases. It opens with two sturdy latches. Inside is a stereo plug that slides into your iPhone and a rubber grip to hold it snug.

You then close the case and lock it down with the side tabs. On the outside is a translucent material that allows you to operate the touch interface with a noticeable, but not unusable, bit of resistance. This may have been amplified my invisible shield. It has an external headphone jack (not recessed) and external buttons that (with some mashing) give you access to all of your primary iPhone buttons and controls. It even has small diaphragm type devices over the speakers.

Put simply, this rugged case makes your iphone waterproof, dustproof, dirtproof, sandproof, and drop-proof, kid-proof, tidepool proof, and just about anything else-proof. It has rubber on the inside and protective plastic rubbery stuff on the outside which would allow you to confidently spike your phone on the ground with little fear of damage. I don’t think there is another iPhone case out there that could take a beating the way this one could. It can even go underwater. That is right. The iPhone submarine. According to the manufacturer it could go as deep as three feet.

Now I love participating in the Mac community and I will go to great lengths for my fellow Mac geeks, but sinking my iPhone three feet in the pool was one shot I just couldn’t take for the team. Instead I put a wad of tissue in the case and then sank it three feet for 15 seconds. When I pulled it out, I opened it up and the tissue was remarkably dry. I couldn’t see any signs of water intrusion inside the case. I don’t think you can take your phone scuba diving with this case but if I do end up dropping it in the tidepools someday, I’ll probably be alright.

They have one version that is black on black and another that is black and yellow. The Armor is not what I would call an elegant case. It is attractive though ... in the same way a muddy Range Rover driving out of the jungle is attractive. It is big and bulky and completely contrary to that elegant simplicity that you always find in Apple design. However, if you are going to beat the heck out of your phone, the Armor is for you. I keep mine in my car so when I decide to hit the beach or go for a hike, into the Otterbox Armor it goes. The armor sells for about $70 and you can find it at many online retailers.