Shortly after I got it, I picked up a copy of Parallels and used it through version 3. It was useable and reasonably fast, but I still found myself switching to Boot Camp (starting with the beta version) when I wanted to do anything with video or graphics.

About a year ago I found out about VirtualBox.
VirtualBox is a free, cross platform virtualization application that worked at least as well as Parallels 3 did. I’ve been happily using that for close to a year now.

Then I read some articles about Parallels 4 and how it has smooth video, supports some 3D games and is 50% faster than previous versions.

I downloaded the demo of it and found that has a conversion program to convert from other apps, including VirtualBox.. sweet!

I ran the program and it converted my VirtualBox PC just fine and I was able to boot in it. During the conversion it asks to install the Parallels tools and I thought it was odd that it took a REALLY long time to install them, but just let it go while I watched some TV.

Coming back about an hour later, it had just finished up so I loaded up my machine to check out the new speed and… it was REALLY slow.
I loaded up some video and it darn near locked up the machine it was so slow and jerky, dropping frames all over the place.

I did some research online and tried some tweaks that improved things a bit, but not much.
Not willing to write off the software just yet, I reloaded XP from a fresh install, installed the tools and… same exact thing as before. I’d have to say the software is slower than the previous version on my machine.

There are none of these issues with VirtualBox.
I don’t think I can play 3D games on in Windows in VirtualBox, but I never have a problem with speed or framerate in my virtual machines… plus I that’s what I have my Wii and Xbox360 for.

My advice, if you’re thinking of upgrading or purchasing Parallels 4, is don’t. Save your money and go download a copy of VirtualBox

This ‘Netbook’ is just awesome, it’s very quick, has wireless, USB, external monitor, 1.6Ghz Atom processor, 160GB HD and 1Gig of RAM.

The version I got comes with XP pre-loaded on it, but the main reason I got it is that it’s a very good candidate for loading OSX86 on it.

I’ll post more details on that later, but long story short is that I now have a fully functional dual boot between Windows XP and Mac OSX Leopard 10.5.5!

Leopard is an AMAZING OS so if you’re going to research and do this project, PLEASE go out and buy a copy of Leopard… technically you’re not supposed to load it on any machine other than an Apple machine and you’ll still have to download a hacked version, but at least pay for the operating system.

Here’s an embeded video I posted on YouTube to show how it runs on my machine:

Here are some links to some of the tutorials I followed:

Battery and Audio source auto-switching now work… see this post:
http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.ph…

OSX86 install:
http://forum.insanelymac.com/lofivers…

Cracking it open to replace the wireless card:
http://www.aspireoneuser.com/forum/vi…

Dual boot with Windows:
http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/ind…

After doing some research for a while, I’ve decided to focus on Mozy and iDrive as they seem to have the best support for both Mac and Windows.

Here’s the setup at home:
Windows XP machine - Acts as file & media server as well as remote DVR server.
Intel iMac - Primary machine, what we do all the day to day stuff on

All our important files are stored on the XP box, which does not have direct access to the Internet.

I’m backing things up via Backup on the Mac and the Windows Backup in XP, but wanted something offsite as well in case the backup media goes bad, is stolen or the whole house burns down.

Both Mozy and iDrive seem like very good options and here’s some of the things I’ve found during my testing, I’m formatting this as a comparison between the two and this is strictly the residential version of the service, not business (which both provide):

• Both offer a free trial of 2 GB
• Space:
  • Mozy has a pro version with unlimited space
  • iDrive offers pro version with 150GB
• Pricing:
  • Mozy - $4.95 / month or $54.45 a year (one month free)
  • iDrive - $4.95 / month or $49.50 a year (two months free)
• Speed, based on my testing:
  • Mozy I average around 800Kb/s with throttling set to 100% usage, but it drops to 0 frequently
  • iDrive I averaged around 1,500Kb/s with throttling set at 70% usage.
• Convenience:
  • Although you have to pay the fee per computer, Mozy lets you manage them under 1 user account.
  • With iDrive you have to pay the fee per computer, but you also have to create two separate logins as they claim they technically can’t do it under one.

I’m still testing and was leaning toward Mozy because of the unlimited space and the convenience of having them under the same account.

The speed is starting to be an issue for me though, there’s really no point in having unlimited space if you can’t use it because the transfer is too slow.

If anyone have experience with either, or both, please post your results.

My family and I recently went out of town on vacation and the one thing we forgot; our sound machine.

Over the past few years we’ve gotten so used to having a sound machine that I usually set a radio to a static station when I’m out of town on business.

Thanks to Ambiance, I don’t need to do that anymore.

I downloaded the app from the App Store and was really impressed with the number of audio samples an the quality of them.
Plus the option to set a timer and / or use it as an alarm clock is just beautiful!

This is a new one for my iPhone top 10.
Below are some screenshots I just took.

I have been keeping my eyes on SplashMoney in the app store for a few weeks now.

A lot of people wrote some negative stuff about it and they haven’t released the Mac desktop client yet, so I decided to hold off.

The thing is I’m going out of town and needed a money manager…. In fact I’m in the airport right now, using the Wordpress app, on the airport’s free wireless… Sweet…

Anyway, a new version of the app was released (4.02) that is supposed to have fixed a lot of issues.

I downloaded the app, entered all my account info and the app ROCKS.
For me it has been very stable, is very fast and is more feature-rich than most desktop apps I’ve used!

It has budget setting and tracking, you can get graphs of where you’re spending your money and it has multiple types of accounts,so far I’m lovin’ it!

But I, along with everyone else, have been getting apps off the App Store for a little over a week now… and here is my top 10 favorite App Store apps:

10. PhoneSaber - Yes I had to put it on the list.
As you can probably tell by the name it’s a lightsaber for your iPhone.. remember, the site is ‘Random ramblings of a geek’.

9. Pangea VR
This app is WAY too cool. It lets you view 360 degree photos on your iPhone.
You can scroll around, up, down, zoom in and out of the pictures.
They have a pretty large database and some of the pictures are just breathtaking.

8. eBay Mobile
Everything you’d expect, buy, sell, track your items.. it’s eBay in your pocket and very well done!

7. De Blob
This is a very fun game.
You control a blob (either by tilting the phone, or with your finger) and you have to go around restoring color to different zones of the world.. it’s very addicting!

6. WordPress
This just came out tonight and already it’s on the list.
It allows you to edit existing posts and create new posts directly from the iPhone.
It’s pretty basic, but it’s GREAT for posting on the go, I’m going to be writing to the blog a lot more because of it!!

5. Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D
This is just plain amazing.
It’s a kart racing game, with everything you’d expect in one of these games, and it really feels like your on a PSP or other gaming system.
The controls use that accelerometer to steer, and simple taps for launching weapons, drifting around corners, jumping, etc..
There’s another kart game calld ‘Cro-Mag Rally’, but this is MUCH better IMHO.

4. Shazam
When I first downloaded this I must have messed with this thing for about an hour.
You ever hear a song on the radio and don’t know the artist or song?
All you need to do is launch Shazam, have it “listen” to the song for about 12 seconds (the default setting), it will analyze it and return the artist, song, album info, etc.. it’s just friggen amazing.

3. eReader
This is an eBook reader app but is getting a lot of crap because it only uses the eReader format, but it does it REALLY well.
You can adjust the font type, font size, go to landscape mode, etc..
It will remember where you are in the book so you don’t lose your place and the books are stored locally so you don’t need an Internet connection.
If you already have a big eBook library this is not the app for you, I have no eBooks so this is working great for me!

2. Blackjack 21
I’ve already been spending WAY to long playing Blackjack on my phone.
I have to be honest, this is not the BEST Blackjack game I’ve ever played, but it’s perfect for the iPhone.
Simple, yet elegant and not overly bloated.

1. Pandora Radio
This is by far my favorite app!
If you don’t know what Pandora Radio is, it lets you create “stations” based on an artist or song.
It then uses an algorithm to automatically play artists similar to your selection.
The best part about it is that it works GREAT over Edge (like I said I have a 1st gen iPhone) with no dropouts unless you get in a weak signal area.
I’m going to cancel my Sirius subscription because of this app!

So there you have it, my top 10.

This is my opinion and obviously I haven’t tried every single app on the store, so if you have any you’d like to add feel free to leave a comment.

It was SUPER easy to setup, so here’s my first test post.

I have a feeling I’ll be adding to the blog a lot more now.

You can even attach pictures, so here’s one of what the app looks like:

The cool thing is that when you link to your Exchange calendar, you can view add and edit and changes (almost) immediately show up on the Exchange calendar.

The problem is that if you do that, it’s the only calendar you can have on your phone. Plus I use iCal on my Mac and Google Calendar from time to time… this post explains how I got around that and am now in calendar syncing bliss.

Basically the way I got everything working is I use Google Calendar as a back end for all my other calendars, meaning everything syncs to and from Google Calendar.

First iCal:
I use a program called BusySync, there is another app called Spanning Sync, but BusySync has MUCH better pricing. There is also Gcaldaemon, which is open source but kind of difficult to set up, let’s just say that that kind of app is why I don’t use Linux anymore, but if you can get it working more power to you!

This app lets you select which iCal calendar you want to share with which Google Calendar, then set a schedule to tell it how often to sync.. it works VERY well.

Now Exchange / Outlook:
There is a free sync tool from Google, but it only lets you sync your primary calendar. In my case this is my work stuff that I do not want to mix with my personal stuff, so this didn’t work for me.

What I ended up using was gSyncit. This lets you pick any Outlook Calendar and sync it with any Google Calendar.

I just created a new calendar in Outlook, called ‘Personal’, and synced it with the same Google calendar that I synchronized iCal with.

iPhone:
The iPhone was easy. I just set up a new Exchange connection, selected to sync my mail and my calendar and that was it.

Now when I go to the calendar on the iPhone I can see my calendar for work stuff, the one I created for personal or appointments for both calendars.

The best part about this whole thing is everything is bi-directional.

What I mean is that if I update my calendar on my phone (essentially my exchange calendar) it will immediately show up in Outlook, then when gSycinit runs it will sync with Google calendar and then when BusySync runs it will sync with iCal… so basically within 5-10 minutes my update will show up on all my calendars!

This goes for any of the calendars, I can update any of them and it will update all the other calendars.. a beautiful thing!

I signed in, updated my info and got the Email to download the SDK, when I clicked on the download link in the Email I got it said page not found.

I’ll try later and update the post if I have any luck.

Update:
Wow, that’s kind of messed up. The download link doesn’t work in Firefox, but works in Safari..

Update: Apple has just posted a link to the ‘March 6 Event’ .

 This post has a really quick rundown of the conference Apple held today about the SDK.

• The SDK is available for download from iPhone Developer Program link. 
• The third party apps will require iPhone version 2, being release in June 2008
• The applications will be distributed through the iTunes store and there will be a mobile version.
• Developers will set the price and get 70%
• Free apps will be available and there will not be any charge at all (to developers or end users) for free apps.
• Developments will be done through an updated version of Xcode
• You need at least 10.5.2 on an Intel Mac for the SDK (not confirmed).
• VoIP apps will be allowed over WiFi but not EDGE.
• Apple will not allow any apps with high network usage, pornographic content, potentially dangerous code, etc..

There is a lot more info at the Apple iPhone Developer Connection so head on over there (link above) and check it out.

I installed it and so far the only updates i’ve heard about (through Macrumors) are:

1. Faster camera - Definitely faster on my phone
2. Bluetooth Connectivity improved - looking forward to testing this in my car
3. Safari tabs don’t go to white screen when switching - This would be nice as well

I’m in the camp that believes the firmware is just a prep firmware for the SDK and iPhone applications to be released so I’m HOPING that’ll be this week.

I love most apple products and own a few. I have an intel iMac, still my old iMac G3, Macbook, Airport Extreme, an iPod nano and an iPhone… and I’m toying with the idea of getting an Apple TV.

Really though, I’m starting to get a little afraid that Apple is stretching themselves too much…

I’m kind of scared that Apple is going to fall in to the trap of trying to do too much and getting away from their core competencies.

They make GREAT computers and the best (in my opinion) OS available.
Without a doubt, the iPod reinvigorated the company and they’re (again in my opinion) the best MP3 players available.
Then there is all the fantastic software they have released and are currently in release.

Then the Airport /Airport Extreme, AppleTV, iPhone… now there’s rumors abound that they are planning on making a video game console (did anyone actually own a PipPin?.

That really scares me, the more they try to do the more they’ll be losing focus on what it means to be Apple.

A few things that pop in to my mind are:
1) all the bugs related to Leopard
2) The “new” iMovie that is much slower and feature limited than the previous iMovie
3) The AppleTV update that has the most non Apple-like interface I’ve ever seen on an Apple device.

Apple please focus on what you do best and keep doing it, it seems like you’re starting to lose the ‘It just works’ tagline and that would be a shame.

Anyway, I stumbled across some info on how to list and install updates from the command line.. SWEET!

If you launch a terminal session an type ‘man softwareupdate’ it’ll give you all the info, but here it is to save you a step.

• softwareupdate -l : Lists all available updates
• softwareupdate -d : Download the updates
• softwareupdate -i
  • item : Installs a specific item
  • -a : Install all updates
  • -r : Install only required updates
• softwareupdate –ignore … : Ignores the specified updates
• softwareupdate –reset-ignored : Clears the list of all ignored updates
• softwareupdate –schedule : Manages the per-user scheduler preferences.
  • on | off

Example

What I used to install 10.5.2 was the following line:

sudo softwareupdate -i MacOSXUpd10.5.2-10.5.2

Cool stuff.

The two I’m most looking forward to trying out are the fixed stacks and improving the Airport reliability.. I’m hoping this will help with some airdisk issues.

For the complete list of changes check out ‘About Mac OS X 10.5.2 Update’ on the Apple site.

I’m using it to track recipes and some real estate property we’re looking at.

The only thing I really DON’T like about it is the fact that you can’t specify a location for the database so you can’t share it between users or computers… or can you?

This tutorial will show you how.

The first thing you have to do is log on as the user / computer that you created your Bento DB on.

1. If you want to share between computers connect to an Airdisk, network share or iDisk (not sure if the iDisk will work, I haven’t tested it).
2. Using finder, go to your home directory/Library/Application Support/Bento
3. Copy the bento.bentodb file out to the share you connect to in step 1.
   • If you’re just sharing between users on one machine, you can copy it to a folder both users have access to (like /users/share for example)
4. Open up ‘Terminal’ in the Utilities folder.
5. Type (or copy and paste):
   • cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/Bento
6. Now you have to create a symbolic link the the new location of the bento.bentodb file.
7. Type the following:
   • ln -s /Volumes/sharename/bento.bentodb bento.bentodb
   • Please note that you should replace sharename with the name of the share you connected to in step one.
   • If you’re not connecting to a network share replace /Volumes/sharename with the path you copied the file to in step 3.
8. On the machine, or user, you want to set up to share the db, you need to make sure you launch Bento once.
9. On the second machine (after launching Bento once) go to ~/Library/Application Support/Bento
10. Delete the bento.bentodb file
11. Follow steps 4 through 7

That’s all you need to do.

As far as Bento is concerned the original file is still where it should be and will open fine.

I much prefer a sidebar view like the one in Google Desktop (Sidebar only works in Windows though). I just don’t like having to hit a key to look at some of my common widgets.

This may be old news, but I found a way to move widgets from the Dashboard to your desktop, here’s how:

The first thing you need to do is go to your ‘Utilities’ folder.

You can do this a few different ways:

1. Press Command+Shift+U
2. Go to the ‘Go’ menu and select Utilities
3. Open ‘Applications’ then open ‘Utilities’

However you get there, once you’re there double click on Terminal to open a new terminal window.

The this, or copy and paste, in the terminal window and press Enter:

defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES

After that just log out and log back in.

Now activate Dashboard. Click and drag an icon, while you’re still dragging it, exit from Dashboard (default is F12).

You’re widget will now be on top of all other windows on your desktop. As far as I know there’s no way to put them behind other windows, but you can move it to a corner somewhere and have direct access to it.

With previous versions I never had a problem, I Leopard the drives would sometimes not show up if I clicked on the server in Finder.

Sometimes they would show up, but just wouldn’t connect no matter how I tried….

I made one very simple change and it fixed everything up.

Open System Preferences –> Network:

Click on the connection you’re using. If you’re connected by a wire select ‘Ethernet’, if you’re connect wirelessly select ‘AirPort’, etc… Then click on the WINS tab.

Make sure that the ‘Workgroup’ is set to the same Workgroup you have Windows set to and the WINS server is the IP address of the Windows machine.

Now save the changes by clicking OK.

That’s all I did and now when I click on the server the shares immediately show up and as soon as I click on them I’m connect. Has been 100% reliable since I made the change and hasn’t been slow at all either!

P.S. - If you need to know how to check the Workgroup and IP address in Windows, read on.

• To find the Workgroup in Windows (this example is for XP, your milage may vary).
  1. Right Click ‘My Computer’ and select ‘Properties
  2. Click on the ‘Computer Name’ tab
  3. About 1/2 way down the window you’ll see the ‘Workgroup’ name.
• To find the IP address in windows:
  1. Click ‘Start’ then select ‘Run’
  2. Type CMD then press enter
  3. At the command window that opens type (without the quotes) ‘ipconfig’
  4. Look for the line that says ‘IP Address’

Hope this info helps someone.

I rented the Simpsons movie from iTunes and it actually worked out really well!

The process was really slick.

I rented the movie in iTunes and it downloaded in the background. I had it on my computer for a couple of days before transferring it to my iPhone (just a click of a button in iTunes).

Both iTunes on my Mac, and the iPhone, showed me a display of how many days I had left to watch it.

You can keep the movie for 30 days, but once you start watching it you have 24 hours to watch it (as often as you like).

I watched some of it on my iPhone, then transferred it back to the computer and watched some there, then back to the phone to watch the rest.

At the end of the 24 hour period I got a message on the phone that it expired and the movie deleted itself.

The whole process was really easy and pleasant. The only complaint I have is that I wish the rental period was longer than 24 hours, but I guess it’s better than nothing.

Oh, on a side note… the movie was OK. Not great, no horrible, but it was good enough that I got a few chuckles.

I still have a Windows box and a Linux server, but haven’t checked to see if there’s anything new out there.

I did a search and found three that were most of interest to me and these are ReactOS, SkyOS and Syllable.

ReactOS

From their website: ‘ReactOS® is an advanced free open source operating system providing a ground-up implementation of a Microsoft Windows® XP compatible operating system.’

Basically what they’re trying to do is create an open-source version of a Microsoft Windows compatible OS. This includes compatibility with software as well as drivers.

As of the writing of the article, it is currently in Alpha (version 0.3.3) but I was able to get it running in VMWare Fusion and it’s looking pretty good so far, this is definitely one to keep an eye on!

SkyOS

This is probably the one I’m most excited about.

This is a completely new OS built from the ground up, with it’s on file system, gui (with full API) etc..

I loaded Beta build 6814 in VMware Fusion and it runs very reliably and runs fast even in a virtual machine.

Sometime when I get some time I’m going to try loading it on an Actual PC.

It’s got a “Software Store” that allows you to download and install applications in one click, much like most versions of Linux currently ship with.

I really like the GUI. It’s clean and efficient and just “feels” right, it’s not trying to be overly flashy but is eye catching in its elegance.

The website also seems to have a very good user forum.

I’m going to be watching this one closely and trying new Betas as they come out.

Syllable

Syllable is a for of AtheOS and the project has been around since 1997.

I wasn’t able to get this running yet in a virtual machine, but I think I want to try loading it on an old laptop I have. I’ll post back here when I do.

The file system is similar to that of BeOS, but that’s where the similarity in the OSes stops.

It seems like the goal of this OS is ease of use and the ability to re-vitalize old hardware. I’ve read a few articles and seen a few videos of the OS running very fast on older hardware.

Whatever OS you’re using now, it’s good to know there are some options out there.

If you know of any others that are not just simply a new Linux Distro please let me know, I’m always anxious to check these out.

I know there are a million more out there, but I needed something that runs on both Mac and Windows as I use a Mac at home and Windows at work.
I checked out ScribeFire, but I wasn’t really happy with the interface.

I think right now I’m leaning toward Ecto, I actually like the interface on Qumana better and it seems a little more stable, but there are some features that Ecto has that Qumana doesn’t that make me lean toward Ecto.

• Qumana Pros:
• • Seems very stable
  • I like the feel of the program, very nice interface
  • I really like the options on images for text wrapping
  • Auto-inserts a path (that makes sense) and auto-uploads images
• Qumana Cons
• • The numbers don’t display the time correctly in the ‘blog manager’. No matter what I set the time zone as it always shows it as GMT. The time on new posts displays fine on the blog, it’s just when I download previous posts.
  • When you I use the tag to abbreviate the posts on the main page, I only get up to the point of the tag when I download it again in the editor.
  • If a blog is not on the main page, it won’t display in the ‘Blog Manager’
  • Sent a few emails to support and have gotten no responses in the past 3 days.

• Ecto Pros:
• • Dates display correctly
  • The more tag does not effect the display of the document when downloading into Ecto.
  • The posts show up even if they’re not on the main page of the blog
  • Easy to insert Youtube and Flickr documents.
• Ecto Cons:
• • Seems to crash a bit
  • When inserting images you have to pick the right option off the bat. Once inserted there’s no way to change settings other than deleting and re-adding the image (or editing the HTML directly)
  • When uploading documents it does not automatically pick the path, you must manually enter a path for the upload.

Neither one is perfect, actually I don’t think there’s such a thing as a perfect app, but right now Ecto is my choice between the two.
If they fix the issues in Qumana I’d probably switch to using it, but right now I’ll have to pass.