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As fate would have it, I discovered this morning that I’m not able to use my middle finger to click on the mouse, though I can fortunately still use it to type. There go my plans :/
Actually, the one feature that sort of appealed to me was the scroll wheel, just to use it in conjunction with the Control key to zoom in Firefox. It zooms the pictures too, not just the text.
I have always liked using a trackball lefthanded while also using a mouse. I have a good Kensington Orbit tball which was only about 25 bucks. You can program the hell out of it but I haven’t bothered.
I fail to see how a track ball would help me. All I wanted was a damn scroll wheel, not 5, 8 or 16 programmable buttons and additional complications. Anyway, it’s a moot point now.
Simplicity, ease of use but still precise control with trackballs like the Kensington 64213 Expert Pro Mouse. Not the delicacy of a Wacom but large trackballs do not require the careful, delicate touch that a Wacom needs.
If it works for you or not is very personal. Personally I really dislike trackballs – gets my hand all cramped up and the cursor flying all over the place. No precision whatsoever. I know I am not alone about that. Trackballs are not for everyone.
If it works for you or not is very personal. Personally I really dislike trackballs – gets my hand all cramped up and the cursor flying all over the place. No precision whatsoever. I know I am not alone about that. Trackballs are not for everyone.
We can all agree that choice of pointing device is very personal. 🙂 My guess is that the hand-cramping part is also very personal, because the Kensington 64213 Expert Pro Mouse trackball unit I suggested is very large and to my large hands has much less muscle-usage involved than other trackballs, mice or tablets. The large trackball and 4 large click buttons would seem to facilitate usage with a physically impaired hand.
As to no precision that depends on what you are doing. I work with photo images and can easily work a pixel at a time, but IMO for painting trackballs and mice are both poor.
There are those of us (albeit possibly in a minority) who only use mice and who have gotten pretty adept using them over the years for painting (currently a corded Mighty Mouse). It’s very comfortable and intuitive for me, and the squeezable flush side buttons don’t get in the way or get pressed accidently.
However, I will admit that I should probably reevaluate Wacom options for some of my work.
What you might consider is wandering over to a larger computer-goods store and "test driving" the mice they offer. I suspect that comfort, location of the controls and shape are going to be a determining factor.
I don’t want more buttons than two, nor squeezable sides, nor a wireless mouse (unless it doesn’t require batteries ).
Still, don’t rule out the Mighty Mouse. For me, it’s a comfortable size and shape in my hand with good positioning of the buttons and multidirectional scroll wheel. Left click, right click and scroll fall neatly in the "right" places for me. And I don’t even know the flush side buttons are there until I want to use them — (you don’t even have to configure them).
For me, who have small hands, using a trackball is like trying to stear with a shoe on the table…(like some the huge multi-buttoned Microsoft mice I’ve seen). I’m definitely a mouse-person, but not every mouse is comfortable (I’m one of the few who actually liked the small round one which came with the very first iMacs if anyone remember those). In my case I use a Mighty Mouse and am very comfortable with it. I do have a Wacom too but seldom use it. I use a mouse for my Mac Book Alu as well as I don’t get along with the trackpad either (no real control over where or what it does). Point is, everyone has to test-drive the different steering-devices and feel how comfortable, or not, it is before deciding on what to use.
The Mighty Mouse works well for me, and after 20 years of using an Apple Mouse I can’t remember ever having any sign of injury or distress in my hand. I use the Wacom when needed for more intense touch up work but when it comes to everyday use, it would slow me down. A simple Apple mouse and keyboard keeps me going at a great pace.
Yes the nipple mouse is one of the worst contributions Apple have made for a while. Other bad decisions recently – over-glossy screens on Powerbooks and Imacs.
Absolutely no problems with the Mighty Mouse — other than on a few occasions it had to be flipped over and tapped a few times to clear crud buildup. (Just never use the ball with dirty fingers.) <g>
Absolutely no problems with the Mighty Mouse — other than on a few occasions it had to be flipped over and tapped a few times to clear crud buildup. (Just never use the ball with dirty fingers.) <g>
But choice of pointing device IS fairly personal!
On the other hand, the deletion of the 23" HD Cinema Display from the Apple catalog (replaced by a glossy 24" display — for which there is currently no adapter to make it work with desktop Macs!) is a mistake.
On the other hand, the deletion of the 23" HD Cinema Display from the Apple catalog (replaced by a glossy 24" display — for which there is currently no adapter to make it work with desktop Macs!) is a mistake.
No kidding. A mistake indeed. I wonder what it’s intended to work with.
Neil, Do you think there might be changes in store for Apple regarding the towers?
I have to say, after upgrading to CS4 and even LR2.2 my G5 Quad is painfully slow. I am now wondering if I should just get it all off my computer and go back to earlier versions or if I need to consider upgrading to a MacPro. Sigh!
Do you think there might be changes in store for Apple regarding the towers?
Umm, of course; when no one can say. I will be surprised if new MPs are not announced H1 2009, perhaps demo’d optimizing with Snow Leopard.
Existing MPs remain excellent and we are in a major recession if not a depression. Appropriate new tech is available and I do expect new MPs with 50+% improved performance in H1 2009 but the delay to date is understandable, even if just because of the economic environment.
On Monday, Intel dropped prices on existing desktop Quad-Core processors and introduced three new power-efficient Quad-Core desktop processors: Intel also introduced three power-efficient quad-core chips with the "s" moniker. The Core 2 Quad Q9550s processor includes 12MB of L2 cache, runs at 2.83GHz and draws 65 watts of power. The chips are priced at $369. The chip is power-efficient version of the Core 2 Quad Q9550 chip, which draws 95 watts of power.
Intel also introduced the Core 2 Quad Q9400s processor, which runs at 2.66GHz, and the Core 2 Quad Q8200s, which runs at 2.33GHz. This chips are priced at $320 and $245 respectively.
According to a report from November, Apple was said to be specifically waiting for these Quad-Core processors to launch new machines.
While the overdue iMac still seems the most likely target, such a move would break Apple’s tradition of using mobile processors in their iMac line. Despite their "power efficient" designation, the new processors still use significantly more power than their mobile counterparts currently found in the iMac.
While there has been some speculation that Apple may have reworked the cooling module in the new iMac, there is no evidence that this is actually true.
Comparing iMac with 17" MacBook Pro. Looks like the new MBPro takes 8GB of RAM whereas the current iMac takes only 4GB. I wonder if the new iMac will increase it’s RAM capacity.
As for new MacPro towers, I would hope that they are not too far off. I’d like to migrate beyond my nearly 4-year-old G5 Dual 1.8 into a new tower that is not already a year old.
Fortunately, I’m not involved in day-in/day-out heavy production work where seconds saved can meaningfully accumulate over an 8-hour day. But there are parts of Photoshop (as well as other Adobe apps) that I cannot run due to both video card and/or CPU. It ain’t gonna get better.
Do you have any thoughts on the possible release of the next iMac?
Yes. IMO iMacs are poor choices for graphics professionals. IMO on the low end used/refurb MPs are far preferable to iMacs with their built-in engineering compromises and their glossy displays.
As to when iMacs upgrade it is a guess because with the recession/depression Apple is not following predictable upgrade paths.
An external 1TB HD would be the quickest and cheapest way of doing that.
Just back-up everything to one giant External and reformat your Boot Drive.
To save a lot of time and trouble you might try Superdupering your Mac OSX files back to the reformatted drive and doing an Archive and Install followed by a Combo Update.
Then re-install your major applications from their original disks; and leave off all the bits and bobs and "free" web-downloaded programs and fonts that you may have accumulated?!!
Neil, It sounds like you are long overdue for an upgrade.
As for backup, I guess I should have made myself more clear. I do believe have enough backup space on my external drives. But what I need is a backup machine to keep working on while I’m in the process of wiping my G5 clean and reinstalling everything. In other words, I would have two setups side-by-side, with the iMac continuing my client jobs.
However, I don’t just want an iMac for this purpose. My main purpose for this is to use in my client welcoming room for when I work with the client. This has been a long term goal that I’ve been slowly working to achieve for probably well over a year. Now the room is pretty much ready other than a few pieces of furniture I plan to replace down the road; I just need the iMac to use in that room. I’ve considered a 17" MB Pro but the price tag gets pretty high and the processor is not as fast.
But what I need is a backup machine to keep working on while I’m in the process of wiping my G5 clean and reinstalling everything.
The whole operation can be done in under 3 hours in a single evening it really is not a big deal!
You don’t have to wait until you have the iMac because you can’t be working on client files and doing a System clean-up at the same time anyway because both tasks need your total concentration!
If you don’t have a 1TB external, and don’t want to wait for Fedex, you can pick up one for peanuts at the nearest Staples.
One reminder here (OK, for any new drive) is to first optimize the drive for Macintosh by reformatting it with Disk Utility (generally "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" — particularly if the drive is marked "formatted for Macintosh and Windows" or if it is Windows only.
UNLESS you have just bought one of those LaCie LaCinema Premier Multimedia Hard Drives and want to use it to store images and AV material to be displayed on a HDTV in which case you MUST keep it in FAT32 format.
Thanks for the reminder Neil. It’s been a while since I’ve done this.
Ann, Your new gadget sounds nice, and might come in handy down the road, for the new TV. I am discovering that the Apple TV box is very limited, and not sure how useful it will be to me other than downloading movies from iTunes… something I am not that into.
I ended up ordering a 16 foot HDMI Cable so I can hook my laptop directly to the TV and use the TV as a second monitor for clients.
My Vizio HDTVs have a native resolution that is not on my displays list and that I have never seen anywhere else some crazy thing like 1320×768 or numbers like that.
My Vizio HDTVs have a native resolution that is not on my displays list and that I have never seen anywhere else some crazy thing like 1320×768 or numbers like that.
Lundberg, Do you have problems with distortion when viewing images from your computer on your TV?
I ended up ordering a 16 foot HDMI Cable so I can hook my laptop directly to the TV and use the TV as a second monitor for clients.
I hope you didn’t fall for "Monster" cable’s marketing. Don’t get me wrong — Monster cables are very good. But there is absolutely no reason to pay their prices without a shotgun held to your head. Dealers love ’em because after the razor-thin margins on the new hi-def sets, they count on high-margin cables and unnecessary multiyear warranty and service plans and installations to make their "real" profits.
That said, I’m VERY fussy about my TV picture. (I got kidded about spending time fine-tuning the color just short of buying a calibrator for it.) But if I’m going to watch it, it better look good! And I want no surprises when putting some of my photos up on the screen.
So I’ve bought a number of very high-quality HDMI (and other cables) from monoprice.com. They’re reliable, good quality, and cheap. How about current-standard 6′ 24-gauge HDMI cables with gold connectors for under $10? And similar 16′ cables for about $20? (…plus realistic ground shipping charges.) And they’ve got a sliding price scale that starts when you buy more than one! Also, monoprice.com has very good deals on category 6 network cables, plus audio and video cables.
(No, I neither work for ’em nor get a commission on sales leads!) <g>
I ended up ordering a 16 foot HDMI Cable so I can hook my laptop directly to the TV and use the TV as a second monitor for clients.
I hope you didn’t fall for "Monster" cable’s marketing. Don’t get me wrong — Monster cables are very good. But there is absolutely no reason to pay their prices without a shotgun held to your head. Dealers love ’em because after the razor-thin margins on the new hi-def sets, they count on high-margin cables and unnecessary multiyear warranty and service plans and installations to make their "real" profits.
That said, I’m VERY fussy about my TV picture. (I got kidded about spending time fine-tuning the color just short of buying a calibrator for it.) But if I’m going to watch it, it better look good! And I want no surprises when putting some of my photos up on the screen.
So I’ve bought a number of very high-quality HDMI (and other cables) from monoprice.com. They’re reliable and cheap. How about current-standard 6′ 24-gauge HDMI cables with gold connectors for under $10? And similar 16′ cables for about $20? (…plus realistic ground shipping charges.) And they’ve got a sliding price scale that starts when you buy more than one! Also, monoprice.com has very good deals on category 6 network cables, plus audio and video cables.
(No, I neither work for ’em nor get a commission on sales leads!) <g>
Mine was $6.49 (including shipping) for a 10-footer HDMI by Eforcity from SFPlanet via Amazon.com
I bought 3 6-ft versions of those – all 3 gave me problems with dropped audio/video. I’m not advocating buying the expensive cables but not all "cheap" is created equal.
Linda- What is it that you’re wanting to do with the ATV where you feel it’s limited? Keep in mind I don’t have one, but you should be able to stream images/video from a computer to your TV with it, which I thought was your main goal.
I did some homework here before buying, as I was determined not to get burned by "monster" prices and fancy packaging. Audio/video publication testing departments, independent testimonials, and other sources pointed me towards monoprice.com’s cables. Some of the really cheap cables that are of finer gauge wire (monoprice.com’s are a hefty 24-gauge), or are poorly shielded or built should be avoided. I haven’t had any problems with any of the half-dozen monoprice cables I bought and tested.
The only downside (if you gotta know) is that the cables are fairly hefty and stiff, so you’re not going to be doing very small radius right angle bends. This has not proven to be a problem for me.
I did some homework here before buying, as I was determined not to get burned by "monster" prices and fancy packaging. Audio/video publication testing departments, independent testimonials, and other sources pointed me towards monoprice.com’s cables.
Distributors of the really cheap cables that are of finer gauge wire (monoprice.com’s are a hefty 24-gauge), or are poorly shielded or built should be avoided. I haven’t had any problems with any of the half-dozen monoprice cables I bought and tested with 1080i or 1080p content, including high-quality broadcast TV and Blu-ray discs.
The only downside (if you gotta know) is that the cables are fairly hefty and stiff, so you’re not going to be doing very small radius right angle bends. This has not proven to be a problem for me.
I hope you didn’t fall for "Monster" cable’s marketing. Don’t get me wrong — Monster cables are very good. But there is absolutely no reason to pay their prices without a shotgun held to your head. Dealers love ’em because after the razor-thin margins on the new hi-def sets, they count on high-margin cables and unnecessary multiyear warranty and service plans and installations to make their "real" profits.
My first 8-foot cable I bought from the Apple Store. Can’t remember what I paid for that one.
Then I ordered a 16-foot cable as well as a 12-foot cable through Amazon.com. They are all Belkin and I ordered them based on the ratings they got at Amazon.com. Based on what I’m reading here I probably did pay too much. The 16-foot cable was $42.55. The 12-foot cable was $22.40.
That said, I’m VERY fussy about my TV picture. (I got kidded about spending time fine-tuning the color just short of buying a calibrator for it.) But if I’m going to watch it, it better look good! And I want no surprises when putting some of my photos up on the screen.
Good for you Neil! I might experiment using my calibrator once I hook the TV up to my laptop as a monitor.
So I’ve bought a number of very high-quality HDMI (and other cables) from monoprice.com. They’re reliable and cheap. How about current-standard 6′ 24-gauge HDMI cables with gold connectors for under $10? And similar 16′ cables for about $20? (…plus realistic ground shipping charges.) And they’ve got a sliding price scale that starts when you buy more than one! Also, monoprice.com has very good deals on category 6 network cables, plus audio and video cables.
Wow! Guess I should have posted before placing my order. These are great prices. Then again, Phil’s experience makes me feel a little better about my purchases.
Mine was $6.49 (including shipping) for a 10-footer HDMI by Eforcity from SFPlanet via Amazon.com.
That’s also a great price Ann.
Linda- What is it that you’re wanting to do with the ATV where you feel it’s limited? Keep in mind I don’t have one, but you should be able to stream images/video from a computer to your TV with it, which I thought was your main goal.
I am still trying to figure it out Phil. At this point I’ve been able to stream music from my laptop and G5, but have had trouble getting pictures up. I need more time to play with iPhoto I guess.
I was hoping that I could record programs off the TV onto the ATV but doesn’t appear that I can do this. It seems the only thing you can do is buy or rent programs and movies through iTunes.
So I downloaded one movie from iTunes just to see how it worked.
Added note: I was also hoping the ATV would act like a normal hard drive, where you could copy files to and from. It doesn’t appear to be so though, unless I try hooking up a cable direct to my computer, which I’ve not tried yet.
I can’t drive the native resolution of my Vizios trhough their RGB connector with any of my Macs and I can’t imagine any computer that could, so driving it with any other would be pointless. As I said before in another thread, the purpose of HD is to drive the 16:9 format not to provide a photo quality display. At best the resolution is 50% better if you can achieve it.
I’m getting the Australian Open on ESPN2 HD. I cranked the Sharpness control all the way up. BTW, the max setting is 7. 7? What is this, "Spinal Tap"? Depending on which camera the ESPN folks are using, you can just see the improvement. I don’t know what type of cameras broadcast crews use now, but the best picture I see is about equal to a well lit studio image orthicon image from the old days. Vidicon cameras are cheaper, lighter, adequate for normal broadcast, but Image orthicon cameras have inherent "aperture correction" similar to USM, because of the charge response of the scan beam. Vidicons are resistive and do not provide a native edge effect.
Just a quick OT note: I don’t follow all of your last paragraph. But, while [Time-Warner] does deliver up to 1080i signals, which can be stunningly realistic on a carefully set up 1080p HDTV, it’s not perfect. Stadium games can have a true "you are there" feeling. There is still a lot of soft, edge-enhanced 480i content intermixed, especially on news broadcasts, but turning up the sharpness all the way is not the answer to a better picture. Also note that some "hi-def" stations broadcast at 720p.
No, I don’t have problems, because I read the book first.
Also, for those of you doing science at home, apparent resolution, which is a combination of recognition and crispness, recognition begins at three line pairs per target height, so the vertical is very important. 720i is not so hot.
The LaCie LaCinema is a transportable device which can be used to store and play a variety of AV, Music and Image files on a TV.
It comes with its own Remote and most (but not all!) of the necessary cables for connection to either a computer or any kind of TV Screen.
The fact that it will also act as an extra back-up storage device is just an added bonus.
Firewire would have been nice but, possibly because it is designed to dual-platform, LaCie probably thought that FWD was not needed and USB2 isn’t that slow.
Thanks to a nifty gearhead working at Google <http://code.google.com/p/macfuse/>, we can now freely read/write NTFS and even read/write FTP from Finder.
That is not exactly relevant to the LaCie LaCinema because the instructions specifically state that reformatting it in other than FAT 32 will make any material recorded onto it unplayable on a TV which is the main purpose of this device (which has its own Remote to control TV Playback).
——-
Regarding my 1 TB WD MyBook: Mine is a FWD 800 model.
You are misreading the manual. The instructions are to not format to HFS as it will not play video out. It will work fine as NTFS or FAT32. If you enable read/write for NTFS on your Mac, you can make much better use of that drive.
I will. I am just starting to make and install some test files on it and will hopefully have a chance to see how it works with a HDTV over this weekend.
Jim:
LaCie clearly state that the ONLY viable option when using the LaCinema Premier from a Mac (or with both platforms interchangeably) is to format (or re-format via Disk Utility) this particular device as FAT32.
I find their Manual perfectly clear:
Use NTFS if… ….you will be using the drive only with Windows 2000 or Windows XP (performance will generally be greater when compared to FAT 32). This file system is compatible in read only mode with Mac OS 10.3 and higher. Maximum single file size is not limited.
Use FAT 32 (MS-DOS) if… ….you will be using your drive with both Windows and Mac OS 9.x or 10.x or sharing the drive between Windows 2000, XP or Vista and 98 SE. Maximum single file size is 4GB.
I’m sure you do. It is a different matter for the rest of us that read English. 🙂
One page for Windows users says (p29):
Important Info: The drive should not be reformatted to a file system other than FAT32 or NTFS. If the drive is formatted in a different format (such as HFS+), files will NOT appear on your television screen.
The next page for Windows users removes the mention of NTFS:
Important Info: The drive should not be reformatted to a file system other than FAT 32. If the drive is formatted in a non-FAT32 format (such as HFS+), files will NOT appear on your television screen.
Windows cannot format HFS so why does LaCie bother with such nonsense?
Page 31, for Mac users shows that you can format as either NTFS or FAT32:
Important Info: The drive should not be reformatted to a file system other than FAT 32. If the drive is formatted in a non-FAT32 format (such as HFS+), files will NOT appear on your television screen.
….But a default Mac system cannot format NTFS, so once again… why does LaCie bother with such nonsense in their manual?
So are you going to trust LaCie’s ‘ONLY viable option’ or are you going to make sense of MacFuse <http://code.google.com/p/macfuse/>? What part of ‘[NTFS] performance will generally be greater when compared to FAT 32’ is not understood?
You are behaving like a sanctimonious twit and your input concerning the LaCinema (which I don’t believe that you own nor have you even seen one?!) is neither germane nor useful to Mac Users.
Ann, you are behaving like a sanctimonious twit and your input concerning MacFuse (which I don’t believe that you have ever used?!) is neither germane nor useful to anyone.
This IS a Mac Forum in case you hadn’t notice
This is why I recommended Mac software so that one could optimally use a drive formatted as NTFS. Why would a ‘Professional’ like yourself want to limit yourself to FAT32?
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