These columns appear in the Times Record each Friday in the Technology section.
Current Year 2007
2008 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002

Date

Title
12-28-07 Puny Processors Pack A Powerful Punch in 2008 ... As I was reflecting on and researching the year-in-review piece next door, I looked back upon the last five years of my article headlines and was struck with how far technology has come during that period.  Back in 1965, Charles Moore, a co-founder of Intel, observed that the computer industry was developing a new generation of chips about every three years, with the number of transistors on chips doubling every 18 months.
12-21-07 “The Little Things” in Leopard That Make Me Smile ... Besides the “marquee” features in Leopard that I’ve described over the last several weeks (Quick Look, Stacks, Spaces, Time Machine, Parental Controls, Screen Sharing, and Mail) there are many less spectacular yet fun and useful tidbits that earn “honorable mention” accolades.
12-14-07 Keeping Your Mac Fit at December MMOOS Meeting ... Our feature program will be “Keeping You (and Your Mac) Running Fast and Fit”.  We’re going to look at tips, techniques, and applications that will help you spend minimal time working ON your Mac and more time working WITH your Mac.  Check out our website at mmoos.net for directions and more fun stuff.
12-07-07 iChat: Not Being There Is Half The Fun ... Video chat gets the biggest makeover.  You can now place a video or still background behind you as you video chat, similar to the “green screens” used by TV weathermen.  iChat comes with some fun backgrounds – standing in front of the Eifel Tower, a waterfall at Yosemite National Park, a sunset beach, inside an aquarium full of fish, even a wild ride on a roller coaster.
11-30-07 Keyboard Shortcuts Increase Efficiency ... Interestingly, the new aluminum keyboards shipping with the new aluminum iMacs don’t have the apple icon – just the command curly-Q.  Therefore, we’ll refer to this key as the command key.  To the left of the left command key is the “option” key, and to its left is the “ctrl”, or control, key.  These keys, used in conjunction with other keys, give you keyboard shortcuts.
11-23-07 Which iPod is Right For You (or Yours)? ... It’s that time of the year again!  The holiday buying season.  Undoubtedly, some of us will see “iPod” on our gift wish lists.  There have never been so many iPod models to choose from.  So, here’s everything you need to know about selecting the right iPod for the right special someone.
11-16-07 Screen Sharing Comes to Leopard ... Once your Leopard-based Mac sees another Leopard-based Mac on your network, a Screen Sharing button appears.  Click the button, and, assuming you have the permission of the other Mac, and the other Mac is not asleep, the Screen Sharing application opens, and the other Mac’s screen appears in a window on your Mac.  At that point, you can do anything on that Mac that you could do sitting in front of it using the keyboard and mouse.
11-09-07 November MMOOS Meeting to Focus On Leopard ... Next week we’ll get to know Leopard “up close and personal”, from installation to customization.  We’ll demo the new Finder, Quick Look, Spaces, Stacks, Spotlight, iChat – the whole fur ball.  And, we’ll be giving away two copies of Leopard to lucky MacHeads.  Seating is somewhat limited, so get there early – good seats are still available!
11-02-07 High Definition TV: The Agony and the Ecstasy ... AGONY.  Deciding which HDTV to get.  So many specifications.  Projection or flat panel?  We chose flat panel.  LCD or Plasma?  We chose LCD.  New 120 Hz refresh rate and LED (Light Emitting Diode) backlight?  Since the 120 Hz and LED models exact a $900 premium, we chose 60Hz and light bulbs.  What about size?  Big on the wall of the local electronics superstore is HUGE in the family room, that’s all I can say.
10-19-07 Leopard Hits the Shelves Next Week ... Will you need a new Mac to run Leopard? Hardly. Apple lists minimum system requirements as any Intel-based Mac, any PowerPC G5-based Mac, and PowerPC G4 Macs with 867 MHz or faster processors. PowerPC G3 processors didn’t make the cut, but the 867MHz G4 machines go back to 2001.
10-12-07 Microsoft’s New Zune Is Wireless… If You Plug It In ... Besides the larger hard drive, the new Zune expands its wireless capabilities. Well, sort of. The old Zune could “squirt” (I didn’t make up this term – Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s CEO, actually used it) music to another Zune. The new Zune can communicate wirelessly and squirt music, video, and photos back-and-forth with your PC and the new Zune software as well, but only if it’s plugged in.
10-05-07 WaHoo! Big Cat’s A-Comin’ in October ... Apple hasn’t made any official statements on Leopard’s exact shipping date since announcing a delay from the spring (April) of this year to this month. The reason for the delay? To divert software engineer resources to be able to release the iPhone “sometime in June”.
09-28-07 90 Days of iPhone: A Progress Report ... Today, plus or minus a couple of days, is my ninetieth day with the iPhone. How’s it going? Swimmingly. No, better than swimmingly – wonderfully. No, better than wonderfully – tremendously. No, better than tremendously – amazingly. No, better than amazingly – stupendously.
09-21-07 Apple (Again) Tops Survey of Customer Satisfaction ... Late last week, PC Magazine published the results of their 20th annual Reader Satisfaction Survey for desktop and notebook computers. You know that I’m reporting this to you because Apple did very well. How well? Let’s go “inside the numbers”.
09-14-07 Third Party Software for the Mac at MMOOS ... This mmonth mmany MMOOS mmembers will take turns behind the golden MMOOS podium presenting their favorite “third party” Mac software. What does “third party” mean? Loosely applied, third party software is software developed for the Mac platform by someone other than Apple.
09-07-07 Apple Set to Open iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store ... So. New iPods. If you use an iPod, you’ve gotta use iTunes. They’re inseparable. Like love and marriage. Horse and carriage. Bread and butter. Tea and crumpets. Peas and carrots. Peanut butter and jelly. Milk and cookies. Windows and malware. Death and taxes (and we sure know about taxes here in Maine).
08-31-07 Buyer Alert! Don’t Buy an iPod This Weekend! ... What could it be about? iMacs? Nope. Brand new models just a few weeks ago. iLife? Nope. New version along with the new iMacs. Mac OS 10.5 “Leopard”? Nope. Still in the finishing touches stage, and scheduled for release sometime in October. Let’s see. What hasn’t been upgraded in awhile?
08-24-07 All You Need to Know About Web Two-Point-Oh ... iFirst, let’s look at what its not. Web 2.0 doesn’t refer to any kind of new physical structure of the Internet. It works the same as it did back when it was Web 1.0. Web 2.0 refers to a new level of interaction between the computer user and the content available on the Internet.
08-17-07 Picture This! MMOOS Gets All Photogenic Next Week ... iPhoto 7 is chock full of improvements, including (but not limited to): a new organizational hierarchy, which groups your photos the way you shoot them – by Event; more powerful editing and search capabilities; and great new ways to share your photo masterpieces (or just pleasant memories) with family, friends, and the rest of the world, through web galleries, cards, calendars, “coffee table” photo books, and theme-based home printing.
08-10-07 More Highlights from Apple’s Special Event ... Now on to iLife ’08. The iLife suite (iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iWeb and GrarageBand) is very much a part of what makes a Mac a Mac. It really is the core of the Mac experience, from a consumer standpoint. Every year or so, Apple updates the suite to make it more powerful and user-friendly. This year is no exception.
08-03-07 Is the “Kate Moss” iMac On The Horizon? ... Every so often I feel the need to issue a “don’t buy a Mac this weekend” advisory. This is one of those weeks. Actually, if you’re in the market for one of Apple’s powerful MacBook Pro notebooks or Mac Pro towers, you can probably disregard this advisory. However, this is not a good weekend, in my opinion, to drive down to New Hampshire or visit Apple’s online store to purchase either an iMac. Here’s why.
07-27-07 Apple’s Shiny Quarter Boosted By (Surprise) Macs and iPods ... You may ask, “what do earnings and other financial data have to do with which computer I use?” Research and development (R&D) budgets fuel innovation, and a healthy Apple can certainly afford to spend serious money on R&D. Plus, as the installed base of Mac users grows, the number of software developers looking to make good money making great software grows.
07-20-07 Hands On With the New MacBook Pro ... Alas, you can’t judge a notebook by its cover. Or, can you? The basic form factor (how it looks) of Apple’s pro laptop hasn’t changed significantly since 2003, and for good reason. It just works, and it’s stunning. The aircraft-grade aluminum chassis is strong and damage-resistant. It’s only an inch thin, and weighs only 5.4 pounds, all-the-while packing a 160 GB hard drive and an 8X double-layer, multi-format, DVD-burning SuperDrive.
07-13-07 (The Start Of) My Wishlist for iPhone 1.1 ... I wish the horizontal, widescreen, or “landscape” viewing mode was available in all iPhone applications. For example, when using the iPhone’s Safari web browser to view a web page, you can turn the iPhone onto its side, and see a widescreen version of the page. The text and images are slightly larger (obliging my 50-year-old eyes). If you invoke the keyboard, to say, type in a new URL, it pops up widescreen as well, with slightly larger letter “keys” and more space between them (obliging my pudgy thumbs).
07-06-07 You Feel Like You’re Holding the Future ... It appears the iPhone is durable as well as stylish. One tech website submitted it to a “torture test”, placing it in a bag with car keys and other sharp objects. The iPhone came through unscathed. Then, in a segment I found difficult to watch, the techie torturemaster scraped the iPhone’s glass cover repeatedly with car keys. Oh, the humanity! The result? No scratches.
06-29-07 The iPhone Keyboard: Good Looking AND Smart ... Apple’s iPhone uses a keyboard as well, but with a unique approach. There is but one physical button on the face of the iPhone – a a“Home” button that can bring you back to the phone’s main menu. All of the iPhone’s many features are accessed by touching a large (by smartphone standards) high-resolution screen. When you need a keyboard, the iPhone presents a “virtual” keyboard on the screen. You select letters and numbers by touching the screen.
06-22-07 Get Ready for iPhone Maine-ia ... Anyway, the iPhone has been shrouded in secrecy since it was announced back in January. Only a handful of people outside Apple have actually held the thing, and those tech pundits lucky enough to receive one to evaluate and be ready at launch with a comprehensive review have been more tight-lipped than Al Hirt playing “The Flight of the Bumblebee”.
06-15-07 “Hell Freezes Over” Again at Apple’s WWDC ... To date, there have been two significant “hell freezes over” events that have urned out to be big winners for Apple. The first – iTunes for Windows, which opened the iPod (and the experience of Apple’s trademark easy-to-use software) to millions of Windows users. The second...
06-08-07 New MacBook Pro: VROOM With A Greener View ... So, what’s new? Faster processors – up to 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, with 4 MB of L2 cache and an 800 MHz frontside bus. Trust me, all that geek talk translates into “fast”. The new MBP can now handle 4 GB of RAM, perfect for memory-hungry pro applications like Final Cut, Aperture, and Photoshop.
06-01-07 iTunes Plus: Higher Quality, DRM-Free Music From Apple ... Awhile back Apple and major music distributor EMI announced a plan to sell DRM-free music on iTunes. This Wednesday, the plan went into effect, with the release of version 7.2 of the iTunes jukebox software, and major changes at Apple’s online store. Apple is calling the new music offerings “iTunes Plus”.
05-25-07 New MacBook Pros and iMacs On The Horizon? ... Tech pundit crystal balls see the new Intel “Santa Rosa” Core 2 Duo processors coming to the MacBook Pro, with faster processors, bigger data busses, and better power consumption. Some believe the iMac will get a slimmer form factor, faster processors, and bigger displays.
05-18-07 Some University Presidents Have All The Fun ... During the occasion, Mr. Sigman presented the president of WTAMU, a Dr. O’Brien, with what he claimed was “the first iPhone in Texas”. Dr. O’Brien then brandished his iPhone from his seat behind the podium. Mr. Sigman went on to describe the mid-to-late-June release of the iPhone as “likely to be the largest commercial product launch in the history of electronics”.
05-11-07 Mac Web Surfers Double In Last Eight Months ... Seems the portion of people surfing the web using a Mac has doubled in the last eight months, according to two internet metrics analysis firms. Both WebSideStory of San Diego, California, and rival Net Applications of Aliso Viejo, California, report that Apple’s Mac OS X powered a little over 6% of all computers that connected to the web last month.
05-04-07 Microsoft Debuts “Silverlight”, A Competitor to Adobe’s Flash ... Let’s dissect the term. “Browser-based” means it is presented to you via your web browser. That’s a gimme. “Interactive” means that you can click on it to be taken to another web page to maybe play a simple game, apply for a home loan, or “vote” in some meaningless poll. “Multimedia” means it’s an animated graphic that can look like a movie or cartoon and can even deliver sound.
04-27-07 Windows Weary? It’s Time to Get a Mac ... So, it’s gonna be a few months (five, to be exact) until Mac OS 10.5 “Leopard” is let out of the bag. No big deal. If you’re already a Mac user (and especially if you’re using Mac OS 10.4 “Tiger” and iLife ’06) you’re already using the operating system that Windows Vista hoped to be, and then some. If you’re “on the fence”, and considering discarding the shackles of Windows, there’s lots of good reasons to go ahead and get a Mac now. Here’s just a few.
04-13-07 Word Processing Without A Net (or MS Word) ... Even though I've spent my fair share of time railing against Microsoft in this space, there is one Microsoft application I use all the time.  I use it because it is the best in the world at what it does.  I'm talking, of course, about Microsoft Word.That's right.  I've tried all the other word processors available on the Mac, and while each has some nice touches, as a whole they can't measure up to Word.  I write my article and column each week using Word.
04-06-07 Apple’s iTunes Store: “You Complete Me” ... Now, for six months after the purchase of individual songs on the iTunes Store, you can buy the rest of the album and get credit for the songs you’ve already purchased. If you open iTunes, go to the Store, and click on the “Complete My Album” button, iTunes will present you with a list of the full albums that contain the songs you’ve purchased. With one click you get the album, minus the cost of the songs you’ve already purchased.
03-30-07 Apple’s “Baby Steps” Approach Paying Off Big Time ... There’s an age-old adage: “you have to walk before you can run”. Computer companies, in the race to be the first to market with “the next big thing”, sometimes forget these sage words of advice. Perhaps that’s how Microsoft recently went from promising the world with Windows Vista and instead ended up delivering a duplex on the corner of Delay and Compromise Streets.
03-23-07 Now That Spring Is Here, Where’s Leopard? ... This year, I’ve been anticipating Spring a bit more than years past. Why? Because last June, at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that the next major upgrade to the Mac’s operating system, 10.5 (code-named “Leopard”), would ship “in the Spring of 2007”.
03-16-07 Moving Parts in Notebook Computers A Thing of the Past? ... It seems the traditional hard drive, long the standard method of storing data on computers, is in for some, shall we say, stiff competition. I use the word “stiff” because the new kid on the block has no moving parts.
03-09-07 Apple’s Move to Intel More Than a Virtual Success ... Intel’s roadmap of processor upgrades bodes well for new Mac users, specifically those interested in the MacBook consumer-level portable. Intel is set to release their “Centrino Pro” in late spring, which will mate a 64-bit Core 2 Duo processor with a new, more powerful graphics chip, faster bus architecture, and more cache.
03-02-07 Hands-On With Apple’s New Airport Extreme ... Wireless Internet and computer connectivity has become commonplace in businesses, public places, and homes. A new wireless standard, dubbed 802.11n, is here. 802.11n boasts up to five times the speed of 802.11g and three times the range (user results may vary). 802.11n is backward compatible with all previous 802.11 standards (g, b, and a).
02-23-07 Don’t Buy a Mac - Yet ... When Leopard is released, Apple will most likely also release iLife ’07 (as they didn’t announce and release it at MacWorld, like they usually do). So, when Leopard and iLife ’07 are released, I’ll probably have to spend around $200 to purchase both upgrades for my iMac.
02-16-07 Google Mail Opens to the General Public ... This week an industry analyst predicted that Apple will sell 9 million copies of Leopard in 2007. Microsoft, on the other hand, conservatively estimates that over 100 million people will be using Vista by the end of 2007. In other words, Apple will sell in Leopard’s first year what Microsoft sells in Vista’s first month. I guess it’s true: misery loves company.
02-09-07 Apple and Apple “Come Together”, Settle Differences ... This deal had been rumored for some time, and it is probably no coincidence that Apple CEO Steve Jobs used Beatles music to demonstrate the music features of the new Apple iPhone during his presentation last month at Macworld Expo.
02-02-07 The “Devil You Know” Gets a Makeover ... Microsoft’s long-awaited ($6 billion and five years in the making) upgrade to the Windows operating system, named “Vista”, went on sale this Tuesday at retail stores and over the web. So, I felt it my sworn duty as your tech reporter to get the full Vista experience on an actual PC.
01-26-07 The Fine Art of Saving Web Pages ... The most common method of saving a web page for future reference is, of course, to bookmark it. There are two problems with bookmarking, however. One, you have to be online to go back to the page. Not that big a deal on your home desktop computer, but if you’re on the road with a notebook computer and no internet connection, a bookmark does you little good.
01-19-07 There’s More Than iPhone Afoot at Macworld ...With all the media frenzy surrounding the iPhone, it’s easy to overlook other really great hardware and software announcements from last week’s Macworld Expo. Here’s a few of the highlights.
01-05-07 Fond Memories of MacWorlds Past ...The year that Apple launched their “Think Different” advertising campaign, I got to meet Muhammad Ali – you may remember him as one of the legends shown in the “Think Different” commercial about people who “changed the world”.