You can listen to it here,or you can subscribe to it in iTunes here.

Some of the tips and tricks we speak about in this episode is RadioPod, Perian, easy removal of icons in menu bar, a great free virtual machine software package called Virtual Box and the best iPhone Apps of the week.

- mac:about Team.

PS: To my overseas readers, sorry that I get so giddy about something so small. We South Africans are not used to it yet – we had to rely on dedicated GPS devices or expensive add on software to get this functionality.

I decided to test out Doberman’s computer focused alarms which are very handy for paranoid people like me. The Laptop Defender attaches onto your laptop lid by adhesive, and then you activate them to start sensing sudden movements (like someone snatching your computer). You set up your own security code and simply press ARM and then your alarm is armed. Easy enough. A blinking light warns you that it is armed, and also moving the notebook will cause the alarm to quickly warn you with a loud beep. I think the Laptop defender is ideal for people who often use their computers in public places – for example, if you frequent airport lounges often, it now enables you to leave your laptop at your table to go get a snack. If someone snatches your laptop, a piercing alarm goes off which will of course attract attention. It seems like the Laptop Defender works better on a solid surface like a table. I tried to use it while the laptop was on my lap, but I got a warning after a while. While it is sensitive, it would not go off just by someone typing on the machine for example.

The Laptop Defender charges with USB – I have no idea how long the battery lasts, but I have used it quite often in the last few weeks and so far the battery is still fine.

The product that impressed me more was the Briefcase Alarm, which works in a similiar manner, but simply attaches to your briefcase. As someone who really appreciates the looks of my Macbook, I do not necessarily want to stick something to the lid of the machine, I will prefer to attach it to my briefcase. (Your opinion might differ. Cannot think the laptop alarm will spoil the utilitarian looks of a Thinkpad for example.) The Briefcase alarm works in the exact same way by getting armed with a code. Again, if you move the briefcase, it will warn you – loudly. Move it again, and it goes off. Loudly. VERY loudly.

In the manual they warn you that the alarm can create hearing damage – I would say that is a valid concern. In testing I let it go off in my office – my ears sang (is that the right term?) for the next few minutes. It will definitely attract a lot of attention if someone is running with this alarm going off…

Both of these products seem to be built very sturdily, and the Briefcase Alarm actually looks pretty decent as well with a leather finish loop which attaches to your bag. If you are someone who travels a lot or uses their laptop in public often, it is indeed a very good buy, especially at the price.

The Laptop Defender is currently going for around R350 and the Briefcase alarm for about R250.

So next I opened up the netbook and removed the SATA hard drive inside. From there I plugged it into a USB to SATA interface (you can use any external SATA enclosure as well). When I connected the hard drive Windows refused to open the filesystem simply telling me that the drive is corrupt. So then I had to somehow get a method of opening the filesystem (the drive was physically damaged after all).

So after looking around for a decent file system recovery application I came to a realisation – most file system repair software on the internet is total and utter crap. All of them basically do the same thing, yet most of them insist on using malware type practices that keep nagging you when you finally install the software.

Luckily I came accross Paragon Rescue Kit Express. It is completely free (no strings attached) and the software simply burns itself onto a bootable CD. You will of course need more than one drive to copy all the recovered data on. Once you boot up the disc, a simple interface just requests which files you wish to recover, and then it effortlessly goes about its business. I recovered the entire hard drive with any issues whatsover.

To all the other companies who use unethical methods to get me to buy your software (for example, fooling me by saying the software is free when it is not, and then badgering me once it is installed), shame on you.

After all of this effort I decided it was time to switch the netbook to Windows 7 – good move. Read further about that here.

PS: No, no one payed me to talk about Paragon – their software solution was simply the only proper application I could find, and thus I recommend it wholeheartedly. Also thanks to Craig Nicholson for the tip.

While its nothing new to install Windows 7 on a netbook, the process of installing Windows without an optical drive is quite a process up to now. Typically a user had to use the command prompt and go through a long process of making the flash disk bootable as a pseudo DVD.

WintoFlash luckily comes to the rescue – and the process could not be easier. Download the app and run it. From there choose the optical disc you want to transfer to the flash disk (You obviously need something roomy, like a 4GB+ size) and WintoFlash does the rest. It formats and makes the flash disk bootable and transfers all the setup files.

WintoFlash is also handy should you need to install Windows on to a lot of machines – installs go much, much quicker than from a DVD. It also works with a variety of Windows versions, not only 7.

So far I am very, very happy with Windows 7 on the Lenovo netbook. It is a standard s10e model but with 2Gig RAM. Performance is snappy enough, and so far I cannot see how people will stick to Windows XP once 7 is out, even if they run netbooks. Only small issue is that the 1024×600 somehow feels more cramped with the wider new taskbar, so I had to set it to autohide.

Highly recommended. (Download WintoFlash here)

This past two weeks I came across two applications on iPhone which really impressed me in terms of their concept. The first is Waze, which is basically a crowd sourced mapping service that is built on open source software. The basic idea is that instead of using expensive map distributors like Garmin or Navteq, users can build maps themselves just by running the Waze application on their phone. When many Waze users ride a similiar route, naturally it will mean that a road exists in that area. Users can then go onto the Waze site and edit roads that they have driven on.

Once these roads are built, Waze tracks users of the service in real time, and these users can contribute to the service in the form of reporting cops, speed camera, slow traffic etc. Despite Waze saying that it is a worldwide service, they clearly are US focussed at the moment. Hopefully that will change soon enough. The service is also available on a variety of mobile platforms including Windows Mobile, Symbian and Android as well. The idea is brilliant, lets hope it pays off.

The other new app I came across is Cyclopedia, which is augmented reality app that relies on geotagged Wikipedia posts. The application relies on the iPhone 3GS’s GPS and compass, and then impose Wikipedia posts over your current camera image. The concept is once again brilliant, but it relies on the services (read: number of geotagged posts around you) in order to be effective. The user can set the radius of posts around him/her which should be displayed. So far I have found it quite effective, especially when going to new places and trying to find your bearing and find interesting things around you. The app is however very buggy and crashes often, but an update is probably on the way.

Google Wave is pretty hard to conceptualize if you have not watched the video. I will try to explain it in Google marketing speak:

A wave is equal parts conversation and document. People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.


A wave is shared. Any participant can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and add participants at any point in the process. Then playback lets anyone rewind the wave to see who said what and when.


A wave is live. With live transmission as you type, participants on a wave can have faster conversations, see edits and interact with extensions in real-time.

Basically Google Wave in its most simplest form is a combination of email, instant messaging and wikis. You have an inbox which recieves “waves”, and you can reply to them in real time. These waves remain private, but you can easily add users from your contacts on the left. Now these new users can try to follow the conversation (which can contain multimedia elements) by reading through it, or they can replay the conversation in the order it was created.

One can only imagine how this would contribute to collaborative software – no more setting up difficult meetings and messing with network settings. Wave will also have an open API which can enable developers to quickly add more functionality to its rich media features.

• Computers and Backup – use this to add computers on your network that needs to be backup up.
• User Accounts – setup user profiles who are allowed to access your shared folders, including a Guest user account.
• Shared Folders – So what folders do you want to share on the network? Add them here.
• Server Storage – Give an overview of the current storage on the server.
• Network Health – Will be green unless your computers have not been backed up in a while, or any of your machines have outdated windows patches, antivirus definitions, etc. Very handy.