I love the Magic Trackpad

A couple weeks ago, as I was in the midst of compiling my year-end Costco spreadsheet a curious thing happened: my mouse stopped working. Specifically, it wouldn't scroll. This has happened before, so I tried turning it upside down and rolling it across our mousepad, but it didn't fix the problem. I was prepared to simply use a mouse without scrolling features.

Then Matt, who loves all things technological, got his hands on our computer and announced that we absolutely needed a new mouse. OK, fine, I said, seeing as I leave all technology decisions to him as he leaves all decorating decisions to me.

We found ourselves in the Apple section of Best Buy, playing around with the Magic Trackpad, this funky computer mouse which is simply a large rectangle with extensive capabilities beyond that of the average mouse. It operates under the same technology of the trackpad on the MacBook Pro. With this clever invention, we forked over $70, Apple upsold us and we were hooked.

This super cool gadget lets you click with one finger, right click with two fingers, scroll through a page with two fingers, scroll through multiple pages with three fingers, and even pinch the screen to zoom in and out.

When we got home from Best Buy and Matt set up the Magic Trackpad, we ran into one minor glitch. In order for this mouse to work, you must be operating with Mac OS X Snow Leopard v10.6.4. This meant our slightly older and nonupgraded Mac desktop was not compatible. Matt announced he would return to Best Buy and buy the upgrade if it cost $10, but he would not pay $30. Of course, the upgrade wound up costing $30, and Matt paid it.

Ultimately this mouse set us back $100, so I like to think of it as the world's most expensive mouse. But it's one pretty fascinating little gadget, and because it's so awesome it has actually ruined my experience using my Dell laptop at work. I keep thinking that I can scroll on my laptop's trackpad only to be sadly disappointed by its totally pedestrian capabilities.

As Ferris Bueller would say, the Magic Trackpad is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.

Tip 14: Dealing with digital photos

We bought a Mac in the summer of 2008 (right after the end of our month-long cross-country road trip...it was an expensive month). I never was one to think Windows PCs are difficult to deal with, but my inner artist and organization freak loves the clean, simple and, dare I say, pretty programs of Apple, particularly iPhoto. Fortunately, I hear that the Windows' iPhoto-semi-equivalent Live Photo Gallery ain't too bad. But, before you figure out what to do with your photos...

Tip 14: Upload your photos as soon as you take them, and delete them from your camera.

I used to save my photos on my camera even though I'd already loaded them onto my computer. I guess I worried about what would happen if my computer suddenly died...at least I would still have those last 50 photos! That, of course, has never happened, and I was simply wasting electronic space, and wasted space, regardless of its form, is still wasted space! So, when my computer kindly asks me, "Would you like to delete these photos after upload?" I kindly respond, "Why yes!"

I upload the photos quickly because I often want to share them with other people, and everyone loves instant photo gratification. I think back to our honeymoon in Maui, sitting at our hotel, getting links to photos from our wedding just a day or two after the big event. It was awesome to see friends' photos before we got our photographer's photos almost a month later.

Tip 14 continued:...Then, use your photo program's labels and/or folders to keep them in order.

Here, I turn to iPhoto. Here's what I love:
Events -- label your photos as a group when you upload them, and then they show up like this on your screen

Maps -- label where you took your photos, and they'll appear as pins on a map, an easy way to retrieve photos you are looking for easily. (Note: this system isn't always perfect. There is one mistake on this map, a pin off the coast of Africa. We have not been there, but iPhoto thinks we honeymooned there. Fortunately, it pinned Maui correctly.)

Last 12 Months -- this label is fun because when I occasionally scroll through it gives me that great, "Wow, look at everything I've done this year" kind of feeling. That, and warm fuzzies.

And what I don't like about iPhoto:
Faces -- Yes, you can tag people's faces in iPhoto much as you do in Facebook. This is one way to find photos of friends, and it's great if you're making a photo gift for a friend and want an easy way to keep track of those photos. After you've labeled all the photos you want, then iPhoto gives you a message saying "Stephanie may also be in the photos below." Too often Stephanie is not in those photos and it instead thinks I am someone with blond hair or a boy. If I want to go through and do all the face labeling myself (I realize that sounds weird), it works great, but the program doesn't do a great job by itself.

What do you do to keep your digital photos organized?

Next up...Craigslist success and failure.