The Apple Harvest

Alfred - Always There When Needed

2012-01-05T19:01:00.003Z

Well, here we are in 2012 - Happy New Year to you all!

Every effective household needs a butler and the Apple Harvest is no exception. The difference is that we have one. He's called Alfred and he's resident on all the Macs on the network and he's always there when you need him. And he keeps getting better and better!

It's quite hard to describe what Alfred really is so I'm not going to try - I'll let his makers speak for me...

Alfred is a productivity application for Mac OS X, which aims to save you time in searching your local computer and the web. Whether it's maps, Amazon, eBay, Wikipedia, you can feed your web addiction quicker than ever before.
Increase your productivity by launching apps with shortcuts
Instant access to web searches, bookmarks & more
Browse and play music from your iTunes library quickly
Perform actions - copy, move & email files & folders
Ward off RSI - skip using the mouse with easy shortcuts

As if that isn't enough the basic programme is free. For a little bit extra (£15.00) you can add the Alfred Powerpack and add a whole bunch of new features supported by a community of developers. But let's get back to basics first!

Ever since I got my first Mac in 2007 I've used Tiger Launch as my programme launcher. Tiger Launch is a simple menubar resident which displays a (configurable) list of applications when you click on it. At one stage I dallied with QuickSilver but there seemed to be a bit of a steep learning curve to get over before being able to get the best from it, and more importantly, its future was (is?) somewhat uncertain. Alfred seems to have been created by people familiar with QuickSilver but who seemed to have real end users in mind rather than technophiles. Which means that Alfred can be used on many different levels and it allows the user to grow into the programme in their own time, slowly building up their knowledge, understanding and growing in productivity.

Alfred springs into action on a hot key press: in my case Option+Spacebar. At its simplest level Alfred does what Spotlight does - it locates files, applications, documents or whatever, based on search parameters that the user types into the input bar. In this respect it's a fairly standard launcher. But you can also force Alfred to look in more specific places - start your search string with google and it will do a google search on the next text your type in. Start with imdb and it'll search the IMDB database. Specific searches can be user defined as the need arises, but there's a whole bunch of them predefined for you.

Alfred can also do calculator, dictionary and iTunes related things automatically.
As mentioned, the Powerpack add-on extends Alfred considerably. I have written a small extension to load a set of applications that I normally use during the day without having to load them at start-up. I recently downloaded an extension that performs currency conversion by typing (as an example) "convert 100 USD to GBP", and another to add an event into iCal. The possibilities are endless, and there is a serious community of developers out there who are happy to share their creations.

My guess is that anyone who starts using Alfred will soon become a convert. Certainly the testimonies on Twitter suggest that it has an increasing and enthusiastic following. My advice is download it and start playing. After a couple of weeks get yourself the Powerpack. I suggest that you use the Alfred website directly to do the download, and get Alfred to check for its own updates. You can get the basic programme from the Mac App Store but not the Powerpack and this causes a few problems when you later want to install Powerpack.

I've now been using Alfred for over a year and it's probably the most used utility across the Apple Harvest. Highly recommended - if Steve Jobs had designed a launcher from scratch it would probably have looked something like Alfred!

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2011 - the Late Post

2011-12-28T12:04:00.006Z

It's December 28th and the world has just about recovered from the excesses of Christmas and is preparing for the New Year festivities. In some respects I'm looking forward to seeing the back of 2011, although all in all, it has been quite a good year for the Apple Harvest.

In March I got the call to return to Zurich, initially for about four and half months, but I ended up staying for eight months. That's a long time to be away from friends and family, but it has enabled me to get the Apple Harvest infrastructure to the state where I'm now really happy with it. An Airport Extreme, 3Tb Time Capsule and an additional Airport Express now work together to provide decent WiFi coverage throughout the house. The 2008 24inch 3.06GHz iMac has been upgraded with a new 1Tb hard disk and still acts as the main workhorse, running OS X Lion and Lion Server. The shiny new 13inch i7 MacBook Air is my run around of choice, but my first Mac, the 2007 15inch MacBook Pro still has a place in the office. The original iPad and iPhone 4 complete the hardware line up. Not intending to upgrade either of these yet - they work perfectly well as they are and they compliment the MacBook Air.

There are lots of new toys supporting the network now. I replaced the wired Apple keyboard on the iMac with Logitech K750 Wireless Solar Keyboard (for Mac), and Mobee Magic Chargers for the Magic Mouse and Apple Keyboard also help make the Apple Harvest a bit greener. I also got the Mobee Magic Numpad kit which lets me use the trackpad as a dedicated numeric keyboard - great from when I'm doing all my expenses, and after eight months there's a lot of number crunching that needs doing!

Finally on the infrastructure side there's the Moshi hub - a self powered Firewire and USB hub that lives under the iMac. Sadly it doesn't work with the MacBook Air because of the lack of a Firewire port on that machine, but I'm regularly scanning the internet for news of a Thunderbolt hub, and it looks like Belkin may be first to market with one which was first seen in September but there have been no official updates since then.

As usual, I seem to have acquired a bit of software over the year. The Mac App Store makes it so easy, and now that the initial problems have been resolved I use it in favour of direct purchase from the developers wherever possible. There is one notable exception and that is Alfred which just gets better and better. If you haven't heard of it go and checkout the website. I'll post more info about Alfred next time but no Mac user should be without it.

The worst thing about 2011 was that I did find it really difficult to post anywhere near as much as I wanted to. My output was half of what it was the previous year. I'm going to have a lot more time next year but in 2012 I'm going to try a new approach and write smaller posts more often. This isn't a New Year resolution and I'm not setting targets or goals. But I think it'll improve the overall quality of the blog and hopefully attract more people and more interaction. The overall aim of the blog won't change one iota. It's still going to be a blog for users and enthusiasts like myself, and it'll steer clear of rumours and bickering.

So, on that note - let me wish you all a very Happy and Prosperous New Year. Thanks for all your support over the past 12 months (and more!) and I hope I can repay you in 2012!!
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2011 MacBook Air - 1 Month On

2011-09-11T12:49:00.001+01:00

I can't believe It's been over a month since my new MacBook Air was delivered. In some ways it seems like it only arrived last week, and in other's I feel like I've being using it for years. I think both perspectives are easy to explain. The latter is a testament to Apple's design and engineering consistency. Despite a new laptop (and a new OS) all the peripherals like input devices and airport devices and the great majority of software packages work just like they did on the MacBook Pro. When I'm writing something like this, it's actually quite hard to tell that I'm using a different machine other than the fact that the screen is a bit smaller.

As for the other perspective, that of still feeling like a kid at Christmas, well that's down to the fact that the upside (or downside) of a new laptop is that it's a great excuse to try new things like new accessories and new software. So a chuck of this post is going to be about those things.

But first, a few thoughts on the MacBookAir itself.

The good stuff

The size and weight or rather the lack of them. This baby was designed to go everywhere, and it does. And when I'm carrying it around I hardly notice it's there alongside the iPad, two iPhones, the stack of papers that usually accompany me everywhere and my lunch. I even find that the MBA is light enough to use in bed on occasions; something I never did with the MBP.
Battery life is awesome. I've never owned a fully functional laptop that could last more than a couple of hours without a recharge. I've not had a chance to really put the MBA to the test, but it has happily gone three or four hours without any problems. I don't take the MagSafe charger with me when I go into the office (which also helps keep the weight down) because I'm confident enough that the battery will last the day - admittedly it's on stand-by most of the time - but it's still an important issue for me.
Heat and therefore fan noise haven't been an issue. The fans do kick in sometimes when I'm watching video and Time Machine kicks in, but the noise is not obtrusive, certainly not in my current environment where the temperature in the PentFlat is quite often 25-30C and the floor fan is on most of the time
Video and screen resolution are fantastic and I've finally managed to get the laptop linked directly to the HD TV in the flat via the Thunderbolt port using a Mini Display Port to HDMI cable. Watching EyeTv and BBC iPlayer is now a great experience - sound and video sync are perfect and it means the MBA screen is available for other things like internet and mail browsing. Last week I had three screens running - BBC iPlayer on the TV, Twitter on the iPad (via AirDisplay) and Facebook on the main MBA screen. Sadly, being a bloke, I'm unable to multitask, but it still looked really cool!

The Not So Good Stuff

There is a problem with the microphone, at least on my 13" MBA. My girlfriend has problems hearing me when we are on FaceTime, iChat or Skype, and I know there are other folk out there having similar problems. Using my Sony earbuds with their built in microphone fixes the problem but it's not a satisfactory solution. I bought a Blue Eyeball 2.0 USB microphone/webcam and this also provides a bit of a work around, but even with this I have to be quite close to the mic to get the right input levels. It's really not clear whether this is a software or hardware issue, or even whether it's a Lion issue, but I hope the Apple guys are taking notice of the increasing number of entries and complaints on the Apple support forums
That's it - that's the only real problem I've got to date

Cool New Stuff

I did say that some of this blog would be about some of the new bits and pieces I've acquired for the MBA.

First up is the new InCase Perforated Snap-on cover for the MBA. This is a slinky blue plastic fishnet 2 piece cover which snaps onto the lid and base of the MBA providing some protection from scratches and dirt. It's not going to protect it from a fall from any great height, but it's a sexy, lightweight and does what it is supposed to do. Even with the case on, the laptop still fits nicely into the LaRobe sleeve to provide even more protection whilst travelling.

I've already mentioned the Blue Eyeball 2.0, but the webcam, which pops out of the microphone ball, is an HD alternative to the standard resolution iSight camera on the MBA. Shame that the MBA didn't come with the HD iSight as standard but I'm guessing that there wasn't enough room in the lid for it. Actually, I'm still not sure whether it's an iSight or FaceTime camera, or whether there is any difference. What's in a name?

I love retro Flip Clocks, and after 5 years of using Macs finally found a Flip Clock screen saver only to discover it doesn't work under Lion. This morning however, I found an alternative that does work, so I'm now using a screen saver because I want to rather than because I think I ought to!

One of the downsides of reducing the screen real estate on the MBA compared to the MBP is that my top menu bar is now even more cluttered than ever. I've used NoMenuBar up until now which helps to a certain extent, but AccessMenuBarApps goes even further and is now my preferred solution.

Having spent 11 of the past 14 months in Switzerland, and with another 11 weeks still to go, I've found I have pretty much seen everything (in English) on Swiss Freeview TV at least once, and new stuff is increasingly rare. So I'm always on the look out for alternatives. iTunes is great and when I'm at home I do download a couple of TV series to bring back with me. But these take up lots of disk space, and even with external drives I find myself juggling shows around and configuration management becomes a nightmare (especially when disaster strikes). I've started to rent films rather than buy them which saves the storage problem, but it access to BBC iPlayer would solve a whole bunch of problems by streaming from that source. And I finally found a way to do get around the overseas access problem by subscribing to a VPN service called Expat Telly For 19.99 Euros for 3 months I can now watch anything on iPlayer from the UK (including ITV, Channel 4, 5 , etc.) as well as a number of other shows from NBC in the US. This works by making the UK servers think that you're logging in from a UK address and thus allows you to watch. Sadly Catchup TV has got wise to these shenanigans and blocks them, but Expat Telly works with BBC iPlayer for the time being. And since I pay for a UK and Swiss TV license I feel I should be allowed to watch what I've already paid for!

Well, that's it for this post. Hope you find something of interest or something useful. But even if you don't, come back another time. I'm sure I'll have something that will get you excited!

Out with the Hackintosh - Long Live the MacBook Air

2011-08-28T14:03:00.002+01:00

It amazes me how many people still read my Hackintosh posts on the Apple Harvest. I first built my Hackintosh almost exactly two years ago. My last post on the subject was in June last year. So why have I stopped writing about something that people want to read about? The most important reason is purely selfish. I write about the things that I find interesting, and the things that I get excited about. If some of those things are of interest to other people then so much the better, but the Apple Harvest wasn't set up to pander to market or popular trends. There are plenty of other blogs and other media sites which are geared to that audience.

There is a secondary reason for the lack of recent material on the Hackintosh. The simple fact is that I don't use it anymore. Actually, it's unusable. Some time last year, on a trip back to the UK from Zurich, I was updating the Hackintosh with the latest software upgrades, when it occurred to me that my girlfriend might be able to use it when she took her boys away for their half term break. That way we could keep up our nightly iChat conferences (the one thing that keeps me going on these long trips away from home). It was then that I noticed for the first time that, while iChat ran OK, the microphone wasn't working. I found a potential fix somewhere on the internet and attempted to implement it. Something went wrong and the Hackintosh died on the spot, but on this occasion I didn't have the time or patience to go through the whole recovery process. As a result the computer hasn't seen the light of day since (literally as it has been sitting in a drawer).

The Hackintosh for me was a largely academic exercise. I wanted to see if I could "build" one (which I could) and I wanted to see how OS X would perform on non-Apple kit (it was OK). I also wanted to try out a netbook to see whether it was really possible to use one for any length of time as a proper computer. The Hackintosh worked. It was great on the train, and fine to use around the house for the odd bit of surfing, but I seemed to spend a lot of time "fixing" it, especially as new OS X upgrades came along.

After I bought my iPad in September last year the days of the Hackintosh really did seem numbered. All the things I was doing on the Hackintosh, I could now do on the iPad, but without any of the hassle. I could surf, check mail, watch films and video, listen to music and even do basic office tasks with iWork. Anything else that I wanted to do was either going to get done on the iMac at home or on the MBP while on the road. The Hackintosh was simply not good enough to be a replacement for the MBP on a trip lasting more than one or two nights. It was certainly not going to be of any use for trips lasting five to eight weeks, overseas.

And now, it seems unlikely that the Hackintosh will ever get restored. On my last visit home earlier this month I treated myself to a new top spec MacBook Air.

It's the custom built 13inch, i7, 256Gb disk and 4Gb RAM version and it's the most beautiful laptop I've ever owned. I loved the idea of the MacBook Air from the first day they were unveiled, but I knew that it was going to be a while before they were suitable for mainstream use. In fact the Hackintosh would probably have been a better performer (for a fraction of the price), but without the usability factor. But the 2011 versions have given us a fantastic piece of hardware, with great performance, and all the ease of use of a traditional Apple laptop. My MacBook Pro has stayed at home on this current, two month long outing, and I've really not missed it at all. OK, maybe I miss the extra two inches of screen space when I'm watching Eye TV and there's a wide screen film on, but that's about it. The thing I was most concerned about was my iTunes library - just the music alone would more than fill the 256Gb MBA flash drive - but this happily sits on a 1Tb external passport disk with a small selection of songs sitting in a library on the MBA itself for when I'm out and about. I have an additional 1Tb disk which serves as a Time Machine disk, and a secondary partition where I make a scheduled, weekly Carbon Copy clone of the MBA disk.

Both these disks are usually connected through a powered USB 7 port hub, which either plugs directly into one of the MBA USB ports or into the USB port on the Airport Extreme in my flat. An Airport Express provides the link to the stereo for music and an Apple TV connects into the HD TV for viewing my movies and TV shows. And I can sit at the table on the far side of the room and be able to have full control of my media empire while still writing my blog. Like I am doing right now!

And when I go into the office in the morning I use a utility called UnDock to eject all the connected disks, close the lid and pop the MBA into my rucksack, along with the iPad and my lunch! This laptop really was designed to be carried around with you so it seems criminal not to do so. Compared to lugging the 15inch MBP around this is luxury. OK, it's luxury at a premium price, but if I can't have a bit of luxury while I'm away from the creature comforts of home but earning decent money then something has gone very wrong.

What does the future hold for the Hackintosh? I will fix it when I get back home for good at the end of November, but the Apple Harvest HQ is now Lion based, and I have my doubts about whether the Hackintosh will be able to support Lion. Maybe I'll even convert it back to a Windows box which is how it started, although I think this is highly unlikely. If it's a pain to use as an OS X box it'll be far more painful as a Windows machine! We'll see, but in the meantime please don't write to me asking if it's for sale, or on offer to a good home. It isn't! It will always be a reminder to me of what we can achieve with a bit of research, a bit of patience, a bit of confidence, and a page full of instructions that someone has painstakingly put together after months of hard work, frustration, and no financial reward. My enduring thanks and regards to the pioneering Hackintoshers!

Protect Your Assets - 3 Cases for the original iPad

2011-06-18T21:24:00.002+01:00

There's no question that the iPad is a beautiful piece of kit and it is surprisingly robust. But if you're like me and carry the iPad around with you, out and about, on a daily basis you really need something to protect it from the rigours of travel and general knocks and bumps. I've tried a selection of cases and stands over the past year, but I think I've finally got the right solution. In this post, I'll put the original Apple case, Joby Ori and inCase Origami Stand Sleeve head to head.

I bought the original iPad Apple case when I first picked up my iPad. I've always tried to protect my gadgets and I wasn't prepared to risk my new investment on the flight back from Boston to the UK, and the subsequent return trip to Switzerland. The Apple case also doubles up as a stand but it falls a bit short in both case and stand departments. It doesn't provide much in the way of protection other than keeping the front and back of the device safe from picking up scratches, but that's probably true of most cases. As a stand it works well as a prop to support the iPad in landscape mode, but you need a fairly flat surface to guarantee its stability in its portrait orientation. It is fairly thin, which is a plus point for a number of docking devices and stands (I bought the Compass stand at the same time). It doesn't add a huge amount of weight to the device which is also a good thing when holding the device for any length of time, and I like the idea of the book metaphor. Having a case that opens like a book cover does help me think I'm reading a book rather than looking at a tablet. The biggest negative for me is the battle getting the iPad out of the case once it's in place. Getting it in is OK, but it's really tough getting it back out again.

The Joby Ori is a much bigger and sturdier beast altogether. Again it acts as both stand and case but is much more flexible than the Apple case. The name derives from origami (Japanese art of paper folding) and the Ori's primary selling point is the variety of stand configurations it can assume. The Ori adds a certain amount of bulk and weight to the iPad, but the super-strong composite material used certainly gives one the confidence that it can take quite a beating before the reaching the precious contents. I managed to use the Ori with my iHome iA100 docking station but I expect the extra depth that comes from the case will prevent a suitable marriage with other devices. The Ori suffers from the same problem as the Apple case in that it's the devil's own job to get the iPad out once it's in place. And quite frankly, the Ori is not well suited to holding the iPad for extended periods - it's just too heavy and thick. Flexibility and strength also come at cost however, and the Ori is not a solution for those on a tight budget. I paid £80 for mine and then got a hefty C&E import bill to boot. I notice now however that the price on the website is down to £60.

My most recent purchase is the inCase Origami Stand Sleeve, another dual purpose case. Everything you need to know is in the name - it's primarily a sleeve with good all round padding and a faux fur interior to protect the iPad in transit. The tablet is fairly easily removed and replaced, and is then available to be used as is - showing off the beautiful design and fitting into all the gadgets designed around it. I say fairly easy to remove and replace because the sleeve top is quite tight, especially when you first use it, but it does loosen up after a while and becomes much easier to use. The clever part of the design is that the sleeve folds back on itself when empty, and an elastic loop and plastic hook mechanism allows the sleeve to be used as a stand in either portrait or landscape. Whilst not as robust as the Joby it provides a firm enough support to type on in landscape mode and a comfortable enough angle to watch in portrait mode.

iPad 1 in the inCase Origami Stand Sleeve

Of the three designs, I suspect only the inCase sleeve will support both the original iPad and the iPad 2, although clearly the iPad 2 was designed with additional smart case capability. I tend to use the inCase sleeve as my primary case as it is the most versatile and comfortable, and I really prefer using the iPad without any casing when I'm at base. The Joby Ori is my case of choice when travelling on longer journeys, and it really comes into its own when your iPad is your only source of entertainment, especially when watching movies or TV. I passed on the Apple case to a friend who has recently acquired an iPad as it had become surplus to requirements, but it served me well for the first six months, and I think some of the harsh criticism I have read is unjustified.

If you are thinking of buying a case you need to consider a number of things.

Do you want to use the iPad with or without a case when not on the move ? - Get a case that's easily removable
Do you want to dock the iPad on a regular basis ? - Make sure the iPad and case will fit
Do you want a stand facility ? - there are plenty of cheap sleeves out there if this is not a requirement

As an afterthought to this post, I recently bought the inCaseOrigami Workstation for the Apple Wireless keyboard. This is a tasty little case for the keyboard but also allows you to prop up an iPad and use them together as shown below. This combo, with the inCase sleeve for the iPad is the ideal combination for the road warrior.

iPad 1 in the inCase Origami Workstation

Mac App Store – The Good, The Bad and the Inexcusable

2011-04-16T17:01:00.000+01:00

The Good

I really liked the concept of the Mac App Store (MAS) from the day that Steve Jobs announced it. A first port of call to go to when you’re looking for that special bit of software without having to wade through endless Google searches which don’t quite get you to where you want to be.

I liked the idea that everything in the MAS would be available (it's really frustrating to find out about a cool piece of software only to find out that you can't get it anymore) and reasonably current (e.g. still supported), that upgrades would be fairly automatic, and that I’d be able to see what other people thought before I committed to buying.

I don’t think I ever saw it as the only solution. I still keep my subscriptions to MacZot and MacUpdate Promos and look forward to what they have to offer in my inbox every morning. And I still value the reports and reviews in the commercial press and on social networks like Twitter.

The first time I used the store (I think it was to get the free MAS version of TextWrangler) I was really pleased with the automated installation, and I still like the way that the process works for new installations.

The Bad

Having purchased dozens of Apps from the iTunes App Store, I knew that I would have to be a lot more careful in the MAS, with its higher prices. So far, so good – my prudence has paid off, and I’ve not spent a fortune. But it’s still a potential heffalump trap. One button purchases are just that bit too easy.

I was disappointed that it isn’t possible for the MAS to recognize all existing registered software and have it managed like purchased software. Maybe that is on the cards in the future, but I’m not going to hold my breath. And I’m certainly not going to repurchase software just to have it available through the store.

I’m also disappointed that upgrades force you to close the application in all cases I’ve seen so far. In App purchase often do this automatically but all my MAS software refuses to load until I exit the application. Not a big deal, but it does detract from the process and is a small step backwards.

My other major gripe is the pricing policy on certain Apple applications – specifically Aperture. Having just purchased the version 3.0 upgrade from Apple I was horrified to find the full retail version on the MAS at a fraction of the total price I had paid, having been a user from version 1.0. “C’est la guerre”, I guess.

The Inexcusable

Regulars will know that I run a 2008 iMac back at Apple Harvest base camp, and a 2007 MBP while I’m out on the road. Both systems are always up to date in terms of OS versions, and much of the software is common across both machines.

So it came as a big surprise that MAS behaves differently on each system. Everything is fine on the MBP – existing software is recognized, and updates work exactly as expected.

On the iMac nothing is quite as it should be. Whilst the installed software base appears to be correct and when appropriate indicates updates are available, the update pane says that all apps are up to date. Attempting to install an update from the purchased list generates the now infamous message :-

"You have updates available for other accounts
Sign in to (null) to update applications for that account"

After months of using the App Store I have finally resolved the problem more by luck than anything else. It appears that the issue is Spotlight related. I had a sneaking suspicion that this was the case, and this was reaffirmed with a problem I had with the Alfred utility which failed to locate any applications after I had performed a cache reset. Rebuilding the spotlight index failed to help matters, but a search through the Apple technical forums held the key.
Simply entering the terminal command :-

arch -i386 mdimport /Applications

appeared to resolve the problem and MAS now works as expected on the iMac. Other folks have indicated that this fix works for them also. This also fixed my problem with Alfred, and unless I'm mistaken, my Spotlight searches also appear to be more accurate.

Given that this appears to be a very common occurrence according to various blogs and forums, I find it inexcusable that Apple have not posted a fix themselves. Most of the work arounds I have seen involve deleting the apps that need updating and then reinstalling them from scratch. Hardly an efficient mechanism, and one that can also cause additional problems given the fact that deleting software on the Mac doesn't necessarily get rid of everything, and files left knocking around may cause unexpected side effects of their own.

Conclusion

I still think the Mac App Store is a "good thing", but it's going to take some more work from Apple in terms of implementation. There are too many rough edges and bugs to make it 100% reliable, and the facility to update apps already in process is a must. I also really want to see a standardised mechanism for converting existing paid for software into MAS managed apps. Given the number of people already using the MAS it is clearly filling a consumer need, but you should be aware of its limitations and remember that it is very easy to get carried away and end up buying a load of stuff you don't really need, simply because it is so easy to do so!

PS - There will be more info about Alfred in a future post!

The Apple Harvest - Normal Service Resumed

2011-04-14T09:10:00.002+01:00

Apologies from a Delinquent Blogger

I've only just realised that it's about 9 weeks since I last updated the Apple Harvest. That's the longest period I've ever gone without posting anything, so I apologize for my deliquency, but I hope that a more regular posting pattern will soon resume. Thanks to regular readers for still coming back and looking for stuff - a check on Google Analytics revealed that folks are still using the site. Hopefully the experience will become more rewarding over the next few weeks.

A lot has happened since the February posting, some of which explains my absence. I'm back in Zurich after spending a wonderfully idle few months at home. I've been here for nearly two weeks, and settled in much quicker than before. I'm in a different part of town, different office (same company) and much better digs - nearly four times the size of the last place - and hopefully I'll have a proper broadband connection sometime after Easter. That will make everything a lot easier.

What a Difference A Word Makes

I just did a couple of Google searches - the great news is that a search for the "Apple Harvest blog" returns with this blog at the top of the list. Interestingly, if I omit the word "blog", I couldn't find a reference until page 74. Still, at least it's in the top 100 pages! Sometimes you have to wonder about Google's search algorithms. A reference to the date of the 2006 apple harvest appeared on page 40 something. Perhaps some more regular posts will bump us up the list a bit?

Some Forthcoming Posts

I've got a list of some things you can look forward to over the next few weeks. Here's a preview...

Some thoughts on the Mac App Store
How my Magic Trackpad is losing out to the Magic Mouse
A look at the Joby Ori case and stand for the iPad
Why I'm not upgrading to the iPad 2
Using a stylus with the iPad and iPhone
Proper review of the iHome iA100 iPad dock mentioned in the last post

Hopefully there'll be something in the list to draw you back or to mention to your friends and colleagues, and bring them into the fold.

See you soon!

Two New Toys - a sneak preview

2011-02-01T17:37:00.002Z

I've been a bit under the weather for the past week or so - it's virus season in the UK (that's the kind that attacks people, not Apples) and it was just a matter of time before it caught up with me. But two new toys arrived at Apple Harvest HQ this morning which cheered me up no end. The first was a blooming great big box which turned out to be my long awaited iPad dock. The second was the new wireless charger for the Magic Mouse.

This is just going to be a sneak preview as they are so new and still need to be put through their paces. Watch out for more in-depth reviews in future posts.

Mobee Magic Charger

I'll start with the charger because it is so simple to get up and running. The Magic Charger consists of an inductive charging pad, a replacement battery pack and a mini USB cable. Installation is simply a matter of taking the back off the Magic Mouse, removing the batteries and replacing them with the battery pack. With the USB cable plugged into the charging pad and an appropriate USB power source (USB port on a Mac or an external charging unit both work fine) all that is left to do is to put the mouse on the pad and watch the little green light start to flash.

That's all folks!

Mobee Magic Charger

This is a really neat piece of gadgetry, which Mobee claim will pay for itself within six months of office use or a year in the home. I can't be bothered to do the sums but that sounds fine to me. What I really like is the fact that I don't have to worry about running out of mouse batteries again - well at least not Magic Mouse batteries. Of course, you are potentially losing a precious USB port while charging is taking place, but ideally you can charge overnight and during breaks when the USB port is less valuable. I have a Mophie Juice Pack Powerstation which I can use as an external charger if necessary.

It took about an hour to get the Magic Mouse charged to a state where it claimed to be at 50%. I've seen claims that the % charge never rises above 78% but as I was writing this I checked and it was now at 82%, but I'm not convinced about the accuracy of Apple's battery life algorithms any more. I'll be watching these numbers over the next few days and report back in a later post. Similarly the manufacturer claims 6 days autonomy after a full charge, but the Macworld review suggests a day is more realistic. Again, I'll monitor and give you my findings in a week or so.

iHome iA100 Bluetooth Audio System

I've used an iHome audio dock for a while (see my review of the iHome Reson8 from October 2009), and have been really pleased with. But of course, it doesn't work with the iPad, and companies appear to have been very slow to fill this apparent gap in the market. iHome announced their iPad offering back in July 2010, and it started appearing in October. I ordered mine back in October and it finally arrived this morning. And it's been well worth the wait.
The unit is much smaller than I expected, but is beautifully engineered and looks fantastic. It sounds really good too. And critically for me - you don't have to take the iPad out of its case. The iA100 is an app-enhanced device and can be set up to work in conjunction with the iHome+Sleep app which is free from the App Store.

That's all I'm going to say for now - the alarms are set up for the next few days and if they work as I expect, I'll start writing the proper review tomorrow!

iHome iA100 Bluetooth Audio System (in the box)

Scary Disk Upgrade for MacBook Pro

2011-01-13T09:46:00.003Z

Six months away from home puts a lot of strain on a laptop, especially on it's disk capacity. Towards the end of my stay in Switzerland I was down to my last 15Gb of disk space of my original 160Gb drive in the MacBook Pro, and was regularly deleting and restoring content, especially movies and other large items. I decided that when I got home I'd look at getting a new bigger (and maybe faster) drive, and maybe even consider installing it myself.
So, about a week ago, I started my first upgrade project of 2011, and began my customary background research. There were three elements to be considered:

Price of components
Compatibility of drive
Difficulty of performing the upgrade

Price - although I'd been working in the financial capital of Switzerland I didn't come home having made my fortune, and I still needed to watch the pennies. I had to weigh up the cost of the drive and any tools I might need and the cost of either doing the job myself or getting a specialist to do the job for me. I did have plenty of time on my hands, so that wasn't going to be a problem. I figured that it would cost somewhere between £100 and £150 to get a professional installation, but I could be without the laptop for up to a week. I'd also be restricted in the range of drives available. A quick search on Amazon suggested that I could probably get a decent replacement drive for about £50 plus a few extra pounds for the tools I would need.

Compatibility - I knew there would be some physical restrictions on the drive I could use bearing in mind the age of the MBP - late 2007, so I was going to rely on review comments from people who had successfully performed the task themselves. Again, Amazon is great as a research tool for this type of activity. I was hoping to upgrade to a 500Gb disk, preferably running at 7200 RPM, but would consider a slower drive if this was likely to be an issue

Difficulty of upgrading - I'd never opened up the MBP before, other than to install the extra memory I purchased when I first bought the machine, lifting it up to 4Gb. But this was child's play compared to delving around inside the case as required by this upgrade. There are plenty of videos and instructions on the internet, and I watched as many as possible and downloaded some instructions onto the GoodReader app on the iPad.

With these options considered and evaluated, I decided I could do the job myself and started the process in earnest. I selected a Seagate Momentus 7200.4 Laptop 2.5 inch Hard Disk Drive 500GB SATA 7200rpm 16MB (Internal) with G-Force Protection (ST9500420ASG) drive which had good reviews and had been proven to work fine in my model. This cost about £55 from Amazon. I knew from the videos that I'd need a specialist screwdriver that I didn't possess - a Torx 6, and I ended up buying a great little tool that included 9 bits which live in the lid of the screwdriver and fits in a pocket, or can be slipped into a small space in a suitcase (Silverline 633922 9 Piece Precision Screwdriver Set). I also needed a plastic/nylon spludger to ease things out of their natural surroundings inside the Mac, and I also invested in an anti-static wrist device, just in case. The whole lot came to under a tenner.

Eventually, all the bits and pieces arrived, with the disk being the last thing to show, and I was ready to go. I cleared the work surface, strapped on the anti-static doodah, arranged all my papers and watched the You Tube videos once again.

Things went fine to start off with. All the screws were easy to remove, and it was time to remove the keyboard. I knew this would be hard - primarily because it's the step in the process when you can cause the most damage. However, it was easy to pry the back part off and get to the cable connector on the motherboard which was also easy to unclip. But I really struggled to pry the front off (as I expected). Eventually I realised that there were still two screws holding the assembly in place, and once these were removed everything came off smoothly. I had bent the very front of the keyboard assembly slightly but not enough to cause any real damage. It would have been more prudent to have a check list of screws to remove and to have ticked these off as I took them out (and replaced them later) and I wouldn't have then made this mistake.

The next steps were really plain sailing, although there was a ribbon cable firmly glued to the existing hard drive which took some coaxing to remove, and before long I had the new drive in place, all the connectors plugged in and the whole box put back together again.

I had cloned the original disk before starting the operation, using Carbon Copy Cloner, and my intention was to boot up using the ExpressCard SSD as usual, format the new drive and then simply restore the contents of the cloned disk onto the new disk. I now understand why this was not such as good idea, and if I'd thought about it, I should never have expected it to work, and it would have saved me a lot of sweaty palms and palpitations. Worse still, it had me looking in the wrong direction in an attempt to resolve the problem.

When the MBP went into boot mode everything seemed OK, but I couldn't log onto my user account. I tried zapping the PRAM, and other diagnostic tricks on start-up but nothing worked. Eventually I booted up from the cloned USB disk which at least got me into the system and allowed me to get the new drive set-up. I figured with the new drive restored to the same state as the original everything would be OK - but I still couldn't log onto the system from the SSD. I could at least boot up from the new drive.

I decided to ditch the SSD for the time being and get the system fully functional on its own, which meant doing a software update as I was now booting into OS X 10.6.3. With the OS now running version 10.6.6 I nearly had a normal working system, but there were still a few software configuration issues which needed resolving.

This was the moment when I saw the light - the new disk had a slightly different name to the original! Once I had corrected this, most of those software configuration issues vanished. At nearly midnight I decided to call it a day and go back to it in the morning. I had now occurred to me that this may have been the reason that the SSD wasn't working properly, but I'd already reinstalled Snow Leopard on the SSD (at version 10.6.0).

First thing yesterday morning, I updated the SSD with OS X 10.6.6 and tried to boot from it. It worked perfectly.

If you have any technical ability at all and are considering this modification to an older MacBook Pro I seriously recommend that you do it. My specific configuration complicated the installation, but for a straight swap, things should be much simpler. I would, however, suggest that you invest in a disk caddy and format and set up the new drive before fitting it. It should take away some of the worry when you reboot after installation. You can pick one up for under a tenner, and you can always use it to store your old drive and use it as a media drive or backup device when you've successfully upgraded.

NewKinetix Rē: Universal Remote - Review

2011-01-08T21:01:00.006Z

At the last count I had 8 remote controls cluttering up the coffee table in my sitting room, and another 3 upstairs in my bedroom on the bedside table. Of course, they are really sitting on the tables. They end up all over the place; usually somewhere where they can't be retrieved in a hurry. That's also a lot of batteries to have to manage. Like many other people in a similar s situation, I've looked at universal remotes, and even bought a Logitech Harmony 555 some years ago, but gave up struggling to programme it using flakey Windows software, and it now lives in a drawer somewhere in the gadget graveyard.

Recently I read an article in Australian MacWorld (it's quite surprising what you'll end up reading when needs must - and you have Zinio installed on the iPad!) ) comparing 5 universal remotes designed to work under iOS. Whilst they all seemed to be an improvement on previous technologies, one in particular caught my eye; the NewKinetix Rē. After a bit more research, I decided to give it a try, and as I've now been using it for two weeks since my return home, I thought I'd share my experiences with you.

Rē with standard Apple dock connector

I have to say that I was a bit unsure of how I'd get on with the Rē. I had high hopes, but memories of the Logitech device still lingered uncomfortably in the back of my mind. But what exactly is the Rē. The initial press announcement describes it as a "Plug-in Universal Remote Control accessory for IR control of AV Devices using the iPhone and iPod touch". It goes on to add that "the plug-in requires no batteries, cables, charging or network connections", and that it "includes an extensive database of IR codes that will control most popular AV entertainment devices". All this is achieved by means of a little black oblong of plastic that plugs into the bottom of your iOS device, and a 'free' app downloadable from the App Store. The app is now in its version 2 status and supports the iPhone 4 and the iPad in native full screen mode.

You configure the device through the App by setting up your 'Rooms' first. Then in each Room you can add your devices. This is done by selecting a device from the very extensive database of devices included as described in the blurb. Even if your specific device isn't available, it's quite likely that one very similar is in the list and you can at least get the basic functions working such as power, menu, volume, etc. You can then tweak the settings to your specific requirements by switching to learning mode, whereby the Rē can learn from the device specific remote control.

It took me about 10 minutes to get my Samsung TV and BT Vision boxes working with the Rē. I was particularly pleased that the BT Vision box was supported because I was having trouble with the supplied remote (a not uncommon problem it appears, as my girlfriend is already on her second, and I've seen a number of similar complaints). My Sharp Sound Bar took a little bit more effort to set-up as it wasn't directly supported, but by using an unlisted docking station device it found a close enough match, and that now works fine. The Apple Remote Control and Apple TV devices are supported straight off.

Adding buttons, modifying button behaviour and changing layouts is very simple, but it is worth printing out the 21 page manual (or at least save it locally as a PDF file) to have a reference guide handy. The great thing about the Rē is that you can get up and running very quickly and then spend as much time as you wish tweaking and adjusting things to your own specifications.

The Rē also supports Activities and Macros to enable you to perform various related functions. An example Activity would be "Watch A DVD" whereby you can set up the app to power on all the appropriate devices and select the DVD input on the TV. I have set up the "Watch TV" activity, which was very easy as it is largely a wizard driven operation. The system prompts you to select which devices are responsible for specific operations, and the result is an Activity screen with a selection of buttons from each device. The wizard builds the appropriate macros to control the critical operations. These Activity screens can be modified in the same way as any other device screen. My Watch TV activity screen allows me to power all the necessary devices on (or off), and then use a selection of BT Vision and Sound Bar buttons to control the system. It's a lot easier to get it working than it is to describe it here!

Rē showing the Watch TV screen on an iPhone 3G

Settings can be transferred across multiple iOS devices either by "bumping" them or via email. This is great if you need to charge a device and want to swap the Rē to a different device. I'm using my old iPhone 3G as the standard remote, but swap over to the iPad when it needs charging. This frees up the iPhone 4 for... well... being a phone!

The Rē cost me about £50 from Amazon (UK) including P&P (I use Amazon Prime), which is a bit pricey compared with some of the more common universal remotes but significantly cheaper than a similar Logitech remote. However, it performs much better than any of the universal remotes I've used, better than some of the supplied remotes for my devices, and cuts out all the clutter and battery management issues. Next on the list of things to programme are the Sony Amplifier, CD Player and DVD Recorder, and then I'll have a further play with the Activities options.

I'm really pleased with the Rē. It does what it says, and with a bit of style. My high hopes were completely realised and I'm happy to recommend it. However, one word of advice. Don't waste your time trying to replace the remotes for any energy saving power sockets you may have. These generally use RF rather than IR signals to control them, something it took me about 30 minutes to work out!! Doh !! Oh, and one more thing. It would be very easy to take control of the TV in the pub without anyone realising but do so at your own risk!!!

A New Year Wish List for the iPad

2011-01-04T11:02:00.002Z

Well, the title might have caught your attention if you're new to this site, but regular readers may be recoiling in horror at my apparent admission that there's anything wrong with the iPad, a potential sign of hypocrisy, or simply my inability to abide by my own rules.

I've long since stated that the Apple Harvest is not a place for rumours or speculating what rabbits Apple may or may not be pulling out of the hat in the coming months. That statement still holds true - there are plenty of people out there who are quite happy to look completely stupid when their comments and scare-mongering are proved to be completely unfounded. I'm not joining their ranks, at least not when it comes to Apple.

Some of my previous posts have focused on how brilliant the iPad is, and how useful I find it. The comments in those posts also still hold true. I still get the same buzz when I turn on the iPad as I did when I first bought it, and occasionally I find an app which surpasses that experience.
I also have no regrets about buying a version 1 model. I don't know anyone I regularly communicate with who has FaceTime access, so I still use iChat or Skype on my laptop, which means I don't really need a camera - front or backwards facing - and so far I've heard little mention of anything else outstandingly new in the speculation about iPad 2.

So now you've got an idea of what this post is not about, what exactly is on my New Year Wish List for the iPad?

There are 5 key things that I'd like to see, and they are all iOS related rather than hardware deficiencies. In no particular order of preference or priority they are:-

Quick email delete - I tend to use the iPad to check email during the day because it's much more convenient than carrying a laptop around and getting it set up six or seven times a day. When I'm out on the road, my MBP remains my main email host, and the iMac serves the same function when I'm at home. My mail stays on my ISP POP account until I physically delete it - usually at the end of each day. The trouble is, that mail accumulates on the iPad over the course of a few days and it is a royal pain to have to select 150+ emails one by one in order to delete them all. So I would really like to see a Delete All Mail option in Mail.

Close all apps - I'm quite happy with Apple's approach to app time sharing (aka multi-tasking) in general. It works, and it doesn't have a serious impact on performance or battery life. But there are times when I've managed to get myself in a position where I've got a dozen apps open and I'd like to close the lot and start again. So Apple - a Close All Apps option on the multi-tasking bar would be very useful.

An Automator - I'm a creature of habit - not all of them bad - and when I wake up in the morning and reach for the iPad to switch off the alarm, there are a few tasks that I tend to do as a matter of course. I run PressReader to download my daily newspaper, I check the weather on AccuWeather and download the latest FX rates on Currency. I'll then check Social (Facebook client) and the Twitter app. Finally I'll check the AppStore to see if there are any updates to download. Sometimes I'll do some other bits, and the order may change, but this is fairly standard behaviour. It would be really cool to be able to automate the process so that I can load all my "default" (or any other) set of apps automatically and then just browse through them until I'm really to hit the Close All Apps button that Apple will hopefully provide!

Update Info improvements - One problem with working away is the reliance on Mobile (often PAYG) broadband. One of the problems with the AppStore is the frequency of updates which come through, and I for one, like to be up-to-date with my software. However, because these are full replacements rather than patch updates, sometimes you find yourself having to download 500Mb of app several times a month. If you are on a fixed data allowance (often only 1 - 3Gb/month) this is a disaster waiting to happen. Unfortunately the updates page doesn't give any idea of the size of the download for each item so you are downloading blind. I'd really like to see the size of each update so that I can make an informed decision about whether to perform the update or put it on hold until a more suitable time

Wireless Syncing - Well who doesn't want wireless syncing? It's a wireless gadget for goodness sake!!!

So there's my top five iPad improvements. I'd really like some feedback on these, especially if anyone knows of existing workarounds or hidden tricks that I've not yet encountered. And do other iPad users have other or similar wish lists? Please leave a comment, send me a tweet, or drop me an email at ally@allygill.co.uk. I look forward to hearing from you!

Until next time, I wish you all a happy and prosperous New Year!

iPhoto Still Has Places to go to...

2011-01-03T15:11:00.003Z

The marketing machine behind Apple would have you believe that iLife is a primary consideration for anyone contemplating moving to a Mac for the first time, especially from Windows. Whilst being an attractive bonus, iLife didn't really figure in my decision to make the move back in 2007. My decision was based on a total dissatisfaction with the laptops I was using at the time, especially with respect to the time it took between switching the machine on and actually being able to do something useful. I was working in Oslo back then, and was reliant on public wireless systems (as I am again here in Zurich), and the plethora of Windows and virus updates became to much of a burden. So the automatic updates got turned off while I was away and the laptop only got updated once or twice a month when I went home. Of course, in those circumstances my laptop was even more vulnerable to attack than ever, using public networks without auto-update, but I'm digressing... back to iLife.

Ever since buying the MBP back in the late summer of 2007, with its complimentary copy of iLife, I have religiously upgraded iLife whenever the latest version is announced. I like having iPhoto as the default photo organiser, especially on the MacBook Pro, although I generally use Photoshop Elements for most editing activities, and I also use Aperture on the iMac at home. I dabble with GarageBand, but again, usually only when I'm at home and have access to my M-Audio keyboard. I occasionally use iWeb for quick and dirty mock-ups for web sites and pages, and I'm still not big on home video so I only use iMovie on high-days and holidays. My two biggest productions to date have both been whale watching trips; one in the Arctic in mid-Winter in the Norwegian fjords and more recently off Cape Cod in the US. I can't remember ever using iDVD - in fact I'm not even sure what it does!

This year I bought my copy of iLife 11 from the Apple Store on Bahnhofstrasse in the centre of Zurich on the same day it was released and, as I only live around the corner, within 15 minutes it was already installed on the MBP. Having watched the Back-to-Mac keynote i had a pretty good idea of what to expect and I was looking forward to the new and improved iPhoto in particular. The full screen mode, improved sharing and extra facilities for calendar and card making looked especially appealing.

Overall, I do like the new iPhoto. I made my mum a calendar based on the photos I took in the US earlier this year, and it was incredibly easy - the hard part is choosing which photos to leave out. Similarly I made a few Christmas cards which were equally as easy. I'm looking forward to seeing the final product. I've used Apple printing before and it was very high quality. But when I tried to sort out the locations for my photos taken when my girlfriend came over to Switzerland a few weeks ago I started to get more than a bit frustrated.

The Places concept in iPhoto is great, especially if you have geo-tagging facilities built-in to your camera. But trying to add places manually after the event is a real pain. Nothing in this implementation is intuitive - in fact I'd say it's counterintuitive. The Manage My Places won't let you add new places. You can't add places on the main map either but only look at photos already attached to existing places. When I did finally get photos associated with a location, I found it virtually impossible to correct errors. I can only assume that the guys who wrote the software, not to mention the testing folk, all had geo-tagging on their cameras (more likely they all used the iPhone to take their test shots).

Maybe this will be easier once I get home and get round to reading the help pages properly (another problem one has with limited internet access is that reading on-line help becomes a luxury one cannot afford), but this is not the Mac way! I know that other folk have written about their similar experiences, so let's hope that Apple take notice and provide an update to make this useful feature a bit easier to use, or at least reconsider their approach in the next release - iLife 12? Or maybe by then, with the arrival of the Mac Store in early 2010, the suite will have been broken up as with iWork for the iPad and we'll be able to download an updated version of iPhoto 11. We shall see.

This entry was actually written in November 2010, but for some reason I never got round to publishing it. Better late than never, but although I'm back in the UK now, I've still not had time to look at the Places functionality in iPhoto 11 in anger. Something else on my list of things to do. Good job I've got the iPad to manage that list!

Thumbs up for Apple iTunes Customer Support!

2010-11-20T12:27:00.002Z

Apple’s customer service sometimes seems like a two-headed monster. When it’s bad, it’s very bad but when it’s good, it’s about as good as it can get. I have only had the need to contact them on one occasion, which was about a week ago. I had downloaded some TV programmes from the iTunes store as my limited access to Swiss TV was becoming overloaded by Champions League football and a marked drop in the number of programmes being shown with an English soundtrack option.

In particular I’d earmarked The Red Riding trilogy shown earlier this year in the UK, which had good reviews and had captured my imagination. When I was back at home a couple of weekends ago I took the opportunity to download the 3Gb of programming, along with some other goodies, and was looking forward to watching the trilogy over a few nights the following week.

On my return to Zurich, I noticed that iTunes was showing duplicates of each of the episodes and given my lack of hard disk spaces I did a clean up. When I then came to watch the shows I got an error telling me that the originals were no longer available. And because my iTunes library already weighs in at 70Gb, I had excluded it from my Time Machine backups.

So no Red Riding…

I contacted Apple Support and detailed the problem in an email. Within a couple of days I received a reply from Arran asking confirming his understanding of the problem and asking me for the order details. I was a little busy at the time, and didn’t get round to replying immediately, but 24 hours later I got a second mail repeating the request. This time I managed to send a reply, and within a few hours the shows were made available to me again at no charge.

With limited bandwidth, there was no way that I could download the material while still in Zurich, so I wrote back asking if there was any time limit for downloading the replacements, and indicating that I would be able to perform the download within a fortnight. Again I received a reply within an hour or so, confirming that this was not a problem, and that the shows would be available for download for as long as required.

Last weekend I finally got the material back onto the laptop and I’m looking forward to finally getting round to watching the series. I hope it’s going to be worth all the effort!

Update:

Between writing this entry and actually publishing it, I’ve had a second opportunity to put the iTunes support guys to the test, and once again they’ve come up trumps. I downloaded the Sgt.Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album by The Beatles on my iPad to mark the occasion of The Beatles music finally being available for download. Everything seemed to work OK but when I later linked the iPad to the MBP only the video was there – all the songs were missing. This time I contacted support via the Report a Problem in iTunes, but the outcome was very similar. Some mails acknowledging the problem and confirming the issue and a day later a mail explaining that the missing material was available for me to re-download at no extra cost. Thanks to Daniel on this occasion.

I’ve also managed to lose Red Riding again, but this time I know there’s a backup at home!

iPad - it's Getting Better; even stronger

2010-09-23T16:27:00.004+01:00

Not everything that you read in a blog is always quite what it seems. My last post was completely written on the iPad, and most of it was actually written whilst in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, but unfortunately I didn't quite finish it before I left, so it only got completed and published after I had returned to the UK and then back to Switzerland. By which time my iPad had just about become a new appendage, and it was already quite hard to remember life pre-iPad.

This entry is 100% bought to you from Zurich, now three weeks after my original adventure to the CambridgeSide Apple Store in Cambridge, MA, where I made the purchase. As I had hoped, I did return to Boston, this time to the Boylston St. Apple Store (awesome shop) and I duly purchased the Apple case, the camera connection kit and the Compass iPad stand.

Since returning from the US, I've also acquired a few more apps. Like the iPhone, the full power of the iPad cannot be realized by just the built-in apps, no matter how good they are. There are a few more games (I'm very much a casual gamer, and enjoy Sudoku, Mahjong and other puzzle and patience type games). In addition there are some business type apps (expenses, brainstorming, mind mapping and project management) some calculators and converters, some music apps, and some utilities, including Camera, Voice Recorder, and apps that link back to the MBP and iMac. Then there are a few Social Networking clients and some Business document managers. Finally there are some travel related apps.

It would be very easy to start to behave like a child in a sweet shop and download a vast number of apparently useful apps (at huge expense), but previous experience with the iPhone has taught me that less can sometimes mean more. The fact that iOS 3.2 doesn't support folders makes it less desirable to clutter up the device with a load of rarely used apps.

I have occasionally hinted that the the Apple Harvest abroad has a number of technical issues to overcome, most specifically, a lack of consistent and permanently connected broadband or wireless network. I'm delighted to report that the accumulation of gadgets and widgets over the last couple of months has really paid off.

The picture below shows the Apple Harvest road warrior set-up. Most of the components in the photo have been reviewed in the blog. Whilst still not ideal, this is a fully functional mobile office, which in theory could be operational anywhere where you can get a 3G signal, and mains electricity. The latter is only required for periods longer than about 3 hours! From the left we have my portable sound dock and iPhone charger, whilst a standard dock serves to charge my iPhone 4. Centre stage is the 15inch MacBook Pro (2007) on an X-stand with wireless keyboard and magic trackpad for input. On the right is the iPad on the Compass stand, and hiding behind is the Zoom 3G Wireless travel router. There's also a permanent connection to my Eye-TV device which is rigged up to a small aerial which lives on the balcony, which at least gives me some live TV in the mornings and evenings.

The Apple Harvest - Mobile Office

During the day, I'm on site at the bank where I'm contracting and until the iPad came along I used to drag the MBP into the office each day. These days the laptop stays in the "Pent-room" where I'm based and I just carry the iPad, stand and Zoom router into the office. Although I take in the USB charger, it's superfluous, and is more likely to be used to charge one of the iPhones. The new arrangement is more convenient all round, taking up less room on my desk at work, saving me the hassle of unplugging the MBP and attachments each morning and setting it back up again each night, and I've noticed that the aches in my shoulder have eased up considerably now I take a messenger bag with me each morning rather than a thumping great rucksack.

I really only want access to mail, occasional access to the internet (surfing the internet in a corporate banking environment is somewhat restricted as you may guess) and the ability to jot down thoughts and ideas and do occasional sums. The iPad is perfect for this, and the addition of iWork allows me to work on documents, spreadsheets and presentations which I mange through iWork.com. I don't even bother taking the wireless keyboard with me, as the on-screen keyboard is perfectly adequate for my meagre needs.

If anyone reading this had any doubts about whether an iPad could serve as an occasional laptop replacement, be reassured that it is perfectly up to the job. Despite the loving care and attention I have paid to my Hackintosh I'm not sure how much of a future it really has. Compared to the iPad it is clumsy and hard to use. It does have a webcam built in and allows me to use video with iChat or Skype, and it does run Eye-TV but everything else has a counterpart on the iPad. I have managed to link my iPhone camera to the iPad via Bluetooth using the Camera for iPad app, and there are reports of people using webcams with the camera connection kit, so even video may not be beyond the bounds of possibility. Sadly streaming TV is only realistically possible if you have a sensible download allowance on your mobile broadband - my 7Gb (split across two providers) is barely adequate without for my use as it is.

So there you have it. Three weeks on and I'm more in love with the iPad than ever. I remember the thrill of getting my first Mac - the MBP mentioned in these columns, and subsequently getting the 27inch iMac. The iPad experience is right up there, and I can't see it fading any time soon! Buy one!! Today !!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

iPad at The Apple Harvest - Well Worth the Wait

2010-09-19T12:48:00.005+01:00

This posting of the Apple Harvest is brought to you as autumn hits the forests of New England, where I'm currently on vacation, and the maple trees lap up their final intake of water before winter sets in. The colours aren't quite like they are in the picture books and postcards, but the reds and yellows are beginning to take over from the greenery of the summer foliage.

Last week I finally succumbed to the little voices in my head which have been nagging at me since April and the official launch of the iPad. The 64Gb WiFi model that I'm writing this piece on was nearly £150 cheaper in Boston than in the UK. In fact, it would have been cheaper to buy one in Zurich than in the UK. With the prospect of 20% VAT in the new year, the decision to buy one was pretty much made for me.

No doubt Apple will be announcing the 2nd generation iPads before too long, but I really couldn't wait any longer, and even though the idea of the Retinal display and addition of camera are enticing, they weren't enough to dissuade me from this purchase. You see, the iPad is everything I hoped it would be, and more. In my posting early this year I outlined my ideas of what the iPad could realistically be used for. That view has already been confirmed in just a few days. And so much more.

There is no question that the iPad is a beautiful piece of kit. It looks good, it feels good, and it is great to use. The worst thing about it is that my iPhone 4 now feels so small in comparison, although I really wouldn't want to have to lug the iPad around for use as a phone. (Actually it's really not fair to use the word lug in the same sentence as iPad. I have to lug my 15 inch MBP around, whereas I can slip the iPad into my bag and not really notice it.)

I would never have realistically considered writing a blog entry of any substance on my iPhone (despite having the BlogPress software installed), but on the iPad, even just with the on-screen keyboard, and with no case or stand, it seems perfectly natural.

Having free WiFi in the hotel (Woodward's Resort in Lincoln) is a real bonus as I'm not constantly checking on my usage - something I'll need to consider carefully when I get back to Zurich in a few days time. But being connected permanently is not a necessity as the extra screen space simply allows you to be able to do more than on an iPhone.

I've taken over 500 photos over the last few days and getting them transferred from camera to MBP to iPad has been a doodle. The iPad is a much better vehicle for showing them off than the MBP, and I love the Origami slideshow theme.

Initial syncing of the iPad to the MBP did take a while, but I think trying to install my entire iTunes library was not the most sensible approach. Just because I could physically fit the whole 47Gb on the iPad was not the best justification for actually doing so!

I was also pleased that a number of my favourite iPhone apps also scaled up immediately to the iPad. There are still a few that I'm hoping will get the necessary makeover, but plenty of alternatives are available in the meantime. It's good that in the main, prices have been kept down or upgraded versions are available at no extra cost. I particularly like the implementation of the PressReader app which I have used on the Mac and iPhone to read my offline copies of UK papers for some years. Finally the iPad provides the perfect vehicle for this activity, and the app performs faultlessly - which has not always been the case with its counterparts on the other devices.

Specific purchases (including free apps) in the first 24 hours of ownership included all three elements of the iWork suite, Battery HD Pro, Accu Weather, Clock Pro HD, Friendly - Facebook Browser, Things for iPad, and Plants vs. Zombies. That should be enough to keep me occupied at Boston Logan for three hours followed by a six hour flight back to the UK!

I'll be back in Boston in a few days and intend to buy the Apple Case and Camera connection kit (also considerably cheaper than in the UK!). In the next entry, I'll provide an update on using the iPad back in my Swiss base - a slightly more hostile environment than the one I'm in currently - at least for gadgets!!

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Daniel Webster Hwy,Lincoln,United States

Get Your Own Space - Zoom 3G Wireless Travel Router

2010-08-22T11:56:00.003+01:00

I've been using PDAs and Smartphones for longer than I care to remember. Since trading in my Filofax in the early 1990s my life has existed in Cyberspace on a Psion 3, Psion Series 5, HP Journada, various Orange Smartphones and over the last two years on my iPhone 3G and now my iPhone 4. All these gadgets have had connections to laptops and desktops, initially Windows, but now everything exists in Apple Space.

The better these toys get, the more I find I'm reliant on them - from keeping track of expenses, looking up passwords, linking back to my Pogoplug and its disks back at home, to route finding, on-line timetables, and of course social networking and mail - I can do nearly everything I need to do on my iPhone and link it back to my iMac or MBP when back at base, wherever that may be.

Which means that there are times when I'm completely and utterly screwed - especially when I'm abroad. The old O2 unlimited data plan may have been replaced by a more restrictive 500Mb allowance, but this is simply luxurious when you are abroad, with prohibitive roaming charges and exorbitant wireless fees for anything more than very casual access. And without liberal access to data, the iPhone (or any other Smartphone for that matter) becomes little more than any other phone on the market, except it's much more painful having all those apps at your fingertips that you can't or daren't use.

What you need is a personal WiFi space around you which provides you with a mobile lifeline to Cyberspace. In the UK 3 have led the way with their MiFi device which is a 3G device that generates a WiFi hotspot from the 3G signal. But this is locked to 3, and as soon as you step out of the UK you get hit by those evil roaming charges once again. launch2net (see the review from earlier this year) allows you to generate a WiFi hotspot but it means dragging a laptop around with you which is not a particularly mobile solution - it's a bit of a throwback to the days when mobile phones came with batteries the size and weight of a car battery.

There is an alternative to the 3 MiFi solution which costs a similar amount but does the same job without tying you to a specific network. Enter - stage right - the Zoom 3G Wireless Travel Router.

The Zoom device allows you to plug in (almost) any 3G USB stick and will then generate a WiFi hotspot from the 3G signal. I've had mine for about a fortnight and it's had a huge impact on my life here in Zurich. I can use the translation programme while I'm in the supermarket (my German is non-existent). I can do currency conversions using the latest Forex data rather than week old rates. I can get train and tram times before I leave the office so that I don't have to hang around the tram stops in the rain. I can see Twitter at work (a social networking free environment) and get my mail without having to fire up the laptop.

The Zoom 3G Wireless Router is not as elegant (pretty) as the 3 MiFi, but it is downright functional. The box is about 4 x 3in and an inch thick. It weighs just under 5 oz with the battery. The photo below shows a size comparison to the 3G iPhone. The unit is supplied with a rechargeable battery which lasts about 3 hours in a single go, and takes a couple of hours to recharge from the power adaptor (also supplied). The router can run from the mains if required. LEDs on the top panel show power/charge status, USB connection, Wireless on, and Ethernet connection. An on/off switch is located at the rear of the unit, alongside an Ethernet port. As shown above the 3G dongle fits into the USB socket on one side of the box. While this looks a bit ungainly, the connection is good, and I've never had the dongle fall out, despite having the unit sitting in a rucksack pocket and in my trouser pocket.

Router configuration is very simple. It's easiest to connect the unit to your computer via the ethernet cable, plug in the dongle, power up and then set your browser to point to http://192.168.1.1 which will load up the configuration page for the device. A Wizard is available to quickly get you up and running, and allows you to modify the configuration manager password, choose a security method for protecting your WiFi hotspot and assigning a password if necessary, and finally for setting up the dongle/ISP settings - APN, username and password, and PIN. Some of these will be provided with your dongle, others are easily available from the internet. You will have to go through this configuration every time you change the dongle. If you use the same dongle all the time the device retains the settings.

There a numerous other configuration options available through the configuration page advanced settings but I've not really investigated these. Everything I need can be achieved through the wizard. I regularly change 3G dongles and configuration literally takes 30 seconds between changes. For those of you concerned about security (which should be all of you!), the router can handle WEP, WPA and WPA2 protocols. And while on the subject of protocols, the router supports 802.11n/g and b wireless capabilities.

The Zoom travel router has proved to be one of my best buys of the last few years. Inevitably there are going to be places where it won't work because no 3G signal is available. I very much doubt I'll be able to use it on most of the train journey between the East Midlands and London on which none of my connections seem to work for very long, but when you are out of range of a wireless hotspot in town there shouldn't be any problems. It really comes into its own as soon as you go abroad, especially for iPhones, iPads and other smart gadgets which need live data to truly make them smart. Zoom also produce a 3G dongle which is not locked - so with the pair of gadgets, all you need to do when you go to a new country is buy a PAYG SIM card and you should be up and running in no time.

Highly recommended!!!
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Apple Magic Trackpad - Simply the Best

2010-08-15T19:51:00.002+01:00

Despite having subscriptions to all the UK Mac magazines, access to all the gossip and rumour mongers on Twitter and other internet sites, and tuning in to the live coverage of the most recent WWDC, the first I heard of the Apple Magic Trackpad was when it appeared in the Apple Store website a couple of weeks ago. I honestly wasn't sure quite what to make of it initially. I think my first reaction was "what the ... is this, and why does it cost £59.00?".

So I went round to my local Apple Store (one benefit of living in one of the most expensive capital cities in the world is that I have an Apple Store on the doorstep) and bought one. It was a bit of a "comfort" buy to be honest. Women buy shoes, nerds buy gadgets and everyone buys chocolate when they feel a bit sorry for themselves (I actually bought shoes and chocolate as well, but for different reasons).

After two weeks of use I have now dispensed with the Magic Mouse completely and even carry the Magic Trackpad around with me. But more about that later...

The Magic Trackpad is a near 5 inch square of Mac standard metallic finish which connects to your Mac via Bluetooth. The catch is that you must be using Snow Leopard 10.6.4 and you need to download an additional supporting piece of software from Apple to make it work. In fact, it seemed to work in a limited capacity right out of the box, but there was very limited functionality. Once the software update had downloaded and installed, a whole new rafter of functionality was available. There have been some reports of problems with the installation, but I found everything worked smoothly without any issues.

The trackpad performs all the functions currently available on the most recently multi-gesture trackpads across the MacBook range. My own MBP is a 2007 model and doesn't have this capability so this is a way of accessing it. Clearly the iMac and MacPro ranges have no trackpad at all, and while these are probably the target machines for the trackpad, it works brilliantly with the laptop as well.

The "glass" surface is very similar to the Magic Mouse surface - very smooth and cool to the touch, and forgiving of even the sweatiest fingers. It is possible to track very accurately with the pad as it has very fine precision. The big difference between this and the Magic Mouse is that the trackpad doesn't run out of room! While I think the Magic Mouse is the best mouse I've ever used, I do get frustrated with it occasionally when it fails to respond properly to my instructions. So far the only similar problem I've had with the Trackpad is that it can be too responsive, but I think I may still need to tweak some of the sensitivity settings.

The Apple software installs into the System Preferences and is fine as it stands, but to really take advantage of the Magic Trackpad you really need to install one of the third party applications available for the Magic Mouse. I use BetterTouchTool which is much more configurable and allows me to set up gesture recognition for many more things. I have set up Tap to Click for everyday use as it seems more natural than to use the slightly stiff physical click of the Trackpad, although this works fine on a hard surface like a desk. Two finger scrolling through web pages is also very natural, and I find that I'm able to use different fingers for the same gestures which is less onerous on the index digit in particular. With BetterTouchTool I have gestures set up to access the Dashboard, Spaces, Expose, System Preferences and I can even put the laptop to Sleep with a five finger click.

Because it is so light, even with the two AA batteries installed the Magic Trackpad is easy to slip into my work bag and the design allows me to keep it upright next to the laptop. It's actually easier to carry around than a mouse. Since installing the Magic Trackpad my Magic Mouse has been consigned to the cupboard. To be honest, there are one or two things that are probably easier with a mouse - multiple item selection being the most notable - but I think that may be because I've been doing them for such a long time with a mouse. I'm not sure that I'm ready to lose the mouse completely, but the trackpad has really become an integral part of my computing activity.

Battery life is pretty good too. After two weeks of constant use the battery level is down to 86% - far better than the Magic Mouse.

The worst thing is that I occasionally find myself reaching out for the MacBook Pro trackpad by mistake, and since it's an older model (late 2007) far from being a smooth tracking experience, it feels like I'm running my fingers over a cat's tongue.

Check out the Trackpad. You won't regret it, and you may well reconsider the way you work with your current input device.

The biggest surprise of all for me was that the Magic Trackpad was about £10 cheaper in Zurich than in the UK. In fact all Apple prices are lower than in the UK. So I can stock up on some extra chocolate!
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launch2net premium - Mobile Internet made Easier

2010-07-11T17:40:00.003+01:00

I've been using Mobile internet devices ever since they first became available but since moving onto the OS X and Apple platform I've have always found that the software provided leaves a lot to be desired. Windows users have always been fairly well catered for, but Mac users seem to have considered as second class citizens. I've always been able to get USB Modems and Dongles to work, but it's always been a fiddle, rather than a simple one click and it's done operation.

Most recently in the UK, I was using an offering from Vodafone, which made me get an initial connection using their rather substandard software, and then physically connect through the Network preferences or modem icon in the menu. If I wanted to monitor my usage (3Gb/month) I also had to run some 3rd party software. In my case I elected to use SurplusMeter by SkoobySoft.

However about a year ago, I chanced upon a piece of software that looked like it could make Mobile Internet on the Mac a much simpler experience. I think it may have been a promotion on MacPromo but I can't really remember anymore. I downloaded the trial and within a few minutes paid for a licence. The software in question was launch2net and it was a one stop click to connect and I think it included monitoring, but I can't honestly remember as I now use its grown up big brother launch2net Premium.

launch2net (I'll drop the premium suffix for the rest of this piece) is a stand-alone application that supports numerous mobile modem devices. It pretty much configures itself when a new device is plugged in, works out the appropriate settings, locates a suitable internet signal 3G, 2G, GPRS or EDGE, and waits for you to confirm the connection. Once you connect it then monitors your usage and signal strength, and when you are finished you simply disconnect by clicking on the appropriate button. Simple, huh?

It doesn't end there, however. The premium version also allows you to generate a wifi signal from your connection (with security) by setting up an internet sharing capability. This is a killer feature and is worth the cost of the licence for me. I'm currently living and working in Switzerland. Because I'm only here for a short contract, I can't get fixed line broadband so I need PAYG mobile internet. My flat is also out of reach of a commercial wireless network which makes my iPhones look a bit miserable.

With my Orange CH 3G dongle and launch2net I'm able to pick up a pretty good 3G signal and generate a 40-bit WEP encrypted WiFi signal which gets my both my iPhone 4 and 3G connected to the network. (I have two phones because one has a local Swiss SIM card in, and the other is my normal UK phone). To be fair to Orange, they have actually provided a pretty good connection application for the Mac, and it's a little bit quicker to use than launch2net, but then again it is dedicated to the Orange network and configured accordingly. It can't however generate the WiFi signal that keeps my phones on-line. launch2net can alternatively use 128-bit WEP encryption, but I'm not too bothered about that - I'm not on-line for long periods and there's not much confidential stuff going across the network anyhow.

launch2net isn't without its problems. I did have to configure the settings for the Swiss Orange network but the information was easily located by running a Google search. The 3G dongle modem supplied isn't listed as being supported by launch2net but it worked without any problems. For the technically curious it's a Huawei E1552 - 900/2100 HSDPA/UMTS, 4-band EDGE/GPRS/GSM with upto 3.6Mbps download speed.

The other functionality built into launch2net is an SMS messaging centre, which pretty much does what it says, and allows you to send, receive and manage SMS messages across the internet. There are also quite a number of configuration settings allowing you to choose between monitoring home or roaming sessions, and other interesting things. Of course, it's also possible to set up custom settings for networks as I had to for Orange CH.

Before leaving the UK I tried the software (I have a second licence) in my Hackintosh but I wasn't able to get it to work. Although the software runs in demo/trial mode, I cannot get it to activate with the licence information. The Novamedia technical support folk were very helpful but could not resolve the issue. This is a real shame, but it's one of the risks you take when using a Hackintosh - it's even more frustrating given that's thing that fails is not actually part of the real function of the software. I wish there was a file that they could send me to bypass the physical activation process and allow me to register my license but at the moment they've not provided me with that option. It's also disappointing because there were no problems at all with the previous version.

All in all, I'm really impressed with launch2net. I love its simplicity - it does all the technical stuff behind the scenes and simply allows me to do what I want to do - namely connect and go. The WiFi bonus is awesome - I can't over emphasise that - and it's great not having to remember to switch on a secondary monitoring programme. Novamedia strongly recommend that you try out the software before purchase to ensure it works with your hardware, which seems like pretty good advice.

Oh, and before you ask - yes it does work with Snow Leopard 10.6.4!
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iPhone 4 One Week On...

2010-07-03T13:13:00.003+01:00

I finally got confirmation for the contract in Zurich and things were pretty hectic for a period of 10 days trying to get everything sorted out, and spending some quality time with my girlfriend and other pals before departure. Which makes the fact that I went and queued for just over 5 hours outside not just one, but two, O2 shops for an iPhone 4 even more ludicrous than it would normally have been. But I did, and I'm happy to say it was worth every second of waiting.
I've never queued up for an Apple product in the past. I'm generally an early adopter for new technology, but finances have been a bit tight recently and I've had to balance my desire for leading edge tech with the realities of post recessional Britain. So I got an 3G iPhone about 16 months ago and missed out on the 3GS. But with Switzerland calling, I decided to "go for it", so I'd have something to play with for the next six months.

Because of circumstances I ended up with a 16Gb Black iPhone 4 - it seemed that in O2 land you could have any model as long as it was a 16Gb Black one. On reflection, this was a good thing - I saved about £100 on the cost of the handset over the 32Gb model I had set out to buy. I figured that the extra space would be great for putting a larger number of songs on, but we'll come back to that shortly.

I suffered the same fate as a number of users in the UK on launch day - activation seemed to take an eternity. In my case it was about four hours from putting in the micro SIM card to having an operational phone. Luckily the old phone remained functional until just a few minutes before the new one clicked in. My initial sync with iTunes was fairly painless, but because I manage my music manually, the restore function from the 3G to the 4 ignored my old selection. This was disappointing as I've honed that list carefully over the past year and a half. All the apps seemed to transfer over without issue, but on closer look later, it turned out that I had to modify settings, userid and passwords on many of my apps.

For the first time I selected the option on the iTunes sync page to compress higher bit rate songs while copying them onto mobile devices. This had the effect of allowing me to load over eight hundred more songs than I'd previously had - thereby reducing the need for the extra 16Gb I had initially planned for. I personally can't tell the difference in quality - especially whilst out in the real world with all it's surrounding white noise.

What about the phone itself? It's definitely smaller and slightly more comfortable to hold, even with a "bumper" on. I couldn't tell any difference in weight. The screen is simply stunning, but you really notice the effect when looking at 3G and 4 models displaying the same picture at the same time. The 3G looks decidedly blurred in comparison to the "retina" screen. The responsiveness of the new model to touch also seems greatly improved, and I don't find myself trying to clean the screen of sticky finger prints anywhere near as much as I did with the 3G.
I've been fortunate enough not to have suffered from any of the (now) well documented issues. Despite being left handed I've had no problems with reception while holding the phone - but I'm not sure if having the Apple bumper may make a difference. I've also not noticed any of the yellow screen effects mentioned by some users. The whole phone blanked out on me a couple of days ago but normal service returned after plugging it into the MBP - scary, for a while, but no lasting damage other than to my nerves.

I'm quite comfortable with Apple's implementation of "multi-tasking" in iOS 4, although with the exception of the in-built apps, I'm not sure how many of my apps take full advantage of it. The test will come with updates to programmes like Text Expander or 1Password which are so frustrating to use on the current platforms. It is kind of cool however to play Bejewelled Blitz and be able to answer the phone without killing the game! I know, what an abuse of technology!
I've had a little play with the new video camera, one of the key features for me and I like what I see. Now I'm in Zurich I'll be able to put it through it's paces a bit more thoroughly. I also like the new standard camera and it's front and rear facing availability. However I've not tried FaceCall yet. I don't know anyone I can test it out on!

So there it is, iPhone 4 one week on. I'm really pleased with the new device - for me it has certainly lived up to expectations, and I've still got more stuff to check out. Maybe you should wait until Apple get the antennae issues resolved, or maybe you'll just have to wait because they're all sold out, but when you finally get your hands on one, you won't be sorry!
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Hackintosh - the latest update with added patience

2010-06-09T11:19:00.003+01:00

Last time I wrote about my experiences upgrading my Dell Mini 9 "Hackintosh" to Snow Leopard OS X 10.6.0. I decided to stop relating the story after I'd successfully achieved that because I wanted you all to share the warm feeling (smug,even?) that I had at the time. In reality that was a bit of a fib because the following 24 hours were a bit of a nightmare as I tried to go one better and update the OS to 10.6.3.

Suffice it to say, I've now become rather adept of installing the original retail version of Snow Leopard and I'm really pleased that I decided to keep my Snow Leopard installation USB drive as it has certainly had a lot of use. But the thing I've learnt most from the exercise is that when you're messing about with any Hackintosh project, the most important thing to remember is to be patient. Very, very patient! I now believe that if I had that in mind when I first started the upgrade I would have saved myself hours and hours of extra work and would have not have lost quite so much sleep.

As I mentioned last time, the instructions I had only went as far as upgrading to 10.6.2, which suited me fine, despite knowing that 10.6.3 was already out there, and clever people had successfully installed it onto their Dell Mini 9 netbooks. To be honest, I was happy enough with 10.6.0, but like many people reading this, I'm a bit of a serial upgrader and I can't help myself from tinkering.

After completing the basic Snow Leopard installation I tried installing the stand-alone combo update for 10.6.2, rather than using Software Update to go straight to 10.6.3. This didn't work as the combo update reported a problem with the disk I was trying to install to. There wasn't anything wrong with it (it was the Runcore SSD) but I couldn't argue with the installer.

So I decided to brave the storm and run Software Update and go the whole hog. Everything seemed to download and install without any problems. But this is when patience was required. Instead of waiting a reasonable amount of time after restarting the machine and getting the spinning spoke wheel I had a kind of panic attack and after only a few seconds decided that the machine was knackered. I now know that I should probably have waited at least 10 minutes before allowing pessimism to take hold.

The result of the impatience was a completely useless netbook. Subsequent re-booting simply resulted in kernel panics. So began the first of many reinstallations of the vanilla 10.6.0. After a few long days I finally had the machine working properly again and decided to call it a day and be satisfied with what I'd got (another good lesson!).

Yesterday however, I had a small network crisis and I managed to lose Ethernet functionality on the netbook. I reran the NetbookInstaller programme (0.8.4 RC1) but this had no effect. In a moment of madness I ran the DellEFI programme left over from the initial conversion to Leopard which had a devastating effect. [Reminder to all Dell Mini 9 users - delete the DellEFI app before attempting to use the NetbookInstaller/NetbookBootMaker combination now recommended]

It was time to reinstall for the umpteenth time. This time I decided to have another go at the full 10.6.3 installation but with added patience. The whole process took about four hours, and I left well alone as much as possible. There were one or two moments when I thought everything had stopped, but I managed to refrain from interfering and let things happen at their own pace.

I'm happy to say that the Hackintosh is once again fully functional in its latest incarnation with 10.6.3 and Safari 5.0 no less fully installed. Everything seems to work fine - wireless, ethernet, Bluetooth, sound, video, and even sleep.

So it is possible, it isn't that difficult, but it does require nerves of steel and a whole load of... altogether now... PATIENCE!

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Upgrading the Hackintosh to Snow Leopard

2010-05-27T16:05:00.003+01:00

I have spent a number of months deliberating, cogitating, and mulling over the pros and cons of upgrading my Dell Mini 9 netbook, more commonly known as a Hackintosh, from OS X 10.5.8 (Leopard) to OS X 10.6.x (Snow Leopard). Yesterday I found myself at a bit of a loose end, so I decided that enough was enough and action was required. After all, plenty of other people have already been brave enough to take the plunge, and by now the pros were beginning to outweigh the cons.

The Pros:

All my other (genuine) Apple computers, namely the iMac and MacBook Pro are happily running OS X 10.6.3, and have been for some time
One of the key uses for the Hackintosh is to use Apple Mail when I'm travelling, and the Leopard and Snow Leopard versions use different file formats so upgrading would solve that problem
I would only have to worry about one set of software updates which can all be stored in one central location saving loads of disk space
Snow Leopard is leaner and faster than its predecessor and thus ideally suited to the netbook

The Cons:

If the Hackintosh isn't physically broken, why try and fix it ?
Newer releases of Snow Leopard are no longer Atom (the Hackintosh chip) compatible so work arounds are required
Things could go horribly wrong and I could break the netbook
It might take hours, or days, or weeks or even months to get a working machine again!

So with considerable trepidation, I started to prepare for the task ahead of me. Using the check list I established for the initial Hackintosh build (see my Apple Harvest posting for July 29, 2009) I gathered up all the things I would need including some instructions, spare USB disks, backup tools, copies of the latest versions of NetBookMaker and NetbookInstaller, the Snow Leopard retail disc (10.6.0 Family Pack) and a working MacBook Pro and set to work. For this upgrade I decided to go with the instructions posted on the myMacNetbook.com site (the link will take you to exactly the right place). This only goes as far as OS X 10.6.2, but I felt that was OK. I'd be pretty pleased if I could simply get as far as OS X 10.6.0!

Trusting in my own wisdom, I took a final backup of the 10.5.8 system using Time Machine, and then also created a .dmg image of the RunCore SSD using Carbon Copy Cloner to be on the safe side. I created a bootable copy of the Snow Leopard install DVD on a spare USB external drive as per the instructions, and then simply worked through the instructions step by step. The backup and disk image creation took about an hour and the installation itself took a further hour.

Once the installation was completed I removed all the extraneous paraphernalia and restarted the netbook. I couldn't believe it - everything appeared to work perfectly. It found the wireless network without any prompting, let me connect my Kingston mouse via Bluetooth, it made sounds, and the video was fine. It also recognised my Time Machine disc and let me make a backup immediately. Hyperspaces worked fine. Even MobileMe synchronised after a minor tweak. The only thing that seemed slightly amiss, was that after waking from sleep, although the screen restored itself, I couldn't use the mouse or the trackpad which is a potential cause for concern.

I quickly upgraded some of the key tools I use, in particular ShareTool which connects to the rest of the network here at the Apple Harvest. Still no problems. I shutdown the machine and turned it back on. Still no problems. Finally I created another Time Machine backup and another disk image of the SSD, this time labelled as a Snow Leopard 10.6.0 image. This latter activity took a considerable amount of time - much longer than the 10.5.8 image took to create, which makes me wonder if the USB performance may be compromised, but eventually all the disks were created and safe.

Next step was to perform the software update to bring the Hackintosh fully up to spec and attempt to install OS X 10.6.3. But I'll save that until next time, because I'd like to leave you with the same warm feeling that I had after successfully upgrading my Dell Mini 9 to Snow Leopard!

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Pogoplug - two weeks on...

2010-05-13T11:55:00.004+01:00

I'm pleased to report that my Pogoplug is still going strong (unlike some of the disks I've attached to it - they really don't like being thrown around do they?). It had it's stiffest test last weekend when I stayed over at my girlfriend's house and I turned off my iMac at home, relying solely on the Pogoplug and a cloned copy of the iMac hard drive, with access through my MacBook Pro laptop.

Now that the OS X Pogoplug application is working properly on the MBP I was fairly confident that everything would work fine and dandily, and sure enough I booted up the MBP and with the Pogoplug application set up to open automatically I was reassured to see the shared disks appear on the desktop, clearly identified by their shocking pink icons. I clicked on the WD Passport drive I had earlier cloned from the iMac boot drive, and there in Finder was exactly what I expected to see, namely a full working copy of my iMac startup disk. I started to click down through to my User folder - it took ages...In fact it took so long that I figured that something was very wrong so I quit the application and fired up Safari.

I've bookmarked my My Pogoplug:View web site which is the page where your personal Pogoplug configuration can be accessed so I went straight to it. Everything looked fine - the disk was mounted and visible. I started clicking down through the folders as I had with the OS X application, and everything worked fine. There was a slight time lapse, but I was on a wireless connection and my girlfriend's broadband is not the zippiest in the world so I wasn't unduly worried.

Knowing that the connections at both ends were sound, I retried the Pogoplug application. This time I was much more successful - the disks mounted, and I was able to navigate around my remote disk without any problems. Again the slight time delay was present, but it wasn't abnormal, and certainly didn't prevent me from working.

I'm not sure what caused the initial glitch on the application side, but I haven't been able to repeat it.

So, at last I have a working solution to my remote access problem. I'd still be happier to have the iMac fully functional and without the ever present network problems that more and more people seem to be reporting. But I'm pleased that this solution is also a bit cheaper and greener by not having the iMac powered up for long periods in my absence.

Pogoplug - you're a star - in fact you get five stars !

Review in Brief: Pogoplug

2010-05-06T10:47:00.004+01:00

There's a very good chance that I'm going to spending some time working in continental Europe before too long. Somehow I always manage to get postings to the more expensive and remote parts of Europe. I spent six months in Oslo a few years ago, and now it looks like Zurich in Switzerland is on my itinerary. I only mention this because one of the problems with being away is that I often find that I need to access files on my desktop. Of course there are alternatives:

I could clone my desktop drive and carry that around with me, but that requires carting another piece of kit around, and demands the discipline of maintaining the contents
I could use ShareTool and connect remotely with the iMac from my laptop via the internet. This is my preferred option, but while my network problems persist this would fail on the first occasion that I lose my connection. It also means that the iMac is powered up24x7 for as long as I'm away. Not very green...

But now I believe I have found a better option in the form of the Pogoplug. This clever little bunch of tricks sits independently of your computer (PC or Mac) by plugging it into your router and then allows you to access up to four USB drives/memory sticks via an internet browser or a native application.

The rather lurid pink Pogoplug is small enough to sit tucked away on the corner of a desk or a shelf, and once set up you can pretty much forget about it. Set-up itself is a breeze. After plugging in at the mains, simply plug the Pogoplug into a spare ethernet port on your route, connect up to four USB drives, switch it on, and register it on the Pogoplug web site. You can also download a free Finder compatible OS X application and free iPhone app from the App Store giving you full access to your drives wherever you are. It really is that easy.

After following the above steps on my iMac, everything looked hunky dory, so I turned my attention to my MacBook Pro where the real test would take place. Sure enough, the USB drive attached to the Pogoplug appeared in it's proper place on the MyPogoplug web site in Safari without any problems. However after downloading the OS X application I was getting an error message as the app tried to connect to the drive - Failed Starting Drive: Exit Code 0. This wasn't what I wanted to see, and after several attempts and a restart, the message kept appearing.

I posted a message on the support forum and was advised to check with Pogoplug tech support. I duly contacted them via email and within a few hours received a response suggesting that my version of MacFuse may be corrupted. I reinstalled MacFuse, ran the application, and everything was fine. I was very impressed with the quality and speed of response, and especially with the result. So (some of you may guess what's coming next...) Pogoplug Technical Support (notably AdamC), get the latest (virtual) Apple Harvest Service Excellence Award.

I've yet to perform any real tests regarding speed of access over the internet - wirelessly connecting across my LAN doesn't really constitute much of a challenge, but I'll provide an update at some time in the future when I've got something useful to report. I the meantime, I can report that the iPhone App works very well, and even allows me to view certain files (PDFs for example) in their natural format on the iPhone. Extremely useful.

As I was writing this review I did find one additional problem... I was repositioning the Pogoplug after taking the photos, and the attached WD Passport drive fell on the floor and required reformatting and re-cloning. So, if you do move the Pogoplug for whatever reason, it's worth un-mounting any attached drives first! But I don't think that problem is unique to the Pogoplug... just to dumb users!!!

Review: Filemate SolidGo ExpressCard Ultra SSD (48Gb)

2010-05-04T10:11:00.002+01:00

My 2007 MacBook Pro is starting to show its age a little bit. Now, don't get me wrong, it's still performing perfectly adequately, even though it's on its second battery, and its second logic board. No, the real problem is disk space, or rather lack of it. The 160Gb hard disk has been getting seriously overcrowded, thanks partly to a iTunes music library that is approaching 50Gb in size.

It's probably within my technical ability to replace the internal hard drive with a larger capacity one, and I've been pondering the pros and cons of using a Solid State Drive, but I am still put off by the price of anything approaching a sensible size. Recently I found a reference to the Filemate SolidGo ExpressCard SSD which got me thinking that a hybrid solution might be an interesting alternative.

As regular readers of the Apple Harvest will know, I won't generally embark on a project like this without doing some research, so I trawled the internet for any viable information. I came across one particular article by Rob Griffiths on the MacWorld website which pretty much sealed the deal for me. (There's an accompanying five minute video which is also quite interesting). I did a check with the manufacturer to make sure that the card would fit my specific MacBook Pro, and then purchased the 48Gb model from MemoryC in the UK for around £126 inc. VAT. Being a Bank Holiday weekend, I opted for the DHL next day delivery service, which meant I should have the whole weekend to play with the device, and sure enough the courier arrived first thing on the Friday morning.

The SSD fits perfectly into the ExpressCard slot and sits completely flush with the edge of the machine. It has a mini-USB 2.0 port and a small green LED on the exposed edge. It only weighs a few grammes so has no impact at all on the overall weight of the laptop.

I decided that I had two options when it came to configuring the SSD. One was to store the existing iTunes music library on it; the alternative was to convert it into a bootable drive, and use it to store the operating system and my application files. Given that the iTunes music library continues to expand rather rapidly it was a no-brainer filling up the SSD with music, so I went for the latter option. This is also the approach that Rob Griffiths talks about in his article.

Installing Snow Leopard onto the SSD was a breeze - I used my original retail copy of 10.6.0 (family edition!) and then used Migration Assistant to copy over my Applications. User files, including the iTunes library remained on the original hard disk. I then ran the Software Update programme to upgrade to 10.6.3. The SSD had about 7Gb of space remaining, which allows plenty of room for additional applications and space for OS upgrades. Finally, I changed the Start-up drive in System Configuration to point at the SSD and rebooted...

The speed improvement in rebooting was amazing. The system glides silently through the process and within just a few seconds all my login items appeared to have been loaded and the machine was ready for action. Launching applications also seems far less painful without the sound of the internal hard disk whirring away. Unfortunately I didn't do any timings before making the modifications, but it takes less than a minute from pressing the power button to having a fully functional laptop - including mounting remote drives connected through my Pogoplug, iDisk, and Time Machine disk, and a substantial number of start-up applications.

Of course, with this configuration, the original hard disk is still bootable in case of emergencies should the SSD fail. I've have tried this and some of the start-up applications got their knickers in a twist, but nothing that couldn't be dealt with quickly and painlessly. In addition, Time Machine automatically backs up both the SSD and the internal disk in a single seamless action, so restoring the system should also be fairly painless.

Looking at the original internal drive I appear to have rescued between 25-30Gb of free space. There is some duplication of folders across the two drives, but I can't see any duplication of individual files. Some more research and investigation is required to see if I can free up any more space. I could free up an additional 4Gb of space on the SSD by disabling the 'sleepimage' hibernation file (which would also allow a faster sleep process) but there's no point at present.

I'm really pleased with the improvements this modification has made. It was simple and quick to set up and configure, and the speed increases are very welcome, along with the extra space on my hard drive. I've not seen much in the way of comments about reliability of this sort of SSD in the long term, but I'm optimistic, and in any case I have secure back-up procedures in place. I'm hoping also that the battery life will improve with less of a requirement on the internal hard disk.

All in all, a highly recommended addition and modification to my MBP, but if you want to go the same way do your homework first, and, at the very least, check for compatibility with your model of laptop.

Repairing Login Parameters

2010-04-12T17:02:00.001+01:00

I was really excited to see the announcement and release of Snow Leopard 10.6.3 in the hope that the update would resolve my (and others) long outstanding problems where I lose my Internet/Server connection on my iMac on an intermittent and recurring basis. I've written about this at length in previous posts so I won't repeat the details here, but sadly, 10.6.3 doesn't appear to have made any material difference. Time between failures is generally longer, but the problem is still there, and the only solution is a restart or a total power down and on cycle.

It was during one of these outages over the weekend that I ran into a different problem. On starting the machine back up, over half the start-up programmes had failed to load. I checked the Login Items preferences in the Account option under System Preferences, and true enough there were only six items out of the twenty or so programmes I expected.

I had encountered this problem once or twice before, and had always resorted to fixing it the hard way; by adding each of the missing entries manually and hoping that I hadn't forgotten anything important. Thinking that there must be a better and easier fix, I typed in a tentative Google search for "login items in OS X". I couldn't immediately find anything that seemed to match my particular problem, but I did find some references to a file called loginwindow.plist that I thought might be worth looking at.

I fired up the Finder and located the loginwindow.plist file in the /Users/< username >/Library/Preferences folder. Opening this up with the extremely useful PrefEdit application from Marcel Bresink showed that this file indeed was the place where the login items information was stored. Next, I opened up Time Machine and found a pre-crash version of the file and a few seconds later had all my login items restored in their rightful place. Another restart, and everything was back to normal.

I'd like to know what causes the login items to disappear, but at least this is a relatively painless way to get them back when they do go awol!

A Bit of MacSpeech Therapy

2010-03-18T11:13:00.001Z

Well, it's taken about a month, but, I'm pleased to report that this posting on the Apple Harvest blog is being brought to you through the power of speech. In my last post, I wrote about the problems I had been having trying to get my copy of MacSpeech Dictate registered and licensed after purchasing it second-hand through eBay. Last night just as I was contemplating returning the software to its original owner and asking for a refund, I decided to have one final attempt at re-registering the software. As usual, the registration process itself failed. However, I had another look at my account on the MacSpeech website and lo and behold, there was an entry under my license details with a license key zip file to download.

I quickly downloaded the file, before anyone had a chance to change their mind, and booted up the MacSpeech Dictate program on my iMac. The program asked me to select a license key file, and that was that. A quick check in the About box showed that the software was now finally registered to me.

Of course, nothing can be that straightforward, and my first attempt to actually dictate something proved futile. Although I had set up a profile during the first four days of being able to use the software without a license, and although the program appeared to be accepting input through the headset, nothing was actually appearing on the screen. It was getting late in the day, and I did not fancy messing about trying to find the cause. Instead I decided to try to install the software on my MacBook Pro. Luckily the license agreement, which has caused me so much grief previously, allows me to install the software on multiple computers as long as it was only being used on one at a time. Given that I only have one headset, this was not a problem!

Installation only took a few minutes and I also had to create a new profile for the laptop, taking another few minutes. This time, when I tried to use the program there were no problems at all. However, in my rush to get the software operational, I had not thought carefully enough about the location of either the license key file or the profile. I decided to create a new folder under my existing documents folder, where I could store all the related MacSpeech Dictate files in one place. I proceeded to copy the relevant files into the new folder and restarted the program. I had the same problem as I'd had on the iMac; the headset appeared to be receiving correctly but nothing was appearing on the screen. Despite the fact that it was now dark (not to mention time for dinner), my curiosity was now aroused, and I had to investigate further.

I decided to reinstall the software having first deleted the original installation using AppZapper. Although MacSpeech Dictate needs 2 discs for installation, on this occasion I was not asked to load the second disc, so this installation was even quicker than before. When I launched the program following installation everything worked perfectly. It would appear that the program had merely lost sight of its configuration and reinstallation fixed the problem. I did the same thing on the iMac with similar success.

In this post I'm not going to write a full review of the software. I'll save that for a later date, when I have had more experience of using the package. But my first thoughts are very positive. I'm not sure that a novice will be able to achieve the creators estimates of 99% accuracy especially in a normal home environment. However, I would suggest that in the creation of this small entry I achieved a good 85% accuracy and this was boosted by having automatic spelling correction switched on in the target software, in this case MarsEdit. Because MacSpeech Dictate is more than just a dictation package - it also allows voice control of the computer - there are a lot of commands to learn and become familiar with. All the built-in commands are described in the comprehensive user manual which runs to over 150 pages. I did find a useful website which has a PDF file describing all the MacSpeech Dictate global commands. This runs to just 16 pages and is more accessible and easier to use, especially for the beginner. There are a lot more resources available here also.

I guess at the end of the day I'm just relieved to have the software successfully installed, registered, and working properly. My investment has not proved to be the white elephant it was looking like a few weeks ago. It would have useful if MacSpeech could have let me know that the problem with the license had finally been resolved - a Tweet or email doesn't take too much effort. Perhaps they consider that I'm not really a genuine customer as they have had no direct revenue from me, but there does seem to be a common theme about their less than stellar support on the user forums. And they are getting free publicity from me even if it's not all good. But the tide is changing in their favour...

A License to Frustrate

2010-03-11T10:57:00.004Z

Regular readers of the Apple Harvest will have become aware that I try to be positive and maintain a glass half full attitude. Many of the previous posts have been about finding workarounds to frustrating problems that I've been unable to fix. You'll also be aware of how much I value good service. But I have to admit I'm currently being crushed by the lack of customer service by the makers of MacSpeech Dictate.

I've been toying around with the idea of purchasing MacSpeech Dictate for some time, but the asking price of £150-170 has been too much for my currently beleaguered bank account and budget. Years ago I played around with IBMs VoiceType Simply Speaking software for Windows 95. The novelty wore off very quickly as I felt like an idiot talking to my computer in my home office, and I seemed to spend an awful lot of time correcting the mistakes that the software was making.

A good few years later I'm old enough not to care about feeling like an idiot at home (or anywhere else for that matter), and I've been reading some amazing reviews of MacSpeech Dictate 1.5.x. I've also had some problems with bursitis in my elbows recently and the doctor has put this down to RSI. It doesn't stop me typing or using the mouse, but it can be a bit painful and uncomfortable at times. I'm also doing a considerable amount of writing at present, and I really like this way of getting my ideas onto paper.

So when I saw an advert on eBay for a genuine copy of the software, including the headset, in original packaging, with the original disks for a bargain price of £102 including delivery I jumped at the chance.

Two days later on February 23rd, the package arrived and I had the software loaded onto the iMac within minutes. I went through the voice training process, which only took a few additional minutes, and I was ready to "rock and roll" so to speak.

The reviews were spot on. In those early hours I was genuinely impressed. Everything I threw at the software was faithfully transcribed, regardless of the package I tried, Pages, Word, MarsEdit - I was gobsmacked (even that came out correctly). I started playing around with the command mode. It's very empowering having your computer obey your every spoken command, including going to sleep at night.

And then the problem started.

The MacSpeech registration process requires that you submit your registration code and it then generates a license key file as part of the process. I had my registration code but no license key file. I couldn't actually complete the registration process because the software was already registered to the previous owner. I got in touch with the seller via eBay and asked if they could send me the license key file or at least unregister the software. At this point, I'd like to mention that the seller has been very helpful throughout the process, but in order to protect ourselves we have only been able to communicate via eBay.

The software worked for four days without a license key. It no longer works. Every day I try to register it and every day it fails. The seller has been doing his best at his end. I have been in touch with the support staff at MacSpeech via email and Twitter DM. Initially it looked like they may be able to help, but they no longer respond to my direct messages, and my last email, which included copies of all communication with the eBay seller, simply invoked an automated response saying:

Thank you for contacting MacSpeech. You are a valued customer and we appreciate you taking the time to contact us. We are currently experiencing higher than normal volume. Your questions are important to us, and we do apologize for any delays you may experience. Thank you for being a MacSpeech customer.

I understand the company wanting to protect its revenue stream, but it must be one of the last businesses on the planet to use archaic DRM for a software product. Apparently the convoluted de-registration and re-registration process is to protect both me and the seller - from what? From either of us being able to use the software or so it would seem.

I genuinely hope that I can get this resolved, without having to return the software to the eBay seller, as it's something I want to use (and he clearly doesn't). I would love to be able to post an entry on the Apple Harvest in a few days written using MacSpeech Dictate and extolling its virtues. In the meantime I've spent a hundred quid on a box, a headset and some disks.

I am really disappointed in MacSpeech - so it's Customer Service Turkey of the Month Award for them.

Niggles and Annoyances

2010-03-10T11:46:00.004Z

I thought about starting this entry with an apology, or at least a warning, to the Apple faithful who blissfully believe that the company can do no wrong. But then I thought about the people that I hope read these posts, and decided that most of them are simple users like myself who realise that no software or hardware from any manufacturer is every completely without fault. It's just that some folk try harder than others to make the user experience better.

As a user from a technical background I may be more unforgiving in my expectations, or it may be that my expectations are higher. It may simply be that my demands are more excessive, as I spend a very significant part of my day (my life) on the machines I use.

There is no doubt in my mind, however, that my experiences with the Mac are considerably more positive than with all the other operating systems and hardware that I've used and abused over the years. I've not yet tried Windows 7, but something inside tells me suggests that it wouldn't really change anything.

All these factors make the little problems I occasionally suffer from all the more irritating and irksome (of course, having just turned 48, grumpy old man syndrome is also now kicking in).

Spotlight Failure

My current bugbear is Spotlight (OS X 10.6.2). Since the failure of the internal drive on my iMac I've rigged up a 750Mb Seagate FreeAgent Pro Firewire drive as the bootable partition. It works well enough, and although there is a speed lag on some things compared to a proper internal drive, I can live with it until I have enough spare cash and time to get a new internal drive installed. That, of course, is the downside of the iMac; if something internal dies, you have to take the whole machine into the repair shop. I wish that Apple would let us access the internal drive in the same way that we can get to the memory banks. But that's not the point of this whinge.

I don't really use Spotlight very often so I don't know when my current problem started but I'm guessing that it is related to the drive configuration. I've installed a number of new utility and productivity applications recently and I sometimes forget to refresh my application launcher, TigerLaunch. So when I want to launch one of these new tools, for example MacUpdate Desktop, I'd sometimes use Spotlight as the launcher. Only it doesn't seem to be able to find many of my applications. If I type in "MacUpdate", it locates and displays various versions of the MacUpdate-Desktop .dmg install files, but there's no sign of the application. Similar things happen for other applications. "Launch" locates the Applet Launcher but fails to find LaunchBar. Selecting the Show All also fails to reveal the LaunchBar or the MacUpdate Desktop application in the previous instance.

Because I use TigerLaunch or QuickSilver as my normal application launchers this isn't the end of the world. But the problem is that I now have less confidence in Spotlight and that bothers me a lot.

I have tried just about everything to resolve the issue - I've re-indexed, deleted plist files, and even run Spotless (which I couldn't find in Spotlight either!) - but it never makes a difference. I'd love to hear from anyone experiencing a similar problem, especially if you have a solution!

MacUpdate Desktop Failure

Ironically, one of the applications mentioned above was the catalyst for finding the Spotlight problem. MacUpdate Desktop 5 is a piece of software available from MacUpdate Promo which enables users to track and install software updates automatically. I have it installed on both the MacBook Pro and the iMac, and it is great for checking on those seldom used applications, or on lesser used machines. I have no problems on the MBP with the software, but on the iMac it only finds 34 applications despite there being over 300 individual applications installed.

I can't help thinking there is a correlation between this problem and the Spotlight problem. Perhaps the only course of action is to get that internal drive installed once and for all. Who knows, my on-going networking problem may even vanish as well, although I think that's pure wishful thinking.

These two problems are not show stopping issues, but it is frustrating to have a system that doesn't do some of the simple things in life properly. Especially for a perfekshonist like me!

A Kind of Magic

2010-02-17T11:02:00.005Z

With my birthday coming up in a couple of weeks I decided to hedge my birthday funds and finally splash out on a Magic Mouse. The decision was mainly brought about because I found a supplier whose price couldn't be matched and they had some in stock. Over the years I've spent a small fortune on computer rodents; I've found some that I love, and others which have disappeared behind the electronic skirting board in a few weeks for one reason or another. I'm a difficult person when it comes to mice because I'm both left handed and have quite small hands. So my criteria for a good mouse are:

Small and lightweight

Uncontoured - in other words they fit into both hands the same way

Featured - scroll device, multiple buttons, etc.

Configurable

Truly Wireless - no dongle/receiver

Since I bought my first Apple computer I've used the Mighty Mouse (oops, that's the Apple Mouse isn't it!!), both wired and wireless versions and I must be one of the few people on the planet who have never experienced the well documented problems with the scroll ball. My only real hang-up with the Apple Mouse is the side buttons, which are just too stiff to be comfortable. I like the feel of the Apple Mouse in my hand, but the wireless version may be just a tad too heavy with the batteries in. In fact the only other mouse I use these days is the Kensington SlimBlade Trackball Mouse which I tend to use with my Hackintosh or when I'm on the train with my MBP. I love its ability to swap between mouse and trackball functions especially in cramped conditions.

I'm now hooked on the Magic Mouse. I like the low profile, although I fail to understand how people with long finger nails can use it without the desktop acting like a nail file, and it feels lighter than the wireless Apple Mouse. I love the silky touch of the mouse top and even slightly sweaty fingers seem to glide over its surface. But what really swings it for me is the 3rd party software available for it to make it truly configurable.

So far I've tried MagicPrefs, MouseWizard and jiTouch, but I keep coming back to BetterTouchTool. All four programmes offer similar features, but BTT just has the edge for me, primarily because it provides so much configurability, including fine control over speeds, touch pressures, surface boundaries, in addition to a wide range of gestures, taps, clicks and swipes. Regardless of which programme you finally opt for just take care not to overwhelm yourself by setting up loads of defined gestures; start off with a couple and build on these as you get more familiar with the mouse.

It does take some time to get to grips with the Magic Mouse. Fingers need to be in quite precise positions for a specific gesture to initiate the appropriate response and sometimes it can take to or three attempts. Scrolling is much smoother than with the Apple Mouse but clicks and taps can be a bit frustrating until you've been using the mouse for a while. I do find that my hand gets a little bit tired after prolonged usage and I think this is partly because of the low profile, but it may simply be bad habits on my part from not taking proper breaks. Time will tell.

Other caveats - the instructions indicate that to use a Magic Mouse on different machines requires you to unpair from one before pairing with another. In reality two machines can share a single Magic Mouse, but you clearly need to disconnect from one before connecting to the second. I've not noticed any issues regarding battery life as yet, with 84% charge remaining after 7 days. I certainly haven't seen the draining effect on my wireless keyboard that some users have reported, although that may be because I have one of the old plastic wireless keyboards.

Can I recommend the Magic Mouse? I really think you need to try one out before you decide to buy one. It's not going to suit everyone, and if you don't like it, it's an expensive mistake. If you decide to go ahead, be patient, and try out the different software options to get the best balance to suit you. Personally, I'm going to get a second one at some stage so I don't have to carry the current one around with me when switching between machines.

What's not to like about the iPad?

2010-02-06T12:09:00.005Z

I've pondered about whether to publish this entry for some days now. The Apple Harvest blog is not a place for rumours or speculation; its primary focus is to inform its readers about useful tools, gadgets, apps and problems (and sometimes solutions) that I comes across as a fairly typical Apple user. That isn't to say that I'll always keep my opinions to myself, but I prefer to try not to talk out of my backside.

Which is why, apart from a few remarks on Twitter, I've deliberately steered clear of writing about the iPad. But my gosh, I have read so much rubbish in the days (well months) leading up to the iPad launch on 27th January 2010, and possibly even more rubbish in the days following its launch, that I have decided to break my silence.

I'm going to confess to a few things up front.

I like the concept of a tablet device

I own an Asus R1F Tablet

I would buy an iPad

There, I feel better for that. Now, let me explain my reasoning.

The idea of a device that boots up almost instantly, allows me to prod and poke it, with my fingers, to make it do things, and lets me clearly view its display without either having to take my glasses off or having it shoved so close to my face that I can't breathe is really quite appealing. If I'm sitting down in front of the tele in the evening and I suddenly want to check something on the internet (like an actor's name) I don't want to wait for a laptop or desktop to boot up. I don't want to have to fumble around trying to find a stylus or pen. And no matter how much I love my iPhone, the web browsing facility is not its strongest point. If I'm in the pub and I want to share my photographs of my mate's daughter's wedding I want him to be able to see them properly, not on a display that's smaller than the beer mat which he can't see without his glasses. I already read various newspapers and magazines on-line via subscription, but reading experience is hampered by the form factor of the laptop/desktop, especially as they use a fixed horizontally biased display. A tablet allows me to do these types of thing, simply, quickly, efficiently and with a minimum of fuss.

The Asus R1F was a well spec'd PC Tablet and was well designed given the constraints of the time. But it was quite heavy, it got really hot, the battery life was rubbish, the display was blurry compared to normal laptops and believe me, handwriting on a laptop is not a natural thing to do. The Asus had some limited "wow" factor, but that was about it.

As far as I can tell, the iPad allows me to perform all the types of activity mentioned above whilst overcoming all the problems I encountered with the Tablet PC. In that respect, it actually fills the void between the kit that I use for my day to day business activities like writing, managing projects, building websites, and serious internet surfing and the mobile kit that I use for phone calls, listening to music, making quick notes, twittering and essential surfing.

OK I've not seen or used one yet, but tell me honestly:

"What's not to like about the iPad?"

Joby Jollies - Update

2010-01-29T09:00:00.002Z

Towards the end of last year I posted an entry waxing lyrically about the Joby Gorillapod and using it with the iPhone. At that time Joby had announced that their iPhone case, specially designed for use with the Gorillapod would soon be available as a separate item for those who already had a Gorillapod.

True to their word, within a few days the case appeared on their website and I put in my order just before Christmas. I didn't expect the package to arrive until the New Year, but half way through January there was still no sign of it. I contacted Joby through Twitter (@Jobyinc) and they replied to say they would look into it but could I email their service team. This I duly did, and within a few hours received an email explaining that the item had been sent on the day of order, but had apparently got lost in the post and a replacement would be dispatched forthwith.

A couple of days ago the iPhone case arrived and I would definitely recommend it to anyone with an iPhone and Gorillapod (especially if you've also downloaded the Gorillacam app also described in the post).

Whilst the suction pad I had been using worked OK, it did require a very clean surface, and was not suitable for anything too rigorous. The dedicated case provides a much more robust connection to the Gorillapod, and the iPhone simply clips into it with a very snug fit - in fact so snug it can be a bit tricky to get it out in a hurry. The good news is that the case fits flush on a flat surface. The case can be purchased direct from the Joby website and costs £14.95.

It's worth noting that I would not consider this to be a replacement case for an iPhone. It's better than nothing, as it is sturdy enough, but it doesn't provide the depth of protection that I look for in a permanent case.

I'm pleased to award the first Apple Harvest service award of 2010 to Joby (sorry guys, it's a virtual prize), for their swift and effective response.

Back to Reality

2010-01-28T10:21:00.003Z

After all the excitement of last night's iPad announcement (and thankfully an end to all the speculation and rumour mongering - for now!) it's time to wake up and smell the roses. The real world is still out there and Apple still has an existing product line to support. I see an increasing number of problems being reported in the press, in blogs and on Apple-related forums, that seem to suggest that the famous Apple quality standards may be slipping ever so slightly. An example is the serious issues with the latest 27inch iMacs which have seen numerous shipping delays. It's a fact of life that a business that built its reputation on the combination of innovative, elegant and high quality products cannot afford to let any one of those attributes be compromised. Of course, it may simply be that increased market share, as well as increasing numbers of products just means that there is more exposure of problems.

Traditionally Mac users have been very product aware. They don't just use their computers and software, they explore the systems and their possibilities and they understand the subtleties and nuances that make Macs so powerful. As more people migrate to Apple from traditional PC brands and Microsoft Windows we shouldn't necessarily expect that pioneering spirit to envelope the new breed of user.

So where am I going with all this?

My networking problems, documented in other entries in this blog have re-emerged, and I cannot find a satisfactory solution. However, I now find that I'm far from alone, which in some ways gives me comfort - working on the old adage of a problem shared being a problem halved (or even solved!). None of the suggestions that I've seen and tried have provided more than slight relief, and all of them involve tinkering with esoteric advanced network settings. Since this is a new problem (new in the sense that it didn't exist in my system six months ago) and is repeatable in other people's, differently configured, systems, the logical conclusion is that it is an OS bug that is causing a network failure.

What bothers me is that I never see any Apple presence on the Apple support forums, so we never know whether any of these problems are investigated at Apple HQ. Worse still, there is no way I can see for a normal user to be able to report a bug, other than as a result of a system crash - no crash no bug!

Apple needs to improve its customer facing support service to provide us with some reassurance that our problems are being investigated and that solutions, where applicable, are being sought. I'm on about genuine problems here, not the ones that plague support forums because people are too lazy or stupid to figure things out for themselves by picking up a book or doing a search on the internet.

Reputations built on quality will disintegrate overnight if that quality is compromised. Caveat Apple.

Confessions of a Fickle Browser User

2010-01-07T16:57:00.001Z

When I first started working, the internet, as we know it today, was still in its infancy. So was e-mail; GUIs were only research projects, and browsers were people who walked around shop floors without any money in their pockets or bank accounts.

A few years later when I was properly ensconced in the corporate IT world I remember briefly playing with Netscape, but from then on in it's pretty much been Internet Explorer all the way. And on company owned machines it's usually been at least two versions of IE behind the latest one. IE has moved forwards in leaps and bounds since those early days when Microsoft was still in denial about the future of the net, and the last version that I used in anger on the PC, IE7, did just about everything I needed or expected.

Of course, when I bought my first Mac back in 2007 it didn't take long to realise that IE on the Mac had not exactly progressed with the times. Because my entry into the Mac world coincided with the launch of Leopard and Safari 3 it made sense to use Safari from the outset, and I was quite happy for a few months. But something, and I genuinely forget what it was now, made me try out Firefox. Before long, Firefox became my browser of choice.

I love Firefox's extendibility, and before long I had the browser configured exactly how I wanted it. I had toolbars for LinkedIn and Facebook, Xmarks (previously FoxMarks) for bookmarks, Morning Coffee to load a set of default tabs, and all sorts of other goodies. Almost all was hunky dory in the Apple Harvest world. But I started to get annoyed when some of my extensions failed to load every time there was a point update. And then there was the problem I had when my internet connection intermittently started hanging forcing a reboot.

When Safari 4 was released I decided to have another look at it, but it seemed to take forever to load my home page (mine is set to a customised BT:Yahoo home page), so I decided to stick with Firefox, and put up with it's inconveniences.

However, in the last couple of weeks I found out that some of the features that I really like were available to me in Safari. I began to investigate and to my surprise my home page loaded almost instantly. I installed Glims, Inquisitor and PDF Browser plug-ins. With these three additions I'm able to perform all the main tasks that I used to demand of Firefox, but with fewer configuration issues. And some of the super duper add-ins for Firefox that I used to have installed proved to be padding and superfluous.

I don't really need a Facebook or LinkedIn toolbar, Xmarks works fine with Safari, pages load fast and Safari is now my default browser. Until something better comes along!

Sugarsync and Apple Mail

2009-12-29T16:16:00.002Z

I've just spent a couple of days attempting to set up SugarSync to work with Apple Mail. Sadly all my efforts have been in vain and I've been forced to resort to manual methods to keep my iMac and MBP mail synchronised.

I think that my requirement is fairly common but I'm struggling to find an elegant solution whereby I can keep my mail systems up to date across two different Apple machines; an iMac and a MacBook Pro (strictly speaking it's three machines, but as the Hackintosh is still running under Leopard and the others under Snow Leopard, I'll not include that in this problem discussion). Currently my iMac acts as the primary Mail machine, and all mail is delivered there from my ISP and immediately and automatically deleted from the server. If I'm on the road for more than a day, I'll close Mail down and copy the entire "username"/Library/Mail folder onto the MBP. The laptop then becomes the primary Mail machine until I return home. I then reverse the procedure to revert back to normal. The key to this approach is to make sure that only one machine is the active Mail computer at any one time, and on occasion I forget that I'm not supposed to start Mail up on the "wrong" machine until all necessary transfers have been completed. There are mechanisms to avoid this, like keeping the server copies in place during the trip, but even this requires changes to preferences which are easy to forget.

I recently started using SugarSync to keep my work folders in sync across desktop and mobile devices. I've configured it to work with Things and SketchBox most recently I've solved the problem of managing local drafts in MarsEdit across a network. SugarSync is a relatively inexpensive way to keep files and folders synchronised. I have subscribed to the cheapest plan which gives me 30Gb of storage and allows me to sync across any number of machines. This basic plan costs $49.95 per year. A free plan also exists for users with more modest requirements and gives you 2Gb of storage and sync capability for two computers. A SugarSync app is also available on the iPhone for increased flexibility.

Given the success of using SugarSync with other systems, I decided to see if anyone had set it up to work with Apple Mail. My searches proved fruitless, and I summoned up the courage to act as a pioneer. I backed up my primary Mail system on a USB stick, and did an extra Time Machine backup on both desktop and laptop computers. I then configured SugarSync to manage the "username"/Library/Mail folders on both machines. This folder weighed in at about 600Mb, including all subfolders, and contained about 10,000 items.

For my first attempt I worked on the iMac first and SugarSync duly went off and started uploading all the data from my mail system. This took several hours at an average upload speed of about 0.35Mb/s. I then attempted to sync the laptop and was surprised to see that almost everything from the laptop mail system was also being uploaded and marked as such in the filename. I figured that this must be because the desktop and laptop were completely out of sync and was concerned that the duplication of critical files would cause Mail to have a nervous breakdown. I halted the process, reset both machines, performed a manual copy of the iMac mail folder to the laptop and started again. I left things running over night and in the morning was amazed to find that the same thing had happened. I attempted to start Mail on the iMac but it just spluttered and died requiring a Force Quit, and another reset of both Mail systems, after removing SugarSync from the equation.

I've not got enough technical knowledge about the internals of the Apple Mail system to understand what's going on, and why SugarSync was unable to create a single set of files which Mail could then read. And I'm not sure that I really want to find out. I'm definitely of the opinion that, in certain subject areas, a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. This is certainly one of those subject areas!

So, SugarSync is not the silver bullet to solve this particular problem and I'm still on the lookout for that elegant solution to synchronise Mail across two Macs. If anyone knows how to do this (without setting up Mail servers) please let me know. I guess the easiest way is to keep all my messages on the ISP servers and once a week ensure that both machines are fully aligned before deleting everything off the server.

But that still requires manual intervention and may still not be foolproof. Or Ally-proof. And it certainly isn't elegant!

Some Joby Jollies

2009-12-11T11:02:00.005Z

A few weeks ago I bought myself a new compact digital camera, a Canon Powershot A480. Don't worry, this isn't turning into a photo blog. To go with my new camera I also picked up a Joby Gorillapod. You must have seen them - the funny little tripods made out of interlocking plastic balls that hook around tree branches, lampposts and the like. The original Gorillapod is as light as a feather and takes up hardly any space so it's ideal for slipping into your pocket.

When I first received my Gorillapod one of my first thoughts was - "hey that would work really well with the iPhone!". Of course, the iPhone doesn't have a hole for a tripod fitting so that one needed a rethink.

A few days later I was on Amazon's UK web site and, lo and behold, one of my recommendations was a Gorillapod for the iPhone 3G/3GS. Strictly speaking it was an original Gorillapod with a special iPhone 3G/3GS case that fitted into the Gorillapod's head. It was also rather on the pricey side; in the UK it is retailing at about £35.00. Bearing in mind that I had a perfectly good Gorillapod and a perfectly good iPhone case (Griffin Nu Form with EasyDock) I kept my hand in my pocket and my fingers well away from the 1-Click button.

I was intrigued and decided to check out Joby's web site to see what other goodies might be available. Buried away was an offering of three additional Gorillapod heads; a suction cup and two adhesive pads. These were still a bit pricey (£10.00), but I was too far hooked on the idea by now and I went ahead and bought them. [UPDATE 14-Dec-2009: Bill has just come through and the actual price was £7.84 direct from Joby]

I have Apple docks for syncing with my iMac and my MBP, but the Gorillapod and iPhone combination is spot on as a stand-alone stand. The suction pad is top notch, with a lever action to ensure a tight seal, although I've seen various posts complaining about the iPhone falling off. It's certainly worth spending a moment or two to clean the case surface before applying the cup. My only criticism (more of a wish I could have), is the lack of a 'quick release' function. It is a bit of a faff to get the whole head off the Gorillapod, and though one can tug on the iPhone and simply pull off the suction cup, I'd prefer something a bit more elegant. I seem to end up holding the entire contraption whenever the phone rings which really doesn't look very cool!

To go with the Gorillapod, Joby have also released a free camera app for the iPhone called...wait for it...Gorillacam. Gorillacam adds a few extra features to the camera on the iPhone; a self-timer, a time-lapse facility and a 3 shot-burst function. There are some other features including a bubble level indicator, a grid display and a press anywhere feature. I guess all of these are available on the plethora of camera apps available on iTunes, but they were all new for me, and as a freebie I'm more than grateful for the self timer ability alone. The only drawback I've noticed is that it takes an inordinate amount of time to save photos once they've been taken, but hopefully that will get ironed out in the next version.

These Joby tools are a great addition to the casual photographers kit bag, and allow a bit of extra flexibility for the iPhone as a bonus. According to the Joby web site they are planning to bring out the iPhone case with Gorillapod attachment as an item in its own right for those who have already got a Gorillapod. That's certainly something worth considering for the future.

Useful Mail Add-Ins and a Small Surprise

2009-12-04T11:06:00.002Z

I promised to take a closer look at some of the add-ins that make Apple Mail my mail client of choice. But before I do that I wanted to share something I discovered this morning by chance.

Mail Recovery with Time Machine

Like many people who were early adopters of Snow Leopard I had a few teething troubles in the first few weeks with my existing Mail accounts. I've made reference to this in previous posts so won't dwell on it here other than to say that the problem no longer appears to exist. However, there does appear to have been some debris left over from this episode, and I found that I had multiple references to the same account stored in various locations. In an attempt to clear up the unwanted references I had an accident with some of my sent messages (I'm a hoarder and keep copies of everything for years). The message header details appeared in the Sent mailbox but the messages themselves were missing.

By chance I happened to start up Time Machine whilst still in Mail, and discovered that in this instance Time Machine will focus all its attention on your mailboxes. A few clicks later and all my sent mail was restored to its expected state but in a safe mailbox called "Time Machine/Recovered". I referred back to David Pogue's excellent "Mac OS X The Missing Manual (Leopard Edition)" and indeed this feature was available in Leopard and works in a similar way with iPhoto and Address Book.

This is a great feature for recovering from minor glitches with mail without having to resort to a full mail system restore. I wish I'd known about it before!

Letterbox Add-In

Letterbox is one of those "oh-so-simple" things that it really begs the question as to why it wasn't part of the original requirements in the Mail programme. Aaron Harnly's add-in allows a three column view within the main Mail window with the message content in the third column. The current 0.24b5 beta release works with Snow Leopard 10.6.2 and allows a few other goodies like changing alternate line colours in the mail header list, and allowing a two line view also in that window. Letterbox is free, and new updates to support Apple updates are usually very quick off the board.

DockStar

DockStar from ecamm network ($15.00) provides you with a configuration utility for the Mail icon in the dock, allowing the mail count of up to five mailboxes to be displayed on the icon. It does this by adding 'badges' to the icon. Each badge allows different options to be selected, e.g. which mailbox, style and colour of display, and type of count (unread, total, etc.). Badges can also be displayed in the menu bar. Again, a very simple concept but really useful for monitoring incoming mail without constantly having to check the Mail application itself.

MailTags

I've not been using MailTags from indev software ($29.95) for very long so I'm probably not doing justice to its full feature set, but nonetheless I do find it useful. In its simplest form MailTags allows you to tag individual mail messages using categories of your own choice, and to filter messages using those tags. It also allows you to add other metadata to a message such a priority, project, colour, and notes. It also allows you to use your notes to change the visible title of the mail. MailTags are integrated into rules giving you further abilities, and tags are supported by other applications such as Mail Steward, giving you the same filtering abilities in these apps. I find it really useful for marking messages containing invoices and license information using a specific format which allows me much quicker access to the info when I need it, without having to wade through message bodies. Some discipline is required to make full use of such a facility, but it's well worth the effort, especially when it's time to start annual accounts...

I'll cover some of the other add-ins I find useful in a future post, but hopefully there's plenty here to get you salivating. And none of these will make your tongue taste nasty!

Hackintosh - Three Months On

2009-12-02T07:49:00.001Z

We had our first proper frost at the Apple Harvest last night. That, along with the rapidly diminishing hours of daylight, reminded me that it has now been three months since my last post dedicated to my Hackintosh. I've mentioned it in passing, but it is about time for a proper update, since my Google web tools tell me that it's still the most popular subject that I've written about.

The truth is that there really hasn't been much to report. For new readers, my Hackintosh is a Dell Mini 9 with a 32Gb RunCore SSD, currently running OS X 10.5.8. I wanted a netbook to sit alongside my iMac, MacBook Pro and iPhone and complement my existing Apple environment. Specifically, I wanted something small and light to take on short journeys without having to drag the MBP around so that I could get on-line, jot down notes and blog posts and check mail. Admittedly, I haven't made that many short journeys, so perhaps the Hackintosh hasn't been subjected to quite what it was intended for, but it did get a fair bit of use when the MBP was 'hors de combat' earlier in the autumn.

As expected it isn't a permanent replacement for the MBP. The single biggest issue is that screen real estate is so restricted that some internet applications can be a little difficult to use. I don't have the same problems with the keyboard that some people have reported, and my bluetooth mouse works like a treat. The machine can be a bit temperamental when I start it up, sometimes requiring a restart after a minute or so, but generally that doesn't cause too much inconvenience. I've had the same problem with Windows laptops costing three or four times what the Hackintosh cost.

The only thing that keeps nagging at me is the fact that I'm still running Leopard on the Hackintosh, whilst the rest of the Apple Harvest is now on Snow Leopard 10.6.2. Now I know that 10.6.2 will not work on the Dell's Atom processor, but I wouldn't mind being a bit more consistent in terms of running some of the native OS X apps like Mail.

Last night I finally found some instructions on how to upgrade the Dell Mini 9 using the RunCore. I've printed out all 20 pages (18 pages are comments) and have begun to peruse the contents. It doesn't seem too complicated, especially having made the original modifications, but I have to confess to being a bit nervous. I have a complete Time Machine backup and a Carbon Copy clone, so it'll be easy enough to restore the current system. But do I really want to screw up a perfectly good setup, just to satisfy a technical urge and a bit of curiosity ?

I think I need to sleep on this over several nights before taking the plunge. Watch this space...

Cloud Computing - Pie in the Sky ?

2009-12-01T10:02:00.002Z

I was looking through my iPhone the other day with a view to clearing out some unused or redundant apps. You know how it is - you download something because it seems useful, and some months later you download something similar because it seems more useful, but you don't get rid of the first one...

Some of the decisions were simple. I'm only a casual gamer so any unplayed free games were the first to go. I really don't need three battery checkers, or two WiFi hotspot finders, and some of those "really useful" apps were no longer needed because they were all available within AppBox Pro. I decided that one Twitter client was also sufficient, so as much as I like TweetDeck I now use Tweetie2 most of the time. TweetDeck was duly consigned to the discard pile.

But then I came to my "business" apps. Some of these like PDF Reader, Merlin, Bento, Awesome Note, iXpensIt, Shrook and Things had to stay, either because they provide me with portable versions of my desktop apps, or because they are excellent apps which serve me well. That left a whole bunch of apps which serve a similar purpose, namely, to provide us with a way of viewing, storing and possibly editing "office" type files - documents, presentations and spreadsheets.

The trouble is that these apps have been designed to plug a perceived gap in the iPhones native apps. Apps like Files, QuickOffice, Dropbox, SugarSync, and Fliq were created so that we could copy files from our desktops, work on them whilst on the move, and download them again when we reached our destination. Or so that we could send them to our colleagues or clients in an emergency. Or so that we could be bound even tighter by the chains of the workplace which becomes ever more pervasive in our personal lives. The other problem is that none of these apps does everything that you actually need! They all do a little bit which is why you end up with a fistful of the darn things.

This got me thinking about the whole concept of cloud computing, the necessity of mobile access to our documents, and a bit about how we actually use our iPhones (or Blackberries, etc.) and perhaps how we should be using them.

I'm a bit of a sceptic when it comes to cloud computing. I believe it's based on an unsound principle which is that high speed, cheap and efficient internet connections are available to all people at all times and in all places. This is clearly not the case unless you live in South Korea. It is certainly not the case in rural Britain or if you are on public transport in the UK where I often have trouble getting a 2G signal. I'm not even going to begin to go into the security aspects. Companies have enough trouble looking after physical data sources like CDs, DVDs and Laptops, so what hope do they have securing data in the Ether?

In the year that I've had my iPhone I've accessed "work" documents a couple of times, generally to test out these new apps and see how my masterpieces look. I've used Smartphones and PDAs for over ten years altogether but I've yet to use an app to resolve a business crisis involving lost files and document editing on any of them. That's why I have a laptop with a Broadband dongle.

What I am interested in at the Apple Harvest is a smart way of synchronising data across laptop, netbook, desktop and occasionally the iPhone. I have no desire to create documents on the iPhone, other than short notes, baby spreadsheets and similar "aides de memoirs". If I know that my computers are in sync and my to-do lists, calendars and contacts , etc., on the iPhone are all up-to-date then I'm sorted. Because I work for myself security is my problem so I want to keep things simple, and generally I'm unfettered from corporate binds because I'm in touch with myself 24*7 anyway. So I've decided that I don't need all these apps to connect with my work.

Unfortunately there still isn't one app that can do everything I want. But I've whittled it down to two, SugarSync and Evernote, and some supporting technologies, MobileMe, SyncDocs, and GoogleDocs. The reason that there are still five things I need to consider is that it's not just documents that I'm dealing with. Often it is application related data which isn't stored as a convenient standalone file. Applications like Things and SketchBox, as well as all my work related folders are dealt with by SugarSync. I use Evernote to handle my web notes (web pages that I want access to at a later date, and across multiple machines). MobileMe takes care of all my personal data, iCal, Contacts, and data from a few applications like Yojimbo and TextExpander. SyncDocs and GoogleDocs are required to export data from specific iPhone apps, Notebooks and Awesome Notes respectively.

So you see, it's still quite complicated and there is still an unhealthy dependency on the cloud. But I can get around the cloud for most important things should the need arise. Which really brings me back to the original problem. I only need the cloud because I've elected to run my life across a laptop, a netbook, a desktop and an iPhone. Life would be a whole lot easier if I'd stuck to a laptop and a mobile phone that made calls and nothing else. My devotion to technology has brought about a new set of requirements (which could be considered unnecessary) and to meet those requirements I've had to build a complex solution. Why? Because I can...

A Word or Two about Apple Mail

2009-11-27T14:55:00.006Z

It's strange to think, but when I started full time work after graduating back in 1984 we didn't have email. In fact my first encounter with email was when I opened a Compuserve account sometime in the late 1980s. It wasn't until the early nineties that I had access to email at work, again through a corporate Compuserve account, but with limited availability. Many of my colleagues had another two or three years to wait before the full roll-out of Novell's Groupwise across the company. By the time I joined a very large Global Outsourcing company in the late nineties, email was more prevalent, and Outlook had become the de facto standard for most businesses. It wasn't long before I was receiving several hundred email messages each day, and by the time I left that corporation I was regularly getting more than a thousand messages a week. I became something of an expert on Outlook simply to be able to manage incoming mail.

When I moved across to the Mac platform I duly purchased Office:Mac 2008 which had just hit the streets. I fully expected Entourage to look and work like Outlook. Boy was I mistaken ! Even getting Entourage to read Outlook data files was a major hassle, although I eventually managed to import my old Outlook messages using third party software. But there was enough of a likeness between the Microsoft's Mac and PC mail offerings to keep me hooked in preference to Mail. I particularly liked Entourage's integration of mail, to-do lists and calendar.

I prevailed with Entourage until earlier this year before deciding to try out Mail in earnest. The Entourage database had started a habit of corrupting itself, and of course Time Machine backups were incorporating the entire database every time it was updated. Archiving in Entourage also left me cursing its designers.

I now use Mail all the time and generally wonder why I ever bothered with Entourage. But it isn't Mail out of the box. I have a set of Add-Ins and tools which give the programme its genuine usefulness. These are Letterbox, DockStar, Growl Mail, Mail Tags and Mail Attachments Iconizer. I also have Mail Act-On installed but I'm still trying to get to grips with that. I use MailSteward for archiving, and this also allows me to get around the problems of incompatibility between the Leopard and Snow Leopard versions of Mail.

Luckily the volume of email that I currently have to deal with is greatly reduced from the madness of a few years ago. But even if it were too suddenly escalate, Apple Mail in the Apple Harvest environment would be more than capable of rising to the situation. It would be even better if:

Apple would provide a mechanism for properly integrating Mail and iCal without me having to use another third party application like DayLite

Apple engineers would stop messing about with Mail internals that then break the 3rd party add-ins until the poor developers have a chance to figure out what they've done and are able to catch up (which they generally do very quickly), and leaving the poor user with a broken environment in the meantime

Another time, we'll look at some of the Add-Ins in more detail. Happy emailing...

Blogging tools for the Mac

2009-11-18T16:29:00.001Z

I'm relatively new to the art of blogging (although I've been writing for a number of years), and as a result I'm not all that familiar with different blogging set-ups and tools. When I decided to set up my first blog, ALLYGILL.CO.UK which is aligned to my business, some of the choices were really made for me. I had built the web site for my Process Management consultancy business using RapidWeaver. RapidWeaver is great because it allows me some considerable flexibility without getting me dragged into the gory details of HTML, CSS and JavaScript, etc. on a daily basis. The pages are static, and I probably update them once or twice a month. Dreamweaver was too expensive and overkill for my fairly conservative requirements.

RapidWeaver also supports third party add-ons, and has a thriving developer community. One such add-on was RapidBlog which I purchased with a view to incorporating a blog in the future. RapidBlog is designed to work closely with Blogger, so the choice of a blog host was made automatically.

Blogger itself is a perfectly adequate tool for creating and managing blog entries, as is RapidBlog, but I wanted something with a bit more flexibility and more importantly, that didn't rely on an on-line connection as I quite often write on trains, planes and automobiles (I'm not a driver so don't panic). Some automatic content and configuration management was also important, which, for me, ruled out using RapidBlog as it would overcomplicate the way I manage my web site content.

I don't really remember how I came across MarsEdit. I imagine I read a review in one of the many Mac comics that I subscribe to and it struck me as being a fairly simple tool to use but one that ticked all the right boxes. It's also inexpensive which always goes down well at the Apple Harvest. I would have pointed out an excellent review I read the other day, but I can't quite put my hands on it at the moment. It was written by a staff writer for one of the UK specialist Mac magazines and is much better than anything I can throw together. I'll post a link if I can find it at a later date. Although MarsEdit provides some HTML formatting support, it is a bit basic and I recently added BlogAssist to the arsenal. This is another simple tool allowing that little bit of extra control over blog entry appearance.

Let me know if there's other stuff I'm not aware of. I have looked at WordPress and I'm aware that there's a wide range of associated development tools, but I'm committed to Blogger at the moment. This combination of tools serves me perfectly well and as a wise man said:

"If it ain't bust, don't fix it!"

Eliminate the possibilities - then get lucky

2009-11-18T11:22:00.002Z

So I think I've finally found the cause of the internet connection drop that I've been suffering from and hopefully eliminated it, but it has been a very unproductive few days. Luckily I work from home, I'm answerable only to myself and I had the time to go through the process of establishing the root cause; if the same thing had happened to the majority of people, it would possibly take days or even weeks before they could determine the problem.

The past few days took me back to the time when I used to cut code for a living, and occasionally I'd get those faults which would only surface every so often, but would cause a total system crash. I'd spend hours trying to step through the code, looking at memory dumps, and using any other debugging tool at hand. More often than not (and without trying to sound too cocky), the problem lay in the interaction of someone else's code not my own - and very often, it would be something as simple as a buffer overflow trashing my space. It would appear that something similar was going on with the iMac, and all those old problem solving skills were required to find the source of the error.

First of all I needed to think what changes I'd made to the system - and there were quite a few. The trouble was that many of them were interrelated. I'd been having some teething problems with Firefox bookmarks (Xmarks) which I was determined to fix. New bookmarks would disappear shortly after being created, or they would have incorrect URLs associated with them. After reinstalling Xmarks to no avail, I decided to trash my Firefox profile and rebuild it to see if that worked. Rather stupidly, on reflection, I added in some new add-ons while doing this. It's much more sensible to focus on solving one problem properly before changing the environment or conditions in which the problem dwells. Although I fixed the bookmark problem with the new profile, the side effect appeared to be the random dropped internet connection. This also teaches us a bit of a lesson, that the perceived problem is not always the right one to focus on. I've been preaching that in my business life for years, but I don't always follow my own (sensible) advice when fixing my computer!

My next step then was clearly to disable the additional Firefox goodies that I'd installed in the new profile, because one of them must be causing the problem. No such luck, the random drop-outs continued. Because the problem wasn't occurring with my laptop, I then decided to copy the Firefox profile from the laptop to the iMac. The random drop-outs continued.

Time to focus on the other differences between iMac and MBP. I run Apple Mail by default on the iMac, only swapping to the MPB when on the road. So maybe this was a Mail problem. I stopped using Mail, and checked mail directly through the internet. The random drop-outs continued. I was relieved by this, as I didn't really want to be messing about with Mail innards. Next I stopped running the Twitter clients, Tweetie and TweetDeck. And still the random drop-outs continued.

Back to Firefox, which by now was the most likely cause of the problem. I toyed with the idea of reverting to Safari, but on this occasion, decided that this really would change the environment completely, so I belayed that idea. I checked the Firefox error console for the umpteenth time, and this time I found something new. There were some 1Password errors visible. 1Password is the saviour of the internet, as it enables you to store passwords, identities, credit card data and just about everything else required to live on-line. However, despite being a brilliantly useful tool, it seems to get an almost daily update. It seems that every time I open the programme, I get the New Version dialog box displayed. I remembered I had skipped an update a few days previously as I was in a hurry to get something done, so I ran the 1Password programme and performed the latest update (I'd missed two versions by now).

And that dear reader appears to have resolved the problem. The iMac has now run for over 48 hours without dropping the connection, I've been able to gently reintroduce some of the new Firefox goodies I wanted to try and I actually managed to get some work done.

The moral of the story ? There are several.

Focus on fixing one problem at a time, without changing the environment in which the problem occurs

Take the time to perform updates when they are offered. There's probably a good reason for doing so

Use a scientific approach to problem resolution and don't assume you know where the problem lies without proving it

To be fair to 1Password, I think there may have been some corruption along the way which caused the issue, and that even reinstalling the original version may have fixed the problem straight away - but I wasn't to know that at the time.

Now about these other problems I mentioned...

Networking is still a chore

2009-11-12T16:48:00.001Z

I'm old enough to remember the days when we used to have to connect to networks using acoustic couplers, bits of string, rubber bands and elastic and software without a user interface. The key ingredient was faith. It's fair to say that we have come a long way since then - broadband, mobile broadband, wireless and gigabit ethernet connections do make life easier. Software packages like Network Magic were a breakthrough on the Windows platform, but it wasn't until I started using Apple equipment a couple of years ago that I felt that much of the pain was being borne by the operating system rather than the user. Until things go wrong that is.

Since the MacBook Pro came back from the repair shop I've had a number of niggling problems with the network at the Apple Harvest. It isn't a complicated set-up: a BTHomeHub 2 sits at the heart of the network providing a mix of wired and wireless connections. My iMac is permanently connected via ethernet alongside a WD NAS drive. Both plug into the router via a NetGear gigabit switch, and a Powerlink connection takes the ethernet downstairs from my office and allows me to connect to BT Vision. The MBP generally connects wirelessly, but a spare ethernet connection is available upstairs if necessary. iPhone, iPod Touch and the Hackintosh all connect wirelessly.

The niggles started with iTunes. Having upgraded to OS X 10.6.2 and iTunes 9.0.2, the home-sharing facility stopped working over the wireless network. Plugging the MPB into the spare ethernet port resolved the situation initially but now this has also packed up. No changes have been made to firewalls or other security systems.

The second niggle came with ShareTool which I mentioned in my last blog entry. Whist ShareTool works without issue most of the time, occasionally it can't initialise itself, and a router reboot is required.

Over the past twenty four hours a new niggle has started. The iMac keeps dropping its internet connection. Sometimes this happens after 5 minutes, sometimes it takes 5 hours. The router shows no sign of any problems, and a check against the MPB shows that the Broadband signal is fine and internet access is OK on the laptop. The only solution is to switch the machine off and reboot as certain software packages trying to access the net won't quit to allow a restart.

The trouble with all these problems is that they are intermittent and therefore difficult to repeat and to diagnose. It's also true that network diagnostic tools are not for the faint hearted, and will generally lead to more questions than answers. The whole language of networking seems to be designed to baffle and obfuscate, even more than other IT disciplines. I understand quite a lot of what is going on, but I feel for the average home user who won't have a clue. (I recently sorted out a friends PC networking problems but to this day I haven't got a clue what was going on - only that I fixed it, and it hasn't happened again...yet).

In an attempt to sort out some of these problems I've stopped trying to run ShareTool, and have just discovered that the developer has posted an awareness of an incompatibility between the current version of ShareTool and OS X 10.6.2, which shouldn't really have come as a surprise. Credit to the developer for his rapid response and acknowledgement, as it means there's no point in me continuing to try to establish what's going on and ripping even more hair out. [Update 12.Nov.2009 17.15GMT - ShareTool is not to blame for the internet connection failure, so still need to find the culprit. Drat !!]

I guess the real point is that the industry as a whole needs to step back and bring networking support into the 21st century, to make the whole experience less painful and allow us to be more productive. I don't see why it should still be rocket science in this day and age!

Despair and Joy

2009-11-08T11:31:00.001Z

A couple of weeks ago we had yet more kit failure at the Apple Harvest. I'd been staying at my girlfriend's house for a couple of days, and had taken my MBP with me as I had some work to do while I was there. It was also a chance to check out some new software I'd purchased - ShareTool - allowing me to access my home office iMac from anywhere in the world via the internet. More on that later...

On the second morning, disaster struck. The MBP had been asleep during the night; an oversight on my part as I wouldn't normally leave a laptop plugged in and turned on. When I went to wake it up there was a blank screen and no light in the Apple logo on the lid. However, a quick check using the iStat app on my iPhone showed that the machine was actually booted and working normally, apart from the rather significant lack of video. More bizarrely, when I tried to screen share from my girlfriend's iMac (yup I've made a convert of her too!), everything was fine and dandy. So the good news was that it wasn't a complete system failure. iStat, by the way, is an essential and cheap diagnostic tool for anyone with an iPhone and Mac hardware.

Some research on the internet into the problem suggested that there were other folk suffering similar problems, some of which were traced back to a faulty graphics chip, and that Apple were offering free fixes, but it was difficult to tell if this was the same problem I was experiencing. Whilst the internet is a great place for getting ideas on how to resolve certain problems, more esoteric issues are much more difficult to track down. I guess it's similar to using witness descriptions of police suspects where no two individuals will provide an identical description of the baddy (unless it's a stitch up!).

Having had a new display fitted earlier in the year, I decided to check with the supplier to see if they could throw any light on the matter and more importantly whether the display was still under warranty. All credit to the guys at the Square Group in Derby who answered my email very promptly. They suggested bringing in the machine for inspection (£56.00) but gave me some hope that it may be a simple fix. The bad news was that the display was now out of warranty, but if it was a display issue there may be some grounds to pursue Apple.

Last week, I finally managed to get into Derby and dropped the machine off. I hadn't realised how much of an extension to my life the MBP had become as I seemed quite bereft without it. I duly paid my £56.00 inspection fee, and anxiously waited for a phone call, which came three days later.

In short, yes, it was bad news: complete logic board failure. My mind started racing, replace the board at horrendous cost, or ditch the MBP and buy a new one - neither really affordable options at the current time. The service manager went on..."but Apple have recognised a problem with that particular model and have provided a replacement free of charge which we have now fitted, and we have decided to refund your inspection fee". Good job it was a phone call otherwise I'd have probably tried to kiss the guy. (I've not had much in the way of good news recently!). Faith is also restored in Apple, as it was beginning to fade quite dramatically.

So I should be able to pick up the machine tomorrow morning, and that not so little void in my life will be filled again. It doesn't quite end there though, as while I was in the shop I asked for a quote for putting a replacement hard drive in the iMac (see blog entry from 28-10-09). I was quoted £56.00 for the inspection fee and the cost of the new drive, which was considerably less than I had anticipated. My only issue is how to get a whopping great 24inch iMac into Derby from where I live using public transport, and not damaging it even further.

Regular readers of this blog will know how much I value good service, so this month's service award goes to the Square Group in both Derby and the service centre in Alfreton. No actual prizes I'm afraid but a bit of free advertising won't go amiss I hope, and I might use the refund to buy a Magic Mouse. Just for the record, I used to use "the other" Apple supplier in Derby, but gave up with them because of their dire customer service.

By the way, ShareTool worked like a dream, and allowed me access not only my iMac but also the NAS device attached to the network, and the USB drives attached. Simple to set up and use, although I had some firewall issues with Integro's NetBarrier X5 which I managed to resolve reasonably quickly through trial and error and probably more luck than judgment. Recommended.

iHome Reson8 iPod/iPhone Alarm Clock and Dock

2009-10-23T15:36:00.012+01:00

I've been on the lookout for a clock/dock and speaker system for my iPhone 3G and first generation iPod Touch for some time and finally my search is over with the purchase of iHome's Reson8 system.

Part of the problem has been that amongst the hundreds of docks available on the market, I was struggling to find one that met my specific criteria of:

Size - portability was a must-have as I'm on the road a lot

iPhone - fully compatible without having to shift into Airplane mode

Charger - a given, as I don't want to carry extra docks and cable around

Sound - good quality sound in a bedroom or hotel room

Good looks - I don't want to wake up with something ugly

Clock and Alarm - basic functions with sleep and snooze facilities

Price - under £100.00; it's an alarm clock for goodness sake

To be honest I would have liked a dock that could also sync with my MacBook Pro, but that wasn't going to be a show stopper.

iHome's Reson8 or Model iP27 gets a tick mark in all the boxes. It has a relatively small footprint (W26xH4.5xD17 cm) when flat and when unfolded in normal operation (W26xH12xD13 cm). That gives a clue to it's canny design. When travelling the Reson8 lies flat (in it's own included carry case) and when you get to your destination you simply lift up the hinged speaker, plug the iPhone or iPod into one of the provided dock adapters and away you go.

All iPhone functions are available while the iPhone is plugged in, but there is no sync facility as I mentioned. The phone will automatically charge as long as the system is plugged into the mains.

For such a small piece of kit, the Reson8 gives out a belting sound, easily enough to fill a reasonable size bedroom or hotel room without distorting. Pushing up the volume will certainly attract unwanted attention from other paying guests or family members depending on your location. A side mounted switch turns on the EXB or UPRO Wide Stereo function giving extra sound enhancement in the same way that the loudness button works on some stereo systems.

There is a simple LCD clock with a single alarm. Both snooze and sleep functions are provided allowing auto shut down at 90, 60, 30 or 15 minute intervals. The volume in sleep mode is independently adjustable from the normal volume. A four way dimmer switch is available for the display. The alarm works perfectly well in combination with the sleep function. A DST switch is incorporated into the unit for good measure.

The glossy black finish attracts a bit of dust and some grubby fingerprints, but the overall look and feel of the unit is very pleasing. A remote control is provided for many of the functions which has a very firm and durable feel to it.

I paid less than £90.00 including P&P for my Reson8 and I'm delighted with it. It's been well worth the wait. looks good, sounds good, and does everything demanded of it. You can't ask for much more than that...

Duplex Printing on HP DeskJet 970Cxi - Update and Solution

2009-10-01T16:50:00.001+01:00

Even before the proverbial ink had dried on my last entry, I seem to have found a potential solution to the problem of printing in full duplex mode on an HP DeskJet 970Cxi under Snow Leopard.

I stumbled across a piece of software called PrintFab 2 which is, according to the maker's blurb, a

"printer driver suite with RIP functionality. PrintFab's innovative “dynamic” color profiles ensure full control over color mixture and ink consumption combined with perfect print quality."

Installing PrintFab 2 sets up a "new" printer according to the configuration info you supply and loads the PrintFab driver as it's default. It's a simple enough process, and it restores duplex functionality to my DeskJet 970Cxi. It does an awful lot of other stuff by the looks of things but I'll investigate that during the next 30 days of my free trial.

PrintFab 2 may be an overkill solution, and it isn't cheap, running in at about £45.00 for a single user license for the simplest home version. But for peace of mind, saving trees, and saving the time I waste looking for alternative solutions, I think I may have finally found my Holy Grail, and I don't mind paying a small price for that.

Duplex Printing on HP Deskjet 970Cxi - Hopes Raised and Dashed

2009-10-01T16:03:00.001+01:00

Ever since installing Snow Leopard I've been moaning about the downgraded printing service I now receive, specifically the lack of full duplex support for my trusty old HP DeskJet 970Cxi. Being the external optimist that I am, I regularly do a search for news of any potential fixes.

Earlier today I performed my weekly Google for my personal Holy Grail (what lofty ambitions I have!), and got quite excited when I found Gutenprint 5.2.4. The Gutenprint drivers installed with Snow Leopard are from the 5.2.3 version. I was a little surprised that the release date for the latest version was July 29th 2009 because it predated Snow Leopard's release but decided to go ahead anyway.

There were no specific details in the release notes pertaining to either Snow Leopard or my DeskJet, but I downloaded and installed the package. As I was in Firefox I decided to run a test print of the Gutenprint download page to see if I could detect any difference. I ran a check on the printer installation a sure enough, the driver for the HP DeskJet 970Cxi was now "HP DeskJet 970C - CUPS+Gutenprint v5.2.4", a definite improvement.

I went into the Print option in Firefox and my pulse started racing as the dialog box came up and had a tick against the "Two-Sided" print CheckBox, and the "Two-Sided" printing Listbox gave me a default option of "Long-Edge binding". The Gutenprint 5.2.3 driver had all references to double sided printed greyed out, and rendered useless.

The excitement was short lived as the printer started churning out separate sheets for each page in the same way as its predecessor. I guess there is still some hope. The possibility of double sided printing has been restored and single sided printing does still work with the new driver.

So near and yet so far...

Cool Tools - Time and Sanity Saving Utilities

2009-09-29T19:25:00.001+01:00

Despite being part of the Mac world for only a couple of years, I seem to have accumulated an awful lot of software, both on my laptops and desktop machines. Some of this software is standard order - MS-Office, iWork 09 and iLife 09, but it speaks volumes for the Mac community that much of what I have acquired, both freeware, shareware and fully commercial software is used on an almost daily basis.

I guess the same was true during my PC days, but somehow the Mac provides a much more integrated environment in which software packages, tools and utilities work to enhance the overall computing experience, both for business and pleasure.

In this blog entry I want to share a few of my favourite utilities. These are the little things that make such a difference and stop me from pulling out my hair during the course of the working day. They're not in any order as that would be fairly meaningless. However all the tools described here are currently compatible with both Leopard and Snow Leopard.

First up is TigerLaunch, a utility that allows me to launch applications from an icon on the menu bar. TigerLaunch is configurable - so you can select which applications live in the list. That means that you don't need to add applications that are already accessible from the dock, avoiding redundancy and making the TigerLaunch list a bit more manageable.

My favourite two dock utilities are DockSpaces and Docker. Docker lets me change the appearance of the dock without being over complicated, so I'll not dwell on it here other than to say that I prefer a number of tools each performing a dedicated task well rather than a single tool that does a few tasks but without so much aplomb. Docker falls into this category in preference to an all rounder like TinkerTool. DockSpaces finds a home on both my iMac and MBP for slightly different reasons. This real handy little tool allows you to have multiple dock configurations which are switchable without restarting the machine. On a mobile device this allows me to switch between a desktop type configuration and a mobile one, whilst on the iMac I have different docks depending on whether I'm writing, doing project work or working in a web development environment.

Being able to switch environments is very important to me, and I use Spaces a lot, with 4 to 6 virtual screens set up depending on which device I'm using. I do get lost however which is why my next utility, Hyperspaces is so useful. Hyperspaces extends the standard Spaces metaphor, allowing you to name spaces and set different desktop backgrounds for each space thereby giving you a visual clue as to which space you are currently operating in.

As a longtime PC user, one of the visual clues that I miss the most is the disk activity light which is standard hardware on most machines. Of course, Macs don't hang in quite the same way as PC's, but there is something reassuring about a light flashing when there is no other indication of what's going on. DiskSpy provides a software solution for Mac users, by displaying a small animated icon in the menu bar showing hard disk read and write activity. The author provides a number of alternative icons to suit your specific requirements. It's possible to change the sensitivity of the display - more sensitivity will increase the CPU usage though. Clearly, a software solution will never be as good as a wired LED, but it's certainly better than nothing.

Still on the visual theme, ScreenSharingMenulet is my last tool for this blog entry. This is another menu bar utility which provides easy access to screen shares across your local network (or beyond possibly). Although it's easy enough to start screen sharing through Finder this tool overcame some of the problems I've been having with my screen sharing antics between my iMac and MBP.

That rounds up this batch of utilities and tools that I use on a day to day basis. For just a few pounds (most of these are free) my work and play time on the computer is made much easier. Not for the the first time in this blog, I salute the developers for their innovation and enthusiasm in making the Mac experience that little bit richer than it already is.

Snow Leopard - One Week On

2009-09-07T15:58:00.001+01:00

Snow Leopard has been running on two of the three machines at the Apple Harvest for a week now, and all is well. Almost.

Certainly there is a general feeling of robustness which is reassuring for critical software such as an operating system. Most of the issues that have surfaced to date are with third party software rather than direct problems brought about through the upgrade.

I documented the issue with Mail and Keychains in my last blog. I'm aware that a number of other people have had similar problems, in particular with MobileMe accounts. My solution of deleting the default keychain and creating a new one appears to have done the trick, but the problem appears to be more insidious on some installations.

I'm more worried about the incompatibility between versions of Mail and its internal databases across Leopard and Snow Leopard, particularly as a mobile user. It used to be a simple matter of copying the \username\Library\Mail folders between machines before and after journeys, but this option will no longer work across machines with different OS. I keep my primary mail store on my iMac at home and copy the mail folders onto my MBP or Hackintosh before going on a trip. This will no longer work with the Hackintosh (until I'm brave enough to try and upgrade it). This will affect anyone who cannot update their mobile machine with Snow Leopard. There are process work arounds to reduce the impact but it is enough to make me consider going back to using Entourage whilst away from home.

My other real gripe is with my printing ability since the upgrade. I use an HP DeskJet 970CXI printer as a workhorse. I have occasion to have to print quite large documents and the 970 has a full duplex facility for double sided printing. HP do not provide drivers for Leopard or Snow Leopard, and users have to rely on the Gutenprint drivers which have proved excellent. Sadly under Snow Leopard, the double sided printing facility is no longer operational, and is likely to remain that way unless the Gutenprint drivers are modified.

This seems to be a very irresponsible attitude from HP, as their response to concerns from users is "buy a new printer". This applies to any printer over 5 years old. So in my case I either have to purchase a new unnecessary printer or double my paper output. Neither option is environmentally friendly, and neither option is likely to appeal to my bank manager.

Of course I could print out everything through the Hackintosh, but if I upgrade that to Snow Leopard I'll fix my mail issue, but lose my printer fix. Nothing is ever simple is it! I wonder if Windows 7 users will have these problems. Well probably not, they'll have a whole different bunch...

The vast majority of my applications seem to function pretty much as normal under 10.6. Notable exceptions are Bento V1 which won't work at all and the majority of system utilities such as Cocktail, Onyx, TechTools Pro. A lot of suppliers beat the gun and released 10.6 compatible versions of their apps prior to the formal Apple release. Most others have messages on their web sites explaining that upgrades are in preparation and will shortly be available.

For a comprehensive and dynamic list of compatible applications check out the Snow Leopard compatibility wiki.

Snow Leopard - Installation and First Impressions

2009-09-02T10:25:00.001+01:00

Well, UPS finally turned up yesterday morning with my Snow Leopard family pack. It turned out it had only come from Hinkley which is just down the road but still managed to take 5 days to get to my house! Snail mail would have been faster than the courier...

For those of you who like the whole out of the box experience, don't get too excited. The package is very unassuming, consisting of a little leaflet, a support card, a single DVD, and the ubiquitous Apple stickers. It actually felt a bit flimsy by Apple's standards, but it's not the packaging that's on trial with this upgrade.

Installation was a breeze. I started on the MacBook Pro laptop on which I intended to do an in-place installation. The installation app ran straight from the DVD with no need to reboot to the optical drive. I customised the installation and removed all the unwanted language, printer and X windows software, as the laptop only had about 33Gb space available (but more on that later). Installation took about 35 minutes before user input was required. After about 12 minutes the system rebooted itself, which caused momentary heart failure, but I guess I should have expected it. After all, a Windows installation often causes three or four reboots before it's done.

That was pretty much it for the installation - no wizardry, no fireworks, just a workmanlike approach to getting the job done as quickly and painlessly as possible.

Some statistics for those interested. Bootup time was reduced by about a minute (just under 2 minutes to have a fully functional system with all login items up and running). Shut-down time was halved to about 5 seconds.

There was an additional 9.3Gb of disk space available (using proper old fashioned Gb measures, not the new 'decimal' standard that Apple have now adopted). In the main user folder, there were about 2500 fewer items, saving about 0.2Gb of space. On my MBP this was a significant increase in available space, which I'm very grateful for. My system had already been stripped of extra language and unwanted code by running Monolingual, so other users may see even greater savings. On my Hackintosh, the extra space may prove to be even more significant. Obviously, there are knock on effects, especially with TimeMachine, as backups should get smaller and faster.

I then did the installation on the iMac with the dodgy internal disk. The disk is clearly beyond repair - although the installation programme could see it, it refused to try and do anything with it as SMART errors prevented this. Nothing really to add regarding the installation on to the external Firewire 400 drive. It took a little bit longer - about 45m, but that was only to be expected.

With the initial installation over, I had a brief opportunity to look around. First place to look was the installation created folder called Incompatible Software. To my relief this was almost empty, with only two .kext files on show, neither of which I recognised. This folder is used to remove and store software that is known to cause problems with Snow Leopard. It does not make any attempt to remove software that doesn't work under OS X 10.6 - you need to do this by trial and error and checking out web sites for your most critical applications. On the MBP, the only issues (so far) were with Surplus Meter which I use to monitor my mobile Broadband access which required Rosetta installation (I had deselected Rosetta during the installation) and PlugSuit, an application enhancer, which forced the system to request an admin password every time an application was launched. Disabling PlugSuit in it's PreferencesPane solved the problem without doing any damage.

iStat menus no longer work under Snow Leopard (already documented), which meant that the time and date no longer appeared in the menu bar. It took some searching to find where the preferences information to fix this was located, but that now works OK (look for the Clock tab under Date and Time in System Preferences). To my relief Hyperspaces, Dock Spaces and Docker all worked fine (although the Dock colour had been reset).

The main issue has been with Mail which has undergone an internal (but not external) re-write. None of my mail add-ins worked following installation (these include DockStar, Mail Iconizer, Mail Tags, LetterBox, Mail Appetiser and Mail Act-on). Some upgrades are already available, others are work in progress. Mail rebuilds it's databases the first time that it is run following installation of OS X 10.6. This in itself caused no problems, but it seems that somewhere along the line my KeyChain has been corrupted. After spending over three hours late last night I finally dumped the KeyChain and created a new default. This seems to have done the trick. Fingers crossed.

Overall I'm pleased that everything was relatively painless, that a few extra gigabytes of space have emerged, and that most of the day to day applications are functioning as normal (or slightly sprightlier). Now I've got a chance to get back to doing some real work, and I'll get a better feel for the changes and find out any other issues. I'll get you updated on my findings.

As the saying goes :

"Learn all you can from the mistakes of others. You won't have time to make them all yourself".

Why I'm Excited about Snow Leopard

2009-08-29T11:13:00.001+01:00

I'd really like to think that Snow Leopard is going to change the world. Well, at least a small portion of it. Think about it...an operating system that is pretty much a feature free update (a nightmare for the marketing guys), but which is leaner and faster than ever before, while maintaining and enhancing its current feature set.

When I started programming back in the early 80s, we had 32Kb-64Kb of memory space, 20Mb hard disks were prohibitively expensive and compilations of even the simplest programmes on mainframes ran overnight. All these factors meant that programmers had to choose their functionality and their design carefully, code effectively, efficiently and with due diligence and think about doing things right one time only.

The advent of the PC, cheaper memory and disks, along with compilers like Turbo Pascal began to change the programming world. Programmers could be more complacent - their code didn't have to be so tight, they could write and compile code in increasingly shorter cycles and let the programming tools take on the brunt of the thinking.

As software became a commodity, marketing took over and rich (often useless) features became the key differentiators between products. Products that used to ship on a floppy disk, started to ship on stacks of floppies, then onto CDs and now onto DVDs. And many programmers (especially commercial programmers) became sloppier and produced buggier code which they were forced to ship by increasingly desperate product managers.

Many programmes would still love to produce good quality, elegant, efficient and effective code but are not allowed the time to do so. Refactoring and redesign are rare occurrences in the commercial world (usually only happening when disaster strikes).

So hats off to Apple engineers and product managers who appear to have got back to the golden age of software development with Snow Leopard. I can't wait to get my hands on it...

It s'now Show for Snow Leopard @ The Apple Harvest

2009-08-29T10:47:00.001+01:00

Despite putting in a pre-order for the Snow Leopard family pack and spending all day yesterday preparing the Apple Harvest machines for installation, I've been let down by courier firms yet again.

I ordered through Amazon who duly shipped on the evening of the 23rd August and provided me with a UPS tracking number. UPS recorded the package as Out For Delivery from their Derby depot before 5.00am on 24th August. Despite the depot only being 10 miles or so from where I live, I never received the package , and just before 8:00pm it was reported by UPS as being returned to their Derby depot. I'd been in all day and there had been no sign of a UPS van.

In the meantime I had prepared boot-able Carbon Copy Cloner copies of both my iMac and MacBook Pro which will now be out of date by the time I (hopefully) get the package on Tuesday, since it's a holiday weekend in the UK. And on Tuesday I'll have to go through the process all over again.

I find it astonishing that UPS, FedEx and DHL manage to screw up so regularly. I have a lot of things delivered, and often a local courier is used who is regularly at my front door before 8.00 in the morning and rarely later than 10.00am. He also delivers on Saturdays. Despite having massive computing systems and networks at their disposal, the big couriers can only provide delivery windows of between 9.00am and 7.00pm, Monday to Friday, and although I live on the doorstep of the hubs I almost always seem to get my deliveries at the end of the day. Good job I work from home.

I guess the good news is that everyone else who spent last night and will be spending the weekend doing their installations will uncover any issues, and I'll benefit from their experiences. But for an early adopter, it's really frustrating and very disappointing...

Rotting Fruit at the Apple Harvest

2009-08-28T10:54:00.001+01:00

The second disaster of the year occurred last week at the Apple Harvest farm. At the beginning of the summer (for those of you in the UK who have forgotten, summer is the season when the weather is supposed to improve) I had to replace the display on my MacBook Pro which cost me about £500. I had hoped that it may have been a loose connection due to wear and tear from being hauled around the world, but it was not to be.

Then, last week, the internal hard drive on my iMac failed. Initially the machine just hung so I was forced to switch off and restart. Unfortunately the machine never rebooted. I linked up the MacBook Pro using a Firewire connection and ran Disk Warrior which appeared to do the trick. About three hours later exactly the same thing happened, only this time even Disk Warrior gave up.

While it was still possible to access the hard drive, and there appeared to be no loss of data, trying to use the disk as a start-up drive was no longer possible. Being a forth generation iMac (April 2008) it is of course not only out of warranty, but not trivial to upgrade.

I've looked into the cost of repairs and it looks like it's going to cost between £150 to £200, and probably means a week without the machine. Neither of these is a particularly attractive option at present.

However, given the cost of external hard drives at present I decided to purchase a 750Gb Seagate FreeAgent Pro desktop drive with the Firewire 400 interface. I already use a 500Gb Seagate FreeAgent drive as my Time Machine disk, so I'm familiar with the make. I made the purchase through Amazon and the cost was under £60 including next day delivery using Amazon Prime.

Setting up the new drive was a breeze, restoring the Time Machine backup from the old disk (about 250Gb) was fairly quick, and despite a couple of glitches I have a fully functional system again. I don't really notice any difference in the restart time as it isn't something I do very often - I tend to put the iMac to sleep at night.

The glitches are that the Hyperspaces programme that I use to help manage Spaces crashes out when I try to set the preferences, and when I attempt to share the iMac screen from my laptop it goes into an infinite loop, which is an interesting effect but not much use to man nor beast. Finally, the iMac wouldn't play with my Belkin Wireless USB hub anymore, but that was easily solved by removing the hub from the network as it now surplus to requirements. I'll live with these problems until Snow Leopard arrives later today and see what effect that has.

Next time I'll post my experiences with Snow Leopard installation and my first impressions of using it, both on the iMac and MacBook Pro. I'll hang on before trying it on the Hackintosh ! Two hardware failures in a year are quite enough thank you!

Great Service Deserves a Mention

2009-08-18T18:40:00.001+01:00

Service is an interesting concept to many people in Britain. Whether it be staff in shops, waiters and waitresses in bars and restaurants through to individuals in call centres or receptionists on service desks we almost expect curt responses and bad manners. There always seems to be something else more important to do or some excuse to treat customers with contempt.

When we go abroad, especially to the United States, we often sneer at the service culture we find there. It's as if it is a reflex action to hide our embarrassment at seeing ordinary men and women offer genuine service as a matter of course.

For sure, these are generalisations - not everyone in the UK is guilty, and not everyone in the US is a shining example of service excellence. But I recently made a purchases in the UK and US where this divide was clearly highlighted. In both cases, these were on-line purchases, so there was no face to face contact. In fact in both cases all communication was done by e-mail.

I had ordered my Dell Mini 9 from an on-line store in the UK offering next day delivery. After a few days there was no sign of a delivery, and the order status on the web site had not changed from "ordered". I sent an e-mail to the store, and received a prompt reply saying that they would look into it. After a further four days I had heard nothing else, and so cancelled the order. Almost before I'd pressed the send button, I received notification that the netbook would be delivered the following day. Too little, too late. I still cancelled the order, and took my business elsewhere.

Last week I read an article in MacFormat which mentioned a piece of software to teach yourself to speed read. I placed an order on-line through the US web site, downloaded the software and installed it on my iMac desktop. I then tried to install the software onto my MacBook Pro but was unsuccessful because of an activation problem. At no time did the web site, license agreement or installation process mention any such restriction, so I wrote to the US developer asking if there was any solution.

Within a few minutes I received a reply saying that the developer was out of town (it was a Friday afternoon) but that he would send me a coupon. The following day I received a coupon enabling me to install the software on my laptop. Gratis, free, no charge and no questions asked.

So, to Vince at iVerbum, developers of iSpeedRead, my sincere thanks. I'll post a review of the software on the blog at a later date. In the meantime, let it not be said that us Brits don't recognise excellent service when we encounter it.

As for the UK company, I'm not going to name them in the hope that it was a one off communications breakdown and I'm prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt. But of course, I'll never really know because I won't be using them again.

Hackintosh Unveiled

2009-08-09T11:42:00.003+01:00

Hackintosh and OS X 10.5.8

2009-08-07T14:14:00.003+01:00

Typical really, you get everything sorted out on the Hackintosh and find that Apple have put out an update to OS X in the form of 10.5.8. My first reaction was "Do Nothing" ; often a safe bet (and one that is often ignored as an option in Process Improvement circles).

But I consider myself an early adopter so this wasn't really an option for me. I did a quick check on the myDellMini web site to see if others had boldly gone before and it seemed that they had and no major problems had been encountered...

I should have delved deeper but more on that later.

Having taken a backup (one with TimeMachine and one with Carbon Copy Cloner), and with one hand on my heart, and the other one behind my back with as many fingers crossed as possible I proceeded to install the update through the standard combi installation. I'd previously updated my other Macs and everything appeared to be working OK, and at least I knew what to expect - download, restart, and wait a few minutes.

Everything seemed fine. The Hackintosh booted OK, the Apple logo appeared and not long after the desktop appeared as I had left it. Except there was no wireless activity...

I ran the DellEFI 1.2a5 utility without changing any options, rebooted and WiFi access was restored. Everything was back to normal, I thought.

My new Kensington SlimBlade Trackball mouse arrived this morning and I went to look at the tutorial video on the Kensington web site. The video loaded but there was no sound. The sound function key combination key didn't work either, and the sound icon in the menu bar showed a great big gap where it should have been. ITunes also failed to play any songs. A quick panic attack and then back to the myDellMini web site.

This time I read the entries more carefully and found the solution in one of the forum pages - these guys are really switched on! I followed the sound advice (pun intended) and now everything really does seem to be back to normal. (I'm not going to repeat the info here for fear of getting something wrong - if you need help go to the source yourself!)

Hopefully this will be the last update to Leopard before Snow Leopard hits the market. Who knows whether that will work with these hybrids, but I feel sure that some brave souls will be trying it out at least, and I have no doubt that they'll publish their findings for us less technically endowed enthusiasts.

Until then, I thank them profusely for their hard work and efforts so far...

Working with the Hackintosh - First Impressions

2009-08-06T16:45:00.001+01:00

Well, the easy bit's over. I have a fully converted Dell Mini 9 netbook running OS X 10.5.7. What's the verdict from the jury after the first few hours?

First impressions are very positive. The machine itself is really cute, but it appears well constructed. I've customized the netbook appearance with a rather garish iSkin which makes it stand out from the crowd.

The two most obvious limitations are the size of both keyboard and the screen. I have pianists fingers so the small cramped keyboard and keys don't really cause me too many problems, and I can type almost as quickly as I can on a full size keyboard. It's not touch typing but I do manage to use three or four fingers on each hand. The keys have a slightly spongy feel as they are depressed, but nothing I can't live with. My keyboard is UK configured and some characters are still a bit elusive, most notably '#', and '@' so I've configured the input menu to keep the keyboard viewer handy during these first few days.

The lack of screen real estate is more of an issue. I've elected to keep the dock on the side of the screen and have turned on auto hiding. Both of these are significant deviations from my normal display, but the change is necessary for quite a few applications, and especially for the System Preferences dialogs. I have some Terminal commands that I can invoke to adjust screen scaling factors to mimic higher resolution, but most of the time I prefer to keep the standard screen. I'll keep a look out for alternative long term solutions.

There is one real gripe. The webcam active light flashes as soon as the machine boots. It can be turned off by running iChat, running the video options and then closing the iChat programme, but a permanent solution would be better. Good news is that the webcam works fine with iChat as does the internal audio system.

Wireless, Bluetooth and USB connectivity all work as expected, and I have successfully used Time Machine to backup the system. My Vodafone USB stick modem also worked without any problems.

The unit does get a little warm, but realistically I don't think this is any worse than other laptops I've owned. The upside of no internal fans is that the machine is beautifully quiet.

I've fitted the expanded battery as standard and the battery monitor indicates a battery life of 4-5 hours, with both Bluetooth and Wireless enabled. It's too early to tell whether this is realistic.

I'm delighted with my Hackintosh. I expected some niggles, but overall the experience has been much more positive than I dared hope for. I feel sure this is going to be a fantastic addition to my electronic toolkit.

Creating a Hackintosh - the build process

2009-07-29T15:16:00.001+01:00

Previously I outlined my first steps in defining my requirements for a DIY Apple netbook (more commonly known as a Hackintosh), and the components I selected to start the "project".

Unfortunately it took much longer than expected to get started initially because of supplier issues and then FedEx lost the netbook. However eventually all the bits ended up where they were required and I was finally able to get started.

In this entry I'll explain the process of installing the software and hardware onto the Dell Mini 9. If you want a lot of gory technical details I'm afraid I'm going to disappoint you. I chose to load OS X onto a RunCore SSD using my MacBook Pro. You can download the instructions from the myDellMini web site. The beauty of the RunCore is that you can connect it directly to a Mac via a standard micro USB cable (which is provided with the SSD). The beauty of the myDellMini web site is that it is a one stop shop for everything you need to know, and this is where you can get your fill of technical information.

Truth is that the installation guide is so comprehensive that there is little for me to add. Print out the guide and check off each item as you complete it. Steps 1 to 11 are very straightforward and shouldn't cause you any cause for concern. There are no "heart stopping" moments. However, I will endorse the comment that you need to take care with the USB connection on the RunCore. It is incredibly tight and you need to tease the cable out very gently when you've completed your installation. At this point, it's again worth taking heed of the instructions and install any other software now, while you've still got the SSD attached to a host Mac. It'll save a lot of hassle later on.

Steps 12 to 19 involve installing the RunCore into the Dell Mini 9. This is where things get a bit more tense, and you'll end up crossing fingers, toes and anything else you can find! As before however, the instructions are clear and concise, and the SSD can be inserted without any trouble. Some minor changes to the BIOS are also required.

The moment of truth comes when the card is fitted and it's time to power up. After a few nail biting seconds the Apple logo appeared on the screen and the familiar power up sequence ran through. And there it was OS X 10.5.7 in all it's glory on an 8.5 inch screen. Happy days...

If you are serious about undertaking such a project it pays to do your homework in advance.

Set your expectations in advance - there's no point in trying this if you want a cheap Mac. A Hackintosh is complementary to your existing Apple set-up, and if you expect it to replace a MacBook or MacBook Pro you will be disappointed.

Do some research and work out what hardware you are going to use, and find the guides to help you. I chose a hardware set-up that was appropriate for my level of technical ability. If you're more confident, you may find a more suitable configuration.

Get everything in the right place and allow plenty of time to undertake the conversion. Also, take any precautions necessary in terms of backing stuff up. But you'd do that anyway wouldn't you ?!?!

Have fun and enjoy yourself! I did...

First Steps to a Hackintosh - update

2009-07-29T14:42:00.005+01:00

For those of you waiting with baited breath for the next instalment of my Hackintosh blog - well, so am I.

Having ordered all the components, namely the Dell Mini 9, RunCore 32Gb SSD, and a new retail copy of Leopard 10.5.6, I had expected to be up and running by now. In reality, the OS and SSD arrived within a day or so, and I have successfully (I think) married the two together. I've even written the blog entry.

Sadly, however, the Dell Mini 9 has still not shown up and it appears that no money has been withdrawn from my account. The supplier is not responding to calls so I have cancelled the order - you watch, it'll be here tomorrow morning. I've re-ordered from a different supplier, at a better price no less, and hope to be finalising the build over the weekend.

I'm tempted to name and shame the supplier but I'll give them time to respond to my emails before doing so.

Keep your fingers crossed and watch this space.

First Steps to a Hackintosh - tuning into the concept

2009-07-25T12:10:00.001+01:00

I've been hooked on the idea of an Apple netbook for a while. Many years ago I owned a Psion 3 and later moved up to the Psion 5. I actually dragged the latter out of a corner of my office the other day, blew off a considerable coating of dust, inserted a couple of batteries and 30 seconds later the system was up and running. The backup battery had long since died so all my data had evaporated into the ether, but everything else was working fine. I fondly remembered the days when this was my workhorse and used to go everywhere with me. My iPhone now performs most of those day to day management tasks with a bit more style, but when it comes to more "office" like work there's no way that I'm going to use my iPhone for anything more than quick and dirty emails, simple calculations, the odd to do reminder, and some low web browsing.

My 15'' MacBook Pro goes along with me for any journeys out of town but sometimes it really is a lot of hassle to get it up and running, especially on crowded trains, jolting buses, and stations and airports with limited space to work (or often even to sit). I've lost rack of the number of times that I drag my laptop across the country, stuffed into my backpack along with all the USB modems, wireless mice, portable drives etc., only to get pulled out on my return home without being switched on. The only thing to show for the effort is sore shoulders and an aching back.

So with the Psion experience fresh in my mind, aching bits from a recent trip to London and some time on my hands, I decided to investigate building a Hackintosh netbook of my own. The first task was to consider my requirements. I wanted a machine that was light, small enough to be usable in some of those situations described above, and easily convertible. Although I used to be a programmer, and I'm not phased by taking the backs of machines and replacing bits, I'm not a real hacker so I wanted a reasonably simple set of instructions to follow. The other criterion was that it needed to be relatively inexpensive. After all, it's really only an experiment, and if Apple do finally make their own netbook or tablet it'll be fairly high on my shopping list.

Over the past few days I've trawled the web for potential candidates, building instructions and success stories. The thing that finally sealed it for me was the Andy Ihnatko video , where he was showing off a Dell Mini 9 netbook running OS X 10.5. This also turned out to be the most suitable commercially available machine to convert, and with about the best set of instructions I could find. In fact the only better set of instructions were for the RunCore SSD replacement drive for the Dell Mini 9. So the hardware pretty much chose itself.

Final configuration that I selected was a refurbished Dell Mini 9 with 2Gb RAM, and a 16Gb SSD pre-configured with Windows XP and a 32Gb RunCore SSD with on-board USB connection. I also purchased a new retail copy of Leopard OS X 10.5.6 to avoid the piracy police.

Next time I'll go through the build process, before a final posting on using the machine (hopefully, written on the beast itself!).

Apple Kit @ the Apple Harvest

2009-07-22T11:45:00.001+01:00

This probably should have been my first blog entry as it sets the context for everything that is going to follow. But never mind, it's only a day late!

First a confession; I'm a relative newcomer into the world in which the Apple Harvest is set. Although I've secretly admired the Mac ever since it was first introduced into the orchard, I've been a PC user since they first became available in the UK back in the early 1980s. I left university (with a degree in Agricultural Science) and started life as a professional programmer - so my choice of platform was dictated by the demands of my employers and their clients.

Since then, my professional life has moved from pure software development, initially towards project management, then into software process improvement, and I now act as an independent management consultant, focusing on business and software process management, with a particular emphasis on organisational change management.

Two years ago I was working in Oslo in Norway, and dragging my relatively new Asus R1F tablet PC backwards and forwards. I was getting increasingly frustrated with the time it took to boot and to actually be able to do anything useful, not to mention the short battery life. I had a bit of disposable income at the time, so I decided to purchase a 15-inch MacBook Pro laptop, running at 2.4GHz, with a 150Gb disk and 4Gb of RAM. The time of purchase coincided with the release of Leopard. I became an instant convert.

Six months later I replaced my desktop (actually it was a permanently docked HP nx6325 laptop) with a 3.06GHz, 24-inch iMac,with 4Gb RAM and a 500Gb disk.

Earlier this year I replaced my Windows smart phone (which I've been using since the Orange SPV smart phone was first launched) with a 16Gb iPhone 3G, and somewhere along the line I ditched my Creative Zen-M 60Gb player for a 16Gb iPod Touch.

You could almost say that I'm now a fully reformed PC user, but unfortunately I still live in the real world, where my clients still demand PC compatibility, so I keep a copy of Parallels 4 with Windows XP for such situations. However, I do find I'm using it less and less, which is a blessing.

So there you have it. These are my credentials for writing about Apple kit in a public place. I may not win any awards for longevity in the Apple community, but I've certainly put my share of investment into my Apple kit and software over the past couple of years. And no doubt will continue to do so for the next few years...

In forthcoming blogs I'll tell you something about the software I use.

Mophie Juice Pack Air - Review

2009-07-21T15:46:00.002+01:00

A couple of weeks ago I ordered a Juice Pack Air additional battery for my iPhone 3G. Whilst I love my iPhone, I'm not in love with it; it isn't surgically attached to my ear and I have plenty of other distractions to help me to fill my day. I generally work from home and there are docking stations in strategic positions around the house. In other words, I'm a fairly average user and battery life generally doesn't give me a huge cause for concern...except when I'm travelling. As a consultant I do spend a fair amount of time on the road, and on those occasions I have got caught out once or twice.

So, on the basis that prevention is better than cure I decided to invest in the Juice Pack Air. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the gadget, it is effectively a case incorporating a battery extender which clips around the iPhone, providing approximately twice the battery life of the iPhone. I'm not going to repeat technical specifications here, if you need them check out the Mophie web site http://www.mophie.com/juice-pack-air-p/1059_jpa-ip3g-blk.htm.

I ordered my Juice Pack Air over the internet from solutions inc. (based in Hove in the UK) at a cost of £63.00 (including VAT) plus a couple of quid for postage and it arrived by recorded delivery a couple of days later.

The first thing you notice on picking up the box is the Apple-like attention to packaging. The box itself is sturdy and feels as if it has been packaged by Apple themselves.

The Juice Pack Air itself is a two piece affair. The iPhone slips into the larger part which forms a sleeve around the body of the phone. A standard dock connector sits at the bottom of the sleeve and the iPhone simply slots onto it. It is quite a tight fit and it's not immediately obvious that the iPhone is fully secured. The second part of the pack slips over the top of the iPhone providing all round protection to the top, bottom and sides of the phone, with cut-outs for the important iPhone controls. The face of the iPhone is not protected, and the Juice Pack Air fits flush to the fascia. This means that a screen protector cannot be fitted and held in place by the Juice Pack Air. This may bother some people, but I personally prefer direct access to the phone's touch screen.

The top and bottom sections of the Juice Pack Air don't form a completely seamless fit, which is slightly disappointing, but something that you get used to quite quickly. Removing the case and its integrated battery is simply a matter of reversing the fitting instructions. However this is more difficult than one might expect. Although the top slides off quite easily, it is quite difficult to get purchase on the lower part of the case. Clean, grease-free hands are a definite requirement, but it's almost certain that you'll get grubby paw prints over the face of the phone when you try to remove it. Have a cleaning cloth handy!

A tiny switch on the bottom of the Juice Pack Air engages the battery and allows the flow of power to the iPhone. The battery is designed to use power from the Juice Pack Air before starting to drain the iPhone's internal battery. However, the recommendation is to allow the iPhone to drain before switching to the Juice Pack to provide the maximum amount of charge available. Four LED lights on the back of the case provide a visual indication of the amount of power available in the Juice Pack Air. These are displayed by pressing a small button to the side of the array of lights.

Charging the Juice Pack Air is done through the supplied micro-USB cable and connector at the base of the case. I would have preferred a mini-USB port as this would have meant one less type of cable to carry around. The supplied cable could have done with being a bit longer as well, but that isn't a big deal.

All in all, I really pleased with the Juice Pack Air. It certainly provided me with all the power that I need on a long day out, with little access to other power sources, and still had some to spare. There is some extra weight and bulk added to the iPhone, but this all but disappears after a short while. The texture of the plastic case is similar to the back of the iPhone, and attracts smudgy fingerprints in the same way, particularly on the black version. However, this is a small price to pay for the benefit of having a phone that now helps me make it through the night as well as the day. Highly recommended.