Steff.me

As the Macworld event is later today, I thought I’d write a post entailing my current setup — just in case I decide to make any changes based on the news. Since moving back to my Uni room last week, I’ve decided to concentrate on my iMac being my “main” machine. In 2007, I was using my MacBook to do all of my writing, web browsing, photo editing… pretty much everything and my iMac was purely used as an entertainment machine. The iMac houses all of my movies, music and it has Vista (don’t hurt me…) Ultimate installed on Boot Camp so that I can play a few games.

The shift of focus to my iMac as my main machine meant that I needed to find a way to use my MacBook, such that it didn’t become a superfluous dust-collector sitting on my desk. So, last week, I bought a laptop stand from Griffin called “elevator”. One of my housemates uses one for his MacBook Pro, so I got a good look at it in action before buying the thing. It’s a really nice stand, overall. It comes in three pieces that easily slot together.

It’s aesthetic design fits with the aluminium line of Apple machines, so it looks really good. It also has rubber feet on the base of the stand and on the arms, so that it doesn’t scuff your desk or your laptop. I guess the one downside to this product is that the height isn’t adjustable; that was a non-issue for me, though.

With my iMac placed right in front of me and my MacBook firmly seated on its elevator off to the right, I needed a way to interact with the two machines. Late last year I purchased a Logitech diNovo Edge keyboard and a Logitech MX Revolution mouse; in my eyes, two great buys as they allow me the freedom to move around and slouch a bit more at my desk (I found the original keyboard, that comes as standard with the iMac, to be a little restrictive over how far you could be from the computer itself). I wasn’t a huge fan of constantly leaning forward to type on my MacBook, so I did a quick search and it didn’t take long to find a great article by Derek Punsalan on how to use my keyboard and mouse to control both of my computers. Enter teleport.

teleport
teleport is a nice, little application that simply lets you use a single keyboard and mouse to control multiple Macs. By moving your mouse to the side of your screen, you can move the cursor from one Mac to another. Using this, I can actually make use of the MacBook without having to shift position to type. Also, the ability to drag and drop files between the Macs and even synchronize your pasteboard between them is fantastic.

Currently, my MacBook is used to browse the web, chat to people as it has Adium and Skype constantly running, and check my email. I have teleport set up so that when I double-tap my mouse to the right hand side of my iMac screen, it shoots off and appears on my MacBook. Perfect. This leaves my iMac free to work, write and whatever!

Other things that make my setup…

XBOX 360 HD-DVD Player
One of the presents I received for Christmas was a HD-DVD player for the XBOX 360. With my 360 being downstairs, and me being fairly selfish, I’ve hooked the player up to my iMac so that I can boot into Vista and watch HD-DVDs. To do this, I’m currently using an application called PowerDVD from Cyberlink (if there’s an alternative, however, that’s compatible with Media Center I’d love to know).

Canon 400D
Another one of my Christmas presents this year was this camera. The photos featured in this article are taken with it. As you may be able to tell, I’m really not a photographer. I think I may need to sit down and take the time to read the manual or, at least, figure out what all the buttons do.

Harmon/Kardon Soundsticks
While not a new purchase, I’ve never really incorporated them into my setup before now. They’ve always just been sitting either on or under my desk, switched off. I’m glad I’ve finally dusted them off and included them — the sound quality is really good and, for what I do, I don’t need any more than those two… I don’t think it’s worth the hassle, as this setup is so temporary (six months left of Uni).

iPods
I currently have three iPods — the iPod mini, iPod nano and iPod touch. While I’ve retired my mini for the upgraded nano, it still sits on my desk (just behind my MacBook). Since further upgrading to the iPod touch, the nano doesn’t get any other action than when I head to the gym. As the nano is a lot smaller, it seems like the perfect companion to working out. The iPod touch is taken everywhere else and is constantly in my pocket.

Well, that’s all I wanted to mention about my current setup. Here’s hoping that Apple will have some great releases at Macworld later so that I have a chance to burn some more money on things I don’t really need.

Something in the air, eh? The iPhone SDK being made from Adobe’s AIR technology? MacBook Air, the ultra-portable MacBook? With a good few rumours flying about, I’m looking forward to see if there’s actually anything good released later today.