I have three primary computers that I use daily, my shitty XP notebook at work and my 12″ PowerBook and iMac at home. It has always been a struggle trying to keep files that I use current and accessible across all computers. I’ve used FTP, USB drives and even e-mail in an attempt to preempt what files I want to have access to later on another machine. That is up until a few days ago when I found Dropbox.
Dropbox is a very smart little application that takes the pain and effort out of synchronizing files between multiple computers (both PC and Mac with Linux coming in the future).
Currently in beta, Dropbox gives users 2GB of space online to store your files, music, photos, whatever you want. The Dropbox application is installed on each computer you want to have access to your Dropbox and you’re ready to go. By dropping your files into the Dropbox folder they are automatically uploaded online for safe keeping.
Using multiple computers with Dropbox is a synch as everything is taken care of in the background with your computer checking for updates and downloading any new files or changes made automatically. The guys at Dropbox have also considered your network usage with Dropbox only ever using 70% of your bandwidth so your web browsing etc will never be disrupted. Thanks guys!
Where Dropbox shines is how it manages changes to your files. Unlike editing files locally where once you have made a change to and saved a file it is difficult to revert back to an earlier revision. Dropbox will keep online each revision of said file allowing you to see when and who made the last changes. If for some reason you wish to go back to an earlier version it’s as simple as logging onto the Dropbox web interface and restoring the version of file that you’re after.
All in all for a product that is still in beta I have had no problems at all with it and have been very impressed with the current features and look forward to see what develops in the future.
If you would like to check it out and need an invite please leave a comment and hopefully an invite will find it’s way to you.
Apple have just updated their AirPort Express so that it now comes with 802.11n bringing it inline with all of Apple’s other wireless products.
If you’re not familiar with the AirPort Express it’s a wireless router about the size of the MacBook / MacBook Pro power pack (very small) that allows you to share your internet connection and files with up to 10 users. Connect a printer to the USB port and it can also act as a print server allowing anyone on the network to print wirelessly.
Already have an AirPort Extreme or Time Capsule? The AirPort Express can extend your wireless coverage via WDS.
One of the cool features and used most by yours truly is AirTunes. Plug in a set of speakers or a stereo and they will show up in iTunes allowing you to play songs from you PC or Mac wirelessly. This is great when your music library is in the study but you want to rock out in the living room. Plus with the addition of 3rd party software such as AirFoil you can also stream the audio from any application. Nice.
In what has been a long time coming the update could not come any sooner for myself as my original AirPort Express died only last week. Did Apple kill my beloved AirPort on purpose? Possibly. Either way I’m now in the market for a replacement and a couple of these will do just nicely for when I move house in a couple of months where I will have a large amount of area to cover wirelessly and for the bargain price of .$129.00 (used to be $149.00) you cannot get a better 802.11n product.
http://www.apple.com/au/airportexpress/
Alright it’s game time and no I’m not talking about Shitbloke’s table tennis challenge.
The Game On exhibition has now begun at the ACMI @ Melbourne’s Federation square. While most gaming events are usually held in Sydney, we have been particularly lucky lately to have had a couple (Egames & now Game On) hosted right here on our doorsteps.
As I’m particularly lazy today, I’ve decided to just paste some details right from the ACMI website.
Details
Thursday 6th March – Sunday 13th July
Open daily 10am – 6pm, Late night Thursdays until 9pm
Full $15 Concession $10 Buy Tickets Online
Family (2 Adults, 2 Children) $44
Get ready for Melbourne’s must-see exhibition of 2008 – the action-packed pant wetting celebration of games culture that has thrilled over one million players geeks of all ages around the world. Game On tracks the development of videogames from the first computer game to arcade-era hits and the very latest from today’s billion dollar industry.
Original illustrations by Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto and concept sketches behind classics like Tomb Raider and Grand Theft Auto provide unique insight into the creative process of game development. Rarely-seen consoles, controllers, arcade machines, packaging and collectibles are brought together in a showcase of game history like no other.
Personally I can’t wait to try my hand at some classic nostalgic games and look forward to getting my hands on the craptacular failure that was the Nintendo game glove. I’ve just gotta remember to bring some nose plug as I’m sure this event will have the unwashed masses crawling out of their lairs (just like the swap meets).
While the Apple Wireless Keyboard has been around for a little while now (released August 7, 2007) I’ve only just purchased one to team up with my MacBook and existing wireless Mighty Mouse.
As with any other Apple product this is one sexy ass keyboard. It’s something that Apple has now got to a tee: Take the ordinary and make it badass.
The Apple Wireless Keyboard is smaller than the standard keyboard as the numeric keypad has been cut off making the width much smaller and improving the overall portability. It is thiner than most contestants on America’s Next Super Model and looks better too. It fits very well on my lap between my knees and is a pleasure to type on (ironically as I type this on my MacBook the wireless keyboard is sitting next to me on the couch).
Connection is via Bluetooth and if you have a Mac then setting it up is a piece of cake and as with most Apple products ‘it just works’. There doesn’t appear to be any noticeable lag when typing and when not in use smartly conserves power. Obviously this keyboard is designed to be used with a Mac with controls for screen brightness, Expose, Dashboard, iTunes (a very nice addition) and volume positioned across the function keys.
There are not many negatives for such a simple and well designed product but I could see some people getting frustrated with the lack of height adjustment that you may find on other keyboards as the keyboard is one solid unit.
I do have one gripe that I need to voice: Where the hell is the Apple key?! Shit, this is an Apple product made for Macs yet someone has taken away that sweet little apple with a bite taken out of it and replaced it with the word ‘command’. How very boring and no longer can I tell people that to copy and paste you use ‘Apple C’ and ‘Apple V’
Pros: Size, design, function keys and ease of use.
Cons: Height not adjustable, Apple key removed.
Fresh from CES, Belkin has me all excited with the announcement of their Podcast Studio for iPod.
Using the iPod for storage this promising device docks with your iPod (3G Nano, 5G iPod or Classic only) and provides you with a very mobile recording studio.
Equipped with an internal mic and speaker you also have the ability to plug in two 3.5mm mics or a more professional XLR mic. Running off 2 x AAA batteries will provide 2 hours of recording and also conserve the battery on your iPod allowing you to continue using your iPod once finished recording.
Sporting features such as a recording meter, gain control and compressor/limiter lead us to believe that this will be a very powerful and useful tool for podcasters out in the field.
Recording is done via the iPods voice recording feature and is captured in .wav format and imported into iTunes the next time you sync your iPod ready to be mixed and edited.
Expected to be released in June 2008 for the very impressive price of $99.99 US (compared to it’s competitors although aimed more at professionals) this will hopefully be a very useful tool for the up and coming podcaster.
Via wired.com and engadget.com
Yes my Mac arrived yesterday and I spent the next few hours setting up my new desktop and getting to know my new Mac. Now I will be putting up a full review of the Mac Mini soon however I just wanted to give a few first impressions.
- It is hard to find good free software people seem to like paying for Mac software. On a PC you can find most things for free for example I have been trying to find something like Windows Live Writer one of the best blogging tools around. The Mac has Ecto however you must pay to get this. Live writer is free so looks like I am still going to need to have a copy of Windows running via parallels. If you know of any good blogging tools for Mac that are free please let me know.
- Speed – The Mac is fast very fast applications like Azureus load up and run without taking all my computing power. This could be to do with the fact that the mini is not 4 years old like my old PC but I like to think it is the unix nature of the Mac. Moving files from a removable USB to the Mac hard dive is Much Much faster then on Vista. Vista was bad at this simple task but in Leopard is seems to be at least 4 times faster then on Vista.
- Look and Feel – applications on the Mac just generally look good. The MSN client that I am using looks nice much better then crappy MSN live or whatever they call it.
- Quiet – As the Mac mini is almost a laptop it is very quiet and this is a big benefit over my old PC that I had to turn off if I had guests stay over as it was very loud.
- Size – the mini is very small so small I would say it is smaller than the power supply for my old PC.
So this is all I have for now. Please feel free to comment on some Apps that you think I need on my Mac and please let me know if you can think of any good blogging tools that are like live writer and are free for the Mac.
The fourth catagory in the ‘Best Of’ awards is for the gadget/hardware of the year.
Before I begin I have to admit that i’m rather biased in this area as I’ve recently brought myself a new Asus eeepc laptop. For those that are unaware it’s basically the smallest and cheapest laptop on the market weighing in just under a 1 Kg and only costing $500. I’m actually writing up this post on my eeepc at the moment and I’ll give a proper review of it in a later post but at the moment I would say that this is my gadget of the year.
Other contenders for this award would have to include everything in the new ipod range (bar the shitty shuffle). In case you’ve been living under a rock for the last year Apple announced their new lineup of ipod products in September. Obviously the biggest product was the iphone which is still set to come out in Australia but the rumours are that it will be released through Telstra. I have seen an imported one in action and must say they look pretty sweet and come close to toppling the Blackberry off it’s podium as being the #1 multimedia phone.
The other major addition in the Apple lineup was the multifunction iTouch, which offers a touch screen (duh) and a WiFi connection that allows you to surf the net and peruse the itunes store. Unfortunately the slow web browser and inclusion of only 16Gb of space probably limits this model from being the definitive ipod model. Apple also updated the classic range (80Gb or 160Gb) and the ipod Nano (4Gb, 8Gb) with new looks and the ability to play videos. As I stated in my review the 80Gb version is definitely a fine gadget if you don’t need WiFi.
This year other tech releases revolved around the world of HD movies. As the Blueray and HD war heated up a whole range of DVD players were release from Pioneer (blue), Toshiba (HD) and Sony (blue).Until a winner is decided its hard to tell which format to choose but thankfully Samsung and LG both offer players that allow playback of both HD and Blueray discs. While must people wont won’t fork out for these expensive players ($900 – ~$1600) the Playstation 3 is the cheapest option on the market with its built in Blueray reader.
A worldwide shortage of PS3 consoles caused an inlflux of ridiculous priced units on eBay (Avrg $1000) and pushed the Australian release date back to March. The initial steep price of $830 (20Gb) or $999 (60Gb) and the lackluster range of release titles ended up making it the lowest selling console in the 3rd quarter period with only ~27k units sold compared to ~40k for the xbox360 and ~6k for the wii . While the PS3′s price has since dropped to $700 it also discarded a couple of USB ports, its memory card reader, it’s ability to play PS2 games and they also stripped back the hard drive to 40Gb. While the PS3 obviously has a lot of ground to make up it will be interesting how it will preform in the coming year.
I also have to briefly mention another couple of gadgets that I know my friends have been getting good milage out. These include the professional snowball microphone which Count Knuckles has been using for the hundredpennies podcast and the Belkin N1 vision 4 port wireless router which gets points for its futuristic innovative display and ipod looking asthetics.
If there’s any other gadgets that have caught your attention send me a comment.
1. Asus: eeePC
2. Apple: iPhone
3. Apple: iTouch
4. Apple: iPod Nano
5. Apple: iPod
Classic
6. Playstation 3
7. Samsung: BD-UP5000 HD/Blueray combo drive
8. Blue: Snowball USB microphone
9. Belkin: N1 vision 4 port wireless router
Yesterday I was reading an article (Clicky) in the New York Times about a new genetic service that is being offered in America. There is a company called 23andMe that will analyse your DNA via a saliva sample and then use this information to genotype your chromosomes and determine your SNPs (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms).
For the laymen out there (sorry if I sound pretentious, but I work in the molecular biology field), it’s basically a service where you can google search your genes and figure out which mutations you have and what those effects may be on you. An example of this is that there may be a certain mutation in a gene that is linked to taste. People with this mutation may therefore enjoy a certain food more than those without it (for me its definitely sugar). Other genetic predispositions that can be screened for include weight, IQ and health.
An odds calculator can also use your genetic information to determine which medical conditions you may be likely to face in the future and which ones you may pass onto your children. Another feature of this service include the global similarity map which determines how genetically similar you are to people around the world. It can even give you information about how you may related to people in areas such as history, favorite foods, music, languages, and even pets.
Possibilities similar to 23andme’s services are seen in the sci-fi movie Gattaca and it’s genetic application’s like this that originally got me excited about science in the first place. Anyway the article’s very well written and is easy to understand so give it a read. Unfortunately it’s only available in the States at the moment but it’s probably only a matter of time before you can order a saliva kit (mmm tasty) and use this service over here.
Today after work I attended the E-Games 07 exhibition on at the Melbourne exhibition centre. What I will say is that it was very similar to last year and was around the same size. I would say that if you have a Wii and are interested in the up coming games then it might be worth having a look around. I did see Mario Galaxy and I must say it does look good and I look forward to getting my hands on this game in the next few days.
Nintendo had the most on show this year with a large number of Wii games. I did not spend a lot of time at the show as had just finished work and really wanted to have a beer. I spent some time with the PS3 and got to see Assassins creed in action and I must say it does look spectacular. The only 360 game that I had a look at that was not out was Mass Effect and this also looked great and I think it will be a big seller heading into Christmas.
Other games to check out if you attend are Sing Star for the PS3 if you are into that. On the Wii you can see the Wii Zapper in action with the link’s crossbow game.
Overall I would say not to go to this event especially if you are an Xbox person as not much was on show for the 360 that won’t be out next week.
Rock On.
With the announcement of Xbox games being added to the arcade with the next dashboard update along came the thoughts of achievements. The news today however is that Achievements will not be included in the xbox games due to the following reason “In order to preserve the integrity of the original gaming experience they provide, they will have the features available at the time of their initial release.”
This is sad news for us who wanted to play some classic games and have the Xbox 360 fun of getting achievements. The only game I really want on the Xbox is Mashed with multiplayer so with the news that they will have the original features does this mean they will not be playable on Xbox Live? I hope not.
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