The Trackpad Magic app lets you play various instruments with the Magic Trackpad or MacBook’s Trackpad. It also features a variety of graphical effects and several [wikipop]musical scales[/wikipop]. Pressing the T key shows a grid to aid note finding. Pressing the I key cycles through the scales. The Doe Ray Me scale puts the G in the middle of the trackpad. With the C on the left edge you can pick your way through [wikipop]Twinkle Twinkle Little Star[/wikipop]. Turning off the grid and doing it blindfolded in the dark earns extra points 😉
Tag Archives: Software
UnMac Apps from the Mac App Store
Mac users have come to expect a certain standard and consistency from their software. OK we can tolerate the non-standard interface once in a while but some things are just assumed. Until today’s launch of the Mac App store. What we have are a lot of ports from the iPad/iPhone school of app development with no consideration for, or perhaps even an understanding of, how such apps will be used and be expected to work on a Mac. Sadly these are supposed to have been vetted by Apple before being allowed into the store. With no demo/trial versions available from the store you do not know what you are getting until you already have it. So please can we have apps that…
…ask if you want to save your unsaved work when you Quit them?
…have an Edit menu and an Undo?
…comply with click and drag norms instead of leaping back several decades with a click, move and click again interface? These probably worked fine with a couple of fingers on a touch screen but not so good on a Mac – even with a Magic Track Pad.
…accept images dragged into them rather than having to Open them from the File menu?
…give us a clue what we are supposed to do? There is a Help menu on the Mac. I posted instructions for PinBall HD this afternoon… A couple of hours later it had been well used…
It also seems a bit hit and miss which apps are marked as installed. Those you acquire through the App Store are but those from other sources are not; yet some of my Apple apps are marked as installed Aperture, Garageband etc. although not from the App Store while others are not iWorks etc. If we are going for seamless updating surely all installed applications should be noted and updated as and when.
Update:
It seems software purchased directly from Apple through an Apple account is recognised as installed by the App Store; if purchased elsewhere it is not recognised.
The Mac App Store arrives
With this afternoon’s arrival of Mac OS X 10.6.6 comes the addition of the Mac’s very own app store icon in the Dock…
…which leads you to the app store’s store front…
Apparently there is some other stuff going on.
Me (not) Mobile?
Have just enjoyed the 60 day trial of Mobile Me. Having a house full of Macs which will be joined, I do not doubt, at some time by an iPad all that syncing and sharing stuff is just the job. Mostly I was using the picture gallery which, combined with a dinky WordPress plugin, provided a quick link from here to there.
The trial expired but no payment was charged. Instead an email complaining that something was wrong with my card details…
…which was strange. I checked the details and all seemed, as far as I could see, to be correct but still it was rejected…
…which was strange because the details of the same card are stored at the Apple Store where it is used (far too) frequently…
One of their suggestions was to purchase a box from the Apple Store, have that delivered by snail mail, discard the disc and packaging into the recycle bin, and type in the included activation key. [W:Cloud computing] eh! It’s the future!
In the past I have purchased QuickTime Pro and Aperture activation keys from the Apple Store but alas a Mobile Me activation key is not availabe.
So, for now, I have given up and rolled my own using the Gallery software.. Perhaps not as pretty as Apple’s but it does the job. A bit of PHP in the widgets over there (->) adds an image and a link. A bit of FTP adds a straight through connection.
The email said they would keep the account active until the 12th June which is just after WWDC and some rumours say… that Mobile Me will be free anyway. Hmmm!