Monday, September 08, 2008

For Mac Eyes Only - "The Traveling Mac"

Episode #091

This week on For Mac Eyes Only: Mike offers tips for traveling with your MacBook (yes, I was calling jackets "sleeves"), Gadgets on the road, Routine Mac maintenance, Apple rockin' in Yerba Buena, So new MacBooks or what?, MacUpdate promo, Amazon VOD dud, A look back at Lisa, Gary's News and Views from Across the Pond, Jason's MacBook Podcast tip, Web Travels with Dan, Custom ringtones for the iPhone, A/V for Windows in VM?

Do you dig us? Well, DIGG us!

News:
> Banners Up for Let's Rock
> RUMOR: Apple Tells Retailers Not to Order More?
> MacUpdate Back to School Promo
> Amazon.com's Video on Demand for Mac
> UPDATE: Sun's xVM Virtual Box 2
> UPDATE: Sandvox 1.5 Released
> UPDATE: Adobe CS4 Event September 23rd
> UPDATE: StreamCAD Beta for OS X
> FUN NEWS: Apple Lisa Demonstration Video (via TUAW)


Features:

Gary Malpas' News and Views from Across the Pond - UK and EU News
> Data Loss
> Changed Password
> Apple UK Retail
> Apple Leicester and Regent Street Stores
> Apple Stores in Zurich and Belfast
> Beatles in '09?
> Noel Gallagher interview
> Snow Patrol Interactive App
> Orange Denies plants
> Orange France limits
> Swedish iPhone tests
> T-Mobile Sales
> UK Apple Ad Ban
> O2 Pay & Go
> iPod Laser Speaker
(Everything is better with lasers!! ed.)

MacBook Podcast Tip with Jason Whitener: Managing Duplicates in iTunes

Visit The MacBook Podcast

Web Travels with Dan: What's On iPhone


Listener E-mails:

Question: Bob W. Looking to Add Custom Ringtones to iPhone
> Ambrosia iToner
> RingtoneFeeder
> GarageBand Tutorials
> Audacity
> QuickTime Pro

Question: Luis asks about AntiVirus for Virtualized Windows
> AVG Free
> Parallels Desktop for Mac
> VMware Fusion 2.0 Beta

Links to Know:
> Booq Bags
> Tom Bihn
> MacCase
> Incase
> STM Bags
> Brenthaven
> Timbuk2
> TechTools Protege
> DiskWarrior
> TrafficJamz
> iTrip
> Manually Run OS X's Maintenance Scripts
> Onyx for Leopard
> ESC!Cast now on Pownce
> macCompanion Magazine

Contact Us:
> mike AT formaceyesonly.com
> dan AT formaceyesonly.com
> gazmaz AT formaceyesonly.com
> ESC!Casts Hotline - 1 (815) 981-4224

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FMEO-091-090808 (1:00'27, 27.8mb, 64kbps)

5 comments:

Justin said...

To save money I purchased a macbook sleeve/jacket and just use it in the messenger bag that I already had. The macbook is much smaller than my old HP notebook, so the bag had to modified to fit the smaller, slimmer macbook

Mike, ESC!Cast Network said...

Perfect blend of both worlds Justin! The Mac specific sleeve combined with a nicely priced (or in your case, pre-owned) messenger bag.

Jeff said...

I just wanted to note that I've been using Amazon's Video on Demand since the beta stage on my MacBook without any of the difficulties you described. Not sure what's so special about my installation, but it worked wonderfully in my tests!

Mike, ESC!Cast Network said...

Hey Jeff, I'm glad it's working well for you!

My main problems with Amazon's service are:

The videos are not downloadable as they are with iTunes so I can't play them on an Apple TV, a video capable iPod or an iPhone, yet they want me to pay the same as the iTunes Store.

Amazon offers Unbox player for folks who want to play it on Windows, or a Windows compatible portable player, but not the Mac or an iPod.

The only real option they offer for Mac users (who don't own an Xbox, Sony Bravia TV, or Tivo - I own none of these) is to watch it directly on the Mac OR hook the Mac up to your TV to watch it. I'd rather have the option of not being tethered to the 'net so I can watch on the go if I choose to.

My point is, I guess, that it's a bit of a misnomer to say it's "Mac" compatible when the only option they have for Macs is to stream the video via a Flash Player in a browser.

That they insisted I didn't have the latest Flash 9 Player installed when I'd just upgraded it and can verify that via Firefox's about:plugins page is a very minor issue with the service. :)

Jeff said...

Mike, I agree that Unbox (now just Video on Demand, I guess) has some serious issues with Mac...not being downloadable is, I think, the biggest problem. I'm able to get around that right now because I have an HTPC hooked up to my TV running Windows, and just send the downloads to that machine. If Apple ever adds TV tuner and DVR functionality to AppleTV, though, I'll probably switch to that...and lose Amazon if they don't smarten up and make a Mac-compatible download.

I'd say the Flash 9 issue is more than a minor issue, I'm just not sure why I can run it without any difficulties. Very strange.