“The desktop component, previously available exclusively for Windows, is created to enable Wallet users to easily manage and arrange their sensitive data in a more convenient way, on a bigger screen and with a bigger keyboard. The Mac version of this software provides users with capabilities of editing data, syncing it with an iPhone or an iPod touch over Wi-Fi, as well as syncing every wallet with Google mailbox. It can also be synchronized with Windows Mobile and Symbian versions of SPB Wallet if the devices are connected via USB in Mass Storage mode.”

The OS X version of SPB Wallet is $14.95, but like most all SPB products can be used for a 15-day free trial. This is a bit of software that I used to install on every one of my devices, much like eReader and a few other utilities. If you’re looking for a place to securely store and carry personal info, I recommend taking a look at SPB Wallet.

Near as I can tell, there’s some sort of clip in the battery slot of the Apple keyboard. And apparently, I lost it. Or it was never there. I can’t be sure. I do know that several folks had the exact same symptoms, and not just with keyboards that sat around for year. Some folks got a low battery warning, replaced their batteries and the keyboard never turned on again. It’s as if the keyboard went into a coma.

As I continued to read through the support discussion, someone suggested a small wad of tin foil be placed in the battery housing. I snickered and continued down the thread. And then I saw someone say that the tin foil worked. Then more people chimed in with similar success. I stopped laughing after the first few reports.

So of course, I shuffled down to the kitchen for some tin foil. I created a small ball about the size of a pea using the aluminum foil and then dropped it into the empty battery slot of the keyboard. I followed the metallic spit ball with three batteries and sealed the housing — the green power light immediately lit up. O.M.G.!!!

Perhaps the metal contact spring was “de-sprung” by having immobile batteries for a year. Or maybe it slowly bends over time. I have no idea. All I know is that a pea-sized ball of aluminum foil saved me from making another trip to buy a new keyboard. Go figure!

“The free Orb application and service enable the streaming of any media type from computers running Windows or the Mac OS, to any other Internet-connected device including laptops, mobile phones, and even TVs connected to a game console.  Users can enjoy all their music, photos, video and webcams anywhere, anytime, without first having to download content before they leave the house, or upload anything to the cloud.  All media stays on the computer and is streamed directly to the remote device.  Unlike other mobile services that ‘trick’ iTunes into downloading titles to non-Apple devices, Orb for Mac simply streams the content over the Internet.”

I’ve used Orb since 2005, and it’s a solid product for those on the go. My most current usage is to stream music from my Windows Home Server directly to my iPhone and Palm Pre, but it can be handy for many other situations as well. In the past, I was streaming recorded television content from a Windows Media Center computer over the web. Orb says that there’s no television tuner support in this first version, but it plans to add such functionality in a future version. I’ll definitely have to look into the webcam bit because the Orb press release says it can stream from a “webcam feed in iTunes.” Last I checked, my cats didn’t have a webcam feed in iTunes, but maybe I can set one up for them so I can spy on them. You can grab the download here, even if you don’t have a webcam feed.

This is all part of a little ergonomic redesign of my workspace, because I’ve been having neck, back and arm pain lately. Just today I took delivery of an ergonomic chair, which should help. And I’m looking into a new desk that’s fully adjustable as well. The problem is: I hate to give up the multitouch gestures on my MacBook, and for that reason alone, I wanted to see how much “magic” that Apple’s new mouse can give me.

In no particular order, here are my thoughts after spending an hour with the new mouse.

• It’s far flatter than I anticipated.
• I’m not liking the two plastic rails on the bottom of it. That could be due to my work surface, which is laminated wood — moving the mouse makes a subtle scraping sound.
• Pairing was a non-issue. I simply turned the mouse on and it was in discovery mode. Once paired, I checked for a software update because I only had basic mouse functionality. One small update later, followed by a reboot, gave me full functionality.
• From an ergonomic perspective, it actually feels nicer than the old Mighty Mouse, provided you have a desk with the right height. My hand simply rests on it as it would a half-bar of Dove soap. It feels very natural to me because a relaxed hand isn’t flat — it’s curved. This feels like I was using a thinner Palm Pre under my hand, if that makes any sense.
• The multitouch scrolling and swiping works really well and gives me some of what I’m missing from my MacBook trackpad. There’s a minimal learning curve. I wish — hope, even —  that Apple can add support for three fingers, but I don’t know if that’s possible.
• Occasionally, my palm has caused a little bit of unintended scrolling. It hasn’t happened often and it could be a training thing. A scroll motion near the bottom of the mouse — near the Apple logo — will still cause a scroll. Perhaps Apple should have made the actual touch portion limited to the upper half of the mouse.
• It’s not too bad for me losing the side buttons of the old mouse — my Apple Bluetooth keyboard shortcuts are fine, but again, it’s a training thing. I do miss the ability to swipe four fingers up or down, but I’ll get over it.
• The mouse is really light — almost, but not quite like a smaller travel mouse.
• The edges are a bit sharp. It could just be my small hands, but the left and right edges aren’t as tapered as I think they can be.
• By default, the Magic Mouse is set up for kinetic scrolling but is not set up for a secondary button. That’s easy to fix, of course.
• I really like the kinetic scrolling.
• From an ergo standpoint, my hand and fingers aren’t doing anything radically different from what they did with the MacBook trackpad.

I’ll be using the new Magic Mouse with my MacBook going forward, so if there’s any show-stopper kind of updates, I’ll report back in. For now, I’d recommend it but probably not sight unseen. That is: I spent a few minutes trying it in the Apple store first and I suggest the same to you. It’s not so much for the features —  after all, if you’ve used a multitouch trackpad on an Apple laptop, then you pretty much understand the features. It’s the feel of using it for swiping and scrolling is what I’d be looking for. It felt relatively comfortable to me in the Apple store, so I made the purchase. If I didn’t feel that way, I’d probably still be out shopping for a mouse.

By the way: I also resurrected the ol’ Apple Bluetooth keyboard for my set up. I’ll probably look to replace that because it’s not really that ergonomic at all. For now, it will have to do. But it was sitting around for nearly a year and didn’t turn on at first, even after changing the batteries. Later today or tomorrow, I’ll have to tell you how I fixed it. You’re not going to believe this one — trust me!

Word has surfaced that the current beta build (10C535) of 10.6.2 has regained support for Atom processors. Whether this is due to the reaction to its removal, or to fixing an accidental removal we will likely never know. Of course, until 10.6.2 is finalized, we’ll have to wait and see if the Atom support stays.

It turns out you can regain some of the lost magic using MultiClutch — a freeware Mac app we’ve previously covered — provided that you’re willing to give up other functionality. Essentially, you can use MultiClutch to re-map the left and right swipes for Exposé and Spaces. You’ll lose ability to swipe forward and back between web pages, but that’s a personal decision. I’m not sure which way I’d go, but at least I have the option if I do move to the Magic Mouse.

RDM+ does indeed work with certain BlackBerry models (Storm included), but there are clients for other phones too. There are client apps for the iPhone/ iPod Touch, Windows Mobile, Java phones and the old Palm OS. There is no Android nor WebOS version that I could find. There is also a client to allow remotely connecting via another web-connected computer.

The program consists of one of the clients, and a host application for the computer to be remotely accessed. The host can work with any flavor of Windows, 7 included, and there is a Mac version. This means you can effectively work with any Mac or Windows computer, from almost any phone. That is a very powerful combination, and it looks to be a viable utility for those needing remote access from anywhere. I have not used it myself, but would love to hear from those who are using RDM+. The program is an expensive $40, but there is no subscription and this price includes all future upgrades.

It is easy to speculate that Apple is trying to kill off the growing Hackintosh movement. Just about every netbook out there has been hacked by someone to install OS X to create what has come to be called a “Hackint0sh.” Kevin even gave that a spin, and it’s pretty cool to have a little Mac netbook. That will be impossible once 10.6.2 is released, so those hardy souls who have created a Hackintosh better not update the OS once it is available. It is surprising that Apple would go to the trouble to remove processor support — it’s not often that a company will remove support that’s already included in an OS.

Image from OS X Daily

Om is a self-proclaimed Apple fan boy, so this is a particularly stressful time for him. It just goes to show that while Macs have the reputation of “just working”, bad components can bring things to a halt quickly. The Apple Geniuses admitted to Om that the hard drives in the new 15-inch MacBook Pros have been failing.

We wait to see if Om’s fourth MacBook Pro will escape the same fate as the first three, but meanwhile he’s using a ThinkPad to get things done. I must add that I have used ThinkPads for over a decade, and I can’t remember having one fail even once.

What does a Mac BSOD look like? Om’s photo tells the tale:

Our sister blog, TheAppleBlog, has posted a video of the Magic Mouse shot in an Apple store in Helsinki. The video shows all angles of the mouse, and how easy the touch top works. I feel my wallet getting magically tugged from my pocket after watching the video.

Today is Windows 7 launch day and it is appropriate to show how I run Mac programs on the Windows 7 desktop. I know, you can’t really do that, but if you are running Windows 7 under Parallels Desktop on a Mac you can. In this video I show how I can access any Mac program from the Windows 7 Start Menu, and even how I pin oft-used Mac programs to the Windows 7 taskbar. It’s a slick way to run Mac programs without leaving the Windows environment on a Mac. Happy Windows 7 launch day!

The customization involves the panel on the left side, produced mostly via the free Geektool utility. Geektool lets Mac users put virtually anything on the desktop, with live refreshing. I have (from top to bottom):

• Time
• Date
• Monthly calendar
• Accuweather stratus (not Geektool)
• Remember the Milk task list

All of the Geektool customizations refresh automatically at defined intervals in the background. The RTM task list is not interactive, it is just for reference. It is pulled from the RSS feed that RTM creates for each user. What do you think? You like?

There’s a price premium involved of course, but the 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo paired with an Nvidia GeForce 9400M should handle most tasks. And it can do so on a claimed 7 hours of battery life — that’s comparable to a netbook run-time but in a computing package that still offers some get up and go. At the end of the day, I don’t think the new MacBook is going to sway potential netbook owners away from their purchase. At $300 or so, a smaller and lighter computing experience will meet many needs, and for one-third the price.

But I can’t overlook how the refreshed MacBook fits in my “3P Triangle” — this is the equilateral figure that netbooks fit squarely in the middle of, because the points are price, portability and power. A device that moves towards one point typically moves away from one or both of the other points. The MacBook refresh however, gets closer to the middle by increasing both performance and portability — in terms of battery life and less need to sit by an outlet — while maintaining the price.

No, I’m not suggesting that the MacBook should be compared spec-for-spec with a netbook, but some of the netbook advantages are diminished with this product update. For now, I’ll stick with a netbook for my mobile computing. Although it’s lacking in the horsepower department, I can tote it everywhere a little bit easier and it’s meeting my needs. Do we have any prospective netbook buyers that are considering a new MacBook instead?

The model Apple has always used for its computer business is simple — make premium computers that sell at a high profit margin. That model is still working just fine, as the quarterly results prove yet again. Apple sold over 3 million Macs in the last quarter, of which 2/3 were notebooks. The total profit was $1.67 billion on revenues of $9.2 billion. This performance is outstanding in any economy, much less a down economy, and there is no reason for Apple to change the way it does business. My take on these numbers is that Apple would be crazy to introduce a cheap netbook. There’s no way Apple can make a 36.6% margin in the netbook segment and they’d be crazy to try.

This little screencast is a showcase of some of the utilities I use every day to make my life easier. In the video you’ll see:

• App for the milk- free desktop app for Remember The Milk
• Remember The Milk Gmail gadget
• SoundSource
• Pandora One desktop app
• MacJournal

Lately I’ve been using my netbook when on the run, so I hadn’t noticed that I recently lost a very key bit of functionality. I’m talking about Google Gears and its utter lack of support for Mac OS X Snow Leopard. I just tried to install it and received the disappointing message above, which I roughly paraphrase as “No Gears for you… NEXT!” And that’s hurting my mobile workflow.

Hitting up the actual Google Gears site and examining the support requirements confirms the situation. For Mac users, you need:

• Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.3+ or Tiger 10.4.11+, G4+/Intel CPU
• Safari 3.1.1+ (where’s Chrome, I say?)

Talk about totally disappointing. I don’t know — nor do I care — if this is an issue with Google, with Apple or both, but it has a big impact on my mobile workflow. Even if you don’t use Gears, hear me out on this one. Two key Google services I’m completely dependent upon are Gmail (both work and personal) and Reader. Each of these supports Google Gears for offline use. Now while I do have a 3G USB adapter as well as a paid Boingo Wi-Fi account and an iPhone capable of Internet Tethering, I often turn my connectivity off on purpose. Yes, you heard that correctly — I turn off my connectivity.

This is a practice I’ve adopted over the past year or so and I only use it when mobile. Why would I do such a silly thing? Two words — battery life. I’ve learned that I really don’t need constant connectivity in my mobile routine. Why have an extra radio running when I can use Google Gears to pull down all of my mail or hundreds of posts via RSS, and then read them in an offline mode? I realize that today’s wireless radios use little power when idle, but I find that that I can easily get between 10 and 20 percent more run-time when I use my offline approach in lieu of constant connectivity. Once I’m through all of the offline activities, I fire up my radio, let Google Gears do its sync thing and I repeat the process as necessary.

But that’s no longer the case when using my MacBook with Snow Leopard. And that hurts my workflow in addition to my battery life. For now, I’m going to use a hacked version of Gears that bypasses the OS version check. It requires that I run Safari in 32-bit mode, but that’s far less of nuisance than having my battery drain faster. Here’s hoping someone gets their rear in “gear” and brings official support to Snow Leopard soon.