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Magic Mouse

Roberto Baldwin — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 03:27:00 -0600

New Apple Mouse features innovative Multi-Touch technology.

While Apple excels at creating best-in-category hardware and software, every time the company has unleashed a new mouse, well…let’s just say that their rodentia haven’t lived up to the Apple name. And sometimes their mice have just plain sucked. But now with the Magic Mouse, which brings Multi-Touch technology to the desktop, Apple has created an input device a bit more worthy of its pedigree.

Every previous Apple-branded mouse had tried to change the mousing game with innovative new features. So does the Magic Mouse, but this time Apple has succeeded, at least to some degree. The mouse is smooth and buttonless and could easily be mistaken for a piece of modern art, if not for the Apple logo on top. But make no mistake: All the usual mouse controls are available. You get two “invisible” mousing buttons (similar to the Mighty Mouse), with which you can scroll up and down, left and right, and even in 360-degree rotations.

Two rails run the length of the mouse on the bottom, alleviating the filth buildup found on other desktop rodents.

Even without the tactile feel of an actual scrollwheel, you quickly get used to swiping your finger down the middle of the mouse. In fact, you can use nearly the entire surface, swiping from the very upper tip of the mouse to the top of the Apple logo at the bottom of the mouse. Couple that with the momentum feature, which matches the speed of scrolling to the speed of your swipes, and you’ll even find yourself working more quickly.

We’re guessing that Apple considers the “money” feature to be the two-finger swipe, which lets you navigate through websites and photo galleries one page or image at a time, the same as you would with your MacBook’s trackpad. The system works, albeit awkwardly. To keep the mouse stable during swiping, you end up grasping it with your thumb on one side and your pinkie and ring finger on the other, using your middle and index finger to swipe. Typical use of the two-finger swipe spared our hands of the dreaded claw syndrome, but during intense swiping--you know, to really take the Magic Mouse for a spin--our hands began to cramp. Consider yourself warned.

Part of the cramping issue could be tied to basic ergonomic problems. Instead of having the back of the mouse higher and thicker than the front (which would give you a place to rest your palm), the mouse is a uniform curve from front to back. It’s a beautiful sight, but we wonder what the long-term effects will be on power users, especially those with larger hands.

The Magic Mouse suffers from the usual heavy-wireless-device complex. The added weight of batteries gives the mouse a heft that is unexpected at first glance. Those used to the wireless weight will be fine with it, while tethered mouse users may require a few days to adjust.

Scosche TapSTICK

Ray Aguilera — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:30:05 -0600

One of the big reasons we didn’t have a gadget-crush on the third-gen iPod shuffle (3 out of 5 stars, Jun/09) is its reliance on Apple’s earbuds to control the device. Without any buttons on the shuffle’s chassis, the inline remote on the included ’buds is the only way to navigate tracks, play, pause, or make volume adjustments. But now Scosche’s tapSTICK aims to improve your shuffle experience by adding back the third-gen shuffle’s missing buttons.

Rather than make a headphone adapter, Scosche built a hard plastic case that integrates rubberized control buttons. While we’re not sure the aluminum shuffle really needed any more protection, integrating the controls into a case makes a lot of sense and eliminates the overly long headphone cables that you end up with using an add-on inline remote dongle. At two-tenths of an ounce, the tapSTICK doesn’t fundamentally alter the shuffle’s ultraportable profile much, making it about 1/8 inch wider and adding about 5/8 of an inch to the shuffle’s length.

The tapSTICK brings buttons back to your iPod shuffle.

After docking your shuffle into the tapSTICK, the three buttons on the case replicate the functions of Apple’s inline remote. Tapping the center button plays or pauses and kicks in navigation and VoiceOver the same way it does with the standard Apple controls. The real win, though, is that now you can plug in your favorite headphones to tapSTICK’s headphone jack and still have full control over your shuffle. The tapSTICK also sports Volume Up and Down buttons, and the back of the case is open to allow use of the shuffle’s metal clip. The buttons themselves are decently sized, and the raised markings make them easy to find while the shuffle is stashed in a pocket. Unfortunately, raising or lowering the volume more than one increment requires you to tap the appropriate button repeatedly--holding the button down registers as only a single click.

The tapSTICK obscures both the status LED and the Off/Shuffle switch on the iPod. The shuffle’s single LED also serves as the battery gauge, so you can’t see how much juice you have left without removing the shuffle from the tapSTICK. You’ll need to do the same in order to switch the shuffle on or off or change the play mode. And due to the way that Apple built the shuffle, to use the same pin on the headphone jack for charging and remote control signals, you’ll have to remove the shuffle from the tapSTICK in order to charge the battery. Extremely fashion-conscious users should note that the tapSTICK comes in black or white, neither of which match the shuffle’s available hues.

Wacom Bamboo Fun Pen & Touch

Roberto Baldwin — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:43:07 -0600

Multitouch gestures add flexibility to the Wacom line.

If you’ve become accustomed to the MacBook’s multitouch capabilities, you’ll find yourself missing them when you use a desktop Mac. Wacom has an answer, care of its recently refreshed Bamboo line, which adds a new take on tablet input. We tested the Bamboo Fun, which recognizes the pen, as well as touch input from your fingers--including some multitouch gestures. For long-time tablet users who are used to pen-only control, the addition of touch capabilities is nice, especially in image editors like Photoshop and iPhoto, where using two-finger pinches and reverse pinches can zoom in and out of images. You can also use gestures to rotate images. It’s not a feature that comes into play all that often, but it’s welcome when you do need it. There are nine touch gestures in total, but they’re all limited to one- and two-finger motions--and that’s one to two fingers short of the three- and four-finger gestures supported by the latest MacBooks.

Touch and go.

The Bamboo uses a proximity sensor in the pen to switch between Pen mode and Touch mode. The sensor does an admirable job of kicking into Pen mode whenever the stylus tip or eraser is within a quarter-inch of the tablet’s surface. For the most part, this works great. But since we’re used to leaving our hands resting on the tablet while working, we kept inadvertently initiating gestures with our fingers when the pen was raised above the surface. Fortunately, you can easily turn the touch feature off with one of the four programmable buttons along the side of the tablet.

Wacom has increased the sensitivity on the new Bamboo Fun, so the device now recognizes 1,024 levels of pressure. The difference might not be noticeable to casual tablet users, but creative types working in Painter, Illustrator, Photoshop, and similar programs will appreciate the increased flexibility.

The pen is sturdy and its two-button rocker feels solid and is easy to operate by feel. Wacom ditched the pen holder that was included with earlier tablets, which was basically a weighted base to store the pen when not in use. In its place is a loop of red fabric on the side of the tablet that you slide the pen into. The fabric loop is fine for securing your pen at the end of the day, but if you pick up and put down your pen often, placing it in the loop can be frustrating, compared to just setting it in the old holder.

Apple's First Bath Accessory - Magic Mouse Soap Dish

David W. Martin — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:38:49 -0500

Apple's new Magic Mouse started to show up in Houston area Apple stores on Thursday. The reduced footprint packaging is receiving accolades, but a recent discovery would make any Home Economics teacher proud. The top portion of the packaging can be removed and inverted making it one of the best bar soap dishes money can buy!

iLuv iSP100

Susie Ochs — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:06:09 -0500

An iPod speaker is a great investment if you want to rock out with friends--unless you and your friends prefer to dance around with headphones on, like those silhouetted party people in Apple’s print ads. iLuv’s iSP100 is portable, compact, and takes regular AAA batteries, so there’s no need to tote along an AC adapter or charger. But the anemic sound it produces might have you reconsidering that “let’s all just put our headphones on and dance around” idea.

It's nice and small, but unfortunately, so is its sound output.

To be fair, sometimes you might not want a lot of sound. Say you’re sunbathing, and you don’t want to risk “earbud tan.” Place the iSP100 at the head of your towel, turn it about halfway up, and its cone of sound will be barely noticeable by fellow beachgoers mere yards away. Other than that, or the occasional phone booth dance party, we can’t think of many killer scenarios for a speaker this wimpy. While we had it playing on the counter of a small kitchen, for example, it was hard to hear the music clearly even across the room, and when the fridge motor clicked on and vegetables were being chopped, our songs were pretty much drowned out unless we turned both the iPod and the speaker all the way up.

The oval-shaped, éclair-size iSP100 houses two speakers that iLuv claims provide surround sound via the company’s jAura acoustic speaker technology. The music, although quiet, sounded all right—not enough bass, somewhat flat-sounding highs, but respectable for the speaker’s size, and we didn’t hear bothersome distortion until it was cranked to the max. As for surround sound, we didn’t notice it. Another problem is the buttons: The on/off button protrudes from the speaker a bit and kept getting pressed accidentally by other items in our laptop bag, turning the speaker back on and wasting battery life. The only other buttons are volume up and volume down, but there’s no indicator to show if you’ve got it up (or down) all the way. There’s no battery indicator either, but battery life was impressive--we got 12 hours of full-blast music out of one set of generic alkalines.

magicJack Internet Phone System

Arthur Bleich — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 04:21:00 -0500

We’ve seen the “just plug it in” pitches on late-night TV, the cheesy website, and the spotty instructions, none of which exactly inspire confidence in the magicJack. But still, the allure of nearly free phone calls all over the country (or to Canada, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands) is strong. Plus since it’s VOIP, your number can travel with you. Believe it or not, magicJack turns out to be pretty magical.

The magicJack costs $39.95, including a year of unlimited, Internet-based calling; thereafter it’s $19.95 a year ($1.67 a month). The magicJack is the size and shape of a USB key, with a standard telephone jack on the end--although it’ll also work with your computer mic and speakers or headset, if you want to skip the traditional phone. A USB extension cord is provided in case the unit blocks access to other ports.

The onscreen keypad lets you use the magicJack without a telephone handset.

After we plugged the magicJack into a USB port, an external drive icon, “Phone,” appeared on our MacBook’s desktop followed by clear, step-by-step prompts. In less than five minutes we’d picked an area code, been assigned a new phone number, done a 911 configuration for emergency calls, set up voicemail, and were ready to roll.

We first used our regular telephone but soon switched to a Logitech USB headset and dialed out by clicking on the displayed keypad. It was exhilarating to schmooze for hours with friends in Honolulu, Nome, Montreal, San Juan, and elsewhere, without racking up any long-distance bills. Sound quality on both ends (even on calls to cell phones) was superb with no dropouts or static.

The magicJack offers portable access to unlimited long-distance calling.

When our Mac was running and online, we could receive calls too. If your computer is off or offline, incoming calls go to voicemail, retrievable from any phone and also automatically emailed as sound files. Other free features include call waiting, 911, call forwarding, directory assistance, and caller ID. A unit that piggybacks onto the magicJack to allow indoor, interference-free, cell phone calls--without per-minute charges--is in the works too.

The magicJack can display ads onscreen, although the company is not currently implementing this “feature.” When we contacted customer service via the magicJack website to clarify a few things, we were led through a frustrating, seemingly script-driven IM conversation with a rep, who ultimately could not answer (and seemed to not understand) our question about whether or not the magicJack installs software locally on your machine, although magicJack CEO and inventor Dan Borislow later confirmed that the device does install a few small files to help it connect more quickly to your account.

Belkin Dual Auto Charger and Wireless Input iPWR SuperPack

Susie Ochs — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 12:07:37 -0500

If you actually use your iPhone’s best features--the 3G network, push notifications, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Location Services, all those bells and whistles that make it so awesome--you’ve probably noticed your battery needs recharging every day or two at least. We never leave home without the cable and AC adapter that came with our iPhone, so we’re in luck as long as we can find a power outlet or USB port to plug in to. But wandering beyond walls and away from computers requires some extra gadgetry to keep our iPhone charged, namely Belkin’s Dual Auto Charger for the car and the iPWR SuperPack backup battery for everywhere else.

Dual Auto Charger. This in-car charger has two USB ports, so you can charge an iPhone and an iPod, or any two devices that use the 5-volt USB charging spec. The top port, labeled QuickCharge, outputs 1 amp of current, charging our iPhone’s battery from under 20 percent to full in just under 90 minutes. The other port outputs 500 milliamps of current, so it charges things more slowly, needing more than 2 hours to get our iPhone all the way up to full. (For comparison, the iPhone’s included AC adapter charges the phone at 1 amp, while the USB 2.0 ports on your Mac top out at 500 milliamps.)

Two USB ports means you can charge your iPhone as well as the iPWR battery at once.

In our tests, the Dual Auto Charger worked perfectly. Extending a little less than 2.5 inches from our car’s DC outlet, it didn’t get in the way of our gearshift or anything else in our consoles. But if that’s a concern, Belkin also sells the Micro Auto Charger, which has just one QuickCharge USB port but sits nearly flush with the car’s power outlet. The Micro Auto Charger is $14.99 sold alone or $19.99 with an iPod cable included. (That’s a good deal, considering Apple charges $19 for just the cable.) We were a little disappointed with the amount of packaging for such compact products, but the items themselves are great.

iPWR SuperPack. The iPWR is an external battery that charges via its mini USB port, then attaches to your iPod’s or iPhone’s dock connector to juice up your phone when it’s running low. You can charge it with the Belkin Dual Auto Charger--Belkin’s included USB-to-mini-USB cable works, or you can use the retractable USB-to-mini-USB cable that comes with the iPWR. The iPWR’s lithium-polymer battery holds 1800mAh (milliamp hours) of power and can charge an iPhone from 0 percent to full in a little over 2 hours. When the iPWR is totally dead, plan on recharging it for at least 3 hours. We wish it had a gauge to indicate how much power is left, and the removable piece that covers the mini USB port, on/off switch, and 30-pin dock connector is very easy to lose. Holding an iPhone up to our ear with the iPWR attached felt a little awkward since it dangles off the bottom of the phone, but it didn’t get in the way of gaming or using other iPhone apps.

The iPWR sticks out from your Dock port, so the phone isn't exactly pocket-sized when it's attached.

Elgato Video Capture

Arvind Srinivasan — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:08:34 -0500

If you were a kid (or had a kid) any time between the mid-1980s and the turn of the century, chances are you have a bunch of old videotapes with incriminating footage on them. Chances are also good that your mother (or someone like her) has probably bothered you on more than one occasion about converting those aforementioned tapes—because really, who uses a VCR anymore? Using Elgato’s Video Capture, you can turn any analog source into 640x480 digital video files, for playback on your Mac, iPod touch, or iPhone.

The device itself is both sleek and functional and can be stashed in a pocket easily. Video Capture features composite and S-Video outs, so it’ll easily slurp in signals from DVD players, DVRs, video cameras, and other sources with analog outputs. There’s also an included Composite-to-SCART adapter, although SCART is a French standard that never gained much traction outside certain European countries.

Editing controls let you quickly trim footage.

On the software end, however, we found that Elgato’s solution is lacking in the features department. Though utilitarian, it’s simple at the cost of being too simple. First, processing video is incredibly system intensive. On our test Mac, a 2.4GHz dual-core MacBook Pro, the software used all the processing muscle of one CPU and half of the second during the entire conversion, making it impossible to do much of anything else.

We found that Elgato records video at approximately 13MB per minute—a 90-minute video at 640x480 came in at a whopping 1.1GB. Comparatively, when we used HandBrake, the resulting file size was a relatively svelte (and much more portable-device-friendly) 600MB. While we could have compressed the video with third-party software, it’s an additional step, not to mention another encoding, which can affect video quality. Using a variety of sources, the resulting video was consistently a tad darker than it should be, requiring us to crank up the brightness when watching clips encoded by Elgato’s software. The biggest miss, however, is the lack of a pause function while recording, for editing down clips as you encode them. The software does offer a timer function, which can stop recording in 30-minute increments, but you can’t enter your own record times, and you have to trim the excess blank video after the fact.

Video Capture’s editing and sharing capabilities worked well, but there were a few glitches. For example, the trimming functionality was seriously confusing. It’s color-coded, but there’s no clear indication of what the individual colors stand for. Furthermore, even though we tried logging in with several different YouTube accounts to upload our video to the service, it perplexingly only worked when we used a Google Account. On the other hand, the one-click iMovie export was glitch-free. That said, if you have a huge video file, we suggest you open it directly from iMovie—export makes another copy of the file for you to import into iMovie, but multiple copies of large videos can quickly chew through even the largest hard drives.