Burn Down the Mission

You’re not wrong in saying that the iPhone and iPad will appeal to casual tech users. The iPad is perfect for someone like me, a senior exec who travels. I give occasional presentations, and while there are always some tweaks, I don’t really need the power of a laptop to make text changes to a Keynote presentation. If extensive changes are needed, they can e-mail it to me or I can download the latest version. If I can surf and read e-mail and load a Keynote application, I’m set. The rest is just a great bonus: e-reader, movies, music, and apps. It looks pretty perfect; I’ll be buying two.

—jbelkin

BusyCal 1.2

BusyCal needs a Contact component ASAP! Their version of “Address Book Pro.”

—Charles

• • •

The killer feature for me is modeless editing of event info. Why Apple insists on modal editing in both iCal and Address Book is absolutely beyond me. That alone makes iCal a horrible, horrible, awful, horrible user experience. But there are many other tweaks that make BusyCal so superior that it is easily worth the cash.

—Spiny Norman

Making Your Mac as Smart as Its Owner

Excellent!

Thank you very much. I agree about the easy way to add metadata. I think I’ll look at trying Automator or a script to facilitate that until Steve and company decide to make it an official “feature.” Thank you again.

Terrific writing! If I had a “Thumbs Up” I’d send it to you.

—Bob Browning

My First Mac

My first “home computer” was also a TRS-80, although I never was lucky enough to get an Apple II. I stuck with the Tandy and later got an Atari 800 instead. Skipped the 8-bit Apples and went straight to Mac. (You can read my Mac journey in a past issue of ATPM.)

I don’t think the CP/M card gave you 80 columns on the Apple, although I could be mistaken. I’m guessing the card put a Z80 CPU in your Apple to run CP/M. Ironically, the Z80 is the same chip for our TRS-80s!

If you’re missing typing in programs (Love those Hex listings! Not!) all you need to do is just pick up any modern computer language book (say, Objective-C) and type in all that text! You don’t even have to worry about renumbering line numbers any more!

(You know, writing about this stuff is supposed to make me sound old, but I feel just the same. Computers and geek stuff is still cool, and I still love video games. The games just seem to get better and better! And the computers seem to cost around the same except you get more! Weird!)

—Angus Wong

Photoshop: A Tutorial on Resolution

Hey there, this is excellent. Very good explanation and comments. You were very thorough and helped me out a lot! Thank you so much.

—Stephanie D-H

FileMaking: Incremental Progress

I have been using FileMaker Pro Advanced (8.5) Mac for about six months, having come from Microsoft’s Access.

I originally purchased the Missing Manual for FileMaker Pro and, using that and the FileMaker Help menu, I have learnt enough to create several FileMaker databases. However, when I found the archive of your series on FileMaker, it enabled me to go back to basics to learn the correct way to design and implement them.

This series is so carefully structured and simple to follow that I have thoroughly enjoyed it.

—Glo Brown

Datahand Professional II

Just thought I’d post to say the Datahands are still working great. I’ve sent them in for repairs on several occasions, and while shipping is expensive from Canada, they are always fast and courteous. They’re somewhat fragile, and I’m somewhat abusive, so issues have been my fault.

Here’s a shot of the latest datahand workstation. The Datahands are stuck to the La-Z-Boy via double-sided carpet tape, and an extender cable is used to connect the two sides. With the 1080p projector and nice sound I’ve been able to keep cranking out the code.

Recommended for heavy typists, of course.

(Saw Contact in HD last night. There are brief glimpses of a set of Datahands in the circular pod with Jodie Foster.)

—Andrew Taylor

Crabble iPhone Stand

I bought one recently, and I think it’s great. I wonder how long the hinge will last, but at this price if it’s replaced every 18 months I won’t complain.

Highly recommended.

—guppy

We’d love to hear your thoughts about our publication. We always welcome your comments, criticisms, suggestions, and praise. Or, if you have an opinion or announcement about the Macintosh platform in general, that’s OK too. Send your e-mail to editor@atpm.com. All mail becomes the property of ATPM and may be edited for publication.