Weekly Mac Podcast & Mac Tutorials
Blog
I’m Back and Finished an App
Jun 19th
Okay so I finished my first app!! It’s an app for people that want to learn Japanese. It’s called Kana Sounds and is now available in the App Store.
Check it out, I am stoked it got approved on the first submission, which is amazing considering I am a XCode Newb!
I will podcast about my trials and tribulations in the near future so stay tuned 
New MacBook Pro & Coding
May 3rd
Well I haven’t podcasted or blogged in a while so here is an update. Finally picked up a new 15″ MacBook Pro the other day. I went with the i5 due to financial reasons, but I am very happy with my purchase!! I have yet to try any real processor intensive tasks like video rendering, but everything seems faster. Of course I am switching from a 3 year old MacBook, so there better be a speed bump!
Also I have been learning to code for the iPhone and iPad and I am in the middle of developing an app. It’s my first app so it’s taking longer than I want, something about actually having to learn to code that is slowing me down
I anticipate a new podcast coming out in a week or so. Stay tuned!
Where do eMac’s go when they die?
Mar 22nd
Spotted this in the corner of the computer room at one of the schools I work for in Japan. It looks to be in good condition but probably hasn’t been turned on in a while. If i remember correctly eMac’s are either a Power PC G3 or G4. Since it’s a CRT monitor I really don’t want it but I think if I asked they would give it to me. Hmm…..
New MacBook Pro’s on Tuesay?
Mar 13th
So there are a lot of rumors flying around the web that Apple will upgrade some of their computers on Tuesday. We all know the MacBook Pro line is getting really long in the legs and is in need of a performance boost!! i3, i5, and i7 CPU’s are the rumor and is most likely the case. If not than most of us are going to be really disappointed!
Are you going to buy the next rev of MacBook Pro’s? I know I am and the money is burning a whole in my pocket!!
MacBook iSight Replacement
Feb 20th
For those of you that follow the podcast and blog you know I have been waiting for the new MacBooks to come out. My current MacBook is surviving but just barely! I really need to plant it on a desk and not keep moving it around. My iSight is toast so I borrowed a friend of mines Logitech “Logicool” web camera. See picture below for comparison.
It works good for most things in OSX and on the web but I cant get iMovie09 to recognize it no matter what I do. This is not that big of a deal, but there are some occasions where I would like to import directly from this iSight replacement. I searched the web and found some hacks that were supposed to work but they didn’t end up working for me. I have given up and just decided to use PhotoBooth for capturing video if I find it necessary. PhotoBooth allows you to switch cameras in the Camera Menu.
The Logicool camera has a Carl Zeiss Lens and doesn’t need any drivers. If you want to have the ability to control brightness, contrast, and saturation you can load up CamTwist. The CamTwist Effects Menu has a Brightness effect which gives you the 3 controls.
My First Mac
Feb 11th
My first Mac:
The first Apple computer I ever owned was an LC 475. I bought it from the back of a Mac User magazine. I think it was one of those education models that was nicely discounted.
I totally missed the Apple II era due to the fact that they were expensive and my father bought us a Commodore 64 as our first personal computer, of course we also had an Atari 2600 at the time too.
My dad wasn’t really a gadget guy so we didn’t upgrade our technology very quickly at all and it took an act of the gods to get him to buy anything, lol. Though he had a mean record collection! I did have a neighbor that had an Apple II with the green monitor. I played Chopper Command (Choplifter???) as much as possible and a bunch of other games that I don’t remember, I hated the lame joystick though. Give me an Atari 2600 joystick any day of the week and I will pwn some noobs!!
MacWorld 2010 Coverage
Feb 10th
So if you are like me you aren’t at MacWorld but you really wish you were. Luckily there is going to be plenty of coverage of the event online.
The first place you probably want to go is to the TWIT Network.They are going to be doing some live coverage from the event and Leo Laporte will be streaming away like he usually does.
Next you will want to subscribe to Alex Lindsay and the Pixel Corps MacBreak Video Feed.
Then you might want to have a look on YouTube especially the screencastsonline channel. I would also think that if you searched for “MacWorld 2010″ on YouTube and Twitter, you will find lots good stuff.
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
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!
