Author Archives: Max Swisher

About Max Swisher

14-year-old web developer and writer. Avid collector of vinyl, cameras, and typewriters.

Wireless Magic Mouse

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Remember this post [link] (hover over link to see without opening a new page!)?

Remember this picture [link]?

Well, it’s all changed. The new Magic Mouse is slimmer, more sleek, more responsive, and multi-touch.

Visual Aspects

Below is a picture of the old Mighty Mouse.

Old Mighty Mouse...

Here is a picture of the new Mouse.

Sleek Magic Mouse!

As you can see, there are definitely some changes in the design.

  • Slimmer!
  • No more scroll wheel
  • Aluminum not plastic
  • No more side sensors
  • Apple logo is under the outer shell instead of an imprint

Also, the edges are a sharp (not too sharp) after the top of the shell, unlike it’s predecessor which was round all around.

The bottom also got a new look.

Bottom

Aluminum!

Ya. Aluminum. Also, the laser tracker is much smaller, but it seems to not make a difference at all.

Here is my own comparison.

Use

Yes, although it has nothing on it, it still clicks scrolls, and then some.

You can use it as a normal point and click mouse. Just put your finger on the left or right of the shell (both fingers are thought of as one) and push down towards the front. The whole outer shell will pivot forward with a mouse-like click (I wonder why). You can configure the mouse to be lefty or righty. No discrimination for dominant hands!

Scrolling

Wheels (and spheres) are now a thing of the past. The new Magic Mouse uses the touch-sensitive shell to take scrolling to a whole new level.

To scroll, just move one finger across the shell. Scrolling is 360º, so you can scroll left, right, and diagonally.

Another cool new feature about scrolling with the Magic Mouse is that it scrolls with momentum. If you scroll quickly and lift your finger off the mouse it will continue for a short amount of time and quickly scroll to a stop. Below is a screen capture of what it looks like.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUGws9tkSnE]

Pretty awesome.

Multi-touch gestures

Well, they have to make everything multi-touch.

Sorry guys, but the only multi-touch gestures that it uses are 2 fingers left and right to go forward or back in safari and between pictures in iPhoto and Preview

Versatility

This is what it says on the Apple Website:

“Magic Mouse uses powerful laser tracking that’s far more sensitive and responsive on more surfaces than traditional optical tracking. That means it tracks with precision on nearly every surface — whether it’s a table at your favorite cafe or the desk in your home office — without the need for a mousepad.”

Well, I don’t know. But I don’t want the little pads on the bottom to ware out, so I use a mousepad. But yes, it does work on pretty much every surface. I had a problem with my Mighty Mouse on glass tables, but I haven’t tried that with the Magic Mouse.

Ergonomics

This is the first time I have ever done an ergonomics view on a piece of hardware.

This analysis is done by Vivienne Fleischer, Co-founder and president of Performance Based Ergonomics (A.K.A. PBErgo).

This is what she had to say:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUfiB61wqt0]

Conclusion

Five Stars!!! *****

Pros: Multi-touch, wireless, sleek, thin, ergonomic, made by Apple

Cons: Doesn’t work with PC. Wait… That shouldn’t be there. No cons!

Magic Mouse homepage

Welcome to the new Good Morning Geek

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Welcome to the new Good Morning Geek! Here are some of the new features:

•Now with WordPress, enabling me to post from mobile
•New cleaner interface
•Categories in the sidebar
•New and improved search
•New Header
•Hover over external links to get a snaphot preview

Hope you enjoy the new clean and feature rich Good Morning Geek!

Green Screen for under $5!

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Check out the video below.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFiBMA2HsZ8&hl=en&fs=1&]
Other than the camera, light, and software, I only paid five bucks for this.
Ya.
So here is a picture of it with no green screen effects.

So as you can see it is small, but it does the job for just one person.
So what’s the secret for this only costing five dollars?
Poster board.
A about one dollar each, in a close-up you can see the creases.

But the software doesn’t see it!

So, how did I put it together?
There’s tape on the back.

So to make the green screen videos I use Adobe After Effects, with the Keylight plug-in. After Effects comes with built in effects for doing things like the fading shown above.

But the only problem is that After Effects doesn’t play any sound, So to find when you should fade in that picture of that next-door neighbor you hate (or whatever) you need to open the video in Quicktime (or whatever) and remember the time you want to queue it and go into After Effects and add in that picture at that mark.
So to record my videos simply with my Flip, which gives me good enough quality.

But if you are going to use a green screen with a flip and After Effects, BEWARE!
You need to export the videos from FlipShare into Quicktime format before using it with after effects or it will be shaky, there will be no sound, or the video will have horrible quality. It took me a few attempts (and failures) to figure THIS one out.

For lighting, I use two White Lightning X1600 with modeling at -2.5f.

So $115 green screens are a thing of the past. Hello cheap DIYs!

Did you make any green screen videos using this?
Upload them to YouTube and comment with the link!

If you want to have your questions answered in front of THAT green screen on a podcast, just send your questions to podcast@goodmorninggeek.com!!

Then, just click on THIS LINK (requires iTunes, click here to download) and download the podcast with your question.

invisibleSHIELD on iPod touch

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Now supporting over 3000 different gadgets and laptops, the invisibleSHIELD is the way to protect your gadget(s) without adding any bulk.

So I recently had my iPod touch replaced because of a faulty display. I kept the concealed from hands until my invisibleSHIELD would arrive. But I could stand it any longer and I discover a bright pixel. So I replace that one as well, and it happens to be on the same day the invisibleshield arrives. So here goes the install. It came with a cloth, a $5 off squeegee, and a moist pad of application solution. And the invisibleSHIELD of course. But that pad is not a good way of things. What happened to that all-perfect spray bottle? It did not get enough on to the invisibleSHIELD so you could
Not slide it around to align it on the device. Also, we had to take it off and on so many times that some dirt would get under the invisibleSHIELD and you wouldn’t realize it until you had put it on. And it didn’t fit right! I had to go at it with a pocket knife to trim it down so it wasn’t o er any buttons or ports. Let me say, that this was a horrible install. So difficult! The easy install aspect gets a -**. Disasterous.

But the protection you get in return Almost makes up for that. The invisibleSHIELD was originally used by the military to protect blades on helicopters from scratches. This is the same material, just cut down to fit your device. Look at the below video to show what it offers.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5mPCC1hHUk&hl=en&fs=1&]

As you can see, scratches aren’t an option! This will stop scratches. It also adds some extra grip, but it still slides in and out of my pocket really easily. It doesn’t spin, but I didn’t buy my iPod touch to spin it.

Overall, I give it ***

Three stars. The install is -2 stars, and the protection is 5 stars.

invisibleSHIELD homepage
iPod touch invisibleSHIELD

Trick #1:Your Mac keyboard has potential

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The inspiration for this post all started out in math class. We are studying use of variables, pre-algebra, you know that stuff. And we have always been told– Don’t use an X for multiplication, you could get it confused with the variable! So on we went, using the dot [•]. She would always teach using an overhead projector, but when it came to a pre-test, she had to us it on the computer. But there was only one downside–she had to use the X for multiplication! o people (as she predicted) were confusing the X or the variable, and she is saying “Sorry, I can’t make a dot on my computer”. So I say, “Actually, you can. option eight”. And She’s like “What? Come over here and show me”. So I go over there (all f the teachers have new MacBook Pros, similar to my MacBook) and type option 8. below and behold, There it was: •

A Dot!!
So she was incredibly happy with this, and I just had to- I told her that you can unlock LOTS of different charters by holding the option or the option+shift key(s). And good thing I had LOTS of experience with this, because next she asked” So how can I see all of the characters I can type?” Good thing I specialize in this area. Well, All you do is go into system preferences, click on International (Language and text if in snow leopard), Select input sources, check Keyboard Viewer (should be somethin along those lines for 10.5 and 10.6), Check Show input menu in menubar, click the little american flag, click Keyboard viewer and Voilà! Press the option or Option and shift keys and it will show the large array of different characters you can type. Here are most of them:
¡™£¢∞§¶•ªº–≠œ∑´®†¥¨ˆøπ“‘«åß∂ƒ©˙∆˚¬…æΩ≈ç√∫˜µ≤≥÷⁄€‹›fifl‡°·‚—±Œ„´‰ˇÁ¨ˆØ∏”’»ÅÍÎÏ˝ÓÔÒÚƸ˛Ç◊ı˜Â¯˘
Now, I really don’t know how to do this on a PC. If you can, it’s probably far too complicated to do that well, I would simply suggest you get a Mac.
So if you are a scientist or Math Teacher, NEVER use an X for multiplication again!!

smcFanControl

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Doodoodoo, workin on my Mac, Lalala iStat Menus Running..Lalala GAH @#$%%@#$!@ 95º F enclosure base!!! GAH!!!! Even though I’m on a flat surface with great air flow…

What now?

smcFanControl!

This is a simple little menubar app that allows you to control the speed of your computer’s fan. You can make presets, tell it to use different presets for charging, battery power, and plugged in. I can also just use the slider and select RPM. So the below video demonstrates the proper thing to do.

That is really it.

But the real fun is when you listen.

It’s really coll how hardare ties into software. By moving this ound thind and pressing down, I can make a motor spin faster.

It’s amazing how these things tie in.

But so far, it has not failed me!

I must say that is does ware down your battery life a bit, and may reduce the life of your fan (after all, you are literally puching the limits), but if you need a wuick and easy remedy to get that fan speed going, just click the links below or the download and the homepage of smcFanControl!!!

Direct Download
Homepage

Good Afternoon Geek

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Introducing…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1kKL87Q3a0&hl=en&fs=1&]
(Actually, it’s hard to see here, so just click on this link. Watch in HD as well!!!(
Good Afternoon Geek!
My AWESOME podcast!
It’s packed with how-tos, reviews, and your questions!
Yes, send in YOUR TECH QUESTIONS to podcast@goodmorninggeek.com .
Then tune in to the next episode with a question as the title to have your question answered!

Plantronics Discovery 925 Headset

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Well, I have actually never had a headset before, but I do say, I like this one. I remember my first phone- old and clunky, as expected for a first phone. But for a first headset, this is recent, comparable, and most importantly stylish. Let’s start with the obvious. It looks like a Tony non-functioning piece of plastic, and I would never guess it was a headset. Just the general shape of it looks so elegant. The headset is available in many different colors, but I have the black one which is shown in the picture above.

I must say that the quality is great, for a headset with the range it has. The input is great (other people say), and I must say that it is just plain great.
It has the standard setup and configuration for all other headsets, with a passkey of 0000.
So, why would you want to get this headset? Let’s count down the reasons.
3. It’s SOO much sleeker and MORE AWESOME (awesomer?) than those round ones with that thing that flips out, or than the ones that go over your ear.
2. Super easy bluetooth setup (in fact, I now use it with Skype on my Mac. Sorry PC users!), default config for most all phones.
1. Great battery life–kinda hard to believe when the battery is probably a tiny bit bigger than a hearing aid battery. But this has a feature that many bluetooth headsets don’t include: A charger in the case. The case is nice and leather, and has a plastic fitting inside that is molded to the shape of the headset. But inside the part that fits the bigger part is the same plug that is used to charge it. It’s a little hard to explain, but pictures can explain anything.

As you can tell, there is a mini USB port on the side, which when you plug it into the case the plug inside the case is inserted into. The big plastic thing hat fills the space where the headset doesn’t is actually a battery that charges the headset. On the bottom of the case is another mini-USB port that you can plug in the headset’s charger to. You can also charge the headset directly. But this provides a full charge that i almost guaranteed to last through the busy businessman or businesswoman’s day.

So in the end,

Pros: Sleek, wireless, good battery life
Cons: Umm…Not made by Apple?

***** Outstanding!!!




Snow Leopard: Released into the wild

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Well, here it is. Snow Leopard, 10.6. Although, to a standard casual user, it’s more like a snow cover, because most of the work is internal ad under the hood. But if you are sensitive to speed and power, you will definitely feel quite the speediness with snow leopard compared to the previous operating system leopard. This is due to a new technology called Grand Central Dispatch. This bridges the gap from Leopard in multi-core processing because it is able to take full advantage by making all of Mac OS X multicore aware and optimizing it for allocating tasks across multiple cores and processors. Grand Central Dispatch also makes it much easier for developers to create programs that squeeze every last drop of power from multicore systems. Also, Snow Leopard is now completely 64-bit compatible, and all of the built-in apps (Mail, iCal, Address Book, Quicktime, Automator, Photo Booth, Finder, etc.) are all 64-bit. So there isn’t much else going on under the hood, but there are a couple of new features in Snow Leopard compared to Leopard. So the upgrade from Leopard to Snow Leopard was much much much less of an upgrade than from Tiger to Leopard. There is no full interface change, just that under the hood stuff and a new wallpaper and some little new features. These new features include:
A new wallpaper (Yay!)
A new Quicktime (Yay!)
New stack features (Yay!)
A super fast Finder with new features (Yay!)
Compatibility issues (NOT Yay.)
So, yup! a New Wallpaper!
Here’s a screenshot. Hey, also it calls screenshots Screen shot [DATE] instead of Picture 1,2 etc.

Do there’s your pretty new wallpaper!
Now Quicktime. They are now calling the version of quicktime in snow leopard Quicktime X. It has some of the features as Quicktime pro, and it also has a SWEET new borderless interface.
Here’s a screenshot of the interface.

When I hover my mouse back over the window, it looks like this.

Also, Quicktime X has movie trimming and now you can record with amovie with your webcam in Quicktime and even record your screen with Quicktime.

The new Finder does not have too many visual changes, but it definitely is much snappier. The changes are a sider in the bottom right to control thumbnail size when in thumbnail view, and video and document previews right in the thumbnails. Below, you can see I can flip through the pages of a PDF right in the thumbnail.

Also, finder now features video playback right in the thumbnail! As you can see, I can pause the video anytime I would like, and If I move my mouse away from the thumbnail the pause button will disappear.

Also, I can even reduce or enlarge the size of the thumbnail with the slider while the video is playing in the thumbnail. I must say, I do like the new Finder!

Other than that, the only other big improvements are new stacks features and a fair amount of work on Exposé.

The new stacks is great. Remember those days where you could only view so many files in stacks, ad for the rest you would have to open it in Finder? Now anymore!! Now you can scroll inside of a stack while it is in grid view.

Also, one of the most asked for features in stacks, one that it was lacking–Looking inside of folders without having to launch finder.

All I did to get to this folder that was in the stack two pictures up was click on it, and there is not a window in sight!

Now for some awesome new features in Exposé:
Now, it organizes the windows into a neat grid. Now, it shows the minimized windows below a small but noticeable divider. And now, you can click and hold any application’s dock icon so that Exposé is activated for that application’s windows only, and that the windows of other applications fade away. No, people without a right click mouse, it still does show the options to hide and quit, but it does Exposé at the same time.
In the below picture, you can see that I have many windows open. Many from the Mail application and many from Safari. What a cluttered desktop…

As you can see, I have a Mail window and a Safari window minimized. Now, I will click the Exposé icon in the dock, or press F3, or do a four finger swipe down (all depends on your machine) to activate Exposé for all windows.

As you can see, it organizes the windows into a much more orderly grid fashion unlike the previous version of 10.5. Also, the two windows on the bottom are minimized, and you may need to click on the image to enlarge it so you can see the small but noticeable divider separating open from minimized windows.

In the below screenshot, I click and held the Safari icon in the dock.

As you can see, it did it’s showing all of it’s windows thing, and still has the divider to separate minimized windows. Also, the dock icon is lit up, and there are options to Quit, Hide, and putting your mouse over Options lets you choose if you want to keep it in the dock, open at login, or show the applica
tion in Finder. The same thing will apply for all other applications when activating Exposé on them.

Now for those incompatibilities. The list of confirmed compatibilities is too long to list here, so click right here to go to the Snow Leopard wikidot page.

Snow Leopard Homepage

Proteus

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You may remember this post where i mentioned that iChat is great. But, it in fact as I said, doesn’t support Yahoo! which I now really need. So I turn to Adium, but the interface just bothers me. Why? I really have no idea. But, I lived with it, and one day it refused to connect to Yahoo!. Below is a list of the only good multi-protocol IM clients for Mac.
Adium
Fire
Instandbird
Proteus

So Adium won’t connect to Yahoo!. Off the list.
Fire as discontinued development, and I don’t want an updateless application.
Instantbird is a little too purist, with contact list, chat.
Hmm Proteus? Never tried it.

Wow. It connects to everything. It looks great. It operates great. The interface is nice. And best of all, the dock icon rocks. And I think I know why I didn’t like Adium–there was always a bird watching me a flapping it’s wings when I got a new message. Luckily, with proteus when I get a new message, the dock icon just bounces.

Proteus is the one IM application for Mac that I can live with. Yes, there is Pidgin, but that requires using the fin library and X11 (which trust me, don’t even try). The interface is simple, it connects to everything, it has options.

So Proteus is changing some of their sites, so the links to get extra stuff are all broken. I’m sure that will be fixed in the future, but the interface is still amazing, simple and functional. That’s why I like this more than the others: No flapping ducks, simple and easy but customizable interface, frequent updates, and connects to everything no problem. And that’s why it’s better than Adium, Instandbird, and fire.

Download
Homepage

Mail.appetizer

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESevkOA2DCo&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999]
This is one of the best plug-in for mail in existence.

Those Microsoft Outlook users, [you really need to get a mac!] are familiar of when you receive a new email it shows a notification box saying that you have a new email and it gives you a little bit of info like some (or all) of the message, the sender, subject, and even more (i don’t remember, I stopped caring about outlook when i got a Mac). Well, people may want to see what the message is when they hear the message indicator from the mail app. That’s what this is. The version(s) for Leopard and tiger are in beta, but let me say–it ROX. No, not “rocks”, ROX”. when I get an email, i see a little box in the top right of my screen (you can click and drag the box to where you want the notification to appear) that has the sender, subject, and as much of the message as i want. you can change transparency, and in fact a lot. here is a screenshot of the preferences.

So now when I get an email, I have a little window that shows if it’s worth checking or leaving for later.

Yes, that’s it. I love it because hey, I have new mail! I’m too lazy or I’m busy so I can’t open the Mail application to check it. But what if it’s important? How should I know? Mail.appetizer. It is also incredibly customizable.
Incoming mail at a glance–Mail.appetizer

Homepage

Download for Leopard (beta)

Podcasting Part 1 (Q+A)

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This isn’t about just one piece of software–this involves feeds, servers, podcatchers and iTunes.

Podcasting. That one free thing of audio broadcasts that everyone has hopped onto, and people can subscribe too. Sadly, I’ve seen many people who have no idea how it’s done. Here’s some FAQs about podcasting with iTunes.
Q: Do you submit a podcast by getting the right account with apple and uploading it to their servers?
A: No. Apple does not provide any server space to host your podcasts, that is something the podcaster needs to have.
Q: Is podcasting as easy as putting an mp3 on a server?
A: After you have set it up, you put it on the server and update the XML feed.
Q: I want to do a podcast. I have people, material, (a) microphones(s), a way to save to mp3, and a server with a working domain. Can I podcast to iTunes?
A: Yes. That is al you need, but you need to create an XML feed for iTunes. This is NOT easy, unless you know how to do it the easy way (which we will talk about later).
Q:How do I submit the podcast to iTunes?
A: As I said, you need to have an XML feed. To submit the podcast, just go into the iTunes store in the iTunes application, select podcasts in the left sidebar, scroll down and click submit a podcast (left sidebar). There, put in the URL of your XML feed.
Q: After submitting, does it just appear in the iTunes store?
A: If all goes well during the submission, you will get a confirmation email saying that your podcast is under review wait approximately 24 hours, and you should get another email saying it was approved, ad the email will contain a link that opens to your podcast in the iTunes store. 24 hours after that, the podcast will be searchable in the itunes store.
Q:How much money does it coat to do it the easy way?
A: Other than the server space, completely free of charge.
I hope that this gave you a better understanding of what podcasting is like under the hood. There will be more posts on podcasting, including what the “easy way” is.