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Adium App Review: ★★★★

Adium™ is a free and open-source Instant Messaging (IM) and XMPP/Jabber application developed on a Mac for a Mac. Using OSX's Cocoa API™, the Adium team developed the most popular multi-service instant messaging client. Adium is a beautiful integration of multiple chat services that is, in my opinion, unrivaled by it’s competitors. The only downside is that Adium does not currently cupport video/voice chat like many of it's XMPP competitors. 

Adium support a wide variety of services, and the setup is super easy. Adding additional accounts is even easier-simply enter the usernames and passwords of the various IM Services you use in the Preferences screen.

  UI/DISPLAY:

Adium seamlessly integrates itself into the Mac OSX™ Interface-which is very nice if you care about the beauty of your desktop. The basic UI is an AIM™ style messenger bar that you can float around the screen, and a chat window similar to Skype™. The chat windows are beautifully simplistic, yet just complex enough to include all of the features you need.

The UI is heavily customizable-as is much of the rest of the client. Buttons can be moved around, colors can be changed, Skins are available to change the background/settings of all windows, and much more.

The IM chat window is, as stated earlier, much like a Skype chat window. The chat windows are tabbed, meaning you can see all of your conversations in little rows of tabs. The tabs can be set to the sides, the top, or the bottom of the window. Hotkeys can be programmed to do almost anything in Adium, including switch between chats. You can also customize the UI to have a separate chat window for each chat or just for specific people.

Adium has a customizable index of emoticons slightly larger than that of Facebook. The more complex emoticons in Adium seem really cool at first, but they are almost useless because they only show up in Adium. Smileys attached via Adium often do not display on the other en, unless the other party is using Adium. This is kind of a downside, but the fact that they include the icons in the first place is kind of cool. You can switch to different emoticon sets-more or less complex.

TL;DR-Great, Customizable and Simplistic yet Sophisticated UI. 

  NOTIFICATIONS:

The notifications in Adium are amazing-but a little overwhelming. Every time someone logs in or out, you receive a message, a file transfers or fails to transfer, or just about anything else happens-you get a pop-up. Pop-Ups appear in the upper right hand corner of the screen in a small transparent box. This pop-up is accompanied by a notification noise (which is customizable). Essentially, you are inundated with noisy dings and annoying pop-ups if you have too many contacts.

Facebook is especially annoying, because people log in and out all the time without the intent of chatting and you are notified every time. Thus, I wouldn't suggest setting up a Facebook chat account unless you are willing to put up with constant notifications popping up on your screen and the little dinging noise (unless you turn it off). The same goes for twitter.

Of course all of this is customizable, and thus it can all be turned off. You can select specific events to notify you and specific events to never notify you. The customizability is really the saving grace of the notification system for Adium, otherwise it would be completely overwhelming. 

TL;DR-Overwhelming notifications system that needs som customizing before Adium is usable. 

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Upcoming Reviews: XMPP/Jabber Clients and Voice/Video Clients...

CLIENTS:

I decided to review several voice and video clients, as well as several XMPP/Jabber Clients for the Mac (per my dad's request). XMPP Servers, also called Jabber clients, allow the user to connect one or multiple communication accounts to one User Interface (UI). In this way, the client lets the user keep in contact with all of their friends, co-workers, acquaintances and anyone else they want to. The generally do not provide a chat service, but instead simply provide a means for connecting various chat cervices into one UI. Since there are So Many XMPP clients out there(link), I had to narrow down my list.

SERVICES:

Voice and video services are different from XMPP clients in that they usually provide their own service. Some examples are Skype and iChat. I will be reviewing these services as well as the XMPP clients. 

Mac Platform: Must be usable on a Mac

Freeware: Must be free to use (or at least to try)

Non-Browser Based: Cannot be a browser based application.

So far I have decided I will be reviewing:

Adium

Pidgin (plug-ins required to mold to Mac OSX)

Fire

iChat

Skype (w/ facebook integration)

If you have any suggestions on clients/services to add to the list let me know via the ask box, and maybe I'll throw it on as an additional review or two. 

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USBank iPhone App Review: ★★½

This is quite possibly the worst app on the app store today. There are a few redeeming qualities about the USBank app, but they are completely overshadowed by the massive failures. 

The only real positive aspect of this app is the convenience. It is very helpful to be able to check you balance (supposedly) on the go. That's about it. 

  Cons: 

Logging in should be secure. I understand that. But this app goes far beyond security and into the just plain annoying. The app requires you to enter in order your username, a security question answer, then your password. If you get any of the steps wrong along the way, you have to start over. All of this on a phone keyboard. It's just very annoying. 

The worst part is that you have to log in every time you exit the app. Every time you want to check you balance log in? that I can understand I guess, but this is just dumb. Accidentally hit the home button? log in again. Phone display went to sleep? log in again. Hit end button then want to check one more thing? log in again. I understand security but come on you guys, this is just ridiculous. 

Additionally, the balance is not up to date. Sometimes a transactions hit immediately, and sometimes it takes days. It's very unreliable. 

TL;DR-Annoy, inconvenient, unreliable and not user-friendly. 

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Magic Mouse Review: ★★★★

The Magic Mouse (MM) is by far the best mouse apple has ever released. Upon opening, I was blown away by the MM's sleek design and delicate nature. It is a good weight, and of sturdy build. Overall, it gives an excellent first impression.

DESIGN:

The MM has one piece of clear white plastic on top that curves to form an arc. The MM is far more low-profile than other mice and almost seems to be aerodynamic in design. This adds to the beauty of the mouse, but detracts from the functionality. Many other mice in the field are contoured to your hand, while this sits lower to the desk top-eliminating the feeling that the mouse is a part of your hand.

The size of the MM is a bit small for me. I find myself gripping the edges of the mouse and picking it up far more than with other mice, which can get uncomfortable after several hours. However, for people with smaller hands this may not even be and issue. 

The MM is extremely lightweight (especially if you get the rechargeable battery pack by Mobee-which ill review later). I am used to a fairly heavy gaming mouse (the Razer Naga), yet after just a few hours of use I was completely used to the change in weight and was no longer flinging the cursor across the screen. Overall, a well balanced and weighted mouse. 

TL;DR-The MM is a mid-sized yet lightweight work of art. 

  TRACKING:

Tracking the MM (moving it around the screen) is smooth and refined. Due to the lightweight nature there is no accidental inertia transferred to the cursor. Additionally, there are two small bars along the bottom of the MM that minimize contact and friction with whatever surface you decide you need to mouse on. This provides an elegantly smooth movement which is seamlessly transferred to the cursor on screen. 

TL;DR-Seamless flow that is unrivaled by any mouse today. 

  CLICKING, TAPPING AND GESTURES:

Although the clicking functions are basic, the MM provides the user with a plethora of customizable gestures as well as a tapping functionality. Basic gestures include 1, 2 and 3 finger swipes as well as 1, 2 and 3 finger taps (both are shown in the picture above). The gestures can be customized to a small extent in the System Preferences pane, but for deeper customization just download a MM preference ap from a variety of third party developers. (My favorite is Magic Prefs, which I will review later). In this app you can go deep into customization of different gestures, clicks, swipes, and various other movements. Be careful though-it's easy to get lost in a sea of movement and not know what you're clicking when. 

Scrolling is the best part of this mouse and what separates it from the rest of the mice out there. Apple really put allot of time into designing this component-and you can tell. The one big solid top plastic piece is kind of scary when you think about scrolling-especially because the scroll zone overlaps with the clicking zone. But apple somehow manages to distinguish between a scroll and a tap flawlessly. There is just enough space that you never click in the scroll zone, but never miss the scroll zone when you want to hit it. 

TL;DR-Great distinction for a mouse with only one surface, and highly customizable yet simplistic gestures. 

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MacBook Pro-13" Review: ★★★★½

Right from the moment I unboxed this machine, I was in love. The beautifully functional Components and insanely powerful Software/Operating System combined to form what is, in my opinion, the closest to perfection the portable computing industry has ever come.  But that’s enough of my opinions, let’s look at the machine specifications/components and you can decide for yourself.

HDMI:

The MBP is lacking an HDMI port, which is a significant failure. HDMI is the generally accepted mode of transferring media, and I find it strange that apple refused to complete this machine with one. Instead, they inserted their own special port call the Mini-Display port. Later machines come with the Thunderbolt Port, which is similar to HDMI. However, older machines are stuck without HDMI and very confusing conversions if you want to connect to an external monitor with sound.

TL;DR-Why the hell isn’t there an HDMI Port!?

  DURABILITY:

The MBP is cased in an aluminum shell, which sounds kind of weak and sketchy. FAR FROM IT! I have fallen while skating with the MBP in my backpack and landed directly on it multiple times with little to no damage. One time the corner was slightly bent in, but I hammered it out fairly easily. There has never been any long-term damage.

TL;DR-Surprisingly durable!

  BATTERY LIFE:

The battery life is surprisingly long for a computer this powerful. Out of the box I got 10 hours of battery life no problem-until I went online. Listening to music, browsing the web, or editing files is tasking on any machine’s battery life. But the MBP is surprisingly awful when these factors are put into play. The battery life is dramatically drained to about 3-5 hours depending on the use level.

TL;DR-Great battery life unless you’re tasking the processing power.

  TRACK PAD + KEYBOARD:

The built-in Track Pad for the MBP is amazing. The multi-touch functions allow for seamless navigation of the various desktops, the web, and any app you can think of. This is truly the peak of track pad engineering today. (I will review the external and internal track pads further later).

Just like the track pad, Apple was dead on with the keyboard. The backlights on the MBP’s keyboard are amazing. They go far brighter than any other keyboard I have ever seen, and well as being highly adjustable. I love this keyboard as much as the track pad and wouldn’t change a thing about it.

TL;DR-TP: Simple, smooth perfection . Keyboard: Bright, adjustable perfection.

  PROCESSOR:

2.4 GHz Dual-Core Intel i5

This processor can be downgraded to 2.2 or upgraded to 2.8 GHz on some sizes of the MBP. However, I have never had any issue with processing and I think Apple made a great decision in outsourcing this part to Intel. Intel has a huge presence in the processing industry and the i5 evidences why they have been so successful.  

TL;DR-The processor is perfect for this machine

  INTERNAL/MAIN MEMORY (RAM):

8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3

The RAM is 4 GB standard, but I upgraded to 8GB. I’m not sure if it was necessary because I have never come close to topping out my computing power or even wishing I had more memory swapping ability. I would still get the 8 GB again because of the frustration I experience using my girlfriend’s MBP. She has 4 GB and a 17 inch and I can’t even bear to use the thing.

TL;DR-Get enough Gigs for your own use, it’s worth it.

  EXTERNAL MEMORY (HARD DRIVE):

500GB, 5400 RPM

I have had this MBP for over 2 years, and although I use CCleaner (I’ll review it later), I have never had anywhere near ¼ of my Hard Drive space full. I usually run about 150 GB of use and have never had any noticeable slowing from this.

TL;DR-500 Gigs probably isn’t necessary, but it is an option.

  GRAPHICS:

NVIDIA GeForce 320M 256 MB

The graphics is the weak point of the hardware in this machine. If you’re looking for a gaming computer, this isn’t it. First of all, graphics processing is shared with the main memory. I am not sure if this is why, but I cannot play most graphics-intensive games on this computer. Even games like Sims 3 are difficult to run. Everyone knows that Macs aren’t your best choice for gaming, but this machine is especially bad.

TL;DR-Bad graphics for gaming so pick a real gaming computer if that’s an issue for you.

**More Specs can be found on apple’s website @ http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/specs-13inch.html

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The Inspiration...

The basic idea behind this blog came to me in the first few days of summer break. You see, I am one of those people who (like most of you I'm sure) feel very strongly about my technological opinions. I love getting new stuff for my computer and phone, and hate when a developer releases something that just doesn't make sense. 

Given my passion for technology I often find myself angrily ranting about all of the problems with an app on my phone, or the lack of a certain component in a piece of technology I just invested much of my limited supply of money in. Quite often I also find myself jumping up and down with excitement about a new piece of technology for my mac and don't know who to share my amazing new discovery with.

That is where you, the Tumblr community, come in.  I was bored in Seattle and talking to my girlfriend. Talking is a relative term I guess-more of ranting at her about the lack of a truly complete icon replacement set (I'll get to this in a customization post later I'm sure). That is when she gave me a truly brilliant idea "If you care that much go make a Tumblr about it-I'm sure there's bound to be people there who actually care." This stab at my obviously unwanted and unappreciated opinion spawned this Tumblog. 

TL;DR My girlfriend is awesome and gave me the brilliant idea to vent my frustrations and talk technology with the Tumblr Community instead of her. 

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The Concept...

The basic idea behind this blog is simple: This is a place where you can view reviews of apps, software, freeware, hardware, and many other technological aspects. The catch is that they're all mac related. If you are reading this then this blog is still in the early stages. I plan on updating multiple times a week and have a consistent source of all things mac for my followers, but I have to start somewhere. As such, please be patient and know that I am working to get you the best reviews I can-if only a little biased.