Cool Mac Gear

For the past couple of weeks I've been testing the Logitech Cordless Elite Duo keyboard and mouse combo, which supports OS X (and to a limited degree OS 9 for basic functions). A full review will appear in Moore's Views & Reviews tomorrow, but I thought I would say a few words about it in an OS X Odyssey context.

The inclusion of explicit OS X support for this product is an example of how OS X is catching the imagination of third-party software and peripheral suppliers, where the old Mac OS did not.

The previous version of this product, which was called Cordless Freedom Optical, did not support the Mac, at least explicitly, although OS X driver software is now downloadable from the Logitech Website, which will add full functionality under OS X. If you can find a good deal on one of the leftover Cordless Freedom Optical units (the current product retails for $99.95), go for it.

The Mouse included is Logitech's Cordless MouseMan Optical, which sells separately for $ 69.95, making its inclusion in this $99.95 keyboard/mouse bundle product an excellent value.

I've been very favorably impressed with the quality and performance of these Logitech products. The analogy that comes to mind with regard to the appearance, fit, finish, and feel is that of a high quality German automobile.

The OS X software integration has worked flawlessly and slickly for me so far, and the keyboard, with its raft of extra buttons and controls, is extremely versatile and extensively customizable in terms of enhanced function.

The cordless MouseMan Optical has a smooth and silky feel, and with three buttons plus a scroll wheel, is also versatile and highly customizable.

These products include digital multi-channel RF technology and Logitech’s proprietary secure encryption to a reliable and secure connection to the receiver.

“Since our introduction of radio-based cordless peripherals in 1992, we have continuously enhanced our cordless offerings with features such as award winning industrial design, enhanced cordless security, next-generation power management and user-friendly software,” said Denis Pavillard, Director of Marketing for keyboards at Logitech.

“Over the past two years, we have also evolved a color-and surface-strategy that unifies the various categories, from high-end premium products to entry-level value offerings. It is this sort of commitment to aesthetic detail and dedication to superior performance that has made our cordless mice and keyboards best sellers in today’s market.”

Logitech’s proprietary iNav console on the Cordless Elite Duo is an integrated navigation tool that allows the user to scroll, zoom, access files on the hard drive and browse bookmarks on the web.

Cordess Elite Duo features:
• Eliminate the clutter with cordless freedom
• Get comfortable with the keyboard’s ultra-flat Zero Degree Tilt design
• Multimedia control for digital music files, CDs, DVDs and online media.
• One-touch Internet access and navigation. Internet hot keys can be dedicated to transport the user directly to a home page, launch a web cam, access instant messenger or email or perform a web-based search.
• Instant access to your images, music, documents and common commands via enhanced function keys
• Control audio and video directly from the keyboard
• Make scrolling easier with the mouse’s convenient scroll wheel or the keyboard’s unique iNav wheel
• Use the maintenance-free cordless optical mouse on almost any surface • Get twice the speed and twice the accuracy of standard optical mice
• Use the mouse in either hand thanks to a sleek, comfortable shape
• Customize keyboard features and four mouse buttons with powerful software
• For Windows and Macintosh
• 5-year warranty

For more information, visit:
http://www.logitech.com

A Favour

From Alan Gadsby

Hello Charles,

Can you help me remember, please, the name of the OS 9-like finder software that sits up there where it should at the right of the main menubar. I recently upped to OS 10.2.1 and it has dismissed it. I don't mind the Dock, but it is a lot handier to pull down the old-style finder to remind yourself what you have open. And get to them more quickly. I've tried on VersionTracker but can't remind myself what the heck it was.

By the way, I've updated myself with iCab over perhaps nearly as many years as you and always liked it. And, contrary to one of your recent readers, it works fine in Jaguar. But I've wanted to let you know that I like OmniWeb the best. If it's a bit slower than another or two I don't really notice, but I strongly think it's the cleanest, most un-flat looking of them all. Damn pretty altogether, with the best header-bar icons.

Continued thanks for everything. Hope they fix OS X for you soon.

Alan

Hi Alan;

Happy to oblige. It's the Application Switcher Menu -- ASM for short.

ASM is the reincarnation of the application switcher menu. It’s highly customizable and offers some nice extra features, such as “Single Application Mode” (orders all windows of an application to front when it becomes active) or “Auto-Hide Mode” (hides other applications than the front most one automatically).

Now runs on Mac OS X v10.2 Jaguar (ignore the installation warning)

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/system_disk_utilities/asm.html

OmniWeb is a nice browser, and I agree that it's the prettiest.

Charles

Re: a favour

From Alan Gadsby

Dear Charles,

Thanks so much for ASM. I would never have thought of that. I know you must have a large database of some shape or form but you still have to remember some stuff. Don't know how you do it. I have it installed now and I'm very happy, thanks.

You replied so quickly - do you not sleep back there on the east coast?

Alan

Not as much as I would like. ;-)

Charles

David W. Murray vs Gene Steinberg

From James Rae Smith

Hello Charles

I said I'd give my first impressions of Jaguar. I have had Jaguar for a week on two iMacs, a 15" 800mhz G4 and a 400 mhz DVSE, and my first impressions are thus far favourable. The overall finish of 10.2 is much improved over 10.1. The slight beta release flavour that even 10.1 had now seems to be gone, although there are still issues such as scanner support ,OSX disk utilities, and of course Quark that still mark this out as a new OS. As an ordinary user, I am not interested in performing benchtest type timings, but subjectively it seems marginally faster on my new iMac, but a great deal faster on the old G3 one. This is rather the opposite result to that which I expected, though maybe this can be explained by the fact that I did not find speed to be a real issue on the new iMac under 10.1.5. The improved Finder is the main reason for this, and in my opinion it pretty much lives up to the hype Apple has given it. Not only does it not stall but in many small details it just works as it should. So you may well find it is well worth a spin on hardware that does not support Quartz extreme.

Lastly I would like to defend Gene Steinberg against David Murray's attack. First I would like to say that Gene is one of the most generous people I have come across on the web with his knowledge and advice. His old hippy sign off of "Peace" may possibly make you snort with derision, (does me too sometimes!) but his is a genuine, principled and coherent voice. I must confess that I have seen more "bombast and repetition" from Mr Murray than him, but the repetition that was there was because he, like me, believes that the central argument in his piece has not been satisfactorily answered. That you Charles write for that large section of Mac owners who cannot afford to upgrade to the latest machinery is a fine justification for your columns as a whole, but it also does render your opinion on the viability of OSX 10.2 on new Apple kit less than convincing.

In general while all of us are rather more passionate about our Macs than is probably good for us, I do think it makes more sense to try to deal with issues rather than personalities. I know I am culpable here too Charles, for calling you an OSX hating, miserable old Eeyore. I am sorry I take it back. You are a sunny old, hop skippity rooting tooting whistling Willie who radiates joy and bonhomie on all who are fortunate enough to come across you. Probably. For all I know.

All the best
James Rae Smith

Hi James;

Thaks for the sunny (and encouraging) Jaguar report, and for the reassessment of my nature (I think ;-) )

As for "peace," got no problem with that.

Charles

Larry Ellison and OS 9

From Marvin Price

Personally, I think this assertion is just plain silly. Manzione sorta comes off like one of the 13 year olds that comment on MacCentral.

"Something tells me that Steve Jobs upset many people at the Paris Expo when he declared that ALL Macs released from January 2003 on will no longer boot into OS 9. I believe this was the main reason Larry Ellison resigned from the Board of Directors of Apple...

"Anyway, even if Larry‚s departure is on the up and up, it‚s still bad timing. This is not something a good friend does to another good friend. If Larry couldn‚t devote the time to Apple that he needed to, why resign? What‚s the rush? No, sorry, this is not about Œtime‚ it‚s about being pissed. Plain and simple."

I guarantee you the last thing in the world Larry Ellison is thinking about is OS 9. One need only consider the abysmal support for Macintosh under OS 9 from Oracle. Oracle support for the Mac has increased with OS X.

Ellison cares more about his sail boat race than OS 9.

Oracle Chief Quits as Director of Apple
Los Angeles Times

"Ellison, the flamboyant chief executive of Oracle Corp., had attended fewer than 75% of Apple's board meetings during each of his five years as a director, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings. No other Apple director missed as many meetings during that time....

"Ellison stepped down after concluding that his attendance record wouldn't improve in upcoming months, given his duties at slumping Oracle and his upcoming bid in the America's Cup yachting regatta. "My schedule does not currently allow me to attend enough of the formal board meetings to warrant a role as a director," Ellison said.

"Ellison's spotty attendance at Apple's board meetings hadn't been an issue until a wave of corporate accounting scandals sharpened Wall Street's focus on the watchdog role of company boards....."

From Kyle Vincent

Charles,

I've been following your experiences with OS X and your hardware difficulties. If you believe that OS X is not ready for you, then don't be swayed by those who insist that you must switch in order to be a legitimate writer on the Mac web. I know when I read your columns that I am receiving information from a Classic OS expert. I think your experiences are consistent with a broad range of users.

I do have a couple of ideas for you. In relation to hardware. Since you love the Wallstreet so much why don't you go ahead and get another one. There are great deals to be had on these machines right now. As far as the Pismo goes, there are two things you might want to consider. OS X really likes a fast HD. The OS accesses the HD more than 9 does.

I would say that a 5400 RPM drive and a G4 upgrade would make the Pismo just as fast as your previously owned Cube in OS X. In fact, I've read that the processors used in the Pismo upgrades are the same as the ones used in the 500 MHz Cubes. There are some great utilities that one can use to remove some of the eye candy that OS X uses. If you remove the drop shadows, transparency, text smoothing, and adjust the priority of processes this thing could really move. In addition, a separate partition for the OS X swap file helps reduce fragmentation and increases speed. If you want more information on these things, I would be happy to provide additional support.

One of the other complications you have cited deal with the physical restrictions you face. I know that OS X will not support two pointing devices working in tandem. Have you considered the possibility of making or having someone build device that would allow the multiple functions you need on one mouse. I have done a lot of computer hardware customization and might be able to help build something that would work in OS X. I understand that you need a foot operated button that you can click with and a device that you can point and drag with your hand. Do you need clicking capacity for your hand? Do you need multiple buttons or just one. If I had the specs of what you need I might be able to construct something that would work.

My personal odyssey is much the reverse of yours. I was an early adopter of OS X and have been using it since the public beta. I have run OS X on a Beige G3, an iMac 350, and a G4 733 Quicksilver. Now some of my software requirements dictate that I switch back to OS 9 (I'm using Macromedia Director a lot). I may be buying a 400 MHz PIsmo to handle all my OS 9 work. When I am able to fully move back to OS X, I'll boost the Pismo processor accordingly. I wish you the best of luck with your continued odyssey in both OS X and OS 9.

Kyle W. Vincent

Hi Kyle;

Thanks for your kind consideration and offers of assistance. I'm still one the fence as to what to do about replacing the WallStreet. I do like WallStreets, but the world moves on, and I'm not sure that getting another old machine is the best move. I'm getting along nicely from a functional standpoint with the Pismo right now, although it is inconvenient to have to boot back and forth into OS X. I may wait until I see how the dust settles on Apple's next laptop upgrades before making any move.

As for the mouse issue, the specific problem for me is holding the mouse button down while dragging or highlighting text, and indeed just the stress on my hands and arms of repetitive clicking. It's so much a physical effort thing as nerve irritation from small motor movements, although I find that a light action on mouse buttons is preferable. However even repeated, almost zero pressure tapping and dragging on my Cirque trackpad causes problems. Pushing the mouse around to move the cursor does not cause excessive irritation if I can perform the clicking functions with a foot mouse. I've been testing a Logitech Cordless MouseMan optical mouse, which is programmable, and configuring one of the three buttons to click and hold helps some, but is not the total answer. Thanks for your offer of assistance. I'll keep it in mind.

I'm not as hidebound about OS 9 as some folks seem to have inferred, and my intention remains to adopt OS X as soon as the issues I have with it are resolved.

Charles

Re: Drag and highlighting

From Darren Varner

I have never heard of anyone using 2 mice at the same time before. I picture you clicking and holding with one mouse while scrolling down the text with the other. Maybe this trick can eliminate a mouse and one of the stumbling blocks X has presented you.

Cheers.

Hi Darren;

I had never heard of it either until I was forced into doing it. However, once I got onto it, I discovered that it is a lot quicker and more efficient, notwithstanding any physical disability issues.

See my reply to Kyle above for more detail.

Charles

Hypothetical Hilarity

From Dave Ip

Hi Charles: re: Wayne Folta's "re: Two Statements" from OXO171 (http://www.applelinks.com/articles/2002/09/20020925125443.shtml#209) - I don't know about you, but if I bought a new machine that spec'd out over twice as fast as my current machine, and it turned out to be "equally" as fast, I would be pissed. Or at the very least, confused. I can understand the megahertz myth as it applies to Apples vs. Wintels, but I never thought it would (or should) apply to Apples vs. Apples (or Xs vs. 9s.) :) :)

Two errors...

From Wayne Folta

Charles,

However, in the passages you cited from "OS Died" I never said that Jaguar would be too slow on as yet unreleased faster Macs. The only machine I referred to specifically was the 800 MHz TiBook used in the speed bakeoff by the MacInTouch correspondent who did find Jaguar slower than OS 9 for many tasks.

Two sentences and two errors:

1. You specifically WERE referring to as yet unreleased faster Macs because you were referring to:

a) Macs "for the foreseeable future", which easily includes any new Macs released at MacWorld San Francisco (about 4 months away) and would arguably include models released up through NY (Boston?) MacWorld (less than a year away), and

b) Macs that could only boot MacOS X, which only applies to future Macs, as per the announcement.

2. You say the 800MHz Tibook runs MacOS X SLOWER than MacOS 9. Yes, but as I've pointed out again and again and again, SLOWER is not the same as SLOWLY. MacOS X, though slower than MacOS 9 on the TiBook, may well be faster than MacOS 9 on your old Powerbook. Does this not make sense to you?

Hi Wayne;

1. We're in a semantical dissonance loop here. Do you really have the 20/20 foresight to see what will emerge at San Francisco or New York in 2003? I don't. I can speculate, but I can't foresee that. My argument all along has been that *arbitrarily* removing the ability of Macs to boot into OS 9 was wrongheaded. I wrote the sentence in #1 in the first five minutes after reading the press release from Paris. That's the hot news biz for you. Upon further reflection, I might have chosen another phrase than "foreseeable future," but what I meant is that we have no hard knowledge of what might emerge at SF in terms of new chipsets or mobo engineering, but we can be confident that there will be holdovers of currently available engineering beyond that date which, if unable to boot into OS X, would mean that some sort of arbitrary block would be imposed. Th the article I cited yesterday, Chris White says that such machines will continue to be able to boot into OS X. I hope he's correct. I wish Apple would clarify this.

2. To my way of thinking, I'm inclined to use the fastest solution available, and overall, OS 9 is still the fastest solution even on the TiBook, at least for what I do. That's why I continued to use OS 9 on my Cube, even though OS X on that machine may have been faster than OS 9 was on my WallStreet.

Charles

A balanced article

From Wayne Folta

Charles,

For a balanced perspective on MacOS X (and MacOS 8, and MacOS 6, etc) read:

http://www.macnightowl.com/index.htm

And with that, I've switched to another channel. God bless. Buy a couple of G4s now and stick with OS 9 until the cows come home, you will never be satisfied with OS X and I'm too busy enjoying to argue anymore.

I linked to Gene's article in New & Notable yesterday.

Charles

From Gene Steinberg

Murray seems to feel he can make false accusations and false claims and not have to own up to them.

For example, the claim that I ever espoused an "Apple knows best" mantra. He knows it isn't true, which is why he refuses to respond to my statement that the claim isn't valid.

As to the rest, I simply said you should try Jaguar before you engage in meaningful comments about it. Period. End of story. Murray has a problem with that and, apparently, with handling criticism in a responsible fashion. I feel sorry for him.

Peace,
Gene

The OS X Odyssey archives may be accessed here:
http://www.applelinks.com/news/odyssey/

CM

Charles W. Moore

Cool Mac Gear