My latest issue with them resulted in more than a week of technical issues and wasted time. It was only resolved when I moved my domain to a different company. I was further irritated when they billed me for the domain, that had been transferred to another company a month earlier, and forced me to fill in a form and fax it across the continent to be reimbursed.

A word of advice for 1&1 customers trying to setup or change GLUE (nameserver IPs) for their domain. After making changes to your subdomains ns1 and ns2.yourdomain.com, you must go into the settings for yourdomain.com and click “update” to start the update process. Otherwise nothing will happen and your GLUE will not be updated, and sometimes even this doesn’t work. Best of luck.

There’s actually a surprisingly wide selection out there, and these are some details you should pay attention to when looking for a backup / external battery for your phone.

• Capacity: iPhone’s have about 1200 mAh capacity, so bear in mind how many times you mind want to charge your phone.
• Size/shape: For this to be useful you’ll have to carry it with you. Pick a battery that fits in your bag, case or purse.
• Price: Prices range from about $9-$60. More expensive batteries aren’t necessarily any better. Read on for my suggestion.

I chose the Monoprice iPhone Battery Pack (1900mAh). Its holds enough to charge my phone 1 and 1/2 times, its small enough to slip in my bag and it was super-cheap! $9 + $2 shipping to Canada got this to my door in just under two weeks.

Monoprice is an excellent company; in my experience their products are exceptionally high quality and very reasonably priced. The backup battery was no different-it does exactly waht its supposed to. You charge it with your iPhone cable or dock and pack it away for when its needed. Then when you’re running low on power just plug it in the bottom and the phone starts charging immediatley.

So if you’re thinking about getting the Monoprice device, or any backup battery, go for it. You won’t regret having the security.

So when I got my 15″ Unibody MacBook Pro I decided to get a hardshell case along with it. I travelled to a few local Mac resellers, the Apple Store and various websites, considering what options were available along the way. I asked a couple questions that helped me make a decision:

1. How well does this fit and will it make use difficult?
2. How effective is it at actually protecting my Mac?
3. What’s it going to cost me?
4. Will it make my sleek computer look dorky?

So here’s what I discovered. Cases from Incase and Speck both fit reasonably well, with the Incase having a slightly better implementation. It’s hooks seem more sturdy and connect in better places. Neither case seems impede use at all, except that they make the screen feel looser. It will fall if you use your MacBook at an extreme angle (this is annoying if you use your computer in bed).

Both cases will protect a Mac from bumps and scratches. I couldn’t say which would do a better job over time, but I doubt there’s a big difference.

The Incase and Speck offerings have the same exorbitant price of about $60 CAD (Can you spell collusion?). For the love of broccoli, how could two pieces of plastic cost that much? Anyway, its a price that I agreed to pay to protect and customize my MacBook and YMMV.

The dorkiness factor is a pretty subjective topic, so bear with me here. I found that the Speck product looked a little cheaper and less refined. It doesn’t follow the shape of the MacBook Pro as closely and and it looks bulky when attached. The Incase seems to preserve shape and sleekness, following the nice lines and curves of the computer very well.

So I settled on a green Incase 15″ Hardshell Case for MacBook Pro. Public opinion of my case is good. Two or three people ask me where I got it everyday, and its always easy to tell which laptop is mine. It fits well, protects my Mac, cost me a lot and looks pretty good. Probably my favourite part about the case is the soft-touch rubberized coating. If you don’t know what I’m talking about you should really go see one of these cases, because its truly awesome.

Other than the price, I don’t have anything negative to say about the Incase. If you follow the instructions its simple to attach and forget its even on. It is difficult to remove, but there is no danger of damaging your Mac in the process. And in all honesty, if you plan to remove the case that often you should probably be looking at a sleeve-type case anyway. All in all I’m very happy with this purchase. If you’re looking for a hardshell case for your MacBook I’d recommend it for you too.

The app is put together by Mira Software, who provide frequent updates and, in my experience, excellent support. It works with a great number of devices and there is an updated list of compatible phones. These are my favourite capabilities:

• Readings texts on my Mac’s large screen
• Receiving instant notification of new messages
• Typing messages on a full size keyboard and sending them through my cell
• Mass archival, moving or deleting of texts
• All over Bluetooth (as the name implies) so there aren’t any messy cables

The applications provides a seamless SMS experience. When you receive a text your Mac’s screen flashes white, and the message appears in an iChat-like window. You can then type your response and send without having to touch your phone. Messages in the chat windows are threaded so you have one open with each of the contacts you’re chatting with.

BPE also has a number of calling features. I don’t really use them since Skype is available on my computer, but they are impressive nonetheless.

When you receive a call the screen flashes and displays a window that contains the phone number of the caller. If the caller is in your address book, it will also show their name and display picture. Even better, the app will fade out and pause iTunes if music is playing, and then resume playing when the call ends. You can also initiate calls with a dial pad on the screen or by clicking “Call So-and-So” straight from your address book. The integration is nearly flawless.

Issues and Solutions

I use BPE with my KRZR K1m on the Telus network in Canada. This setup has worked very well for me, although I’ve had a few issues. Sending texts on my phone is not possible when “Hands-Free” (the protocol that lets you make calls through your Mac’s speakers and microphone) is enabled. I’ve solved this problem by choosing “Suspend Hands-Free” from the BPE menu. Alternatively you can set an option that only opens Hands-Free when in a call, which was successful in my limited testing. You should know that the Caller-ID and iTunes features work regardless of these settings.

MMS messages also seem to mess with BPE, so they should deleted or moved before you use the app (at least on some phones). I don’t imagine these issues will affect every phone, mine is quite old, but this is what I have learned through trial and error and in conversations with the support team.

Conclusion

Its definitely a great app, but before you buy you should test to see wether your phone is fully compatible. Fortunately Mira Software provides a trial period, and if you’re still not sure you can even request a trial extension. Given the complexity of the app, its a bargain at $24.95 USD. I would recommend it to any Mac user that spends a lot of time tied to their computer and phone.

If you have any questions about app I’d be glad to answer them in the comments.

New and refurb iMac.

Some of you know that I ordered a refurbished 24″ aluminum iMac last August. The ordeal proved to be an exercise is in my patience and sanity, but now that the dust has settled I can make a few conclusions. The biggest problem was the faulty displays that shipped in my first two iMacs. I explained the problem in detail when I got the first machine. The second was slightly better, but had more or less the same problem. Since I was a month behind on some work, I decided to keep the second machine until I was back on track. Generally that means giving up any hope of getting a replacement (within 14 days of purchase). Service was supposed to be my only option. I figured that didn’t matter, since a new refurb unit would probably have the exact same problem. 

After Christmas I decided I had caught up enough and took my iMac into the Apple Store to get it fixed. The genius told me there problems with LCD, but also with the graphics card and optical drive. He said that it would cost Apple more to fix the machine than it would to send me a new iMac. I agreed to exchange my machine, getting ready for another disappointment. I had no idea that when he said “new” he actually meant new. Apple shipped me a brand-new iMac in retail packaging, and I sent the second defective refurb back.

It was a frustrating five month ordeal. Ultimately, though,  I paid $1400CDN for a 2.4GHz 1GB refurb and received a brand new 2.8GHz 2GB iMac. The new one is flawless, just what I had expected from Apple in the first place.  

Most people have a better experience than I did. As far as I can tell, the 24″ iMac has been the only fiasco to date. I suppose the moral of the story is that if you order an Apple Refurb, you’ll get a top quality product. Eventually.

Want to sync to your address book, calendar, and bookmarks? Don’t want to pay $100 a year? Doh.

fruux is a lightweight and convenient system preference pane, that syncs your Address Book, Calendars, Tasks and Bookmarks between different Macs.

All you’ve got to do is download the .prefPane, double click to install, and make you’re account… That’s it. No credit card, no blown budget, no lost contacts, no MobileMess. If you’ve got a desktop and a notebook you can install it on both and start syncing right away. If you’ve got a lab full of Macs you can install on all of them too, because there are no silly limits on how you sync.

This isn’t to say that MobileMe is a bad product, and certainly not that this service is any better. Fruux is all about “Just Sync, No-frills!” so you won’t find disk space, website hosting, email, web-access, or any of the other neat features that MobileMe comes with. There’s really no comparison between the two though, if your looking for free syncing then use Fruux. If you want anything else (think iDisk, email, etc) then you need MobileMe. 

Fruux's sync log in System Prefrences

Of course, if you’re crafty you can find free alternatives to those other services too. In conjunction with Dropbox, an IMAP GMail account and a free hosting account for your site you could be setup as well or better than a bona-fide MobileMe account at no cost. Thanks Fruux!!

UPDATE: Elgato’s Canadian EPG is now out of beta, and purchasers will receive one year of free access with purchase of an EyeTV tuner.

A couple months ago I ordered the Elgato EyeTV 250 Plus from the online Apple Store (free shipping FTW). Technically speaking its a TV tuner, but I bought it for its cassette digitizing abilities – more on that later. I thought that was the only use I’d get out of it too, since Elgato doesn’t offer a Electronic Program Guide (EPG/listings) for Canada. Until now. The past few weeks they’ve been rolling out a beta version of the EyeTV 3 software that includes support for a Canadian EPG.

You might be wondering exactly what an EPG is and why its necessary for watching TV on your Mac. Basically its a file that EyeTV downloads to display the local listings for your area. The truth is that it isn’t really required, but in a world where everyone has a cable box, built in schedules are a given convenience that I know I wouldn’t like to live without. So it goes without saying I was thrilled to read about this beta version.

I signed up and got my beta invitation very soon afterwards. It was a breeze to download, install and configure EyeTV for use here in Vancouver, BC. It seems that some other parts of Canada aren’t covered yet, but I’m sure that’s coming in subsequent releases. It seems that Elgato has partnered with TV Guide Canada to makes this happen. Also worth noting, us Canadians only get a year of free service. Come next October I’ll have to pony up $19.95 (USD no less) for a rewenal. That’s not fair, eh.

Functionally its been almost flawless. There was this weird problem where programs starting at 4:00PM would have a duration of 0:00, but I believe that’s been fixed. I’m with Shaw Cable and all the analogue channels come through fine. I also have the digital cable package and box, but my EyeTV doesn’t pick those channels up for some reason. It does see the digital music channels though, so I don’t know what’s going on there. The quality is fair, but you’d never mistake it for HD. I’ve included a few screenshots that you can click to enlarge. Audio comes through very nicely with steady treble and tight bass.

There’s something nice about being able to pause live TV, or replay something you missed. Start watching or recording with one click. Schedule recordings up to two weeks ahead of time, then have them converted and placed in iTunes for you. There’s lots of cool stuff, its the best TV experience I’ve had thus far. I honestly prefer downloading HD shows/movies from iTunes or similar outlets, but that can take time and you rarely see obscure programming you may want to watch. I and friends have made a number of TV appearances lately. All I had to do to record them was set the time, and when I got home they were ready to post on YouTube.

All of that, and I only bought this little device to convert my VHS and 8mm tapes to DVDs. By the way, it does that very well too. Its as simple as plugging in your device (VCR, camcorder, LaserDisc) with composite or SVideo and hitting record. Then you can export to iTunes (for your iPod, iPhone or AppleTV), Toast (CD DVD or Blue Ray) or via a number of other options.

The EyeTV 250 Plus is a nifty little creature that can finally call Canada home. Its ease of use and capabilities make it worth every cent, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to other Mac users in Canada. If you have any questions about it I’ll take them in the comments..

So last Sunday I followed the advice of many veteran Mac users and pulled up the Apple refurbished section. Its stocked with nearly everything in the regular store at a great discount. For the savings you give up the gorgeous retail boxes (refurbs ship in a plain brown box). That’s it, really. The product may have been taken home by another customer, but has since been returned to Apple and reconditioned. This process involves replacement of any internal parts, if necessary, and a thorough cleaning or case replacement. Refurbs arrive in perfect cosmetic condition with no scratches, scuffs or imperfections with brand new keyboards, mice and accessories. They have same warranty as new Macs and are generally better inspected than new machines. Mine apparently fell through the cracks.

Needless to say, I was willing to make the compromise. I can do without the box, and don’t mind if the was computer pre-loved so long as it doesn’t show cosmetically or in function. I ordered my refurbished 24″ aluminum iMac last Sunday. 

Yesterday the FedEx lady visited with a giant brown box. Inside was a perfect, or so I thought, iMac that looks absolutely brand new. I turned it on and immediately noticed the backlight was disturbingly uneven. I told myself this was normal, and after an hour or two it would look fine. It didn’t though, the display is a massive issue. My screen exhibits the following problems:

• The left side is far brighter than the right
• There is a yellow tint in the center of screen
• Sides are very dim, this is noticeable most with light colours
• There is a horizontal dark section that spans from right to left

An unedited picture I took of the screen.

My description makes it sound a little worse than it is, and my intention isn’t to exaggerate. The iMac is still quite usable. Its just that even at the refurb price, I expect better for the money. Comparing the display quality of my new iMac and my iMac G4 is a joke. The G4 has an obviously superior backlight (although not as bright). I called AppleCare and I was immediately offered a replacement. Hopefully I receive something from a later build week that comes with an improved display. 

Please note that this isn’t a vote against going the refurb route. This problem was existent in quite a few early aluminum iMacs and I probably just received one of those duds. Ordering the machine, having it shipped and using it has otherwise been a very positive experience. The quick offer of a replacement is appreciated, but I’ll reserve judgment on wether I’d buy refurbished again.

More information on defective 24″ iMacs: 

http://blog.neofoto.nl/?p=3/

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1093045

http://www.trick77.com/2008/01/13/uneven-imac-displays/

The problem I had with the old Apple keyboard was just how easily it became dirty. All too often a hair would show up underneath the transparent acrylic, or a smudge on the white surface. I found myself cleaning it often and it became an irritation. Another problem I had with the acrylic keyboards was that they crapped out at a considerably high rate. Out of the three I owned, two stopped working for no apparent reason. Needless to say after these experiences, I became skeptical of these ‘pro’ keyboards.

In this case however, the good does out weigh the bad. My experience has been that they’re quiet, require only light taps and feel right under your fingers. This along with other improvements in the latest aluminum generation have persuaded me to stick with Apple keyboards.

I love typing on the MacBook and the next generation brought everything I like about it to my desk. Unfortunately, like my MacBook, they also chopped off the numeric pad on the wireless version. I was disappointed to see this when the keyboards were announced, but after using it for a number of months I have to say it was a worthwhile sacrifice. I can move the keyboard without feeling like I’m waving a tire iron around, its nice that it fits almost anywhere in my workspace. The media keys are also very handy, I wish they could have activated them on my MacBook. Battery life is impressive. A number of months after the purchase (with moderate daily use) there’s still more than a half charge left in the included batteries.

In fact, I don’t have a single gripe about the keyboard itself. It looks great, it works great and it does everything a keyboard should. The big problem here is price. In case you’re wondering, the notorious Apple Tax does apply, the wireless keyboard will run you an astounding $80 when buying directly from Apple. That said, I got lucky and conned a Best Buy employee into selling me one for only $60 after taxes. If you play your cards right at the store, or shop on eBay or Craigslist, you should be able to find yourself an affordable Apple keyboard. I think you’ll like it too.

Many consumer and pro grade cameras that ship today do so with propriety batteries. What does this mean to you? Well it means that the only company making the battery is the one you bought your camera from. They have a monopoly over the batteries you need to make your camera work, and they can charge however much they like. 

In most cases, these batteries are relatively high quality and one is usually included with the camera. The problem is that some companies (Kodak in my case) include a single non-rechargeable battery. My CRV3 battery lasted for a week and I was impressed. The $30 price tag to have one sent here is a little excessive for a non-rechargeable though, so I looked for alternatives. My Kodak Z712 IS takes good old AAs, but one set only lasts for about five or ten minutes. I lived with this frustrating inconvenience for about a year and then began looking for alternatives. 

In an attempt to prevent the further lining of Kodak’s pockets, I bought a third-party rechargeable battery and charger. The price was right, but the camera won’t even turn on. So now I’m back where I started: pay the obnoxiously high price for a genuine Kodak battery or live with the terrible performance of AAs.

The moral of this story is to consider the basics of your camera before pulling the trigger. I got burned by proprietary batteries and you could too.