WPR Mac Help

On today’s show, there were some questions about which cameras, printers, etc., are compatible with OS X.  I had some trouble finding this at first.  Once again, thank you Google!

Here’s a page at Apple that lists most of the devices that they officially support, in terms of iMovie, iPhoto, etc.  It’s unlikely that every supported device is on this list, but it’s a good place to start.
 http://www.apple.com/macosx/upgrade/devices.html 

If you’re not sure, check the manufacturer’s web site first.  You might even Google around for some reviews from fellow Mac users before you buy.  Not all “Mac Compatible” devices are created equal.

A great source for reviews and comparisons of Mac compatible devices is available from the folks at MacWorld.

 http://www.macworld.com/mac_product/

If you missed it, you can still catch the radio program from today by going to WPR’s website.  If you just want to stream it, you can use RealPlayer and this link.

If you’d like to get an MP3 copy you can listen to anytime, you’ll need to be a WPR member.  If you all ready are, here’s where you can download that MP3 for your iTunes/iPod enjoyment.

What’s that?  You’re not a member of WPR?  Well lucky for you it’s really easy to become one.  Just go here and make a small contribution to a great cause!

A friend gave me a gift certificate for the Apple Store.  Yes, it’s true.  I have a friend!

I ended up picking up an external keyboard to work with my laptop when I’m at the office.  Apple just released a new style last month with the new iMacs.  Visually, they’re quite impressive.

http://www.apple.com/keyboard/

I just finished writing up a 50+ page server documentation project.  I have to say, this new keyboard is really phenomenal.  I’d say it took me about 20 minutes to get comfortable with it, after which I think I’m typing faster.  The low height off the desk is definitely  a plus.  Even my PC offic-mates want one!
I bought the wired version, as I really wanted a 10-key pad.

Apple has been pretty quite about the hardware requirements for their upcoming OS X release, version 10.5 “Leopard”.   As the release of this new cat draws near, this question is becoming more and more pressing.

Pre-release builds are now only running on systems with a G4 going 867 Mhz or faster.  I think it’s fairly likely, given how close these builds are to the final product, that the 867 Mhz bar will the minimum.  Previously, the minimum had been an 800 Mhz G4.

Why the big deal over 67 Mhz?  Because it cuts out a number of Titanium PowerBook G4’s and the original iMac G4 “Desk Lamp”.

Have you ever looked at a Mac and wondered, “Just how much memory will this thing hold?” or “How fast is the processor?” Maybe you thought about buying a used Mac, but you wanted to find out more about what version of OS X it will support. How do you know?

There are two wonderful tools that, together, will tell you all you could ever want to know about a Mac and then some. We’ll discuss both of them here.

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The Mac OS X Keychain is a pretty cool thing. (No really! It is! Honest!) We talked a little about what does and what it can do in a previous article. But what do you do when things go wrong? Every once in a while, a person will end up with a repeating prompt, “Please enter your keychain password…” when you open your web browser. In this article, we’ll go through how you can take care of this and other maladies revolving the keychain.

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Have you ever noticed how, in Apple’s Mail program, when you start typing in an address it will try to guess which address you want, based on the first couple of letters you type? It’s a very handy feature. I can just start typing “mom…” and it pops up with the rest of my mother’s e-mail address. Fantastic! (She wishes I’d type that a little more often, but that’s another story.)

But sometimes it brings up an address that doesn’t work or is incomplete. So when you hit send you get an error message. Or worse, it just silently disappears into the ether.

So how can you get Mail to stop remembering addresses that are wrong? We’ll be going into exactly that in this post.
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The next show is scheduled for Tuesday, September 25! From 11:45 to 12:30, I’ll be on WPR with Larry Meiller to answer your calls about all things Apple. You can join the program live by calling 1-800-642-1234 or 263-1890 in Madison. You can tune in on any of these stations in the Madison area:

• 90.7 FM
• 90.9 FM
• 107.9 FM
• 970 AM

You can also tune in on-line via iTunes. If you’re on a PC without it, you can also use Windows Media Player.

After the show, I’ll post follow up explanations and details about items we covered on the air.