Everyone wants a faster network. But before you can do anything to speed up yours, you must ascertain how fast it’s currently going. Yet measuring network speed isn’t as straightforward as you might think.

When your Mac is no longer the shiny new kid on the block, there’s no shortage of ways to extend its useful life. An old Mac can work as a recipe-storage library, for instance, and that antique iBook can be a backup drive

Read an interesting article in Macworld over the weekend about what to do with your old Mac when the time comes to upgrade. So far I seem to have handed mine around the family:

Sands has been the recipeint of my original iPhone and the Mac Book. My father got my original PowerBook and a Mac mini. One thing I did with all of them was Erase and Install the OS X first!

What have you done with your old Mac’s?

I have written before about my workflow, and I recently read with interest how Skribit founder and blogger Paul Stamatiou was set up now he is working at home, all of which prompted me to write about my own ‘working pattern’. Now I know many will think that I am not quaified as I don’t exactly hold down a full time job, but you would be wrong ……. not about the full time job bit obviously, but about the fact that I have effectively worked from home since 1995.

Last time I was in the UK I got fed up with having no WiFi, or having to pay stupid prices (£5 an hour in the hotel), or waiting for a 3G iPhone that I decided to look at a mobile broadband solution.

The one I elected to go with was the Web ‘n’ Walk from T-Mobile, specifically the Pay as you Go option.

I paid £99 for the USB modem, and it costs £4 per day for unlimited access (subject to fair use policy) which is pretty good compared to the options at hotels, airports etc.

OK, so this may seem a little strange but the background to this post is twofold:

1. I have just gone through a cleansing of my email folders and removed in excess of 20 emails related to review items that I have been offered (and had confirmed) but that have not arrived yet. Believe it or not I had at least seven (7) from the same PR agency, some dating back to October 2007,

2. During CES I blogged a huge amount for one of my clients and got incredibly frustrated at the way the Press Releases were presented.

I still haven’t worked out which camera bag I want, or even need, and one of the reasons why is that I don’t think I have finished working out what I will carry in it.

You see in the simple old Point & Shoot days it was so easy – you just took the camera! Now though I not only have the camera to think about, but I have the lenses, flash, tripod(s), kitchen sink etc to worry about, and I think the list is just going to get bigger.

What is the deal with Notes on the iPhone and the new Mail App?

Yesterday I added a note for the first time to the iPhone and this morning I added my first note to the Mail App. The Mail App is now showing all my email accounts as Notes, although no information in each note, and having synced the iPhone the note from the iPhone isn’t showing in the Mail App and Mail App notes aren’t on the iPhone. Is this usere error, a glitch in Leopard, or just yet another example of a Apple not really getting it right!!!!!

Following on from the Leopard Experiences Gary suggested that we pool our experiences and share any issues that we have come across or know about with Leopard and specific applications.

Here’s a thought for you. How about a post which asks your community about which applications they’ve found problems with under Leopard? Which ones will definitely require an update because they no longer work, and which ones, like Lightroom, work to an extent (and what fails)?

In particular applications that will require and upgrade, and applications that you want to know about first before upgrading.

I have been thinking of getting a Wii for some time now and was wondering if anyone had any experience of one, and what games you would suggest.

They are pretty easy to get hold of here in Spain, but I may try and pick one up when I am in the UK. It will be a lot easier to discuss any games and accessories that way.

I am trying to figure out the ‘best’ way to store and distribute my digital content. A number of ‘events’ have conspired to make this a more urgent task than I had anticipated. I will go into these ‘events’ in future posts, otherwise this article will become of ‘War and Peace’ proportions.

First up, I do not want to implement a NAS server. I don’t want the additional cost, nor do I want to have another machine running all the time when my Mac is effectively on all the time anyway, at least it is always on at times when we will want to access content.

Seems like it’s “Ask a question” time over here on the blog, which is fine with me as your questions always get me thinking, and your responses always teach me something!

This time Wayne has a question about iTunes and iPhoto on a network, which is something that I seem to always be ’struggling’ to work out in my own set up.

Wayne’s Story

From time to time I get emails asking for suggestions and advice. I always respond and am happy to do so, but with this one from Darren I thought I would open it up for discussion, as I think the topic is one that many will be considering as we approach the launch of Leopard.

Darren’s Story

It’s my birthday soon. This year I’ve really wracked my brains to see what Mac gadget I can convince my wife to buy me.