Weekly Mac Podcast & Mac Tutorials
Archive for January, 2010
iTunes Account Without a Credit Card
Jan 31st
Buddy of mine just picked up an iPhone 3Gs and he had an issues setting it up due to no credit card. I search around and found a link to an Apple Support article that explains how to do it. Kind of a pain in the “you know what” but better than nothing I guess. This is not as smooth as it should be for Apple…
If you don’t have a credit card and want to get an iTunes account, you can. Link
One Mic Podcasting Howto
Jan 30th
I have been messing around with creating a bunch of video tutorials / Howto’s for a lot of New Media type production on the Mac. Here is another example of it. Let me know what you think 
I will probably make more versions of this and other videos until I settle on a work flow and style.
Shot on a Sony HDR-HC1
Best IRC Client on the Mac
Jan 30th
I spend some time using IRC Clients to access the #Twitlive channel for Leo Laporte’s live.twit.tv live channel. So far my favorite IRC client on the Mac is XChat Aqua. It’s simple and very customizable, which is what you want in an IRC chat client. All I really need or want is the ability to connect to a server easily and the ability to customize the color and font size. What else do you really need?
Another cool IRC Client is Chatzilla, which is an add-on to the Firefox Browser. After installing this add-on it plops itself in the “Tools Menu”.
Give them both a go and let me know what you think. IRC is old school but man did they do it right! No muss no fuss!
iPad Thoughts
Jan 28th
So it’s called the iPad and it’s going to cost $499 to start for the WiFi version. I watched the iPad keynote and have formed several opinions on the tablet.
- No Camera is just lame!
- Love the design
- iWork looks very interesting and it is the future of other touch products from Apple
- Gaming is going to be fun!!
- Can’t wait to see what the coders can come up with for this thing!
- Love the price
- Hate the 2 month wait
- Apple A4 CPU…Rock On!!
Have a look at the spec’s page here
Input/Output:
Input and output
* Dock connector
* 3.5-mm stereo headphone jack
* Built-in speakers
* Microphone
* SIM card tray (Wi-Fi + 3G model only)
Video Out Info:
TV and video
* Support for 1024 by 768 pixels with Dock Connector to VGA Adapter; 576p and 480p with Apple Component AV Cable; 576i and 480i with Apple Composite Cable
* H.264 video up to 720p, 30 frames per second, Main Profile level 3.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
So are you going to buy one?
That Mac Show: Episode 015 “iPad You Pad”
Jan 22nd
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
iPad News and lots of day 2 information that has come out on the specs and SDK. Let us know if you are going to buy an iPad, and which one you will get in the show comments.
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Show Notes:
iPad
iPad Specs
iPad SDK Has Photo Ability
Video Games on the iPad
Apple Japan Site
Fujitsu Had iPAD first!!
Apple A4 CPU Info
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Syncing iCal with Google Calendar
Jan 21st
Don’t know if I have mentioned this before but I have been syncing my iCal and Google Calendar for a while now and had someone ask me about it recently so I thought I would write a quick blog post about it. It’s a very simple thing to do actually, and I wondered why I didn’t do it sooner actually! Here is a link to a how to from Google.
1. Open Apple iCal, go to Preferences and then the Accounts tab.
2. Click on the + button to add an account.
3. Under Account Information, enter your Google Account username and password.
4. Under Server Options, add the following URL:https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/YOUREMAIL@DOMAIN.COM/user
Replace ‘youremail@domain.com’ with the email address that you use to log in to Calendar. Make sure to include the ‘@domain.com’ portion (which is @gmail.com for Gmail users) in this section.
5. Click Add.
6. Under the Delegation tab, select the calendars you’d like to add to iCal by checking the boxes next to them. You may need to hit refresh to get the latest list of calendars.
7. Add your email address to your Address Book card by selecting Add Email. You’ll be prompted to add your email address only if your address is not already in your Address Book.
It takes no time at all to get iCal and Google Calendar connected to give it a go. The best part about it is that it’s even if you don’t use Google Calendar it’s a great back up!
Photoshop Elements 8 First Look
Jan 21st
If you don’t want to pay full price for a copy of Photoshop I suggest you give Adobe’s Photoshop Elements 8 a look see. I was looking for a cheap and simple graphics solution that I was familiar with and decided to give it a go. What I found is that it does just about all the basic things I need. For me all I really need is a graphics program that has the usual Photoshop tools and the ability to do layers. Photoshop Elements 8 for the Mac has all that and a bunch of other cool stuff. It looks like the going rate is about $85 on Amazon give or take.
I am running the 30 day trial to see if I really want to fork out the money for it, but after one night of messing around with it, I am pretty happy with it. Of course I would really like to have the full version but you know how expensive it is 
2010 That Mac Show News
Jan 15th
For 2010 That Mac Show (TMS) is going to be adding some different types of content. What I was thinking about doing is adding A LOT of screencasts, tutorials, and how to’s. I am not sure where I am going to actually post these videos. What I mean is should they be on a “Sub-Blog” or should I just make categories for them?
Some of the Mac tutorials, tips, and tricks I am considering are:
- CamTwist
- Podcasting/New Media
- iMovie
- GarageBand
These tutorials are going to be very granular so that they can eventually be rolled up into a video manual. Think dummy’s guide in video format for Apple Macintosh Users.
That Mac Show: Episode 014 “Tablet Rumors Everywhere”
Jan 14th
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Episode 014 of That Mac Show has a quick wrap up of this weeks news post CES.
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Intro:
CES Coverage
Tablet’s at CES all called slates
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Show Notes:
Chompapps – They want to be the Yelp of iPhone Apps?
iPhonePilot – iPhone App
Gaming on your Mac
What we want to see in iPhone 4.0
DJ’ing with your Mac
New GPU for the next gen iPhone from Imagination
Fingerworks technology to appear in Apple Tablet?
Nvideo Tegra 2 chipset in lots of tablets
New Style Apple store in Palo Alto
LED flash for the next gen iPhone
Apple Tablet to be Aluminum
Multi-touch for iWork?
Orange guy leaks more information about Apple’s tablet
New FireFox 3.6
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