First Impressions: Mac’s Magic Mouse

It looks like November will be gadget month at Fleeting Glimpse Images.  New lighting gizmos just arrived. Droids are on order and the Magic Mouse from Apple has made its way into my loving caress.

I am a huge fan of the Apple Powerbook’s recent no-button touch pad and have become quickly accustomed to the various two, three and four-finger gestures that can accomplish the various tasks. Contrast this with the angry one-fingered gesture I use on my PC’s brick-sized mouse.

The Magic Mouse is a sleek-looking button-less alternative to the Interlink Presentation Mouse and Microsoft Presenter Mouse 8000 I’ve been using with my laptops for the past two years.  The Magic Mouse tries to combine the touch-pad gesture experience with the movements and usage of a traditional mouse. As a more-frequent-PC-than-Mac user, I find that I miss having a mouse in my hand but I also love my gestures.

Without buttons, the Magic Mouse recognizes left and right click. It also scrolls with a single finger dragging from the front of the mouse to the Apple Logo.  In addition, it will advance and retreat in your browser with a two-fingered horizontal swipe to the right or the left.

The mouse itself is a little awkward-feeling at first. Its lower profile feels a little funny and the solid aluminum housing makes it feel very bottom heavy. It definitely needs a mouse pad. The gliding motion, to which I’ve become accustomed, is a little sticky without a good surface.  Coupled with a mouse pad, I don’t notice its idiosyncrasies as much.

The Bluetooth connectivity works very well (much better than my presenter mouse) and has been, thus far, reliable.

Wishes:

The product is a little wanting in a couple of areas.

I expected it to emulate all of the gestures of my beloved no-button track pad. It doesn’t rotate or pinch which I would find handy. The four-fingered claw on the MacBook isn’t emulated either.

I also boot to Windows 7 on this laptop. The mouse gives straight-forward  movement, left and right click functionality but no more. I hope Apple realizes that they must support the Windows world too and develops a driver (32 and 64 bit).

The mouse sells from the Apple Store for $ 69.00 making it a little pricey but not so much so that you won’t appreciate it. AA Batteries are included as well as a not-so-functional carrying case.  Seeking a leather pouch for dropping it into your backpack would seem like a prudent move.

All in all, I am pleased, nay, entranced. Add a couple of more gestures and a windows driver and it will be a true winner.

Rikk Flohr © 2009

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PPT Live becomes the Presentation Summit

In 2010, the PowerPoint Live Conference will become the Presentation Summit. After seven years of evolving from the “How-to” event for the software package PowerPoint™ by Microsoft, the event has become the tribal gathering for all things presentation related.

 

Rick Altman, venerable and perennial conference host, has posted a short video on the reasons for and behind the conference’s evolution.

Conference Name Change Video

Mere words cannot describe what it is like to attend an event like this. There is so much more than a series of break-out rooms packed with knowledge.  Rick has assembled a video retrospective of the 2009 event to better describe the experience of learning, networking, and embracing the skills that the presentation professional craves and, as of yet, has been unable to find.

The Magic of PowerPoint Live 2009 Video

Watch closely.  You will see some conference photography by Rikk Flohr featured in the video. More about shooting conferences in a future article.

Rikk Flohr © 2009

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1000 Words – Wilderness Overlook Sunset

From Badlands National Park, South Dakota, USA.

Come to my presentation: Badlands in Winter at MN Nature Photography on November 18, 2009 at REI in Bloomington, MN.

Rikk Flohr © 2009

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Setback for Digital Cameras

The title sounds more ominous than the truth. Darn writers and their enigmatic hooks!

November 1 is the day your camera needs to be set back for Daylight Saving Time’s end. If you have more than one camera, you might consider syncing them all up at this time.

Twice a year, in the US anyway, the appearance and disappearance of Daylight Saving Time causes us to un-sync from those digital devices not able to keep up on their own. As the end of DST approaches consider resetting the clock in your camera. Why? Here are a few very good reasons.

1.  If you shoot with multiple cameras at the same event your images won’t display in chronological order when combined. Who wants those embarrassing reception photos mixed in with the bride-and-groom’s kiss?

2. If you rely on previous year’s images to determine when sunrise will poke through the rock formation, you might be disappointed, or even worse-late. (Even worse is to be early. There is nothing like sitting in the cold dark waiting an extra hour for sunrise.)

3. Your camera’s time stamp has likely drifted since you last set it. These, after all, are precision instruments-but they aren’t precision time-keeping instruments.  (Who knows, you might have even missed leap-year last time. You might have not set your camera when you took it out of the box new either)

4. It is easy. Many cameras will reset by virtue of having their software installed on your local computer and plugging them in via a USB cable. It takes me under 3 minutes to set 4 DSLRs, 2 Compacts, and 2 video cameras each half-year.

Automatically setting the camera’s clock in EOS Utility 

Daylight Savings Time ends on November 1st, 2009 at 2:00 AM. Bleary-eyed Rikk will stay up and do all his gear at that time. You can probably do it before you go to bed or after you get up the following morning.

Most cameras aren’t smart enough yet to do this for us like our computers do automatically. Help them out.

Rikk Flohr © 2009

Strobist info on the Bleary-eyed Rikk Photo:

Shot with Canon 20D on Manual. F8@1/60th @ ISO 200.  Canon 580EXII Flash on manual at 1/32nd power. Gelled with 1/2 CTO. Ambient CFL with Cobalt Blue Gel wrap on the lower spill.  Fired by Alien Bees Cybersync.  LED time stamp added in post production.

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Fall Image Collection Announced

Fleeting Glimpse Images is pleased to announce the fall release of four new prints. These prints have not been featured before in the Fleeting Glimpse Image On-line Store. All prints are photographic process prints signed by the creator.

The Gallery can be accessed via the Fleeting Glimpse Website at this link.

The Fleeting Glimpse On-line store can be accessed at this link

If you’ve wanted to own an original work by Rikk Flohr-now is the perfect time to act. Order your prints today.

Rikk Flohr © 2009

del.icio.us Tags: prints,fine art,Rikk Flohr,Fleeting Glimpse Images,Palouse,Fall colors,Lake Superior