Review: JAMBOX (by Jawbone)

March 9, 2011 by

Seems the ALL CAPS naming convention of the JAMBOX was meant to convey a message: these portable speakers are LOUD. Jawbone has released a line of Bluetooth enabled portable speakers entitled the JAMBOX.

As I travel a fair amount, a good pair of speakers has become a necessity to enhance life on the road. I have tried a fair number of solutions: Internal speakers, headphones, USB and line-out-based portable speakers, even headphone out to a TV. Each of these are adequate, and in some cases can be fine.

However, I don’t live in the world of ‘fine’ (or I would be running Windows).

I needed something that produced excellent sound, could be loud and was as portable as possible. [Read more…]

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Securing your Mac – Sharing (Too Much)

February 28, 2011 by

Sharing files on your home network is fantastically convenient. Mac OS X makes it especially easy to access others’ shared files too, because it all shows up front and centre in the Finder — well, actually it’s left-aligned, in the sidebar, but you get the point.

Making your Mac behave as a server, even if it is just for accessing your stuff at home, is something you do need to be aware of when it comes to security. Sharing your files on your home network is great — but are you sure you’re not unintentionally sharing too much when you leave the house with your MacBook?

In this second post in my Mac Security series, we will be looking at sharing, servers, and switching things off. [Read more…]

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Site Update: QuickTips Feed Fixed!

February 23, 2011 by

Apparently in the switch-over to the new site back in January, I made a slight error updating the feeds folks use to subscribe to the show. Both the Main show feed and the Weekly Show Only feeds were working as they should, but it seems the Quick Tip feed hasn’t updated itself since we moved to the new site.

err, Whoops!

Unfortunately, I didn’t realize the QuickTips and Extras Only feed wasn’t updating until this morning, but I just fixed the source feed at Feedburner and all should be well again.

Sorry for the confusion everyone!

Mike

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Amazon Takes Aim at Netflix & Apple…and Fires!

February 22, 2011 by

Holy Cow! This couldn’t wait for next week’s show folks because Amazon.com just announced a new benefit for Amazon Prime members that promises to blow the doors of the world of streaming content right off its hinges!

Amazon Prime, for those who don’t know, is Amazon’s paid service that gives its members free two-day shipping on everything Amazon sells.  It’s really an awesome service that I use it myself and since I first joined as a Prime member, my saying has become: If it’s not on Amazon with Prime Shipping, it’s not worth buying. [Read more…]

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Review: ÜberMask for OS X

February 21, 2011 by

I recently had the opportunity to look at ÜberMask, a new application from German software company, nova media which purports to help you hide your files from “curious eyes.” With so much of computer security employing encryption, this application’s different approach caught my eye, so I was curious to check it out.
[Read more…]

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Securing your Mac – Trust and the Firewall

February 11, 2011 by

“Macs don’t get viruses, do they?”

It’s a question I’ve been asked many a time by somewhat less tech savvy friends. There’s a perception that the Macintosh is impervious to security issues, and while it’s true that your Mac can’t run the majority of nasty software out there (unless you’re running Windows on your Mac of course!), complacency is never a good idea!

In this series of articles for For Mac Eyes Only, I’ll be examining some basic steps you can take to ensure your Mac is kept safe and secure. In this first post, I’ll be looking at some basic principles and then delving into the Mac OS X Firewall. [Read more…]

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The Chronicles of Macintosh: The Last Battle

January 28, 2011 by

Mooglesoft

I have this idea for a movie. It starts out with a tech company, Flynn Computer Corp, who’s developing a revolutionary new product. They approach another tech company, Encom, to help develop software for this new product. Encom has never been a competitor to Flynn Computer and therefore Flynn Computer considers Encom to be more of an ally. The villain in this movie is a bigger tech company, C.L.U., which is a direct competitor to Flynn Computer. The movie unfolds with Flynn releasing its revolutionary new product and it’s a success, but the plot thickens as Encom announces a new product of their own that’s nothing more than a clone of Flynn’s. It comes out that Encom betrayed Flynn Computer by stealing some of their secrets and technology. Flynn Computer and Encom go on to become bitter rivals, but Encom’s open business model allow its product to be used anywhere. Flynn keeps their product closed which allows Encom to take over the market. It’s full of intrigue, betrayal, ruthlessness, rich people, and lots of tech stuff.

What, you’ve heard that one before? You know the story. It takes place back in the early eighties. Replace Flynn Computer with Apple, Encom with Microsoft, and C.L.U. with IBM and the revolutionary product was the Mac. Oh, no, that’s not the one you were thinking of? That’s ancient history. You were thinking of Flynn Computer as Apple sure, but Encom is Google, and C.L.U. is Microsoft and the revolutionary new product was the iPhone.

Funny how history seems to repeat itself. [Read more…]

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The Chronicles Of Macintosh

January 15, 2011 by

The Lion, The Air, & The App Store

The Future Of The Mac & Computing

Image Copyright Apple Inc.

In October of last year Apple held their “Back To The Mac” event and made several announcements. Chief among them was a new MacBook Air, a preview of the next version of OS X, and a new App Store for the Mac. Though by the time you read this, the Verizon iPhone will have been announced and that will be the story on everyone’s lips, I got to wondering if we won’t look back at this October event and see it as far more pivotal than we first realized. [Read more…]

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Thoughts on the Mac App Store

January 7, 2011 by

App Store iconMac OS X 10.6.6 and the brand new Mac App Store were released just days ago, as promised, even showing up a few hours before the official 9 AM PST start time. I found myself, like many other Mac fanatics, breaking open the virtual shrink-wrap on the new store and having a look around.

Making it Easy

The Mac App Store is likely to have its biggest impact on new and, dare I say less geeky, Mac users. A couple of weeks from now, when all the new Macs that people will buy are pre-loaded with 10.6.6, finding and purchasing third-party applications is going to be a lot easier. The very fact that the Mac App Store is so familiar — and installed right there on the Dock — means that many more people will be able to be connected with high-quality, very useful applications that they would never previously have known about.

While there are concerns of another ‘race to the bottom’ with regards to pricing, it seems more than credible that developers will also do very well out of the Mac App Store, just because they will be reaching more eyes than before and will shift more copies of their code.

So, it’s great for new Mac users, it’s great for developers. The App Store is a great success on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, but is it really the right fit for the Mac? [Read more…]

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Come Join Us for FMEO Episode 200 – December 29th!

December 28, 2010 by

If you’ve ever wanted to be a fly on the wall for a FMEO round-table recording session, then tune in this Wednesday, December 29th at 1pm Central Time (11am Pacific, 2pm Eastern, 7pm GMT) to join us for a special episode of For Mac Eyes Only with as many of TeamFMEO as I can cram into a virtual room … and it’s all to help celebrate our 200th episode of FMEO!

In the episode, Gary, Barry, Pam, Eric, and I plan to take a look back at our favorite Mac & Apple related stories of 2010, as well as offer up a few predictions for things we hope to see come from Apple in the new year.

You’ll be able to catch all the action, including live streaming audio and the chat room, by pointing your favorite Mac browser to*:

http://live.formaceyesonly.com OR http://live.fmeo.tv

Hope to see you then!

Mike

p.s. Don’t worry if you can’t make it, the audio from the session will be released as a regular episode of For Mac Eyes Only soon after we’re done.

*The content will be streaming using Justin.tv which means that you’ll need a browser that supports Flash to listen in.

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