Microsoft Arc Mouse Specs:

• 2.4 GHz Connectivity
• 30 ft. Wireless Range
• Snap-in Transceiver
• Scroll Wheel & Back Button
• Battery Indicator

Design and Build ★★★★✩
The “arc” design, hands down, makes this device stand out against competition. The rear portion of the mouse folds into itself becoming only 60% of the original size, which is great for travel. Fortunately, when expanded, it’s large enough to rest your entire hand. The USB transceiver stows away under the mouse and is held in place magnetically. When folded, the mouse automatically shuts off to save power and fits into the included travel sleeve. The transceiver is unfortunately quite larger than the one found on Microsoft’s Mobile Mouse 4000. I wouldn’t suggest leave it plugged in when transporting as it will likely snap or damage a laptop’s USB port. As for the mouse, despite appearing a bit flimsy, it’s actually quite sturdy with little to no flex even when exerting pressure. The Arc Mouse is light enough for travel, but weighs enough to overcome possibly appearing cheap. In terms of hardware, there’s not much except for the standard left and right-click, a scroll wheel, and a ‘back’ key. Asides from that, the mouse is available in Red, Purple, While, Blue, Green, and Black. Some colors are also available in glossy editions, however I wouldn’t recommend those as they’ll likely be fingerprint magnets.

Comfort and Accuracy ★★★★✩
The curvature offers the comfort of desktop mice while the symmetrical design will allow for ambidextrous use. While the scroll wheel and left/right-click have a comfortable feel, the ‘back’ key on the front left side isn’t within reach of the expected position of your thumb. I found myself awkwardly reaching forward to press the key. The flawed positioning will be further irritating for left-handed users as they’ll have to use a pinky to reach it. Unfortunately, the Arc Mouse also lacks an additional ‘forward’ button which is even more disappointing. Despite that, the mouse still offers a great grip with a rubberized matte finish and slides smoothly over most surfaces with durable Teflon pads. The Bluetrack sensor is a step up from most laser mice as it can track on a variety of surfaces including glossy magazines. It’s still a step behind the Darkfield technology found in Logitech’s MX Anywhere that even works on glass. For the most part, the sensor is precise and responsive enough for most tasks even over a wireless 2.4 GHz connection and should meet the need demands of most consumers.

Features and Customizing ★★★✩✩
The functionality of the Arc Mouse and Mobile Mouse 4000 are nearly identical. As both have left and right-click, a scroll wheel, and a side button, the only difference is the shape. After plugging in the transceiver, Windows 7 automatically fetches the latest IntelliPoint software from the internet. All the keys work right out of the box and installing the program isn’t required, however the software allows for further customization. The program’s user interface is quite friendly and let’s you visually pick different actions per component. For example, the scroll wheel can initiate the 3D flip for Windows Vista and 7. While on the topic of the scroll wheel, I should mention that it’s a “notched” type. There’s no free scroll or flick mode available. It works fine, but including that mode and maybe even a ‘forward key’ would have gone a long way to improve functionality especially since IntelliPoint offers plenty of custom settings. I was also glad to see a simple power indicator on top which changes colors as it gets closer to running out of power. With power conserving standby feature, Microsoft claims a six month lifespan on two AAA batteries. While I can’t testify to that claim, it’s been running at full power for the past two weeks.

Conclusion
When it comes down to it, Microsoft’s Arc Mouse offers a lot for its price tag. But, is it enough? Unfortunately, I definitely feel it looses value since it lacks a ‘forward’ key and since the positioning of the ‘back’ key renders that function useless. On the bright side, it offers the comfort and feel of a larger desktop mouse and even folds away for transport. Microsoft’s Bluetrack technology is likely the second best on the market and will work on most surfaces. If you are looking for a companion for your netbook or laptop when you travel, this will get the job done. It’s available for around $40 while some colors are even cheaper if you shop around. And if you didn’t browse through the images, it’s actually one of the better-looking mouse out there. While it does lack on some features, the Microsoft Arc Mouse won’t disappoint.

The Good

• Portable Build
• Sleek Appearance
• Strong Connectivity

The Bad

• Awkward Side Button
• Bulky Transceiver
• Lacking Extra Button

Buy: Microsoft Arc Mouse $40-25
Links: Check out Microsoft’s Arc Mouse

Tablet
The tablet itself is incredibly thin – about the size of a number two pencil at its thickest, with beveled edges for a more comfortable wrist-rest. The four side-buttons are large, accessible, and as I later found after installing drivers, configurable to a certain extent. An LED indicator located between the buttons lights up white when the device is on and changes to a warm orange color when the stylus is within range. I found the small red tag on the side of the device to be a little obnoxious, but it’s supposed to store your pen after use. It can easily tucked away under the device if it’s too annoying.

The drawing area is very generous with an area about 3.5 times that of my Macbook’s touchpad. The Bamboo’s matte texture that feels paper and though I was nervous to test the amount of pen pressure it could handle, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it could handle quite a bit.

In terms of portability, the tablet itself couldn’t be any more perfect to stick in a bag with your laptop. It would have been even more convenient if USB cord was detachable from the device and Wacom threw in a carrying case for protection.

• Size – 5/5
• Design – 4/5
• Portability – 4/5

Software and Drivers
A CD with drivers for both Mac and PC are included in the packaging. I however opted to download the latest driver from Wacom’s website. The setup is quick, straightforward, and didn’t even require a reboot. Although pre-configured, it’s quite easy to customize the tablet. The section in the control panel has tabs for the pen, the tablet, touch speed, touch functions, and a customizable pop-up menu. The customization is however limited; you can’t make new gestures or customize buttons to launch programs or be actions in programs. Despite that, the software seems to run well under the radar, at least on both Snow Leopard and Windows 7. There are no extra icons, shortcuts, junk applications, or bloated process running. My computer runs just as fast as it did without the tablet.

• Installation – 5/5
• Customization – 4/5
• Speed – 5/5

Pen Functionality
My initial impression of the pen was that it runs on the border of feeling cheap.  It is made of plastic and is truly light weight. Plus when I shook it for the first time, the buttons and eraser jiggle. But it works well; the size is appropriate and I have yet to run into a problem with functionality. Although I’m not sure whether it’s the magic behind the pen or the tablet, the pressure sensitivity is fantastic. Even if the pen is barely set on the tablet, the LED indicator lights up with a response. Unlike the Intuos model, the Bamboo Pen and Touch doesn’t have a “pen tilt” sensor. Despite that lacking, I doubt the average consumer, who is the target audience, will need that feature anyway. The pen has two configurable buttons and an eraser on top. I have yet to find a way to configure the eraser to perform an alternative task. The programs I use don’t always have nor need an eraser. It should also be noted that the pen has been intelligently designed to be entirely battery free.

• Quality – 3/5
• Customization – 4/5
• Battery Free – 5/5

Touch Functionality
There are a couple sides to this model: it’s a drawing pad and a multi-touch pad. So, in addition to the pen, you can use your fingers to manipulate objects on the screen. With a single finger, it can be used like a normal touch pad to control the cursor and even select with tap. With two fingers, it can be used to perform a variety of gestures. Dragging two fingers to up and down or left and right scroll a page. Pinching or spreading two fingers zoom out and in, respectively. It even rotates content by holding one finger still and moving the other one around it. These gestures work well in most programs. The rotation feature didn’t work at all in Adobe Photoshop CS3, Adobe Illustrator CS3, and Mac Office 2008. However later tests with the tablet using Adobe Photoshop CS4 on different machine running Windows 7 worked just fine. With some practice, using the pen and multi-touch features together will truly make for an efficient and intuitive work-flow.

• Touch Sensitivity – 4/5
• Gestures – 4/5
• Efficiency – 5/5

Conclusion
I’m also sure that when I use the Bamboo Pen and Touch that I look like a hunt-and-peck typist that I would make the creators at Wacom cringe. To my credit, I was able to come up with a great configuration for drawing in Photoshop within an hour of experimenting with the tablet. I set the four buttons to the key-combinations for “Undo”, “Brushes”, “New Layer”, and “Free Transform”, and I was flying through my work. Not only that, but since I was spending less time fidgeting with the keyboard and mouse, I had fun doing tasks I would normally consider arduous and repetitive. I am not experienced with a pen tablet, but as a web and graphic designer, the Bamboo Pen and Touch made my work flow feel proficient. If you are looking to get started with a tablet, this Wacom product is a great place to start. Plus it has a lot to offer at a reasonable price of $99 MSRP; if you shop around it’s available for even less.

Buy: Bamboo Pen and Touch for $85 [via Amazon]
Links: Wacom.com Bamboo Pen + Touch

Setting up Dropbox is easy. Just visit GetDropbox.com and download the installer for Windows, Macintosh, or Linux. The program will prompt you to register for an account if you are a first time user. A folder named “My Dropbox” will automatically be created. If you have a second or third computer, install Dropbox on those and login with the same username and password. If you have an Apple iPhone or iPod Touch, grab the free Dropbox App from the iTunes App Store. Next just copy any files or folders into the “My Dropbox” folder. Assuming that you are connected to the internet, the files placed in there will automatically be synced to and stored on all your other computers. If you add, delete, or modify files, the changes are relayed over to all your other devices.

The devices I used to test the service included a HP DV2000 laptop running Windows Vista and an iPod Touch. Skatter Tech’s Senior Editor, Sahas Katta, also tested the service with a Dell XPS M1530 laptop running Windows 7, a Dell Mini 9 netbook running Windows XP, an ancient Desktop running Ubuntu 9.04, and an iPhone 3GS. With Dropbox setup on all those mentioned devices, the service worked across every single device flawlessly. Dropbox is truly a cross-platform marvel.

I tested the service by dropping some documents (PDF, DOC, PPT), music (MP3, AAC), and videos (AVI, MP4) into the “My Dropbox” folder. The small document files only took a few seconds to sync and appear on the other devices, however the larger video files took a lot longer. And say you don’t have access to any of your devices, but need to get to your files. Just visit GetDropbox.com from any web browser, login, and a copy of all your files is accessible through the web interface. The service also creates quick “share links” you can email or instant message to friends to give them access to certain files or folders.

While the free version limits space to just 2GB, you can get more space in two ways. If you invite friends to use the service using the referral program Dropbox recently launched, you’ll be given more space each time someone signs up using your link. And if truly need a lot more space, Dropbox charges $10/month for a 50GB account and $20/month for a 100GB account. As someone who mainly uses for documents, which barely take up any space, the free version suffices. However with how useful the service has been for my productivity since I began using it, if I do end up needing more space I wouldn’t mind paying. Overall, Dropbox is simply a convenient, easy to use, and foolproof service that saves you the time of having to manually manage your data across multiple machines. Plus with their new mobile iPhone App, I can quickly load and view the majority of documents while away from a computer. Other than slow sync times due to my occasionally slow internet connection, I couldn’t find a single flaw in the service. If you constantly move data between two or more machines, give this a shot!

Links: GetDropbox.com
Video: What is Dropbox?

Note: This article was co-written and edited by Sahas Katta.

Precision and Responsiveness
Microsoft’s new Mobile Mouse 4000 works on both PCs & Macs using the USB 2.4 GHz wireless receiver. It features Microsoft’s new and advanced BlueTrack Technology, which is the biggest selling point for the device.  The BlueTrack Tracking Engine diverges from the typical wireless laser mouse. It uses an advance incoherent Blue LED.  With a wider beam and high angle optics, it can track on even granite, marble, and glossy surfaces. So I put it to the test. And it worked on my black mouse pad, a somewhat glossy desk, the carpet, and even the textured wall. It worked just as advertised. The next time you are at a coffee shop and decide to use a shiny magazine as your mouse pad, you can be assured that this mouse won’t fail. This is a great improvement from the last generation of mice, but competitors are already another step ahead. For example, competing products from Logitech sport a new technology called Darkfield that work even on glass. Although the Mobile Mouse 4000 can not match that feature, it is also a much more affordable device and won’t disappoint.

Battery and Connectivity
Microsoft’s other enhancements that truly make the Wireless Mobile Mouse an excellent product include the Nano Transceiver and the Battery Life. The Nano Transceiver on its own is an amazing advancement for wireless mice. It isn’t new, but is a welcome inclusion. Unlike other USB receivers, this one barely extends out of the USB port. There are less chances of snapping  the receiver or damaging your USB port. In addition the entire transceiver fits into a small compartment under the mouse. It is released with a quick push of a button besides the slot. Microsoft’s Mouse runs on a single AA battery. A small indicator light on top will change from Green to Yellow when it’s running out of juice. You won’t have to worry about it dying unexpectedly. There’s also a power on-off switch underneath to help maintain battery life. Microsoft claims a 10 month battery life and I think that’s a reasonable lifespan. It doesn’t add to much bulk to your bag when you are on the go and it will last a long time.

Shape and Design
The device has plenty of benefits overall, but does have a few drawbacks. First, it’s a relatively small mouse with a symmetrical shape. This is great for ambidextrous users, but a bit too small for the average person. I probably wouldn’t use this as my main mouse, but there’s no question it’s great for travel. It would also suit children and teens just fine. The layout is fairly typical, with a left/right click, a scroll wheel in between, and an extra button on the upper left side. That extra button functions by default as a back button. It’s a great idea and worked just fine for me, a right-handed user, but would definitely be in an awkward place for lefties. I also was slightly disappointed with the scroll wheel.  It isn’t notched too well and constantly slips causing my documents to scroll slightly. Plus if you were to attempt to press it inwards to initiate a middle-click or free-scroll, it once again often slips. Overall it’s not the best mouse for full-time use unless you’ve got small hands, but does the job for traveling.

Customization
The IntelliPoint software software included with the mouse enables a whole new set of features. It’s easy to customize and will be appreciated. Any button on the mouse including the scroll wheel can all have their functionality tweaked. With the default settings, the scroll wheel will activate Vista’s 3D Flip function and the side button will be the Back button for your Web Browser. What makes the software powerful is the program specific customizations. It will allow the mouse to be configured differently based of what program you have active at the time. For example the pressing in the scroll button can be the middle-click when using Firefox, but at other times launch the 3D Flip. These types of settings help increase productivity greatly. The one thing this mouse does lack is a Forward button to complement the Back button. It would have made a lot of sense to put it at a symmetrical position on the other side. Once again, competing products feature both a Back and Forward button.

In Conclusion
Microsoft’s Wireless Mobile Mouse 4000 is an excellent compact mouse with the basic and essential features. The new BlueTrack technology allows flexibility to use the mouse on a larger variety of surfaces. It’s precise, has a sleek design, and an ultra compact transceiver. The IntelliPoint software offers plenty of neat custom settings. The addition of a Forward button on the right side and a better notched scroll wheel would have been truly appreciated, however it still works. It’s available in Black, White, Ocean Teal Blue, Lime Green, and Berry Pink for a reasonable price of just $39.99. If you are looking for a new mouse to pack with you when you are on the go or for youngsters, look no further, Microsoft’s product is an excellent choice.

Pros

• BlueTrack Technology
• Nano USB Transceiver
• IntelliPoint Custom Settings
• 10-Month Battery Life

Cons

• Too Small for Average Person
• Side Button isn’t Left Hand Friendly
• Oversensitive Scroll Wheel
• Lack of Forward Button

Buy: Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse 4000 for $39
Links: Microsoft.com Mobile Mouse 4000

The iPhone App Store has a variety of  unique applications and Air Mouse Pro is one of those special ones. It literally turns your iPhone touch screen display into a wireless mouse and keyboard for your computer. The App is compatible with both Macintosh and Windows computers. It’s easy to use and offers just about all the functionality one would possibly need.

By default it offers the ability to point, click, scroll, type with the onscreen keyboard, and use hand motions to control cursor. It’s also been neatly designed to change the set of controls presented to you depending on the type of application you happen to be using. For example, if you were in the standard view it would show function keys, enter, home, delete, and escape. If you switch to the web view, the commands change to the Back, Forward, Home, Refresh, Stop, Bookmark, and Search buttons. And once again if you were handling media, the keys would change to Play, Pause, Previous Track, Next Track, Mute, and a few more. Most App Developers usually squeeze every button possible into onto a single screen. Fortunately the developers of this app kept usability in mind and kept things clean, organized, and simple. The alternate screen views will help you be more productive.

To get the Air Mouse Pro to work, you’ll actually need to install a small program on your computer named Air Mouse Server. It uses your local Wi-Fi network to establish a connection between your iPhone and your computer. The desktop server program includes options to select hot keys for specific programs and modify the sensitivity of the track pad.

There are a couple of ways to use the Air Mouse Pro. First it can be used as a touch pad, similar to the functionality on a laptop. The second method is to hold down a finger and wave the phone in the air to utilize the iPhone’s accelerometer. The touch pad method was practical and worked fairly well, but on the other hand the accelerometer method was a bit of a gimic. It was quite rather difficult to use. Finally, you’ll also be able to input text using the iPhone built-in on-screen keyboard.

Overall, Air Mouse Pro is a great app and does what it was designed to do, except for the accelerometer portion. The user interface is clean, fancy, and just works. This is especially handy for presentations and for those with Media Center PCs. It is available from the App Store for $2.99.

Links: Air Mouse Pro (iTunes Link)

The SanDisk Cruzer model for 2009 retains the traditional form factor of a flash drive. The unit looks simpler and stylish compared to the previous generations. The unit seems durable and will survive plenty of handling. The USB connector recedes into the plastic casing when not in use. The white button used to slide the USB connector in and out lights up orange when connected and blinks when data transfer is in progress. Coping a 700MB video file (DiggNation HD Podcast) over to the flash drive took about 1 minute and 20 seconds. Read speeds on the other hand were much faster, I copied  the same file back to my computer in just 20 seconds. This variation between write and read speeds are expected and normal for average flash drives on the market, high end drives ones will offer much faster write speeds.

The Cruzer now comes by default with a pre-installed launcher to manage a set of programs on the flash drive. This a quick and easy way for the average student to access simple applications and manage there files on the flash drive. There’s a little built-in application store to grab both free and paid portable software. Most of the items listed seemed mostly useless, however some great tools including portable versions of Firefox, Avast!, and a few other tools were also listed for free. For those of you that despise having pre-loaded software on their flash drive, SanDisk has finally included a removal tool on the device. In the past, users would have to hunt down the removal tool by either searching the web or finding it on SanDisk’s website. That option is truly welcome and appreciated.

Overall this is an excellent and reliable flash drive for the average person. It doesn’t have anything too special, but instead it’s affordable and simple. Extremely cheap flash drives may often seem like a great deal at first, but they often result in data being corrupted. Whether you are a transporting office documents or multimedia, the SanDisk Cruzer is a quality product from a reliable brand name. The unit tested in this review, provided courtesy of SanDisk, was 8GB model; however a lower capacity 4GB model and higher capacity 16GB/32GB models are also available. The original MSRP by SanDisk is usually high, but they are almost available for a fraction of the price if you shop around. I’ve included links to Amazon’s pricing below which starts at just $12 for the 4GB model.

Links: SanDisk.com Cruzer
Buy: 4GB $12 | 8GB $22 | 16GB $33 | 32GB $67

Things you’ll need:

• SSH Server Access
• SSH Client

If you need an SSH Client, on Windows machines I recommend PuTTY. It’s less than 1MB and doesn’t even need to be installed. If you are on Linux or Macintosh, you are fortunate enough to have a Terminal built right in. Now connect to your web server, login, and watch the video for the rest!

The Code From Video:
wget http://skattertech.com/media/2009/09/wpinstall.sh
chmod 700 wpinstall.sh
./wpinstall.sh

Notice: The script location has been changed, use the one mentioned above. Not the one in the video.

That’s just about it. WordPress should have been installed into the directory you executed the command in. Then just follow the instructions WordPress provides in the web interface to configure your database’s username and password. Finally you should be prompted to pick a name for your Blog!

Links: WordPress.org | Official Install Steps
Video: Watch on Vimeo

Notice: Be warned, if you end up accidentally making an error which causes you to loose or damage the data on your server, we will not be held responsible. Use the steps provided here at your own risk. This was created for convince, but misuse can potentially cause issues. If you don’t know how to deal with SSH, we recommend using official instructions to be safe.

Open Source applications are a great cost-free alternative to commercial applications. In many instances they are even better than paid versions of the same application. Today we bring you a list of a great applications from browsers to video players for both Windows XP/Vista and Macintosh OS X. All items on the list of course are completely FREE and have NO adware or spyware.

Web Browsing:

• Mozilla Firefox – tabbed browsing, customizable, and large plugin library – (Win+Mac)
• Camino – mozilla-like mac-styled browser with rss, spell check, tabs & more – (Mac)

Email:

• Mozilla Thunderbird – secure emails, fight spam, tags, rss, and more – (Win+Mac)

RSS Reader:

• FeedReader – handle large amount of feeds, simple, auto updates, and fast – (Win)
• Vienna – rss + atom, tabbed viewer, customize layouts, and global search – (Mac)
• RSSOwl – opml, bookmarks, export function, search, and alerts – (Win+Mac)

Instant Messaging:

• Pidgin – all in one chat client supporting over 15 major chatting services – (Win)
• Adium – also an all in one client, which supports 13 chatting protocols – (Mac)

BitTorrent:

• Azureus – very powerful, customizable, plugins, and tracker support – (Win+Mac)

Media Player:

• Miro – plays any video file, hd content, free tv, youtube downloads, and torrents – (Win+Mac)
• VLC – plays tons of media formats, powerful converter, and streams anything – (Win+Mac)

Office Suites:

• OpenOffice – word processor, spreadsheets, presentations, and illustrator – (Win+Mac)
• AbiWord – a powerful word processor which supports many formats – (Win+Mac)
• Bean – a simple and free word processor more feature packed than text edit – (Mac)

Virus Scan:

• ClamWin – great virus protection tool for windows based machiens – (Win)
• ClamAV – anti-virus scanning tool for Unix-based machines – (Mac)

DVD Rippers / Encode:

• Handbrake – rips and converts to any format. supports psp, ipod, and iphone – (Win+Mac)
• Media Coder – rip, encode anything to anything, simple encoding for portable devices – (Win)

CD / DVD Burners:

• Burn – burn data, video, audio, and images. also can copy discs – (Mac)
• InfraRecorder – burn any type of data or media, dual layer support, and create ISOs – (Win)

Sound Editor + Recorder:

• Audacity – a powerful sound recorder and editing tool – (Win+Mac)

FTP Client:

• Filzezilla – supports ftp, ftps, sftp, and supports large file transfers. can resume files – (Win+Mac)
• Cyberduck – supports standard ftp protocols and integrated with OS X features – (Mac)

Photo Editors:

• Gimp – great for creating and editing images. good photoshop alternative – (Win+Mac)
• Paint.net – a powerful windows photo editing / manipulation tool – (Win)
• Seashore – a mac os x photo editor with tons of features – (Mac)

Publishing Tools:

• Scribus - neat professional publishing and page layout tool – (Win+Mac)

File Tools:

• 7-zip – unzip or zip up just about any type of package you can imagine – (Win)
• Unarchiver – can unzip anything and works better than OS X’s default tool – (Mac)
• Eraser – securely delete any file from your HDD beyond point of recovery – (Win)
• Permanent Eraser – completely wipe any data using DoD specifications – (Mac)

PDF Tools:

• PDFCreator – create pdf files from any just about program that can print – (Win)

These are just a few of the tons of programs out there. We specifically choose these since we felt that these will be useful for most people. If you know of any neat open source applications or ones better than the ones mentioned in our article, please feel free to let us know by replying in the comments!

The New Apple iMac:
Apple’s sleeker and aluminum-enclosed iMac now sports Intel’s latest Core 2 Duo Extreme Processors, which support running up to speeds of 2.8GHz. The machine is a powerhouse as it has room for up to 4GB of RAM and 1 Terabyte (TB) of internal storage! With a fast processor, enough RAM, and storage space, the 265MB ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO makes the iMac perfect for video editing. In addition the iMac now comes standard with a built-in iSight, Bluetooth 2.0, 8x Dual Layer DVD/CD Burner, AirPort 802.11n (+ a/b/g), Gigabit Ethernet, FireWire 400 & 800 ports, 3 USB ports, Stereo Speakers and a Microphone. Although Mac OS X Leopard won’t be available until this October, it will still be able to run both iLife and iWork 2008. The new iMac is available with a 20-inch or a 24-inch display. Pricing for the 20-inch starts at $1,199 while the 24-inch begins at a whopping $1,799.

The iMac can also become truly cable-free if you spend an extra $50 to replace the wired mouse and keyboard with Apple’s Mighty Mouse and new Wireless Keyboard, which connect to the computer’s internal Bluetooth receiver. In addition the ultra-thin aluminum keyboard includes special function keys such as brightness/volume control, disk eject, iTunes play/pause, Exposé, and more!

iLife 2008:
As iLife has been one of Apple’s strongest selling point for the Mac OS X, it was only appropriate that they released the 2008 edition just in time for the launch of Leopard in October. This upgrade brings a ton of new features to iPhoto and in fact completely redesigns iMovie. The main feature Steve Jobs touched on during his press conference was iPhoto’s ability to automatically organize libraries of photos into events based off time stamps. Events can be split into multiple events and separate ones can be merge back together and named accordingly. With this new feature users may now search for a event’s name and find a neat set of photo instead of having to search through filenames directly. Once photos are rated using the new star rating system, users can hide photos that they don’t like, but do not want to delete. (Just like the system in iTunes) And as for iMovie, the application now supports importing video from just about any HD camcorder in addition to DV and clips from Digital Cameras. With the new faster and more efficient interface, users can quickly skim through clips, preview the movie, drag/drop to re-organize clips, add tracks from iTunes, create voice overs, and use the new effects. The exporting function has been improved to support the iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, and YouTube formats in addition CD/DVD.

And as a bonus for .Mac subscribers, iLife 08 will support easy uploading to share Photos and Videos with both Mac and Windows users. iLife also includes an updated iWeb with new interactive Widgets and an updated GarageBand. iLife is now available online and in stores for a retail price of $79.

iWork 2008:

“Pages and Keynote make it incredibly easy, and even fun, for anyone to create stylish documents and presentations very quickly,” said Steve Jobs, Apples CEO “Numbers rounds out the iWork suite, which is far more intuitive and easy to use than anything else out there.”

And the final announcement was the new iWork 2008, which includes a new innovative spreadsheet application called Numbers and upgraded versions of Keynote and Pages. Numbers features a new concept called Intelligent Tables, which is supposedly revolutionary, while Keynote got new effects/transitions/animations and Pages got a word processing and a page layout mode. iWork 08 also retails for a price of $79 and is also available online and in stores now!

Links: Apple iMac | iLife 2008 | iWork 2008 | Keyboards

2006 was an amazing year for Skatter Tech. I thought I’d let everyone know some interesting statistics about our site. Last year alone, we had about 1.12 Million visitors from all 193 internationally recognized countries in the world. The most popular Operating System is still Windows XP and Internet Explorer is still the most popular browser. About 80% of our readers are now using Cable or DSL, while 8% are still on Dial-Up. There are many more interesting statistics below such as popular ISPs, Keywords, Screen Resolutions and so on… (P.S. The data provided is not 100% accurate!)

Total Visitors for 2006: 1.12 Million
Average Per Day: 2,100
Countries Visited From: 195 (thats all of them!)

Popular Posts:
1) Stream iTunes To PSP
2) Soda Machine Hack
3) Russell Peters Video
4) Motorola KRZR Review
5) Sony Pocket Station
6) How To Block Fasterfox
7) Royale Theme For XP
8) LG VX9900 Review

Top Web Browsers:
1) Internet Explorer – 55%
2) Mozilla Firefox – 36%
3) Apple Safari – 5%
4) Opera – 2%

Popular Operating Systems:
1) Windows – 90%
2) Macintosh – 7%
3) Linux – 2%

Network Connection Type:
1) Cable/DSL – 79%
2) DialUP – 8%
3) Others – 12%

Geographical Location:
1) USA – 56%
2) Canada – 10%
3) U.K. – 10%
4) Australia – 4%
5) Remaining 20%: Singapore, Germany, Netherlands, India, France, Sweden and so on…

Referring Source:
1) Google.com
2) Direct Access (skattertech.com)
3) Digg.com
4) Yahoo.com
5) CollegeHumor.com

Top Search Keywords:
1) PSP
2) KRZR
3) Fasterfox
4) iTunes
5) enV

Top Internet Service Providers:
1) Comcast – 9.5%
2) SBC – 5.6%
3) Verizon – 4.5%
4) Road Runner – 3.9%
5) Other ISPs – approx. 74%

Screen Resolutions:
1) 1024×768 – 46%
2) 1280×1024 – 19%
3) 1280×800 – 7%
4) 800×600 – 6%

For the past few months we have been running off our new new servers hosted by MediaTemple and the results have been extremely satisfying compared to 1and1. If you haven’t already done so take a look at our new “Tag Browsing” feature,the new Skatter Tech Mobile, and our Message Boards. We’d also like to let everyone know that we will be getting new authors soon, therefore increasing the content on our site. Also check back next week as we will have heavy duty MacWorld 2007 Coverage.

And Finally, Happy New Year!

Most Google products, in the past, have often been limited to Windows users. However Google is quickly changing and is constantly releasing more Macintosh supported programs. Even heavy duty applications such as Google Earth are now available for Mac OS (still in beta). Anyways Google has created a simple download page for Mac users to download their apps.

Google Mac Apps:

• Google Notifier
• Google Toolbar
• Google SketchUp
• Picasa Web Albums
• Google Earth
• Google Widgets

Most of these are still in beta, but then again almost every Windows application Google has pushed out is still in beta as well.

Links: Google Downloads For Mac
Related: Google Docs and Spreadsheets Launched

Today at the WWDC “06 Keynote, Apple announced the long awaited Mac Pro. The new Mac Pro, a G5 replacement, features a Intel Dual Core Xeon 3GHz Processor, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA 512MB Video Card, Up To 2TB (terabytes) of Storage, a 16x Dual Layer DVD SuperDrive, and PCI Express Expansion Slots. This new 64bit system is supposedly 2x the speed of the top of the line configuration of its predecessor. Also note that with the launch of this machine, Apple has finally fully transitioned over to Intel.

Apple Mac Pro Specs:

• Processor: Two 2/2.66/3GHz Dual Core Intel Xeon
• Memory: 2GB / 4GB / 8GB / 16GB Configurations
• Graphics: NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 512MB w/ Dual-DVI
• Displays: Dual-Screen Support (8 displays max)
• Hard Drive: Max 2TB (w/ 4 bays 500GB in each)
• SuperDrive: 16x DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW (2 max)
• Wireless: Bluetooth 2.0 + AirPort Extreme 802.11b/g
• Wired Communication: Two 1GB Ethernet / Optional Modem
• Peripherals: 2 FireWire 800 / 2 FireWire 400 / 5 USB 2.0
• Audio: Analog In/Out + Optical Digital In/Out
• Software: Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger

As stated at the keynote, the Mac Pro will begin to ship today and pricing will start at $2,500 with the bare minimum configuration. Apple also released a new Mac OS Xserve Server and previewed the upcoming Mac OS X Leopard. Getting back on track, this is an extremely powerful machine and therefore is expensive. However if you are like most average consumers you probably can’t afford to spend that much. I wouldn’t worry because knowing Apple, they most likley release a new product called the “Mac” within a few months just as they did by launching a low-end “MacBook” after the launch of the pricey “MacBook Pro”.

Links: Apple Mac Pro | Mac Pro Specs
Related: Apple Press Release | Bluetooth Mighty Mouse

On June 6, 2006, the long awaited Digg v3 went live. Along with this update came a brand new theme, new sets of feeds, and plenty of new features. To maximize compatibility we have released the Digg Search Widget v2.0, which has been rebuilt from scratch. Although the widget may look similar to the previous edition at first glance, this new widget incorporates tons of new features. v2.0 includes features such as an Advance Search, Digg v3 Themes, RSS Reader, Text To Speech, and Story Alerts. To get the Digg Search Widget you will need the Yahoo! Widget Engine installed (available for Windows & Macintosh). Please give this a try and let us know what you think. Suggestions and comments are welcome.

Digg Search Widget v2.00 Features:

Search Features:

• Area: All Stories, Front Page, or Upcoming
• Age: From Anytime or Last 7/30/365 days
• Type: Within Title, Body, or Both
• Sort: Newest, Oldest, or Most Dugg First
• Buried: On or Off to Include Buried Stories

Theme Features:

• Widget Colors: Digg V3 Blue (plus Green & Grey)
• Info Slide: Display Description, Diggs, Category, etc.
• View Preference: Numbered Stories And Scrolling Items
• Timestamp: Add Time/Date To End Of Description
• Usericons: Get Submitter Username and the Usericon

Feeds Features:

• Optional: Collapse Feed Reader (search only)
• Main Feeds: Popular, Upcoming, Username, Friends, etc.
• Main Categories and subCategories: 37 available
• Headline Count: View 1-15 Headlines On Any Feed
• Update Interval: Check For New Stories Every 5-60mins
• Update On Demand: Right-Click and “Refresh Feed”

Speech:

• Computer Text To Speech With SlideShow
• Choose What To Read: Title, Diggs, Description, etc.
• Number Of Items To Read: All Items Or Choose 1-15

Others:

• Digg Logo Link: Homepage, Upcoming, Spy, And More…
• New Story Alert: Chime When New Stories Are Available
• Optional: Multiple Monitor Support To Allow Functionality
• Restore All Defaults: Incase Widget Becomes Damaged
• Software Updater: Notifies And Assists Updating Widget

Download: Digg Search Widget (win or mac)
Links: Widget Gallery – Digg Search Widget
Required Software: Yahoo! Widget Engine (aka. Konfabulator)

A few months ago we published an article entitled How To: “Stream Your iTunes Library To PSP“. The article, which demonstrated how to share music from your windows machine to your PlayStation Portable (PSP), became an extreme hit. Today we are here to demonstrate a new alternative, which is in fact more powerful and functions smoothly on both Windows and Macintosh machines. After reading through this tutorial, you will be able to easily stream as much DRM-Free music as you want from any networked computer to your Playstation Portable (PSP) via WiFi.

The software we are using today, MyTunesRSS, has been developed by our friends at Codewave Software. This new MyTunesRSS software is completely free and offers even more features than the software used in our previous tutorial. To use this application you will need the items mentioned below. (MyTunesRSS is currently on v2.1)

To get started you’ll need the following:

• PSP with Firmware 2.60/2.70 or Above
• Networked XP Pro/Home or Mac OS X
• Java Runtime 1.5 or Above Installed
• WiFi (802.11b-compatible) Network Router
• Apple iTunes v6.0.4 or Above Installed
• DRM-Free Songs In The iTunes Library

The 3-Setup Procedure:

Windows:
1) Download MyTunesRSSwin.zip to your desktop. Unzip (extract) all contents into a new folder. Open it folder, but do not modify its contents.
2) Press on the on the MyTunesRSS Icon and wait until it starts up.
3) Under General -> iTunes browse to the location of your “iTunes Music Library.xml”. (Usually located in My Documents -> My Music -> iTunes.)

Macintosh:
1) Download MyTunesRSSmac.zip. Extract all contents into a new folder.
2) Open the folder, press on MyTunesRSS, and wait for it to start up.
3) Under General -> iTunes browse to the location of your “iTunes Music Library.xml”. (This is normally located in Music -> iTunes)

Final Setup Steps (mac and win):
1) Choose a port number such as “1234″ and enter any password.
2) Under Options -> Automation, check Auto Update Database (10 mins).
3) Open any standard browser (IE/Safari/Firefox) and enter either http://localhost:[port number] (ex: http://localhost:1234) or the URL displayed on the General Tab. A MyTunesRSS page should appear shortly.

Note: If you successfully accomplished the above (without any errors), you may proceed to the next step. If you do run into errors make sure you meet the requirements and are using the correct software for your OS. If the MyTunesRSS page didn’t appear, open the port you choose previously and give MyTunesRSS permission to access the web in your firewall settings.

PSP Setup Procedure:
1) PSP should already be setup on your LAN and should be able to access the web, if so start up your PSP and go to Network -> Internet Browser.
2) Enter “http://[IP Address]:[Port Number]” into your PSP Browser. “IP Address” represents the IP of the machine running the MyTunesRSS server and the “Port Number” is the number you selected during setup. URL can also be found under “General” in MyTunesRSS. (ex: http://192.168.1.101:1234)
3) Once the MyTunesRSS page appears, enter your password and login.
4) Browse around and select the RSS icon on any playlist/album/artist and say “Yes” to “Add This Channel” to your PSP’s RSS Channel.
5) Close your PSP browser and go to Network -> RSS Channel. Select an item you had added to your library and enjoy the music!

Note: If the previous procedure didn’t work, make sure you followed all the instructions properly and that your firewall settings are properly configured. Also note that this will not work for music purchased on the iTunes Music Store and will only work on any DRM-free music. This tutorial only demonstrated how to access your music on your LAN, if you wish to access it from “hotspots” or elsewhere you will need to do a little port forwarding in your router.

Downloads: MyTunesRSS (by CodeWave) | Support Forum
Links: Stream iTunes Library To PSP, Pt. 1 | Digg This Article

Are you a Firefox user? Do you want a better way to cover your surfing history? Distrust, a little Firefox extension, will allow keeping all your browsing history in a single session private. Distrust is a type of “silent browsing” which is very similar to the “Private Browsing” feature on Apple’s Safari browser. With a click of a button anyone can easily clear/delete any new sites you may have visited since your session began. Distrust will automatically delete any new items added to your [History], [Cache], [Cookies], [Forms], [Downloads], and anything else that was stored or logged on your computer when “Distrust” was enabled.

This is much more efficient than clearing your cache after finishing your “private browsing” since clearing all content manually would delete even items that existed before you began your “private session”. Distrust is definitely an easy to use tool for all Firefox users. The extension works on Firefox 1.0 and above and runs on both Windows and Macintosh machines. The extension is still buggy at times, but usually gets the job done.

Download / Install: Distrust-0.5.5.xpi
Links: Mozilla Addons: Distrust | Offical Distrust Page
Related: Top Firefox Extensions | Get Mozilla Firefox

2006 is a year full of high expectations from gamers. What with Xbox 360, Revolution, and PS3 all making their formal debuts, expectations have turned into demands. While taking a look at some games that would be released later this year, one of them in particular caught my eye: Spore. The game is made by the one and only Will Wright, the renowned creator of The Sims and Sim City. Spore is a new style of simulator game that lets you play “God” in more depth than ever conceived.

In Spore, you begin the game in a universe as a single cell. After swimming around and eating bits of food, your creature lays an egg. At this point you will be allowed to modify the creature that will be born by giving it new traits, abilities, and body parts. As the creature eventually starts to evolve, it leaves its area and enters a large ocean and eventually reaches land. As you may already see, this game has many stages making it nearly endless. The best feature in Spore is the variety of the creatures you will encounter. This is because the majority of the game is made by players just like you. Your Spore community will soon turn into full civilizations with technology starting. Even though these may have started out with primitive tools, some of these “Spore civilizations” may even end up surpassing those of today.

From what I can see, the possibilities are endless and game play will last a very long time. But then again, this is what I’ve been expecting from Wright’s team of masterminds. If you are interested you may be disappointed to hear that there is no official launch date set yet, however it is expected to be released sometime in Q3.

Links: Spore Offical Site | GameSpot Page
Video: Spore Video [via Google Video]

On Wednesday, (04/05/06), Apple released a new program, Boot Camp, which allows running Microsoft Windows on any of their Intel-based machines. Although the software is still in BETA, Apple has already included most of the standard drivers necessary to run Windows on their hardware. Boot Camp works by allowing the user to choose from either Mac OS X or Windows XP during startup. The performance of Windows XP on the Intel-based Macs should be equivalent to any standard Windows Computer since it is not emulation, but runs natively. People who want to dual boot on these new Intel-based machines will need to purchase a new copy of either Windows XP Home/Pro (Full Edition).

“Apple has no desire or plan to sell or support Windows, but many customers have expressed their interest to run Windows on Apple’s superior hardware,” Philip Schiller – Apple VP Marketing

A few weeks ago a hackers figured out how to do this using his own boot loader, but there was a risk of damaging machine data since it wasn’t created by Apple. Since this is an official update, which is supported by Apple, any Intel-Mac owner can safely create a dual boot. Apple has included every tool necessary, even including an easy to use partioner, making it simple for even novice computer users to use. If you do own a Intel Mac and want to run XP, I do recommend downloading Boot Camp (83MB) since it is very easy to setup and is completely free.

Links: Apple Boot Camp BETA
Related: Uneasy Slience Installation Video Tutorial

The Skatter Tech Team has created a “Digg Search Widget” for all Digg users. The Widget runs on the Yahoo! Widgets Engine (aka. Konfabulator) and will function on both Windows and Macintosh machines. The widget can be used to search all of Digg’s archives simply by entering text into the highlighted field and pressing enter. Pressing on the digg logo will launch Digg’s homepage (digg.com) in the default browser. The best feature this widget has allows the user to set Advance Search preferences, which are available on Digg’s Advance Search page. (digg.com/search) To set the preferences you like right-click on the widget and press on Widget Preferences. If you have any questions, suggestions, or other remarks please reply in the comments below! (See Change Log)

Update: v1.60-1.68 now includes multiple themes, more search preferences, a slightly re-done interface, a collapsible rss reader, custom feeds, user set update intevals, update on demand, alerts, and more!

Update: Digg Search Widget v1.70 Released
Update: Digg Search Widget v2.00 Released

Download: Digg Search Widget
Links: Get Yahoo! Widgets
Related: Skatter Tech Widget