To continue with our “welcome back party,” we are giving away 5 copies of Incredible Bee’s MainMenu Pro, a maintenance tool which keeps your Mac in shape. It allows you to free up disk space, run maintenance scripts, clean up your system, fix common disk problems, secure erase files and uncover hidden settings on your Mac. Trust us, if it wasn’t useful, we wouldn’t have awarded it a 5/5 in our review. Continue reading
Category Archives: Archives
Farewell Steve Jobs
Yesterday, Apple announced that Steve Jobs, the Cupertino-based company’s legendary leader was to step down from his position as Chief Executive Officer effective immediately. Tim Cook, previously Apple’s Chief Operating Officer, is to take over as the company’s new CEO –and boy does he have some big shoes to fill. Jobs has, however, been elected Chairman of the Board.
“Steve’s extraordinary vision and leadership saved Apple and guided it to its position as the world’s most innovative and valuable technology company,” said Art Levinson, Chairman of Genentech, on behalf of Apple’s Board. “Steve has made countless contributions to Apple’s success, and he has attracted and inspired Apple’s immensely creative employees and world class executive team. In his new role as Chairman of the Board, Steve will continue to serve Apple with his unique insights, creativity and inspiration.”
In a letter to the Board as well as the community, Jobs wrote about his resignation as CEO of Apple. Jobs also requested that he take on the role of Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.
To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:
I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.
I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.
As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.
I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.
I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.
Steve
Walt Mossberg from AllThingsD wrote in an essay about how Jobs’ resignation “is the end of an extraordinary era” and that “the day Steve Jobs resigns as CEO of Apple isn’t like the day a typical CEO resigns.”
Most people are lucky if they can change the world in one important way, but Jobs, in multiple stages of his business career, changed global technology, media and lifestyles in multiple ways on multiple occasions.
In an interview Wednesday with Bloomberg, Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple said that Jobs is the “greatest technical leader of our time” and that he’s just hoping “that Steve will have a lot more time for his life.”
MacKeeper, a rather slimy tale
Our MacKeeper review has gathered countless stories in its comments section, nearly all of which speak of how “terrible,” “bad,” and “awful” the software, as well as the company behind it, ZeoBIT, really is. Having read all the comments and speaking to a few people familiar with the matter, I have decided to shed some light on MacKeeper.
The first area I would like to address is the “fake” websites and misleading advertisements that are floating around the internet promoting MacKeeper and attacking its competitors (Example 1, 2). If one were to Google “MacKeeper review,” the results which appear are vastly “fake” websites setup solely to promote MacKeeper and discredit its competitors including CleanMyMac, MacCleanse, and Cocktail. To anyone unfamiliar with Macs, these websites appear to be trustworthy and legit which, in the end, leads many to pull the trigger on software without really considering all the options –this alone is a bit troubling. Further, the keywords these sites use include “MacCleanse,” “Clean My Mac,” “Cocktail,” and many of its other competitors names. Continue reading
Astro’s new wireless Mixamp, a review
TheMacFeed and Astro Gaming have been working together for more than a year now. Last year we brought three big stories within a few months of each other; an A40 review in January, an A30 review following in March and an interview in April. Astro has since released a completely revamped product line including a wireless Mixamp; I had the chance to review it.
Last year, there was one issue I found frustrating with Astro’s gaming ecosystem. It was the wires; they went everywhere, and there was no easy way to use the thing in a traditional living room environment without having 4 wires spread across the furniture, kids, and the dog. Now, Astro has created two versions: a wired one for the hardcore gamer, the tournament goer, the tryhard; and a wireless version for the casual gamer, the couch potato, the command center. Frankly, I am the latter with a smidgen of the former. Continue reading
Review: Shure SE535
A month ago, I took on the Shure SE425s, and it would seem only right that at some point I’d get around to the “grandaddy of them all”, the SE535s. For those who read my review of the SE425s and my take on the predecessor to the SE535s (the Shure SE530s), this is sort of like A+B=C. Combine the new exterior features of the SE425s and the internals of the SE530s… and you logically get the Shure SE955s. Okay, the math equation failed, what you get is the Shure SE535s, the new flagship IEM from the near-century old American sound company.
Out of the Box
Disclaimer, a lot of this review is repeating the SE425 review. Why? Well, the changes the SE535s got from the SE530s are the same as the changes that the SE425s received in comparison the SE420s: detachable cords, a slight change in housing, a single flush design and an L-shaped connector. I didn’t have a SE530 box on hand, but from what I remember the box is pretty much the same. It’s different from the rest of the SE line, metal and more cube like, as opposed to the plastic that the lower-end models receive. Inside, it’s a similar story: earphones, eight pairs of tips (three rubber, three foam, Triple Flange and yellow foam) and a carrying case. Continue reading
Hyperspaces, a Better Spaces
I’m no stranger when it comes to Hyperspaces, in fact, I have done two reviews of it to date. Today is my third. A few days ago, The CocoBots released an all new, long awaited, version of Hyperspaces and Tony Arnold, AKA the man behind the application, asked me to give it a review. Here it is.
Hyperspaces brings many beautiful features to Spaces. Some of its main features include the option to customize the desktop background as well as the menubar translucency of each space, space titles, a pretty menubar drop down to swap spaces quickly, and an extended number of shortcuts. Continue reading
Review: Shure SE425
After a hiatus in the month of January, I return. For most of my time dabbling in headphones, I’ve owned almost all of the IEM offerings from Shure, at least until a few years ago. When Shure moved to the SE series, I already owned the highest-end model and never felt the desire to bother with any of the others. I heard the SE210s, but that was it outside of the SE530. While I was at CES last year I got to view and test the updated version of the SE line, the SE535 and SE425. After the jump, my thoughts on the latter.
Out of the Box
Before one gets to the box, a bit of background. For the most part, the SE425 is just the SE420 with a detachable cord. As Chris Lyons explained to me, the only real difference in sound should come from the slight change in the construction of the housing which slightly affects the sound. That being said, this was my first time with any Shure IEM since the e4s, which are still a personal favorite. Inside the box, it’s just like the past couple higher-end Shure models: earphones, eight pairs of tips (three rubber, three foam, Triple Flange and yellow foam), a 1/4 inch adapter and a carrying case. Continue reading
My Journey to a Simpler Tech Life
Stress is something I am prone to. There are a million and one things going through my head at once and the only way for me to get them out is to act on them. The key, I have found, is to simplify my electronic life. I found that less is more, and the more I have to manage, the more stressed I become.
Devices are the preeminent, most stressful part of my life. I hate, I repeat, hate having too many devices. This includes TVs, iPods, and Macs. Last year, I took my first big step towards a simpler world. I sold my 13″ MacBook and 27″ iMac then purchased one, single computer, a 17″ MacBook Pro. This solved my issue of having to go back and forth between computers and having a differing selection of apps on each computer, all with different settings and configurations. It gave me one, portable, fast machine. But what the hell was that disorganized thing that computer sat on?
I do not know why and I wish I could go back and stop myself, but I can’t. I looked under my desk. There were wires everywhere! I went to war with these wires in what seemed to be my own WWIII. First, I needed to take care of the power-strip. I attempted to simply hide the mess behind my trash can. The problem was that my wastebasket is made from mesh and hides wires like Nixon hides scandals. Needless to say, I needed a new solution. That week I purchased a CableBox which is basically a box designed to hide a power-strip and excess wires. It worked great! Then, I noticed how many wires were dangling below my desk. They were like little worms hanging and taunting me. Like the power-strip, they had to go. Luckily, these were easily managed when I put some Cabloxs on the back of my desk to direct wires to where they needed to be. They taunt no longer. These two accessories can manage the average setup. They managed mine. (Some setups, however, require more work and tools but since they are not included in my story, they won’t be included here. Sorry.) Continue reading
Review: Things for Mac
I am a person who has a million and one thoughts going through my head at almost any given moment, most of which are ideas and things to do as well as how and when I will do them. The issue for me is remembering. Normally, I end up jotting them down on a scratch piece of paper which I tend to misplace shortly thereafter. Nowadays, iPhones, iPads, and Macs take the paper out of the equation with apps like Stickies on Dashboard and Notes on the two portables. Over the course of a few weeks, I have been using a new application for taking down these to-dos. It is called Things.
Things is an application that allows you to have your to-do list with you everywhere, from iPhone to iPad to Mac. However, each of these apps costs. Things for iPhone costs $10, for iPad $20, and for Mac $50. Things is a very simple, appealing application that comprised of two columns. One a sidebar, the other a main area. In the sidebar, there are three parts. The first is titled “Collect” which houses the Inbox. The Inbox is a place where most things get tossed into prior to being organized away into a specific location in the app. The next part is “Focus” which is where things (like Inbox items) are organized into. Here, one can schedule re-occuring things to do (such as bills or appointments) as well as add things that need to be done within the same day, the next, even ones that are for a project that has yet to take flight. Lastly is an area for projects which have multiple steps (e.g. a history project or site development). You can read more into the composition of Things here. Continue reading
Review: Intego VirusBarrier X6
We’ll be blunt: when it comes to protecting your Mac from a virus, there is one name we trust, Intego. Why would we trust Intego over the industry heavyweights like Mcafee and Norton? Because we are talking about Macs and when it comes to Apple, Intego is simply the best. Intego only handles Apple products and therefore not only does the software function better, but it just makes more sense. Would you take your iMac to Best Buy or would you take it to the folks at the Genius Bar? We think the latter and if you need to find the best anti-virus (and everything else nasty for your computer) software, sit back and enjoy the ride.