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	<title>MikeBoylan.com &#187; Apps</title>
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	<link>http://mikeboylan.com</link>
	<description>A collection of thoughts and ideas by yours truly...</description>
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		<title>MagicPrefs Adds a Little More Magic to Apple&#8217;s Magic Mouse</title>
		<link>http://mikeboylan.com/2009/12/magicprefs-adds-a-little-more-magic/</link>
		<comments>http://mikeboylan.com/2009/12/magicprefs-adds-a-little-more-magic/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:37:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mike</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Apple]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Apps]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[magic mouse]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[magicprefs]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://mikeboylan.com/?p=593</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In October, Apple released it&#8217;s newest mouse offering, the Magic Mouse.  I wrote a review of it in November, here.  At first, I was worried that it was a little too low profile, but after about a week or so, my hand got used to it and I&#8217;ve loved it ever since.  The momentum scrolling [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In October, Apple released it&#8217;s newest mouse offering, the Magic Mouse.  I wrote a review of it in November, <a href="http://mikeboylan.com/2009/11/magic-mouse-a-little-too-low-profile/">here</a>.  At first, I was worried that it was a little too low profile, but after about a week or so, my hand got used to it and I&#8217;ve loved it ever since.  The momentum scrolling is phenomenal, and the multi-touch gestures are fantastic.  They make navigating the web extremely easy while the momentum scrolling makes scrolling through large documents a breeze.  The only problem with it, however, is that Apple sort of crippled it when they shipped it.  It only supports a single two-finger gesture out of the box, and very basic, regular one-finger gestures.  The tracking is also incredibly slow.<span id="more-593"></span><a href="http://vladalexa.com/apps/osx/magicprefs/">MagicPrefs</a> is a menu bar application (soon to be a System Preferences pane) developed by Vlad Alexa that was made to solve these problems, plus some.  Here&#8217;s the Apple &#8220;Mouse&#8221; System Prefences Pane for a Magic Mouse:</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-603" title="screen-capture-1" src="http://mikeboylan.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/screen-capture-1.png" alt="" width="524" height="459" />Here&#8217;s what MagicPrefs adds:</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-607" title="magicprefs" src="http://mikeboylan.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/magicprefs.png" alt="" width="523" height="431" />This app makes me wonder why Apple shipped the Magic Mouse so crippled out of the box; It obviously can support a lot more than they enabled by default.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">The app works super well, and it&#8217;s something every Magic Mouse owner should go and install immediately.  Just bringing back the &#8220;middle click&#8221; for Dashboard did it for me.  I&#8217;m sure you&#8217;ll find something incredibly useful for your workflow as well.  Let me know what you think in the comments down below.</p>
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		<title>iPhone Icon Christmas Ornaments</title>
		<link>http://mikeboylan.com/2009/12/iphone-icon-christmas-ornaments/</link>
		<comments>http://mikeboylan.com/2009/12/iphone-icon-christmas-ornaments/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 23 Dec 2009 01:55:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mike</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Apple]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Apps]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[app]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[app-icons]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iPhone]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://mikeboylan.com/?p=566</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[After seeing this post online about plexiglass iPhone app icon ornaments, I knew I wanted a set.  But, I didn&#8217;t want to buy them online from Belgium.  Not to mention, those ones were incredibly small; they were less than 1&#8243; by 1&#8243;.  Working at Fox Chapel Area School District gives me access to a lot [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>After seeing <a href="http://iphonefreakz.com/2009/12/11/iphone-icons-for-the-christmas-tree/">this post online</a> about plexiglass iPhone app icon ornaments, I knew I wanted a set.  But, I didn&#8217;t want to buy them online from Belgium.  Not to mention, those ones were incredibly small; they were less than 1&#8243; by 1&#8243;.  Working at Fox Chapel Area School District gives me access to a lot of incredible technology, including a laser saw.  So I figured, why not try and make a set myself?  I figured it couldn&#8217;t really be that hard&#8230; I just needed to find a high-res photo of an iPhone (thanks, Apple press images), and cut out each icon.<span id="more-566"></span>The process took about two or three days to perfect and several test prints.  The laser saw is able to rasterize rather complex JPGs, but the problem is that the standard iPhone icons just don&#8217;t have a lot of contrast.  They&#8217;re very similar in color and tone throughout.  We (myself and Justin Papariello, a teacher) tried printing just the plain old App Store icon, and it turned out ok.  The problem came with more difficult prints like the Weather icon.  So, as Justin had a day off, I worked on simplifying the icons.  Here&#8217;s what a few of them turned out to look like:</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-567" style="border: 1px solid black;" title="apps" src="http://mikeboylan.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/apps.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="386" />When he returned, I laid them all out in Corel Draw 4 and drew the rounded frame around each one in addition to the hole to put the hook through.  We ran a batch and they turned out pretty well.  Although, some dust from the plexiglass got on the mirrors, so we printed them once more.  The second time around, they turned out perfect.  Here&#8217;s what they look like, laid out:</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-572" style="border: 1px solid black;" title="50266905" src="http://mikeboylan.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/50266905.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="450" /></p>
<p>Yes, I realize I forgot to cut out the center of the 9 on the calendar icon.  Settings and Safari were really hard to do too, so I&#8217;m pleased the laser was even able to rasterize/print them at all.  Overall, I&#8217;m really satisfied.  Here&#8217;s some pictures of them on my tree:</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://mikeboylan.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/51605748-660d87035788de44aec5c35f7d70f6e2.4b317575-full-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="300" style="border: 1px solid black;"/> <img src="http://mikeboylan.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/51605746-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="300" style="border: 1px solid black;"/><br />
<img src="http://mikeboylan.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/51605750-5661893b1b68759bc43f5f9be639aa39.4b317575-full-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="300" style="border: 1px solid black;"/> <img src="http://mikeboylan.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/51605751-7d593ac4f20852f4d1eedabbe4cebc87.4b317576-full.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="300" style="border: 1px solid black;"/></p>
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		<title>Firefox World&#8217;s Most Popular Browser</title>
		<link>http://mikeboylan.com/2009/12/firefox-worlds-most-popular-browser/</link>
		<comments>http://mikeboylan.com/2009/12/firefox-worlds-most-popular-browser/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 22 Dec 2009 04:12:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mike</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Apps]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[firefox]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gigaom]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mozilla]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://mikeboylan.com/?p=558</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[GigaOM is reporting today that Firefox 3.5 has finally surpassed Microsoft Internet Explorer to become the world&#8217;s most popular browser.  All I have to say is: FINALLY!  And congratulations to Mozilla!  Although I&#8217;m a Safari user on my Mac, Firefox is my primary browser on all of my PCs.  It&#8217;s simply phenomenal, and this is [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>GigaOM is reporting today that Firefox 3.5 has finally surpassed Microsoft Internet Explorer to become the world&#8217;s most popular browser.  All I have to say is: FINALLY!  And congratulations to Mozilla!  Although I&#8217;m a Safari user on my Mac, Firefox is my primary browser on all of my PCs.  It&#8217;s simply phenomenal, and this is well deserved.  Kudos, Mozilla &#8211; my hat&#8217;s off to you.</p>
<p><a href="http://gigaom.com/2009/12/21/firefox-3-5-now-worlds-most-popular-browser">Original GigaOM Story</a></p>
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		<item>
		<title>What The Heck, Midnight Apps?</title>
		<link>http://mikeboylan.com/2009/10/what-the-heck-midnight-apps/</link>
		<comments>http://mikeboylan.com/2009/10/what-the-heck-midnight-apps/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:37:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mike</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Apps]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rants]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cha-ching]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[midnight apps]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://mikeboylan.com/?p=300</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A snippet from my comment I posted here. I&#8217;ve been using Cha-Ching since the initial beta giveaway through MacHeist 1.0 years ago. I love the app, both on the iPhone and the Mac, but unfortunately, I have to say I agree with you. I&#8217;ve never been impressed with this &#8220;company&#8221; in terms of release dates [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>A snippet from my comment I posted <a href="http://blog.erikphansen.com/?p=351">here</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>I&#8217;ve been using Cha-Ching since the initial beta giveaway through MacHeist 1.0 years ago.  I  love the app, both on the iPhone and the Mac, but unfortunately, I have to say I agree with you.  I&#8217;ve never been impressed with this &#8220;company&#8221; in terms of release dates or customer support.  They never communicate with their customers, ever.  That blog post almost caused me to have a heart attack.  Cha-Ching 2.0 golden master was supposed to be ready months ago.  Yet, we&#8217;re still stuck with a beta that won&#8217;t even open.  I did exactly what you did &#8211; I rolled back my clock, added yesterday&#8217;s transactions, and exported the file.  I&#8217;m off to a company who actually cares about its customers and doesn&#8217;t give lame ass excused out all the time about how this or that happened.  Midnight Apps has been, and continues to be, a shit magnet.  Sorry, Juan.  I love your app, but you have some serious work to do as a company.  Maybe I&#8217;ll come back someday, but for now, see you later!</p></blockquote>
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		<item>
		<title>Tweetie: A Review</title>
		<link>http://mikeboylan.com/2009/04/tweetie-a-review/</link>
		<comments>http://mikeboylan.com/2009/04/tweetie-a-review/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 22 Apr 2009 02:14:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mike</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Apps]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[atebits]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mac]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tweetie]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[twitter]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://mikeboylan.com/?p=212</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[So on Monday, 4/20, the internet was abuzz (I don&#8217;t do it, but notice the pun there) about a new Twitter client for the Mac called Tweetie.  Tweetie was developed by developer Loren Brichter under his company name, atebits.  What was all the buzz about?  Isn&#8217;t a Twitter client a Twitter client?  What sets one apart [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>So on Monday, 4/20, the internet was abuzz (I don&#8217;t do it, but notice the pun there) about a new Twitter client for the Mac called <a href="http://www.atebits.com/tweetie-mac/" target="_blank">Tweetie</a>.  Tweetie was developed by developer <a href="http://twitter.com/atebits" target="_blank">Loren Brichter </a>under his company name, <a href="http://atebits.com" target="_blank">atebits</a>.  What was all the buzz about?  Isn&#8217;t a Twitter client a Twitter client?  What sets one apart from the other?  Why on earth would anyone pay 20 dollars (15 as an introductory price) for a Twitter client?  Well, when using Tweetie, all of these questions are very easy to answer.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span id="more-212"></span>The first thing one notices when using Tweetie is its absolutely gorgeous user interface.  I&#8217;m not sure if the company is using some sort of core image/core animation integration or if they simply wrote the UI animations themselves, but either way, they&#8217;re beautiful.  The theme of the app fits in perfectly with Mac OS X Leopard and it makes heavy use of OS X&#8217;s keyboard shortcuts, which is a must for any heavy Mac user.  <a href="http://mikeboylan.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/screen-capture1.png" target="_blank">Here is a look at a profile page within Tweetie (my own of course).</a> [I would insert it into this post, but I'm having issues with image insertions.]</p>
<p>So from this picture alone, it&#8217;s very easy to tell that atebits put quite a bit of work into making a nice looking app.  <a href="http://mikeboylan.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/screen-capture-1.png" target="_blank">Here is a look at the main timeline</a>. [Again, image insertion issues.]</p>
<p>Besides simply looking nice, the functionality of the app is incredible.  It makes full use of the Twitter API by allowing users to basically perform every Twitter function such as DMs, @replies, following/unfollowing, and search, all within the app.  In addition, it provides a lot of added functionality that the Twitter website itself does not.  This includes the ability to have URLs automatically shortened, image uploading simply by dragging an image into the compose window, and inline viewing of photos posted by other users.  Personally, my favorite feature is the ability to preview shortened links before they&#8217;re load.  Yes, that truly means no more rick rolling me!</p>
<p>When comparing this app to other Mac Twitter apps such as Twitterrific, it&#8217;s easy to see why this app shines.  Twitterrific was written back when users were using and interacting with Twitter differently than they are now.  Don&#8217;t get me wrong, I used Twitterrific for a long, long time and loved it; It simply didn&#8217;t evolve with the service its meant to interact with.  Twitter was and is changing, the way users are using twitter is changing, so Twitter apps need to make sure they&#8217;re changing and providing added and increased functionality for their users.  Tweetie is absolutely doing that by packing every possible (well, almost every possible &#8211; more on this in a second) feature into a very lightweight, clean, and professionally designed application.</p>
<p>Overall, I&#8217;d rate this app 10/10.  It&#8217;s almost damn near perfect.  My only three complaints/suggestions are these:</p>
<ul>
<li>There is no ability to hide the dock icon.  Whenever hiding a dock icon is OS X, the application loses its menubar, so I can see why the company isn&#8217;t doing this at the moment.  It should, however, be an option in the future.</li>
<li>There is no option to delete a tweet.  This seems like it was most likely a simple oversight on atebit&#8217;s part.  I&#8217;m sure it&#8217;ll be coming soon.</li>
<li>For retweets, there should be an option in the preferences to use the &#8220;RT @username&#8221; style rather than the &#8220;(via @username)&#8221; style.</li>
</ul>
<p>Other than that, this app is excellent.  I think that anyone who uses Twitter on a regular basis and is a Mac user should pick up this app.  It&#8217;s offered in two versions: a free, ad supported version, or the paid version (again, 15 dollars for now, 20 dollars after May 4th).</p>
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