Paul Vaughn: The Mac Guy

Hey Mac Guy: I read your column on Mac Computers and just purchased an iMac. I was very disappointed to find that the iMac does not come with a built-in modem for us dial-up Internet users.  I only use the Internet a few days a week and its not cost effective to purchase DSL or Roadrunner.  I checked the Apple Web site and the reviews on Apple’s modem make me think that it is, for the most part, a useless piece of garbage.  Is there a company, other than Apple that provides a good modem for the iMac? After finding that a modem does not come with the iMac and seeing the reviews on problems with the Leopard operating system that Apple seems slow to provide solutions I think that I have made an expensive mistake switching to Apple iMac.

– Dial-up Disappointment

Hey Dial: While there are not as many of these as there used to be as demand has declined, there are a couple of other USB modems that are compatible with a Mac besides the one that Apple offers. Check out Zoom (www.zoom.com/products/dial_up_external_usb.html) or USRobotics (www.usr.com/products/modem/modem-product.asp?type=specs&sku=USR5637) for a compatible device.

In my opinion the issues with Leopard have been overhyped. These seem no more egregious than other major operating system upgrades and not nearly as onerous as the ills inflicted on Windows users by Vista. Read the rest

At long last Adobe has released a new version of their wildly popular photo-editing program aimed at digital photography enthusiasts. Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 is chock full of new features and smart interface enhancements and is definitely worth a look.

Photoshop Elements 6 is the first Mac version from Adobe that is a universal binary so you know it will run at full speed on the latest Intel-based Macs while still maintaining compatibility with the older PowerPC models. The application’s Welcome screen gives you the standard options you want. Besides listing recent images, you can also make a new image from scratch, browse with bridge or import from a scanner or camera.

The program’s interface now looks more like that of Adobe Bridge or Lightroom, elegant shades of grey with color icons and tabs to change editing modes. Your photographs really stand out against this darker background, letting you focus on the image while the rest of the interface visually recedes into the background. At the top left of the screen you’ll see three color-coded tabs for the major editing modules of Photoshop Elements: Edit, Create and Share. Read the rest

Hey Mac Guy: Unfortunately, I need to run PC programs on Mac OS X (10.5.2). I have Windows XP; what would be better, Parallels or VMware fusion? Or is there another program that will work better? Is Vista better to run than XP?

Window Shopping

Hey Window: Well, we all have our crosses to bear — even if it’s Windows XP. It is a fact of life that many of us need to run Windows software periodically; for me it’s Internet Explorer 7. Both Parallels Desktop for Mac (www.parallels.com) and VMware Fusion (www.vmware.com/mac) will allow you to run Windows within the Mac OS X environment. Read the rest

Hey Mac Guy: It is funny to be from S.A. but not to have lived there in quite some time. When I try to get mysa.com video updates, I have an issue, as I use a Mac and I cannot watch because I don’t have the plug-ins. What is up with that, and why won’t my Mac allow me to download the plug-ins?

Blanked in Brazil

Hey Blanked: The MySanAntonio.com site has videos in a couple of formats, so you may be able to see some but not others. Videos like the E-N videos about Fiesta use a Flash-based player from Brightcove and should be very compatible with your Mac as long as you have the latest Flash plug-in for your browser of choice. You can download Flash Player 9 for free from Adobe (www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer) for use in Safari, Firefox or Opera.

I had more issues with the KENS 5 videos that are encoded as Windows Media videos, but it was not the encoding that was the problem. To view the videos, I had to turn off the “Block Pop-Up Windows” feature of Safari. The site notes that you need to have Windows Media Player to see the KENS 5 News on Demand videos, but this is not entirely true. Microsoft no longer is updating Windows Media Player for Mac OS X, but they still let you download version 9 even though the latest version for Windows is 11. Read the rest

Hey Mac Guy: I received a copy of your newspaper column from a friend who lives in San Antonio. I would like your advice on the possibility of running Tiger and/or Leopard on PCs. I hear that it can be done.

Unnatural Act

Hey Unnatural: It can be done, and there is even a term for it: “Hackintosh.” Since Mac OS X is designed to run on computers made exclusively by Apple, OS X won’t run on just any old PC you cobble together. You need to make sure you have a compatible motherboard, processor and other hardware. You can find several step-by-step guides on the Web. Check out the LifeHacker site (http://lifehacker.com/software/hack-attack/build-a-hackintosh-mac-for-under-800-321913.php) for a good one. Read the rest

Ah, spring … that glorious season when a young man’s fancy turns to software upgrades. New versions seem to be popping up all over, faster than we can mow them down. Today, I want to tell you about a nice upgrade to an invaluable utility, Roxio’s Toast Titanium.

Toast is, essentially, a disc-burning program, and that may cause you to wonder why you would need it since you already can burn a disc in the Mac OS X Finder, in iTunes and in iDVD. Why would you possibly need to run out and pay money for a separate program? Read the rest