If you’re used to moving files in Windows by selecting them and using ‘Ctrl + X’ and ‘Ctrl + V’ to cut and paste them from place to place, there’s actually a Mac equivalent command.

Use ‘Command + C’, then ‘Alt + Command + V’. If only someone could have told me about that one years ago.

CES has been a bit more exciting. Most notably, Palm released a new smartphone with a new OS (finally!). I’ve always hoped that Palm would turn out something great, and it really looks like they came up with something to get them back in the game. The OS is called WebOS, and the interface and general features all seem pretty cool. It might not kill the iPhone, but it will certainly stir more competition in the market.

I’ve been following CES news on a few gadget blogs for the past day and a bit, and Gizmodo has a nice day one Top 10 highlights list that you should check out.

I bought one of these Apple wired keyboards as a Christmas present to myself, and I have to say, it’s pretty thin and sweet.I’m also loving the USB ports on both sides. I’ve got my mouse plugged into the right side and any time I want to use a thumb drive, I’ll use the other side.

The design of this thing is amazing. I find myself just wanting to look at it without typing. It takes up so much less space on my keyboard tray than my previous keyboard. Ever since I switched to Mac with my Mac Mini, I’ve been using my old Windows keyboard. It wasn’t a bad keyboard by any means, but I do have to say, it’s good to have proper Mac buttons on the keyboard. It’s nice actually seeing Command rather than an Alt key.

Now, I’m not so sure I’ll give my old Windows mouse up that easily.

I first heard about the Epson Artisan 800 from Kevin Rose’s blog in an article about the Top 10 Gadgets for Geeks. I needed a new printer ever since my 8 year old HP Deskjet 970Cse died. My first inclination was to go for a colour laser printer, but after searching around a lot, I went back to the Artisan 800 for all the features it has. I don’t usually get excited about printers, but this thing is actually pretty awesome, and it’s Mac compatible.

Specs from Epson:

• 5 in 1 with Wi-Fi: Print / Copy / Scan / Fax / Ultra HD Photo
• Up to 38 ppm, photos in as fast as 10 sec1
• Built-in fax and Automatic Document Feeder
• Wi-Fi and Ethernet networking
• 7.8-inch touch panel, 3.5-inch LCD
• Professional quality CD/DVD printing
• Two-sided printing saves paper
• Create coloring books and personal note paper
• Two-year limited warranty with registration1
• Ultra Hi-Definition photos last 4x longer than photo lab prints
• Two paper trays always ready to print photos and documents
  

That’s a lot of features for a printer currently selling for $230. My favourite has to be the fact that it’s wi-fi enabled. I have the printer across the room, not connected to the computer at all. If you’re a Mac user who likes to have a minimalist desk setup, then you can keep this printer off of your desk without having the worry about an extra long USB cable. There is one major drawback here though, and it might be a deal breaker for some: you cannot use the scanner over wi-fi. Personally, I don’t scan things too often, so I’m still keeping it off my desk and across the room. In the rare case that I need to scan something, I’ll plug my laptop into it and scan. I don’t scan too many things though, so this wasn’t a deal breaker for me. If you don’t mind using USB instead, then you’ll be more than happy with the scanning, but it sort of defeats the purpose of one of the coolest features for those who want an All-In-One printer for a lot of scanning.

Another really great thing about this printer is the photos it can bring. Using 4×6 photo paper, you can have photo lab quality photos within seconds. There is a slot for memory cards, and an LCD screen on the front, so you don’t really even need to use your computer if you want to print a photo. Throw your card from your camera into it, select the photo and print. The tray has two areas for 2 sets of paper, one for photo paper and the other for regular letter sized paper, which makes it really easy to print whatever you want without fumbling with paper. CNET did a video review of this printer in which they complained about constant printer jams on this printer. I’ve had it for a week and I have to say that I haven’t had a single problem with any paper jams thus far. Perhaps they put it through more strenuous tests than I did, but for personal use sort of testing, I had no problem with it.

The bottom line is that this printer prints great quality documents and photos, has a lot of great high-end features at a very reasonable price. I am extremely happy with my purchase, and would recommend this printer to others in a heartbeat. If you’re looking for a good personal/small home office printer, don’t overlook the Epson Artisan 800.

iPhoto doesn’t really work the way I want it to, since I don’t necessarily want to import every folder of pictures I have on my computer into iPhoto. The new Cover Flow type preview in Leopard almost does an okay job, but I don’t want to have to switch back and forth between Cover Flow view and list view, not to mention resize the Finder window, when I want to scroll through images using the scrollwheel. Preview.app doesn’t cut it at all either. Xee, on the other hand, works just as I need it to. I go to an old archive folder of images, click on an image, and I can scroll through the images without needing to import anything anywhere. It loads images quickly and supports many different formats, including PSD, which was really a bonus for me. If you use “The Unarchiver” to unpack your .zip, .rar, etc files, then Xee provides another benefit: you can scroll through images within the archive before you even unpack it. That’s pretty sweet.

So, if you’re a switcher like me and you miss having the function of ACDSee on your computer, then you need to check out Xee for the Mac. I mean right now.

About a week ago, I decided that I couldn’t wait for Christmas anymore, and I went out and bought an Elgato EyeTV 250 Plus from the Apple Store. Before I became a Mac user, I had a Windows Media Center PC setup with a WinTV PVR 150 MCE TV Tuner, so I was itching to finally regain a major feature I had on my PC. How did I find it in comparison to the Windows options?

Video Quality

The EyeTV 250 does a great job playing both analog and digital channels. With the clear QAM feature, I am now able to watch free HD channels, which is really awesome. The fact I knew that I would be getting some free HD content is half the reason I wanted to buy this thing, and it works great for that. My WinTV PVR 150 certainly wasn’t able to pick these HD channels up, which really sucked.

Remote

The remote control that comes with the EyeTV 250 looks like a bad knock off of the first Microsoft remote for Windows Media Center. The build quality of the remote is poor and several coloured buttons aren’t even labelled. I have to say that I was pretty disappointed with it. I have considered buying a Logitech Harmony remote to streamline my remote needs, but after spending $200+ on the EyeTV 250, it’s tough for me to justify spending money on an expensive Logitech Harmony remote. You can use the simple little FrontRow remote with the EyeTV 3 software, but the functionality is limited compared to the standard remote.

EyeTV 3 Software

Overall, EyeTV 3 software, which ships with the EyeTV 250, is solid. Recording shows is a breeze, converting them for your iPhone is a few clicks, and with the recent beta (version 3.0.5b13) Canadian channel guides are now supported via a TVGuide account. Elgato gives you a free one year subscription, but when you’re year is up, you’ll have to pay a marginal fee for the listings.

The channel guide within the EyeTV 3 software does the job well, but I still find it less intuitive with poorer usability than the Windows Media Center solution. When you reach the end of the channel list, you have to scroll back up and it doesn’t jump you to the start of the list from the end of the list. I found that to be really annoying. Also, when you select a channel, you are given several options such as tuning to the channel, recording it, etc. Although this can be useful, when you’re just trying to channel surf and quickly find something to watch, it’s another step before the channel comes up.

FrontRow Integration

There is a way to setup EyeTV to integrate into FrontRow, making it easier to manage your download video content and watch your TV shows in the same place. This is something my Windows Media Center HDPC did really well. With PyeTV, you can now have EyeTV menu options integrated into FrontRow. Unfortunately, this isn’t an Apple created solution, so the integration with FrontRow isn’t as streamline as I would have prefered it to be.

Conclusion

The EyeTV 250 Plus is solid PVR hardware. It does a great job playing both analog and digital TV signals, allowing for you to potentially catch some free HD content. Although the software has some great features for recording and converting video, I was left wishing for more. I don’t blame Elgato for this one though. It isn’t like Hauppauge makes great software with their hardware in the Windows world. There’s something to be said for a program that manages both TV tuner video content, your PVR recordings, and your downloaded video from the internet, which Windows Media Center does well. FrontRow would be a great alternative if Apple started to work with Elgato to bring about a truly integrated solution. The one problem is that Apple would never do that, since it would kill it’s TV and movie iTunes download business. I know this can be done better than this.

After reading a lot on several Mac forums, I finally decided that upgrading the RAM would be the easiest and most cost effective thing I could do for the biggest boost in performance. I followed a great guide on how to open the Mac Mini and upgrade the RAM, and I was on my way. My 1.83Ghz Core 2 Duo Mac Mini with 1GB of RAM went to 2GB, and it cost me a lot less than what it would have it if had taken it to the Apple Store, or purchased the 2GB on the machine to start.

Now, I find myself wanting to upgrade the CPU. Prices on the T7600 CPU, which would bring my 1.83Ghz Mac Mini to 2.33Ghz, have dropped considerably, and I could probably find one on eBay for about $175 now, making the price per performance ratio a lot more reasonable. A 0.5 Ghz jump would definitely be noticable in terms of performance, and although this upgrade would be a lot more difficult that the RAM upgrade, my hesitation is mainly due to all the rumours I’ve read about the future of the Mac Mini. Many sites have reported that a new Mac Mini is in the works, and now that the MacBooks have new video cards in them, the new Mac Mini would more than likely have these exact video cards too. I’m thinking that it might be wiser to keep my money now, buy a new Mac Mini if one comes out before next Fall, and sell on my current Mac Mini. It would probably be the most cost-effective Mac upgrade I could make, provided that Apple does in fact do something with the Mac Mini. If not, I guess I’ll have to stick with a MacBook, which wouldn’t necessarily be the end of the world.