Hello There Macintosh User!
If you are getting this email you have sometime been a client of mine — Thank you for your past custom!
1. Google Rather Than Skype?: Google has now added Voice Calls From Gmail (catchy, not) to the regular free Gmail service. First you download and install a small plug-in then when you reopen your browser and log on to your Gmail account a Call Phone icon appears on the left. Click it and you can call anyone free or very cheaply indeed. More reasons to have a Gmail account which was already the best of the free email offerings. http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/26/google-shakes-it-up-again-with-free-phone-calls/?ref=personaltechemail&nl=technology&emc=cta1 http://gmail.com/
2. iPhone/iPad: Walk Tracker-Sprint GPS free version and then $4.99 for the pro versions of Walker, Runner and Cycler Pocket Weather AU $2.49 Whirly Word free Brushes creative painting, versions for both. $5.99 and $9.99 http://www.inkling.com/ Flipboard is a multiple magazine app for the iPad letting you view different publications in glorious tablet format! Free http://www.flipboard.com/ Babyphone is a baby monitor using your iPhone as the remote walkie talkie. $3.99
If you do a search for Augmented Reality you will find heaps of apps that use the iPhone compass, GPS and online databases to show you a load of information about the area that you are in as a visual overlay on the screen. This is an exploding area of use of smart phones making it possible to walk down a street and point your AR equipped iPhone at the scene in front of you and have the app bring you data about the nearest Art gallery or pizza joint or toilet or night sky or whatever you can imagine!
3. Reading eBooks on the iPad: While Apple has it’s own eReader called iBook, there is also an app from Amazon, the giant of online publishing. The Kindle app has 700,000 titles which mimics it’s Kindle eBook reader. Although it has more titles you don’t buy them from the iTunes Store but from Amazon.com. There are more and more books being offered in multiple formats, like the new tome from Stephen Fry, that witty modern day Oscar Wilde. His latest, The Fry Chronicles is released as an eBook, audio book, iPad app, iPhone app and of course in old fashioned hard bound real book with real paper pages! And of course plenty of old favourites, new and old in the .epub format that are terrific on the iPad, available at online stores everywhere.
Walt Mossberg took an iPad on a French holiday to see of it could replace his laptop: http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20100922/an-american-in-paris-says-au-revoir-to-his-laptop
4. Apple TV: Re-released after a complete make over, the Apple TV is for streaming movies and TV shows from your computer or online, to your flat-screen TV. It will stream any clips from iTunes that you have either bought or just added from some other source, as well as your photo collection or music if you want to listen to it via the TV with a remote to control it. Connecting to your TV with a HDMI cable — that seamless way of putting the bits together — it is simple to use if you are that person with a good TV that has a quality sound system connected to it and wants to centralise your content experience. $129. http://www.apple.com/au/appletv/
5. Zefrank.com: This site is a time absorbing, wonderful place! The Interactive Tours column has some excellent Flash-based things to turn your scribbles into art. There are also things that take your computer’s sound input and make weird moving pictures from them. Lots of fun. http://www.zefrank.com/
6. Sidenote: A simple but very useful utility that allows multiple saved things, like the old Mac OS 9 utility used to do. You can put anything in there: movies, text, sounds, images etc which wait until you need them again. Free. http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/17654/sidenote
7. Know Your Meme: A further development of online video and fascinating too. You can register and add your own memes or just browse… http://knowyourmeme.com/
8. Dark Patterns – Nasty Websites: Sometimes websites are so badly designed that they drive you nuts; we all experience those (Bigpond.com anyone?). But what about websites that are deliberately designed to get you to do things without you realising. This website ‘names and shames’ them! http://darkpatterns.org/ And the author’s blog site with plenty on good and bad web design: http://www.90percentofeverything.com/
9. Ping or Not to Ping: Now a part of the latest iTunes, Ping is Apple’s first attempt at music-based social networking. Although it’s a good idea, this first iteration has significant mistakes: you can’t import your Facebook contacts for example which immediately puts it in the too hard basket. The time and energy spent building up all your friends around the world would have to be replicated! No thanks… But it’s early days and sharing your musical tastes, concert experiences, reviews and the like with friends is a good idea. Once they fix the obvious lacks it could be a winner. In the Store section of the iTunes select Ping.
10. Change the iTunes Icon: Nobody seems to like the new icon for iTunes, nor do I! This pages shows you how to change it and gives some alternatives including the ‘old’ icon… http://obamapacman.com/2010/09/how-to-change-itunes-10-ugly-icon/
11. A Reminder of My Rates: I charge $88 per hour including GST. No call-out fee or travel charge in the Byron Shire. Half hour minimum. Telephone support costs the same in 15 minute increments. Email support is still free! Please include plenty of detail in your email inquiries. Serving the Byron Macintosh community for over 10 years.
Items for Sale is a free monthly service for my Mailing List. If you want to list something for sale send me the full description/specifications and contact details. Goes out around 14th of the month. Until next time, Thank you Tommi ;>)
Mr Macintosh Tom Hain http://www.mrmacintosh.com.au PO Box 1040 Byron Bay NSW 2481 6685 5504 041 840 8869