Is the Magic Mouse the Ultimate Mouse?

Today I got the chance to have a play with the new Apple Magic Mouse. Released earlier this week as part of the Apple hardware refresh, the Magic Mouse introduces gesture technology to the mouse, which was previously only found on the MacBook and iPhone.

So what does this mean for the user?

First impressions are the lack of buttons.  While it’s predecessor, the Mighty Mouse, didn’t have visible left and right mouse buttons, there was the tiny scroll ball built into the top casing and the pinch buttons on the side. 

With the Magic Mouse there is nothing, just a smooth curved back.  But don’t let that fool you as this mouse is still a two button mouse and supports scrolling.  The clever part is in the software which analyses the finger movements over the top of the mouse and translates them into actions, such as left or right click.

Its clever enough to understand the difference between a click and you laying your hand on top of the mouse.  The scroll wheel is replaced by dragging your finger across the top of the mouse and just like the trackpad on the Unibody Macbook, the Magic Mouse will support 360 degree scrolling.

A nice touch is that the scrolling can be set to work relative to your finger speed.  So if you want to slowly scroll down the document then a gentle stroke is all you need.  If…

Posted on October 24, 2009 22:27 / 2 Comments / Read article in full ...

Apple Autumn Announcements

Today has been a good day for Apple. They started by reporting their most profitable quarter ever, with revenues of nearly $10 billion yielding a net quarterly profit of $1.67 billion.   Even in this day and age with banks being bailed out across the planet, these are mind blowing numbers.
Where has this dramatic increase come from?  Well the iphone sales go from strength to strength which are obviously part of it.  However it would appear that Mac sales have also seen a year on year increase and have contributed to this growth as well.
How did they follow that?  Well by announcing their usual pre-holiday season refresh of their Mac& Macbook range and launching an innovative new version of the Mighty Mouse, the Magic Mouse.
Other announcements included updates to their wireless networking peripherals with speed boosts for both the Airport Extreme and Time Capsule.  There was also the introduction of a new Aluminium Apple remote which works with the iPhone, iPods with the Universal Dock, and post 2004 iMacs with the built-in infrared receiver
New Mac’s
Apple have taken the opportunity to refresh the iMac’s, entry level Macbook and Mac Mini’s.
The entry level Macbook moves even closer to its Aluminium Unibody Macbook Pro stable mates.   It gains its own…

Posted on October 20, 2009 19:36 / 0 Comments / Read article in full ...

Is Tweetie v2 the Ultimate iPhone Twitter Client?

I’m a self confessed Twitter addict and have tried all the major Twitter clients on the iPhone.

Like most people I started out with Twitterriffic but soon moved onto Twitterfon (recently renamed EchoFon) where I stayed for quite a while.  I was eventually attracted to the simplicity of the user interface of Birdfeed but as my use of Twitter grew I needed more power and so migrated onto applications such as Tweetdeck, Simplytweet and finally Twittelator.  

Along the way I tried and discarded many others but was always on the look out for the ultimate twitter client.  One which combined an easy to use interface, with the power and enhanced functionality needed by a user managing multiple accounts.

I will admit that I wasn’t a massive fan of the original version of Tweetie but I was excited to read the pre-release hype about version 2 and purchased it the moment it was a available in the App Store. Now we all know with iphone apps that the hype can be a long way from reality, but in this instance I can report that it was spot on!

Tweetie version 2 by Atebits, brings the perfect blend of interface polish and functionality. Advanced features are available for power users but these are discretely placed within the interface so as not to overwhelm the user experience, something other apps can be…

Posted on October 16, 2009 20:57 / 0 Comments / Read article in full ...

dConstruct 08 & iphone app

Well I’m off to dConstruct 08 today and what better excuse to try out the iPhone Wordpress app than a bit if conference blogging. Very modern!

I’m writing this in my hotel room using the app, so keep an eye on the blog for more posts during the day and my Flickr photostream (http://www.flickr.com/photos/gilesthurston) for some visuals

Posted on September 05, 2008 20:11 / 0 Comments / Read article in full ...

Initial thoughts on the iPhone 3G

I’ve been using the iPhone 3G for a couple of weeks and thought now would be a good time to share my initial thoughts on this device.

First impressions are very good.  I’ve been using smartphones for a number of years, first starting on Windows Mobile devices and then falling in love with Blackberry’s.  The interface on the iPhone is very intuitive, as you would expect from Apple.  However you really do forget it’s a phone and feel like you are using a PDA, all be it a very powerful one.  Is this as close as you will come to having laptop type functionality in the palm of your hand?

The new functionality such as 3G and GPS work really well although are pretty battery hungry, more on that later.  The keyboard is responsive and the intelligent software which tracks what you type and suggests corrections does work really well and gets better with time.  It is possible to type with two thumbs, as you will see from the video demonstration on the Apple website, however for people me with large thumbs this can be problematic.

There are a couple of things I miss from my Blackberry.  The first is the concept of an Outbox for SMS.  As you will see from the blog I do a lot of mountain based sports and as such can be out of network signal for long periods of times.  Its useful to be able to respond to texts knowing that your phone will…

Posted on July 29, 2008 20:10 / 0 Comments / Read article in full ...