MarcForrest.com

Category: Mac

  • Apple’s latest cat, should I adopt it?

    This is a Guest Post from Steph Reinstein, who has been a fantastic commenter on my blog, helping answer loads of questions related to all stuff Apple. Steph takes us inside his latest Apple Journey, upgrading to Snow Leopard. Enjoy. Please feel free to leave comments, and I’m sure Steph will gladly answer.

    Apple released their latest software offering, OS X Snow Leopard,  towards the end August, and I thought I would give you my personal review of this fantastic piece of software.

    What’s new?

    Apple has branded this upgrade as “evolutionary not revolutionary” and that is what is waiting for you.

    New exposé & Stacks

    I have always been a big fan of exposé and it just got so much better. You can now quit apps, quick preview windows, see all windows open of a specific app, all with a quick  Cmd + Tab. It can now be activated on newer Macbook & Macbook Pro with a 4 fingers gesture on the touchpad, and you can also now browse inside folders in stacks(this used to be a big annoyance for me, not being able to do so)

    It is clear to me that SL has been taking in account the much rumoured Tablet Mac. The way exposé behave now is so “finger friendly” and it seems that Apple have  learned from the Newton fiasco, and is making sure that the OS is ready for the hardware.

    64 Bit

    All Intel Core 2 Duo Macs are 64 bit capable,  but unless you are a proud owner of one of the newer Macbook Pro, Mac Pro, iMac (roughly 2008 onward), your kernel will boot in 32 bit. However even in a 32 bit kernel, 64 bit apps will refer to RAM faster and you will see a marked improvement. Apart from the  DVD player, all Apple apps that come with SL are now 64 bit.

    Grand Central Dispatch

    It takes out the onus of the developer to thread tasks to different cores of the CPU. In other words, the OS will now maximise the CPU cores it uses. Not much in there for the end user, perhaps a faster app, but to the devs a huge time gain if they do address multi-core processes.

    Quicktime

    After a bit of a facelift, I think I will give it another shot now that the “PRO” version has disappeared. But the smokey theme makes it look like a non Apple app, very strange.

    Safari

    Previously, most of the time when Safari crashed, it was due to plug-in. You are now able to carry on browsing even when Safari has detected an error on the page.

    Exchange

    Finally,  you can now get rid of Entourage (Microsoft is doing it for you anyway) and the long awaited Exchange support is built in.

    The less visible features

    Finally,  Eject – actually ejects … the device will become grey while doing so, but now at least you know something is happening

    Malware scanner – Only scans for two known worms, and only from downloaded files. Anything on a thumb-drive, USB disk, NAS, network won’t be scanned.

    Preview – Is becoming slowly a full featured app with tools.

    No more groggy Mac – with a much improved faster wake up time from sleep.

    Space saver – After my SL upgrade a save a healthy 6.2 Gigs on my machine.

    The services menu – after a few years of installing and deleting apps my services menu has grown ridiculously big and obsolete. It seems it has gone through a bit of a crash diet now!

    Print drivers are now also updated via the Software Update.

    Battery Monitoring- ALT+click the battery icon and it will tell you when it is time to spend R1,5K for a new one

    Better Wifi – Faster reconnect, ALT+click gives you more info

    Should I Upgrade?

    Pro’s

    The improved features are worthwhile, and I am a bit vain in that matter… If I can afford it I like to have the latest …

    The pricing of the upgrade is very attractive (R329.00) The most annoying part of my upgrade was actually Sandton traffic to get to the iStore.

    I heard reports that the DVD will upgrade from Tiger as well, but I can not confirm that.

    Con’s

    It is an Intel only club .. Older machine are unwelcome

    Incompatible software – This is a biggie to not upgrade or to wait.

    Apple has caught many developers by surprise with the early release of SL. There is a list on Apple website of software that will not run in their current version work on SL –http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3258

    The big one for SA customers would be the  software provided by Vodacom & MTN for their Datacards (VMC, etc.): they are made by Novamedia, and  are basically a branded version of Launch2net, which has not been upgraded to the latest version yet. If you use the Vodacom or MTN MAc software, you may want to hang on a bit before upgrading to Snow Leopard

    Plaxo plug-in, Growlmail, forklift, 1password are  also incompatible at the moment. 1 Password & Forklift have however released early betas to overcome this issue.

    UPDATE : Applejack is not yet compatible with SL.

    I hope you take the plunge and upgrade to what seems to be a revolutionalry upgrade from Apple. Please feel free to comment,ask questions. I will try my best to answer them promptly.

  • Enable Vodacom iPhone MMS & Tethering

    Following my 2 previous posts on setting up MMS & Tethering for Vodacom, which were quite manual and didn’t seem to work and keep the settings, this post will show you how to get MMS & Internet Tethering to work on your Vodacom or MTN iPhone.

    EDIT 11/9/09 – It seems that with OS 3.1 Vodacom settings for tethering & MMS have been built into the firmware.MMS still seems to be wonky, and Tethering seems to be working. What we have seen though is that MTN users can no longer use tethering & MMS. They have also stopped the abilty to use custom profiles such as the ones below. See this post . Bottom line if you not on Vodacom, rather don’t upgrade to OS 3.1 if you would like tethering & MMS to work

    A BIG BIG thanks to PJ from Glucode for helping me with this and the files below. He is a LEGEND !!

    Please note: (Please read these points before attempting the steps below)

    • These settings only work for VODACOM & MTN. I will attempt to get CellC & Virgin up shortly.
    • Do this at your own risk. This is merely a guide on how to get it working, and no responsibility can be taken if it does not work. Unfortunately I cannot provide “after sales service” :)
    • Please read through the post before attempting this. You need to have some sort of understanding as to how the iPhone works. This guide is not for beginners and I suggest that if you do feel uneasy, to rather leave it until Vodacom brings out the correct settings

    VODACOM – If you are using a Mac download & extract this zip file -> Vodacom Carrier Settings Mac (Settings built into firmware)

    VODACOM – If you use Windows download & extract this zip file -> Vodacom Carrier Settings – Windows (Settings built into firmware)

    MTN – If you are using a Windows download & extract this zip file -> MTN Carrier Settings – Windows

    MTN – If you are using a Mac download & extract this zip file -> MTN Carrier Settings – Mac

    Step 1 – Uninstall any previous profile settings used

    Uninstall any previous Profile settings used to set up MMS or tethering,by going to Settings -> General -> Profile and remove any other existing profiles you may have installed

    Step 2 – Enabling iTunes to allow you to run the carrier file:

    • If you using a Mac, run the enable-carrier-testing.command file, in the above zip file, to set iTunes to allow updating the Carrier settings on the phone.
    • If you are using a Windows PC, run the enable-carrier-testing.cmd file in the zip file, to set iTunes to allow updating the Carrier settings on the phone.

    Step 3 – Enabling the carrier (ipcc file) using iTunes

    • Plug-in you iPhone into your computer and open iTunes.
    • Select your iPhone in iTunes
    • If you are using Mac, Option(alt) & click on the Check For Update button
    • If you are using Windows, shift & click on the Check for Update button
    • Browse to where you extracted the zip files from above.
    • In the Files of Type drop down, chose iPhone Carrier Configuration files (*.ipcc) and then in the /Custom folder
    • Select the Vodafone_za.ipcc file, and press OK for VODACOM
    • Select the MTN_za.ipcc file, and press OK for MTN
    • This will load the Carrier file with all the correct settings for MMS & Internet tethering

    Step 4 – Finish Up

    • Restart your iPhone
    • Once the phone has restarted check your settings in General -> Network -> Cellular Data Network. There should be settings for Cellular Data and MMS
    • You should now be able to set up Tethering and send & receive MMS’s
    • If you wish to revert back to the original settings follow step 3 above and use the ipcc file in the “Original” folder of the extracted zip file
    • Ensure you can make and receive calls after completing the above steps
    • You may find that you can’t send MMS’s for a short while after setting this up. We are working on the issue

    Changelog:

    23/6: Added MTN zip files
    24/6: Replaced Vodacom Original .ipcc file with updated .ipcc file
    26/6: Updated Custom Vodacom .ipcc file to new one provided by PJ. Should fix MMS problems while in 3g
    26/6: Unlinked to Vodacom files, as reports of Calls dropping & no connectivity
    29/6: Linked Vodacom files back to original version. These .ipcc files seems a lot more stable


  • How to take a screenshot with your iPhone

    Warning: This blog may become a bit iPhone befok… :)

    UPDATE: This also works on the iPod Touch

    Earlier today I wanted to send a friend a screenshot of a screen of one of the applications I had showed them. So I JFGI and came across this:

    Taking iPhone Screenshots

    1. Navigate the iPhone to the screen you want to create an image of
    2. While holding the Home button, press and release the Sleep/Wake button. Your screen will flash and make a camera shutter sound, letting you know that the screen shot was taken

      iPhone Screenshot
    3. Navigate to your Camera Roll library (Photos) on your iPhone. The most recent image should be the screen capture you just created
    4. You will then be able to download the screen that you captured the next time you sync your iPhone with your PC or Mac

      iPhone Screenshot

  • iPhone 3G – The beginning

    When the iPhone 3G was first launched earlier this year, I decided I had to have one. So last week I took the trip to Dion Wired , and took the plunge. And I can honestly say my life has been changed. The iPhone is more than just a phone, its like a mini laptop on the go.It really is a fantastic piece of equipment.

    After getting the initial hang of it, I downloaded a couple of the apps. There are a couple of essential apps that you need to install after getting the iPhone:

    • Zippo Lighter – This app shows off how cool the iPhone really is. Swing open the Zippo, light is and wave the flame around. Amaze all your mates
    • WordPress – Blogging on the go. Simple
    • Twitterrific – THE essential iPhone Twitter app. Shows all your tweets and lets you tweet as well.
    • Facebook App – Keep up with your facebook on your iPhone
    • Shazam – Thanks to the heads up from Kish, Shazam is AMAZING. AMAZING. Hold your phone close to any speaker while any song is playing, and Shazam will return info about the song. Title, Artist, Album, Cover and even lets you buy it or view it on iTunes. AMAZING
    • Fring – We all know how cool fring really is, and in the last 2 days the iPhone version has been released. Skype calls, MSN, google talk all in 1.

    All in all the iPhone is brilliant. So far the battery life has been ok, given the amount of time I have been playing with it, and it charges while you have it plugged into your Mac.

    As I come across more apps that I find uselful, I will be posting them here for sure ! For now, I need to go play :)

  • Yet another new Babe

    You would think by reading the title of this post, I would be announcing yet ANOTHER baby. You can breath a sigh of relief now, that in no certain terms, will number 4 pop out. Ever. (EVER)

    But my new love of my life (behind the 3 “real” love of my lifes’), is my bright shiny new Apple Mac. I finally bit the bullet, and got my Mac last week. And WOW. What a pleasure.

    It is undoubtedly the most user friendly computer I have ever worked with. Combined with speed and stability, it ranks in my top list, of everything.

    I would seriously recommend that if you are looking to buy a new computer, I would put in the few extra bucks and get the mac. Even my wife, who has a general computer phobia, can’t keep her hands off of it.

    After going through Allan’s and Henk’s must have app lists, I’m well on my way.

    I wonder if it’s true -> “Once you go Mac, you can never go back !!”