Utility Tools

Some links to some utility tools discussed at the April meeting…

1. MacKeeper

2. MacKeeper review

3. CleanMyMac

4. CleanMyMac review

5. CCleaner review and download

Wi-Fire

The Wi-Fire long-range WIFI adapter did extend the reach of my signal but did not boost it as much as I expected.  Possibly my expectations were unrealistic.

Some comments -

• The physical design could be better.  With the wireless access point in front of you the USB cable hangs over your display and/or keyboard if you have it clipped on the laptop.
• Small rotation in the direction the receiver is pointed impacts the strength of the signal.
• Installed on a PowerBook G4 running OS 10.4.11 there are frequent kernel panics if you poke around in the menus.
• Installed on a NetBook running Windows 7 seems to work well although with the NetBook the signal was not as good as on the PowerBook. 
• Installation on the Windows machine did not ask for a restart but the Wi-Fire did not work until the computer was restarted.
• The software has a nice interface, easy to access and understand with quite a bit of information for the casual user.
• The interface in Windows has more information than the Mac version or maybe just organized better so more easily discovered.  And since the Mac goes into kernel panic when looking through the settings there may be more there that I am not getting to.
• The problems on the Mac could be the computer and not the software since this is an older machine and has had some reliability issues.

Bottom line – I can sit in my house and access our church network at the other end of the block which I was unable to do without the Wi-Fire.

Gift Guide: High-tech happiness for $100 or less

Give a cool gift for Christmas this year – one of them listed is the Magic Mouse for Macs!

Magic Mouse for Mac via Yahoo News.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Picky about WiFi? You need MiFi!

Do you have a laptop and need WiFi everywhere ?

Verizon Wireless MiFi 2200

I have a great connection at home and work, but I need WiFi everywhere. Why?, because my data is in the cloud.  My office is really anywhere I can get two things working in the same place – phone and WiFi.

Information at your fingertips is very powerful.

Now that you have committed to this digital lifestyle, your WiFi and phone connections become critical to you.  I buy my cell phone service by coverage, more than what type of phone device.  A great voice call is better than any phone hardware feature for me.   The same idea with my digital data, I would rather have a laptop with all the benefits rather than a small device that is expensive, cramped and likely to be outdated in a time frame measured in weeks.  I watch TV, view podcasts, e-mail, Facebook, etc in this digital lifestyle – I prefer the MacBook Pro as my seat on the Internet.

I purchased a card {ExpressCard} that plugged into my MacBook Pro (from Alltel) that gave me an Internet Connection anywhere my Alltel phone worked.  This covered most of my needs very well. It really worked well in the car.  It was also useful in other places that offered free WiFi that was often not working very well (too often this is a real problem).   Free Internet WiFi can be a pain if it doesn’t work.  It can also potentially be a security risk so you have to factor that in too.

Verizon has bought out Alltel in Manhattan KS and I wanted to make some changes to my service. I was enjoying an Internet connection on demand and my family and friends were starting to notice. I would be in business meetings and suddenly having a computer with an Internet connection was really useful. People would want to borrow my laptop (sorry, there are some things I will not share – my laptop is one of them), so rather than being rude, I ended up looking up information for them. People pickup up quickly on good solutions and rightly so.

Verizon was showing a new device (Sprint has one too) called a MiFi 2200 by Novatel Wireless.  I knew I had to convert over and get one.  MiFi is really a phone, router, and WiFi hotspot that is the size of a deck of playing cards (about 1/2 the thickness of a deck of playing cards). It is really simple to setup, it allows up to 5 devices to securely use it at one time. It lasts 4 hours on the battery. Push the button and you have Internet WiFi (MiFi) for 5 devices.  It does have a way to monitor how much total usage of bandwidth you have used for the month (Verizon allows for 5G bytes per month).

So what did I gain by switching to MiFi?  1) No device drivers – if you can use WiFi with your device, you can connect.  That is awesome! Mac, PC, Linux, Android Phones, wireless XBox, etc.  2) Works anywhere your Verizon phone works (coverage map).  3) Your wife’s laptop and iPhone, your child’s iPod, and that new neat gadget that uses WiFi can all use the connection at the same time, even in the car while you are traveling.  I use it when traveling with my wife, where she uses HER laptop and locates a restaurant, we call in and the food is waiting there for us.  You could do this with a smart phone, but it is so much faster using a large screen, reading reviews of the restaurant on a laptop and seeking points of interest in the city you are visiting.  The MiFi also frees up your phone to make that call.  Tethering with the phone to a laptop is unwieldy and usually kills this phone for making voice calls.

Practical advice: If you are one person and prefer a smart phone, then put your dollars in a data plan for the smart phone. You might want to consider the MiFi if you have a slower connection at home – say a satellite dish for Internet access.  If you wish to have more than one connected WiFi device – MiFi is a great solution.  MiFi is limited to 5G bytes of data per month, it will cost you $59/month + tax and it really is just another WiFi connection.  So if you can use the home WiFI, work WiFi, hotel, restaurant or coffee shop WiFi by all means do so.  Save the MiFi for when it really counts like in the car or when you want to be online in that business meeting room where there is no WiFI.

MiFi as your secondary WiFi connection makes a lot of sense and is very powerful.

Apple’s Magic Mouse

Anyone got one of these yet? If so what do you think?

Here is a review from TMO, if you are using one do you agree or disagree with this review?

Click on the image to view more info at Apple’s website.