However, when I switched to my iMac I realised that the mouse wheel on the Mighty Mouse isn’t very clickable. It’s just a small ball that doesn’t do anything when pressed down. Recently I discovered that the mouse in fact does support middle-click - you just have to do it the right way. The entire front of the mouse acts more or less as one big button. If you press down the mouse wheel and then continue to press down the entire button (while holding the wheel down) you will perform a middle-click.

It was a relief to discover this. Why I didn’t try this before, I don’t know. Maybe it’s piece of cake to somebody and rocket science to others. Any case, now you know too.

I haven’t spent very much time on the site, because most of the articles I looked at are about topics I already know about. However, there is A LOT of content for a site this young, and there is no doubt that newcomers will find a lot of useful knowledge at My First Mac.

If you’re new to Macs and stuff like that, I suggest you take a peek and see if there is anything useful to you. Enjoy.

I must say this is a surprising move to me since EMI and Apple announced their collaboration on DRM free music a few months ago. I expected other music companies to follow suit and now this happens. In my opinion it’s not a massive loss, however. Apple and iTunes are going  strong and with iTunes being the third biggest music vendor in North America, UMG can’t ignore it completely.

Apple’s own keyboard demonstration (also check out the other videos below this one).

David Pogue demonstrates the phone.

I think it’s too soon to say anything about the quality and power of the iPhone yet, but at last we get to make some impressions of it.

Besides that, it’s iPhone Mania these days. Apple says the phone can be activated from home - via iTunes. If you consider buying an iPhone, here’s a good overview of the total costs. If you’re cheap, here’s how to minimize your costs when buying an iPhone.

I can’t put words on my disappointment. Ever since I bought my iMac, I’ve looked forward to Mac OS X Leopard, and now I have to wait another six months. Bloody hell! For five or some minutes I sincerely hated iPhone and all its importance, but hey, the iPhone IS a cool project, and I guess the stakes are high for Apple on this one.

Not long after the announcement, the rumours about why Leopard is delayed start spreading. Some believe that Apple wants to finish a special implementation of Bootcamp to support MS Windows Vista directly in Leopard. I find this hard to believe and even disappointing if true.  Leopard is (presumably) so much better than Vista that MS should be supporting Leopard more…

Another rumour that is more likely to be true says that Apple needs to delay Leopard due to the advanced and top secret features Leopard is supposed to be featuring. A fair reason. Apple has promised us some highly advanced stuff in Leopard, and of course things can get a bit out of hand.

However, I believe one of the reasons really is what Apple says it is; iPhone. The iPhone project is very risky business for Apple, and although most people gasp in awe just hearing the word “iPhone” (meaning Apple alredy has sold a gazillion iPhones just by showing it off), the product still needs to be in top shape to win the competition with other mobile phones on the market. Especially market analysts tend to give the iPhone a rough time.

When the first disappointment is swallowed, The Unofficial Apple Blog has a nice list of reactions to the sad news. To sum up: calm down, it’s not the end of the world.

• Google Notifier, a Gmail and Google Calendar program.
• Picasa Web Albums Uploader, a tool for uploading your photos to the Picasa Web Albums service that works both as a stand alone application and as a plugin for iPhoto.
• Google Desktop, searches your desktop.
• Google Earth, see the world from above.
• Google SketchUp, a nice tool for creating simple 3D objects.
• Google Toolbar for Firefox, that brings Google functionality into your browser.

These programs are not all equally useful and not all need the same presentation. We all know Google Earth, for instance. If you don’t, I suggest you stop reading this (but of course bookmark the page for later use ;-) ) and head over to Google Earth and download the program. It is that good.

Google Toolbar is very nice if the built-in Google functionality in Firefox isn’t good enough for you. I had some problems with Firefox 2.0 and the toolbar some months ago, so I’m actually not using it at the moment. However, I plan to give it a try as soon as I have some time on my hands for testing.

I haven’t got any experience with Picasa Web Albums and therefore I can’t tell you whether the uploader is any good. Try it out yourself, if you’re a Picasa Web Albums user. I use Flickr instead. Feel free to post your experiences as a comment below.

The Google Desktop is in my opinion useless on Mac. I’ve only tried it on Windows XP, where it is very useful because the built-in search functionality in Windows XP is everything else than … functional. But Windows XP doesn’t have Spotlight and Dashboard which do the same as Google Desktop. I wouldn’t use Google Desktop but if you have another opinon, please let me know.

Now, Google SketchUp is a great program and this I have seen up and close. A friend of mine is waiting for his new appartment to be built. To kill time he found out that Google SketchUp could help him visualize the appartment. He scanned the house plan into his computer and imported it into SketchUp. Here, he could tell the program everything about the appartment, and voilá: SketchUp delivers a full 3D model of the appartment. This isn’t all of it; once the model was ready he added textures to floors, walls etc. and he found models of furniture (in the program) that resembled the furniture he already had or considered buying and that way he was actually capable of furnishing the appartment long before it was ready. Now he already knows where to put the TV, tables, the sofa and so on. On top of it all, you can take a “walk” inside the house to see what it is all like. It should also be possible to enter coordinates and directions and see how the sunlight will be at different times of the day and year. Very cool. This is of course not the only thing SketchUp can do, but it’s the one thing I’ve seen it used for.

I haven’t tried Google Notifier either, but I have a Gmail account and I guess I also have a calendar somewhere. Maybe I should give it a shot and try it out some time. Especially online calendars need to be very convenient and at hand before I want to use them - maybe Google Notifier can change this.

Please feel free to add your experiences with some of these programs in the comments below.

I must admit that I focused on two blogs/newssites but on the other hand they have quite a lot to say. First, The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) has some predictions related to the deal that are both obvious and somewhat interesting. Will the price model in iTunes move on to a more flexible one with new music costing a higher price than older music? Interesting, I’d say. My biggest concern is how big the difference will be.

TUAW also has a good article summing up the pros and cons about upgrading your existing iTunes music library to the new format. This is a good one if you’re uncertain whether you should take the offer or not. You could think that upgrading is only an advantage but the article has some good points to take into consideration before you click that button.

The AppleInsider has been productive and has four good articles about the subject. First of all, their article about the press release is very descriptive and informative. Also, AppleInsider has transscribed the Q&A session following the press release Monday afternoon. This is a good place for more in-depth information and details about what changes are coming to iTunes. Lastly, they have an analysis of the future of the iPod market and how this new deal will affect it. Opposite to what critics have said before the announcement, analysts believe that the iPod will increase sales as a result of the deal. Critics think that Apple are risking giving away a great market share because music from iTunes now can be played on other music players than the iPod.

The fourth article from the AppleInsider is just 99% related to the EMI deal. Almost a year ago, the Norwegian Consumer Council complained about how Apple isn’t playing nice by forcing its customers to use Apple hardware to play their legally bought music. Now, they applaud the new deal with EMI and suggest others to do the same.

There is no doubt that the EMI/Apple deal is a great moment in modern music history. Consumers have been taken much more seriously this time. I think EMI are right to work together with Apple on this one. iTunes already has a huge amount of users, so the new product is more or less laid right under the nose of a big percentage of online music consumers. If I was given the opportunity to buy a DRM-free file at a higher bitrate today, I’d do it, and I’m certain that many others feel the same way.

When - not if - this is a success, other record labels have to follow suit.