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Blackmagic's pro livestreaming switcher can broadcast without software
If you're devoted enough to livestreaming that you want the kind of features you'd expect from a TV studio, Blackmagic might have your back. It's releasing the ATEM Mini Pro, an enhanced version of the ATEM Mini switcher that's focused on the most elaborate streaming setups. There's now a hardware streaming engine that lets the Pro stream directly to Twitch, Facebook and YouTube through an Ethernet connection, with no special software required. You can also save recordings for posterity to USB flash drives, and multiview on the HDMI output lets you monitor all inputs on one screen.
Blackmagic’s ATEM Mini brings broadcast quality to your YouTube and Twitch streams
If you livestream on Twitch or YouTube, you may have thought about getting a multi-camera switcher to boost your production values. The problem is devices that can handle that while doing picture-in-picture and other effects can cost up to a grand. However, Blackmagic Design's ATEM Mini is a four-input switcher that can handle transitions, picture-in-picture, pro-level audio control and more for just $295. As a video editor, I was intrigued. Blackmagic Design sells other ATEM-branded video switchers that cost 10 times that price, yet it promises much of the same capability in a far tinier, cheaper package. It seemed too good to be true, so I decided to test it out by simulating a game stream with multiple cameras.
Playing 'The Witcher 3' on the Switch shouldn't work, but it does
When Nintendo briefly mentioned in its barrage of E3 reveals that The Witcher 3 would be ported to the humbly powered -- and portable -- Switch, it beggared belief. The Witcher 3 PC install (DLC, expansions and all) demands just shy of 50GB of disk space. The biggest Switch cart is 32GB. So, can you make The Witcher 3 work on the Switch? And when the October 15th release date rolls around, will you want to play it? I played it for almost half a day at Nintendo's UK HQ earlier this week, and the answer is yes. But let me try to answer some of your (and my) concerns along the way.
Apple's Windows migration tool can transfer more info in Mojave
Windows users looking for an easier time of switching to the Mac are in luck. According to a report at 9to5Mac, Apple's latest operating system, macOS 10.14 Mojave, has a new Windows Migration Assistant. Originally spotted by a Twitter user, the new assistant will apparently bring over much more data than ever before, including user accounts, documents, email, contacts and calendar information.
Dear Aunt TUAW: ZDnet switcher has some wires crossed
Auntie knows that some of her correspondents don't get around to sending in their questions promptly -- in some cases, not at all. This week, she's handed over the perfumed stationery to nephew TJ, who has a bit of a bee in his bonnet over Ken Hess's account of his first week with the Mac, published last week by ZDnet. Dear Ken, After your rather colorful piece about wanting to trade in your iPhone 5 for an iPhone 4, I was curious to read your account of switching to the Mac. The challenges you're facing are surmountable; I believe I may be able to give you a few pointers to make the transition smoother. I went through this exact process about 10 years ago, and I've never looked back. While things may feel easier on Windows, as someone who spent time and has done tech support on both platforms, I think it's fair to say that really depends a lot on what you are used to. For example, when I bought my PowerBook, I hooked the Ethernet cable to it. Then I started searching for the equivalent of Windows' "Network Wizard" to start configuring -- whether or not this was a public network, a home network, or a work network. After several minutes of searching I finally gave up and thought, "Wait, you don't suppose that it's just that easy? I plugged in the network cable and I'm on the network?" But that's how it worked. Click to close ... when it makes sense. You wrote: "[W]hen I click the X on an application, I expect it to exit." At the risk of frustrating you further, some apps on the Mac do close when you close their window, and some don't. For example, if you close the "Contacts.app" window, there is really nothing more for you to do with that app, so the app closes. However, if you are in a word processing or text editor and close the last window, maybe you want to create a new document. If you close the last window of your web browser, maybe you want to go somewhere else. But here's the thing: the way that Windows does it isn't better, necessarily; it's that it's familiar. If you want to quit an app on Mac, just quit the app using the File menu's Quit command, or the handy Command-Q keyboard shortcut. (Yes, you can control the Mac using the keyboard.) Most apps will resume right where you left off, including re-opening windows just like you had them before. If you don't want an app to save its windows, you can even tell it not to. Aside: Force quitting iOS apps You also wrote: "A similar thing happens on the iPad and iPhone. My daughter never quits any apps, so she always has twenty or more 'minimized' apps on her devices. Of course, everyone in my family also makes fun of me because I want them to close the doors when entering or leaving the house. I must be the one that's wrong. I like to close doors and apps. Deal with it." You are, of course, welcome to use your devices however you like. However, your analogy to closing doors when entering or leaving the house doesn't really fit, because background apps on iOS will automatically quit when the OS needs to reclaim the memory they're using. Force-quitting apps on iOS is like standing at one of those automatic doors at the grocery store and pulling it shut behind you. You can do it if you want, but don't expect other shoppers to compliment you for your diligence. When you re-launch an iOS app, it will pick up where you left off, so it appears as if you never quit it at all. (Sounds familiar? Apple is trying to introduce that convenience into Mac OS X too.) Free and Bundled Apps You wrote: "If you haven't noticed, I really like free applications." That was a strange thing to say after mentioning, twice, that one of the first things you installed was Microsoft Office, which is probably the most expensive "app" most Mac users will ever install, unless they decide to spend $20 on Pages instead. Fair warning, Pages isn't filled with oodles of overcrowded toolbars reworked into a 'ribbon' either. In fact, the default look of a new document in Microsoft Word compared to the default look of a new document in Pages.app may be a good illustration of the difference in mindset between the two platforms -- Word first: vs. Pages: That's after Microsoft updated Word with the "ribbon" feature to "simplify" it. Now, is one of those better than the other? No, they're just different approaches. Personally, I prefer Pages because it shows me a small subset of commonly needed features, whereas Microsoft Word looks like a bad case of UI overreach. Let's move on. The next concern you raised was about the perceived lack of bundled apps on OS X: "At the price that Apple charges ($800), you'd think I'd get a free copy of PhotoShop Lite or some other 'lite' versions of something with it but, no, it's pretty bare bones." First, "the price that Apple charges" for its operating system is $20. The rest is for the hardware. Microsoft doesn't bundle third-party apps with its operating system, either -- that's down to the PC manufacturers. Second: Really? You're complaining that Mac OS X doesn't come loaded down with the free applications and utilities commonly derided by Windows users as "crapware?" You may have noticed that there is no Mac version of PC Decrapifier, either. This is generally considered to be a feature of buying a Mac -- not a flaw. Instead, Apple has created the Mac App Store, which is conveniently bundled with OS X and accessible at all times, via the "Apple Menu" as shown here: Fire that up and you will find more apps that you could ever hope to use. Many of them are free, and those that aren't free are generally pretty inexpensive. When you buy from the Mac App Store, you also know that the app developer has met Apple's standards for inclusion in the store, so it won't muck up your computer. (The question of whether those restrictions, particularly the "sandboxing" rules that control which areas of your Mac an app can access, are overly restrictive is a question for another post.) Oh, and there are no license codes for apps from the Mac App Store, and you can use them on all of your Macs. In fact, you can also set it up so that whenever you download an app from the Mac App Store, that newly-purchased app will automatically be downloaded and installed on all of your other Macs. On paying for software I find it disheartening to hear a tech writer claim that he doesn't have any money to spend on software. (Even more so when that tech writer is "a full-time Windows and Linux system administrator with 20 years of experience with Mac, Linux, UNIX, and Windows systems in large multi-data center environments," as your ZDnet bio states. Sysadmin wages are, by and large, better than writer's pay.) I assume that you get paid for your work, and that you pay your mechanic, accountant, and doctor for their work, not to mention either mortgage or rent. I'm not sure how you expect software developers to pay their mortgage or rent or their mechanic, account or doctor if they aren't getting paid for their work. But that's a whole other conversation. Crashing You wrote "Pinta, for example, won't allow me to cut or copy a bit of a drawing. I get an exception when I try. That's a significant fail for that product." Wow. You ran into a bug in a free, cross-platform image program? I'm shöcked. (By the way, we call that a Sarcastic Umlaut.) I'm not sure what this has to do with a review of your purchase of a Mac. "I get some app crashes -- far more than I should for a brand new system. So far, the App Store app has crashed multiple times, Pinta has crashed, and a few others that I can't recall have crashed on me." Seems like you've run into more crashes on your new Mac than I have on all of my Macs in the past 6 months or more. In fact, I purchased that exact same Mac mini about 2 months ago and I'm not sure I've seen any crashes on it, and certainly haven't seen any crashes of apps from Apple. Do third-party apps sometimes crash on Mac OS X? Sure. Do Apple's own apps sometimes crash too? Sure. Does that happen on Windows too? Yup. Desktop Publishing You wrote: "I've always wanted a Mac for Desktop Publishing, for Graphics creation and editing, and for movie editing. All those things are now available for Windows and I'm not convined [sic] that the Mac versions are any better these days. Twenty years ago, they were. Today, not so much." As someone who has used Microsoft Word and Pages extensively, I can tell you that doing consumer-level desktop publishing in Pages is much easier than it is in Word. Have you actually tried any Mac graphics programs? I don't mean "Mac versions of Windows programs" or "free app that tries to work on Windows, Linux, and Mac," I mean actually developed-for-the-Mac applications like Graphic Converter or Pixelmator? Because it sounds like you've tried a bunch of Windows-based or Windows-centric apps on Mac and then declared that a Mac is no better than a Windows machine. That would be like me switching to Windows and complaining that iTunes and Safari aren't any better than on the Mac (which they're not, but it's hardly a fair assessment of the whole platform). The menu bar is better. No, really. It is. You wrote: "That weird application bar thing at the top is application focused." It's called the "menu bar." Not to put too fine a point on it, but maybe it'd be worth taking an hour or two to learn the Mac-specific terminology before declaring yourself ready to write an post for a major tech website dismissing an entire mainstream operating system that you have used for "a full week." [This is a strong real-world example of Michael Chastain's legendary General Motors Help Line joke. "Motor? Engine? I don't want to learn technical terms, I just want to go places in my car!"--Ed.] The menu bar is better. It works consistently across all applications. No longer will you have to blindly click around some application to try to figure out where the menus are. They are at the top. Always. Yes, if you find yourself clicking randomly around the OS (any OS) then you might get unexpected results. The difference is that OS X offers you consistency. In sum ... You started off by saying that you had been using Mac OS X for "a full week." I expected you meant that you were just getting started -- after all, you've been using other operating systems for decades -- but you seem to have already given up. Of course Mac OS X seems strange; it's different from what you are used to! There is still a lot out there to discover, such as the fact that you can get free screen recording built-in using QuickTime X (as pointed out by our own Megan Lavey-Heaton). Is it as good as Camtasia? No, but it's free. And if you want Camtastia, it's available for Mac (for a price), along with Jing and other products from TechSmith at several price points. There's also iShowU and ScreenFlow and probably some others that I'm forgetting. If you're seeking software tools and Google doesn't turn up what you are looking for, there's always Alternative.To. As a new Mac user you might also greatly benefit from checking out AskDifferent, Mac OS X Hints, and our own Mac 101 series. Of course, mainstream social networks like Twitter, Facebook and Google+ are good places to seek out help; so are Apple's own support forums. Even the most experienced Mac users were beginners once. Unlike the bad days of the 1990s, however, now you've got a lot of company; reach out, ask for help, get what you need and enjoy. But maybe the first step towards the comfort zone is learning -- and accepting -- that you don't know what you don't know. Anyway, we're here to help. Good luck with week two of your Mac experience... and beyond.
iOS Task Switcher concept explores feature's potential
The Verge forums user Sentry posted the concept art you see above for the (underutilized) iOS task switcher, and I think it's awesome. Sentry's vision adds a lot of worthwhile information to the multitask bar without sacrificing the clear layout. The app thumbnails are great, but I really like the various controls for music, WiFi and Bluetooth. It's such a pain to have to dig down into the Settings app every time I need to switch one of those on my phone or iPad, and having them accessible with just a double-tap and a swipe would be excellent. I already heavily use the audio controls that pop up when you double tap the iOS Home button while your device is locked, and sliding them into the task switcher seems like a no brainer. iOS 6, of course, was just released, so we're now waiting for Apple to tell us what's next with the portable operating system. Hopefully, an excellent revamp of the task switcher like this is being worked on right now. [via RazorianFly]
Switcher Profile: Apple's 'halo effect' claims former editor of Windows Magazine
Cult of Mac writer Mike Elgan recently detailed the years-long process that convinced him to switch to the Mac. His story is fairly typical of many switchers: Once a die-hard PC evangelist, his first Apple product was the iPod, which he appreciated for its ease of use. The iPhone eventually convinced him to ditch his BlackBerry, and the iPad was the be-all, end-all of tablet-based computing as far as he was concerned. Finally, using his son's iMac convinced Elgan to switch away from Windows completely. As I said, it's a fairly typical switcher story... up until you learn that Elgan used to be the editor of Windows Magazine during most of the 1990s. It's hard to be a much more die-hard Windows enthusiast than that without having Microsoft's logo on your business cards and paychecks. The things that kept Elgan away from the Mac platform are fairly standard: familiarity with Windows and reluctance to learn OS X, not wanting to be dependent on Apple for hardware repairs, and not wanting to self-identify with the "fringe" elements among Mac users. But eventually, actually using Apple's products on a regular basis convinced the former Windows enthusiast to switch. Outgoing PCMag editor Lance Ulanoff is on the mobile side of this roster, as he's switching from a Blackberry to the iPhone. The "halo effect" of iPod users becoming enamored of Apple's smaller gadgets and switching to the Mac shortly after has been well-documented over the past seven years or so, and with the introduction of the iPhone and iPad this effect has intensified. Apple's efforts to bring some of iOS's functions to the Mac via OS X Lion can be viewed in this light as a shrewd move to amplify this halo effect even farther. People who are already familiar with the iPad's touchscreen interface may take one look at a MacBook Air running full-screen apps or launching applications via Launchpad and think to themselves, "Hmmm, maybe switching to a Mac won't be so hard after all." Just don't spoil it for those potential switchers by telling them about the Finder.
Barack Obama and the iPad-in-Chief
US President Barack Obama has been well-known for his love of RIM's BlackBerry, at least until last year when he admitted that the device is now "no fun" because of the security strictures he faces as Commander-in-Chief. The President has also said that technology in the White House is "30 years behind," with a lack of "really cool phones and stuff." The President recently admitted he got an iPad, but until a recent photo, it wasn't clear whether he got the old model or the new iPad 2. Consider this mystery solved, because based on this photo of him boarding Marine One it's clear the President is toting around a brand-new iPad 2, complete with a Smart Cover. The iPad-in-Chief We're still not sure what the President uses his iPad for, though it's funny to picture the world's most powerful politician playing Angry Birds on Air Force One while the "football" sits nearby. It seems Apple's device has been cleared by White House security, which typically is not an easy feat -- the President reportedly had trouble getting clearance for his BlackBerry. If you work for a company whose IT department has been reticent about letting the iPad in, you've now got some potent ammunition for your counterargument. Thanks for the tip, Alex!
UltraEdit makes the leap to Mac OS X
UltraEdit for Mac was officially released this month. A favorite of Windows developers, UltraEdit was first released in 1994 as one of the earliest "Notepad" replacement text editors for programmers on Windows. When you use your computer for programming, you live in your text editor. Mac developers love TextMate's project management and plug-ins, BBEdit's built-in code validation, or its freeware sibling TextWrangler's fantastic find and replace. For web development, I use Coda with built in syntax highlighting, source code versioning and a CSS editing mode. But for Windows users, switching from Windows to Mac has meant giving up a favorite Windows editor, which can feel disorienting. TUAW readers who switched from Windows have been wanting UltraEdit for years, some even running Windows in a VM (virtual machine) just for their text editor. Back in 2007, reader Jon Niola commented, "As a switcher, the app I miss most on Windows is UltraEdit ... I wrote to IDM (makers of UltraEdit) to ask them if they were ever going to port to OS X and ... it sounds like it is something they are headed towards eventually." After 15 years, it's here.
Switcher Profile: Joshua Kors has no idea how to use a Mac, returns it
Investigative reporter Joshua Kors recently switched to the Mac ... then switched right back. It turns out that he and his iMac weren't a good fit for one another. That's potentially understandable; switching to the Mac is easier for some people than for others. If a switcher doesn't have anyone there to walk him through the process, he might get so frustrated by the little differences between Windows and Mac OS X that he may wonder why he bothered switching at all. On the other hand, some of the more minor difficulties and situations that crop up in the first days of Mac use really shouldn't have been beyond the grasp of someone with Kors' impressive credentials. Those of us who are experienced in using Macs may read through Kors' piece and either laugh or shake our heads in wonder, but someone who knows nothing about using a Mac may read it and take it at face value. To anyone who's read through Joshua Kors' account of his nightmare experience with the Mac, here's a disclaimer you may be familiar with from commercials: results may vary. In fact, if you have even basic computer literacy skills, you'll likely find switching to the Mac a far more pleasant experience than Kors did. Click "Read More" to see how Kors' poor switcher experience could have been improved at several points, and why switching to the Mac is nowhere near as difficult as he's made it out to be.
Ed Bott's side-by-side Mac and PC experiment
ZDNet's Microsoft reporter Ed Bott is switching to a Mac. It's not forever and not in the way that you may be thinking, but for the time being he has decided to get serious about a side-by-side Mac and PC comparison he started over a year ago. Using a Mac mini and an HP Pavilion Elite desktop connected to dueling 24-inch monitors and sharing a single keyboard and mouse, he's not so much switching (wonder if he has watched the Apple "Find Out How" videos yet) but rather working towards his goal of being "comfortable enough to move between machines and use the best tools on each one with as little friction as possible." Using Synergy, open-source software that allows the use of one keyboard and mouse with both machines at once, Bott can move between them at will throughout the day. While this first installment in his "switch" is mostly about getting everything set up correctly, future discussion will include any hassles of platform switching and a comparison of the latest Office versions on each. Sure sounds like a much more complicated way of switching than the method I used with my Mom, which was to ask her to please just listen to me and buy a Mac. She's been thankful ever since.
Wirecast 4 delivers live video switching, webcast streaming
The cost of doing live TV-style production has plummeted in the past decade. Not so long ago, doing a live multi-camera shoot would require a studio and switching equipment that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars or more. Then along came the NewTek Tricaster, which delivered much of the functionality of a studio in a small form factor PC box for less than US$10,000. [The Stream Breeze drops that cost down to about $4,000 now. –Ed.] Even 10 grand is a lot to spend if you're just getting started in the video broadcast arena. Thankfully, the folks at Telestream offer a more affordable option with the software-only Wirecast platform. The company has just released Wirecast 4 with a thoroughly updated user interface, new title templates, improved Flash encoding and more. Wirecast already included picture in picture support, playback of pre-recorded video, audio and images, and simultaneous encoding to multiple bit-rates. The software allows live switching between multiple input sources and chroma-keying with green screens. The Pro version adds support for HDV and wireless IP cameras as well as 3D virtual sets. The standard version of Wirecast 4 is US$449 while the Pro edition is $995; both can output to QuickTime, Flash or Windows Media streams. Wirecast 4 is available in both Mac and Windows versions. [You might also take a look at BoinxTV, which TUAW has used for onsite production at Macworld Expo and elsewhere. BoinxTV's solution for web streaming is a bit more convoluted than Wirecast's direct support (it requires a third-party capture utility like CamTwist or the $29 GrabberRaster) but for studio recording it covers a lot of the same ground. It starts at $199 for a sponsored edition. –Ed.] [via MacNN]
Switch 101: A guide to using OS X
As the resident Mac expert for my family and friends, I often find myself fielding questions from the recent switchers in my life. A lot of those questions come in the form of "how do I <insert random Windows task here>?" Apparently Apple's support folk have also encountered this phenomenon as Apple has created a knowledge base article to tackle many of these questions. The article, entitled "Switch 101: On Windows I used to..." is part of Apple's Switch 101 series which is directly aimed at getting recent switchers comfortable with using OS X. It covers such tasks as finding and opening files, quitting applications, and using shortcut key modifiers (such as , the Command key). I have shown this article to many recent switchers both in my family and otherwise; it has always proved to be a valuable resource to those that are new the Mac platform. Another great resource for recent switchers is TUAW's own Mac 101 series. Do you have any other tips for recent switchers? Post them in the comments and share the wealth of your experiential knowledge.
5 tips for switchers
Every now and then I'll have an "I never knew about that" moment as I come across a setting or nuance in Mac OS X that I never realized existed. Take, for instance, character viewer, which allows you to display a variety of characters in your document. Whether you're a switcher or seasoned Mac veteran, here are five tips that could help improve your Mac experience.
Giving or getting a Mac for the holidays? 10 apps every new Mac user needs
All new Macs come with great bundled software. Between the iLife suite, Safari, iTunes, and TextEdit, plus the ability to access and use cloud applications for free, almost all of the most basic modern computing needs get met for most users. That said, having used four different Macs over the past seven years, there are several applications that don't come with OS X that I find myself immediately loading onto a new Mac. Most of these are big-name apps that you've probably already heard of, but it's still pretty amazing how much extra functionality you can eke out of a Mac with only ten additional programs, and all of them (save the last one) are free. Whether you're buying a new Mac for a relative this holiday season or getting a new one for yourself, these are ten applications you should download as soon as that shiny new machine loads the desktop for the first time.
Get your thinking caps on, MacHeist is back
Software bundles seem to be all the rage nowadays, but in my humble opinion, MacHeist is still the best. It doesn't just lump a bunch of apps together for special price, but instead, it turns getting a discount into a game. As a recent Mac switcher, I was utterly confused by MacHeist 3, the first edition in which I participated. Someone told me to check out the MacHeist bundle, so I went to the web site to see what applications it contained. But the site didn't tell me. It soon became clear that I was going to have to work for my software! The whole idea, if you're not familiar with MacHeist, is that you need to complete a series of challenges, labeled "heists," in order to get free software. Yes, free. As in what lunches aren't. And the software isn't anything to sneeze at (neither are lunches, by the way), as there are always some real gems to be found. UPDATE: We took the 4 from the title as it is currently unknown whether this is actually MacHeist 4 or an early bundle offer.
Macminicolo writes up their state of the Mac mini
Steve Sande actually did a brilliant job of explaining just why the Mac mini is so awesome the other day (and we've certainly had our share of mini-love here on the site before), but this is worth a read as well if you're interested in Apple's littlest Mac. Macminicolo, the very company that Steve lauds in his piece for colocating mini servers for a while now, has posted a "state of the mini" piece, complete with unboxing of the new mini server, pictures of its guts and how they all work together. If you've ever wondered why the mini is such a marvel of desktop OS X-ness, check out their writeup (and drool at the beautiful setup above -- so many minis!). There are a few good things to take away from the big release this week -- while Steve is exactly right that releasing a mini server means Apple is getting on the server bandwagon, it also means that Apple is officially on the mini bandwagon. When these machines were first released, they were marketed as a switchers' computer -- bring your own mouse and monitor, and we'll show you what being on a Mac is like at a fraction of the cost. Frankly, they never shined at that purpose, prompting many people to proclaim death sentences for the little machine that could. But by releasing a server, Apple's saying, "we get it." They get that the mini is much more of a workhorse than it appears (or was meant) to be. In my mind, that's a whole new lease on life -- the mini may have never made much of a splash as a switchers' computer, but it's got a long future as a tiny but powerful computer you can use for all sorts of things. [via DF]
Mac 101: Forward delete on a Mac laptop
Welcome back to Mac 101, our series of tips for new and novice Mac users. We've had a few questions about a forward delete functionality on Mac laptops lately, but the question isn't new. We realized that we sometimes take our readers for granted... little tips like this are actually huge news for a lot of the switchers in the audience. So if you know this, awesome! If not, here's a quick way to duplicate the forward delete functionality on a Mac laptop. It's really simple: find the function key (it is abbreviated as fn) on the bottom left side of the keyboard. Hold down function and hit the delete key (fn+delete). Yes, we know -- it's an extra step over a PC but your days of using the arrow keys to delete are over. There are a lot of arguments about why there isn't a dedicated key for that function and most of them focus on the aesthetics of the keyboard by keeping it minimal. If that means I hold function to forward delete, well, I'm OK with that. I think my keyboard is sexy. Thanks, Logan!
The sordid past of Mac OS X
If you're a relative newcomer to the Mac (read: halo switchers inspired by iPod/iPhone) then chances are pretty good that you and OS X (Oh-Ess Ten) don't have a very long history together. In fact, switchers who were enticed by the iPod/iTunes ecosystem would likely not have any experience with the Mac prior to 2003. That being the case, and given the ramp up to the release of Snow Leopard this Friday, it might be a worthy use of time to check out TwistedMac's overview of OS X. It starts with the Public Beta of OS X that was released in September of 2000 and flies all the way through to the current, latest release of OS X, 10.5 Leopard. A brief description and screenshots galore provide ample coverage for many of the features and nuances of each release over the years. If you have only been using a Mac in this millennium you will find this overview quite interesting and informative. Even if you've been on the Mac since the OS 9 days, it is still entertaining to see how far OS X has come in the past 9 years. As a relative Mac newbie, I will open myself up to public flogging and admit to the fact that my earliest experiences with Mac OS were in the 10.3 Panther days. Truth be told, I didn't even switch until after 10.4 Tiger was released. Now, however, I'm going to hide out until tomorrow morning when I can purchase 10.6 Snow Leopard while the rest of you give up the goods as to when you joined the team. Tip of the hat to Evan H. for sending this in!
Mac 101: Get a PC printer running on a Mac. There's a driver for that!
More Mac 101, tips and tricks for new Mac users. While this tip may be old news to tech-savvy folk, I think it might help a lot of recent Mac switchers who want to leverage their existing investment in their Windows-compatible peripherals.I have a friend who has been on Windows forever. He finally had his fill, and after some incessant nagging on my part, he made the switch. What I expected to happen, did happen -- he's thrilled being on a Mac. He's yet to see a crash, and as most of us know, it generally 'just works.'He did have one problem though. He had a Dell USB printer sitting on his desk. When he plugged it into his MacBook it wasn't recognized, and there was a scrolling list of lots of printers, but nothing from Dell.A quick web search revealed the printer was actually a rebranded Samsung ML-1710. The Samsung driver page for this printer didn't show any Mac drivers. Searching a bit deeper on Google, we found that an unsupported Mac driver was hiding on the Australian Samsung website. We downloaded and installed the driver, and what do you know? The printer came up, and printed just fine.The reality is that there are a lot more printer brands than there are original equipment manufacturers, and it's pretty easy to find out who actually makes a particular printer. If it's a USB printer, chances are good you can find a driver and be quickly printing away. For a wide-ranging solution, the Gutenprint (formerly Gimp-Print) open source project provides drivers for hundreds of older or unsupported printers.The moral: Don't give up on your PC printer if you feel like it still has life in it; a little bit of online research may turn up a way forward for your Mac. If you have similar happy endings, or unpleasant ones, let us know in the comments. Your fellow readers can learn from your experiences.
