KirkMcelhearn
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How to transfer files between Macs
When two or more Macs are gathered in the name of Steve Jobs, there's a good chance that someone is going to want to transfer files between those computers. Macworld's Kirk McElhearn, who also hangs out at TidBITS.com and is a fellow Take Control Ebooks author, has written an excellent tutorial on nine ways to transfer files from one Mac to another. Whether you're a Mac newbie or a longtime Mac-head, it's a good read. McElhearn's nine methods include: Email (although there are size limitations) File sharing, found in System Preferences > Sharing Using a shared disk such as a Time Capsule Using iChat file transfer, which is great if you use iChat a lot since you just drag and drop files Sync with Dropbox Send files via Dropbox Use MobileMe sharing (or use YouSendIt if the files exceed MobileMe's size limits) Burn CDs or DVDs Use a sneakernet with a USB thumb drive, SD card or external hard disk drive McElhearn left FTP and several other transfer protocols off of his list, since they require a server. One of my favorite file transfer tools for Macs before Dropbox appeared on the scene was DropCopy (free for personal use on up to three Macs), a fast way to do drag-and-drop file transfers between Macs. What other methods of file transfer between Macs can you think of? We'd love to hear some of your experiences in the comments.
Random album flash in iPod Classic
While a lot has been said about the iPod Touch, not much has been said about the new old standard, the iPod Classic. Kirk McElhearn has written a pretty scathing review of a feature that I didn't even notice-- that album artwork on the side while you're browsing music. Apparently it's not related to what you're listening to at all (which is what I originally suspected it was): it's completely random.Why would this be the case? I thought it was a cool feature to put what you're listening to on the side, so even while you browse through the music, you could have a static reminder of what's playing. But no. Kirk says it's flashy and moving and random-- just like (gasp) a Flash ad. Apparently you can turn it off, and have just a static graphic sit there. But that doesn't explain why anyone thought it was a good idea in the first place.To be completely fair to Apple, I haven't actually used the iPod Classic myself yet-- maybe there's some useful function that can come out of showing random, moving art (suggestions for what to listen to next, maybe?). But flash for flash's sake like this seems a weird decision on Apple's part, especially in a device that's supposed to be a Classic iPod.[via Tsai]
