Creative Xmod

So in my search for a way to listen to my music and watch movies on my laptop through speakers, I decided to look in the realm of USB audio adapters.  While there's lots of little cheap-o things that look like thumb-drives with an audio jack, I came across something at Circuit City that really caught my eye.  

The Creative Xmod plugs in to a USB port and has three audio ports; one for speakers, one for headphones (that over-ride the speakers when plugged in), and one for input (microphone or other external source such as MP3 player, gaming system, etc).  It has a built in volume and mute control via a slick brushed metal jog dial too.  But the greatest thing (besides true plug-and-play with Macs) is the "X-Fi" enhancements that are built in and controllable.  One, the Crystalizer, "cleans the sound to studio quality" by enhancing the lows and highs and cleaning out artifacts on highly compressed sound.  I was fairly skeptical at first, but it makes a huge impact.  I really didn't know what I was missing before this; as cheesy as that sounds, it is leaps and bounds past what it sounds like without it turned on.  This makes is noticeably better than the on-board sound the laptop has (even if there was some way to enable the audio out to work with my Hacintosh install; I am comparing it to the sound out of the jacks using Windows).  The second enhancement is the CMSS-3D enhancement.  It basically simulates surround-sound with two speakers.  It does add depth to the sound, but I'm not sure I'd call it surround-sound.  Where it really shines, though, is with headphones.  It really transforms a stereo sound into something much, much deeper.  Both of these enhancements are user-customizable through a mouse-like click button on the controller itself in conjunction with the jog-dial.

Not only am I excited to have real speakers again for my music and movie library (the on-board speakers, like all laptop speakers, are tinny and too quite for this), I was highly, highly impressed with the Xmod's sound enhancements.  Add to that, a slick, on-control customization system (which allows the enhancements to be controlled when using the Xmod with something other than a computer), and Creative put out a great little USB audio adapter.  Now for the good and bad news:  Circuit City has it on clearance.  This makes it a great deal, but it also spells doom for this wonderful little device.  Creative has taken the Xmod name and turned it into a wireless sound system solution.  If you're in the market for a great USB audio adapter, don't pass up this deal.  It is far and beyond what the on-board audio sounds like on my laptop, and I'm willing to bet it will sound better than most soundcards, short of more expensive high-end cards.

VMWare Fusion

Wow.  This program is cool.  I need Windows for one very important thing (my Sansa Connect MP3 player), and thus far have tried every MTP solution out there for Mac to no avail.  I realized tonight that I could avoid chucking the player or repartitioning and dual booting by creating a virtual machine with XP.  For those less geekier than I, virtualization involves running another operating system within your native one (Mac OS X Leopard, for me).  VMWare Fusion creates a false hard drive for Window XP  (or Vista, or any Linux distro, etc) to install to.  For me, I kept it small as I only needed it for Windows Media Player to connect to my MP3 player.  And having access to Internet Explorer for school and work will be nice too.

The cool thing about Fusion?  Not only is it fast (just as fast as any native program; I'm assuming that's because I have a dual-core processor to split tasks), but it fully integrates with my Leopard desktop.  This means that Windows windows float with my Mac windows on my desktop seamlessly (except for their borders, of course).  And get this: Leopard somehow knows (I'm assuming that some part of Fusion tells it) that my MP3 player will only work with Windows, and therefore automatically passes it through when connected, as long as XP is running too.  Any of my other USB devices I have to explicitly tell to connect to XP if I need them (which I don't).  I'm pretty damn impressed.

Theoretically, I can run games through it too since it has DirectX 9 support, but I don't really feel the need to.  I'll probably give it a go at some point though; I need a FPS fix soon.  lol

The Update

So after several failed attempts at updating to 10.5.2 for Leopard, I finally got it working.  I'm fully updated with 10.5.2, the Graphics Update, and Aperture 2 now.  I've really lucked out with Ruri; it seems from reading the forums over at InsanelyMac.com that the Presario c714NR is the perfect laptop for Leopard.  The upgraded versions of this laptop (the ones that have come out since I got mine) have changed a few things hardware wise and don't work as well.  I'm still having my issue with audio where I can't use the headphone/mic jacks, but that's nothing more than a minor annoyance.  

I've installed the programs that I need to make my laptop work for my job too; they send us XP laptops to do photo-editing with, and we're supposed to only use those to do said edits.  Since we shoot in a RAW format (Canon's CR2 to be exact), we have to use Canon Photo Professional to do our "edits" (it's really just rotating the pictures, reordering them when needed, and deleting bad frames).  Leopard has built-in support for RAW format, but I couldn't rotate the pictures.  It took a while, but I tracked down a copy of Photo Professional, so I can do my edits on my own lappy without them knowing.  While that sounds like a minor (if not insignificant) accomplishment, it means I can carry my own laptop around with me to do my work without having to lug an extra laptop bag.  I also needed support for burning a DVD-RW in reburnable format, so I tracked down BurnAgain DVD.  Even Toast can't do an RW right, so if you're looking for an RW solution for Mac OS, check out BurnAgain.  Well worth the money, in my opinion.  

So, after a few weeks of using Mac OS X exclusively, what is the #1 feature for me?  Hands down, Time Machine.  It has saved me countless times and allowed me to experiment with updates, drivers, and kernels with losing nothing more than the time it takes to restore.  This is the best backup solution I've ever used, and I've used a lot in the past.  I have a 120 GB external hard drive dedicated for it and that seems to be adequate for me (my internal drive is 120 GB too with 50 GB free).  Not to mention, it's got a pretty slick interface.  lol

Do I have any regrets about nuking Vista?  Nope.  Gaming is fun, but hardly worth the hassle when it comes to Windows.  Windows is slow and takes up way too much room; I'm running a comparable setup, application wise, under Leopard that I did under Vista and I have WAY more room (like 40 extra GB) over what I did with Vista.  Will I ever go back to Windows?  Probably not seeing as how I know I can get a $400 MacBook (with some tweaking).  lol  I love my "Mac".

Hac OS X Leopard

I am loving Leopard.  I got Photoshop fixed (uninstalled, wiped all related files, reinstalled, and it worked), Office 2008 is really nice, I can do most of my schoolwork through Safari, and what I can't do in Safari, I can knock out in Firefox.  I have my N-Gage QD set to sync with iCal and Address Book through iSync, and I can control Ruri with the N-Gage using Salling Clicker.  I have iPhoto and Aperture synced with all the photos from both Ruri and Omoikane, all my music is tagged with album art in iTunes, and CoverSutra has given me a great interface with shortcut keys to control iTunes.  Cover Flow in Finder along with Quick Look has sped up my workflow incredibly.  I imported a couple thousand photos off of Omoikane and was able to trim out everything I didn't need in only 20 minutes!  And I don't know how I used a Mac without Stacks before.  Some people don't like them, but I love 'em.  Time Machine is not only cool as hell, it's already saved my butt once (when I needed to resize my partitions).  Everything just works.  And that's pretty impressive considering I'm not on a Macintosh; Hacintosh is more like it.  lol  I only have one lingering issue, and that is that sound will only play through the internal speakers.  I'm going to get an Airport Express router soon which will take care of that; our WiFi router died anyway, and with that, I can use AirTunes with my powered speakers and subwoofer to play my music (the only thing I really need bass for).  All in all, I love it.  It's fast, gorgeous, and works out much better for my photography and graphical needs than Vista.  Vista has the gaming support, but Leopard kills it in the artistic department.  And that is a big thing for as I just landed a job as a professional children's photographer, so I have a bunch of new toys to play with...

I'm a Mac... And a PC!

I have Leopard up and running (near) perfectly on Ruri!  I only have 3 issues, and two are simply compatibility issues.  I can only get sound out of the on-board speakers, but I can live with that.  Photoshop CS3 crashes when I try to load it, but that's a known issue.  Hoping they'll get a fix out for that soon.  Acquisition doesn't connect at all, but again, this is a known issue.  Other than that, I couldn't be happier!  I love Leopard!  With Office 2008, I almost can stay out of Vista for everything but gaming.  Now, I just need Photoshop CS3 to run and I'll be set!

Ubuntu and Mac OS X Leopard

I installed Ubuntu the other day with no issues except one tiny one; the propietary drivers for my video card don't support CompizFuzion. Not a killer for me, but I'm a huge fan of the eyecandy. lol

Tonight, I'm working on installing Mac OS X Leopard. On my laptop. Yup, it's not a Mac, but I've found a GREAT guide to getting it to dual-boot on a PC, and I'm so close to it working. I have the dual-boot set up just fine, Vista works, Leopard installed, but I can't get all the way into Leopard. I get so far into the boot process and it visually freezes. I say that because my mouse cursor will appear up top, but the load screen (or diagnostic screen, either way) doesn't go away. After a while, some dance music starts that I can only guess is part of the "Welcome to Leopard" process. Soooo close! I'm hoping I can get this resolved soon; I want to play with Leopard!

Back from the Dead

Sorry for the lack of posts, but with the holiday season, things have been hectic around here. Sophia officially died last month, and I replaced her with a brand new Compaq Presario C714NR. Her name is Ruri Ruri (or just Ruri for short). She has a Pentium Dual-Core processor, 2 GB of RAM (came with 1 GB), Intel integrated graphics (which surprised me in how good they actually are), DVD Burner, Vista Home Premium (which also surprised me in how well it works, but more on that in a bit), 15.4" widescreen, blah, blah, blah. We'll get the big question out of the way right now: No, I have not put Ubuntu on her yet. I will, but I just haven't gotten that far yet. Vista is running surprisingly well, and with the hectic world of the holidays, I haven't taken the time to partition and install Ubuntu. That being said, Ruri will dual-boot; Vista runs so well that I don't feel the need (or even a slight urge) to get rid of it.

Thoughts on Vista

What are my thoughts? Have I run into any of the horror stories? Does it really turn your peripherals into flesh-eating zombies that try to rip your face off? The surprising thing is that it runs great for me. Ruri was a little sluggish on the boot and during gaming (though still WAY faster than Sophia was) out of the box, but that was due to only having 1 GB of RAM. So there is credence to that claim; I really wouldn't suggest running it with less than 2 GB. I popped in a couple of 1 GB sticks within a week (they were on sale at Best Buy for $30 a pop). Other than that, I have no complaints. While it's a RAM hog (sits at roughly 55% of RAM usage on average), it doesn't seem to eat much of the processor; I hover around 10% of usage with iTunes, Outlook, Sidebar, and Pidgin running in the background. I like it better than XP as far as the interface goes. I have always loved the Aero look. I think the blur is way cool (I'm ADD, so pretty things tend to hold my attention!), and it runs smooth. I am in love with the new Start menu system; having a scrollable box with all your programs as opposed to columns of lists is wonderful! And you can just type the name of the program (or file) you're looking for for instant access. The Sidebar is pretty cool, though hardly original. I wish it had as many options as Google Sidebar, but I don't like that Google emblazons it's name twice, so I'm not using it. At any rate, it has everything that I need (weather, calendar, slideshow, etc).

Gaming

I haven't put a lot of games on here yet, but those that I have worked well. The highest end game I've tried is Call of Duty 4, and it's only a little slow with visuals set high. I ramped them down a bit and it runs fine. That game is insane, by the way. I've played and beat the demo about 4 times and I still love it. It's definitely on my list of games to get. Star Wars: Empire at War runs smoothly at full resolution and visuals. WoW? I don't play it (I know I'd get addicted, and I don't need that), so I can't comment there.

Applications

Aside from actually running smoothly, the biggest surprise for me is how fast applications load. Office 2007 apps load as if they're just a part of the system, and even large apps like Photoshop CS3 load within seconds. Now, all of this has to be taken with a grain of salt as I'm coming off of a 4 year old laptop to a brand new one. I went from single to dual-core and doubled my RAM. (That being said, I did have a desktop with a 2.5 GHz Athalon and a G-Force FX card a few years ago, so I do have a bit of a basis of comparison.) Vista is actually known for slowing down everything, but with 2 GB of RAM, it's not noticible. Everything loads fast, and I have yet to run into anything that isn't fully loaded within 10 seconds. Sophia was having a great day if she loaded anything in 10 seconds in XP or Ubuntu. lol

Peripherals

I have yet to plug something into Ruri that Vista can't imediately identify and load. At any given moment, I have my Maxtor OneTouch 120 GB external hard drive, WACOM tablet, Targus Bluetooth USB adapter, Logitech LX710 cordless keyboard and mouse, HP F340 printer/scanner/copier, and usually my Archos 404 and Sansa Connect all plugged in. No issues at all.

Conclusions

All in all, I actually like Vista. I had expected bad performance, BSODs, and freeze ups, but I have yet to run into any of those. I'm fairly certain that this is because of running a Dual-Core laptop that was built specifically for Vista, so I don't necessarily recommend it to those with older machines. I have yet to run into any software compatibility issues, but I know there are a lot out there, so do your research if you're considering a switch. For example, my Dad is about to replace his computer, but some of his essential software isn't Vista-compatible yet, so I'm going to have to wipe it and put XP Pro on it for him. Do the research and find out if everything you need works with Vista. For me, it works and I love it. Not as much as Ubuntu, but I like it better than any other version of Windows.

eyeOS: A Web Operating System

I was reminded today of an article I had read a while back about a browser-based operating system called eyeOS. The basic idea is that you can log into your eyeOS account and have access to your files from wherever you are. At first thought, it sounds like a file host , but it's so much more. It's actually an operating system, complete with programs, folders, a desktop, etc. You can either use the international server, or host your own. I installed it (with a quick install of Apache and PHP) on my laptop and I'm up and running. What I haven't figured out yet is how to use my documents, music, pictures, etc on my hard drive without copying all those files into the eyeOS directory structure. But once I have that nailed down, I will be able to log into my laptop from wherever I am and have access to all my files.

The idea is not necessarily new; all these functions can be done using various other gateways. There are plenty of remote desktop solutions, but this being browser-based (and Flash-based inside of that), it's fast, uses no more processor or memory than a web page, and doesn't require any kind of installation for a client. Even the server install only took about 10 minutes (and that's because I had to install Apache and PHP and forward port 80) and a tiny amount of space (the install file is less than 7 megabytes). To top it off, it's free and open source. There is huge potential in this, especially in the world of Web 2.0.

The Wonderful World of Windows...

So, for various reasons, I've been living in Windows for the past week. It's a dog to start up and shut down, but once in, it runs okay. It's nothing compared to Ubuntu, but for the previous stated various reasons, I've needed some Windows only programs to work with. WINE can run a few of them in Linux, but not all, so I just booted into my Windows partition. It's been nice to kill some time playing games too. It made me realize that as much as I'd like to kill Windows for good, I really can't. GIMP is great, but it really doesn't compare with Photoshop CS3 for the really advanced stuff, and OpenOffice just doesn't cut it compared to Office 2007. I wish wholeheartedly that I could get these to run in Linux, but, alas, they can't (yet). Until someone works enough with WINE, I'm effectively stuck with Windows. And having a 40 GB hard drive split into two 20 GB partitions just plain hurts. I'm almost out of room on both; for gaming, I have to finish a game and uninstall it before I can install another one. I talked in an earlier post of just virtualizing Windows, but with a 4 year old, mediocre-at-the-time, single core processor, it's not a good option. And it'd still eat a big chunk of the hard drive. The only advantage would be not having to reboot continually. So for now, Microsoft has me by the proverbial e-balls.

Raising Davy Jones' Locker

My replacement hard drive finally came two days ago. I pulled all of my music off of Omoikane and I'm pleased with the results overall. I'm not in as bad of shape as I thought, musicwise. The headache now has been eliminating duplicates, renaming and retagging wrong files, figuring out what I'm missing, etc. Sounds like fun, huh?