rotate internal screen on Macs with Tiger

When you press the Option key while choosing System Preferences/Displays on MacOS X 10.4, even the internal display can be rotated!

TypeIt4Me 2.2

Just received the newest beta of TypeIt4Me 2.2. Should support in line spell checking under MacOSX 10.4 Tiger and go final in the next few hours.

Flip4Mac WMV Player

Flip4Mac WMV Player plays back Windows Media Video 7,8,9 SD and HD, and Windows Media Video 9 Advanced in QuickTime Player directly. Flip4Mac WMV Player Pro includes all the playback capabilities of the WMV Player, plus import Windows Media Video 7,8,9 and Windows Media Video 9 Advanced, convert to other QuickTime formats and editing of Windows Media files. Now if somebody could write a similar software for using Real Media files on the Mac directly in QuickTime...

MacOSX 10.4 (Tiger): first impressions on Mac mini

System Profiler/Hardware/Graphics/Displays: Core Image: Not Supported System Profiler/Network/Modems: Diver: MotorolaSM56K.kext (v1.3.2) (should support voice!) System Preferences/Displays/Rotate (Standard, 90, 180 and 270 degrees, allows you to use portrait monitors, only external!) System Preferences/Displays/Gather Windows (moves windows from external screen to internal) System Preferences/Keyboard & Mouse/Keyboard/Modifier Keys: let´s you redirect your modifier keys System Preferences/Sharing/Services: Xgrid System Preferences/Sharing/Internet/Share your connection from: Internal Modem, Built-In Ethernet, Bluetooth, AirPort, Built-In FireWire System Preferences/Sharing/Internet/To computers using: Built-In Ethernet, Built-In FireWire System Preferences/Startup Disk: lets you choose Target Disk Mode System Preferences/Processor

Jazz Festival Vienna 6/28 to 7/29

The Jazz Festival Vienna will feature various artists, among them Ravi Shankar, Diana Ross, Chick Corea, Randy Crawford, Elvis Costello and Bobby McFerrin.

Grolsch Blikbeugel can-to-bottle-converter

Although I don´t like beer cans for environmental reasons, I still like the idea of the beer brewery Grolsch from Netherlands. The Blikbeugel converts a beer can into a bottle, including that old fashioned snap on to close the "bottle". I guess it only works with beer cans from Grolsch, but I will try to get a Blikbeugel ASAP for testing purposes ;-)

Trypod speaker for MP3 players

The Savit Micro Trypod is a 60 grams tripod shaped active speaker that uses an AAA 1.5V battery for up to 10 hours playback time.

Micronet miniDock

Micronet announced the minimate, an IDE harddrive enclosure with two additional USB2 ports and one additional Firewire port, all sized liked the Mac mini itself. Unfortunately it is only available with hard drives from 80 to 400 GBs, but not without a hard drive.

"Champi Chute", a parachute for champagne corks

Champi Chute is a parachute for champagne corks. Available for 10.90 Euros at TOMWET.de. BTW: they also sell lots of USB stuff like aquariums and vacuum cleaners.

Sony MFM-HT75W

Just received a Sony MFM-HT75W for testing purposes. Basically its a WXGA (1280*768) LCD monitor with TV tuner. What makes it truly outstanding is a Sony technology named "X-black". Believe it or not, an X-black LCD looks so much better than any LCD I have seen anywhere! When you look at more than a dozen LCDs at an electronics retailer all in one row, the X-blacks stand out of the "ordinary" LCDs like in the old times the Sony Trinitron TVs among the rest of the world. But beware: there are a lot of Sony LCDs that look just as dull as the ordinary LCDs, these are the Sonys without X-black technology. One big caveat, though: right now X-black is available in some Sony subnotebooks with 10" WXGA up to 19" SXGA LCD monitors, but not bigger. So I will wait for my next 30" LCD monitor/TV until Sony brings X-black to bigger monitors, too.

Brother MFC-620CN arrived

Just got a Brother MFC-620CN plus NC-2200W wireless print server. Its a printer/scanner/fax with built in answering machine and flash card reader/writer. Some small details: it supports USB 2, but only at 12 Mbps, the Compact Flash slot supports only Type 2 cards, so no MicroDrives! Right now it is connected via USB, but I will try the Ethernet and WLAN connectivity, too. Supposedly some options like network scanning don´t work on MacOSX. I will test and see... BTW: the European version does not include the handset shown on the left side of the picture above.

finally a picture of the Panasonic AG-HVX200

Seems to include a DV cassette to record DV and HDV, but for 50 and 100 Mbps recordings you need to use the P2 flash cards.

Panasonic HD camcorder for 6000$

At NAB in Las Vegas Panasonic showed off its new AG-HVX200 camcorder: 3 CCD, 16:9, supports DVCPRO including HD, 1080/60i, 1080/24p, 1080/30p, 720/60p, 720/24p, 720/30p, 480/60i, 480/24p, 480/30p, multi-codec DVCPRO HD, DVCPRO 50, DVCPRO and DV, uses P2 Flash memory up to 4GB (soon 8GB). Price: $5995. Up to now a DVCPRO HD camcorder was not available at less than 60000$.

DVD Video Zoom in MacOS X 10.4

The new "DVD Video Zoom" feature in MacOS X 10.4 let´s you magnify the video image to reduce or eliminate the black letterbox bars that appear on some DVDs while maintaining high video quality. Finally!

burn ISO9660 CDs in MacOS X 10.4...

According to Apple, MacOSX 10.4 can burn CD and DVD disk images for any supported file system. Finally a way to burn standard ISO9660 CDRs for my Vieta MP3 car radio?

MacOS X 10.4 server as Airport base station?

MacOS X 10.4 Server features a "Gateway Setup Assistant" to automatically configure the server as a router. Hopefully it will have support for Airport cards and eventually Bluetooth.

.NET VNC Viewer

There is a .NET VNC Viewer, that could be compatible with the Samsung Nexio XP40, that I mentioned yesterday. The author tested it on Windows, PocketPCs and SmartPhones, and writes, it should work with Windows CE devices with .NET Compact Framework 1.0 installed.

Samsung NEXiO XP40

Just read a preview of the Samsung NEXiO XP40 at InfoSync. Especially the 5" LCD with 800*600 pixels, WLAN and optional Bluetooth would put it way ahead of VGA PocketPCs. If there is a VNC client for it and if the battery life is reasonable, which means for me one long day while using WLAN and Bluetooth quite a lot, this could be my new dream machine. BTW: the image shows the "old" Samsung NEXiO XP30 with WVGA resolution, that was announced last year...

MacOS X 10.4 available April 29th

Tiger and the accompanying server version will ship 4/29. Can´t wait to install it on my new Mac mini.

Flip4Mac plays Windows media in QuickTime player

Telestream announced their WMV player component to play Windows media right in your QuickTime player. More infos should be on their website Flip4Mac, but somehow I could not get a connection to their site...

my Mac mini arrived

On Friday I received my Mac mini from the AppleStore. It was built to order as 1,4GHz/80GB model with additional Bluetooth, AirPortExtreme and international system software. I also bought a 512MB RAM expansion and the DVItoVideo adapter for connecting to a TV. As soon as I receive my new Fujitsu Siemens PocketLoox 720 I will be able to control and view it from the palm of my hand...

FlipStart (re-) design?

Hopefully if the FlipStart will ever be commercially available, Paul Allen´s Vulcan Inc will hire some designers for the exterior case of the FlipStart, too. A portable PC with such wonderful technical specs need not be so ugly as the prototypes, that are shown on their website .

FlipStartPC available 2005?

FlipStart showed a tiny Windows XP computer at Demo2004 in 2/05 and hinted at an availability date of January 2005, which obviously didn´t happen. The specs look very interesting. A size of 14,8*10,1*2,6cm, 450 grams weight, 1GHz CPU, WinXP, QWERTY keyboard, 30GB hard drive, 256MB RAM, 5,6” 1024*600 LCD, 8MB VRAM, 802.11b/g, optional Bluetooth and mobile phone network access modules, USB2. The FlipStart´s lid features an optional control and display unit to allow users to check email, play MP3s or check personal information without having to open up the machine, lithium-ion polymer battery (2-6 hours battery life), internal mic speaker with headphones and ear bud jacks, 1.3MP digital camera.

Google maps with satellite images overlay

Google maps now includes satellite images, too. Now if they included more than one country in the world...

Sony NW-HD5 available 5/05

20GB 299 €, plays MP3 directly (finally!)

40 hour battery runtime, G-sensor technology (no hard disk crash, if it falls down!), plays ATRAC, MP3, WMA, and WAV, aluminium case, available in silver, black and red, 6 band equalizer, 1,5" backlit display with seven lines, readable horizontal and vertical, changeable, rechargeable battery. Headphone, line out, USB and power ports. Chargeable via USB and power adapter. Size: 55.9*89.3*14.4mm, weight 126 grams.

Sony DSC H1 550 €

12 times zoom, 5 megapixel, available June 2005

BTI Tunestir

Battery Technology, Inc. (BTI) intros Tunestir iPod FM receiver/transmitter/remote for 70$.

TypeIt4Me 2.1 for MacOSX

There is a new version of TypeIt4Me for MacOSX. TypeIt4Me expands your abbreviations as you type. YES, it’s like autotext, BUT TypeIt4Me works in ALL applications, not just one. There is a version for Classic, too, which can use the same abbreviations file as the MacOSX version. Cost is 27$. I use it since more than ten years and it is one of my most essential utilities on all my Macs since then.

Solio solar charger

At MacWorld Expo in San Francisco Solio introduced their solar charger with built-in rechargeable battery. Within a few weeks they will introduce a new model, that finally gets rid of their proprietary plugs and will use standard USB connectors to recharge a huge variety of mobile phones, PDAs, MP3 players and all types of electronic gadgets, that can be recharged via USB.

PatchBurn 3.1 for MacOSX is final now

PatchBurn 3.1 is a tool to patch existing CD/DVD-drivers (under Mac-OS X 10.2.x) or to generate and install new device profiles (under Mac-OS 10.3.x and later). It allows many, otherwise unsupported burners to be used directly with Mac-OS X, iTunes and DiscBurner. Absolutely essential!