I do Mac

There is yet another bundle on the market. MacWeed is its name, and is an Italian initiative.

What is good about this initiative is, as stated by MacWeed, the following:

Besides we act in aid of the needy: by buyng the application package customers will support the people of Abruzzo who were rendered homeless by a terrible earthquake a few weeks ago. 20 per cent of the profits will be set aside for Italian Red Cross that will employ the money for the needs of the earthquake victims of Abruzzo. 

Italian Red Cross (CRI) makes every effort to help people lying in difficult circumstances and its fame is world-wide. Our little contributions are due actions towards those noble people who are engaged in aid of the needy. We have no words to express our gratitude. The best we can do is to react with a concrete proposal.

This is a great initiative. And you can help! For only $49.95 you do not just help the Italian Red Cross, but you also get 13 applications!

Which applications are included? These 13 very nice applications are included:

• Amnesia
• DEVONthink Personal
• Finance 6
• Interarchy
• ImageFramer
• Media Catalog
• MacSnapper
• SkypeCap
• Optimism
• ProfCast
• Photo Styler
• Voila
• Sandvox
• Finance 6
• Interarchy
• ImageFramer
• Media Catalog
• MacSnapper
• SkypeCap
• Optimism
• ProfCast
• Photo Styler
• Voila
• Sandvox

More information can be found on the MacWeed website, right here: http://www.macweed.net/.

Time Machine is a backup and restore program from Apple, it comes standard with OS X Leopard. To use Time Machine you need a USB or Firewire drive, or an Apple Time Capsule (officially).

Since I have a MacBook I do not want a drive, I have to connect to the MacBook. So I went with a LaCie d2 Network. This is a NAS that is Time Machine compatible. You have to have a NAS that can communicate over AFP and is Time Machine compatible , or it will not work (very well).

I have the LaCie d2 Network hooked up to an AirPort Extreme which uses the N based wifi network. I have noticed this helps a lot when making backups. It goes about 3 times (if not more) faster, compared to a G based wifi network.

Time Machine makes backups every hour so you can go “back in time” using Time Machine to restore individual files or folders.

I had made all these backups, but would they really restore?

I had installed a lot of applications just to try them out, and I felt my MacBook was a bit cluttered with junk. I wanted to reinstall my MacBook, but did not want reinstall all the settings, applications, etc… so I did a full restore. A full restore can be done via the OS X install.

I did have some problems. The LaCie d2 Network was not found, but turned out I needed to use the original cable that came with the LaCie d2 Network (usually connected to the AirPort Extreme) to connect the MacBook. And voila, there is was. OS X install will just copy a full backup from the NAS to the Mac and after a few hours I was ready to go. All I needed to do was restore some files that where added and backupped after the full backup and I was done.

I know some people prefer iBackup, or the better known SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner. I personally use Carbon Copy Cloner to make a second backup just to be sure. But Time Machine is a very good backup program and I do advise everyone to give, it at least, a try.

Of course you do not want to pay too much for an application or game, and you do not have to. If you know where to look.

There are many special deals to be found on the internet, one way to find these special deals is…

Mac App Deals

Mac App Deals reports about offers found. Once the owner of the website hears about, or finds a deal, he places it on Mac App Deals.

Mac App Deals is just about updated daily.

Be sure to check out, and bookmark Mac App Deals and check the website regularly. Mac App Deals is your one stop special deal reporter.

Denny’s doublePLUS deals

Denny’s doublePLUS deals wants to know about what you want. The way Denny’s doublePLUS deals works is that you tell Denny what you are looking for, and that you would like to see it discounted.

Denny will contact the developers of the application or game, and will do his best to get you (and others that visit Denny’s doublePLUS deals) a hot hot deal.

It depends on the developers if Denny can strike a hot deal, but Denny will do his best.

Take a look at the currently running hot deals here.

Bundles

Good ways to buy applications and games are the well known bundles. You probably know about the MacHeist bundle for example.

At the time of writing there are 4 bundles running.

• MacUpdate Promo Bundle – Offering 11 applications for only $49,99
• Mac Switcher Bundle – 4 applications for $49,95. Great for people who recently switched to using a Mac
• Macsnack – 8 applications for $49
• TheMacBundles.com – This website was set up recently, this is its first ever offer. 11 applications for $49,95

These bundles, containing these applications and games only happen once. Every year (or more often than that) they will contain different applications and games. Bundles are sold for a limited time only, usually 14 days.

Daily offers

Last but not least there are the daily offers. MacUpdate Promo and MacZOT! offer 1 application or game for a reduced price each day.

Looking for a deal or steal? Now you know where to look. Don’t forget to tell me about it ( deal <at> idomac <dot> com ) .

Who does not have an iPhone. Everyone has an iPhone, right? Well sadly not me (yet).

Why on earth do I not have an iPhone. Well that is a long story. About 3 years back, I purchased a 2 year mobile plan with a Nokia N95 (expensive phone). Back then, there was no iPhone.

After a while, I purchased a 3 year Nokia Maps subscription. So I would have spoken navigation on my phone. Compared to the 1 and 2 year subscriptions this was by the far the cheapest option. But bad for my next phone choice.

After the 2 year plan the iPhone was not available over here yet. Sure I could have waited, but the Nokia Maps subscription was in the way. So I purchased another plan for a Nokia N95 8GB (bad idea) and I am once again stuck with a 2 year plan.

Until 4 october 2010 I am stuck with this phone !

What other option is there? Just buy an iPhone, of course. But I am poor, and you can help me get an iPhone by chipping in. On the right side in the menu bar you will see a ChipIn widget where you can donate some money.

Of course, once we reach the set goal. I will pick one of the donators and give a gift away. What that will be I do not know yet.

For a limited time only, WeekinRewind.com is giving away an iPhone. I would like to win this iPhone and you can help me with it! All you need to do is follow WeekinRewind on Twitter and tweet the following.

Just entered the iPhone 3G Giveaway contest. Win by following @WeekinRewind and RETWEET often. http://xr.com/sn8 #IdoMac

Tweet and tweet again!

Thank you very much for all the support you give me.

You probably already heard. Tweetie has been released for the Mac, it is all over the internet.

Tweetie is a Twitter client for the iPhone, that has now been made available for Mac. Personally I do not have a iPhone (yet, stupid phone plan), so I have never used it. But what I hear from the users of Tweetie it is the best client there is for Twitter.

Tweetie is made by Atebits, that also makes Scribbles.

I am not much of a Twitter person, I do not see the point (sorry ). I have been using EventBox before, mainly for the RSS feeds I follow. But, since I was hearing so much about it, I thought I would give Tweetie for Mac a try.

Tweetie costs $19,95 and up until may 4th 2009 $14,95. Next to that, you can use a free version, that will show advertisements from time to time between the tweets. The advertisements are not too bad. They are a bit big but I can live with them.

This is release 1.0.1 (they released an update a few hours after version 1.0 was released) and it still a bit buggy. Or perhaps it is a lack of what I, and other users, expect.

Tweetie looks good. As I said earlier, I am not a Twitter fan, but Tweetie does what it does very well. You can dim the tweets you viewed, I do like this, makes it easy to see what you did or did not read. But, the dimming is so subtle I think. It makes it hard to see. Also, when I close Tweetie completely and restart it, nothing is dimmed anymore. Probably a bug, but still very annoying.

What is very nice about Tweetie, is that you can click on a tweet, and if it is a reply to someone else, you can view the conversation. So a @… tweet will make more sense to you.

Also multiple account support is very nice. You get your avatars on the left, and you can switch between your multiple Twitter accounts. Should you have more than one.

Last things I has tested so far is making smaller url’s IN Tweetie. When you are composing a tweet, you can paste an URL in the message and select the option to make it a smaller url.

And viewing images in Tweetie works very well, very similar to OS X Leopard its preview.

So far Tweetie looks good. I have not had much chance to try it yet, I will use it a bit more and report back to you in part 2!