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A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Show 140. Apple and Nike team up for iPod shoes. XCode 2.3 released to developers. MacBook Developer tools include Widget Maker. PowerMacs lose ‘Power’ when going Intel. Apple Sells PowerSchool to Pearson. Star Wars Clone Wars now on iTunes. Listener review of the MacBook. Tons of Apple Fifth Avenue Store feedback and pictures. Backup strategies and the story of The Lion and Ants. Closed Intel kernel report was just speculation. How to turn off just iMac screen. Review of Podcasting USB microphones. Powering your MacBook on a plane continued. Developers tap MacBook motion sensor. Apple overturned on appeal. Rumor sites are safe. Something missed in iWeb update. Using iWeb on more than one Mac.
New music, Reign of Error by Sudden Death
We are fugitives of the law. Idiocy is our only option. — Outbreak (1995)
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1) RE: Back-up strategies
Smart folders are a great way to backup folders of files according to your “free flow” third strategy that you mentioned.
Instead of fishing around in Finder all the files that you want to backup, you just put those files or folders into a Smart Folder.
You always have the most recent copy in there, and you can copy or burn that folder to any location you want.
Adam,
Great podcast. I just want to add a comment or two about the Nike+Apple link up. I’ve been a marathon runner for several years and quickly established the link between music rythmn and my running pace and swifty developed a huge library of music based upon the BPM for each track. I have smart playlists for “gentle jog”, “steady-long”, “sprints” and so on each mased on a random selection of music from about 80 to 100 BPM.
The only downside so far is that I have to work out the BPM myself using the superb BPM Inspector plug-in for iTunes.
What I ideally wanted was to have iTunes automatically analyse all my music for me a populate the BPM field. Maybe the iTunes update might bring this along in the near future.
As for the Nike transponder device and the data feedback. My understanding is that this device can be placed on any shoe with some fixing required in the same way we attached transponders when we’re running in a marathon race for example. Having the spoken feedback is an excellent idea. Honestly take it from me who has run with all sorts of wristband gadgets and so forth, the last thing you want to do is take your eyes off your terrain to glance at your watch (or iPod) because you’ll soon twist your ankle if you step off the pavement or miscalculate the soft ground you may be running on.
I’ve registered for my Nike+Apple sports kit and will report back as soon as I’ve got it. Take care and keep up the excellent show.
Rob
Great show as always :-)
Regarding the music-/running speed matching patent, I wonder if Apple really will get it. On a radio show sometime about the Fraunhofer Institute (who invented MP3), one of their researchers already demoed this. They also showed their “StepMan” on last year’s CeBIT (btw., the world’s largest computer fair) in Hannover, Germany. So in this case, Apple seems to be one step late (oh…pun ;-) )
Best regards,
Bernd
P.S.: Here’s a link to a StepMan press release:
http://www.igd-r.fraunhofer.de/IGD/Abteilungen/AR3/Projekte_AR3/stepman_AR3/index_html_en
My guess why the adapter for the Nike shoes isn’t available for 5G iPods is that running with the 5G iPods would cause damage to the hard drive that is included with those. The iPod Nano of course uses flash memory. The 5G iPods really are not for running with though I know many who still do and have been met with the costly outcome of HDD failure.
Great podcast. The Lions and ants metaphor made me feel like i was listening to a kindergarten teacher though. oh well each to their own.
Adam,
Regarding the Samson C-01 USB mic: I ended up returning two of them to Sam Ash because the audio levels were erattic on a 20″ iMac G5.
I had the Samson OS X utility the mic. When I would set the level higher it would clip. Set it normally and in a few minutes the level would be down to -15db or lower. I recorded two shows with the mic and could see the level going up and into the weeds on the recorded track. It didn’t seem to matter my distance from the mic if the m,c was all by itself or if there were other USB devices like a printer also plugged in.
I know. I’m the only one who ever had trouble with it. I wish it had worked. I ended up returning it for a lapel condensor mic.
Ironically I just got a Macbook Pro. Hearing your mention today tempted me wishing I could try the Samson USB mic with that, but I think I’d be better off with a USB headset. I’ll use my regular condensor mics with my M-Audio USB interface on the road for now. I wish I didn’t have to carry so much gear.
–Mike
Here’s a novel and cheap solution for those who need a USB mic: A Playstation 2 (PS2) Headset! My local Sears was clearancing them for $10. It worked plug-n-play with Skype and GarageBand, especially since I use Rogue Amoeba’s SoundSource (free) to select my audio input and output from the menu bar. (It turns out that the headset is really a Logitech USB Headset.)
Also, I used to be the biggest fan of Carbon Copy Cloner, but since Jaguar came out, it has given me quite a bit of trouble. I broke down and bought SuperDuper and, so far, I am as happy with it as I used to be with CCC.
Adam,
Pilot Mike makes some excellent points about the Samson C01U, all of which I experienced on my iBook as well. So Mike, you’re not alone.
I had another problem with the Samson– our podcast has two hosts, so we need to use 2 mics. We heard Leo Laporte raving about the C01U and bought two of them to use on my iBook.
The problem was that the iBook couldn’t deal with two USB mics that were connected at the same time. I checked with Samson support, Apple support, the Apple support forums, and several other Mac forum sites. I tried aggregating devices, changing sampling rates, etc., and the best I got was quieter-than-average audio on one mic and scratchy overmodulated audio on the other. Independently, they worked okay.
My iBook is a G4/1.33 GHz/1 GB unit running the latest version of Tiger. Nobody, especially Apple or Samson, could answer the question and finally suggested I try another solution. I did: I bought an M-Audio MobilePre USB and two condenser mics, and our show never sounded better. :-)
The real annoying thing about this is that the two-USB-mic setup worked *perfectly* on my Windows XP machine and Adobe Audition. I had hoped the Samson would have “just worked” the way I expect everything to do on my Mac.
Sorry for the long comment, but just wanted to issue a caveat in case someone tries to do what I tried– just want to save some headaches and $$ for my fellow Mac geeks
Great show!
–Joe
p.s. Regarding the extra $150 for a black MacBook: the color of a laptop does not add an air of “professionalism”– it’s the person behind the keyboard who gives that impression.
>> Joe wrote:
>> p.s. Regarding the extra $150 for a black MacBook: the color of a laptop does not add an air of “professionalismâ€â€“ it’s the person behind the keyboard who gives that impression.
Actually, the black color of the MacBook DOES give the impression of professionalism, but the person behind the keyboard determines whether that impression is justified or it is merely a facade! ;-)
One thing I need to say about the MacBook review: the person who reviewed it has obviously never tried putting it on her lap. That thing is HOT. In fact, mine was so hot that the KEYBOARD was hot… and it certainly could not be put on a lap. I have a white MacBook 2.0 Core Duo / 100 GB / 2 GB, I was seduced by it at the Apple Store, as she was (although I was seduced by it into saving $900 and not getting a MacBook Pro).
After 3 days, I brought it in to the Genius Bar at my local Apple Store (Cambridgeside Galleria), and they sent it out. The battery has not charged at all, even when left overnight. The heat is ridiculous (though of course, they say “not our problem” basically). I had four kernel panics in the 2 days before returning it. CoreDuoTemp 0.8 is reporting proc temps at idle of about 66C, proc temps under web browsing load at 80-90C. I only have three apps installed – VLC, Firefox, and Adium. I really just browse the web and do e-mail on my computers (a Mac Mini G4 has been a perfectly fine system for me).
Oddly, playing 1080p video (ex: X3 trailer off Apple’s site) boosted the temp a lot less than web browsing did.
Doesn’t matter though – even at idle, the system is stupidly hot. I love the design, but as of right now I’ve gone back to using my Thinkpad T40, and I’m EXTREMELY dissappointed in the MacBook – I’d return it if I could, and just pick up a new Mac Mini, and stick to using my thinkpad for a laptop.