One App: Grand Perspective

Everyone knows this day will come, and it always seems to come at the most in-opportune moments. Finding space on your internal hard drive and other storage peripherals are often time consuming and stressful. Grand Perspective is an application (.app) that will make this task informative and fun!

For all you visual-learners out there, Grand Perspective is an .app that will give you a visual interpretation of all the data on your hard drive, specific file-structures, or individual folders. My favorite feature is something I like to call, “Hover and Discover.” Hover your cursor over  a particular colored block and Grand Perspective will tell you what it is, where it is, what file structure it’s within, and how much storage each file is occupying. Best of all, it’s free.

One Accessory: mStand

If you are like me, then a cluttered office is always an issue. Laptop, external hard drive, external keyboard and mouse, mouse pad; The mStand, by Rain Design, is my favorite space-saving device and computer accessory for the following reasons…

Functional Design: The laptop stand is make from a solid piece of aluminum, milled to be a .25” inches thick. No assembly. No wobble. No risk. Cord port for cable management. Rubber pads for extra grip.

Ergonomic Design: The laptop is raised nearly 6” inches atop the mStand to promote better posture, less strain on your eyes, less muscle fatigue.
Aesthetics: It looks great. Even with all of my peripherals plugged into my laptop, it maximizes the space underneath the laptop for storage. It keeps everything neatly tucked away when I am not using my machine, and allows for space on my desk to work.

One Tech Tip: Empty and Organize

Empty your trash, and organize your desktop and download folders. My biggest issue is keeping my desktop and download folders clear of random files. Sometimes, I can’t find a file I was working on hours before, because it’s  buried within current files being downloaded from the Internet, work servers, and E-mail. It cannot be avoided. Left unmanaged, there could be upwards of 40-70 individual files per work-day, and finds its way onto my desktop or downloads folder. Here is an easy way to help:

1. Add all common-use folders as ‘Stacks’ on the Apple Dock.

2. Sort all desktop items and download items every morning, and before leaving the office.

In the months since the iPad’s launch, App developers have been hard at work making use of the extra size and features of Apple’s largest iOS device.  In that time the iPad has seen wide adoption, from consumers using iPad for browsing and entertainment in their homes, to being deeply integrated into forward thinking businesses.  With people using iPad in so many different ways, the array of Apps available to iPad users is staggering.  Amidst the smorgasbord of software for sale on the App Store, there are some Apps that stand out in their utility, functionality, and ease of use that have made their permanent home on my iPad.

Jump Desktop - $19.99 - iPad / iPhone
Jump Desktop is one of a growing stable of Apps designed to let you control remote computers over the internet.  Managing a desktop operating system like Mac OS X Snow Leopard or Windows 7 on a touchscreen device can be frustrating, but Jump Desktop makes it easy with one touch connections and secure automatic login to your Atomic-powered virtual server.  With just a tap to launch the app and one to select your connection, a few seconds later you’ll be logged in and looking at your remote computer’s desktop.  Jump is only able to connect to one server at a time, but multiple connections to many different machines can be stored and accessed as easily as just one.  For the $19.99 price you get both the iPad App and the iPhone / iPod App, but the extra screen real estate and larger keyboard on the iPad make working with remote servers far easier on it than using your iPhone.  Installing this App on my iPad allowed me to leave my laptop behind and travel lighter much more often, confident that I can still access any resource I need in a far more portable, user-friendly manner.

Penultimate - $2.99 - iPad only
When I first picked up my iPad, one of the Apps I searched for almost immediately was a virtual legal pad or notebook that I could sketch out ideas or make handwritten notes in easily and quickly.  Multiple Apps came and went trying to fill that need, until Penultimate appeared early this summer.  Working best in portrait mode, Penultimate gives you a notebook page ready to take whatever notes, drawings or scribbles you want.  If your page fills up, simply add another one and keep working.  Each virtual notebook can have countless pages, and each page or the whole book can be instantly shared via email to anyone you like.  You’re also able to keep multiple notebooks, to help you keep individual groups of ideas separate.  The best feature has to be wrist protection, allowing you to write normally on the display using a capacitive stylus (like the Pogo Stylus, available at the Apple Store) without having to worry about your wrist or palm making stray marks all over your document.  Using Penultimate, I’ve been able to replace the multitude of physical notepads that used to clutter my desk with my iPad; so wherever I go my notes come along, ready to be added to or shared with anyone at a moments notice.

Photoshop Express - Free - iPad / iPhone
Most of the functions people need an image editor for day-to-day are quite simple: rotating, cropping, color and exposure correction.  Adobe brings those tools, plus basic filters, borders, and FaceBook uploading to the iPad with Photoshop Express.  Easy, finger friendly controls and nonexistent price make it an attractive companion to the iPad Camera Connection Kit and your digital camera; making it simple to edit, store and share photos using only your iPad on a vacation or short trip.  And if you want to get a little more creative, another free Adobe Ideas app allows you to paint and draw over your photos after you’ve edited them.

The iPad is still young, and it’s ecosystem of Apps is growing larger every day as people find new and innovative ways to use it.  Look for iPad Apps to reach a new level when iOS 4 comes to the device later this year.

Available this October, Office 2011 will be unleashed onto an unsuspecting public, hopefully making everyone’s life happier, easier and more fulfilling. That said, there are a handful of things that you may want to know:

1.) Entourage is being retired and for the first time in almost a decade, a version of Outlook will honor the Mac OS with it’s presence. This means that there is now native support for the PST email archiving protocol as well as both Skydrive and Sharepoint integration. This also means, in theory, better Exchange integration, performance and support. Another key feature is that the monolithic file structure of the mail database as been replaced with one that is file-based, which is apparently faster and more stable when used with Time Machine.

2.) The Template Gallery has been redesigned, allowing you to quickly pick templates from either the pre-installed vault or from Microsoft’s online library.

3.) A key feature that Microsoft is trumpeting as revolutionary is the “Ribbon.” It is being described as the the “evolution of the Office 2008 Elements gallery, while utilizing the classic Mac menu and Standard Toolbar, giving you the best of both worlds.” Translated, this means that the most commonly used commands and features are easily accessible.

4.) Greater multi-language support. MS has added both Russia and Polish  to it’s stable of localized language support.

5.) Visual Basic makes it’s triumphant return! Having been dropped from Office 2008 due to porting issues with the Intel processor, MS has recompiled the software so that it’ll work on the Intel platform, making this latest version of Office much more compatible with it’s sister-counterpart on the Windows side of things.

With all these good things going for the app, there has to be a drawback, right? Sadly, there is: Office 2011 is only a 32-bit application. This means that it won’t be able to fully utilize the multiple processors in most systems, will be a bit slower and not as secure as it’s 64-bit sister counterparts.

So there you go, a quick overview of what’s coming down the road from Microsoft. Overall, it seems that Microsoft has made a real effort in delivering a sold product that will greatly benefit the Mac community.

Update: If you can’t wait to get your hands on Office for Mac 2011, Microsoft is giving away free upgrades with any Office for Mac 2008 purchase. Call The Foundation at (612) 465-0700 for more details on Microsoft’s Technology Guarantee.

In late July, Apple updated their infamous line of iMac computers. At first glance, these updates are not very noticeable. Aesthetically, the revised iMacs appear identical to their last generation counterparts. However, taking a look under the hood, one will notice the considerable changes that have been made.

Apple’s iMac lineup now includes four models, sporting two different screen sizes. There are two 21.5 inch models and two 27 inch models. All of the models have received new Intel processors. Previous models had used Intel’s Core 2 Duo processor. These are replaced with newer Core i3 and Core i5 processors, both of which take advantage of advancements in processor design and resource management technology.

The Core i3 processor is found in the three lower end models, both 21.5 inch models included. It has 4 MB of Level 3 cache and employs hyper-threading technology. With hyper-threading, the Core i3 processor may use virtual cores to handle heavier processing tasks. This allows for the 3.06 Ghz Core i3 to outperform the 3.06 Ghz Core 2 Duo by up to 14%, a observable difference in desktop performance.

With the Core i3 occupying the aforementioned models, The Core i5 is used only in the highest end iMac. The difference between it and the model it replaces are not so pronounced. The i5 process does not utilize hyper threading as it has 4 physical cores. However, it does use turbo boost technology to deliver additional power to its hardest working core. The new top of the line iMac, starting at $1999, compares favorably in both processor and graphics to its already blazing fast predecessor. It can be custom configured with the Core i7 processor to deliver even greater performance, supporting both hyper threading and turbo boost.

In addition to processor upgrades, all iMac models now feature dedicated ATI video cards. The entry level iMac benefits the most here, as previous models used an integrated video card, sharing both resources and memory with the main processor.

Apple’s new iMac starts at $1199 and all models feature LED backlit displays with a glossy finish. Though the iMac has several build to order options, a matte screen is not one of them.

Do you have a question about the new iMac? Need you Mac fixed fast? Call The Foundation at (612) 465-0700 or send us a tweet @theFNDTN.

Over the past three years, the iPhone has become one of Apple’s flagship products, a cash cow of sorts. The iPhone 3G & 3GS have received praise for the handsets’ revolutionary design and build quality. With the announcement of the iPhone 4, Apple saw record breaking pre-order and first day sales. Apple found themselves at the center of every media outlet’s attention and Consumer Reports rewarded Apple’s latest iPhone with the highest rating ever given to a smartphone. Their recommendation was quickly retracted as issues with the handset trickled in over both Engadget and Gizmodo just hours after the iPhone 4 hit shelves. Apple could no longer ignore the issue.

Seemingly out of their nature, Apple just wrapped up a press conference in response to complaints about iPhone 4 reception. The popular handset suffers from signal degradation when held in a way that covers its lower left hand corner. The design flaw sparked a PR firestorm that included everything from a negative Consumer Reports review to Whoopi Goldberg throwing her phone from a moving vehicle. What did Apple have to say about the problem?

“We aren’t perfect. Phones aren’t perfect.”

Steve Jobs took stage and began with a number of sales figures, statistics and even a video that poked fun at Apple and the iPhone 4. He then demonstrated that reception degradation is not unique to the iPhone 4. It happens to the BlackBerry Bold, Droid Eris and Samsung Omnia as well. Apparently, only .55 percent of all iPhone 4 users have called AppleCare to complain about the issue. Only 1.7 percent of early adopters have returned the phone. That is in fact less than one third of early 3GS returns. While optimistic about the iPhone 4’s performance, Job’s did admit that there have been a greater number of calls dropped (fewer than 1 more per 100 calls than the 3GS to be exact).

Apple has already addressed iPhone 4 issues with the release of iOS 4.0.1 and their Microsoft Exchange fix. So what are they going to do about the reception issue? Steve spelled it out crystal clear - Free Bumpers. If you purchase an iPhone 4 through September 2010, Apple will send you a free case or bumper. If this isn’t enough, Apple will accept returns and provide a full refund. Steve closed with these words of sentiment: We love our users. We try very hard to surprise and delight them.”

What are your thoughts on the iPhone 4 and how Steve handled the reception issue? If you have any questions or just need help picking out a case, head over to our twitter page @theFNDTN.