A Great Blog

The Super-Thin iMacs

2012-12-04T17:21:00.001-08:00

When Apple introduced the new Super-Thin iMacs at the October 2012 Event, I couldn't believe my eyes. Apple, with their flagship desktop computers have officially put design before function. I just read an article that describes in detail how far Apple has put design before function. The Electronista article reports on how the company iFixit took apart the 21.5-inch iMac. It's gotten to a point where the new iMacs are serviceable only by Apple now. The 21.5-inch iMac has no User-Serviceable Parts. Apple claims that in the 27-inch iMac that the user can replace the RAM.
This new line of iMacs is the first to not have a built-in DVD Superdrive. If you're into video editing and want to put your project on a DVD, (which was one of the big features Apple use to tout about for the iMac) you will need to buy the external Apple Superdrive. When you need to connect external drives to your computer because of how the computer's design changed, it makes that computer that much less elegant and a lot less as easy to use.

If you are thrilled with the new design of the iMac and are dead-set on purchasing one, I strongly recommend purchasing the AppleCare extended coverage which will extend the standard one year warranty to three years total. I personally can't recommend these iMacs because of how far over-the-line Apple has taken the Design over Function philosophy.

Running Mountain Lion on your Mac (Update)

2012-07-18T16:02:00.000-07:00

With OS 10.8 Mountain Lion coming out soon, I thought it would be good to talk about upgrading to Mountain Lion. Apple has issued a very specific list of models that Mountain Lion can be installed on. After doing some research as to Apple's list of Macs, I discovered it wasn't necessarily the Mac itself but it's video card that is the issue. Mountain Lion is relying more heavily on the Graphics Processing Unit or GPU than in past versions of the Mac Operating System. One interesting question I've come across a few times is, "If you have an older Mac Pro tower and you were to upgrade the video card, would that older Mac Pro become compatible with Mountain Lion?" The answer is unfortunately no. The first Mac Pros have 32-bit Firmware and in order to run Mountain Lion, the software would have to include a 32-bit OS X Kernel to be compatible with the early Mac Pro's 32-bit Firmware. Mac OS 10.8 Mountain Lion is a fully 64-bit operating system and is only compatible with Mac Pros with 64-bit EFI Firmware.

Below is Apple's exclusive list of compatible Macintosh models that can be upgraded to Mountain Lion:

Your Mac must be one of the following models:

iMac (Mid 2007 or newer)
MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer)
MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer)
MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer)
Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer)
Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)
Xserve (Early 2009)

Also, you can contact John here at MacMobile and he can find out if any of your Applications are not compatible with Mountain Lion before upgrading. If you have further questions or you would like MacMobile to do the upgrade for you, please Contact John. Thank You.

8 VERY USEFUL FEATURES IN MOUNTAIN LION OS 10.8

2012-07-17T16:39:00.000-07:00

It has been rumored that OS 10.8 Mountain Lion with be released July 25th. I have looked over this new Operating System from Apple and I think there are a lot of improvements over the previous 10.7 Lion release from last year. I will point out here what features I thought were very useful in this new release of OS X. Here is Apple's official list of 200+ New Features if you are curious.

AUTO SAVE
Auto Save was introduced in OS 10.7 Lion where when after you initially Name & Save your document, the software would automatically continually save the changes in the document as you were working on it, there by having separate versions of that document. When you are finished, all you would need to do is close the document. You won't get the usual "Save Changes?" sheet that would come down from the top of the window anymore because your "changes" have already been saved. What OS 10.8 Mountain Lion has added is a new File Directory connected to Apple's iCloud service. This feature is extremely convenient if you have other computer and/or Apple Devices like the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. You would have access to your documents on any of your devices. iCloud will offer a Document Library for your documents.

BUILT-IN SOCIAL SHARING
Built-in Sharing will allow you to easily share any information with Twitter and Facebook throughout the Operating System and supported Applications. For Example, you wouldn't need to copy some text that you want to share and switch over to your web browser and log-in to your social network in order to share. In OS 10.8 Mountain Lion, there will be a new button that you can click on to share any text that is highlighted.

DICTATION
Dictation is now built-in to OS X. There is no voice pre-training. It works from the get-go. You can use it anywhere you type. The more you use it, the better it becomes. There is one thing though, in order to use it, you need to have an Internet connection for it to work.

MAIL
Mail in OS 10.8 Mountain Lion will have a new VIP mailbox which will look out for messages from a person you designate. Also, your Mail Preferences with be pushed to iCloud so that your email settings will be the same on your other Apple devices.

NOTES
Notes is a new application included with OS 10.8 Mountain Lion. Notes' entries will be Pushed to all your Apple devices via iCloud. Be able to drag Photos & Attachments into Notes. Format your Notes with different fonts, rich text, bulleted items and numbered lists. You will also be able to Pin Notes to your Desktop.

NOTIFICATION CENTER
A new feature of OS 10.8 Mountain Lion will have a hidden place on the right-hand side of the screen that will group current information from applications such as Calendar and Mail to name just a couple. To access Notification Center, there will be an Icon in the upper right corner of the screen that once clicked on, a sheet will slide out from the right side of the screen listing alerts and current events going on with your other Applications. Notification Center is also the place where you can send a Tweet or Facebook entry right from the Desktop.

PREVIEW
Preview which comes with every version of OS X and is equivalent to Adobe Reader, adds access to Documents in the Cloud, the ability to Fill out PDF forms and Insert a page from your Scanner.

REMINDERS
Reminders is a new application that's included with OS 10.8 to help you stay organized with To-Do Lists and Location-based reminders. Be able to add a location to a reminder and then receive a notification via iCloud on any of your other Apple devices when you Depart or Arrive at that location using GPS. Reminders also works with Google and Yahoo calendars.

Steve Jobs 1955-2011

2011-10-06T02:51:00.000-07:00

Back in the early 80s I started using PCs and learned how to program them using DOS (Disk Operating System). I had to type everything, line by line. I typed thousands of lines of code. There was nothing onscreen to point and click on. There was no Mouse or TrackPad. I remember one day in 1984, I was in downtown Santa Rosa California. I walked in Santa Rosa Computer Center to look around to see if they had anything new. I walked up to this small beige box. It had a 9-inch black and white screen with a graphic drawing of a Japanese girl. It had a small keyboard and this other little box with one button and a cable attached to it, I had no idea what it was. The graphic was amazing looking, the detail that it had, I've never seen anything like it on a computer screen before. In those days computers could only display text and the displays came in two colors; Green and Amber. Even though the graphic drawing was in Black and White, I was impressed with how detailed it was. After seeing that first Macintosh computer, I tried to learn everything about it and the company who made it, Apple Computer Inc. I read the history of how the Macintosh became to be. Steve Jobs co-founder of Apple, wanted to create a computer that was as easy to use as a kitchen appliance. He wanted to take the computer code off the screen and have everything in plain english. He wanted to take it a step further and have a pointing device and graphic objects called Icons that you could click on in order to reduce the need for typing. The graphics on the screen were laid out to represent the top of a desk with Icons that looked like sheets of paper and folders. In the bottom right-hand corner of the screen was an Icon of a Trash can. With the mouse, for example, you could click on these Icons and drag them around the screen. You could drag the sheet of paper icon and put it into the folder icon or the Trash icon. I couldn't believe how simple it was to use. It seemed to good to be true! Well, ever since then, I used the Macintosh as much as I could and eventually stopped using DOS altogether. Before the Mac, I never thought a computer could ever be so easy to use. I thought computers had to be complicated because it could do so many things and in order for it to doing anything, you had to tell it what do to using lines of complicated computer code. Steve Jobs will be missed. If it wasn't for Steve's Innovative thinking, companies and consumers around the world wouldn't have the technology we have today.

Coddingtown Mall

2011-09-12T12:04:00.000-07:00

Every time I go to the Apple Store in Santa Rosa it's always full of people. Normally, that would be a good thing, but the problem is that the Apple Store at Santa Rosa Plaza is practically a hole in the wall. With a city as big as Santa Rosa, Apple picked the wrong city for their experiment of testing their smallest stores. I have a solution to this problem. Santa Rosa's first big shopping mall Coddingtown would be a perfect location for either a second Apple Store or one big one for Santa Rosa. Coddingtown needs more business coming in and since the Apple Stores are doing such great business right now, it seems like a no-brainer to put an Apple Store in Coddingtown. With the kind of attraction the Apple Stores have right now, it would benefit Coddingtown and its tenants immensely. There is one problem, since Simon, one of the biggest mall management companies, owns both Santa Rosa Plaza and half of Coddingtown, it creates competition between the two malls. Now, like my Dad told me, it's possible in the Apple Store's leasing agreement at Santa Rosa Plaza that Apple can't have another store within so many miles of each other and/or in a neighboring mall owned by Simon Management. I think Codding Enterprises, (original owners of Coddingtown) made a bad decision by selling half of Coddingtown to Simon Management. It's not good to become partners with your competition. Unfortunately, by doing that with Simon Management, Codding Enterprises put Coddingtown's future in jeopardy. Even though there is a new Whole Foods Market at Coddingtown now, I don't think it will bring enough business in to keep Coddingtown going. I think having an Apple Store in Coddingtown Mall would get it back on its feet again.

Mac OS X 10.7 LION

2011-06-20T12:46:00.000-07:00

Since Apple's announcement of the next release of Mac OS X 10.7 code named "Lion" I've been getting my MacBook prepared for this new Operating System release. In the past few weeks I've been playing with a pre-release version and it does have a different "feel" to it and yet it still has all the familiar things that we are accustom to on the Mac. With the release of the "Magic Pad" and the "Magic Mouse" last year, being Solid State devices and using technology borrowed from the iPhone touch screen with the Swipe & Pinch gestures, I can now see what Apple was preparing to do in this upcoming release of Mac OS X "Lion". If you use the TrackPad on your MacBook or you have one of Apple's new Pointing Devices, then you'll be able to move within your Mac a lot faster and efficiently using different Swipe & Pinch gestures. Apple announced that there are 250 new features in this new release. Playing with the pre-release and going through those new features, Apple is beginning to take the Macintosh to the next level of Ease Of Use. When the Macintosh first came out in 1984, I understood where Apple was coming from. With this next level of Swipe & Pinch gestures, there may be no need for a file system as we know it today, because Apple has incorporated a full auto-save system within Mac OS X Lion. In the next new versions of your favorite Applications running in Lion, they will no longer have the Save Command under the File Menu. You just do your work and Lion takes care of the rest. Lion can also remember where you left off the last time you shut down your Mac if you choose, again to speed things up and make your Macintosh experience more efficient.

By the time Mac OS X Lion is released some time this July, I will be ready to help you get started and you'll end up with a greater user experience than ever before. You can contact me here for any Apple Product related help or any questions you have.

Summer is a Great Time for a TuneUp!

2011-06-20T12:21:00.000-07:00

It's June already and in the past I've mentioned that every 6 months it's a good idea to give your Macintosh computer a TuneUp. With the heat of the summer, it can take a toll on your Mac and wear out your hard drive. If that happens, it makes it difficult to recover your Important Files, especially if you don't have a Backup in place. Also, as you are using your Mac and you are getting the Spinning Beach Ball increasingly more often, that's a sign that your hard drive is working too hard searching for all the bits of data to put together in order to bring it up on the screen. At the same time, there can be flaws in certain Applications that can also contribute to the dreaded Spinning Beach Ball which can be corrected. Part of the TuneUp process that I perform includes making sure your Applications are Up-To-Date in addition to correcting internal System Code. If you would like a TuneUp done on your Macintosh; Contact MacMobile Services at: mserv@sbcglobal.net or call (707) 994-2886 to schedule an appointment. Stay Cool.

The Re-Designed iPad 2

2011-03-03T16:11:00.000-08:00

Announced yesterday in San Francisco, Apple's CEO Steve Jobs took to the stage with the re-designed iPad 2 and comes with IOS 4.3. The first noticeable difference is that it's 33% thinner and a 10th of a pound lighter than the first Apple iPad. The iPad 2 has a Dual Core A5 processing unit that's 2 times faster and 9 times faster Graphics than the original iPad but has the same low power consumption as the A4 processor in the original iPad, which means that the battery charge will still last 10 hours, even with the faster processor. The iPad 2 has a Front and Rear camera and comes in Black or White and will work with both AT&T and Verizon carriers. Both Photo Booth and FaceTime software is included to take advantage of the new built-in cameras. The rear camera not only takes snap shots but doubles as an HD video camera which brings about the next version of iMovie, now for the iPad 2. iMovie for iPad 2 includes a Precision editor, Multitrack audio recording, New themes and AirPlay to your Apple TV. Share your videos in HD. It's a Universal application which means any project that's in iPad 2, can be transferred back to your Mac. A second Apple App for the iPad 2 will be Garage Band which includes 8 tracks of recording and Smart Instruments that helps you learn how to play an instrument. Both iMovie and Garage Band will be priced at $4.99 US each. IOS 4.3 brings better Safari browser performance, iTunes home sharing which allows access to your iTunes library on your Mac or PC to stream your music and videos to your iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. Better AirPlay streaming to your Apple TV 2 such as being able to view video from a web page and any App. You can use Apple TV's built-in slideshows when streaming photos from your iDevice too. There is a new Preference for the right-side iPad switch which can either act as a mute or a rotation lock switch. The last major feature in the IOS 4.3 software update is a Personal Hotspot for the iPhone 4. This will allow you to create a wireless Internet connection using your iPhone 4's 3G network for your laptop computer when there isn't a wireless Internet connection nearby. A new HDMI adapter will also be available. It will offer Mirrored Video Output which means anything that shows on the iPad screen for example, will show on the HDTV that the iPad is connected to. The HDMI adapter will support resolutions up to 1080 progressive, it'll work with all apps, will support screen rotation and no special setup or configuration is required. The HDMI adapter will cost $39.00 US.Then, there is the new covers for the iPad 2. The covers feature a magnetic hinge which grasp and auto-aligns itself to the iPad 2. Has a Micro-fiber lining underneath that cleans the iPad 2's screen, wakes the iPad 2 when lifting the cover and sleeps the iPad 2 when closed and is easy to remove or change. It comes in 10 colors, 5 colors in Polyurethane for $39.00 US and 5 colors in Leather for $69.00 US each.

The iPad 2 will be the same price as last year's iPad.

The iPad 2, IOS 4.3, iMovie and Garage Band for iPad 2,

will be available March 11th.

Thank You

2011-02-14T14:35:00.000-08:00

I would like to say Thank You to my clients and family that have supported MacMobile Services over the years and during these extremely tough economic times. I'd like to thank Phil Doty of Fairfield for his generosity recently. I'd also like to thank Bill Bounsall of Bounsall Construction in Calistoga and Larry and Joyce Brown of Farifield for their generosity and the long relationship with MacMobile Services over the years. A special thank you goes to my aunt Shelley at Marin Country Arborists Tree Service www.marincountyarborists.com for her support from the beginning along with my Mom who keeps encouraging me to keep going and not to give up during these rough times.

I want to thank the following clients for their great testimonials for MacMobile Services, I really appreciate the kind words for the work I've done over the years. It means a lot to me knowing that my clients are satisfied customers; Michael Rosenthal, Al Bayless www.albaylessphoto.com, Phil Doty, Max Beere, Ron Kline, Layna Kinsman, Elissa Benn, Dr. James Neely, Michael Witt and Vern and Linda Bendsen. I look forward to providing much more service and support to you in the future, Thank You.

Suggestions Welcome

2011-02-03T16:59:00.000-08:00

MacMobile Services wants to improve our services and further customize services to fit our clients better. Any suggestion you have would be greatly appreciated. You can leave a comment at the end of this Blog entry or send an email at: mserv@sbcglobal.net or send a Tweet at JohnAtMacMobile.

Update: Caution, iTunes 10 Extremely Buggy

2010-10-08T12:17:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I troubleshooted iTunes v10.0.1 for my client. The issues my client was having was iTunes 10 would not literally play anything in the music library regardless of the file format. Another thing I ran into was that iTunes 10 interferes with the System sound. The System sound will not come back on until you quit iTunes 10.

There is a possible fix for certain issues in iTunes 10 involving re-installing iTunes 10 with this installation procedure at http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20017359-263.html.

Right now I'm concerned about how well iTunes 10 will work with the new Apple TV. As soon as I get my hands on a new Apple TV, I will do thorough testing and shake-down of the new Apple TV and iTunes 10 streaming system along with testing everything else in iTunes 10.

I will bring my testing results here at the Blog and on my JohnAtMacMobile twitter also. Stay Tuned.

New Apple TV Service Coming Soon!

2010-09-13T15:18:00.000-07:00

Apple has announced the 2nd generation of the Apple TV set top box. The biggest features are that it's about 3 quarters smaller than the first Apple TV. It runs cooler and no syncing to the New Apple TV. The reason for this, is Apple decided to remove the internal hard drive. Apple figured that users found syncing to be confusing. Without the internal hard drive, Apple TV is now steaming only. The benefits are: 1. Simpler to use. 2. Smaller and cooler hardware. 3. Less expensive to own. Pricing history for the Apple TV when it first came out in 2007 was $299. Then a year or two later the price dropped to $229.00 and that's where its been until now. The price for the new black Apple TV is now just $99.00. You can Pre-order now at the Apple Store online. The New Apple TV should be out at the end of September or the first part of October. The other nice features that it will have is; you can access your Netflix account if you have one or this could be a good excuse to signup with Netflix now. You can watch YouTube and Podcast videos in High Definition for FREE! I believe in November, Apple will be releasing the next update for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touches that will include a feature called AirPlay. AirPlay will allow you to stream video from your iDevice right to your Apple TV. That's what I like about Apple, you buy the hardware and you can rent or purchase the content or just watch content from the web right through to Apple TV with no monthly subscription fees. That's it! One thing I wish Apple would do is keep the previous Apple TV available for users that like to have the internal storage option and make the new Apple TV software available to the previous Apple TVs also. I've heard that the previous Apple TVs are still around for this month for $149.00. I guess Apple is trying to sell off the rest of their inventory. I just wish Apple would continue making both versions.

I'm adding a new service to my list of services. I'm going to offer an Apple TV setup service that not only includes the initial setup of Apple TV but I'll convert your DVDs for viewing on Apple TV, setup and/or sign up Netflix, YouTube, MobileMe and Flickr accounts for you as needed and show you all the things you can do with Apple TV. I would also like, in the near future, to put together an Apple TV package for educational use. More on that later.

I purchased the first Apple TV when it came out in 2007 and it's still going strong. I love my Apple TV and by adding this new service, I hope a lot more people will benefit from it and boost Apple TV sales too. With the lower price, I think it's a great system and I want Apple to continue to innovate it.

Opinion: The iPhone 4 Case Design

2010-07-20T01:07:00.000-07:00

My take on the whole iPhone 4 reception problem is this; It's simply a bad design that Apple didn't test either enough or not at all. The Antenna band should have been placed at the top-side of the phone where people don't place their fingers on the phone. Apple sometimes does these Overlooked Design Flaws. There's just no rhym or reason to it.

Hidden Valley Clearlake

2010-05-15T09:01:00.000-07:00

MacMobile Services is looking for a new location and would like to know if the residents and businesses of Hidden Valley and Clearlake in Lake County California need Apple Macintosh computer and Apple product support. MacMobile Services can also help PC users switch over to a Macintosh. Today's Macintosh computers, both Desktop and Laptop models now have the Intel processors, which means that the Macintosh can run like two computers in one. It can now run Windows just like a PC and just as fast as any stand alone PC. The Macintosh can even run Windows and the Mac OS at the same time so that you can move files between both Operating Systems if you like.

Please let me know your opinion, suggestion, or even if you would like to make an appointment. Please send John an email at: mserv@sbcglobal.net. You can also leave your opinion or suggestion by clicking on the Comments link at the end of this paragraph. Thank you for your feedback.

The iPad Launch Today

2010-04-03T14:26:00.000-07:00

Today I went to my local Best Buy store to see if they had the iPad. As I was walking toward the front doors, I noticed that there were no signs of advertising for the iPad. Seeing no signs around the front door and none inside the front of the store, I was thinking that this Best Buy store was one of the few that wasn't assigned any out of this initial launch shipment because of a lower than hoped production. Still, I continued in and went to the Apple section and low and behold there's the iPad. To the right of the display table where the iMacs and MacBook demos sit, was a tall cage-like box with several iPad boxes inside it. On the display table next to it was four iPads to try. This Best Buy store was ready for the iPad launch, with surprisingly little fanfare.

I picked up an iPad off the table and held it in my hand. The first thing I noticed was how heavy it was. The body of the iPad is made from a solid piece of machined aluminum. I was holding it like if I were going to read a book on it. I think if you were going to read a book, I would suggest holding the iPad with both hands. When I was holding it with one hand, because of the weight of it, my hand was starting to get fatigued. The display is beautiful and very good size. It had the Apple iWork suite on it. I launched the Pages word processor App and started typing on it. The on-screen keyboard rises up from the bottom of the screen and is very functional. It's very capable when your on the go.

If your in the market for a book reader and you've been waiting to see what the iPad is like before you decide, I think you get a lot more for your money with the iPad then you will with a standalone book reader. Since they are just one-trick ponies and at half the cost of an iPad at that! The iPad is definitely a bargain by comparison because the functionality of the iPad is practically limitless by its design. (If there is no retail store that carries an iPad near you, here's a link to Apple's online store.)

That being said, I think this first iPad is a good start. My overall impression; It's an incredibly built device with very basic features. The biggest feature it lacks is a camera. For me, this is a big deal breaker. I can imagine doing video conferencing using iChat on it. The iPad, I think, would be a perfect device for that. The iPad has enormous potential. It's only going to get better as the next generations follow. Personally, I'm going to pass on getting this first iPad until Apple adds a built-in camera with iChat. Until then, my iPhone 3GS is all I need right now.

Going to MacWorld Expo San Francisco 2010

2010-01-28T08:34:00.000-08:00

I was excited about going to the newly revamped MacWorld Expo in San Francisco this February. I say "was" because here in the Bay Area there are going to be more rate hikes. Bay Area bridges are going to raise tolls again and now BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) is now going to have a whole bunch of increases and reduce service at the same time.

This is what BART is planning to do;

• Charge a 25 cent "Transbay Tube surcharge"

• 2% increase to fares across the board

• More Expensive parking fees, no more free parking for anyone, those days are gone

• Reduced train service, running less trains.

For the Bay Area bridges, here is an example of the toll hikes for the Bay Bridge; During Commute Hours the toll goes from $4.00 to $6.00, Non-Commute will stay at $4.00, Weekends $5.00, and for the first time Carpoolers will have to pay to go over Bay Area Bridges of $2.50 per bridge.

Combined with this lousy economy and these fare and toll hikes, I'm finding it difficult seeing myself attending this upcoming MacWorld Expo. BART if your listening, you're not helping increase your ridership by doing this. It's pretty simple common sense. Now, I'm not even sure I can afford to go at all! I'm seriously considering finding alternative transportation and it might take some creativity to find transportation that won't cost me an arm and a leg. I suggest you doing the same, even boycotting BART and all Bay Area Bridges if you can. Consider taking one of the different Ferries around the bay. You remember the Ferry don't you? Or take a Transbay transit bus if your going to San Francisco from the East Bay. I think taking a transit bus is cheaper than taking BART or the bridge combined with paying for parking in the city.

These agencies/authorities need a wake up call. They need to understand that the public doesn't have bottomless pockets, especially during this lousy, rotten economy.

Frustration with computer printer manufacturers

2009-12-01T12:46:00.000-08:00

Being a computer consultant that sets up a lot of computers systems, over the past few years I have noticed that the printer companies have changed the way they do business with the consumer market. They have really cracked down on their software support. For example, I have an HP DeskJet 970C series printer (pictured left) that I purchased new back in 1999. It's been a great printer and still works great to this day. The problem I'm having isn't with the printer, but with HP. I can't upgrade my Macs to Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard because HP hasn't written the software to support my printer. Instead, I have to rely on a generic third-party printer driver which doesn't support the two-sided page printing capability. Since I use that feature a lot, I continue to run Mac OS 10.5 Leopard which has the HP software with all the options for my printer. With this lack of support, it forces the consumer to purchase a new printer even though the one they already have works fine. Isn't it enough that these printer companies make millions of dollars on selling the ink and toner on all the existing printers already out there plus new printers being sold currently?

A second problem I encountered last night working with a client's Canon MP470 printer (pictured left) was that I was connecting the USB cable to an Apple Airport Express Base Station to network the printer wirelessly. The Canon software was all up-to-date but the Canon printer would not communicate with the Mac connected through the Airport Express Base Station, but only worked connected directly to the Mac. I believe the Canon MP470 is a new enough model to have Apple's Bonjour networking technology incorporated into it, but it seems not to have it and didn't work.

If your tired about how the makers of your printer does business, let them know, because ultimately we all vote with our dollars and they know that.

THE ECONOMY AND US

2009-11-29T21:01:00.000-08:00

We have all had a hard time during these tough financial times about the past year and a half or so. Since the Real Estate collapse and the Banks crashing, it's no wonder everybody got scared. Unfortunately, when people get scared people stop spending their money and that contributes to the poor economy even further. I have experienced this first hand. It's been extremely difficult keeping the bills paid and the business running. So, I put it to the people that have money but are holding tightly on to it right now; Please start spending, otherwise this poor economy will extend indefinitely and everyone will continue to suffer for it. The final results will show that Capitalism is a poor system for everyone in general.
A quote from the movie THX 1138 might encourage you further:
"Let us be thankful we have commerce, buy more, buy more now, buy and be happy."

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

2009-11-25T21:00:00.000-08:00

It's the time of year when we're reminded to give thanks.

Instead of waiting until next year to be reminded,

Let's make every day one of thanksgiving;

After all, each day is a unique gift.

So, give a hug for no reason;

Say I love you, just because;

Share a smile with a stranger;

Take the time to count your blessings;

Don't take anything or anyone for granted;

And end each day with no regrets.

Thank you, for the opportunity to be of service to

you all, along with your continued support

to keep MacMobile Services going all these years.

I am very fortunate to have such great clients in my life.

And I am thankful you have allowed me

To be a part of yours.

May you and yours have a safe and memorable Thanksgiving.

Mac OS X:10.6.2 Update Released This Morning

2009-11-09T17:05:00.000-08:00

Apple this morning released a very important update for Mac OS X: Snow Leopard; version 10.6.2. A fatal flaw in Snow Leopard that some users experienced when a user turned on the Guest Account and logged-in, then logged-in to the Administrator Account would loose saved files in that account. Version 10.6.2 fixes that flaw among other fixes in other Apple software titles too. You can obtain the update by running Software Update under the Apple menu, but I recommend installing the Combo update to insure a more thorough installation. Click Here for all the details that the update addresses and to download the Combo update.

Apple Magic Mouse

2009-10-23T12:51:00.000-07:00

Last night I stopped by the Walnut Creek Apple Store to check out the new hardware that Apple announced this last Tuesday. They had both 21.5 and 27-inch iMacs on display with the included wireless keyboard and the new wireless Magic Mouse.

I picked up the Magic Mouse and the first thing I noticed is that it does have one whole clickable button (I incorrectly called the Magic Mouse a buttonless mouse in my previous blog entry) which I thought worked fine. The Magic Mouse is very sleek, curvy, and slim. It feels good in the palm of my hand, but I do prefer a mouse with

more of a higher rounded area toward the rear of the mouse, for example the Kensington ThinkingMouse (pictured left) felt great in the hand, it fits in the palm of your hand better than any low profile mouse.

I tried out the multi-touch surface and it's very accurate. The different finger gestures worked as advertised. Moving your index finger vertically up and down scrolls a page up and down in Safari and moving your index finger horizontally scrolls the page horizontally side to side. The right-click also worked fine. I was however unable to try the two-fingered gesture that allows you to for example, page through a multiple page document or browsing through pictures in your iPhoto library, but after playing with the mouse I'm sure it works fine based on how accurate the multi-touch surface is. I was only able to test the Magic Mouse on the Apple Store's display table because they had a cable tethered to it, so I couldn't test how good it tracked on different kinds of surfaces.

In comparison to the previous Mighty Mouse, the Magic Mouse is an improvement, hardware-wise, meaning it's electronics are solid state with no moving parts with the exception of the clickable top surface. The problem with the Mighty Mouse was that in a short period of time, the scroll ball would either start malfunctioning or stop working altogether. So, because of that, Apple's solution to the scroll ball is the solid state multi-touch surface technology borrowed from the iPhone and iPod Touch.

I hope that Apple will come out with a wired version of the Magic Mouse because unless you are using rechargeable batteries, batteries could become quite costly over time.

The Apple wireless Magic Mouse retails at the online Apple Store for $69.00 US.

New Apple iMacs Today!

2009-10-20T13:02:00.000-07:00

Apple has released the next generation iMac line this morning. New LED backlighting and screen sizes, 21.5 and 27-inch and more pixel depth, 1920 x 1080 and 2560 x 1440 respectively make watching and editing High Definition content amazing. The new iMacs come with a new buttonless wireless bluetooth mouse called the Magic Mouse along with the Apple Wireless keyboard standard. Ports on the back now include the MiniDisplay port which replaces the mini-DVI. These new iMacs do include FireWire 800 for connecting an external hard drive for video capturing when doing video editing for example or for a Time Machine backup drive. All the other ports, USB, Gigabit Ethernet, etc. are included also. Apple mentions the new iMacs have better sounding speakers too!

The 21.5-inch model has a 500 GigaByte hard drive, 4 GigaBytes of RAM, 3.06 GigaHertz Intel Core Duo 2 processor, and a NIVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated video processor standard for a base price of $1,199.00 US. Available now at the online Apple Store. Build to Order options are also available.

The 27-inch model has a 1 TeraByte hard drive, 4 GigaBytes of RAM, 3.06 GigaHertz Intel Core Duo 2 processor, and an ATI Radeon HD 4670 dedicated graphics video card with 256 MegaBytes of Video RAM standard for a base price of $1,699.00 US. Build to Order options are also available. This model will not be available until November.

An iPhone Case that Reflects Current Events

2009-10-16T18:36:00.000-07:00

This morning I came across an unusual iPhone case that I thought was hilarious. It's called The Recession Case. It's made of recycled cardboard from Case-Mate for $.99 for one case. At the bottom of their website, there are a couple of videos; The first one, showing a cool review of The Recession Case and the second video, shows you how you can use The Recession Case to Microwave food with it. I think it's a basic iPhone accessory made out of a basic material (Cardboard), but I also think the creators of The Recession Case are very creative. From what I saw this morning, it seems to work and it works for the original, the 3G, and the 3GS iPhones.

Warning: Guest Accounts and Snow Leopard

2009-10-13T22:35:00.000-07:00

I've heard that when running Mac OS X Snow Leopard, when the Guest account is activated, there have been some cases of data loss in the main or administrating user account. Until Apple comes up with a fix, I strongly recommend not turning on the Guest account option.

Website Update

2009-09-28T09:42:00.000-07:00

Added two new links to the HomePage; The Apple iPhone and Nike+ iPod Sport Kit page.