MacBreak Tech

For about a $100 you can upgrade your Mac to make it seem like it’s new. Some upgrades are as simple as plugging in a new device. Others require a bit more work.

keyboard typing utility

Matias Keyboard
This keyboard uses the same key switches as the old Apple battle ship keyboard. Remember that thing? It’s big, heavy and nearly indestructible.

iMate ADB to USB
If you want to use one of those old behemoth with your new Mac with this converter.

Frog Pad
What is the sound of one handed typing? It’s much louder then one handed clapping. This is just one solution for small, portable, go almost anywhere keyboards.

Logitech MX 1000 Pro mouse
We like Logitech rodents. Whether corded, uncorded, simple 2 button or more complex multi button. Just about any mouse will work with a Mac without a driver.

SideWinder game mouse from Microsoft. You can add up to 30 grams of additional weight.

USB Overdrive
This incredible tool allows you to make all kinds of normally unusable USB devices work with your Mac. The Nostromo N52 for example really rocks in combination.

A Wacom Tablet but even better is a Cintiq is a great thing for cartoonists, drawers, and Photoshop drivers.

Cotour Design Shuttle Pro is a must have device for editors of video and sound.

Go to TechShop when visiting Menlo Park.

Pandora Jam fixes the huge problem accidently closing a Safari window that stops the rocking.

 

 Renew Your Mac to New [62:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (401)

CocoaTech PathFinder manages files, shows more info, has tabs and best of all shows the files path. [More notes go here...]

Link: CocoaTech PathFinder

 

 CocoaTech PathFinder as an Alternative Finder [32:23m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (443)

Adobe Bridge gives you a view of your media assets in an unFinder like way.

Link: Abobe Bridge 

 

 Adobe Bridge as an Alternative Finder [44:07m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (390)

One feature that Leopard killed was rounded corners on the display. Roundyness is a left over from the old days of CRT. Unlike a green phospher 80×24 character the corners of the bezel made the 512×342 bitmap look wrong. Obviously a pointy corner next to a soft curve looks a lot like a circle in a box. Rounded corners made the Mac 128K very stylish. Yet it was an often unnoticed feature. Later when flat screens came in vogue in the middle 90’s the CRT often had a squared bezel. But the Mac didn’t follow that design keeping it like it always was.

It was likely a focus group of Windows notebook users that brought the corners up as a potentionial problem. Like somehow a display that is 1440×900 somehow isn’t really that big because its missing 6 pixels per corner. That some frivolous class action suit would be brought against Apple for falsely advertising screen size. Morons. The corner isn’t used for anything except as a target so who cares.

So this little app called Displaperture brings roundy corners back to Leopard. You’d think, “what’s the big deal about the corners” until you run it and see that yes indeed it fixes a problem that you didn’t even know was a problem until seeing the problem corrected. It’s the little things like roundy corners that make a Mac a Mac. 

Displaperture