Review: Olympus E-P1
Author’s note: This is a review of the Olympus E-P1 provided to me for one week to review on Mac-Forums & my personal blog Jetplane Journal. Thanks go to Olympus for the opportunity to take their latest & greatest for a spin.
Introduction
In general, most people choose one of two types of cameras: Simple point & shoot cameras (P&S) that are extremely small, but don’t offer manual adjustment options – or complex & large DSLRs, which offer full control over nearly every aspect of your image. But the size and bulk of traditional DSLR cameras can make them unsuitable for certain occasions and events, where you might not want to lug a large camera bag and equipment around with you. Digital SLRs can also be intimidating for casual users, who worry about making the jump from their tried and trusted P&S.
The Olympus E-P1 ‘PEN’, based on the original Olympus PEN, has essentially created a new category for itself that sits in-between DSLRs such as Olympus’ own E-520 and other “enthusiast” compacts, such as the Panasonic Lumix LX-3 or the Canon G10. Unlike traditional DSLRs, this camera looks similar to most compacts, albeit slightly larger.
But the interchangeable lenses and much larger sensor it DSLR-like capabilities, making the E-P1 a compelling for photography enthusiasts and “prosumers”.
Review: Logitech m555b Bluetooth Mouse
Let’s be honest, it’s hard to make a mouse that will appeal to everybody. We all have different sized hands, like different kinds of features and put our mice through varying amounts of torture. So although Apple’s wireless Mighty Mouse does an admirable job, at one point or another most Mac users have probably thought of straying to another vendor for a better electronic rodent.
If you’re a notebook user, you’re probably aware that all modern Mac notebooks support Bluetooth – and that’s a good thing since Apple has never been known to supply a plethora of ports to connect peripherals. Unfortunately, the Bluetooth mouse market tends to be small, with most mice being tiny and short of features. Enter the Logitech m555b, Logitech’s newest entry into the emerging Bluetooth mouse market. The m555b boasts a a fairly robust set of features, including a laser-driven optical sensor for 1000dpi resolution, efficient power management with an on/off switch, and Logitech’s wonderful multifunction, frictionless scroll wheel (referred to on the product packaging as “Hyper-fast scrolling”).
Review: IOGEAR GCS632U 2-Port KVM Switch
What is a KVM Switch?
Have you ever wished for an easy way to control 2 computers from a single keyboard/mouse/monitor? If so, you’ll need a KVM switch. Short for Keyboard-Video-Mouse, KVMs have long been used by technicians and ordinary users alike who need access to multiple machines from a single “console”.
In recent years, the proliferation of USB mice and keyboards has all but eliminated the older style PS/2 connections that we were so accustomed to on PCs. In turn, KVM switches have recently changed focus to support USB devices a lot better, particularly since USB is not a direct, dedicated connection for these kinds of devices. What this means is that most USB KVM switches are somewhat dumbed-down in the way they go about switching. While PS/2 KVM switches typically work immediately after switching between computers, USB KVMs usually make you wait a few seconds while they tell computer 1 “I’m unplugging this keyboard and mouse”, and subsequently tell computer 2 “I’m plugging this keyboard and mouse into you”.
Not only is this annoying, but it can result in some pretty unpredictable behavior, especially if you need to be in the BIOS settings page of a PC, in the Windows Recovery Console, or heaven forbid, in DOS. While most Mac users probably wouldn’t care about this since OS X is pretty quick about recognizing a USB device, I’d wager that many people using a Mac with a KVM do so because they have another PC they need to control with it.
Do I need one?
In my case, I use KVMs quite a bit. Both at work and at home, I have a workstation where I need to connect to PCs to either prep them for deployment or do repair work on them. I need an easy way to share my monitor/keyboard and mouse between my main machine and customer machines. As such, I’ve had the displeasure of going through quite a few KVM switches trying to find one that is usable. I’ve been through high-end Belkin Omniview, low-end Belkin Flip models, Hawking and Tripp Lite switches, all with limited success. But just recently a friend recommended that I take a look at offerings from a company called IOGEAR.
USB Emulation – a feature every USB KVM should have.
IOGEAR is building quite a reputation for well-made, well-engineered products, and its KVMs are no exception. One of the things IOGEAR has going for them is that they have a patent on “USB emulation” technology. This technology basically puts an end to the constant disconnect/reconnect of USB peripherals when switching. Instead, it tells both machines that the devices are still connected, and just redirects output between the two machines upon switching.
Review: Belkin 7-Port USB Hub Plus
Belkin’s latest version of their popular 7-port hub has been redesigned and adds cable management features. This review will take a look at the changes, design and performance of Belkin’s latest offering for USB junkies.
Design
The first thing you’ll notice is the design Belkin has chosen for this hub: Its rectangular shape means it’ll take up less space on your desk than previous versions, while retaining the two top ports – useful for USB memory sticks and similar devices. The top ports are also spaced out a bit, so you should be able to connect larger USB devices without any problem as well. The device features (more…)
Is the time right for Apple to start licensing OS X?
It has always struck me as odd that Apple’s design philosophy inevitably favors form over functionality. In some cases, that strict allegiance to form often compromises what would other be a very useful product, like the MacBook Air. I’m sure a lot of people value the beautiful aesthetics of Apple machines above all else, but I’m not one of them – and I’m not alone. As much as I like the looks of my MacBook Pro, the few extra seams it would take to make the hard drive readily accessible and an extra inch of width on the ExpressCard slot to make it ExpressCard/54 compatible, would be perfectly acceptable tradeoffs to me.
Stubbornly reluctant to produce machines at certain market segments, Apple has been able to maintain its high-end image, partly by always selling high-end hardware. This behavior has emboldened some entrepreneurs to risk legal entanglements by starting up would-be cloning operations. Clearly if Apple doesn’t “…know how to build a sub-$500 machine that isn’t a piece of crap…”, others do. And surely in this economy there is a vast, untapped market for such machines.
Review: Things – a stylish task management app for OS X
Things, a task-management application for OS X, debuted this year at Macworld after a lengthy public beta. Despite being Cultured Code’s first foray into the world of task management apps, Things is an extremely polished, attractive app – but does it actually make you more productive?
UI & Design
Cultured Code really nailed the visual presentation of Things: The UI is very “mac-like” and looks very nice. Features are easy to discover and UI elements are easily identified.
The list view Things uses to display your tasks feels as though it is very iPhone-inspired does a good job of displaying your tasks and metadata without clutter. Cultured Code make a point of not using the typical column-based layout you see in other apps, and only show the information you’ve entered – not empty columns.
You won’t find any revolutionary UI innovations in Things, but the UI works and is well thought out – far more important in this type of application.
Ease of use
One issue I’ve had with other todo managers in the past has been the barrier of entry: Managing todos is something you can easily do with a pen & paper, so a dedicated application needs to offer functionality beyond that. However: if entering todos is too convoluted and time-consuming, you may question whether it’s worth the effort – particularly if the task isn’t that important, time-consuming or complicated. Task managers can only help you avoid “I’ll get to it in a minute”-syndrome if entering tasks doesn’t become its own chore.
Extremely stripped down managers tend to be too simple – preventing you from adding supplementary information or tags to your tasks. At the other end of the spectrum you have todo managers that are too complicated, overwhelming you with sub-categories and scheduling features – so you end up spending more time managing your tasks than completing them.
Things manages to strike a nice balance between those extremes. You can use it as a simple notepad to scribble down a list of things you need to get done, but you can also set up projects, repeating tasks and areas of responsibility, if you’re so inclined.
Quick Entry
To allow for even quicker task entry, Things offers a Quick Entry hud-panel, that can be activated via a system-wide keyboard shortcut. Tasks added via the panel will be discreetly added to your Inbox, allowing you to continue working on whatever you happen to be doing.
Tagging
Things offers powerful tagging features, offering some features that cause clutter in other task management apps: You can of course just assign regular keywords, but Cultured Code also suggests assigning your tasks time estimates, difficulty ratings and priority levels. Using tags to add that sort of metadata is a very clever way of hiding complexity: Users that don’t need that kind of detail won’t be distracted by those fields cluttering up the task entry interface, but power users still get the features they need.
Adding tags to your tasks is also nicely supported: In addition to iPhone-esque tag autocompletion, Things also intelligently assigns each tag a keyboard shortcut. Just select a task and hit the corresponding letter on your keyboard to tag it. Shortcuts can be edited later on, but by automatically assigning keyboard shortcuts, Things removes another step on your path to productivity.
Syncing
Under preferences, you’ll find syncing options for iCal and a companion iPhone application, which I’ll be reviewing separately soon. Those two options make it simple to get your tasks onto your mobile device, but there’s no built-in support for Mac-to-Mac syncing. But Things does support selecting your own library location, so you can easily set up syncing using a free Dropbox account.
Suitability for students
Students will appreciate the flexibility Things offers: You can choose to create Projects for some more involved courses, or just add your assignments and reading requirements to a semester-specific project or area of responsibility.
For team projects, the ability to delegate certain tasks to teammates is also very useful, helping you to keep track of jobs and follow-up with collaborators if necessary. On campus the iPhone application has proven invaluable, as it allows me to quickly make a note of something I can later follow up with when I sync up with my MacBook.
(And if you think Things is a bit expensive on a student’s budget, be sure to check out Cultured Code’s generous educational pricing offer!)
Hidden gems
While preparing this review, I found myself frequently coming across little points of detail in the application, that just go to show how much attention to detail was paid by the development team, including the ability to print lists with several formatting options, support for teammates, including iChat status indicators and Address Book integration, automatic regular database backups and the Things wiki, which is full of useful tips and scripts, such as a useful ‘Mail to Things inbox’ script
Conclusion
Things has definitely helped me get organized and plan out my university assignments, work to-dos, personal projects and other errands. It’s easy to pick up the habit of adding even mundane tasks to your Things inbox and there’s nothing more satisfying than crossing off something you’ve completed.
The intuitive interface makes it easy to enter to dos, but also allows you to focus on certain tasks and plan out your day – something more basic task managers usually don’t offer.
But most important of all: Things stays out of your way and allows you to focus on your tasks and not on managing them, allowing you to get things done.
Things is available for $49.95 or $34.95 after educational discount. Be sure to check out the free demo!
Posted by Aptmunich
Aaaaand, we’re back
After a hiatus, I’m excited to announce the return of the Mac-Forums blog! While initially the blog was developed for Macworld Expo reporting, our return brings a much wider array of future topics.
Just some of the things we hope to write about here:
- Tips and how-tos
- Product reviews
- General commentary on Apple ecosystem
We won’t be blogging straight out Apple news, there are already many great sites that do that, but we hope to bring you a little Mac-Forums insight into the world of Apple and its products. We also hope to be a resource for switchers and veterans alike by providing tips and reviews you can trust.
And as we ramp up the blog over the next few months, we hope to involve more of our members to help provide content. Look for more information soon on how you can help if you’d like to volunteer for the blog.
So sit back, relax, and enjoy the show reading.
iTunes Movie Rentals and device syncing
So, before I left San Francisco, I rented Pirates of the Caribbean 3 to watch on the flight and I synced it to my iPhone this morning. Actually, I started the download process yesterday afternoon, because the bandwidth in my hotel was so poor, but I digress. Anyway, the rental process was very easy and moving the file over was just as I expected. It’s a 1.8 GB file, so moving it over via USB takes a few minutes.
What seems to happen though, is the file is moved from iTunes to the device, rather than just copying it over. When I got home and wanted to watch the end of the movie on my computer (rats…because Apple TV hasn’t been updated yet to support rentals…), I saw that my iPhone sync was copying the 1.8 GB file from the iPhone back to iTunes.
Presumably, in the future, when you want to finish watching it on an Apple TV or other device, you’d have to copy it over yet one more time. I don’t understand why Apple doesn’t just keep the master rental file in iTunes for the full rental time, and copy it out to devices (rather than move), and retrieve the state (watched/complete, or semi-watched) and timestamp of where the viewer left off.
Okay…reading back the above is confusing myself.
Of course, there are really only two likely normal use cases of iTunes Rentals. 1) You rent the movie in iTunes and watch it on your computer completely or sync it to a device and watch it completely. 2) You rent it on your Apple TV and watch it completely there.
Still the use case I’m describing (that just happened to me) can’t be too uncommon: You rent a movie in iTunes and sync to a iPhone/iPod and partially watch it. You get home and want to finish watching it on your Apple TV.
So, the way iTunes handles rentals transfers, I will have moved my ~2 GB file 4 times. Once when you download it, another when you sync it, again when you re-sync it back to iTunes and finally synced out to your Apple TV.
Whew.
Am I over thinking this? Or does it seem that just leaving it in iTunes all the time to begin with fixes a little bit of the wait?
More Mac games at the Expo, Part 3
This is the final Mac games post of my 3-part series (read parts 1 and 2). There’s a whole bunch of companies makings games for the Mac who were demoing products at Macworld 08, and I wanted to mention just a few more.
Ambrosia is soon to release a really great-looking game called Aquaria that was described as an “ethereal action/adventure underwater fantasy game.” A guy not employed by Ambrosia had logged so many hours on their demo this week that they let him show me the game. It looked gorgeous. You play as a mermaid trying to reunite her people, who are scattered across what looks like a vast system of underwater caves. Can’t wait to play this game. Ambrosia is also putting out Multiwinia, a sequel to Darwinia, later this year.
What I Learned from Macworld 2008
As I’d hoped, the Macworld Expo provided me with a chance to dive headfirst into the Apple pool. Between the exhibits and the presentations and the random conversations that I had with people throughout the week, I was able to get a really good idea of why people like Macs and what things I might be interested in doing with the one that I’m about to get.
Here’s a round-up of the things that I learned from attending Macworld this year:
- Macs really are more reliable. Everyone that I talked to confirmed that they felt their Mac notebook was more reliable than a PC. My PC gave out on me halfway through the week with virus problems that took about two hours to fix. Because I use my notebook as my main computer, I need reliability. That’s the number one reason that I’m making the switch.
- I can go light but I probably don’t want the MacBook Air. I’m totally interested in the new notebook but I’m not convinced it’s the one that I want to spend my money on. I think if I was in a position to have a travel laptop and a second one for home, then I’d probably consider it. But because I’ve got only one computer doing everything for me, this new one isn’t the one for me. Still, I do think it points to a great direction that Apple is going in.
- The John Lennon Tour Bus is totally cool. I don’t know how I didn’t know about this thing since it’s been around for a decade but I didn’t. It’s a cool project that provides some great education and is definitely something that I’m interested in supporting.
- There are more accessories than gadgets that I’m interested in. I love gadgets. I’m probably going to get an iPod Touch this coming week (although I’ve heard some great arguments as to why I should just go ahead and get an iPhone instead so even though I thought I was settled on this, I’m not one hundred percent sure yet.) Nevertheless, I try to keep the number of gadgets that I buy down to a mininum because I try to be thrifty with my money. As a result, I’ve gotten in the habit of being able to overlook most toys. But apparently accessories still catch my eye because I was totally drawn to the booths offering different laptop bags and sleeves.
- Technology is making multi-taskers out of all of us. This was a theme of nearly every presentation that I went to throughout the conference. It’s not Apple-specific but it was something that was really interesting to think about. I’ve always been a multi-tasker myself but many of the people I know aren’t so it’s fascinating to see that younger folks are heading this direction.
- Macs are good for gaming. This was one thing that was really new news to me and I think is fairly new to a lot of people. Macs just don’t seem to have the association with gaming that PCs have. However, after hanging out at the MacGames Pavilion and attending the presentation on how to make my own games for Mac, I’m fully convinced that I could have a well-rounded gaming experience with only a Mac computer.
All of these things were important to learn but the most important thing that I really came to realize this week was that there is truly a community built around Macs. Mac users are passionate about their choice. They’re interested in new technologies that are being released and they’re interested in sharing that passion with others. Everyone that I spoke with this week was more than happy to provide me with information and opinions about technology in general and Apple products in particular. This sense of community is something that I think is good for the industry … and it’s something that I want to be a bigger part of. So, it’s official, my immersion in the world of Mac led to a conversion.
Mac-Forums.com Posts
- Bluetooth mouse wont auto-connect after update 10.6.2
- Solidworks users?
- StarCraft Campaign Editor
- Password.
- best way to switch from vista to windows 7
- No further OS X.4 Tiger support
- iPhone now?
- Anyone use wacom bamboo or mte450
- Lagarith video question
- time machine worries
- quicktime help needed
- How to back up my system?
- DVDs Won't Play
- My G4 PB needs a repair. Anyone know of an authorised service centre near me?
- Looking for an Itunes for video
