Middle click on a mac for free using a microsoft mouse

Want a decent cheap Bluetooth mouse for your mac, get this

I got a Microsoft Bluetooth mouse to use with project messiah because the magic mouse gives me hand cramp, and the wacom doesn’t work on the wine implementation of pmg.

One trap I nearly fell into though was buying USB overdrive to drive the middle click - you don’t need to. Once you have installed the intellipoint drivers, just tell the wheel button to be handled by the mac os and you have working middle click on mac in wine for free - sweet. The mouse btw is a notebook 5000 bluetooth mouse , it works fine for £26 and happily floats over the wacom surface as its as light as feather on the mac. Aso just added a s/h full length USB keyboard to my mac, sometimes the old ways are the best.

Creativebloke review : TextExpander

Yes I’m lazy enough to replace my name with an abbreviation.Another essential app, and after a day of use a family pac was bought. Textexpander basically uses key shortcuts to paste in text, script whatever you want.

Its a bit like crack all of a sudden “Mike Griggs” has been replaced with typing “-mg”, that doesn’t seem a huge issue, but things like flickr tags, especially for kit are a real sod to remember. So all of a sudden all I need to do is type “i100” for a photo posted from my IXUS 100is  which generates the following text string “Canon IXUS 100IS, Canon Powershot 780, Canon Powershot SD780 (Digital IXUS 100) IS,”.

What’s really powerful is that Textexpander works across the system so type your shortcuts anywhere and in any app and they work - genius.

Also there is syncing across mobileme (hence the family pack), and it appears syncing also works across the god that is dropbox.

But try it out for free, theres a fun feature on the registration pane which shows you much time you are saving, and that for me was what made the purchase decision easier.


 

Apple Launches New Final Cut Studio

Well its no Aperture 3 (where, hello, apple, hello). But the improvements in the new Final Cut Studio look very nice. Motion 4 looks like it can start to mix it with After effects (a bit). I always had a bit of a soft spot for Motion, as if you got into the workflow you could produce a lot of layered imagery very, very quickly.

Final Cut has more export formats, and time enhancements, along with a revised UI which will improve workflow. Since Final Cut was always one of the ‘quickest’ apps in the toolkit, this can only be welcomed.

But the main thing is the price. £799 (£249 for upgraders) gets you a complete DV suite, including a colour grading tool, Non-linear editor, effects, audio, encoding and burning. Compared to the Adobe Production suite priced at £1,700 it’s a total no brainer. Yes I know you get photoshop and illustrator, etc. But as I have explained previously, I find Adobe’s Europe pricing policy vile.

Anyway check out the new FCS, looks like a keeper 

Review of New Macbook Pro Screens

This article from Rob Galbraith’s Site is a really fascinating look at why the screens in the new MBP’s make the new line of Apple Laptops exceptionally droolworthy. I am leaning towards a 17” in my imaginary world were money doesn’t exist, but the idea of these new screens and 8gb of upgradeable RAM is making me twitchy as all hell.

The reflections on the 15” screen shown in the article are very scary however. My current mbp is a matte screen, and while the blacks are nowhere near as poppy as on a glossy. At least i can see the screen when I am out and about. Why matte isn’t an option on the 15” is one the great mysteries of our time, its up there with the Loch ness monster and why people give a damn about MJ!

Free screen Ruler for OSX

It’s Still around and its still handy, and its all free. Very handy for those squarespace image vs column width debates you have with yourself!