Magic Trackpad Update

After a week or so of using of the Magic Trackpad, I'm still using it as my primary input device for general day to day computing on the Mac Pro.

Some observations...

• I need to retrain myself to use the full size of the trackpad. After years of using a smaller trackpad in various laptops, I keep lifting my finger and relocating it as though it's much smaller in size than it actually is. I'm not making use of the full surface area. Really hard to break the habit!
  
  
• I have needed to move the trackpad away from the keyboard rather than placing it hard up against the keyboard as in last weeks show. I've found that it's too easy to touch the trackpad accidentally when too close to the keyboard.
  
  
• Still keep getting two and three fingered gestured confused - I've started to use three fingered gestures for selecting text and moving windows, I keep also trying to use three fingered gestures for scrolling too!
  
  
• The convenience of just reaching out to the trackpad without having to locate the mouse or pick up a pen is liberating.
  
  
• The smooth surface of the trackpad is a delight.
  
  
• For video editing, I still use my Wacom Intuos 4 pen tablet. I tried to use the trackpad in FCP for an hour or two, but soon realised I needed the precision and accuracy of the pen for my video editing. That's not to say you couldn't use the trackpad for video editing, but I need speed and precision to meet the self imposed work schedule of producing the show each week.
  
  
• With having the trackpad next to the keyboard on the right, and then having the Intuos 4 pen tablet to the right of that, I keep finding myself reaching out to the pen tablet without the pen, and being surprised when it doesn't respond to my touch. Certainly makes me appreciate more the smoothness of the surface of the trackpad in comparison.
  

In summary, I'm still liking the trackpad immensely, so much more than my initial trials of the Magic Mouse.

I'm not sure it is for everyone, but you'll probably not find that out until you've used one for a couple of days.

ScreenCastsOnline Testimonials

I've now got over 1200 testimonials from satisfied ScreenCastsOnline viewers and I'm looking for an effective way to publish them.

Following on from a Liverpool Social Media Cafe event, Alison Gow expounded the merits of several tools to visualise information. One of them was Wordle.

So I thought I'd give it a go.

First I extracted the testimonials into Pages and copied and pasted the entire text into Wordle.

The resultant output showed the most common words being ScreenCastsOnline, Don, Mac. As these aren't really very useful, I deleted them from the text and resubmitted.

This produced the following word cloud:

You can click on the image to see a larger version or see the original on the Wordle site - Link

I think it's a great way to get the overall gist of the comments - what about you?

Here's another version with some additional words removed (Screencasts, tutorials, etc)

TWIT Cottage Tour

Whilst I was over at WWDC, I was lucky enough to spend a day visiting the TWIT cottage and was delighted to guest on an episode of MacBreak Weekly. Hosted by Leo Laporte, my co-panellists for the episode were Andy Ihnatko, Alex Lindsay and Lisa Bettany.

Once a secret location, the TWIT cottage has now become a bit of a pilgrimage for TWIT fans visiting the San Francisco area. Obviously, not everyone can make the trip so Lisa decided to create a quick video tour of the cottage so you can see where the action happens!

I make a fleeting appearance (which took me somewhat by surprise).

I'm not camera shy - honest!

If you're viewing this on an iPad - use this link to get to the HTML5 version of the video

BusyCal and MobileMe Calendar Beta

I received the email below from a ScreenCastsOnline viewer (Thanks Floyd) with what looks like some important information for BusyCal users. As I did a show about BusyCal a short while ago and I'm an active BusyCal user (as I know a lot of ScreenCastsOnline viewers are), I thought it would be useful to publish it here and on the ScreenCastsOnline forum:

The new MobileMe calendar beta uses CalDAV for syncing calendars. BusyCal does not currently support CalDAV and is not compatible with the MobileMe calendar beta. We are working on CalDAV support in BusyCal and expect to release a public beta that is compatible with the MobileMe calendar beta later this summer. You can learn more here:

http://blog.busymac.com/blog/2010/07/busycal-and-the-new-mobileme-calendar-beta.html

If you're already using the new MobileMe Calendar beta, it will not work well with BusyCal. As part of the MobileMe Calendar beta upgrade process, all of your calendars are moved to MobileMe and deleted from Sync Services. As a result, all of your BusyCal subscribed calendars will be orphaned on MobileMe and no longer syncing with the host. Further, the MobileMe hosted calendar will be read-only in BusyCal.

You have two choices:

1. If you prefer to use the MobileMe Calendar beta, you should reset BusyCal and use iCal for the time being. You can reset BusyCal by selecting Help > Reset > Reset BusyCal.

or

2) Switch back to the old MobileMe Calendar and continue using BusyCal. You can do so by clicking the following link:

http://www.me.com/calendar/downgrade/

After you've done that, you will have to reconfigure your BusyCal Publish and Subscribe settings. There may be some duplicate orphaned calendars that exist both locally and on the host that you were previously subscribed to with BusyCal (on the LAN or on Google). In which case you should delete the orphan local calendars in BusyCal, and resubscribe to the calendars on the host.

iPhone 4 Bumper Case Program

Apple have just kicked off the iPhone 4 Bumper Case program following on from the press conference last week.

The program is very slick, with all those who have already bought an Apple bumper case already, receiving an automatic refund (mine's been processed already with no action required). You can check the progress of your refund from the website, even just using your credit card number.

To order a new case, they've developed an App to download that takes care of all the selection and ordering.

The issue some people may have now is knowing which case to order!

I can only give you my experiences with the Apple bumper case, but one thing is for sure, It's not just a piece of plastic wrapped around the iPhone.

Pros

• The bumper gives the iPhone more grip both in the hand and also when placed on a surface.
• It also allows the iPhone to rest on a surface without either glass face touching it.
• It's engineered very precisely. All the opening are machined perfectly and it exudes a quality build.
• The power and volume controls are replicated in metal embedded into the bumper. Once it's on, they feel exactly like the original buttons.
• It's fairly easy to get on and off.
• Once on, it feels like it's part of the iPhone.
• I never used a case with the 3GS, however, the iPhone 4 does feel a little more vulnerable with all that smooth glass. Using the bumper is a bit of a half way house as it doesn't really feel like the iPhone is in a case, but it feels a lot less vulnerable.

Cons

• The silencer switch is a little harder to flick.
• The hole for the dock connector is not big enough for some older dock connector cables. The iPhone one fits perfectly as you might expect.
• Don't expect it to fit in any standard iPhone dock

In summary, I've been extremely pleased with the iPhone Bumper and would recommend it. Of course, I've nothing else to compare it with!