There is a new Intel (and PPC) build of Audacity for Intel Mac's today. This is a really nice freeware sound editing application which is a multi-platform effort. It's great that the Intel Mac builds are getting some love. Download the Intel verison here. If you're on a PPC Mac, the latest version for you can be downloaded here.

New Release:

The Audacity developers have been busy with many new features over the past year. We're pleased to announce Audacity 1.3.2 (beta), which contains dozens of new features and capabilities. Because it is a work in progress and does not yet come with complete documentation or translations into foreign languages, it is recommended for more advanced users. For all users, Audacity 1.2.5 is a minor bug-fix update that addresses some problems with Audacity 1.2.4, but does not add any significant new features. It is complete and fully documented. You can have both Audacity 1.2.5 and 1.3.2 installed simultaneously. Also, we have just made available a set of 92 LADSPA plug-ins for Windows (for both Audacity 1.2.x and 1.3.x).

Here is the Wikipedia page for Audacity.

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I saw today's ad for Fry's Electronics and noticed that they had an AcomData 320GB USB2/Firewire400 drive on sale for $99. I already have one of these drives and really like it. It got me thinking that these drives stack up on each other... and that Leopard with Time Machine will be coming coming out pretty soon. So I grabbed one today at the sale price. Sure, I could have got a 500GB or 750GB drive - but I like that this drive is the sister drive to the one I already own, I'm very happy with it, and for $99 it's a great deal, I'm pretty big on value - I can live with 320GB dedicated to Time Machine instead of more.

If you're needing a drive, the deal at Fry's is good through November 2nd - I also saw it listed at www.frys.com this afternoon, but I just went to get the URL to it, and now I don't see it listed.

The image in the center is the drive standing on it's own, the picture to the right is 3 of the drives stacked on each other.

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I have been using StuffIT Expander, the free un-archiver on my Intel iMac. For some unexplained reason I wasn't completely happy with it. After searching around for a little bit I came across The Unarchiver which I tried and liked it. I decided to remove StuffIT Expander for now and give The Unarchiver a longer term trial run (it's freeware.)

You won't believe the horrible manual uninstall necessary to remove StuffIT Expander from your system. The developers of this application should be shot for not including an uninstall option to remove all of this little bits and pieces which they twaddle all over my system!

Here are the uninstall instructions straight from their website:

Note: for all paths given, we assume "Macintosh HD" is the name of your startup (boot) drive and "[username]" is your Mac OS X login name. Please substitute whatever names you are using in your given situation.
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1 - To manually remove StuffIt first quit out of any open StuffIt applications.

2 - Then delete your StuffIt Application folder. The path is typically similar to:

"Macintosh HD:Applications:StuffIt Deluxe 7.0.x"
"Macintosh HD:Applications:StuffIt Deluxe 8.0.x"
"Macintosh HD:Applications:StuffIt Deluxe 9.0."
"Macintosh HD:Applications:StuffIt Standard 7.0.x"
"Macintosh HD:Applications:StuffIt Standard 8.0.x"
"Macintosh HD:Applications:StuffIt Standard 9.0"


3 - Then delete any of the following files or folders you find in the main Library folder on your boot drive:

"Macintosh HD:Library:Application Support:StuffItCM DropBoxes:" folder
"Macintosh HD:Library:Stuffit Menu Preferences" file
"Macintosh HD:Library:StuffitCM Dropboxes" folder
"Macintosh HD:Library:CFMSupport:StuffItEngineShell.cfm" file
"Macintosh HD:Library:Contextual Menu Items:StuffItCM.plugin" file
"Macintosh HD:Library:Frameworks:Stuffit.framework" folder
"Macintosh HD:Library:InputManagers:MagicMenuEnabler" folder


"Macintosh HD:Library:PreferencesPanes:StuffIt AVR.prefPane" file
"Macintosh HD:Library:Preferences:com.stuffit.Deluxe.plist" file
"Macintosh HD:Library:Preferences:com.stuffit.DropStuff.plist" file
"Macintosh HD:Library:Preferences:com.stuffit.DropTar.plist" file
"Macintosh HD:Library:Preferences:com.stuffit.DropZip.plist" file
"Macintosh HD:Library:Preferences:com.stuffit.Engine.plist" file
"Macintosh HD:Library:Preferences:com.stuffit.ExpressPE.plist" file


4 - Next, delete any of the following files or folders you find in your User folder:

"Macintosh HD:Users: [username] :Library:Application Support:StuffItCM DropBoxes:" folder
"Macintosh HD:Users: [username] :Library:Caches:Archive Assitant Helper:" folder
"Macintosh HD:Users: [username] :Library:Logs:Archive Assitant.log" file


5 - Next, delete any of the following files or folders you find in the Preferences folder in your User folder:

"Macintosh HD:Users: [username] :Library:Preferences:Aladdin" folder
(NOTE: If you have other Aladdin/Allume products installed, you should leave this folder, but open it up and delete any "StuffIt" items from inside it)

"Macintosh HD:Users: [username] :Library:Preferences:Allume" (NOTE: If you have other Aladdin/Allume products installed, you should leave this folder, but open it up and delete any "StuffIt" items from inside it)

"Macintosh HD:Users: [username] :Library:Preferences:Allume:StuffIt Deluxe Recent Items" folder
"Macintosh HD:Users: [username] :Library:Preferences:ByHost:com.stuffit.Deluxe.*" files
"Macintosh HD:Users: [username] :Library:Preferences:com.stuffit.Deluxe.plist" file
"Macintosh HD:Users: [username] :Library:Preferences:com.stuffit.DropStuff.plist" file
"Macintosh HD:Users: [username] :Library:Preferences:com.stuffit.DropTar.plist" file
"Macintosh HD:Users: [username] :Library:Preferences:com.stuffit.DropZip.plist" file
"Macintosh HD:Users: [username] :Library:Preferences:com.stuffit.Engine.plist" file
"Macintosh HD:Users: [username] :Library:Preferences:com.stuffit.ExpressPE.plist" file

* If there are multiple user accounts on this machine, login to each account and repeat steps 4 and 5 for each account.

* If you have StuffIt Deluxe do the following additional steps:

1 - Remove StuffIt's background apps from the startup list:
In Mac OS 10.2 and earlier, go to System Preferences->Login Items, in Mac OS 10.3 go to Accounts->Startup Items. Delete the following from the list:
MagicMenu, StuffItAVRDaemon and Archive Assistant Scheduler.

2 - Remove the StuffIt Command Line tools:
Open the "Terminal" application located in the "Utilities" folder, which is inside your "Applications" folder.
At the user prompt type "sudo rm /usr/local/bin/*stuff"
Enter your Administrator password when prompted.

Your Comments appreciated.

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I wrote about CapsWarn back in August, read here. I use it as a great visual indicator for to see if my CapsLock key is enabled, it has other uses too.

A new version was released, if you missed it before, check it out now.

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Firefox 2.0 is released! Yawn, sorry I just don't 'get' Firefox.

But that reminds me, Camino is great - try it out. If you're on an intel Mac there are Intel only builds (they can be buggy but are generally very stable - I run these builds myself without much trouble) available here. Be sure to install CaminoSession if you use Camino.

Your Comments appreciated.

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The Sunday Times Online reported that Apple's business in Europe is booming! The fiscal year just ended earned apple more revenue than did the years 2002, 2003, and 2004 combined. Apple's European head said that the iPod is generating a Halo effect on Mac sales in Europe.

I'm in the USA, not Europe, but to some extent I'm seeing a movement too. In this calendar year I've switched back to the Mac, my brother switched back to the Mac, my sister in law switched to her first Mac, a good buddy in Toronto, Mark, switched to his first Mac, a friend in Vancouver BC, Alex, switched to his first Mac. I'm seeing a movement around me, and it's not to Vista... It's going to be interesting to see how things go when Vista & Leopard are both available.

Your Comments appreciated.

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This is great news for a healthy Mac community:

Not only was it the best Macintosh quarter in Apple's 30-year history, but a little more than half of the 323,000 computers sold in Apple's retail stores during the period were to people who had never owned a Mac before, Apple's chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer said during an analyst conference call. "We were thrilled by that," he said.

I mentioned the other day about how Notebook computers is an area where I feel that Apple needs more choices, that was confirmed again today when I went out looking for a new Windows Notebook for my father in law. I was drawn to the Sony Viao laptops which, by the way, look very Mac like. Very affordable also, just that darn problem about them running Windows and not OS X... But as I was looking at the many notebooks, they have then in 14" and under screens, 15", 17" - all for similar prices to the MacBook, and then they came in many different preconfigured varieties - and that was just Sony, there were many others as well. I'm not down on Mac Notebooks, I think they're great, but I also don't think that Apple should force people to buy a MacBookPro if they would like a 15" or 17" notebook. Keep the Pro line for the heavy duty user, give the more casual and maybe more price sensitive Mac user more options, I guarantee they will sell well. Don't forget about that 12" MacBookPro Ultra Portable too. My offer still stands to beta test it.

Out for now.


-Ed

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I bought Voice Candy when it first came out, thinking that my daughter find it fun to use as sort of an audio version of PhotoBooth. Boy was I right, she loves the funny sound effects that you can apply to your voice recordings.

I have tried several voice email programs before, some where ok, but none I would consider great. What I didn't expect to find is that Voice Candy isthe best voice email program I've come across - it's stellar! The only major function missing for me is lack of MP3 support, currently Voice Candy only supports MOV file types, which isn't the best universally playable file type.

Voice Candy can run tucked away on your MenuBar, has an Audio Notes feature, and Audio Reminders.

Check it out, it works very well and it's a really nice looking app too. Well worth the $13 asking price.

My son's name is Luke, yes I have fun using that Vadar sound effect. ...I am your father.
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I would like to apologize for not being more active posting lately. I've been completely overloaded in my MBA program and less frequent posts have been a side effect.

Recently I've wondered what will happen to the recent market share gains the Mac has been enjoying when Vista is released. Mac desktop and notebook sales are seeing very healthy increases relative to PC sales which has largely coincided with the combination of Tiger and Intel Mac's. Hey it got me to switch back over to the Mac!

As an Apple and Mac fan, I would like to think that the Mac will continue to gain market share over Windows after the release of Vista. However, the pessimistic view is that Vista will put a major damper on Mac sales. I think more people have switched to the Mac recently because Windows XP sucks in many ways, not because OS X looks neat, they like their iPod and figured what the heck, that Mac sure looks cool, I'll make the switch. It's not a painless thing to switch platforms, people don't make the change lightly. I could believe that the current lack of virus and spyware on OS X could attract people.

I've gone over this in my head several times, with several different scenarios and while I don't have the ability to predict what will happen with any certainty, my gut feeling is that the Mac will hold or lose some market share for a while after the release of Vista - maybe even up to 12 or 18 months and then the Mac will begin to pick up some steam again and slowly start a climb up the market share ladder.

I don't have to have the Mac market share increase for me to feel good, justify my computer or anything like that. I'm just thinking purely of myself here, if the Mac market share grows from where it is today to something larger, that will mean more developers writing applications for the Mac, bigger economies of scale for Apple in terms of hardware pricing - in other words I want the Mac market to be vibrant and large enough to bring benefits in terms of software and hardware pricing. 10% - 15% of the computer marketshare is a number where I would love to see Apple reach, of course this is a far cry from the current less than 5% share. But it could happen, and that would virtually ensure the viability of the platform down the road.

I really don't want to have to run Vista on my iMac, so encourage your friends and family to by a new Mac instead of a new Dell or HP with Vista next year. Trust me, supporting your parents PC troubles is no fun!


My thoughts on Windows XP and OS X.
Windows XP was a vast improvement over Windows 95, however, and I would argue that Windows XP is largely a 'home' version of Windows NT. Regardless, in the PC world, Windows XP has become the dominant OS not because it was the best, but nonetheless it is the standard OS. I've not ever used Linux, Solaris, or other OS's, but in most ways I absolutely find OS X to be superior to Windows XP. There are a few areas where I think that Windows XP excels over OS X:

-The Finder is lacking, and I think Windows Explorer is far superior
-Key commands Home/End and Ctrl+Home Ctrl+End are much more logical in what they do than the equivalent on the Mac (This is actually my biggest single complaint is that I can't go "PC" for these key commands on my Mac)
-If you're a hardcore gamer look elsewhere, OS X isn't THE platform, though Apple could influence this and they don't for some unknown reason.
-More choices for notebook computers. There is such a wide variety of available computers, I think it's much easier to find a notebook that suits you and often at better prices than what Apple offers. The MacBook should have discreet graphics and 1GB of ram for the price, many people don't need or can't afford a MacBookPro, but they shouldn't be stuck with bad integrated graphics because of that. Even though Apple has a limited line of Desktop computers, I think they cover the bases very well here, I don't see any major gaps on the desktop like I do with the notebook. What about people who want a 12" MacBook or MacBookPro, why in the world isn't this available?
-Greater selection of Applications on Windows, granted not all of them are that great, but there are some nice Apps that aren't equivalent on the Mac. I hope to see this equalize over time.
-Media Center Edition. I still have a MCE box which powers my home audio/video system. Fantastic DVR and I have an addin to strip out TV commercials from my viewing automatically. iTV is a very limited niche product, MCE is capable of powering a whole home AV setup, I am very excited about Vista, not for my desktop, but for my home AV system, VistaMCE is what I'll be buying some time next year. Please don't send flame mail on this topic, I've tried front row/iTunes, and trust me, it's not even in the same ballpark as MCE when it comes to powering a home AV system.

Those are the areas where I find that I still favor Windows XP over OS X. But virtually every thing else I far prefer OS X over Windows, and these items I weight more heavily.
-Stability!!! I've been on my new Intel 20" iMac for around 10 months now, and I use it heavily. From past experience I can assure you that I would have already had problems with Windows XP that would have crippled some functions of the OS or applications which would necessitate a clean install of the OS to remedy the situation. Meanwhile my iMac with OS X is running just as well today as when I installed it!
-Less things to tinker with. On Windows XP I felt like I was a part time system administrator. On OS X there's just less administrative stuff to have to muck about with.
-iLife. This is a killer App for me, I love iLife, nothing like it on Windows comes even close.
-Shareware, I have found some incredible shareware for OS X, and the creme de la creme of freeware apps on OS X seem to be head and shoulders above what is out for Windows XP in my opinion.
-While some people complain about Spotlight, I find it to be an extremely powerful tool that I use daily. Sorely missing from Windows XP.




Your Comments appreciated.
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LittleKnownSoftware makes a cool Mail.App plugin that you might be able to benefit from. If you use Mail.App and you use it for multiple email accounts, this may be a neat plugin to facilitate using different Signatures.

Basically what this plugin does for you is add the ability to have replaceable tags in your signatures that are context sensitive to the Mail account that you are sending from. In addition, you can have it autofill information from iTunes into a signature as well. Each account can also have an entire replaceable piece that is used for that account only if a certain tag is in the signature. That's how the "Professional Assasin" appears above. It is what is called the "Tail Signature" for the Phil Anthro account.

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I am a subscriber to MacAddict, yes - people do read print still. I much prefer a good magazine to the web any day.

Mac Magazines are hard to come by these days, I support both Mac World and Mac Addict with my subscription dollars. In return I get great publications.

Here is a smokin' less than $6 deal on Mac Addict. I use BestBuyMagazines all the time, they're completely legit, take advantage now in case this deal goes away when Mac|Life is in place. Click on this link for the $5.95 annual subscription deal.

Mac Addict
Mac Addict is designed for the people who love their Mac computer! Each issue features product reviews, ratings, how-to's and recreational uses. Mac Addict not only tells you about the latest Mac-compatible software and peripherals but also provides you with information on how and when to upgrade your computer and troubleshoot errors. You'll find step-by-step guidelines on how to use your Mac to its complete abilities, reviews of software ranging from home office to intense gaming fun and fun tips on using the latest Mac programs. If you are a Mac user then Mac Addict is for you!
Price Due: $5.95

Your Comments appreciated.
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Some times the best things are really simple like this one, SyncTwoFolders. Easy to understand - it synchronizes two folders.

Not too much to say other than this is occasionally really useful. Nice job. Click on the image on the right for a full size image.

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The Woz was on the Colbert Report a couple days ago, I finally made the time to encode it and post for your enjoyment.

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Oh man did this just make my day when I found this utility. CaminoSession gives you control to restore tabs in Camino when you restart the browser. It can be set to always do restore tabs, after a crash, or just save the tabs and not actually restore. This is powerful and much needed.

CaminoSession is a plugin for the Camino web browser. It provides session management so Camino can restore the windows and tabs you had open last time you used it. And if Camino crashes, CaminoSession will let you restart where you left off.

Click on the Image below for a VIDEO DEMO

Ben the developer of this is also the creator of GrowlCamino and other great goodies for Camino. Check out his site here.


Your Comments appreciated.
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Check out Previous posts on MacSeven.com

MacSeven Posts from September 2006

MacSeven Posts from August 2006