Mashed Articles

Writen by Jeff Heaton

If you have not seen the newest addition to the Macintosh line, it is worth taking a look. It is a very small computer that is only 6.5 x 6.5 x 2 inches. The Mac Mini is about the size of one of those internal CD-ROM drives you install into a PC. By far one of the smallest computers you can buy. And its relatively in expensive, the base model costs only $499. Additionally, you need not buy a new monitor, mouse or keyboard. It is 100% compatible with PC monitors and PC USB keyboards and mice.

But what exactly can you do with this mini computer? Quite a bit! The base model comes with more than enough features for most computer uses. It is a full fledge Macintosh, nothing small about this machine except its physical size.

In this article I will talk about three main uses for the Mac mini. First, I will discuss what Macs are known for; their audio and video capabilities. Secondly, I will discuss general Internet uses such as browsing, email and chat. Finally I will discuss word processing. These three are some of the most common tasks for most computer users.

Digital Video, Photos and Music

Music has become what Apple is known best for. Who has not seen one of their iPod music players? The Apple Macintosh comes with iTunes, which allows you to play MP3 music, as well as purchase legal copies of songs directly from the iTunes music store. Songs only cost ninety nine cents, and the selection is huge. If you have an iPod you can attach it to the Macintosh and use it directly with iTunes.

The Mac Mini also comes with iMove and iDVD. These two applications allow you to edit and burn your home movies to a DVD. However, if you want to record your own DVD’s you will need a Mac Mini with the optional DVD burner, which adds $100 to the price of the Mac Mini. If you have a digital camcorder you can transfer your movies directly into the Mac Mini.

Digital Video has become very easy with the Macintosh. Just drag clips from your video together and make a complete movie. If you are like me, your home video includes many scenes where the camcorder is not pointed where it should be. The video editing software makes it very easy to remove such footage from your movie.

If you have a video camera you can use iPhoto to download and organize your digital photos. The iPhoto application allows you to quickly move your pictures from your digital camera to the computer. Photos can be organized into catalogs and printed.

Browsing, Email and Chat

The Mac Mini comes with both Internet Explorer and the Safari browsers. Internet Explorer is provided for sites that require it for compatibility. You can also use the built in Macintosh browser Safari. Safari works very much like Internet explorer, only with many additional features and fewer security issues. Safari supports tabbed based browsing, which allows you to open multiple websites and quickly switch between them.

Email can easily be setup on a Mac with iMail. The iMail application will connect to your mail provider and allow you to send and receive mail messages. Chat is provided by iChat which allows you to use your existing instant message accounts to communicate with your friends. Additionally, most of the major chat networks have chat clients that can be downloaded free of charge for the Macintosh.

Word Processing

The Mac Mini comes with Apple Works. Apple works is a full featured office automation product, similar to Microsoft Office. It can open files created with Microsoft office. Apple Works comes with all of the standard “office applications” that you would expect. It includes a word processor similar to Microsoft Word. Additionally, Apple works includes a database application, similar to Microsoft Access. Spreadsheet functions are provided as well, similar to Microsoft Excel. Finally, a presentation application is also included, similar to Microsoft Powerpoint.

The word processor is full featured and includes all of the tolls you have come to expect. Files created with Microsoft word can be opened. Additionally, you can save your files as Microsoft Word documents. Whether you are writing a report for school or a resume for a new job, Apple Works is ready.

Conclusions

The Mac Mini is a very powerful computer, despite its small physical size. The Mac mini also comes with a great deal of software already loaded. The only add-on that I discussed in this article is a $100 DVD burner, if you want to record your movies to DVD.

Using a Macintosh is very similar to Windows. The average Windows user will soon be right at home with a Macintosh. Many things are actually much easier on the Macintosh. The Macintosh operating system is based upon the industrial strength UNIX operating system. This makes for a very stable operating system, without many crashes. If you are thinking of trying something other than Windows, the Mac Mini is a great option.

Jeff Heaton is a college professor and author. To read more articles by Jeff Heaton visit http://www.heatonresearch.com.

Writen by Jacob Loeb

Take out four credit cards from your wallet. Stack them and hold them in your hand. Apple’s iPod nano http://www.powermax.com/cgi-global/generate_css_temp.cgi? i=PM_MP_IN&t=The+iPod+nano is about the same weight and half an inch less wide than that stack of cards. Now put three cards back in your wallet and use the remaining card to go buy yourself a nano.

The nano’s introduction should not be misinterpreted as just another iPod in the lineup. It is, in fact, exactly what the iPod should have been in the first place: a flash-based jukebox with a long battery life and stunning color screen. This new iPod is not a smaller version of another iPod, or combination of any other two iPods. The user interface is the same (which has always been iPod’s strength) but that’s it. The differences here are under the skin, most notably with the screen.

Color screens are not new to iPods, but the way you see the color is. The nano’s 1.5-inch color LCD has a blue-white LED backlight. LEDs achieve full brightness faster than standard LCD backlights. This is particularly useful because iPods turn on and off their backlight often to save battery power. The number of seconds this saves you per day is not going to give you an extra hour of sleep at night. But the LCD’s quick start up allows your eyes to focus near instantaneously, which makes using the nano feel that much faster. LEDs produce brighter light than other backlights without washing out the image. That gives the nano screen a deep bright color. Over all the nano’s LCD is the best I have seen in the 1-inch to 3-inch size.

Another difference from previous iPods is the nano’s lack of FireWire support. Although iPods have come with only USB 2.0 cables for some time, they have always supported syncing through a FireWire cable. The iPod nano is the first to be USB only. When you connect a nano via a “FireWire to Dock Connecter” cable it displays a message that this is a USB only device. It will still charge off the FireWire cable but no file transfers can be done. If your computer has only the older USB 1.1, the nano will still sync with iTunes but you are stuck moving files over at an extremely slow speed.

Amazingly, the nano has no moving parts except the click wheel. This was done by using flash memory for song storage. Every iPod ever made has had flash memory, but it was used on most iPods as a data buffer. Song data was pulled from the hard drive and stored in the buffer for skip protection. However, iPod hard drives are very slow and can cause delays when loading a song off the drive. So Apple also uses the buffer to preload songs, so you don’t hear a pause between songs. Of course, not every song is in the buffer so sometimes there are pauses between songs. Changing songs in the nano, however, is faster than with hard drive based iPods because it has one big buffer. An added benefit of using flash memory is a significant reduction in weight.

The small size and weight of the iPod nano is its best feature. It slips into a shirt pocket without being felt or seen. The difference between the nano and its hard drive based brothers is equal to the difference between the brick sized analog cell phones of the 1980′s compared to the cell phones of today. A close second place feature is that it comes in black. When Apple released the third generation of iPods, they photographed it in the shadows. The picture made it look black and it looked good in black. Almost every person that walked by that poster asked when could they get a “black one.” After a couple of years, Apple finally realized “U2″ fans were not the only ones who like black.

The iPod nano is the only product I have ever ordered the day it was released. I saw instantly it possessed all that had been missing from the iPods that came before it, and at a spectacular price. I just couldn’t wait another day… so what are you waiting for?

PowerMax’s http://www.powermax.com/ resident Mac expert, Jacob Loeb, has been using Macintosh computers professionally since 1990. He founded a pioneering Mac based DVD production company and later worked as an IT administrator for several Portland, Oregon companies. Over the last four years Jacob has retained a top Apple Product Professional ranking. As a PowerMax technician he’s repaired, trouble shot, and tested every model Mac we sell.

I want to share to you a few of my favorite applications and utilities(all files are tested virus free):

1. Limewire Pro - Limewire is a free file sharing program, which allows individual users on the Internet to make music, video and other files available for direct access by other users. It also allows a user to search for desired content on other users’ computers and download those files.

Unlike the now-defunct Napster, no centralized server or website is used to store files. Limewire directly transfers files from the hard drive of one user (peer) to the hard drive of another user, hence the term “peer-to-peer” or P2P file sharing is used. Given that understanding, it’s more accurate to say that a file is being “transferred” instead of “downloaded” in the context of P2P applications.

It allows you to share or access any file type such as MP3 (music), AVI/MPEG (video), JPG (photo), etc. Because it is written in the cross-platform Java programming language, it will run on Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and other operating systems.

Click here to download LIMEWIRE(PRO)

2. Total Video Converter – a complete solution for video conversion which supports reading, playing all kinds of video and audio formats and converting them to the popular video formats.

Main features of Total Video Converter are to convert all kinds of videos to mobile videos or audios (mp4, 3gp, xvid, divx mpeg4 avi, amr audio) which are used by cell-phone, PDA, PSP, iPod;Photos slide show combines multi-photos and musics with more than 300 photos fantasy transition effect;high compatibility and high efficiency for Importing RMVB or RM video/audio;convert various videos to MPEG videos compatible with standard DVD/SVCD/VCD;burn the converted videos to DVD/SVCD/VCD;rip DVD to popular videos of all sorts;extract audio from various of videos and convert which to all kinds of audios (mp3, ac3, ogg, wav, aac);RIP CD to audios of all sorts directly.

It has own video player that support almost all popular formats.

Click here to download TOTAL VIDEO CONVERTER

3. SSCServe – An Epson printer utility use to reset its ink counter back to 0, Epson inkjet printers are design to stop operation when its ink head counter reach to its maximum,its purpose is to avoid the waste ink pad to overflow at the same time you can perform general cleaning on the unit.

But more often waste ink counter expires even if the waste ink pad of your printer still not full, so you don’t need to clean or replace it.Just install this utility, look for the waste ink reset feature and click reset the counter to 0, turn off and turn on the printer, your printer is back in business(supposedly).

A sign that ink counter reach to its maximum is when power and error LED are alternately blinking when printer is powered on, at some instance status monitor notify you that the printer is for service maintenance.

Click here to download SSCSERVE

Watch out the next batch of my favorite apps and util! Comments are most welcome!