Barkings! | The Small Dog Apple Blog

When I logged onto Mac.com this morning, I noticed this notice:

“As part of the MobileMe launch, www.mac.com will be taken offline at 6pm PT on Wednesday, July 9th.

Members will be unable to access www.mac.com or any .Mac services during this time with the exception of .Mac Mail accessed via a desktop application, iPhone, or iPod touch.

MobileMe will be available as soon as possible during this maintenance window.”

.Mac Bookmarks have already been disabled.

This also means July 9th is your very last day to send an free Apple iCard. iCards were intorduced in 2000 as part of iTools, which itself morphed into .Mac in 2002.

It’s important to note that .Mac email should continue to work through the transition to MobileMe. Apple says

“Your mac.com email will continue to work as it always has. But your account will also be given a new email address @me.com.
Even if you do nothing, email sent to either address will still arrive in your inbox and you can send email from either address in MobileMe Mail on the web. However, in order to send email from your me.com address in your email client (e.g. the Mail application on your Mac), you will need to set up your me.com account in Mail preferences.

You may also use either address as your Apple ID for purchases on the Apple Store or iTunes—they are automatically linked. However, they will work separately as an iChat ID.”

You can read Small Dog’s take on the transiton to MobileMe for .Mac members here:

http://blog.smalldog.com/article/1181/what-mobileme-means-for-current-mac-users

As well as a MobileMe FAQ here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1932

Tags: .mac, mac os x, mobile mac, mobileme

by Matt@smalldog.com and Ed@Smalldog.com

FROM MATT: If you’re working on a confidential document and someone walks into the room who shouldn’t see your screen, you can instantly turn the screen down to minimum brightness (totally dark) by pressing ctrl-shift-eject. To turn the brightness back to where it was, press any key.

This is a small time saver for those of us conserving battery power. Whenever you’re on the phone or otherwise idle at the computer, consider turning the screen off with this tip. Dimming your screen is the easiest and most effective way to increase battery life!

FROM ED: This reminds me of an older Mac Treat, about how to lock down a Mac with a secure, locking screen saver. This takes literally a second longer to activate than Matt’s awesome tip above, but the benefit is that the Mac will “require a password to wake this computer from sleep or screen saver.” We do this on the Macs we use as POS cash registers at Small Dog’s retail stores.

First, this tip requires that you have set a password for your account on your Mac. This is the same password you enter when you install new software, or run the Software Update from Apple. If you don’t have a password, you should. Go to System Preferences > Accounts to set this up. DON’T do this tutorial if you don’t know your password – you’ll lock yourself out of your computer. That won’t be fun.

Once you have your password sorted out, set up a screen saver. Click on the blue Apple in the upper left hand corner of the screen and choose “System Preferences.” In System Preferences, click on “Desktop & Screen Saver.” Choose a screen saver you like. Next, to really make securing your Mac superfast, click on the button that says “Hot Corners,” and choose a hot corner. Now, whenever you put your mouse in that corner, your screen saver will activate.

After the screen saver and hot corner is selected, click on the “Show All” button at the top of the System Preferences window. Click on “Security,” and select “Require password to wake this computer from sleep or screen saver.” Important note: this is the password you’ve assigned yourself in your Mac’s user Account – see above.

Now, when you need to step away from your computer, and you want to quickly lock it down, simply mouse into the hot corner you’ve selected for your screen saver. The screen saver will activate, and won’t turn off until you’ve entered your password!

Especially from Switchers, one of the more frequent complains about Macs is their lack of built-in memory card readers. Mac users who wish to transfer photos from their camera to their Mac either need to use the USB cable that comes with the camera, or else use a camera card reader. I like to take photos when I travel, and I admit, sometimes I wish my MacBook Pro had a built-in SD card reader, especially when I am on the road for more than a couple of days.

Most people simply use the USB cable that comes with the digital camera to connect it to their Mac. Most cameras (including Canon) use a simple mini-USB to USB cable for this (a handful of brands such as Olympus use a propriety cable – annoying). In case you’ve lost yours, or need a spare, you can see a couple of mini-USB to USB cables that we recommend here:

Keyspan mini USB 5 pin to USB retractable cable, $9.99

Cables to Go USB to mini USB Cable 3 foot – $14.99

It is often preferable to use an external card reader, especially in a desktop situation where the card reader is more or less permanently attached to the computer. This spares you from digging around, looking for the cable. Some people don’t like to use a cable, fearing damage to the camera from a flimsy connection or even a power surge (which is far-fetched). Finally, dedicated card readers typically transfer photos faster that the standard USB cable connection. This is especially relevant for pro-photographers with hundreds of high-resolution photos.

Here are some external card readers that we both use and recommend. All of these are USB 2.0 compatible; we don’t even carry USB 1.1 models. These will all still work with older USB 1.1-equipped Macs, but the transfer rate will be rather slow. Of course, if you’re using a USB 1.1-equipped Mac, you’re probably used to slow transfer speeds.

Flash Drive / Memory Card Combos:

This is actually my favorite option while traveling. These are small flash drives with one or two gigabytes of built-in memory as well a slot where an SD card can be inserted. The entire device is plugged into a Mac’s USB port. These devices are great because you can use them as basic flash drives (for saving and transferring documents, music, photos and other data), but with the option to read an SD card. What’s really useful is that you can actually back up photos from the SD card to the flash drive when it’s plugged into the computer. My 1GB version has become a standard tool in my computer bag. I even bought extras, so I will still have one when they are inevitably discontinued at some point in the future (as all technology is ultimately discontinued.) See them here:

Kingston Data Traveler USB 1gb with Card Reader – $19.99

Kingston Data Traveler USB 2gb with Card Reader – $29.99

Express Card Reader (For MacBook Pro Users)

Since the MacBook pro has an Express Card slot, you can use a Express Card adapter. Basically you simply slide the adapter card into the MacBook Pro’s Express Card slot, and insert the camera card into the card adapter. These offer fast transfer speeds, as the connection is via a dedicated Express Card bus. Here’s a version by MacAlly. I had one and liked it until I lost it:

MacAlly 5-in-1 Expresscard Adapter MS/SD/MMC/xD – $43.99

Dedicated USB Card Reader:

These are small rectangular devices with up to 19 different slots for the various types of camera cards (SD, Compact Flash, MMC, Memory Stick, xD, etc). They connect to the Mac via a single USB cable. I like the models that have the card reading function along with a built-in USB hub, which gives your Mac three or four additional USB 2.0 ports (one can never have too many USB ports!) The models with build-in USB hub typically have to be plugged into AC power to function at their full speed. Here are two I like:

Kensington USB PocketHub 3 port USB 2.0 Hub with Card reader – $38.99

Kingston 19-in-1 USB 2.0 Reader – $19.99

Finally, consider getting a printer or printer/copier/scanner with a built-in card reader. Most printer/copier/scanners have these built in as a standard feature. These have to be connected to your Mac via a USB cable anyway; you might as well take advantage of that connection. With this option, all you have to do is turn on the printer, pop in the camera card, and transfer your photos to your Mac via iPhoto or Aperture. Beyond transferring photos from the memory card to your Mac, you can also often print directly from the camera card with this option. If you need to get a new printer, consider this option. It’s very convenient, and you don’t end up with the extra clutter of a card reader. Here are three models I like:

Canon Pixma MP470 SE Print Copy Scan USB – $99.99

Epson Stylus Photo RX595 Printer/Copier/Scanner USB – this the model I use – $129.99

Tags: aperture, canon, card reader, compact flash, express card, iphoto, mac os x, memory, olympus, printer, sd