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News & Opinion
Products & Services
Software
News & Opinion
Customer Satisfaction: Apple Still Leads PC
Market
PR: The American Customer Satisfaction Index survey, founded
at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business and now
produced by ACSI LLC, is a national economic indicator of customer
evaluations of product quality and the services available to household
consumers in the United States. The latest quarterly ACSI survey finds
overall consumer satisfaction with personal computers and other
consumer electronics is at or near all-time highs, with Apple product
satisfaction leading the way, up another two points over last year's
already high survey score.
Customer satisfaction with Personal Computers in general surged 4.0%
to match the industry's all-time high of 78. Nearly all brands showed
increases in satisfaction, and no manufacturer declined. Lower prices,
better service, and an emphasis on new, smaller systems and a variety
of portable PCs helped drive the improvement. Windows-based
manufacturers made large gains in the second year of Microsoft's
release of Windows 7, marking a recovery from the problems associated
with the Windows Vista software.
However, Apple continues its dominance, leading the PC category by a
wide margin for the seventh straight year. Customer satisfaction with
Apple's computer products, including the iPad, rose 2% to an ACSI score
of 86 out of 100 - the highest score ever for Apple. The company now
has a 9-point lead over its nearest competitor. No other company in the
ACSI has as formidable a lead within its own industry. Innovation and
product diversification, along with strong customer service, have long
been at the center of Apple's success. At times, demand for Apple
products has outstripped supply, with over 3 million iPads sold in the
second quarter alone. At the same time, sales of Mac computers set an
all-time quarterly high, which suggests that the popularity of the iPad
has not impacted Apple's desktop computer business. The company's net
income rose 78% in the second quarter, and stock price, despite recent
volatility, was up about 50% compared with one year ago.
Among Windows-based PC makers, satisfaction with Dell improved 3% to
77, while Acer (Gateway and eMachines) and the HP division of
Hewlett-Packard both rose 4% to 77, creating a three-way tie. The
aggregate of all smaller PC makers, such as Sony and Toshiba, joined
the tie as well (+4%), placing the entire industry well behind leader
Apple. Only the Compaq division of Hewlett-Packard was stagnant at the
bottom of the industry with an unchanged score of 74.
The report says PC makers overall have benefited from better
customer service. Still, customer service for personal computers
continues to lag far behind other durables. Owners who had reason to
contact customer care or technical help lines were 8% less satisfied
than those who had no post-purchase contact with the manufacturer or
retailer.
Link: Customer
Satisfaction Improves for PCs, Appliances, and Electronics; Change May
Signal Rebound in Consumer Demand
Apple Mice: Lots of Room for Improvement
Blogger Troy Simpson raises a point that has perplexed your editor
over the years: Why can't Apple, which pioneered and popularized the
computer mouse as an input device, make a decent mouse. Simpson
accurately observes that not a single mouse designed in Cupertino,
California, has been top class, causing him to wonder how Apple can
make a great laptop, MP3 player, desktop computer, tablet, phone, and
various other products yet still make such poor mice.
Excellent question. Simpson goes on the review a sorry succession of
mice Apple has foisted on us, beginning with the Apple USB "hockey puck" mouse of
1998, although he could have reached back farther than that.
Publisher's note: I have to agree with Simpson and Moore on this
one. I have used Macs since 1987, and while Apple had a couple decent
ADB mice and one decent USB mouse (the "no button" Apple Pro Mouse), I
left them behind long ago for well designed multibutton mice from
Kensington, Contour Design, and Logitech. dk
Link: Mice Made by Apple Suck.
Could Be Solved
Add an eSATA Port to an Old iMac
Hardmac's Lionel says:
"[T]here . . . exist some mini-PCIe cards which allow the connection
of SATA disks, a thing that some of our readers have done in the past
in Mac minis. Now a reader of XLR8Yourmac has
done the same in an old (2006) iMac, creating an eSATA port."
Link:
Adding an eSATA Port to an Old iMac
First USB 3.0 Option for Macs
MacFixIt's Topher Kessler says:
"When Buffalo released a number of USB 3.0 products a about a year
ago, there was some confusion over whether or not the included USB 3.0
PCI-express card would work in Macs....
"Unfortunately the card supplied by Buffalo did not work in OS X,
though users could boot to Windows installations in Boot Camp to
utilize the hardware for USB 3.0 performance.
"A couple of weeks ago electronics developer CalDigit made a similar
announcement, releasing a new AV Drive with USB 3.0 support (see press release below). Along with the drive, CalDigit
includes a card for supplying desktop computers with USB 3.0 ports
[and] the new card from CalDigit comes with support for OS X, so
if you have a Mac Pro you can get USB 3.0 connectivity on it."
Link: USB 3.0 Option
for Mac Pros
Products & Services
CalDigit SuperSpeed PCI Express Card
First to Offer USB 3.0 Connectivity to Mac Pro
PR: Designed for use with CalDigit certified
devices, the CalDigit SuperSpeed PCI Express Card is the first to offer
USB 3.0 connectivity to both Mac and PCs with an available PCIe slot.
For the first time, Mac users can utilize USB 3.0 due to a special
driver that has been developed by CalDigit. This 2-port card enables
the use of next generation USB technology, capable of speeds up to 5
Gbps.
The SuperSpeed Card is optimized for use with CalDigit certified
products, such as the CalDigit AV Drive. The SuperSpeed Express Card is
compatible with modern Windows systems. CalDigit does not guarantee USB
3.0 performance on all Macs or when used in conjunction with third
party products. The driver has been optimized for CalDigit certified
products. The SuperSpeed Express Card is backwards compatible with USB
2.0 (connection to USB 2.0 yields USB 2.0 performance).
Features:
- The first and only card that allows USB 3.0 connectivity for the
Mac
- Next generation USB 3.0 capable of 5 Gb/s throughput
- Supports bus powered peripheral devices
- USB 3.0 Card is backwards compatible for use with previous USB
devices
Tech Specs
- Interface: PCI Express 2.0
- Port: 2 USB 3.0 (backwards compatible with USB 2.0/1.1)
- Max. Data Transfer Rate: 5.0 Gigabits per Second
- Compatibility: Mac Pro with available x1 (lane) PCIe slot
Min. System Requirements:
- Intel based Mac Pro or Windows PC with PCI Express x1 (lane) or
higher
Dimensions:
- L x W x T: 80mm (3.2in) x 68.5mm (2.7in) x 1.6mm (0.063in)
Environment:
- Operating Temperature: 32F ~ 104F
- Storage Temperature: -4F ~ 140F
- Operating Humidity: 0% RH ~ 80% RH, non-condensing
In the Box:
- CalDigit SuperSpeed PCI Express Card
- USB 3.0 Cable, 3' (1m)
- Quick Start Card
Link: CalDigit SuperSpeed
USB 3.0 PCI Express Card
Software
Nuance Launches Dragon Dictate for Mac
PR: Nuance's new Dragon Speech application for Mac OS X taps
the company's new Dragon 11 Engine, allowing Mac users to create
content and interact with their favorite applications by voice
There are not a whole lot of choices in dictation applications for
the Mac (or the PC for that matter), so the arrival of a new one merits
some notice - especially from users who prefer, or are perhaps obliged,
to work with speech recognition software.
Nuance Communications, Inc. unveiled Dragon Dictate for Mac
version 2.0, the newest addition to the Dragon family of speech
recognition products which includes Dragon NaturallySpeaking for the PC
and Dragon Mobile Apps. Dragon Dictate for Mac - the first major
desktop product for Mac OS X from the Dragon family following Nuance's
acquisition of MacSpeech earlier this year - promises to make it easier
than ever to create documents and emails, search the web, navigate the
Mac desktop, and interact with popular Mac applications - all by
voice.
Dragon Dictate for Mac, version 2.0, improves on the accuracy and
performance of MacSpeech Dictate 1.5, leveraging the new Dragon 11
engine, which also powers the recently announced Dragon
NaturallySpeaking 11 for the PC. Dictate 2.0 offers a more streamlined
setup, revamped Mac user interface, and dynamic new voice commands for
dictation, editing, navigation and proofreading. Dragon Dictate for Mac
also "learns" better than any previous version of Dictate, responds
faster to spoken commands and supports Dragon Voice Shortcuts™
for searching the web, email and Mac desktop by voice.
"Recognizing the important opportunity within the Mac community, we
set out earlier this year to bring Dragon to the Mac, working closely
with our experts from the MacSpeech team, and drawing on our history
and proven success with Dragon," says Peter Mahoney, senior vice
president and general manager for Dragon at Nuance. "We've maintained
the elements of Dictate that are most important to our Mac customers,
such as the native Mac interface, and integrated many features of
Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 to bring improved accuracy as well as
smarter command and control capabilities to this discerning audience of
new Dragon customers."
Dragon for PC, Mobile, and Now the Mac
For years, people from all walks of life have used Dragon
NaturallySpeaking on the PC to be more productive, save time and
capture their ideas at the speed of thought - at home, in the office,
the courtroom, the classroom, the exam room, or even on the road. Most
recently, with Nuance's Dragon Mobile Apps on the BlackBerry, Apple
iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, millions of people now communicate quickly
and easily on their mobile devices, simply using speech recognition.
Dragon Dictate is the first Mac member of the Dragon desktop family,
allowing Mac users to speak their minds to:
- Turn talk into text - Dragon Dictate for Mac lets users simply
speak to produce text. Speak thoughts and watch the words appear on
screen, inside almost any Mac application - up to three times faster
than typing - with recognition accuracy rate of up to 99 percent, right
out of the box.
- Unlock creativity - Transform ideas into text at the speed of
thought with Dragon Dictate for Mac. Users can let their creativity
flow from brain to voice to produce emails, blog posts, essays, and
more.
- Work comfortably - With Dragon Dictate, control the Mac in a
relaxed, handsfree manner without being tethered to the keyboard.
Instead of using a mouse, just speak commands to launch and control
applications. Move the cursor or click anywhere on screen, simply by
voice.
- Multitask - Dragon Dictate allows users to tell the Mac what to do,
with commands like "Reply To This Message" or "Open Microsoft Word" or
"Search Google for Italian restaurants" to work faster and smarter. In
addition, it's easy to create custom voice commands that automate
complex workflows on the Mac.
- Work your way - Dragon Dictate for Mac can be customized with a
personal vocabulary and voice commands that reflect an individual's
work style.
In addition to the powerful voice commands that Dictate already
offers for controlling popular Mac applications such as Safari, Mail,
iCal and iChat, the new Dragon Dictate 2.0 adds more ways to interact
with the Mac by voice:
Dragon Voice Shortcuts for Search - Offers an easy way to search for
information, files and content anywhere on your Mac or on the Web by
using single voice commands. For example:
- "Search Google for hula dancing lessons"
- "Search Bing for wedding dress repair"
- "Search Yahoo for gondola rentals"
- "Search Mail for RSVP"
- "Search Mac for history term paper"
- New Editing Commands - A new suite of commands in Dragon Dictate
for Mac makes it easy to edit documents. With commands that are
designed to simplify editing, users can select and delete text, insert
new text, capitalize text, and more.
- Proofreading - The new Proofreading commands in Dragon Dictate for
Mac take advantage of the powerful Text-to-Speech capabilities built
into Mac OS X. Simply dictate text, and ask Dragon Dictate to read it
back.
- Surrounding Punctuation - New commands in Dragon Dictate for Mac
enable users to put punctuation around certain words or groups of
words, using a simple command, such as:
- "Put Parentheses Around <text>"
- "Put Brackets Around <text>"
- Voice Navigation - Dragon Dictate lets users control the Mac's
cursor and mouse actions by voice, giving new options for interacting
with their desktop and precise handling of mouse pointer-based tasks.
New features include:
- MouseGrid: Placement of the cursor can be accomplished with
MouseGrid commands
- Mouse Click: Speak a command, with optional <modifiers> that
designate one or more keys such as Command, Option, Shift or Caps
Lock
- Mouse Movement: New commands move the mouse pointer by voice
- Flexible Microphones - Dragon Dictate users who have multiple
microphones, such as a wired and wireless headset, can easily switch
between microphones within the same voice profile.
Dragon Dictate for Mac is available immediately starting at $199.99
through Nuance's Website as well as its global network of reseller
partners, software retailers and professional sales organizations.
Existing MacSpeech Dictate customers and Dragon NaturallySpeaking
customers can upgrade to Dragon Dictate for Mac starting at $49.99 and
$99.99 respectively for a limited time.
System Requirements
Dragon Dictate requires an Intel-based Mac, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow
Leopard or greater, 3 GB of available hard drive space, 2 GB
of RAM recommended, and an Internet connection for product
registration. Dragon Dictate comes complete with a Nuance-approved USB
microphone headset.
Link: Dragon
Dictate for Mac
'Fake' Programmable Browser for OS X
PR: Fake is a new browser for Mac OS X that makes web
automation simple. Fake allows you to drag discrete browser actions
into a graphical workflow that can be run again and again without human
interaction. The Fake Workflows you create can be saved, reopened, and
shared.
Inspired by Apple's Automator application, Fake looks like a
combination of Safari and Automator that allows you to run (and rerun)
"fake" interactions with the Web.
Power Users will love Fake for automating tedious tasks like filling
out lengthy forms and capturing screenshots. Developers can use Fake
for graphically configuring automated tests for their webapps,
including assertions, assertion failure handlers, and error
handlers.
All of Fake's automation features are powered by Mac OS X's native
scripting tool AppleScript. Which means Fake can be used to incorporate
web automation into many other OS X scripting tasks.
Fake's browser component is based on the same open source technology
behind the popular Mac OS X Site Specific Browser, Fluid. That means Fake has powerful features
developers expect from a modern browser, like Userscript and Userstyle
support. Fake's proprietary secret sauce is in its web automation
capabilities - the Action Library, and Workflow side pane.
Fake is developed by Todd Ditchendorf of Celestial Teapot Software.
You can follow Todd on on Twitter, on FriendFeed, or email him at todd
{dot} ditchendorf {at} gmail {dot} com.
Support for Fake is available on the Fake Google Group or via email
at support@fakeapp.com.
Todd Ditchendorf used to work for Apple as Dashboard Engineer,
developing Dashboard and Dashboard Widgets for Leopard. He currently
resides in Mountain View, CA, and can often be found hacking Fake at
Philz or Red Rock.
System requirements: Mac OS X 10.5 or later
Fake sells for $29.95. Free (slightly crippled) trial available.
Link: Fake
Prepared for DevonThink To Go: DevonThink and
DevonNote 2.0.4 Released
PR: DevonTechnologies, LLC has updated all editions of its
high-end information manager DevonThink and its intelligent note-taking
application DevonNote to version 2.0.4. The new releases of DevonThink
and DevonNote have been prepared to work with the upcoming DevonThink
To Go for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch as well as with DevonAgent 2.5.
DevonThink To Go lets users take their data with them on their device
and add new documents on the go.
The new releases of DevonThink and DevonNote have been prepared to
work with the upcoming DevonThink To Go for iPhone, iPad, and iPod
touch as well as with DevonAgent 2.5. DevonThink To Go lets users take
their data with them on their device and add new documents on the
go.
"We are very excited about the forthcoming release of DevonThink To
Go. This important addition to our successful DevonThink product line
will enable our users to finally untie their document collections from
the bounds of their desktop computers. Students, lawyers, managers,
whoever needs to keep their collected knowledge at their fingertips can
do so now. Literally" comments Eric Bohnisch-Volkmann, President of
DevonTechnologies.
In addition, DevonThink Pro Office 2.0.4 comes with a new 'Import,
OCR, and delete' folder action for easy integration of e.g. network
scanners, improves the reliability of the built-in text recognition,
and heavily improves the integration with DevonAgent 2.5, which is
about to be released later this year.
DevonThink Pro and Pro Office 2.0.4 allow the user to add reminders
for documents to Hog Bay Software's Task Paper and connect to Third
Street Software's Sente 6.0 through an updated smart template. Many
other templates, e.g. the Annotation smart template, as well as a
number of scripts have been overhauled and improved, too. DevonThink
Pro's scripts work again with the most recent version of the popular
Firefox web browser.
A new 'Add to DevonThink' service lets users send files, bookmarks,
and images to DevonThink conveniently from, e.g., the Finder's
contextual menu. Documents that have been indexed but not been imported
can now be quickly consolidated into the database. All editions of
DevonThink now include and install the latest extensions for Safari 5
and Firefox. In addition, DevonThink Personal inherits DevonThink Pro's
'Install Add-Ons' panel to easily install both browser extensions and
PDF services- The send by email and take note functionalities have been
completely rewritten for stability, performance, and usability.
"We are continuing our commitment to make DevonThink open to other
applications and to the variety of user workflows. From scripts to
templates, folder actions, and services we provide as many ways to
access the databases as possible" so Eric Bohnisch-Volkmann.
The update adds many other minor improvements, too, and fixes bugs
and glitches. This update is recommended for all DevonThink and
DevonNote users.
DevonThink Pro and Pro Office 2.0, DevonThink Personal 2.0, and
DevonNote 2.0 require Mac OS X 10.5 or later and can be downloaded as
free trial versions. DevonThink and DevonNote can be test-driven for
free for 150 hours of noncontinuous runtime until they need to be
properly licensed.
DevonThink Professional Office sells for US$ 149.95, DevonThink
Professional for US$ 79.95, DevonThink Personal for US$ 49.95, and
DevonNote for US$ 24.95 in DevonTechnologies' online shop. DevonThink
Pro Office and DevonThink Pro are also available with the Internet
research agent DevonAgent as bundles.
Users who purchased DevonThink Personal, Pro, Pro Office or
DevonNote 1.x on or after July 1, 2008, are eligible for free upgrades.
Users who have purchased before the grace period are eligible for
attractive upgrade prices. In addition, users of DevonNote now can
upgrade to DevonThink for just the price difference.
DevonThink To Go for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch will be available
soon on the App Store for an introductory price of $14.99.
More about DevonThink
In today's world, everything is digital. From shopping receipts to
important research papers, peoples' lives often fill their hard drives
with emails, PDFs, Word documents, multimedia files and more. Questions
eventually pop up, like where to store all of this stuff? How to
organize these very different file types, and even better, how to find
the exact file one is looking for the second one needs it? It's almost
as if one needs a second brain just to keep one's digital life
straight.
Enter DevonThink: The solution to this digital age conundrum. It is
a second brain, the one and only database for all digital files, be
they PDFs, emails, Word documents or even multimedia files. Boasting a
refined artificial intelligence, DevonThink is exceedingly flexible and
adapts to the user's personal needs. And if the files are not digital
yet, paper capture support is already built-in (DevonThink Pro Office
only.)
Users can use it as their document repository, their filing cabinet,
their email archive, or their project organizer; DevonThink can do it
all. One can even collect and organize data from the web, enrich it
with sound and movie files, and then export the finished product as a
website or to an Apple Pages document to print. Or one can copy the
content to an iPod! The possibilities are only as limited as the user's
imagination.
More about DevonNote
DevonNote helps taking notes and keeping them organized. It keeps
ideas, documents, important information, and even web browser bookmarks
in one single, accessible place. DevonNote supports the user with
professional, easy-to-use features, and helps create structure out of
chaos. DevonNote is the most sophisticated notepad application for Mac
OS X, and the only one featuring AI (artificial intelligence)
technology.
DevonNote was designed with the typical Mac user in mind. It comes
with a clean, easy-to-use interface that gives you all the tools you
need in a familiar Mac-like package. Even the most complex AI functions
are just "buttons", meaning one simple click can send DevonNote into
action, digging through all of your data to find a place for your
latest note, or to show you all your ideas and concepts that are
similar to the one you've just selected.
Of course, creative people don't just 'have thoughts', they often
need new 'input', too. DevonNote comes with a complete Safari-based web
browser and solid, but flexible, bookmark-managing capabilities. With
DevonNote, the user can browse the Web and clip the most important
information directly to DevonNote.
More about DevonThink To Go
DevonThink on the Mac keeps documents and snippets organized. But
what about when one is away from the desktop? Put your documents into
your pocket with DevonThink To Go - the DevonThink and DevonNote
companion for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.
Documents synchronized to DevonThink To Go can be browsed, viewed,
and searched with the touch of a finger. New text or photo notes can be
created on the device, taken pictures can be later converted to
searchable PDFs (requires DevonThink Pro Office on the desktop).
Documents can be labeled and flagged, e.g. for later review, and the
'read' status makes DevonThink To Go even a simple feed reader for news
captured and archived in DevonThink Pro.
DevonThink To Go synchronizes with its Mac counterpart through WiFi.
Users select which items to sync by moving or replicating them to a
special 'Sync' group available in every database. DevonThink or
DevonNote 2.04 or later is required.
Link:
DevonThink
Link: DevonNote
Link: DevonThink
To Go:
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