Apple QuickTime and Front Row Keyboard Shortcuts
Posted by Stephen in Apple on 03. Mar, 2010 | Comments
One of my favorite features of Apple’s Mac OS X is the clean and simple media players bundled within. But I often find myself wanting to watch a movie without my remote in hand, and was distressed to see that Apple implemented entirely different keyboard shortcuts for the transport controls in QuickTime 7, QuickTime X, and Front Row.
New Mac Mini Is A Diamond In The Rough
Posted by Stephen in Apple, Everything, Terabyte home on 10. Mar, 2009 | Comments
After a very, very long wait, Apple has finally updated their entry-level “bridge” Mac, the Mac Mini. It’s amazing that, after 19 months without an update, Apple’s new Mini looks exactly the same as the old Mini. But what’s under the hood matters, and Apple delivered a mixed bag there. The new Mini is an excellent home server, which is how mine will be used, but some poor choices limit its abilities out of the box.
Panic! Green Light and MacBook Pro Keyboard is Half Dead!
Posted by Stephen in Apple on 02. Dec, 2008 | Comments
A brief moment of panic today: I open up my MacBook Pro and can’t log in. The left half of the keyboard doesn’t seem to work, and there’s an odd green light on under the function keys.
Turns out, it’s just Num Lock, which I’ve never used.
Thanks, Apple, for making an entirely inscrutable Num Lock indicator [...]
Switch Day 58: Ten Pros and Cons of the MacBook Pro
Posted by Stephen in Apple, Personal, Terabyte home on 11. Aug, 2008 | Comments
I’ve now been a Mac user for two months. Since I switched primarily to get access to Apple’s excellent hardware, I thought I would issue an update on my observations about it at this point. I should note that I’m limiting this post to the hardware (maybe I’ll cover OS X some other time), and [...]
How to Keep an IOGear KVM from Dimming Your Mac’s Screen
Posted by Stephen in Apple, Computer history, Terabyte home on 19. Jun, 2008 | Comments
Just a quick tip tonight about something that’s been nagging me. I love my IOGear MiniView Micro GCS632U KVM, but I’ve had a weird problem since hooking it up to my new MacBook Pro. See, the IOGear uses a double press on the Scroll Lock key to switch views. But every time I type this while [...]
Command and Control: The Clash of Keyboards
Posted by Stephen in Apple, Computer history, Terabyte home on 17. Jun, 2008 | Comments
The lowly computer keyboard is so ubiquitous that it can seem unchanging, but nothing could be further from the truth. It is one of the most important components of any system, and has survived all assaults by new technologies from the mouse to the pen to the microphone, yet its evolution is marked by legacy [...]
Optimus Maximus: Ultimate Keyboard Non-Demo at CES!
Posted by Stephen in Terabyte home on 09. Jan, 2008 | Comments
Aah, Veronica Belmont, I wish you would ask the hard questions… Yes, the Mahalo/Engadget geek-reporter got an in-person demo (with Artemy Lebedev) of an Optimus Maximus keyboard at CES, but (predictably) the video leaves much to be desired. You might remember my earlier discussion of this amazing $1500 OLED-equipped display/keyboard monstrosity. I’m still not buying [...]
Optimus Maximus: It’s Beyond This Keyboard-Head
Posted by Stephen in Computer history, Personal, Terabyte home on 28. Nov, 2007 | Comments
Have you heard of the Optimus Maximus yet? It’s the ultimate computer keyboard (no kidding!), it costs $1500 (no, really, I’m serious!), and I’m not interested (even though I’m a keyboard nut).
First, an introduction to the Maximus: It’s a 113-key PC keyboard. But each key is actually a mini OLED display, [...]
