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iMovie Themes

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Google Wave on the iPhone

Check out how well Google Wave runs on the iPhone
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Google Wave On the iPhone

by Dan

When Google Wave invites originally started going out I was very disappointed that I wasn’t included in the initial fun. I had signed up to be included in invites only minutes after Google announced their in-development Wave product. It, however, seems that I wasn’t the only one and I didn’t get an initial invite.

Be sure to check out additional information about the product and Find Out All There Is To Know About Google Wave.

That has all changed recently as a Google Wave invite managed to find its way to my inbox. As soon as I saw it I quickly signed up and started playing away with the features of Googles “game changing” product. While the product is still in its “preview” or pre-beta stage, it has a lot of potential. I was impressed with how very few page loads are required while using the software.

After I got a feel for how things work with Google Wave, I realized that these cutting edge products are only going to be as powerful as they are functional on mobile devices like the iPhone. So, as anyone playing with a new technology would do, I grabbed my iPhone to see exactly how Google Wave works on the iPhone.

Safari 4, Google Wave, and the iPhone

I was confident that Google Wave would work on the iPhone since Safari is the native browse on the phone. However, when wave.google.com first loaded in my Safari browser on the iPhone I was surprised to see the screen listed below. Google was telling me that my browser wasn’t supported… or was it?

iPhone Google Wave1.jpg

I notice the “go ahead” link and decided to continue at my own peril. What I expected was the Google Wave interface that was developed for the computer, not for mobile devices like the iPhone, but was quickly surprised when the page finished loading. Google obviously understands the importance of mobile software as it appears their development efforts include simultaneous development of their mobile interface as their standard computer based one.

Google Wave iPhone1.jpg

With a fully functional interface, I quickly started testing out the various aspects of the sites. Contacts worked as normal, I could quickly pull up information about individuals on my Contact list.

Google Wave iPhone Contacts.jpg

Starting a wave was a touch away and the notes I added on the iPhone instantly appeared in my version of Google Wave running on my iMac. You’ll notice that invitations available in the screen shot below.

Google Wave iPhone Invites.jpg

Get Your Google Wave Invite

Infact, I have 14 invites to send out. With Google Wave, they’re not instant invites, but ones that they’ll send out in “waves” to allow others to quickly start communicating with their friends and family.

To help get the Maciverse community to Google Wave, I’ll be randomly selecting 14 individuals from those who subscribe by email to the site. If you’re interested in getting an invite, subscribe by email by entering your email address in the box listed at the top of the site. in 1 week from today, we’ll randomly select 14 email subscribers and include them in our Google Wave Invite list.

iPhone Google Wave3.jpg

Wave with Maciverse

If you’re one of the lucky few that already have access to Google Wave, share your contact info in the comments so that we can quickly and easily add you to the Maciverse community Wave for continual discussions of Apple Products and functionality.

Wireless Magic Mouse

by Dan

After loosing a trademark dispute over the “Mighty Mouse” Apple was set to re-brand the mouse that they sell with each of their desktop computers. But, Apple didn’t just leave the effort in re-branding. Now, an improved and feature reach mouse is available to Mac owners. The new mouse, titled, Wireless Magic Mouse takes everything you know and love about touch technology on your iPhone, Macbooks, and iPod Touch and integrates them into a “buttonless” mouse.

Features of the Wireless Magic Mouse

The most significant feature of the Magic Mouse is its touch motion technology. Swiping forward and backwards helps you move from picture to picture in iPhoto, or from website to website in Safari. You can scroll left or right, up or down by just moving your fingers in the direction you’d like the scroll bar to move. But, the touch technology and buttonless interface isn’t the only aspects of the bluetooth enabled wireless Magic Mouse.

Wireless Magic Mouse

Apple’s new mouse also comes with a laser-tracking engine which makes it so the mouse can be used on almost any surface. I’ve personally been extremely disappointed in the past when I’ve gone to use a mouse and it wasn’t able to function on the surface I was working at.

With this new feature, the need for mouse pads significantly decreased. Additionally, as a bluetooth enabled mouse, you can connect to your Mac without any wires getting in the way and distracting from your work environment. In the modern home, a house free of wires is a must, and the Magic Mouse includes that capability with its Wireless capabilities.

Setting Up Your Wireless Magic Mouse

Installing you wireless magic mouse is as easy as everything else on your Mac. After you’ve purchased your Magic Mouse and have unpackaged it from the box, set it next to the rest of the computer and fire up system preferences. Make sure the mouse is synced to your Mac via bluetooth and then select “Mouse” from the system preference menu.

Magic Mouse - System Preferences

From the menu you can set the sensitivity of the mouse, enable and disable features, and enable two button click functionality. Additional details around swipe technology is available here.

Wireless Magic Mouse Settings

You can see from the picture above that this is also a great location to see the battery level of your Magic Mouse. Knowing this will help you avoid those terrible times when your mouse is out of batteries, and you have no batteries left in your home.

The new Magic Mouse is a huge step up from the Mighty Mouse that had a weak functioning scroll ball and its “two button” click capabilities were lacking. Hopefully, after you get use to the lack of clicks, you’ll be flying around your Mac on the back of the Wireless Magic Mouse.

Looking for Something Different?

If you’re someone that just isn’t interested in the idea of a touch sensitive mouse, there are a number of different mice available to you to select from that work with your Mac. In fact, almost every PC enabled mouse is functional on Apple Computers.

I personal love my jet black with blue glow Death Adder Mouse. It has great form and is extremely light. It will be difficult selecting which mouse to use in the future.

iPod Classic

by Dan

We recently discussed the strong features still available in the “less talked about” iPod Nano, even though most of the attention these days is driven towards Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch. But it seems that the Nano isn’t the only iPod that hasn’t gotten a lot of focus lately.

The iPod Classic is currently a hot topic amongst rumor articles that discuss the upcoming Apple media event. Apple often upgrades their iPods in September, in preparation for a long Christmas buying season.

Apple’s iPod Classic, which previously came in 80GB, is now available in 120 GB models. The device has impressive features and is fully loaded with media capabilities that keep you entertained where ever you go. As the name implies, this iPod is made with classic design and finished with metal sleek body.

It is designed with a large storage space of 120GB, in increase from the previous 80GB model. This storage space is more than enough to store full length videos and large amount of music file. This iPod is enclosed with aluminum anodized structure and made with metal body. It is easy to hold and is compact enough that you can carry it anywhere you want. Like other models of the iPod, the Classic has an intuitive interface that helps you to select and play media.

Apple’s iPod Classic is enabled with new Genius playlist capability that lets you easily access a collection of relevant media from your own personal library based on your current song selection.

Additionally, You can store a large movie library on the iPod Classic. This is a significant feature with the iTunes media offering available to individuals around the world.

The battery life on the iPod classic is 40 hours for audio playback and 7 straight hours for video. It truly is an option for those long car rides.

The iPod Classic includes three different games; iQuiz, Vortex and Klondlike. The screen is only 2.5 inch so it can make watching video and playing games more difficult than options available to iPod Touch or iPhone users. Share videos and photos with Mac using iTunes and sync the photos for easy access. If you’re looking to save a few bucks the 80gb model offers the same features and capabilities of the current iPod Classic. Check out detailed reviews on iPod Classic 80gb before you make a purchasing decision.

Like the iPod Nano, the iPod Touch, and the iPhone the iPod classic has a lot to offer. Its larger storage space makes it a great option for users who are interested in bringing their complete media package with them wherever they go. Be sure to check out reviews of all the iPods before you decide which is best for you.

Snow Leopard Parental Controls

by Dan

As the internet continues to retain its Wild Wild West characteristics where individuals find ways of posting content that many feel is only appropriate for adults, Parents will continually look for ways to control what their children have access to while browsing the web.

We’ve discussed previously how the Macintosh Operating Systems have built in Parental Controls to help protect children from stumbling across content parents don’t want them to see. This is no different with Apple’s most recent OS, Snow Leopard.

Like the previous versions, Snow Leopardallows parents to create individual accounts for their children and then limit the applications they can use, files they have access to, and websites they can visit. Parental Controls can be configured from System Preferences

Manage Parental Controls from another Computer

One of the newer features in Snow Leopard Parental controls is the ability manage parental controls from other computers. After you’ve entered in your administrative password, you can check the option so that you can control access to accounts on other computers all from one Mac in your home.

Parental Controls.png

System Parental Controls

After you’ve created user accounts for your children, you can set system controls for your child’s account with Snow Leopard’s Parental Control features. In Parental Controls, select the user account and then the system tab.

Parental Controls-2.png

From here you can simplify the Finder interface, and limit the applications your child has access to. If you don’t want your child messing with Printer settings be sure to uncheck the Can administer Printers box.

Macintosh Web Content Parental Controls

The content tab of parental controls allows you to block profanity or inappropriate content from dictionaries and thesauruses on Snow Leopard.

Parental Controls-3.png

It also allows you to restrict website access. You can either setup Snow Leopard to limit adult website access automatically, or be more restrictive and setup the account to be only able to access sites you’re comfortable with. This option may be best for controlling internet access for smaller children who may click into a site you don’t want them accessing.

Protect Against People

The internet has become a great communications tool. Unfortunately it doesn’t have anyway to automatically keep people away from your children’s email or instant messages. Snow Leopard Parental Control features allow you to limit access to email, and limit iChat communications to only people you’ve approved.

Parental Controls-4.png

Additionally, permission requests can be sent to you to approve an email communication with someone you haven’t approved.

Time Limits with Snow Leopard

Sometimes your children will spend too much time on the computer and/or internet. Snow Leopard parental controls has built in capabilities to limit the amount of time and when your child has access to the computer.

Parental Controls-5.png

This includes setting time limits for school days, weekends, and at what time of night their access is turned off. You won’t have to worry about fighting for “5 more minutes” on the computer at bed time because Snow Leopard will just shut off your child’s account at that time.

Review Your Child’s Computer Activities

Snow Leopard Parental Controls also record the activities your child takes on the Macintosh. It stores these in logs that are accessible to administrators so that you can see what and when they’ve been doing on the computer. Find out who they’ve been talking to and what they’ve been saying while communicating on the internet.

Parental Controls-6.png

Conclusion

Like previous versions of Apple’s OS, Snow Leopard includes Parental Control features to help you protect your child from undesired information and content available on the internet.

Be sure to setup their accounts the way you feel best so that they can be productive, but also safe from the dangers found on the internet.

Online Backup For your Mac

by Dan

One of the strongest features in Apple’s OS X 10.5 Leopard was the built in capability to backup your data with Time Machine. By attaching an external hard drive, or connecting to a Time Capsule, individuals could now be confident that their data was continually being backed up in case their computer started having problems.

This solution is great for hard drive failures, data corruption, or even finding previous versions of files that you’re interested in working with, however, it is is not a perfect solution.

At times due to natural disasters, robbery, or even fire, your data and memories can be lost. This includes the backup you’ve saved with Time Machine. To protect against this, companies have developed software that allows you to backup your software securely, online. I’ve personally seen the benefits of having my data backed up online and suggest it to everyone. Keep reading for more details about Secure Mac Online Backup.

Secure Mac Online Backup

While there are a number of different options for online backup on the Mac, one of the best options for both your wallet and the amount of storage you can save online is backing up your data for free. There are a number of online backup sites, including Mozy, that allow for free service for a few gigabytes of data. I was amazed at how easy it was to quickly sign up, backup, and restore data from Mozy online. It was quick and easy and the best part about it is that they let me try out there software for free without an expiration date. They gave me a set amount of backup space and let me see the benefits of their software first hand.

Mozy, is an online backup program that is available for both PCs and Macs. Mozy offers secure backup solutions and includes a client application that allows you to easily configure what you will be backing up on your Mac. I started out my free trial by backing up my document library. It wasn’t long before I signed up for a monthly unlimited service that was so cheap I couldn’t believe the price. Once I was setup with my unlimited account, I added my Music, Pictures, Video, and applications so that everything I needed backed up was secure and easily accessible online.

Mozy – The Application

Mozy’s application for the Mac is slick and simple. It allows users to easily select the packages of information you’re interested in backing up (Photos, Movies, Documents) or selecting file by file the data you’d like to be kept safe offsite.

Mozy Online Backup Mac

If you select a significant amount of data to back up, it will take some time to backup all your data to the Mozy secure servers. This process runs in the background and once it starts you won’t know its backing up your data until it finishes and lets you know you’re mac online backup is complete. After your initial backup, Mozy does an excellent job of keeping track of what data has been modified and then only sends those files up to the cloud where your data is being stored.

Restoring Data Backed Up Online

In the first instance that you need to restore data that was backed up online, you’ll need to navigate to Mozy.com and login with your login information. From your account you’ll be able to select from either downloading a zipped up packed of all your data, having the data mailed to you on a usb drive, or selecting particular files you’d like to quickly restore.

I find the three options for restoration refreshing. If you’re in a crunch for a particular file, you can select it, continue to download it, and access it as needed. If you have more time, opting for the backup to be sent to you so that you have a physical copy of the backup can be beneficial in the future. I’ve restored my online backup data through zipped files quickly and easily and have had no trouble at all with the process.

Conclusion

Overall, data backup is becoming more and more important for individuals and not just businesses. Apple has built an excellent option for data backup with Time Machine, but it is still a good idea to securely backup your Mac data online with a service provided by Mozy or a similar online backup company.

Don’t regret later that you were not proactive enough with your Mac Online Backup, Keep your data safe and secure with an online backup now.