If you’ve spent much time podcasting, Skyping, recording any kind of audio on your Mac, you’ve no doubt found its built-in microphone woefully inadequate. Well if you’re ready to toss down some Benjamins for an upgrade, the Rode Podcaster Microphone ($230) is a rich-sounding, easy-to-use option you should consider.
UPDATE: Thanks to everyone who participated! I had a great time reading all your comments. Congrats to Mitchell Chin (youtube user: Sportwin) and Mark Fleser (youtube user: markfleser) on winning a small stack of assorted Gear Ties from Nite Ize. If you’re one of those two people, check your youtube account, I just messaged you!
If you missed my gushing review of these brilliant Gear Ties from Nite Ize, check it out here to see what all the fuss is about.
I love these little rubber-bonded-over-pliable-steel pieces. I use them so often and they work so well, they’ve become one of my favorite new products.
Well, I got to thinking that you, our dear CoM readers and viewers, might love them too. So I asked Nite Ize if they’d be willing to give some away to you, and they responded with a resounding “yes!” So, if you’d like to qualify to win some of these little wonders, you only need to do two simple things:
Apple’s not ready to throw their hat into the USB 3.0 ring just yet. As Steve Jobs made abundantly clear in an email last week, Cupertino’s doesn’t see USB 3.0 taking off, at least until Intel starts officially supporting it… and evidence suggests that Apple might avoid USB 3.0 entirely in favor of Light Peak.
But what if you want USB 3.0 on your Mac now? Well, Apple’s not serving up official drivers yet, but LaCie’s stepping up to fill the void: they’ve just announced USB 3.0 drivers for their line of solutions.
To get USB 3.0 on your Mac, first you’ll need to buy one of LaCie’s cards: either a $49.99 USB 3.0 PCI Express Card or the $59.99 USB 3.0 ExpressCard/34, both of which will bring a couple of USB 3.0 (and backwards compatible USB 2.0) ports to your Mac Pro or MacBook. Then install the free driver and you’re ready to pick yourself up one of those blindingly flash USB 3.0 external drives that are all the rage right now.
Not a bad solution for Mac Pros, but ExpressCards can be fairly irritating to have hanging out of a MacBook, and obviously this won’t help you if you’ve got a MacBook Air, Mac mini or iMac. Still, if you’re committed to being on the cutting edge, LaCie’s happy to take your cash and make it happen.
That was quick. An 11-inch sleeve for the MBA was announced from Tom Bihn yesterday, while Waterfield released a whole slew of cases tailored to both version of the MBA.
San Francisco-based Waterfield Designs offerings will ship at the end of this month and include the tough, ballistic nylon SleeveCase in both 11- and 13-inch sizes (at $37 and $39 respectively), which can be customized with add-on options; and the ultra-thin 11-inch ($25) and 13-inch ($29) Suede Jacket Sleeve. and will ship at the end of October. Tom Bihn has made an 11-inch, MBA-specific version of its Cache padded sleeve ($30), which will ship a little later than the Waterfields, in early November.
