Steve Holden's Blog

Recommended - Introduction to Snow Leopard's Automator & Services

MacBreak Weekly #235 (Part 1) starts off a great informative series (Part 1 of 4) to introduce the new features found in Automator and Services in Snow Leopard.

There are additional videos: #236 (Part 2), #237 (Part 3), and #238 (Part 4). More information can also be found at: www.macosxautomation.com

Mini-Tech Review: Apple iPod Touch 3.0 Features

I recently upgraded my Apple iPod Touch to version 3.0.  Here are the features that I have found the most useful:

• Landscape keyboard and landscape views on more applications
• Cut, copy, and paste text
• Spotlight searches throughout the iPod Touch
• Automatic Wi-Fi connections
• Safari improvements
• Sync Notes (not Lotus Notes but Mac OS X notes)
• Improved Mail client
• Calendar new features like CalDAV support

And these are the ones that I may get some more use out of once I get some more usage:

• Download media over Wi-Fi from the iTunes Store
• Support for Bluetooth stereo headphones
• Peer-to-peer gaming (waiting on games that enable this feature)
• Parental controls
• iTunes account creation
• New languages
• Data/Notification push (waiting on some tools that use this feature)
• 3rd Party Game connections (none announced yet?!?)
• Shake to shuffle
• Voice Memos

All in all a solid update IMHO and worth the $10.

Moving From Microsoft Outlook To Macintosh Mail & Address Book

I just read a Walt Mossberg's Mailbox article about how to move from a Windows PC to an Apple Macintosh when you have a great deal of information in Microsoft Outlook, and it reminded me of the work around I came up with recently.

Christy recently migrated from a Windows XP based laptop to an iBook G4 with Leopard.  And she was using Microsoft Outlook on the PC for email and contacts.

I moved over all her email using Google GMAIL's IMAP service.  This was pretty easy, because once I had the IMAP account configured on Outlook I could just drag and drop the emails she wanted on her Mac.  Then I fired up the Mail client in Leopard and configured it for the same IMAP account, and I was done.

I figured I could use the export functions in Microsoft Outlook to get me a contacts file that would import into Apple's Address Book, but every file I tried ended up hanging when I tried to import on the Macintosh.

So, I came up with this work around. 

I went into Microsoft Outlook's contact view on the PC, and did a select all.  And then did a right mouse click to Send vCard of all the selected contacts.  This created a new email message with all her contacts vCards.  I then selected all the 'attachments' and saved them to a folder locally on the PC.  I then copied the folder to a USB flash drive and moved them to her Macintosh.  She then clicked through that folder and added the people she wanted into the Leopard Address Book.  Pretty easy and it also cut down on some clutter in her new Address Book because she picked just the vCards to import that she wanted.

Walt suggested a $10 tool from Little Machines' O2M (Outlook To Mac).  I haven't used the tool but from what I read on their site it appears to be a possible alternative solution.

iPhoto'08 Printing To Costco Challenge

I recently made a bold decision to move Christy off the PC to Mac OS X Leopard and iLife'08 plus iWork'08.  This will mean the only PC at home would be my work ThinkPad X61 TabletPC.

The migration has been relatively smooth(probably better than going from XP to Vista), but the latest hiccup is the feature in iPhoto'08 to wall off your photos in Apple's iPhoto proprietary document repository that appears to be more locked down to a standard user than the iTunes library.

From what I can tell you can't easily get to individual pictures from the standard file system interfaces, so if you want to print some pictures to Costco via their web interface you have to first export from iPhoto the pictures you want into the Apple file system so the browser can see them.  The older version of iPhoto would let you in the photo library from the file system but the new one does not.  So there is now an extra step that is going to trip up basic users and if you are a new switcher, this will really be frustrating.  On the PC it is pretty darn straight forward to print one's pictures online.

I hope there is a better work around available either by a suggestion from someone smarter than me or a new tool. The Costco website does mention a new Macintosh tool seems to be planned but nothing has been announced. 

The search is on, Christy is not happy. ;-)

UPDATE (12/28/2007): There is a new version that appears to work with iPhoto'08.

Preview QuickLook Bug With Mac OS X Leopard

I really like the Quick Look feature in Mac OS X Leopard.  It is very handy in Mail if someone send you an attachment.  For those that never open attachments, this might be a happy medium. 

I did notice something strange though when doing a Quick Look with a Microsoft Word document.  The arrow cursor changes to text select cursor if you move it over the document, and gives you the impression that you could grab some text to do a cut and paste with it.  But no selection seems to take place.

Maybe it is user error but it feels like a bug to me.

MP2 Preview Feature Missing in Mac OS X Leopard

I recently updated my Mac Book Pro to Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.  The upgrade process was pretty seamless and I only had a few initial performance issues that seemed to go away with time.

I did notice one missing feature this morning while doing some audio troubleshooting on a just eBay purchased Telos-One with Paul Figgiani and Victor Cajiao that the Leopard's Finder no longer allows you to preview MP2 files in the Columns view or in the new Quick Look feature.

This feature was in Mac OS X 10.4, and I am perplexed on why it would go away. 

For podcasters and other audio engineering folks MP2 are used a great deal in collaborative post production.

If anyone knows a work around or a way to enable the lost feature, please let me know.

Multi-Topic Update: San Diego Fires, Jersey Boys, Technology

The last week or so has been extremely crazy and busy. 

First up the San Diego Wild Fires (aka FireStorm 2007) have been all consuming, and I'm happy to report that my immediate & extended family, friends, and co-workers in the San Diego area have been spared major hardships.  But our hearts go out to those who lost love ones or their homes.  The fire fighters and public safety folks have been outstanding and they deserve a ton of credit & praise.  Thanks!

The weirdest thing about the fires, was that during the whole time it was going on, Christy and I have been in Jersey Boys heaven.  They have released a new Jersey Boys Book, Frankie Valli has an excellent new album out called "Romancing the 60's", the touring cast is in San Diego, and we traveled to New York City (NYC) / New Jersey (NJ) on Sat. 10/20 returning Tue. 10/23 for the Fan Tribute and to interview Tommy DeVito. And did we mention we've seen the musical three times in six days: Fri. 10/19 (Opening Night in San Diego), Sun. 10/21 (Broadway), and Wed. 10/24 (Cast Talk Back in San Diego).  Yes ... we are crazy.

Lastly a quick update on some technology stuff.  Things are still going on over at TechNewsRadio but a little slower than I'd like.  My fellow FriendsInTech members have put together another new Halloween special called "It's The Great Server Chuck and Kreg."

Other quick tech mentions:

I recently upgraded from a Cingular 8125 to an AT&T Tilt and I'm really loving the new phone with high speed 3G/UMTS/HSDPA connectivity plus Windows Mobile 6 and integrated GPS.  The camera is also a big improvement, as is the keyboard/button interfaces.

A couple of weeks ago I did upgrade my 8-GB 2nd Gen Apple iPod Nano to an 8-GB 3rd Gen Apple iPod Nano.  I have some unboxing pictures posted to Google.  I like the video option a great deal. I used it to watch dozens of video podcasts recently on the trip back to NYC/NJ.  I have also been using it a lot at home sitting in bed or by my computer using a DIY  Lego stand.

I have also picked up a copy of Apple's new OS X via Amazon.  I hope it gets here soon so I can rebuild my old G4 iBook for Christy and finally get her off of Windows XP and spare her the horror of Vista.

Some Reasons I'm Not Getting An iPod Touch

I had an interesting conversation yesterday at lunch with some co-workers, one of which has an iPhone, on why I was not getting an iPod Touch:

1. Lack of key hardware features: Bluetooth, external volume control, speaker, physical iPod control buttons, & camera.
2. Currently missing some key applications: Mail, Notes, Maps, SMS, & Widgets
3. Minimal capability as PDA-like productivity tool (read-only calendar for instance)

The real deal breaker was that I could not use the iPod Touch as a mini-data collection tool.  If it had Bluetooth portable keyboard support so I could use it to rapidly collected data I read from print media, then I would have probably lived with the other negatives and purchased one.

I do think that the items #2 and #3 will be solved in the future by software upgrades.

That is my deal breaker.  What is yours?

Investigating Options For Commenting On Specific Podcast Episodes

I have been wanting to come up with a quick way to comment on specific podcasts that I've been listening to.  In a recent brainstorming session with a friend we considered that maybe Apple iTunes was keeping the RSS referral post link in the meta data of the iTunes music library XML. 

Unfortunately after digging into the XML file and looking at what iTunes exposes to AppleScript, it doesn't appear to work.

Maybe I should output the podcast OPML file I have from iTunes, and use something like Google Reader to manage my options for specific podcast episode commenting. Thoughts?!?

Less Typing Strategy Underway

For the last 6 years or so, I have been very observant about my workplace ergonomics, especially related to typing, since as an IT professional my ability to type is a key requirement. 

I've invested both at home and at work in great keyboards, chairs, desk layouts, and Handeze gloves (which I highly recommend).   I also use a text short cut tool both on my Mac (Textpander - no longer free) and on my Windows (Short Keys - free version still available) systems. 

But apparently that has not been enough to ward of potential problems.

About three weeks ago I noticed a lump in my left hand, right at the base of my thumb but above my wrist.  A quick visit to the doctor came back with good news - Ganglion Cyst - which is not cancerous and unless there is pain, is probably something to just monitor.  I don't have any pain, so I'm going to just monitor it for the time being as suggested by my doctor.

Mean while, I have loaded up Dragon Naturally Speaking 9.0 on my TabletPC and using it a lot when I'm in my office or at home.  It seems to be working very well.  In fact, most of this blog post was done with me speaking vice typing.

I noticed that IBM's ViaVoice for the Macintosh is available but I can't seem to tell if it has any support since the last version posted is from 2005.  Comments?