Click Here Technology Columns

Moving Day

2010-04-29T20:43:00.001-05:00

We're moving! Standby for changes

Book Review:Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard: Peachpit Learning Series

2010-03-24T00:37:00.001-05:00

Robin Williams has done it again! Another outstanding book for a new user of Snow Leopard and the Mac.
Robin's style is to expertly use page layout and screenshots to explain the features of an operating system in small bites everyone can digest. I enjoy the fact she doesn't talk down to her readers. She expects a basic understanding of how to use a mouse and keyboard. This book is designed for a Mac or even a PC user making the transition to Snow Leopard, either via upgrade or by the fact it came with the Mac. She walks the reader through all the features of Snow Leopard. Williams apologizes for not covering the iLife or iWork suites, but clearly points out this is a book on Snow Leopard. I'm sure she realizes that if the book were too big, readers would be intimidated. While it's over 450 pages, she uses a great table of contents and index to allow the reader to hone in on the info they are interested in. Want to know how to do screen sharing...no problem? Just like Snow Leopard, I noticed a few "tweaks" in this book that made it even better than her Leopard edition. The screen shots seem to be better annotated as compared to last time and the book seems even easier to read.

The table of contents is organized into three main sections: "Mac OS X Basics for new Mac users", "Mac OS X Applications in Snow Leopard", "Make it your Mac" and "Tech Stuff". This allows the reader to focus on just what matters to them. She clearly spent lots of time making sure her book was extremely user friendly, just like the operating systems she covers. Not only does she cover practically all the features of Snow Leopard, but Williams includes great troubleshooting advice for when things go wrong. The advice she gives is as good or better than what you'll get on the phone calling tech support or stopping by the "bar." If her troubleshooting section doesn't cover it, you'll need a technician to come out!

My one complaint is that the author should have marked those features new or different in Snow Leopard. Doing so would allow an upgrader to focus on just those new items in Snow Leopard. This book is not intended for intermediate or advanced users. You won't find out which port to open for screen sharing or its inner workings--just how to initiate it. I compare her books to more "manual-like" books that cover every feature in depth. This book is designed to hold the readers hand through the process of learning.

Pros: Outstanding layout and organization. Excellent descriptions for novice Mac users. Enthusiastically recommend it to all new Snow Leopard Mac Users. Use this book as a starting point in your learning!
Cons: Not for intermediate users, no clear distinction of new Snow Leopard features

Five of Five dogcows.

Macworld Expo Tips: 12 iPhone Apps for Traveling to San Francisco

2010-03-17T00:21:00.000-05:00

Although I wrote this a month ago for TheAppleBlog, this is still a great reference guide for people traveling to SF with their iPHone

Book Review: the social media marketing book

2010-03-10T00:17:00.000-06:00

Social media is one of the hottest topics in marketing today. Everyone puts "social media expert "on their resumes just like people put "Web Designer" on their cards a generation ago simply because they knew how to use Pagemill.

Dan Zarrella, however, is a true expert and does a great job of sharing his knowledge of social media marketing. Unlike other O'Reilly books, this is not a technical book at at, but rather targets a business market. No computer knowledge is necessary. The reader is given a complete overview of the landscape that is social media. Obvious examples like Facebook and Twitter are in here, but he also covers other web properties as well as blogging and how all integrate into a complete Social Media Marketing Campaign.

Each chapter covers a small social media topic in order to make it easily digestible to a "newbie." The book is well organized and includes a great table of contents and index along with a review at the end so you have a "takeaway" of where to go from there. If you already use Facebook and Twitter and have created a blog, this book isn't targeted to you. The book is designed for the traditional marketing manager who has been dragging their feet on creating a fan page on Facebook. Also the CEO of the company or the Executive Director of a non-profit might want to read this if they refuse to create a marketing manager position. The book is a very quick read--so no excuses for the boss to say they don't have time to read this. No fancy tips or tricks...this is the 101 survey course.

I do consider myself knowledgeable about Social Media so much of the book was an easy overview for me. Along the way I did gain a tip or two. If I had this book when I first started my Social Media Marketing Campaign I would have saved months of research and avoided many mistakes. If you've been reliably tweeting and updating your Facebook fan page, then you probably already understand the concepts in this book.

Pros: Assumes no background in social media and walks the reader through the entire landscape
Cons: Intermediate users of social media won't find much value in this, this is a novice book through and through

Four out of Five Dogcows

Antivirus Software On Your Mac: Yes or No?

2010-03-03T23:58:00.000-06:00

One of my more controversial pieces was on Antivirus software for the Mac. Ironically, it wasn't my analysis that seemed to bother readers, it was the fact I used the term Antivirus generically. I too agree that "malware" is a better word, but since the software industry refers to their products as Antivirus, it seems the best way of introducing the subject

Apple Rumors Gone Amok

2010-02-24T23:55:00.000-06:00

I hate rumors in any sense. In particular, I got quite fed up with all the iPad rumors. Although I wrote this a few days before the iPad announcement, I stand by my feelings that rumors are silly and useless, but nonetheless part of the Apple culture

iType: The Craziest iPhone Accessory Yet?

2010-02-17T23:49:00.000-06:00

Before there was the confirmation of the iPad, a unique device came out to allow actual keyboard typing on the iPhone. I wrote a brief opinion piece for TheAppleBlog on this accessory that some view as unnecessary while others view it as essential. Maybe it's a bit of both

Apple Media Plan Hits Your Cable Company Where it Hurts

2010-02-10T10:20:00.000-06:00

This article I wrote for TheAppleBlog is my take on Apple's plan to take on cable company's directly. Although the "All Access" idea wasn't announced with the iPad, I still think the idea has legs. Read my commentary for more

Book Review: Netbooks, the Missing Manual

2010-01-27T09:09:00.000-06:00

Netbooks are the bright spot in the world of personal computers. More powerful than a mobile phone, but without the bulk nor the power of a laptop, netbooks represent the "just right" mix of features, portability and price.

The earliest netbooks came with various versions of Unix which made them downright scary to non-technical users. Then after some negotiations with Microsoft, a majority of netbooks now have Windows XP. Netbook owners running Windows XP will find little value in this book. The book assumes no background with Windows and walks the reader through the very basics of setup and usage such as configuring email or an Internet connection. What is missing for Windows netbook owners is general tips and tricks specific to the unique characteristics of netbooks. Biersdorfer briefly covers some ideas for backup and synchronization, but doesn't go in enough depth to really be useful and worth the price of admission.

In contrast, Biersdorfer's coverage of Ubuntu is invaluable for owners of netbooks that come with Ubuntu, such as the Dell Mini. I know when I first encountered a Mini with Ubuntu I was completely lost. While Ubuntu is intuitive, it takes some getting used to. Ubuntu doesn't come with a manual and Dell tech support as of this writing won't answer Ubnutu questions. Coverage of printer and email setup is something of value to Unix based netbook owners. All this stuff is out on the Internet, but this book is designed for the non-technical end user. The author's coverage is excellent and comprehensive.

If you have a Windows-based netbook, take a pass on this book as a majority of the explanations apply to any Windows based computer. However, if you have a Ubuntu based netbook, you'll find this book an invaluable resource to translate your Windows knowledge into the Ubuntu world.

Pros: Excellent coverage of Ubuntu for netbooks
Cons: Few netbook specific tips and tricks for Windows users

Book Review: Apple Training Series: iWork '09

2010-01-24T19:25:00.001-06:00

The Apple Training Series is designed to replace the classroom environment for learning a particular Apple program and it rarely disappoints. iWork '09 is no exception to this trend. This is not a manual on how to do certain functions within the program, but rather a comprehensive training program complete with a DVD full of sample content. Not only does this book walk you through real world examples of using Keynote, Pages, and Numbers, but this edition of the book focuses heavily on integration of iWork components with each other as well as with the Macintosh Operating System. Complex functions such as mail merges with Pages and Numbers are included. The book does not cover every esoteric aspect of the programs but rather focuses on the functions the average user would need.

This book relies heavily on brilliant full color examples of the concepts being taught. The reader is easily able to compare what is in the book to what is on their Mac's screen. "Teacher, did I do it right?" is easily answered by looking inside this book. Additionally, a review quiz is included at the end of each chapter to make sure you understand the current lesson before moving on.

While instructor-lead programs allow the student to ask questions and interact, the Apple Training Series is about the closest thing you can come to an instructor-lead program without having to leave your home, office, or coffee shop. I always love how the Apple Training Series includes a suggested time frame it takes to do the particular chapter so you can plan your schedule accordingly.

Pros: Excellent real world examples and clear instructions and output specifications
Cons: Absolutely none

Five out of Five Dogcows.

This article used with permission by the Lawrence Apple Users' Group. The original article written by David Greenbaum aka DoctorDave™ or incorrectly Dr. Dave can be found here.
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Article was republished by the Lawrence Apple User's Group 2.0 here as well as other groups listed on the right

Get your Sync on between a Droid and a Mac

2010-01-20T23:05:00.000-06:00

This article was picked up by quite a few blogs, but I wrote it for TheAppleBlog. If you want to know how to sync an Android based "google" phone with your Mac, my article's got the answers

Book Review: SEO Warrior

2010-01-17T23:01:00.000-06:00

This book by O'Reilly has an accurate title because there is a war on the web...the battle to get placement in search engines.

This very up to date book is your arsenal for either advancing your position or maintaining your ground on the web. O'Reilly books tend to be highly technical and SEO is no exception. About a quarter to a third of the book is simply not accessible to people who don't know how to set up servers or write advanced scripts. I know basic HTML and hand code my websites, but I found discussions of such topics as advanced XML a bit over my head. That's OK, because the rest of the book was great for novices

"SEO Warrior" is a complete guide to getting your page noticed by search engines. It's not just about Google rankings and keywords, thought that's clearly a focus. This book takes a 360 degree approach to Search Engine Optimization. It considers not just the code on your website, but such things as your ISP and host, external rankings by others, social media marketing and link building. I've read other books on SEO and this is the most comprehensive guide I've seen to help a business owner create a complete marketing campaign on the web. More technical readers will be able to copy and paste much of the code and examples directly into their website. Web design novices like me will be able to find tools online to help implement the key portions of the strategies found in the book.

As an example, I never really understood Google Webmaster tools or Google Analytics. I worked with both after reading the book and increased my SEO campaign dramatically. I had the confidence to create such things as a site map and learned how to properly configure my meta information to get the maximum exposure for my website.

A true SEO expert probably knows this information already, so the audience of this book is beginning to intermediate users. In particular, any business owner considering a SEO campaign should read this book to get an overview of the concepts. After reading the book, you'll be empowered to hire a SEO company if necessary. You'll learn the ethical and professional concepts for SEO and learn how to avoid the unethical "black hat" companies.

Pros: Comprehensive guide to all aspects of getting your website noticed
Cons: A bit to technical for people who aren't web designers.

Four out of Five Dogcows.

Article was republished by the Lawrence Apple User's Group 2.0 here as well as other groups listed on the right

Book Review: The Non-Designer's Design and Type Book, Deluxe Edition (Paperback)

2010-01-13T22:54:00.001-06:00

Robin Williams is the queen of Macintosh design and her new book is it's Bible. The book is exactly as described: a design book for those people not trained as designers. The book is actually divided into two sections, design and typography.

The design book goes over the basic principles of how to design using a few basic concepts most anyone can learn such as white space, proximity, layout, and contrast. She gives copious amounts of real world examples to help lay people give a bit of "oomph" to such things as newsletters, business cards, and stationary. For someone trying to go out on their own, this book is an invaluable aid in basic design work while saving money to get a true expert on board. The book is a very quick read, but it's a good book to keep around whenever you do design work.

The typography portion was a bit over my head. It's all about fonts, typefaces and so forth. She clearly tries to made the topic accessible, but I found the content difficult to understand as someone not in the design field. The typography portion of the book can be used as a reference guide when deciding which font would work in specific situations.

This book is perfect for the small business owner or the group secretary who suddenly gets called on to create a newsletter or a basic identity for print.

Pros: Accessible and understandable principles of basic design made understandable to everyone
Cons: Font portions a bit over the novice's head

Four out of Five Dogcows

Article was republished by the Lawrence Apple User's Group 2.0 here as well as other groups listed on the right

Mobile Me: Is it worth it?

2010-01-10T17:34:00.000-06:00

So is it? $99 over a year isn't a whole lot of money, but still is $99 worth it. Check out my post over at TheAppleBlog and read what I and others have to say about an apparently controversial subject.

Finally, iPhone Insurance (Sort of)

2010-01-06T16:58:00.000-06:00

Doesn't everyone know someone who has cracked their iPhone screen at least once. It's bound to happen and now there is a new option for people to get their screen and other parts fixed with a new type of iPhone insurance. Read more about it in my article over at TheAppleBlog

There’s (Not) An App for That: 10 Apps Only Available for Jailbroken iPhones

2010-01-03T15:28:00.001-06:00

Over at TheAppleBlog I wrote an article all about iPhone apps it may be worth Jailbreaking your iPhone just so you can install these apps

Music in the Cloud: Heavenly or Pipe Dream?

2009-12-30T19:32:00.000-06:00

What if you never had to sync your music again. I respond to another columnist over at Gigom Pro talking about different ways of achieving it. I propose my thoughts over at TheAppleBlog. Mozy, Carbonite, Backblaze, etc. Listen up!

Apple's Media plan and Cable Companies

2009-12-27T23:07:00.000-06:00

Locally, I'm the Cable Company curmudgeon as I have serious reservations of so much power being concentrated in one place...but one could say the same thing about Apple. See them at war over who will provide media content as I analyze the issue for TheAppleBlog

Microsoft Office 2008 Visual Quickstart Guide

2009-12-23T16:48:00.001-06:00

Microsoft Office 2008 is overloaded with tons of useless features which make the program slow, complex, and bloated. "Microsoft Office 2008 Quick Start Guide" matches Office's complexity. This 500-plus page tome is a comprehensive guide to many of Microsoft Office 2008's major features.

Unfortunately, this is not a typical "Visual Quickstart Guide." One would not get a Quickstart, because probably it's hard to quickly start the digital equivalent of an oil tanker. Beginners to Microsoft Office will find this guide completely overwhelming and would be overwhelmed by all that Microsoft Office 2008 can do.

The author breaks up Office into its core components: Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Entourage, and the integration of those applications. Unfortunately he covers almost all the major features which is completely unnecessary for a Quickstart guide. For example, how often do people use the Notebook view in Word or the Newsgroups function in Entourage? Similar to Office itself, adding in all these extras makes it harder for the user, or in this case reader, to find the basic functions of the program they need. This book could have easily been half the size and the reader would have understood most of what they need to know about Office.

The text was easy to understand for those functions the author was describing but there was a distinct lack of the common Visual Quickstart Guide screenshots and visual enhancements. The book was extremely text heavy and dense because of this. For a intermediate user trying to look up how to create a stock chart or brushing up on mail merging, this is a good manual. Beginning users will be overwhelmed with the comprehensiveness of it all.

Pros: Covers a vast majority of functions in the Microsoft Office 2008 Suite.
Cons: A vast majority of functions in the Microsoft Office 2008 Suite are unnecessary and overwhelming, just like this book

3 out of 5 Dogcows

Article was republished by the Lawrence Apple User's Group 2.0 here as well as other groups listed on the right

True Visual Voicemail: PhoneTag, Google Voice and AT&T’s New Voicemail to Text Service

2009-12-06T19:29:00.002-06:00

Apple introduces "true" visual voicemail that lets you read your voicemail messages via email and text...but others have already been doing it. Read a comparison between Phonetag (formerly Simulscribe), Google Voice, and AT&T in this TheAppleBlog post.

iMovie 09 and iDVD for Mac OS X: Visual QuickStart Guide

2009-11-28T14:26:00.004-06:00

Typically, Peachpit's Visual Quickstart Guide jumps you into a program giving you the "quickstart" to get working and obtain a basic understanding of the program. This book didn't follow that theme as closely as others in the series, but it's still an excellent guide to iMovie 09. If you buy only one book on iMovie, I firmly believe this should be the one. It's short, straightforward and highly accessible to someone who has never used a video camera before.

The book starts off with the essentials of movie making on your Mac, discussing important topics such as AV equipment, movie planning, lighting and composition. These preliminary chapters are an absolute gem. While I've worked with iMovie before, I never really understood the essentials of lighting, focus, and composition. A great iMovie starts out with the fundamentals and the first five chapters of the book are devoted to just this.

Next, the book gives you a "Make a Movie in a Hurry" overview of iMovie so you can quickly complete a task and have some initial success. Then, the author goes in detail about iMovie in a logical progression as to how the typical project would go: importing, editing, and exporting. Throughout the chapters the author includes tips and tricks not just about the usage of iMovie, but why a user should care about certain functions. Knowing all the features of iMovie doesn't really help unless you know how to use them in your projects to enhance your work. After reading this book, I understood much more of the power of iMovie and how to use the features of iMovie to make better movies.

Ironically, what's missing from the book is a guide to iDVD. One small chapter is devoted to iDVD and then the author directs you to his website for another 60 or so pages of iDVD info: http://ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/images/9780321601322/supplements/iDVD_Addendum.pdf That's my major con of the book: the title is extremely misleading. This is NOT a book about iDVD, it's strictly about iMovie. I can't imagine why the book was titled and distributed the way it was.

Pros: Easy to understand, accessible
Cons: No iDVD printed materials in book

Four out of Five dogcows

Four out of Five DogCows

Article was republished by the Lawrence Apple User's Group 2.0 here as well as other groups listed on the right

A Tale of Two Hard Drives: Apple’s Secret Weapon?

2009-11-27T19:24:00.005-06:00

Who would have thought a tale of two hard drive replacements would create so much comment? Apparently it did! Read on about how the same hard drive failure was so different on a Mac and PC

Apple Tech Support Tips: 4 Steps to Bend Apple to Your Will

2009-11-27T19:21:00.003-06:00

Need tips on how to get Apple to fix something they initially refuse to fix. Read my post over at TheAppleBlog on how to get Apple to fix things that are out of warranty, or not fully covered by a repair extension. Given the positive comments by Apple employees--I'm right on the mark

Opinion: Psystar Ruling Could Have Set Precedent for Upgrading Your Mac

2009-11-27T19:05:00.002-06:00

With my background in law and my initial intent to go into Intellectual Property, I was particularly interested in this ruling. What concerned me most was the idea that modifying for the Apple operating system for hardware compatibility was considered a violation. This set precedent for any compatiblity update to be in violation of Apple's EULA. Read on for more details over at TheAppleBlog

Is Backup on Apple’s Back Burner or Simply Abandoned?

2009-11-24T23:26:00.002-06:00

I admit, I've been so busy with stuff, I haven't been posting articles here and I've written a bunch recently for TheAppleBlog This was kind of a spur of the moment article as I was thinking about all the features of MobileMe and how backup was going to be the big selling point. Here is an article I wrote reflecting on that fact