eugene gordin

Right now I find myself aboard Flight 763 to Las Vegas, and the only word I can muster at this point (other than those that I’m typing, of course) is: amazing. The cabin of the plane looks like nothing short of a classy nightclub, backlit with blacklights and soothing lavender neon. The divider between first class and coach isn’t a trendy curtain that the flight attendants censoriously shut, but a transparent purple plexiglass enclosure that seems to just be some sort of soon-to-be fishtank they’d fill if only the FAA would let them bring liquids onboard.

• The ability to instant message not only seat to seat, but also in chat rooms, either with the entire flight, a select group of passengers, or specific to a TV channel (in split window with the channel itself). Unreal. So cool.
• The ability to make playlists from the offered music catalog – wow. I guess it helps when you own your own large record company.
• Electrical outlets at every seat: simple, necessary, well done.
• The food is ordered from the Eat menu on your screen – choose from drinks, snacks, or entire meals, all with one swipe of your credit card along the top of the screen. The flight attendant comes right over and serves you your order.

I found it especially interesting that the options for email checking, shopping, reading (of news), and instant messaging were all already built into the system, just waiting to be enabled (although it was quite sad to see those options, but to not be able to use them). How I long for the days of in-cabin wireless internet. The future of air travel is a bright one.

What can I really say except that the entire flight was, well, an experience. That, and I paid full price for my ticket: a whopping $44.

For those that don’t know, Airtunes is a feature of the current Airport Express, which allows you to broadcast your music from iTunes to any speakers hooked up to the Airport Express. In my house, for example, we have our Airport Express in the living room, which means that at any point, I can tell iTunes to play music not through the speakers in my computer, but to the speakers in the living room (which are hooked up to the Airport Express). Airtunes lets me do that, and its quite an amazing little feature.

The one downside of Airtunes (other than the occasional skip), is that you can only transfer audio from iTunes wirelessly, and any other programs get ignored. Well, luckily, the fine folks at

Rogue Amoeba offer a very good tool called Airfoil, which allows you to broadcast all of your audio, iTunes and any other program, to your Airport Express (and now Apple TV!) – see the screen shot below!

• control the volume on the target stereo hooked up through airtunes (not possible with iTunes on its own)
• output to multiple speakers throughout the house (iTunes has this ability too but Airfoil extends it to all applications)
• play video and have synced audio using Airfoil’s Video Player
• turn any computer into a speaker (basically you can play your music through any computer in the house, very cool)
• use it on Mac OR Windows!

The one downside that I see to the beauty that is this app is that its not free, but $25 (there is a demo version on their site that you can try, fully featured). Still, for all of the added features that this application provides, its still quite worth money. If you have an Airport Express or Apple TV and aren’t using Airtunes, I highly suggest you check it out. But once you do, be sure and pick up Airfoil.

In my search for the ability to hide an app’s dock icon, I ran across a little application called Dockless, which removes the application’s dock icon even when its running. The program is amazingly simple: it surveys all of the applications on your Mac and then gives you the option of having a dock icon for it while its running or not. You can just as easily restore the dock icon for an application as you hid it.

There is one downside to this approach (which as far as I know is the only approach to this problem). When you hide the dock icon for an application, you will no longer be able to control it if you close its window. Since you’d use Dockless on the kind of applications you want to hide tend to be those that should run in the background without much intervention anyway, this isn’t much as problem.

However, I have found that that problem is easily remedied by two different solutions

1. You can bring up the program’s main window by relaunching the program (a quick keystroke in Quicksilver or from Finder), which will bring up the program’s window again.
2. You can get to the program’s preferences by remembering the keyboard shortcut for preferences on a Mac (typically ? + ,)
3. Worse comes to worst, you can always rerun Dockless and re-enable the app’s dock icon. Configure what you need, and then hide the icon again with Dockless.

So there you have it – a simple app that provides a simple solution for an annoying problem – be sure and check out Dockless!

First, for those of us that already own SuperDuper (highly recommended), the update makes your installation Leopard compatible for the lovely price of $0.

Second, for those of you that haven’t yet bought SuperDuper, you can use the program for as long as you like for the staggering price of $0. However, if you end up purchasing the amazing application that has saved me on more than one occasion, you also get the SmartUpdate (very quick updates) and Scheduling (very automatic updates) features of SuperDuper enabled for a low $27.95. That’s money well spent.

Now that you know its available, go download the free trial! In the mean time, I want to revisit the Time Machine vs. SuperDuper debate that I brought up in my previous post.

To be honest, for the last three months, I have been using Apple’s much touted Time Machine. However, when I say I’ve been using it, I mean that it has been backing up my computer in the background for the last 3 months. Sure, this provided me with my much needed (and much recommended) comfort of knowing that my data is secure. However, I cannot honestly say that I have ever used Time Machine to find a file from the past and bring it back to the present.

While I will be the first to agree that maybe Time Machine is one of those things you don’t know you need, before you need it. Sure, that’s quite a possibility, and its definitely the reason I’m going to give Time Machine some more, well, time. However, when I look back on the last three months, I see that the only time that I ever opened Time Machine was either to 1) tell Time Machine to stop making backups of my Parallels Drive or 2) to show it off to my friends.

The first reason was simply because Time Machine backs up my 10GB Parallels drive image each time I run Parallels, which ends up taking a whole lot of room. So I deleted the previous copies several times before realizing that I could just tell Time Machine to ignore that folder (under System Preferences –> Time Machine –> Options). The second is self explanatory, and quite fun, but not necessarily useful. But in the end, that’s all I’ve used it for.

Therefore, if this trend continues, Time Machine is not by any means more useful than SuperDuper. In fact, a complete system restore (knocks on wood) would take longer using Time Machine as opposed to SuperDuper, as we saw in my previous post.

So that’s my 3 month report with Time Machine. I’ll report back in another 3 months with Time Machine, SuperDuper!, and Time Capsule. Should be interesting. For now though, SuperDuper wins in my eyes.

Although I can honestly say that the new Office 2008 is much nicer, I find that the speed of startup of Word and Excel are a little unacceptable. After digging around, I found a fix over at the MacRumors Forums to speed up the startup time of at least Word:

1. Launch word
2. Go to Word —>Preferences
3. Click on “General”
4. Uncheck “WYSIWYG font and style menus”
5. Uncheck “Show Project Gallery At Startup”
6. Quit Word
7. Reopen Word

So in my random ventures online, I found a great article on MacInstruct about what to do if you get in a bind on your mac. The article has some good tips, even if your Mac begins to act a little funky. Its rare, but it happens.

Take a look, both at the article and at the site itself – its got great tips for a wide range of users (not to mention amazing graphics like the one for this post!)

Time Capsule

With Time Capsule, I can simply connect a small USB hub to the Time Capsule (which is possible on an Airport Extreme so why not a Time Capsule), and then connect my printer and my MyBook to the USB port. But why would I need an external backup drive if I have the 1 terabyte inside my Time Capsule? That’s for either my bootable SuperDuper Backups (see my previous post on the subject), or for my media storage.

Its a known fact that the simpler you make a process, the more likely that people are going to take advantage of it. With Time Machine and now Time Capsule, backing up your Mac is not only easy, its seamless, AND wireless.

The Time Capsule is as representative of the Apple design philosophy as it gets: its simple, its beautiful, and its useful. Amazing.

iPhone/iPod Touch Updates

• Geolocation, or quasi-GPS, is a tool I use regularly, if only just to get traffic on the freeway I’m on (I use Navizon for this currently).
• Sending mass text messages is also a great and useful feature (I use SMSD for this currently).
• Reordering the icons is very helpful and can help get rid of clutter (I use Customize for this currently).
• Webclips are a quick and easy way to get to the website you browse most (I use iPhone Apper for this currently).

As you can see, I’ve got no reason to update my phone right now, especially because I’ll lose all of my games and favorite apps the minute I do. However, I would get rid of all of my games and apps for this new update if I could only keep MobileScrobbler. Ah well, the SDK in late February will solve all of these conflicts.

In terms of the update to the iPod Touch, I think that having Mail, Maps, and all of the other iPhone features on the Touch was a great idea. And for those that are saying that the $20 extra they have to pay for the update is unjustified, please remember that the iPod Touch falls under a different pricing subscription model than the iPhone or the Apple TV. You can recall that the added 802.11n functionality was updated in the newer MacBooks for an additional price too last Fall.

The beauty of these updates is this: although I’ve had only one phone in my lifetime that issued software updates (Samsung A900), and even they did it only once. These iPhone/iPod Touch updates continue to refine a phone/ipod that is already quite amazing in and of itself. Well done Apple.

iTunes Rentals

If you had asked me even a few days ago whether or not I thought iTunes movie rentals were a good idea, I would have said I’m not sure. However, after watching the keynote, I can honestly say that its a great and significant feature addition. To think of the many times that I have gone out to Blockbuster or Hollywood Video to rent a

movie I didn’t have – now I can simply do that from the comforts of my own room or living room (see below).

The one downside I see right now is the lack of a subscription model for rentals – why not add a simple 1,2,3, or unlimited rentals per month for some sort of fee. I’d pay it. It’d put Netflix and Blockbuster out of business and provide an amazing service. I have a funny feeling that this is coming, sooner rather than later.

And the fact that they have every single major movie studio on board for this service? That’s truly the key. Renting couldn’t be easier.

Apple TV (Take 2)

This is my second favorite announcement this year. The Apple TV has been an interesting bit of hardware since it was announced. Even Steve himself labeled it a “hobby.” However, that changed on Tuesday.

Now armed with iTunes, a new slick interface, independence from computers, AirTunes capability, and rentals/purchasing, the Apple TV has truly established itself in the living room. The impact of these new additions to the Apple TV can best be summarized with a simple example. How many times have you been sitting on your couch, wanting to watch a movie but too lazy to run out to Blockbuster or Hollywood Video? Now all you have to do is click Rent or Buy and its there for you, even in HD. That’s truly revolutionary.

Yes, yes, I know – you already have On Demand movies which can be watched or purchased or whatever. But this combines photos, music, movies, tv shows, and a world of other content all in one little box below your TV, in addition to having a much much larger selection of movies. Personally, I can’t wait to install this update (available in 2 weeks), and start using it!

MacBook Air

For a lot of people, the Macbook Air was the biggest announcement. Personally, I thought it was interesting, but not the most exciting by any means. Now I don’t want to take anything away from this new Apple notebook – it is truly a sight to see (although I have yet to see one in person). Of all of its features, I found the following quite interesting:

• Size and weight – 3 lbs and 3/4 of an inch at its thickest? Speaks for itself – unreal.
• Solid State Disk (SSD) option – this is a little taste of the future, right now. Its pricey to say the least ($1000 extra) and small (64gb, less than the stock 80gb), but that should come down as economies of scale begin to take their toll.
• Multitouch Gestures – this is going to be something quite useful, and its nice they implemented it on the MBA. My question is this – if I already have two finger scrolling on my Macbook Pro, how come a software update can’t add these same gestures to my notebook?
• Screen Size – I’m glad they didn’t compromise on this – especially with the full size keyboard – well done
• Lack of Ethernet port – this was interesting, both from a design and precedent perspective – I don’t know the last time I used my ethernet port so right on, nothing lost that’s gonna be missed.
• Lack of Optical Drive – I think this, along with Remote Disk, was a justified compromise for the size. I don’t think it poses a problem and definitely saves space. For those plane ride’s you’re gonna need Handbrake tho!

Overall, it should be interesting to see what part of the market the MacBook Air takes. Some people are saying that it will take away market share from the standard Macbooks, others are saying that this is exactly what was keeping people from switching to Mac entirely. Only time will tell.

My one concern is fragility. Right now, my Macbook Pro, weighing in at 5.4 lbs feels very solid to the touch, and I’m not afraid that it’ll break when I put it in my bag. I haven’t seen the MacBook Air in person, but that would definitely be my concern.

I’ll finish the MacBook Air section with this. My mac guru Jonathan (the guy pretty much responsible for my switching from PCs), when asked what he thinks about the MacBook Air, could only explain how they fit so many features and such power into such a small laptop by saying that once again, Apple was “doing their Black Magic.” Its true.

Conclusion

While this year’s keynote was going on, I was driving to work and getting almost live updates from MacRumors‘ Live website on my iPhone. They did a great job setting that site up (no refreshing needed and images to boot!) and I am very grateful to them for it.

I believe that this keynote was a great step in the right direction, and was every bit as fulfilling as I would have hoped. Sure, we got spoiled last year by the unbelievable iPhone announcement, but just remember, last year they basically had one big announcement, this year they had 4. Keep ’em comin Apple.

Those of you who keep up with this blog know that other than the Photography section of my site, I rarely mention my iPhone. However, those that have spent more than 5 minutes with me know that I don’t go very long without checking my phone for something – text messages, news, phone calls, etc.

Although my love of my iPhone knows no bounds, and there are many iPhone applications that I adore, none compare to MobileScrobbler.

MobileScrobbler combines three things that I’m obsessed with – Apple, Music, and Last.fm. For those that don’t know what Last.fm is, I highly suggestion you check out my rave about it (and here!).  MobileScrobbler is an application which, in real time, notifies Last.fm of what I’m listening to on my iPhone. This eliminates all of the barriers from proper music listening tracking that existed before: when I wasn’t at my computer listening (using Last.fm’s software), I had to listen to a song on my iPod, come home, plug in my iPod, sync with my iTunes library, and then approve the track notification. With MobileScrobbler, all I have to do is listen to my music, and my Last.fm profile gets updated automatically and in real time. Amazing.

But MobileScrobbler does a whole lot more! Depending on what I’m listening to, it will give me the background information on the song, artist, and album, including the lyrics and album art. It also include’s Last.fm’s great radio stations, for recommended artists, similar artists, and user radios.

It does all of this, and does it with a beautiful and easy to use interface. If you’re not sold yet, the guy behind MobileScrobbler has posted a visual tour of the new features of the upcoming version (1.4, available next month). Its a complete visual update (see right), and should be incredible for any music lover.

The last thing I’m going to say about it is this: Last.fm and MobileScrobbler have one incredible thing in common – they both, while providing unparalleled services, are completely free to use. If you value great ideas come to life, I highly recommend donating.

No, this post isn’t going to be about making the (amazing) switch from PCs to Macs. Apple does a good job advertising that on its own. In a way, you could say that this switch represented the final step in my PC de-shackling, but since I have to use Parallels quite often for Engineering stuff, that final step is quite a bit off.

This post is about the switch I made a few months back from Mozilla’s Firefox to Apple’s Safari.

In the months leading up to my switching to Safari as my full time browser, I became increasingly frustrated with Firefox, in terms of usability and speed. Each time that I opened a code-intensive webpage, I would get the spinning beach ball for long periods of time (up to 15 seconds), which is simply unacceptable.

On the other hand, whenever I would load any page in Safari, it would load extremely quickly, never crashing or stalling at any given turn.With the release of Safari 3 (with Leopard), I was fully hooked. The interface, speed (see graph), stability, and plugins provide everything I need for my browser. The inline search is gorgeous, and quite useful.

The transition from Firefox was eased even more by installing three separate (and free!) plugins, which I could simply not browse without.

• SafariBlock – its basically AdBlock Plus for Safari (highly recommended!)
• Inquisitor – allows you to add multiple search engines to Safari’s Google search, in addition to providing search suggestions (note: sometimes sponsored ones)
• Greasekit – brings the power of GreaseMonkey to Safari (although not all scripts are compatible)
• Saft – provides a whole HUGE list of improvements and tweaks, specifically proper “open links in new tabs” for Gmail and the like (note: this one isn’t free, but it also isn’t as necessary)

So ignore my previous posts about the power of Firefox (even on PCs since Safari is now available for Windows). Safari is the way to go, and I highly recommend you try it for yourself. The speed alone should be a pleasant surprise.

The long (and short term) benefits of sunscreen backing up your data regularly has been nothing short of proven by scientists. The feeling of losing a photo, a document, or anything else irreplaceable is horrifying to me, and the fact that people some people still don’t back up their computers appalls me. Therefore, here and now, I could not be any more proud of Apple, who has made regular backup the centerpiece of Mac OSX Leopard. They call it Time machine, and the name is about as revolutionary as the approach.

Time Machine, both automatically and regularly, backs up your data to an external drive invisibly, running in the background and keeping track of the files you delete. Hourly back ups for the past 24 hours, daily backups for the past month, weekly backups until your external drive is full.

This is extremely helpful, logical, and needed. But does this great feature render my favorite backup application – SuperDuper – useless? No. Here’s why:

Although Time Machine is a great approach to data backup, and is ideal for those looking for a quick and simple way to keep their data safe, one needs to remember what Time Machine doesn’t do. It doesnt create bootable backups, meaning that if ***knock on wood*** hard drive failure ever does occur, the process for system and file restoration after getting a new hard drive involves the following:

1. Finding your Leopard Install Disc (if you even have it available)
2. Reinstalling OSX (a couple hours if you install the languages)
3. Restoring from a Time Machine Backup on your external

On the other hand, with your system backed up with SuperDuper, the restoration process involves the following:

1. Booting you complete system from your external drive
2. Running SuperDuper to copy your backup to your internal hard drive

As you can see, the SuperDuper restoration method is far superior for hard drive failure not only because it does not require any additional hardware (such as the Leopard Install DVD), but also because it gets you back into your fully functioning system immediately. By booting off of your external back up, you can delay getting a new hard drive if one is not available to you, and continue to work off of the external. With Time Machine, assuming you have your Leopard DVD with you (a pretty hefty assumption), you still have to go out and get a new hard drive, install it, and then sit and wait while Leopard completely reinstalls.

Now I don’t get me wrong Time Machine does everything it promises: it backs up your data for pretty much any unforeseeable disaster that can happen. In fact, Time Machine goes beyond this purpose, and allows you to retrieve individual files that you may have deleted some time in the past. This is not only quite amazing, its also something SuperDuper can do.

To make this even simpler, take a look at the stats:

Alright, enough winding back and fourth. What’s the verdict? My belief is this:

• If you use nothing else, use Time Machine out of pure simplicity
• If you want quick recovery from hard drive failure, use SuperDuper
• If you want both, use both.

What am I going to use? I will use both because I like the idea of restoring files I delete in the past and old versions of files. I also like my computer up and running immediately if it crashes. Using both lets me do both.

I hope that helps, and if you have any questions, let me know in the comments!

[Update]: The second part of this post can be found here.