I don’t know what makes me more angry: the fact that this exists or the fact that I’ll probably buy it.
Harry McCracken Still Loves His iPad
I’m a little late in linking this story but with the excitement about the new iPads, I thought it still relevant. Harry is a top-flight tech writer who went public about the fact that his iPad is his primary computer about a year ago. Harry even guested on the Mac Power Users (Episode 71) explaining how he pulled it off.
After a year, Harry writes he still loves his iPad but is not so much a revolutionary as he first was since others are also using the iPad as their primary computer. For example, see M.G. Siegler.
I love my iPad and use the heck out of it but I’d put my Mac/iPad ratio closer to 60/40. I still use a Mac more often but anything away from my desk is done on an iPad (and I’m finding increasingly creative excuses to get away from my desk).
MPU 109: Speed Up Your Mac
The latest Mac Power Users episode is up. In it, Katie and I talk about our best tips for speeding up your Mac short of sending Apple a pile of money for a new one.
Star Trek TNG, 25 Years Later
Catching up with some reading I stumbled upon this fantastic Grantland article by Brian Phillips about Star Trek, The Next Generation. I have to admit that growing up I was firmly in the Star Wars camp and never could get excited about Captain Kirk and gang. I think it was probably a combination of the cheesy 60’s sets and my inability to grasp “deep” story lines. So when The Next Generation showed up while I was in college, I took a pass.
When I got to law school however, I got into the habit of making my Top Ramen every night around seven and needing a little entertainment before returning to the books. This was when TNG was starting its syndication run and, despite my best efforts, became a Trekky. Captain Picard and and the rest of those aboard NCC-1701-D had me hooked and I watched the whole thing. I think those little breaks with the Enterprise crew got me through those years and for that am thankful.
SSD-Less
Dr Drang writes:
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“I’m still ambivalent about the Fusion drive. The idea behind it is great, but I’m just not sure I want in on a 1.0 device. I’m sure Apple has tested the Fusion out the wazoo; still, this is an iMac, and I can’t just replace it with a regular disk if I don’t like how the Fusion works.”
Having never used a Fusion drive, I still think the good doctor is making a mistake. He buys Macs for a long time. (He is replacing a 2006 iMac.) These new iMacs are not going to make drive replacement easy and his decision to skip on SSD now means he’ll not be using SSD for probably another six years.
We’ve got a Mac Power Users episode going up later tonight (or tomorrow morning) about speeding up your Mac and in it I sing the praises of SSD. I’m old enough to remember the massive speed boost we got saving to floppy disc when before we saved to cassette tape. (Yes. I saved my BASIC programs to a cassette tape.) I also remember the fantastic speed boost we got moving from floppy to hard disc. This latest improvement is no less spectacular. Having used SSD drives now for a few years, I can’t imagine going back.
My advice would be to get the Fusion Drive and keep on top of things. If you are really concerned, get AppleCare and it is then Apple’s problem for the next few years.
With respect to Dr. Drang’s opening comments about how the thin design doesn’t move him, I agree. I don’t really get that as a selling point. I actually prefer my existing iMac with the integrated optical drive. Desktops and laptops are very different beasts in my book.
New MacSparky Field Guide Markets
Yesterday I was able to publish Paperless and 60 Mountain Lion Tips in 18 additional countries including Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Panama, Peru, and Venuzuela. The book is now available in 50 countries. I love that a nerdy guy like me can do this. Thanks everyone.
Learning Keyboard Shortcuts
I often receive emails asking how I can remember so many keyboard shortcuts. It really isn’t that hard.
The trick is to just learn one at a time. Figure out something you do repeatedly and commit the keyboard shortcut to memory. For instance, sending an email from Apple Mail requires Shift-Command-D. Everybody sends email, right?
The next time you finish composing an email, press Shift-Command-D and you’ll hear that satisfying swooshing sound without lifting your fingers from the keyboard. Do it for every email you send for the next few weeks. At some point, it becomes muscle memory. Then pick another keyboard shortcut and start on that one.
What you shouldn’t do is find a list of shortcuts and try to memorize them. Just pick a shortcut that help you right now and stick with it until it is second nature and then move on.
By the way, if you want help finding a shortcut, try CheatSheet. It’s a simple, free little app that feeds you all the shortcuts for your active application. Remember though, just pick one to learn.
$329 Coda
As a follow up to my piece this morning about the iPad mini price, Amazon today reports a $274M quarter loss. Jim Dalrymple sums it up nicely.
ScreenFlow 4
I often get asked about how I go about creating my screencasts. It really isn’t that difficult. I use ScreenFlow. ScreenFlow is a soup to nuts screencasting application for the Mac that works splendidly. Over the years I’ve tried some of the competitors but I always come back to ScreenFlow and I never regret it.
Telestream, the ScreenFlow developer is not resting on its laurels. Today they released ScreenFlow, version 4. This newest version adds several features, both under the hood and behind the steering wheel.
64 Bits
ScreenFlow is now fully 64-bit integrated for OS X 10.7 and above. I’ve been using it to capture my retina display MacBook Pro and it’s working without a hitch.
Closed Caption Support
The application lets you to insert closed-captioned text right in your ScreenFlow document.
Nested Clips
This lets you merge multiple elements into a single (nested) clip. You can then access and edit that nested clip on a separate tab timeline. This is going to be so useful for my large screencast projects.
Chroma Key Support
While I was initially scratching my head about the idea of green screen support in a screencasting application, after fiddling with it, it makes sense. It’s not just a green screen you’re looking at, but any custom color. For instance, a solid color on the back of your desktop.
Video and Audio Filters
Now ScreenFlow has built in filters to add more audio and video control. There is a pile of them and I haven’t even scratched the surface yet but so far I’m really digging the blurring and mask video controls and EQ audio controls.
There are also a bunch of other nice little refinements that make the day-to-day use of this application better. For instance, you can now set the default durations for actions like freeze-frame and callouts. All of these little changes clearly arise from user feedback.
ScreenFlow is, and probably never has been, a hobbyist application. It is professional level screencasting without the usual professional level headaches and costs. I’ve been screencasting for over five years now and sometimes can’t believe how far these applications have come. If you want to start screencasting on your Mac, spend 100 bucks on ScreenFlow 4 and you are well on your way.
Sponsor: Mutual Mobile
My thanks to Mutual Mobile for sponsoring MacSparky this week.
Why work for Mutual Mobile? We’ve grown from a core 5 people in 2009 to just over 200 at the turn of 2012, and we’re poised to double that figure over the next year. Our client list includes companies like Google, Cisco, and Audi, and your skills help build what we offer. It’s an exciting time to be in Austin’s tech scene, and we work to keep things interesting.