FTP access your Mac

Have you ever wanted to access your computer while your away, just to get a file or two? I recently setup FTP on my home computer and thought it was worth a tutorial. I currently use a Macbook Pro running 10.5.5, which connects to the Internet wirelessly via an Apple Time Capsule, hooked up to my Broadband modem. This tutorial should work on any Mac running 10.5 wireless or wired, and a Time Capsule and maybe an Airport Base Station.

First of all you will need to gather some information about your system and configure some of your Internet settings on your Mac. If you want to access your computer at any time, you will also need to turn off any sleep features so it stays on all the time. With this, I recommend setting your display to sleep and not your computer. I also recommend at least an 8 digit password for all users on your computer with numbers and letters. The Mac is a very secure machine, but you must be proactive for its defenses to work. Read the rest of this entry »

New MacBooks

Being a little disappointed with the last apple conference showing no word on new Apple laptops was a drag. But it seems the web has not quieted down about rumors of new MacBooks. Like BigFoot, sightings and blurry photos have shown up around the net, showing a brushed metal (mackbook pro) looking laptop. Its reported that the new MacBook will be thinner and have a competitive price. October 14th is the speculated release date for the new MacBook.

Also, rumors of a new MacBook Pro where spread around the net last month. Speculations seem to be plausible that the new MacBook Pro will adopt some of the coolest features form the MacBooks and MacBook Air. A thinner design with the new MacBook keyboard. What else could you want from the MacBook Pro besides more power and a price drop.

It would make sence that these laptops come together and share some of the same design elements and parts. Using the same materials accross the notebook family could make manufacturing cheaper. As we have seen with the iPhone 3G. When apple can get them to the public at a resonable price, they fly out of the stores.

If this model is acurate we may end up with some boring computers, as they would all be grey, brushed metal, and that goes for all the machines lately. Even the iMac is heading this direction with its new grey and black design. They look cool, but where are the days of having a Mac in the color you wanted? I guess we have to leave that to the iPods and iStyles for now.

After the Buzz

Now that we have had some time to check out the new iPods, Play with iTunes 8, and wonder why there was a conference just to show off this, pretty cool, but not so impressive update. Lets review this stuff.

iTunes 8 is very cool! Its like a new program and sorts your music by album cover in the same fashion that iPhoto does. The Genius Sidebar is cool when you want to buy music, but the Genius playlist feature is amazing. Simply choose a song in your music library, click the Genius button and it pics similar songs from within your library and builds a playlist in a second. Whatever your in the mood for from your own music. Sites like Pandora, last.fm and Finetune have been doing this type of playlist generation for a while and its nice to be able to do it to the music you own. Its new visualizer is pretty cool too.

The new iPod Nano is nice and thin and they have added an accelerometer, so when you tilt it to the side you can scan through your album covers with coverflow. Even though they don’t boast about it, the new nano plays video just like the previous nano, but with its new wide screen its better for watching 19:9 (wide) formatted movies. Genius playlists have also been added to the Nano.

The iPod touch received a price drop and some features that move it closer to the iPhone. Its thinner, has a built-in speaker with volume controls, and with the new 2.1 software it has longer battery life, quicker backups, and more stability when running apps.

On Friday (Sep 12) the 2.1 software will be available for the iPhone as well. Like the Touch this will bring longer battery life, quicker backups, and more stability when running apps. It will also include Fewer call drops and no app crashes.

All in all, these are some great updates. I would have liked to hear something about Moble Me, and would have loved anything new in the laptop area. This event didn’t have that big item that would have had everyone talking, but you cant be wowed every day I suppose. We will just have to look forward to the next event.

half day at Apple

Like an old fuzzy TV with no signal. My Mac seemed as if it would be out for weeks. I have never had a hardware problem (that I didn’t cause myself) on any of my Macs for as long as I can remember, and I got my first Mac in 2000. After a week long vacation I cam back to the office with the idea of catching back up. I moved the mouse which woke up the screen and as soon as I clicked on Firefox the screen went to a white fuzzy flashing mess. I went through a series of troubleshooting ideas, the first of which was the coincidence of being gone from the office. Is someone playing a joke on me?

After booting from the Mac Install disc and seeing the same problem, I concluded that it was not a software issue. Getting caught up on work was not going to happen today.

Tuesday morning I logged on to apple.com/retail to find my favorite Apple store and set up an appointment to see a Mac Genius. The worst part was carrying a Mac Pro 2 x 2.66 Dual-Core Intel Xeon through Sax Fifth Avenue and into the mall to get some help (those things are heavy). Read the rest of this entry »

Time Capsule

Time Machine on the Mac has been a great step in keeping a backup of my machine. That warm fuzzy feeling of having everything in two places makes you feel a bit invincible when making changes or hacks to your stuff. I think I have restored my iPhone 10 times, jailbreaking it and bringing it back to factory. Apple now backs up your iPhone every time you sync it to iTunes.

So when my 500Gig USB hard drive (with my MacBook backup) began to fail. I sort of cheered a bit. Its just the excuse I needed to justify picking up a new Time Capsule (router and backup drive in one). My only hesitation came when I wondered how the Time Capsule would fit into my routines. In thinking about the time capsule, I had a few questions, and as it turned out, the Geniuses at the Apple store didn’t have all the answers. I don’t think they had even tried the device before. They kept telling me things like, “Theoretically, that is possible.” when in fact really, its not. Read the rest of this entry »