At your service, for no cost at all! Sorry, PC users, this Mac essential is only for Macs. Butler is cabable of doing many things. It can show the iTunes song, bring up a google search window, and do a spotlight kind of search. But those I truly don’t need, and the reason I love this so much is because of one feature: Multiple pasteboards. I can copy one thing, then copy another. usually this would wipe the last copy, but if you have pasteboards enabled then it will remember it. You can also set a limit of how many pasteboards you want it to remember. you can open the pasteboards menu by assigning a keyboard shortcut or opening it from the menu. I prefer keyboard shortcuts because I have things I need to do, and clicking on things doesn’t speed up the process. I assigned option>Command>V because it is like paste with the option key. this will open a small window with things you have copied. Each thing you have copied will be numbered, and the most recent will be 0. Just press the number on your keyboard to paste it. Of all features, this is definitely the best–and the only one I use. But, I do still use the google search feature. But I must say that the configuration window is kinda hard to figure out. But just look through the help file. I now see why it is called help. Get multiple pasteboards and more-Butler.
Author Archives: Max Swisher
LG env2
/env2(vx9100)_1225944828913_l4.jpg)
I must say, the last phone I had was definitely not the nicest one in the world. and It was SO not the nicest one in the world that I barely used it. Now, all of that has changed. I now have a very nice phone, which is running on verizon. Now, as you can see it’s not an iPhone. And I have a very good reason for that – AT&T. When it comes out for verizon I will have it about instantly. But the phone I got is still a nice phone, when it comes to verizon. As you can see by the title it is the env2. Flip, with an internal and an external display. Full QWERTY keyboard, as well as a keypad on the front. Black, with a funky USB slot (not something I appreciate). The env2 is definitely a cool, affordable phone. I have just pretty much explained it. But something I didn’t mention was the camera. The camera is 2.0 mega pixels, and unlike the original env, is flat with the surface so it now lays flat on a table or hard surface. Also, compared to the original env the env2 is a little bit more square (shorter and wider). Sadly, I don’t have a micro SD card inserted, but of course it does still have some internal memory (I have no idea how much). The speakerphone is average quality, but when using the phone normally (no speakerphone), the quality is great. I can very clearly hear someone talking from across the country. I don’t have a headset, so I wouldn’t know if it changes the sound before it goes through the headset port. Also, the charging ports are completely different. I don’t even know if the charging port on the original env is even a USB port. It is pretty much just a hyped up and prettier env. Below are some visual comparisons from the original env, which happens to be my sister which she has dropped many times, and it still works. Sadly I hear the env2 is not quite as durable (I wonder if they did that on purpose to get more purchases).
MindNode
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTCVGIQyrh4&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0]
Finally, something free, and simple (and for Mac!). MindNode is a really simple and easy way to create MindMaps. MindNode can also even export to many filetypes, including TIFF, PNG, and PDF. Remember: This is supposed to be the most simplistic mind mapping software in existence (which it is), so there aren’t any super advanced features. there’s add node, get rid of a node, save a document, zoom in, and well, I can’t exactly say etcetera. Below is a mind map I made with MindNode about mindnode.
(Click to enlarge)
As you can see, there is a central/topic node, and when you hover over it, there is a + that appear. Click and drag to make a node off of it.
(Zoomed in)
Just click and drag the plus to create a new node.
(Zoomed In)
You can create nodes off of nodes, and you can create as many nodes you want off of nodes. Off of Example, I could create 100 nodes. off of those nodes, I could create 100 nodes. and off of those hundred nodes on the hundred nodes, I could make a hundred more nodes Wow, I’m confusing myself!). This is demonstrated very well in the official MindNode example picture available on the MindNode site.
(Click to enlarge)
As stated on the MindNode website,
“MindNode is an easy-to-use mind mapping application for the Macintosh to help visually:
- collect, classify and structure ideas.
- Organize, study and solve problems.
Mind maps can be used for many different tasks – including to-do-lists, brainstorming, holiday planning, research, writing, project management – and in many different environments – school, meetings, workspace.”
And I agree. It’s streamlined, and is just great. I could very easily use this in school, for brainstorming, planning, and I know many people who would want a way to plan out holidays, and this is what I would recommend.
Overall, I give this 5 stars for easy-to-useness, simpleness and elegance. Someone with no computer experience or knowledge at all would be able to learn it in less than a minute.
Easy and simple mind mapping software–MindNode.
Wacom Bamboo
Yup, another product review. I am almost out of freeware, and I have been resorting to web apps. Therefore, there may be blogging less frequently. But to keep it this way (weekly), please click some of the ads in the sidebar. Every click counts!
The Bamboo ($80) is definitely the best 1 week in advance of purchase thing I’ve ever bought. Basically, wacom makes pen displays and tablets. the Bamboo is a Pen Tablet. While at a friend’s house, I tried out their older version of the intuous. I was amazed at what accuracy and speed you could achieve. Of course it was a little hard when I first picked it up, because it is a little different from a mouse. The bamboo has a square surface. If I hover 3-5 mm over the surface of the active area (the inner square) with the pen in the exact middle, the pointer will go straight to the middle of the display. Basically, while hovering, the position of the tablet is the same as the position on the display. to click, just touch the pen tip to the surface of the tablet. Do this twice in a row quickly and you have just double-clicked. The bamboo is pretty much just a faster way to navigate, draw, touch-up photos and even hand-write notes.
Let’s take a look at the pen.
As you can see, then pan has 2 programmable side switches. By default, hover over the tablet (3-5 mm) and push the top button to right click. hold the bottom button while moving the mouse from bottom to top of a document/webpage/anything window. Basically, it is a pan/scroll. Personally, I have found that it’s a lot easier to have the bottom button to be right click and the top button scroll/pan. Other than that, there really is nothing much to it.
Let’s take a closer look at the tablet.
The inner and lighter square is called the active area. This is where the pen is responsive. But over all that you see these buttons called ExpressKeys™. You can assign these to do pretty much anything from forward/back to open an application/do a keystroke. The inner circle is a touch sensitive ring. you can have this zoom in or scroll. It is not the nicest piece of touch sensitivity I have ever used (the iPod touch is!) though. But being a 2 monitor person, I ned a way of switching between them. To do this I have to go into system preferences and select which monitor I want–Monitor 1, Monitor 2, or I can even have it go across both monitors if I want. But If I was on my extended monitor (Monitor 2) there would be no way for me to access the system preferences to change back to monitor 1. So I only had 1 thing left to do: The ExpressKeys™. If I could use the left arrow to go to the left monitor, right arrow to go to the right monitor, and the FN1 do span across both, it old be perfect. But how? There is no setting for those keys to do that. So I used something I’ve never used before: Automator. Id never used it, but it was actually really easy. To do monitor 1, I just hit record, open system preferences from the dock, go to Pen Tablet, go to details, monitor 1, close, then go into the menu and hit quit Then I stop the Automator logger. I can then save it as an application, which I then programmed the right ExpressKey to do that.
Overall, for the price tag of $80, i’ll give this one a 6 out of 5. AMAZING! The things I can do with it are amazing.
Check out what I’ve done in photoshop with it so far!:
Wave Of Emotion
Waterfall of life
Sea of creativity
Psychedelic
Flocks Of Love
Flashback
Explosion
Cruise of life
Braindump
Google Chrome (Dev Release)
This one is not a necessity. Why, because it’s in developer release. It’s a little slow and incomplete.
I have in fact been waiting for the official Chrome to come out for Mac (not CrossOver Chronium!!), and here is the Dev release. It does have some of the features as the Windows version, but let’s compare them side-by-side. First thing, it’s grey. Too grey. I like the blue, and having a blue one would be nice. Second, th File and Settings buttons were fropped for the menus in the Mac menubar. Also, no SpellCheck as demonstrated in the spelling of menubar. The tabbing system seems about the same, butI don’t know if each tab is a different process like on the windows version. Also, it is overall a little bit clunkier. For example, when loading a page, next to the name of the site in the tab it should show a little spinny thingy. in this dev version, the sinny thingy freezes. Also, when you boot an app it usully bouncesin the dock a couple of times. Nope. Nada (where is the spellcheck?!?!). But wow, it takes up absolutely no CPU at all! Also, the dev version comes with no flash: the reason I am not going to use it as my primary Web Browser. But there is 1 big good thing about this: it means an even better version should be on the way (I hope)! PLEASE DO NOT DOWNLOAD THIS! Unless of course you are a developer or take great pleasure in incomplete, unpredictable, and potentially crashing software. Download for Mac OS X right here!
iPod Touch OS 3.0
Well, this is sadly not free. But the extra (and very desired) features are worth the 10 bucks. There are new features in pretty much every default application. Better stability as well. Here are the new features:
1.
A new default application! It’s called Voice Memos. Everybody has been waiting for this, but there are $0.99 apps in the app store, but I really wanted something straight from the Apple HQ, not some third party paid app. For the iPod touch, you need to have the headphones with remote and mic, which I do. To start recording, simply touch the red button and start talking. There is a little volume meter that goes up as you speak. Try to go in the middle. If you go too loud and the meter goes into the red zone, a small red light comes on telling you that you are talking too loud. Now, since this is for voice memos and talking 8 inches away from the microphone, it is not god at all for recording room conversations. Then again, it’s meant for leaving yourself notes such as, “Remember to reply to the important email from Google” or “eggs, milk, butter, bread batter, oranges” etc. Basically this is not meant for recording convorsations. To listen to your voice memos, click on the button that looks like this:
Then, you can listen to, delete, and even share voice memos. by share, I mean email it as an m4a file. Overall, it’s good for making voice memos, and voice memos only.
2. Calendar. Not a new one, and nothing big, but the events have now changed colors. eh.
3. Mail! FINALLY! a landscape keyboard! and landscape viewing of messages! This has been so wanted and everyone can be really happy now. 🙂
4. Contacts. Now you can view/edit them in landscape.
5. YouTube! Now, you can sign in and comment, rate and flag videos! Check it out.
Sorry, The order is kinda opposite.
6. Stocks! Same kind of interface, but where you see the graph at the bottom, you can go left or right to view news, extra info (high, low, open, vol, P/E, etc.) and of course the original graph. But then, rotate it landscape. Finally! Landscape graph, with a little more info. When in landscape view, the graph now also shows volume in the form of bars at the bottom. Check it out:
Extra Info
News
Landscape
7. Maps! Now uses a small blue dot to find your current location. Also can now try to estimate the current address, which for me got it exactly. Also, Maps is able to track your current location even without a WiFi connection. It simply finds the latitude and longitude of the networks around you (without connecting to the WiFi network) then locates it on the map. Sadly, since it doesn’t actually connect to the WiFi, It can’t load the map around your current location. But if you are using directions, it saves all of the needed map images to the RAM. Sadly, on the highway,there isn’t always a WiFi network around. Therefore, the Not quite GPS tracking is very unreliable on the highways. The feature works a lot better when traveling around the city.
New Current Location Marker
8. Notes. You can now use the landscape view and keyboard to make your notes.
9. Settings. Fetch New Data has been replaced with Notifications. Apps from the app store can now take advantage of that. Bluetooth capability now. Before the 3.0 update, there was no bluetooth. Get the 3.0 update, and there it is. I am convinced that the bluetooth hardware was there all along, but no software to drive it. now the 3.0 can! You can use the bluetooth to connect with certain compatible stereo headphones.
10. App Store. A little change in the interface while browsing through categories. Also, you can now view your iTunes account information.
Other than all of that, the only new thing is a Spotlight Search. Overall, the 3.0 update rocks. It was worth the $10. The update went really smoothly, too!
But what it doesn’t tell you to do (and it should!) is to restart your iPhone/iPod touch after the update completes. I mean hold the power button, slide, then hold the power button again.
Thank you Apple for the update!!
Loginox
You know that boring aurora screen when you first login to your Mac. Ever want to change it? Let me say, I do. It gets pretty boring after a little while. You can change this yourself by going into /System/Library/CoreServices and changing the DefaultDesktop.jpg picture, but messing around with the internal system files is never a good idea. Loginox takes care of all this work for it, with an incredibly simple drag and drop interface. It even allows you to reset it to the original one. Once you open the application, you will see two boxes.One with Current Login Image above it, which contains, well, the current login image. Then, to the right, there will be another boxes which reads New Login Image over it. Here, it will say No Image Set. To change this, just drag and drop your desired picture into the box from the Finder. the box will then show the picture. Then, just click Set new Login image. Voilà! Reboot and the login screen background image will be reset. Don’t like your image, or want to reset it to the old one? just open Loginox and click Reset to Default. Simple and functional! Reset that boring old defult login screen image–Loginox
Flip Mino Review
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R278PtBb3BA&hl=en&fs=1&]
I recently got myself a Flip Mino. And I must say, it’s pretty good stuff for a budget camcorder. Try turning it on. Press the small on button on the side. Flip. Nice Name, eh? Now it shows you time left to record, battery life, and the video preview. Want to record something? Just press that big red button. When you are done recording, press the big red button again. Would you like to see what you just recorded? Press the Play/Pause button. You are now watching the most recent video you took. Would you like to turn up or down the volume on the playback? Use the + and – buttons. To fast forward through a video, just press the > or the buttons to navigate through them. Hey, I don’t like this video. Just press the trash button. You can also zoom in/out while in a video: just press the + or – buttons while recording. The buttons light up (except for the red one) when you can use them. For example, when you are recording you aren’t going to use the play/pause, trash, or left and right buttons, but you are going to use the + and – buttons. All of the buttons except for the + and – buttons are illuminated. When you are browsing through videos, you aren’t going to use the + and – buttons, but you are going to use the Play/Pause, delete and left and right buttons. For this reason, All of the buttons but the + and – buttons are illuminated. While in the middle of playback, all of the buttons are illuminated. You can trash it, play/pause it, use the + and – buttons to change volume, and hold the buttons to fast forward/rewind through. I do not have the HD version, but I am completely happy without it. I get 640X480, which is better than any video quality I have ever gotten in my life. I even had them print a custom image onto it. This can be done for no extra charge! It has to be a VERY big image, or the online software says it’s not high enough resolution to make a good print. Here is a picture of mine.
At one point, you are probably going to want to get the videos from the flip to your computer. In the box, there is no installation CD. No cable. And no port on the thing. But sometime, you are going to have to figure out why they call it a flip. They call it a flip because of how you plug it in. Pull a little switchy thingy and a USB digi “flips” out of the top. you can them plug that straight into your machine, buy one of their cables online (extra cost) and plug it into that, or even using any old USB Extension cord works. If you have a little station for all of your gadgets to plug in, I recommend just getting a usb extension cord (they come in handy for LOTS of situations other than this, too). After plugging it in, you will see a USB drive appear either in My Computer or on the desktop (depending on your operating system). Open it and you will see Flip for Mac and a Flip for Windows. These both require a driver to be installed (3ivx er something), but that’s no biggie. The application will run straight off of the drive. In the application, you can download the video files and save them. But I have never used that much, because on the first launch it said would you like to upgrade to FlipShare, and of course, being me, I LOVE updates. Now, Flipshare then deletes the other applications from the flip and replaces it with Start flipshare. It will only do this to the application compatible with your system. The other one (in my case the .exe file) turns to Setup_Flipshare.exe. FlipShare installs on your hard drive and opens each time you plug in the flip. FlipShare the application itself is actually pretty nice. It has a very newish feel, and allows you to do a lot with your video. Save them , make a movie of them, and even upload them straight to AOL video, myspace™ and YouTube™ all without even having to open an internet browser. You can take a snapshot of a certain place in a video. you can export the video. You can email a video. You can even make a video greeting card with it. FlipShare is pretty cool. But if you don’t want to deal with any software and just want the files, easy. Open up the drive, and there will be a folder called DCIM. Go down as many folders as you can and you will be greeted with a bunch of .AVI videos, waiting for you to manually copy them off. If you just want the videos and nothing else, here you go.
Now when it comes to charging and battery life, it’s pretty cool. The battery is like the one in iPods, sealed in and not replaceable. But to charge it, just plug it in to your computer. Recharging a completely dead battery can take up to 3 hours, but that doesn’t usually happen. Usually it take 1.5 to 2.5 hours for it to charge. You know if it is charging by looking at the USB digi. There is a small bright light, that blinks while charging. It stops blinking when it is done charging. The battery life is around 2 hours, not bad at all for how much it can do.
In the end, I give this a 5 Star rating. The sensitivity of the buttons is almost as good as the touchscreen sensitivity of the iPhone. Easy to use, and just like they say–video recording is now as easy and cheap as taking a photo.
Easy cheap video recording and sharing–The Flip Mino
Pandora
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L9ef4cMitA&hl=en&fs=1&]
This is probably one of the most well known web applications in the existence of existing. Pandora[.com] is a free (with a few ads) internet radio that quote “Plays only music you like”. First, put in your favorite song/artist (no registration required, but registration keeps track of all your stations for use on other devices). It will then find tracks like the artist or song you put in, and will make a “station”out of it called “[Artist/song here]”. Then, it will play a track with very close qualities to the artist/song you put in. You can them select thumbs down or thumbs up to modify the station. It will play constantly for about an hour and then say “Are you still listening?”. To avoid this, just click something over there. It only does that when it thinks you aren’t there and the app stays motionless for 1 hour. You can have LOTS of stations, I don’t know the maximum (if there is one). And with Fluid (clickable) you can turn it into a desktop application. What else could you ask for? No ads! To do this, you need to subscribe to pandora ($$). Ever hear music playing through my live feed? A lot of the time it’s pandora. Also, you can even create stations based on genre.
Links:
OpenOffice.org
There is Microsoft Office and iWork, but this site is only freeware. OpenOffice is a completely free office program which features everything you need, including compatibility with all of the Microsoft Office files. It has a word processor Writer (Word/Pages), Calc for creating spreadsheets (Excel/Numbers), Impress for creating presentations (PowerPoint/Keynote), Draw for creating things like designs (Not in MSO or iWork), and Base, for creating databases (Not in MSO or iWork). OpenOffice is made by Sun, and here is the best part: it works for EVERY operating system imaginable. Say you run a business and you want to straighten out your budget. Bam. Just use OpenOffice. The software is easy to use, and really straightforward. Really struggling with money? Switch to Ubuntu, and Ubuntu even comes with OpenOffice. Also, if you have just switched to a new operating system and you need to start with office documents fast, just use OpenOffice. I have OpenOffice installed on all of my Windows 7 computers, which in fact, does include my MacBook. I installed it on my HP as well. Sorry, it was just rumored to be so much better and it was free, so what the heck. Why not. OpenOffice is great for someone who is a publisher, hi-tech business employee, freeware fanatic, or just someone who needs to write something down, make a presentation, letter, database, spreadsheet, or design. Or even someone with every single operating system imaginable. Easy free office pack- Openoffice.org.
My Oats
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otzvfjT59Os&hl=en&fs=1]
Not what you think. This Web Service Is for creating your own wallpaper images.
This pretty much takes your mouse patterns which you draw and puts them into a cool symmetrical pattern. Many modes, many things you can do with it. You can select specific colors for the design as well as the background of it. And even, you can put it into photoshop and stick I don’t know, a logo into it (click for Good Morning Geek My Oats wallpaper!)? This is fun, and easy to do even with your eyes closed!
A cool thing about this is that it can link to a couple of other things.
1. It uses colors. and if you want to know what your color is, try out colourism.com! Simple. Put in your name and date and birth and it will tell you your color and complimentary color. That’s how I made that GMGMOWP (Good Morning Geek My Oats WallPaper) I mentioned above.
2. It doesn’t need to be a web app. What about Fluid (clickable)? It will become your own desktop application. I did try it using a web archive file and downloading doesn’t work. What’s the purpose of making a wallpaper if you can’t use it?
My Oats requires Adobe Flash player.
Free, online, no registration required!
iStat
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5O-MXWa-XQ8&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0]
Some people who have followed my other blog Good Night Geek before it turned into an iPhone app review blog may have seen my post about MenuMeters. I have found an even better alternative though. iStat menus is a form of one of my favorite dashboard widgets called iStat (download link at the bottom). This is in menu form, but unlike MenuMeters, gives you a lot more info, such as temperatures and fan speeds. Also for you multi-core users, there is a separate CPU meter for each core. Finally, some definition between two cores. Also, I can monitor things like how fast my fan is running (for me it’s usually about 2000 RPM). You can also see why your computer is making far more noise than it usually is. I know. I’ll take a good look at my iStat menus. Wow, my temperature is almost 100ºF (you can change it form F to C to K), and Wow, my fan is running 3 times faster than usual at a blasted 6200 RPM! Now I know. I have my primary temperature (the one that appears in the menubar) as the enclosure bottom, but I can have it configured so it shows the temperature of well, almost anything! The nice thing is that if you want to monitor multiple temperatures, just choose the most important one as the primary and to look at any of the temps, just click the temperature in the menubar. it will then give you details of everything in your computer that has a heat sensor including CPU(s), Heatsinks, batteries, and even the bottom of your computer (enclosure bottom). It groups fans and power together, so if you click on the fan speed in my case, I can see how many watts everything is using and how fast my fans are going. Click on my CPU info and I can see a lot of info about what is taking up the most CPU, uptime, and even a button to open activity monitor. There is much more you can put up there in many different ways, But I already have a lot of stuff in the menubar and that does not work good with photoshop because of how many menus it has.
BUT HOLD EVERYTHING!
Now you can even check it out on your iPhone or iPod touch! All you need to do is download iStat server (free!) and install the iStat app on your iPhone ($1.99). Then, open the iStat server on your mac. It will give you a passcode. Next, open the iStat app on your iPhone. If you are connected to wifi, just select your computer and type/tap in the passcode. Or, you can simply click add and type in the IP address of your computer. After that, tap your Mac in the menu and bam. You will see Fan, network, CPU, uptime, and everything else that you could see on the computer itself. This will be viewable from anywhere as long as your computer isn’t asleep/offline. What’s going on inside your mac-iStat menus and server.
iStat menus
iStat server and iPhone
iStat Dashboard widget