I bought the Kensington Expert Mouse trackball about 3 years ago, and I have to admit that I love it. Customizable buttons, scroll ring, and the Kensington TrackBall software works very well on my Mac Pro.

Only thing is, the detachable wrist rest (which is very comfortable) has warped a little over the years, the edge that mates with the trackball lifting a full quarter inch. This makes using the mouse much less comfortable, as you may imagine.

I wanted to buy a new wrist rest, but couldn’t find one on Kensington’s web site, so I contacted the sales department about it.

Much to my surprise, the reply was that the wrist rest was ONLY available with purchase of a new Expert Mouse! I asked, does that mean that there is NO way to get one?

That’s right. NO WAY!

So, if you want a great trackball have a look at the Expert Mouse (strange name, since it’s not a mouse at all, but that’s another story). Just be aware, if the wrist rest, made of a hard plastic base with foam above, should tear, distort, or otherwise become less than comfortable, your only option is to stop using it.

Since I really like the feel of the wrist rest, and don’t find using the Expert Mouse nearly as comfortable without it, I’m looking for a solution. Any ideas???

Personally, I think it’s a terrible decision to not make replacement wrist rests available. I’d happily purchase one, but they won’t let me!

You may gather that I’m a bit pissed at Kensington. You’d be right. I own a number of their products, and have recommend hundreds of them over the years. I’ll do more research in future, and look at other options, depend on it.

Oh, a client bought a DomeHub USB 2.0 (7 ports) based on my suggestion. I have one, it works great, and is well recommended. Thing is, my client got a dead one, and is not likely to buy another.

Kensington, what’s happened to you?

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I’ve used iCal for years. It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty good. Then I discovered MenuCalendarClock. Wow, what a great improvement!

Then I discovered BusyCal, which I use regularly and can’t do without.

To learn more about how to get more out of iCal, MacAppStorm has a great article called 8 Awesome Utilities for Extending iCal.

Check the article out, and check out the apps and utilities listed. You may find your work flow much smoother. I sure did!

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Pirated software is surely a big issue to developers, but activation can be a real pain to users. Microsoft opts on the side of pain, unfortunately, with Office 2011

When purchased, it comes with a 25-character activation key that MUST be entered within 15 days of running any of the Office apps for the first time. If entered within that period, the whole suite will work correctly.

If the user goes past the grace period, Office 2011 won’t launch. It is completely unusable.

This is actually worse than the grace period and unfortunate ramifications faced by Windows Office 2011 users.

They get 30 days to activate the suite, and can reset the grace period countdown up to 5 times, with a total of 180 days before their out of time.

If the Windows version goes past the grace period, it goes into a “reduced functionality mode” that allows opening the apps and viewing documents already created, but no editing or printing.

In addition, Microsoft reduced the number of Macs we can install Office on legally and uses activation to make sure we don’t break the end-user licensing agreement, also called EULA.

The Office 2008 for Mac Home and Student EULA allows 3 licenses, each with a separate serial number, and each license allowed installation on a desktop and a laptop, totaling 6 installations.

Office for Mac 2011 now uses a single activation code, halving the number of installations allowed. The $150 Home and Student 2011 Family Pack allows installation on 3 devices. Period.

Here’s some more ammo for Apple and the iWork suite. I own Office 2008 for Mac, but made iWork 09 my choice for word processing, spreadsheet usage and, along with the online-only Prezi (prezi.com), Keynote for presentation. Office 2008 was too clunky and slow. The 2011 version may be faster and better, but I’d use the Home and Office version, which would cost $280 for my two installs.

You do the math… if you need to have formatting stay constant with versions of documents going back and forth in a group, for example, it may require Office 2011, as iWork apps may change the formatting to greater or lesser degree. If minor changes won’t matter, saving nearly $200 (for two installations) may appeal. Just my opinion…

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A great review by Robert Mohns, a freelance reviewer, is posted on the Macintouch site providing a comprehensive look at the changes in the new Office suite.

Rather than attempt to digest the review for you, I’m recommending that anyone interested go to Macintouch and read the full review. It covers all the changes, the pros and cons, and some alternatives to Office for Mac.

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cnet.com has resource pages for Mac users, iPhone and iPod users. You may find them useful, so here’s a description, from my personal point of view.

Apple Mac computers

This page has news, reviews, downloads, forums, pictures, bideos and a page about accessories. The page itself is a blog with Apple Mac OS X News, which may or may not be interesting to the rest of us.

Reviews, on the other hand, have cnet.com’s regular reviews… not too long or complex, but with the basic info, with some comparative testing and a pretty complete thumbnail sketch of what’s new, what’s missing, and what does or doesn’t work, and why. A range of prices is given, with a link to selected vendors

Downloads are limited to a few utilities, but there’s a link to a much more complete catalogue. I still prefer Versiontracker .com to see what’s new, but this is a valuable resource.

cnet.com has a number of Mac-based Forums, on Mac hardware, OS, software and more.

Pictures didn’t exist, and the only ideo was a cnet first look at the new Mac Pro.

Accessories shows some of Apple’s accessories. Nothing to get too excited about, in my opinion.

Mac OS X Leopard

The Mac OS X Leopard page has the same kind of layout. I find the news to be a little more interesting, but the forum posts shown are pretty old. No pictures. The video is a first look at Leopard, which is a bit dated. No accessories, which makes sense..

iPod

This page is newsworthy, but forums posts show are even older. The video worked, and was a a first look at the iPod Classic. The accessories are much more interesting, not just Apple products. Speakers and headsets are shown today.

iPhone

This page seems a little more timely, with a full review, and a video, of the new iPhone 3G S. The news is up to date, reviews are the usual good ones, and the downloads are iPhone apps. Forum posts come from the Cell Phone forums, accessories are headsets today.

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Miraz Jordan is a WordPress expert, and also writes the Mac Tips blog quoted here from time to time. She has 2 new ebooks available, at very reasonable prices!

First is How to backup your WordPress website, US$4.75. Backing up your WordPress blog or Web site is critical, as servers are not perfect and data can be lost. Yes, hosting companies say they backup and will restore quickly, but the real world is a little different.

The second book, How WordPress is put together is even more valuable, in my opinion, and it’s free! This is another example of Miraz’ generosity towards the rest of us, and I am grateful for it. This blog is a WordPress creation, so I am particularly interested in her new books.

How WordPress is put together

Understand how your WordPress website is put together. Come to grips with the various folders you see with your FTP software, and what the database is about. See how Themes fit in, and how much difference a theme can make.

How WordPress is put together briefly explains what WordPress is, and then uses screenshots and concise text to show what files and folders make up WordPress, and what their purposes are. It refers to version 2.8 of WordPress.

The book also explains which folders contain unique files, and which shouldn’t be touched, except by experts.

Other chapters explain about the version.php file, the Default and Classic themes, and the MySQL database.

Handy links round out this informative book.

Written for web developers who are new to WordPress, and for the clients of web developers who set up WordPress websites for them.

You can print this ebook, and copy and paste from it for your own personal use. It is not locked up with Digital Rights Management.

How to backup your WordPress website

Learn how to quickly and easily back up all of your WordPress website. Don’t discover too late that you’ve lost all your Posts, images or Theme files because you didn’t really backup everything.

How to backup your WordPress website shows you step by step how and what to backup.

This ebook shows how to back up the appropriate folders and files using FTP software such as Interarchy (Mac) or Filezilla (Windows). The book goes on to show how to back up the MySQL database using your website’s Control Panel or phpMyAdmin, part of the Control Panel many hosting providers make available.

This highly targeted book makes manual backup processes clear, taking readers step by step through the process, with screenshots on every page.

Written for web developers who are new to WordPress, and for the clients of web developers who set up WordPress websites for them. It refers to version 2.8 of WordPress.

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by Michael Scalisi, PC World

The following article is reprinted from the BizFeed blog at PCWorld.com.

Macs are often criticized for the high price of their hardware. This so-called Apple tax is the premium that Apple computers usually cost over comparably equipped PCs. But since the company dropped prices on its laptop line yesterday, that difference is now smaller than ever.

Of course, Mac enthusiasts might even say the Apple tax never existed, since no MacBook Pro competitor has the aluminum unibody construction or multi-touch track pad that the MacBook Pro does.

In any case, I’ve been playing with the numbers, and I’ve noticed something interesting: When the newest 13-inch MacBook Pro is configured with similar features and put head to head with a Dell XPS 1330 (arguably Dell’s most similar computer), the two come within spitting distance in price.

The base price for the 13-inch MacBook Pro is $1199 while the Dell XPS M1330 starts at $749. Using each company’s online configuration tool, I created systems with the following attributes: 13.3-inch LED backlit screen, 4GB RAM, 320GB Hard disk, Nvidia GE Force 9400M Graphics Card, 802.11n networking, integrated webcam, backlit keyboard and Bluetooth. The MacBook comes with a 2.26 GHz Intel processor with a 1066 MHz frontside bus, versus 2.4 GHz and 800 MHz, respectively, for the Dell.

The Dell was configured with a 9-cell battery, which should at least approach the 7 hours Apple advertises for its integrated battery. Dell’s computer weighs in at just under 4 pounds with a 6-cell battery and with the 9-cell is likely to be pretty close to the MBP’s 4.5 pounds. Both included a one-year warranty. Including Windows Vista Home Premium, the Dell came out to $1304 as compared to $1399 for the Apple. Apple tax: $95.

For those willing to put a premium on the featherweight computing experience, the new $1499 base price of the MacBook Air should give you a reason to take a fresh look. Also, it should cause Dell to break a sweat as the competing Adamo now starts at a full $500 more. In its $1799 configuration, the Air matches the 128GB Solid Stage Drive of the Adamo and bests its 1.2 GHz processor with one that clocks in at 2.13 GHz. Both come with 2GB of RAM and no optical drive. The Air weighs one full pound less than the Adamo at 3 lbs.

If you’ve been attracted to OS X and the Apple computer experience, but have been put off by high prices, Apple just extended an olive branch to you.

Michael Scalisi is an IT manager based in Alameda, California.

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Safari 3.2 a disaster in progress?

I use a few Internet plugins, like Glims and AcidSearch, and didn’t realize that Safari 3.2 would be so unfriendly to them. Previously, plugins would simply not load (with an error message) if they weren’t compatible. With the new Safari release, the app crashed instead. (the latest Pithhelmet release absolutely breaks Safari 3.2)

I tried the standard solutions…

I deleted the plugins, and thought I got all the files involved, but 3.2 still crashed. I reinstalled Safari. I restarted my Mac.

Safari crashed on launch every time.

Oh, and it appears that some permissions are corrupted, and Disk Utility and Cocktail can’t fix ‘em. Oh joy. My system seemed stable, but I did a restart yesterday and got a blank grey screen. DiskWarrior eventually sorted it, but basically Saturday was lost for work.

Saved by Time Machine

I replaced 3.2 with the previous release (thank you Time Machine) and it worked. I reinstalled Glims and AcidSearch, and it all worked.

Another fine mess

After the MobileMe rollout calamity, I expected Apple would be pretty careful about new releases. Apparently the Safari team didn’t get the memo. The various forums and sites like MacFixit and Macintouch list a variety of problems. The plugin incompatibilities I had are talked about as well as some people’s installation difficulties. Some users got an error indicating “You cannot install Safari on this volume. This volume already has a newer version of Safari installed.” Safari 4 Preview installation cause this, but even after removing the preview some files were left over preventing the 3.2 installer from working.

For those with too much time on their hands?

Except that the solution most often suggested doesn’t always work, and the only thing left to do is to an Archive and Install of the OS!

Or, go back to your backup like I did.

Safari 3.2 Success Stories

Some were able to install without difficulties. If you aren’t using any plugins, you should have no great difficulty, if these experiences are indicative. Some seem to have a great experience, but many are complaining of problems with everything from firewall settings to lost cookies.

Those with no problems say that it is absolutely stable, so far. Most seem to be running Intel machines on 10.5.5.

One user reports that the Google Safe Browsing Service is unavailable.

Some reported issues

Tiger problems

One user had big problems on Tiger on a PPC G5… it broke the OS prebinding, and the system won’t prebind at all. Maybe Apple isn’t testing on PPC machines?

Other problems

from MacInTouch

“With no 3rd party stuff installed, Sarari quits when I try to open a new tab in an existing window. This is whether or not the new anti-phishing feature is checked”

“The new Safari quit spontaneously 3 times this morning. Two times happened when trying to load and play an mp3. Firefox had no trouble.”

“I had just submitted my previous post and clicked on MacInTouch Home. Within a couple of seconds of loading the page, Safari quit.”

from other sources

“I just updated to Safari 3.2 today via auto update, and have had the program crash on me repeatedly, jusst about every time I click a link to another page, or a URL received in e-mail.”

more to come…

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Just what we need… another browser!

Google launched their new browser to great fanfare the other day.

How fast is it?

Immediately after the Google Chrome release conflicting stories about both speed and security started flowing out of the web. Part of the confusion comes from Google’s release of test results done on their own benchmarks.

Xlr8YourMac.com published test results yesterday, using several operating systems (OS X 10.5.4, Parallels/WinXP, Bootcamp/WinXP. In a nutshell, it seems that Chrome is awsome.

Further down the page, though, it seems that the real-world results are a bit different. Reloading and restarting Chrome (in Parallels) produces quite random results.

Further down, a poster who is beta testing Safari 4 used the V8 tests (he says “I have to say that it doesn’t seem like it’s a beta at all… it never crashes”) and agrees that Chrome tests produce impressive results.

CNET News has graphs of JavaScript benchmark component scores that look awesome indeed. They have another page with Firefox countering the overall speeds versus FF. They point to a post by John Resig with a broader group of benchmarks.

What’s the reality?

Personal experience is important. Computerworld’s John Brandon wrote on Sept. 3:

The Google Chrome beta is a powerful new browser that loads Web pages quickly and accurately. As some bloggers have noted, it’s not perfect and can break sites (for example, by using alt tags). CNET says Chrome is faster than all other browsers, and my experience matches these claims. It reveals that Google intends to break a Microsoft stranglehold on the desktop, but the user experience on Chrome feels a bit like walking on a sheet of ice in your slippers: a bit temporal and shaky.

Security issues will be coming in quickly, no doubt. More troubling to me is Google’s legal requirements.

Read the EULA!

One of the biggest concerns I’ve seen, and have personally, is the wording in Chrome’s EULA.

http://www.google.com/chrome/eula.html

“1.1 Your use of Google’s products, software, services and web sites (referred to collectively as the “Services” in this document and excluding any services provided to you by Google under a separate written agreement) is subject to the terms of a legal agreement between you and Google. “Google” means Google Inc.”

OK. Chrome belongs to Google. No worries.

9.4 Other than the limited license set forth in Section 11, Google acknowledges and agrees that it obtains no right, title or interest from you (or your licensors) under these Terms in or to any Content that you submit, post, transmit or display on, or through, the Services, including any intellectual property rights which subsist in that Content (whether those rights happen to be registered or not, and wherever in the world those rights may exist). Unless you have agreed otherwise in writing with Google, you agree that you are responsible for protecting and enforcing those rights and that Google has no obligation to do so on your behalf.

This looks OK, but check Section 11:

11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.

I’m not an attorney. I don’t speak Legalese, but this looks like Google can do whatever it likes with anything you do with their browser, including what you may post on a blog, webmail, ANYTHING! By using the Google Chrome browser, you yield permission to Google to “reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute”.

Microsoft, anyone? Except that Chrome is open source. I think that further developments will prove Chrome’s usefulness (or not). It’s only just been released, after all. Try it yourself, and see what you think. Just don’t use it for anything you don’t want Google to use!

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Love (or hate) your computer company?

2008s American Customer Satisfaction index, released by the University of Michigan for the PC industry show Apple taking the top honor for the 5th year in a row. Apple and Dell were the only companies to increase their customer satisfaction rating this year over last.

The ACSI scores are measuring consumer’s overall satisfaction with a company. This will include everything from the actual quality of the product to customer service, and anything else that a customer may like or hate about the company.

Apple scores!

Apple scored an 85 on the index. This is the highest score ever. Runner-up Dell was 10 points behind.

How does Apple do it?

Mac’s clear success here in the US helps, and so does Microsoft’s insistence that Vista be on all new Windows boxes. Gateway, HP and others were likely hurt by widespread dissatisfaction of Vista’s performance. HP is the market leader, with Compaq included under it’s corporate umbrella, and both had a drop of about 4 percent over last year.

Lucky timing?

The scores came from research in the 2nd quarter of 2008. Thousands of consumers were interviewed, but all before the debacle of the simultaneous iPhone 3G and MobileMe launches. This was not a high point for Apple, and will likely bring Apple’s score for next year down a bit. None the less, the gap between Apple and the rest is larger than it’s ever been before.

Sales figures reflect the scores

Between 1998 and 2002, Apple computer sales grew at an average annual rate of 1.6$. 2003-2007 figures shot up to 23.6%. 2008 should be even higher. Between the iPod, iPhone and Macintosh computers, Apple has created a great cross-pollinating product line, with new computer customers coming from iPod/iPhone users.

The rest…

After Apple’s stunning 85 score, and Dell’s 75, came HP with 73, Gateway at 72, HP-Compac at 70, and “All Others” (Acer, IBM/Lenovo, Sony and Toshiba) at 72.

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