Category: Apple

  • Better to choose form or function for new printer

    Where is fantasy bred, in the heart or in the head? -Willie Wonka (channeling The Merchant of Venice) My basic office printer, an HP Deskjet 6980, is having major problems seeing its ink cartridges and out-of-warranty repairs cost more than a new printer so…time for something new. As HP values ink more highly than gold,…

  • Last minute gift ideas for iPod owners and the gadget deprived

    Not much time left before the year-end holidays are upon us. Still stumped for the perfect little gift for your gadget-loving friends and relations? Here are a few suggestions based on things we actually bought and used this year around Casa GravitationalPull.net. Links below are mostly to manufacturers’ pages, but I’m sure you can find…

  • Using Applescript to send articles to my Kindle

    I’m constantly finding new ways to use my Kindle e-book reader. Lately, I’ve found a way to save eye strain and trees when reading long magazine articles posted online. Instead of reading them on my laptop, and making my eyes watery and tired, or printing them out on a zillion pieces of paper, wasting all…

  • Acrylic Software’s Wallet, great password manager for iPhone

    (Updated 12/3) To keep track of all the various web site passwords, log-ins accounts, serial numbers and other top secret secrets in my life, I’ve been using the OS X version of Acrylic Software’s Wallet program (Acrylic was formerly known as Waterfall Software). It’s one of the best looking and best performing password managers I’ve…

  • New Mac laptops: one step forward, two steps back

    (Updated 10/21/08) Steve Jobs and Co. rolled out their new line of laptops today, making big changes to the existing Macbook, Macbook Air and Macbook Pro models. But with one exception, the new models are more of a step backwards, a lost opportunity, than an improvement. The one indisputable improvement is with the graphics chips.…

  • How to fix stuck keyboard backlight on Macbook Pro

    Here’s an obscure piece of Mac voodoo that hopefully few people will ever need. I opened up my sleeping Macbook Pro this morning (the 15″ 2.2 GHz mid-2007 edition) and the keyboard backlighting was on full blast. Pressing the F8 key to turn it off did nothing. In fact, the backlight brightness display appeared with…

  • Review: iTunes 8 is nifty but in need of a few tweaks

    Downloaded the latest, greatest version of Apple’s iTunes software this morning and I’m finding a lot of love from the new “genius” recommendations. There are a few annoyances that can easily be fixed in an 8.1 — or even 8.01 — version but on the whole it’s a worthy upgrade. By default, the genius is…

  • Apple fixing broken keyboards right in the store

    (Updated 9/8) I’m super-impressed today with how much repair work Apple is performing on broken keyboards right at the local-store level. I really munged up my Macbook Pro’s keyboard this week. I spilled a little bit of water on it but the even worse move was my next — I tried to “dry out” the…

  • Phew, the new season of Entourage is almost here

    Way off topic, but Apple and HBO just put a 5 minute “sneak peak” video up in the iTunes store for the upcoming fifth season of Entourage. I guess the summer drought of watchable TV shows is finally lifting. Here’s a link to the page inside the store. Warning: lots of plot spoilers crammed into…

  • New Mac hardware seems long overdue

    Apple has certainly been busy over the past few months, with the roll out of the 3G iPhone and improved iPhone software along with the transition from .Mac to MobileMe. But it feels like the company is neglecting its bread and butter computer hardware business. Dan Knight over at the Low End Mac web site…