The February issue is now available for your reading pleasure.
If you’ve gotten over Wes’ analogy to high-altitude, fiber-producing, spitting camelids in last month’s Bloggable, you’ll be pleased to know he’s now moved on to the blogosphere discussion of appropriate iTunes App Store pricing. Oh, and Steve Jobs’ health. Because the mainstream media will just not. Let. It. Go.
Mark wanders down memory lane so far as Internet connections are concerned, and laments that some employment forms across the Pond are in non-editable PDF form. Why is this a problem? When one such form is 28 pages long, that’s a lot of handwriting. There’s also the testy problem of folks paying for a broadband connection half the speed of which they’re paying for.
For anyone looking to get things done, Ed has updated the master list of applications which might help you to do so. Yours truly, with much help from Lee and Eric, offers a report from our adventure in San Francisco, and Macworld Expo 2009. Speaking of memory lane, Linus takes a stroll about Removable Storage Avenue, with a column title that made me smile nostalgically.
Speaking of San Francisco, one of the things the three ATPM musketeers did while we were there was take lots of photos, and the Bay Area offers lots of opportunities for great shots. Lee shares some of his favorites with us for this month’s desktop pictures. Linus contributed a cartoon complimentary to his column, wherein an old maxim is shown to not be true.
Some of you may think laptop stands are just not cricket, but Frank Wu is impressed with the Cricket Laptop Stand. (What? Too many Britishisms in this month’s ATPM post?) Ed puts MacSpeech Dictate 2.1 through its paces, and the voice recognition tool emerges unscathed and highly recommended.
As usual, ATPM is available in myriad formats for your enjoyment.
Tag: Mac
About This Particular Macintosh enters its fifteenth year of publishing with the release of our January issue.
Angus found himself doing some iPhone evangelism during the holiday season, even if it was completely unintentional on his part. Wes returns, after many months, with a look at the latest in the Mac blogosphere, notably the latest news regarding lawsuits between Apple and Mac-clone maker Psystar.
Mike is very happy with his iPhone 3G, but is disappointed that it meant his having to leave Sprint. He wonders if we’ll ever have mobile phones and mobile serviced unbundled from one another. As Mike notes, the cable companies don’t tell us what TV to use, and thank Jobs and Woz we aren’t required to use Windows to access content on the Internet. (Well, most content, anyway.) As his next action for 2009, Ed lays out where he’s taking his column, and looks for feedback from the ATPM readership.
Ken Aspeslagh was kind enough to share some photos from around the world for this month’s desktop pictures. Locations include St. John, France, and New England. Linus entertains with this month’s cartoon, related to a review in this same issue.
Speaking of reviews, Ed gets on the, er, Freeway. No, not of love, but of web site design. If you’ve got a ton of URLs you’d like to store for later reference, Paul thinks you can do worse than ShoveBox. For those looking for a hands-free kit to use with their iPhone, Ed thinks highly of the Vizor SUN. (Yeah, I had a line there about shining brightly, or using your car’s sun visor, but I couldn’t make it work, and it’s already past midnight, so this is getting posted on the 2d instead of the 1st. Maybe next year.) Finally, Linus wraps up our first issue of 2009 with a look at WordSoup, and if you’re still trying to figure out the cartoon, hopefully it makes sense now.
As always, this month’s issue is available in multiple formats for your reading enjoyment. Thanks for reading ATPM!
Expert Macintosh users who see “MacWorld” in an article know you don’t know what you’re talking about, just as most technology-literate readers would laugh at “MicroSoft,” “QualComm,” or “LexMark.” Referring to a famous technology event without the correct name or spelling is a quick way to throw away your credibility. Saying “That’s how I always thought it was spelled, and besides, everyone knew what I meant” is saying “I didn’t bother to get the facts about my subject before I wrote my article.” Don’t be that writer.
The December issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available.
We wrap up our fourteenth year of publishing beginning with some fantastic cover art courtesy of our friend Catherine. Mike ponders Apple’s sales strategy post-Black Friday, given the downturn in the economy, while Mark comments on the oft-overlooked Services menu. GTDers, rejoice, for Ed has another installment, this time focusing on non-typical lists, or, in humanspeak, “things that don’t conveniently fall in to our normal lists or categories”. Ed also updates the application list for the final time this year; if you can’t find an app to help you get things done, well, then you’re just not trying. Or reading ATPM each month.
Our friend Mike Shields returns from a long hiatus with perspective from a Mac user in Hollywood. Mike recently took part in the 168 Project, and discusses how you, too, can use your Mac to shoot an almost no-budget flick. Sylvester offers a guide for everyone who would like to run a second monitor on their Mac. Before I brought my old G4 Cube out of retirement, I was doing this with my 20-inch iMac and an older 19-inch LCD, and I confess, I do miss the extra screen real estate. Lee brings us some gorgeous shots of the Rocky Mountain National Forest in this month’s desktop pictures section, including some widescreen shots. My personal favorite is number three.
Just in time for the holiday buying season, we have a slew of product reviews to assist you in purchasing decisions for the Mac users on your list, or for yourself! Linus takes us through the new version of Art Text, while Ed lugs around Tom Bihn’s Checkpoint Flyer, a bag which allows travelers to keep their laptop in the bag without being hassled by the TSA.
Lee puts the Finder-based FTP client ExpanDrive through its paces, as Paul summarizes the tome, Foundations of Mac OS X Leopard Security. If you’re unable to hit the links on a regular basis, Ed may have found a solution for you with GL Golf. Finally, Lee looks at the iRecord Pro to see if it measures up to its predecessor.
As usual, ATPM is available in a variety of formats for your reading pleasure.
On behalf of the ATPM staff, thank you for reading. Concluding fourteen years of publication is quite a milestone, and we’re looking forward to continuing the standards we’ve set forth as we enter year fifteen. Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!
Every time there’s a new OS release from MSFT they talk about the shortfalls of the current OS & how the new version will fix all problems.
Ever hear Apple dis a former version of their OS? Me neither. 🙂
The November issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available for your reading pleasure.
Charles returns with another Filemaking column, taking readers through layouts and tables in the book database we’re building. There are lamentations from across the Pond, as Mark bemoans Honda and FireWire neutering, yet we can rejoice and be thankful this month on the American side of the ocean, as Ed has updated the GTD application master list.
Lee breaks down the various file formats available to us in Photoshop, while ATPM reader Zac Stivers was kind enough to share some photos from his hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas in our desktop pictures offering. I think the second Quince photo is lovely.
Speaking of photos, and Photoshop, Lee also reviews Mask Pro 4.1.2, which can be helpful for those of without the experience Lee has in building masks from scratch. Chris rocks the Logitech MX Revolution’s world, putting the ergonomically-shaped, wireless mouse through its paces. Ed likes the intriguing PDFPen, while Linus enlisted the help of his wife and son in his review of the game StoneLoops.
We say good-bye to a dear friend this month in the pages of About This Particular Macintosh. Matt Johnson has been drawing his Cortland cartoon for us for six years, and this month, brings the series to a close. Matt has seen a lot of changes in his life of late: new wife (congratulations, you guys!), new job, and a new city. He’s taking a breather from cartooning to get in to the swing of things, but assures us he’ll be back in the near future.
Thanks for six great years, Matt, and we can’t wait to see what you come up with next!
As usual, ATPM is available in a variety of reading formats for your comfort. Thanks for reading!
From my good friend, Brent:
“[T]he only people who bring up the supposed value of IBM/Windows over Mac are people whose livelihoods depend on it. Those PC vs. Mac commercials are correct, and Jerry Seinfeld can’t fix it.”
(It’s worth noting Brent’s livelihood does not, in fact, depend on the Mac. He’s just a satisfied user of one at home, whereas his work computer is Windows-based.)
The September issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available for your reading pleasure.
Mark informs us that more ISP chicanery is afoot across the Pond, and how Mac users in the UK might be affected. Ed’s updated the master list of GTD apps with a new item: iPhone Presence. Does the app have an iPhone version, or a web version the iPhone can access? Pretty handy if you’re looking for an application to get things done with that will run on your Mac and your iPhone.
In this month’s Photoshop For the Curious, Lee shows us how to use the Merge tool to stitch together those vacation photos to get those great panoramic shots. Sylvester scratches the surface of Preview’s usability to help us get more out of that handy little app.
This month’s desktop pictures are again courtesy of Julie Ritterskamp, who took these great photos in various national parks throughout the western United States this past July. The identity of Lord Fate, present and past, is revealed, as Cortland’s saga comes to a close. Todd and Angie begin to move their lives forward again, though Angie is having trouble letting Cortland go. But does she have to…?
First Officer Chris Lawson, our nation-trotting staff pilot, pounds around on Das Keyboard Professional, while the Big Boss, Michael Tsai, reviews three hard drive enclosures which allow one to treat hard drives as floppy disks. (For you young’uns, we used to have to store our computer data on this pieces of five-inch discs, which were encased in a floppy plastic material, hence the name, floppy disk, or floppies.)
Lee looks at a pair of headsets from Maximo, while Ed does some recipe filing with MacGourmet Deluxe. Finally, Linus puts Séquence through its paces to see if it can dethrone screen-capture king Snapz Pro.
As always, this issue of ATPM is available in a variety of formats for your reading enjoyment.
The August issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available for your reading pleasure.
Angus gets us started this month with a look at Microsoft’s latest attempts to market its way out of its Vista doldrums, while he’s very impressed with Microsoft Office: Office 2007 for Windows, that is, and notably the suite’s OneNote slice of software. If you’re wondering what this has to do with the Mac, read the whole column.
Mike goes a bit Billy Shakes on us as he recounts his tale of iPhone 3G acquisition, while storage is on Mark’s mind. As we go through the Great Room Reshuffle of 2008™ here in our home, storage is on my mind as well, but Mark’s thinking in terms of data storage. For Photoshop geeks, Mark also notes how to get the Pxl SmartScale plug-in working on an Intel Mac.
Gedeon Maheux, of the Iconfactory, twittered a couple of months back how he wanted a native to-do list app for his iPhone. He suspected that once the iPhone SDK was available, we’d see a “dev to-do list Thunderdome” of productivity apps. Judging from Ed’s roundup of Getting Things Done (GTD) applications for the iPhone, it looks like Ged’s prediction come true. Lee takes a break from the normal tutorials in this month’s Photoshop for the Curious to talk about when and when not to actually use some of the tips and processes he’s been teaching us on our photos.
This month’s desktop pictures are courtesy of Julie Ritterskamp, and features that sleepy little West Coast burb of San Francisco. Also, s the villianous legion regroups and remembers, the shocking truth about Cortland is finally revealed!
Linus has some fun running his photos through Comic Life Magiq, while Eric throws Knapsack over his shoulder for some trip planning. Finally, Lee thoroughly runs SmartMask 2.0, a plug-in for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, through its paces.
As always, ATPM if available in a variety of formats to suit your preferred reading habits.
The release of last month’s issue marked a personal milestone I failed to notice at the time of publication. I’ve now completed my 10th year of working on About This Particular Macintosh, and I’ve worn a variety of hats during that time. I have to thank Michael Tsai, our Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, for giving me the chance ten years ago to be a part of something I believe to be very special. In addition to being the boss, Michael has become a valued friend.
ATPM is a second family of sorts. While staff members come and go, it is amazing how entrenched in one another’s lives we become. We have seen one another through a wedding, the birth of children, a reality television game show, Macworld Expo meet-ups, even one of our own getting out in public to sing the National Anthem at a ball game. Rob’s family, and quite a few of my own, is still amazed that Michael and I showed up for his marriage to Sandy; it was first time any of us had ever met in person. ATPM has delivered my best friend in the online world. Rarely does a day go by that Lee and I are not in touch, mostly by instant message.
Working on the publication has been an honor and a treat, and I extend my thanks to all of the staff members, past and present, for the privilege of working alongside you.
The July issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available for your reading pleasure.
Kicking things off, Mark gets in touch with his inner “me” as he ponders the news from Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference this year. When the iPhone Software Developer Kit (SDK) was first released, it was theorized in the Twitterverse and throughout the blogosphere that once Apple provided a means to install standalone applications on the iPhone, we would see a raft of to-do list and other task management apps. With the impending release of the iPhone 3G and the iPhone App Store, Ed reflects on these thoughts, along with some on what we might find in the near future.
In this month’s Photoshop For the Curious, Lee shows us how to make the image on a computer monitor or television pop and not appear burned out when the monitor is photographed. Boy, I wish I had had this info back when I did my iPhone review… Sylvester follows up his thoughts from last month on network attached storage drives with some practical advice on playing well with one. Or two. Or three. Maybe four. Heck, you know how it is with NAS drives…
Oh. You don’t? You don’t even know what a network attached storage drive is? You can’t even figure it out from the name?
…
Let’s move along, shall we?
ATPM reader Harry Torres is kind enough to share some of his vehicular art with us in this month’s desktop pictures selection. Cortland’s foes celebrate his vanquishment, and reminisce on how they got to that point…
Paul puts EyeTV 3.0.2 through the ringer, while yours truly reviews Macworld’s iPhone Superguide, a great resource for any iPhone owner. If you’re looking for a spelling-bee game, read Linus’s Spell-Jam review before continuing your search. Finally, Lee takes a look at a potentially handy piece of software for getting your Mac and Wii to play nice together.
As always, this month’s ATPM is available in a variety of formats for your comfort. Thanks for reading, About This Particular Macintosh!