Fabienne Serriere
Berlin, Germany - http://fabienne.us
Multichannel audio specialist and futurist Fabienne Serriere (aka fbz) is a Franco-American software, hardware and embedded interaction designer. She believes in a gorgeous technologically morphable future. Her interests include hardware hacking, wearable computing, and large scale music system design. She currently resides in Berlin, Germany.
Filed under: Accessories, iPod Family
by Fabienne Serriere (RSS feed) on Apr 29th, 2006

I don't usually post about iPod holders (unless they are
DIY, interactive, or just plain silly), but the
new designer series
from Muff caught my eye. Muff
showed up on TUAW
back in October, but lacked this designer series. Despite their lack of a window or access to controls, I find them
stylish and graphically pleasing. I have a weakness for skulls like the design shown here by Aussie designer Drunk Park,
aka Seb Godfrey.
[via iLounge]Filed under: Accessories, iPod Family, Hacks, How-tos
by Fabienne Serriere (RSS feed) on Apr 26th, 2006

If you are interested in getting the most out
of your iPod and you enjoy the DIY culture,
Will O'Brien has
posted
How-To: Design your
own iPod super dock (Part 2). In this part of his
ongoing
series, he takes you step by step through designing a schematic for the "Super Dock" in
EAGLE. You can grab EAGLE Light Edition for OS X
here (note: requires command line
installation). I also posted about
Part 1
of the series on TUAW.
The upside of this series by Will is that you can freely expand upon what he has
started. Use your imagination! Do you
need to have an iPod dock that is integrated into your home brewed
robotic kitchen? Will your car benefit from custom iPod controls on the steering wheel? Can your pet have its own
playlist control functions at home with interactive carpeting? Will lays the groundwork for you and lets you be your
own
Griffin or
Belkin engineer.
Filed under: Accessories, iPod Family, Hacks, How-tos
by Fabienne Serriere (RSS feed) on Apr 19th, 2006
Will O'Brien from our
sister blog Engadget has posted up
How-To: Design your own iPod
super dock (Part 1). This thorough, in-depth tutorial will enumerate the steps required in building your own iPod
dock (or cable), whether for your car, your futuristic molded bedside table, or simply to take advantage of all those
dock pins you never knew you had. If you are a do-it-yourselfer with an iPod, you will surely enjoy this series from
Will.
Check it out and
we'll let you know when Part 2 arrives.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Open Source
by Fabienne Serriere (RSS feed) on Mar 17th, 2006

First off, I would like to note that this post is an opinion
piece, and though it contains facts, the opinions contained therein are definitely biased towards open source, open
standards, the freedom of software programmers, and technological innovation.
France's Assemblé
Nationale voted in yesterday evening the DADVSI, a rather hideous proposal which will most likely become law when
France's Sénat deems it constitutional and President Chirac signs it. Both of the latter are likely as the
president is of the same majority right party (UMP) as the Assemblé Nationale. The New York Times (and Slashdot)
have noted incorrectly that the law will contain clauses for interoperability required of iTunes and iPods, but those
amendments did not make it into the final proposal voted on Thursday night. Read on for a breakdown of the law as it
currently awaits, almost certain, approval.
Read more →
Filed under: Productivity, Terminal Tips
by Fabienne Serriere (RSS feed) on Mar 13th, 2006

Some people may think I am pro-*nix, but actually I
really just like getting information out there for all our readers. Today
I came across a great tip on
Switch about Windows-like key bindings. If you don't dig the way Apple has the
start and end key combos mapped
in OS X, you can change them by creating the file ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict with the following
contents:
/* ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict - Home/End keys more like Windows */
{
"\UF729" = "moveToBeginningOfLine:"; /* home */
"\UF72B" =
"moveToEndOfLine:"; /* end */
"$\UF729" =
"moveToBeginningOfLineAndModifySelection:"; /* shift home */
"$\UF72B" = "moveToEndOfLineAndModifySelection:"; /* shift end */
"^\UF729" = "moveToBeginningOfDocument:"; /* control home */
"^\UF72B" = "moveToEndOfDocument:";/* control end */
} I personally
tested this key binding hack in 10.4.4 and it does work. To test it be sure to quit out of your text application first.
Also note that you will have to create a KeyBindings/ directory in your ~/Library/ because it is not there by default.
To reverse the key bindings back to normal, just delete the DefaultKeyBinding.dict file you created and restart your
text application. If there is a simpler GUI way to create these modifications please post about it in the comments for
our readers.
If on the other hand you
live in
Terminal like me, the start of line and end of line key bindings are Control-A and Control-E respectively. This
should feel comfortable to people accustomed to the normal Emacs mode in a shell in other *nix based operating
systems.
[via
Switch and
comments on
Ask Slashdot]
Filed under: Hardware, Macbook Pro
by Fabienne Serriere (RSS feed) on Mar 13th, 2006

While I certainly can't vouch for this problem myself as I don't own a MacBook Pro, there seem to be quite a few
owners of the new laptop with complaints over a high pitched noise emanating from their machines. Our own
Dan Pourhadi had a whine on his
new MacBook Pro, even though it may not be
the whine being heavily discussed on Digg today. Dan seems to
have solved his whine by
disabling the second core of his
processor (described in Update 3 on his post).
I no longer see
this thread Digg links to on the Apple
Forums,
however I did find another
active thread about the high pitched squeal/noise/whining. Some Apple users on the Digg thread and the
Apple Discussions thread seem to think
this may be repairable in firmware by Apple at a later date.
I am by no means dissing Apple (or the Digg
crowd) with this post, but simply would like to remind everyone about early adopter syndrome. The first revision of a
new hardware platform or change in manufacturing is bound to
engender certain flaws or
bugs. Please, let us reflect for a moment on the Mirrored Door G4
and the PowerBook 667MHz (aka The "666") computer lines.
This current flare in comments on Digg
and the Apple Forums doesn't mean that
all MacBook
Pros will be affected by this noise, and certainly does not mean that people shouldn't be entitled to a worry-free
machine when purchasing a Mac. I hope this all gets cleared up quickly and with some sort of patch or replacement from
Apple. We at TUAW are bound to keep you posted.
Update: Please see
Dan Pourhadi's new follow-up post
about his MacBook Pro woes.
Filed under: Accessories, Hardware
by Fabienne Serriere (RSS feed) on Mar 9th, 2006

Well I think I found one of the reasons why no one replied to
my
recent plea for help
with my PowerLogix card. It seems that
PowerLogix has
just been acquired by OWC.
Other World Computing is a company that
sells a mix of its own gear and third party hardware (including PowerLogix and other manufacturers). OWC will
acquire the "
exclusive rights to all PowerLogix proprietary hardware designs and software
code, as well as copyrights, logos, brand names, and web domains."
I hope that this means
older PowerLogix hardware will continue to be supported after the buy out, if not I am really out of luck.
[via
MacNN]
Filed under: Accessories, iBook, PowerBook
by Fabienne Serriere (RSS feed) on Mar 9th, 2006

In my relentless pursuit for all that is stylish or feminine
in the world of tech, I come across some interesting accessories. One such product that I'm not in the market for are
Skyns' girly laptop covers. These glorified stickers
(described as "durable plastic/adhesive laptop covers") are not exactly my cup of tea.
It's not
the lack of color or
size choices for iBooks,
PowerBooks or MacBook Pros that turn me off to the
Skyn product line but
rather the fact that it's nothing more than a large sticker. Yes, the adhesive may be specially formulated to remove
cleanly without leaving residue, but the fact of the matter is I'd rather buy a
Colorware laptop or have my laptop
custom laser engraved. If I put a big
sticker on my machine, it will be one that I've personally customized or designed.
[via
Gizmodo]
Filed under: PowerBook, Macbook Pro
by Fabienne Serriere (RSS feed) on Mar 6th, 2006
Enterprise Mac's
Tom
Yager posted about his recent
transition from a PowerBook to a MacBook Pro using Tiger's
integrated Setup Assistant. Using Setup Assistant one can easily transfer old data, settings, applications and more
to a new Mac over firewire. His migration took a little under two hours to transfer 60GB of data rather painlessly.
What I found insightful with Tom Yager's post is that with Rosetta one can still use most old PowerPC
applications without having to search for upgrades. This makes switching (or cloning) to a new machine a hopefully
trivial experience. Have you had a breezy time of upgrading your Mac using Tiger's built in Setup Assistant? We're all
ears.
Filed under: Accessories, iPod Family
by Fabienne Serriere (RSS feed) on Feb 27th, 2006

When I think of battery powered speakers for the iPod I usually
picture a white plastic molded dock-type accessory, but apparently there is a market for cuddlier options. One such
example is Brookstone's iPillow Portable MP3 Speakers (pictured here with a Creative MP3 player but compatible via mini
jack with any MP3 player). This device takes six D batteries which probably means it can pump quite some volume in that
huggable housing. Be careful not to use the iPillow in an iPillow fight because the mesh pocket doesn't offer much
padding for that iPod of yours!
The iPillow is only available in silver (but frankly in the picture here
it looks blue to me).
[via
Popgadget]
[*squishiness is not a real word]