Mozy was one of my favorite programs on Windows. It’s an automatic online backup system that worked very well. It was small, easy and just worked. They give you 2GB free or unlimited for $4.95/month which is incredible.

Mozy features:

• Open/locked file support
• 448-bit Blowfish encryption
• 128-bit SSL encryption
• Automatic or scheduled backups
• New and changed file detection
• Block level incremental backups
• Bandwidth throttling
• File versioning
• Public or private key encryption

Well the folk over at Mozy released a beta for Mac today. As soon as I seen the news, I started the install. Install was a breeze and in a few minutes it was searching my hard drive for “Backup Sets” which are pre-determined file types. These include Word and Excel files and Mac specific items such as iCal, Address book, iTunes Library and iPhoto Library. You can also choose individual files and folders if you would like too. I choose my Documents and SItes folders in addition to some Backup Sets as you can see below.

So far I’m only 62% done with my initial backup so I haven’t had a chance to try a restore yet. But if its anything like the Windows client was, it will be easy and seamless. So far I’m impressed by the beta. I haven’t run into any issues yet but I really haven’t done too much yet. The program runs in the menu bar so its out of the way. With 2GB’s of space for free, you really have no reason not to be backing up important files now.

[Mozy Mac Beta page]

ComicBookLover

ComicBookLover aims to be the iTunes for digital comics and it comes pretty close. Its laid out in a similar fashion to iTunes with a 3 pane browser on the top, your library on the bottom and your lists on the left. You can also view by cover art. CBL allows you to organize your entire collection by tagging the file with all the relevant information such as issue name, volume, publisher and year. Just like iTunes, it support Smart Lists. This allows you to make a List based on search criteria which I have found invaluable.

Viewing comics has an impressive feature set such as Single, Western or Manga view. You can rotate images on the screen 90 degrees and it supports dual monitors. What I like to do is rotate the screen and turn my Macbook on its side like a book to read. The 13′ widescreen is almost the perfect size of a comic page. Pages are automatic sized based on which view your using and it provides an On-screen display to navigator when using Full Screen mode.

ComicBookLover will set you back $24.95 but if you read digital comics in any form, its well worth it.

Wednesday’s List

Railhead Design’s Wednesday’s List is a one trick pony. It pulls this weeks Diamond shipping list and allows you to print out your Pull List. The interface divides up each publisher in its own section and lists the name, Previews order number and price. Just check the box next to the comics you want and your ready to save, print or email your list. You can even sync with iCal. My favorite part is you can add in your local tax rate and it gives you a running tally for the comics you selected. I also print and bring my list with me so I know what I’m getting and what its going to cost me.

Wednesday’s List costs $7 and is a Universal Binary.

iComicsOnSale

iComicsOnSale or iCOS is a Dashboard widget. iCOS is similar to Wednesday’s List in that it allows you to print out weekly pull lists. I prefer iCOS because you can view a summary of each comic, cover, price, pages and writer/artist information. They even have a featured comic page highlighting one comic each week. That being said, I don’t use iCOS for two reasons. One its a widget and would work so much better an actually program and two its very unstable for me. It uses an insane amount of memory some times and it eats my pull list. The latest version is still beta so its to be expected but I’ve moved to Wednesday’ List for my Pull Lists because of this.

iComicsOnSale is free and they have just launched a new website which lists this weeks new comics with full descriptions.

iFanboy Podcast

While iFanboy is not an application it is a weekly podcast and video podcast that I can’t live without. And technically I subscribe to both podcasts using iTunes but thats nether here nor there. iFanboy do a audio podcast called the Pick of the Week where they pick one comic for that week and discuss it along with other books that were released. It comes out every Sunday and I listen to it on my way to pick up my comics every Wednesday. Then when I get home, there video podcast is waiting for me. The video podcast differs from the audio as they focus on topics and not weekly books.

So definitely check there podcast out. I look forward to it each week and its always the first I listen to and watch.

Mark/Space released a public preview of The Missing Sync for BlackBerry on Wednesday. The Missing Sync for Blackberry allows you to sync your Blackberry with your Mac. This includes calendar, contacts, tasks, notes and iPhoto and iTunes if you have a 8100 or 8800. Ever since I seen this product demo’d at Macworld back in January, I’ve been waiting for this.

I’ve been using Pockmac 4.0 which is provided free from RIM themselves and I’ve been lucky enough to not have any real problems like others have. I’ve been testing the preview out for 2 days now its been rock solid for me. I did have to completely uninstall PocketMac for Missing Sync to work however. I’m loving the fact that I can sync on connect now and the iTunes/iPhoto intergration is awesome too.

The preview demo is good for 40 days so it looks like the final product should be shipping by the end of this month like expected. While $40 is a lot for a syncing program, I’ve read they will be offering 50% off if you cross-grade up from one of there other products. Lucky for me I fall into this as I purchased The Missing Sync for Windows Mobile when I still had my MPx220.

[Download]

Bandwagon is offering free 1 year subscriptions to bloggers who blog about there service before Feb 22th. Bandwagon is an online backup for iTunes. Currently I’m using Mp3tunes.com to backup my iTunes but I’ve been running into some problems with them. First off they just backup musics and not other media files where as Bandwagon backs up everything. Music, TV Shows, Music and even games. Also from the screenshots the application looks great. Mp3tune’s Oboe Sync is for a better word, lacking. They are still working on a pricing scheme but so far I think I maybe be replacing Mp3tunes very soon.

Btw, Bandwagon is Mac only.

Changes in this beta release

• Added support for Windows Media 9 Advanced playback
• Added support for reclaiming file types assumed by other applications
• Improved ASX handling
• Improved support for MPEG 4 playback
• Resolved some issues related to 2-pass VBR encoding
• Resolved manual activation issue
• Resolved Helix streaming server playback issue
• Resolved Save as and Save As QuickTime Movie issue on OS 10.3.9/QT 7.1.2 systems
• Resolved potential for crash when playing back files that have been deliberately modified/damaged
• Improved support for installation using Apple Remote Desktop

Known Issues

• Playback of Windows Media 9 Advanced Simple Profile files on a Mac will playback white but playback correltly on a Windows machine
• Playback of Windows Media 9 Advanced files with display set to 256 colors will playback incorrectly

[Download]

The guys over at the Icon Factory released a great new Twitter client for Mac OS X. I’ve been using Twidget and TwitterPost but this is going to replace both of them.

Features:

• Clean, concise UI with small desktop footprint
• Auto refreshing at user defined intervals
• Highlights new tweets since last refresh
• Auto show / hide when new tweets arrive
• Single click access to user profile pages
• Switch between friend and public tweets easily
• Keyboard shortcuts for list navigation and more
• Menubar app that doesn’t take up Dock space
• Audio notification for new tweets

The interface is slick. The program sits in your menubar and pops up when there is a new tweet. The window has a small footprint, can be expanded to see more tweets and is semi-transparent so its not intrusive. You can even set the window to disappear after a set time so you don’t have to worry about closing it each time.

[Download]

January – started using Mac OS X

February – built dedicated computer to run Mac OS X on

March – Starting using iTunes to manager my media

April – stopped using Bloglines, switched from Exchange to Google Mail and Google Calendar, bought a Jimi wallet

May – switched Layout, Skype is free for the rest of the year, started a new job, Macbook’s released, went to grand opening of Apple 5th Ave store, bought my Macbook

June – joined valleyshwag, MC360 released for XBMC, bought a Nintendo DS Lite, canceled my Final Fantasy XI account after 3 years

July – switched to Flock, Macbook got hit with discoloration, started running using the Nike+iPod kit, Macbook Random Reboots started

August – switched from del.icio.us to Shadows, started using OpenDNS, got hard to find Trauma Center and Phoenix Wright for the DS, new mc chris and Evanescence albums, bought the Timbuk2 blogger bag

September – started new full-time job, fall TV season starts, bought a Xbox360 after Guitar Hero 2 is announced with new controller, canceled my Myspace account

October – got tickets for macworld 2007, Xbox360 troubles, 300 trailer, Macbook RSS fixed, bought my first Blackberry, my Xbox360 has its own blog

November – interviewed for MacNewsWorld, Gears of War, Guitar Hero II and Elite Beat Agents all released on same day, turned 28, XBL Video Marketplace released, subscribed to Netflix and Gamefly, bought an HD DVD

December – Geekdrome dead, started reading comics again, finally found out what all the hype about Battlestar Galactica, Veronica Mars and Greys Anatomy was all about

AppZapper – Great for cleaning up Apps and I mess around alot and with my small HD, every megabyte counts. Also nice for extending trials as I can just zap everything but the app and my trial resets.

ComicBookLover – Worth ever penny if you read comics in digital form. One of the reasons I started reading comics again.

Delicious Library – MacHeist bundle. Pretty much bought the MacHeist bundle for this alone. I can scan all my DVDs and Games into this to keep track then export right into GarageSale if I want to sell the stuff on eBay.

Disco – MacHeist bundle. I still prefer LiquidCD to this and dont get any of the eye candy due to the intergraged Intel graphics in my Macbook.

ecto – Best blogging software I’ve used. Bought this for both Mac and PC this year. Still waiting on 3.0 tho

endo – RSS reader from the ecto folks. Don’t really use it anymore due to Google Reader

Export Artwork – Purchased this to make my life easier when I was redoing my Music library. I now use CoverScout to load new album covers.

GarageSale – Great if you do any selling on eBay. Intergras with Delicious Library

iDefrag – Tho the Journaled Mac OS Extended Filesystem is pretty good at keeping stuff defragmented, this keeps everything performing good.

Netflix Freak – Help feed my netflix addiction

Newsfire – MacHeist bundle don’t use it due to using Google Reader

Parallels – Who doesn’t own this

RapidWeaver – MacHeist bundle. No use to me

Tangerine! - Great if you have the iPod+Nike Kit. Make playlists based on BPM.

TextMate – MacHeist bundle – Handy but not too useful for me

Transmit – Cannot live without this. best FTP program I’ve every used

Xslimmer – Awesome to help save any little space I can on my Macbook small HDD

Connect360 – Must have if you have a Xbox360

Shapeshifter - MacHeist bundle. Nice bonus currently using the iTunes 7 skin

Synergy – Bought it when it added support for Last.fm but moved back to iScrobbler

High Priority – Todo list in your Menu bar but I do not use anymore due to using Remember the Milk

FotoMagico – MacHeist bundle

iClip – MacHeist bundle

Getting Started

1) First off this is the command line we will be using:
“mencoder -vf scale=240:-10 <input.file> -o <output.file> -of avi -ofps 15 -ovc lavc -oac lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vbitrate=230:acodec=mp3:abitrate=64″

2) Download the Universal Build of mencoder

Encoding

At this point you can just drop the mencoder into the same directory as the file you want to convert, start a terminal window and copy the command line to encode it. Be sure to change the input and output file. In a few mins you should have your video ready to be loaded on your Pearl. But as Mac users we will want a more elegant way of doing this. Enter Applescript and more importantly Automator.

1) Download my Automator Workflow (Updated 3/2/07)
2) Unzip the file into
“/Users/YOURUSERNAME/Library/Workflows/Applications/Finder/”

3) Unzip mencoder.zip on your Desktop, start up Terminal and type “cd Desktop” then “sudo mv mencoder /usr/bin”. Enter your password when prompted too.

3) Now when you Right Click(Ctrl+Click) on a Video file, you will see the Automator Menu and under that you should see “Encode for Blackberry”

4) To encode, just chose “Encode for Blackberry” on a Video file

Thats it

The only visual indicator you have is a “Run Shell Script” in the Menu bar.

A Blackperry Pearl compatible file will be created in the same folder as FILENAME-bb.avi. You can edit the Workflow to output to the filename of your choice. You could even go as far as modifying the Automator Workflow to copy the file to your Pearl if you would like.

A 54meg Music Video that runs 3:32mins takes about 30secs to encode on a Macbook 2.0G and the ending file size is about 8megs. Not too bad at all. Most TV shows will be about 50megs for a 30min show and movies are between 150megs to 250megs in my tests. I’ve also noticed that the mencoder build will not take advantage of Duo Core’s.

UPDATE – 12/20/06
Here is a widescreen version that needs to go through some testing. Please feel free to try it and leave a comment on how it works for you. YMMV

UPDATE – 02/11/07
Dave Taylor has whipped up a shell script that does the same thing if you would like to do the command line route.

UPDATE – 3/2/07
Thanks to Chris for the tip, the Workflow now keeps accept ratio when encoding.

Connect360 was just updated today to support Video streaming. Connect360 allows Music, Picture and now Video access from your Mac to your Xbox 360. It will scan your iTunes and iPhoto libraries and share them to your Xbox 360 over the network. I love this program and is a must have for any Mac and Xbox 360 owner. Version 2.8 just added streaming Video support that was added to the Xbox 360 in the Fall Dashboard update. After you install the new version and start the service, it will index your “Movies” folder . Right now its only WMV support as thats all the Xbox 360 supports but I’m hoping they will find a way to support transcoding mpeg4 files somehow.

[Trial Download]