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<div class="center_top">Thoughtful, detailed coverage of the Mac, iPhone, and iPad, plus the best-selling <a href="http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/?pt=TB-TAGLINE" style="color:yellow">Take Control</a> ebooks.</div>
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<h5>Author Biography</h5>
<p class="tearoffbox_text"><a href="http://www.tidbits.com/adam/">Adam C. Engst</a> is the publisher of TidBITS and Take Control Books. He has written numerous books, including the best-selling Internet Starter Kit series, and many magazine articles - thanks to Contributing Editor positions at MacUser, MacWEEK, and now Macworld. His innovations include the creation of the first advertising program to support an Internet publication in 1992, the first flat-rate accounts for graphical Internet access in 1993, and the Take Control electronic book series. His awards include the MDJ Power 25 ranking as the most influential person in the Macintosh industry outside of Apple every year since 2000, inclusion on the MacTech 25 list of influential people in the Macintosh technical community, and being named one of MacDirectory's top ten visionaries. And yes, he has been turned into an action figure.
Want more? <a href="http://twitter.com/adamengst">Follow Adam on Twitter</a> for 140-character musings on a variety of topics.</p><p class="tearoffbox_text_email"><span class="shift_down"><img src="/images/gettb_button_email.gif" height="12" width="12" border="0" alt="Send Email to Author"></span> <a href="javascript:void(0)" onClick="document.check_human_6.submit_type.value='email'; document.check_human_6.author_id.value='6'; ShowTipBox('hc_6', 'hc_recaptcha_6', 'cb_item_add')">Email the author</a></p>
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<p><p>While Pear Note is primarily geared toward recording notes in the physical world, it's possible to use it to record things in the virtual world as well. For instance, you can use it to record and take notes on Skype calls. To do this:</p><ol>
<li>Download Soundflower and install it (along with the Soundflowerbed app that comes with it).</li>
<li>Download LineIn and install it.</li>
<li>Start Soundflowerbed, and select Built-in Output (or whatever output you'd like to listen to the conversation on).</li>
<li>Start LineIn, and select your microphone (e.g. Built-in Mic) as the input and Soundflower (2ch) as the output, then press Pass Thru.</li>
<li>Open Pear Note Preferences, select Recording, and select Soundflower (2ch) as the audio device.</li>
<li>Open Skype Preferences, select Audio, and select Soundflower (2ch) as the audio output and your microphone (e.g. Built-in Mic) as the audio input.</li>
<li>Hit record in Pear Note and make your Skype call.</li>
</ol>
<p>This will allow you to conduct your Skype call while Pear Note records both your audio and the other participant's.</p></p>
<p>Visit <a href="http://www.usefulfruit.com/tb">Useful Fruit Software</a></p>
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<div style="padding-bottom:35px"><div class="tip_display" style="float:left"><p><br><a href="/tipbits/238">Link to this tip</a></p></div><div class="tip_display" style="float:right; width:150px">
<p class="credit">Written by<br><a href="/author/Adam%20C.%20Engst">Adam C. Engst</a></p></div></div>
<a href="/article/10763"onMouseOver="blurb_slide('10763', 'show')">See TidBITS Article Summaries as Pop-up Balloons</a></h4>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_10763" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_10763">To make the TidBITS Web site more easily scanned, we've introduced an optional way of displaying headline pages with pop-up balloons that show the article summary when you mouse over a headline. Click the Hide/Show Summaries link at the top of the page.</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=14" class="category">Inside TidBITS</a> | by <a href="/author/Adam%20C.%20Engst">Adam C. Engst</a> | 19 Nov 2009 | <a href="/article/10763#comments">6 comments</a></div></div>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_10771" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_10771">Influential essayist Paul Graham has an excellent take on why Apple's ridiculous policies with the App Store are a huge mistake. He argues that Apple is driving developers away, which is the first step on a slippery slope that could make it more difficult to attract the top notch employees necessary to continue innovating. Graham's most devastating point: does Apple more resemble the hammer-thrower or the dictator in the 1984 ad?</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=21" class="category">External Links</a> | 19 Nov 2009</div></div></div>
<a href="/article/10758"onMouseOver="blurb_slide('10758', 'show')">DealBITS Discount: Save 30% on Labels & Addresses</a></h4>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_10758" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_10758">See who won copies of Labels & Addresses 1.3.3 in last week's DealBITS drawing, and if you're not among them, read on to save 30 percent.</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=14" class="category">Inside TidBITS</a> | by <a href="/author/Adam%20C.%20Engst">Adam C. Engst</a> | 16 Nov 2009</div></div>
<a href="/article/10759"onMouseOver="blurb_slide('10759', 'show')">Submit Ideas for the 2009 TidBITS Gift Guide</a></h4>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_10759" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_10759">We're gearing up to produce the TidBITS Gift Guide for 2009, and we need your suggestions for the gifts that you plan to give or want to receive this year.</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=14" class="category">Inside TidBITS</a> | by <a href="/author/Adam%20C.%20Engst">Adam C. Engst</a> | 16 Nov 2009 | <a href="/article/10759#comments">1 comment</a></div></div>
<a href="/article/10071"onMouseOver="blurb_slide('10071', 'show')">International Verify Your Backups Day</a></h4>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_10071" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_10071">What better day than Friday the 13th to check that your backups are actually working by restoring some critical files?</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=13" class="category">Safe Computing</a> | by <a href="/author/Adam%20C.%20Engst">Adam C. Engst</a> | 13 Nov 2009</div></div>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_10753" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_10753">The latest in a long series of embarrassments for the iPhone App Store has been described by long-time Mac developer Rogue Amoeba. In short, it took over 100 days to get a 1.0.1 update to the already-approved Airfoil Speakers Touch app approved because the app displays "Apple-owned graphic symbols" that are provided by a public function in Mac OS X expressly for this purpose. Shameful.</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=21" class="category">External Links</a> | 13 Nov 2009</div></div></div>
<a href="/article/10755"onMouseOver="blurb_slide('10755', 'show')">Put More Pixels on Your Desktop with ViBook+</a></h4>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_10755" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_10755">The new ViBook+ enables you to add a large - 24- to 28-inch - monitor to any Mac via USB. Though it still lacks 3D acceleration and isn't the fastest graphics adapter you'll find, it's well worth it for connecting an additional display to a MacBook or MacBook Pro in particular.</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=8" class="category">Macs & Mac OS X</a> | by <a href="/author/Adam%20C.%20Engst">Adam C. Engst</a> | 13 Nov 2009 | <a href="/article/10755#comments">11 comments</a></div></div>
<a href="/article/10752"onMouseOver="blurb_slide('10752', 'show')">New Ebooks about the iPhone and iPod touch</a></h4>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_10752" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_10752">Solve iPhone mysteries and learn clever tricks with a pair of new Take Control ebooks written by Jeff Carlson and Ted Landau.</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=14" class="category">Inside TidBITS</a> | by <a href="/author/Adam%20C.%20Engst">Adam C. Engst</a> | 12 Nov 2009</div></div>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_10733" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_10733">TUAW reports on a worm that changes the background wallpaper of jailbroken iPhones whose users failed to change the default password after installing SSH. It's not much of a hole, since few people jailbreak their iPhones, and hopefully most of those who do are sufficiently aware to change the default SSH password. But it's a reminder that if you leave the door open, someone just might come in and do something unpleasant.</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=21" class="category">External Links</a> | 11 Nov 2009</div></div></div>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_10745" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_10745">Our friends at Macworld found themselves deep in the surreal world of Apple's App Store approval process - if it can be called that - during their attempt to publish an iPhone app version of their "Macworld iPhone & iPod touch Superguide" ebook. Once again, negative publicity turned out to be the eventual solution. When will Apple learn?</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=21" class="category">External Links</a> | 11 Nov 2009</div></div></div>
<a href="/article/10746"onMouseOver="blurb_slide('10746', 'show')">Fix 10.6.2's Broken Slide Show Screen Saver</a></h4>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_10746" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_10746">Mac OS 10.6.2 made a small change to the Slide Show screen saver that displays images from folders and from iPhoto, causing it to hang when pointed at large folders or iPhoto collections.</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=12" class="category">Problem Solving</a> | by <a href="/author/Adam%20C.%20Engst">Adam C. Engst</a> | 11 Nov 2009 | <a href="/article/10746#comments">5 comments</a></div></div>
<a href="/article/10738"onMouseOver="blurb_slide('10738', 'show')">DealBITS Drawing: Win a Copy of Labels & Addresses 1.3.3</a></h4>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_10738" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_10738">Starting to think about printing mailing labels for your Christmas cards? BeLight Software's Labels & Addresses improves significantly upon Address Book's printing capabilities, and you can win one of three copies in this week's DealBITS drawing.</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=14" class="category">Inside TidBITS</a> | by <a href="/author/Adam%20C.%20Engst">Adam C. Engst</a> | 09 Nov 2009 | <a href="/article/10738#comments">2 comments</a></div></div>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_10720" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_10720">Jim Rea of ProVUE Development has started producing short video training seminars for the company's Panorama 5.5 database program (which we use for Take Control order tracking and royalty databases). If you're a Panorama user, watch the first video about Live Clairvoyance (ignore the Windows interface elements, since the feature works identically on the Mac). Panorama has a ton of capabilities that most users never find; hopefully Jim's videos will expose more of them.</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=21" class="category">External Links</a> | 05 Nov 2009</div></div></div>
<div class="link_hover" id="link_box_full_10721" onMouseOver="blurb_slide('10721', 'show'); link_hover_swap('10721', 'in')" onMouseOut="link_hover_swap('10721', 'out')"><div class="link_hover_title"><a href="http://www.notescasts.com/" id="link_hover_title_10721">Turn an iPod classic or iPod nano into an Ebook Reader</a></div><div class="link_box_right" id="link_box_right_10721" style="visibility:hidden"><img src="/images/external_link_arrow.gif" height="15" width="15" border="0" alt="arrow"> <img src="/images/link_globe.gif" height="15" width="15" border="0" alt="Generic Globe"></div></div><div class="spacer"></div>
</h4>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_10721" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_10721">A beta service called Notescasts.com promises to provide users of the iPod classic, iPod nano, and 5th generation iPod with an online store for downloading free and inexpensive ebooks. It's a gutsy move, given all the attention devoted to the iPhone and iPod touch and the App Store, but will enough users of the supported iPod models notice? </div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=21" class="category">External Links</a> | 05 Nov 2009</div></div></div>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_10722" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_10722">If you're an iPhone user who regularly ships or receives packages via UPS, download the free UPS Mobile app for the iPhone and iPod touch. It lets you track shipments, create shipping labels, find nearby UPS locations, and estimate shipping costs for different services.</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=21" class="category">External Links</a> | 05 Nov 2009</div></div></div>
<a href="/article/10716"onMouseOver="blurb_slide('10716', 'show')">App Store Size: Comparisons and Challenges</a></h4>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_10716" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_10716">This iPhone thing? It's probably going to catch on, if Apple's announcement of reaching the 100,000 apps available in the App Store is any indication. But just because Apple's App Store has 8 times more apps than the second place store doesn't mean smooth sailing unless Apple can conquer the discoverability problem that's scaring off developers.</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=17" class="category">iPhone iPad iPod</a> | by <a href="/author/Adam%20C.%20Engst">Adam C. Engst</a> | 04 Nov 2009 | <a href="/article/10716#comments">14 comments</a></div></div>
<a href="/article/10701"onMouseOver="blurb_slide('10701', 'show')">Catch a Google Wave with Waveboard</a></h4>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_10701" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_10701">If you're one of the lucky few with access to Google Wave, the Macintosh application Waveboard will make Google Wave easier to access and use.</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=5" class="category">Networking</a> | by <a href="/author/Adam%20C.%20Engst">Adam C. Engst</a> | 30 Oct 2009 | <a href="/article/10701#comments">3 comments</a></div></div>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_10702" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_10702">Brings back multiple display support and fixes a variety of performance- and usability-related bugs. Free, 16.6 MB</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=22" class="category">Watchlist</a> | by <a href="/author/Adam%20C.%20Engst">Adam C. Engst</a> | 30 Oct 2009 | <a href="/article/10702#comments">2 comments</a></div></div>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_10705" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_10705">Acknowledging that some sort of categorization was necessary to handle overwhelming tweet volumes, Twitter has started to give its user base access to a new feature for grouping people.</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=5" class="category">Networking</a> | by <a href="/author/Adam%20C.%20Engst">Adam C. Engst</a> | 30 Oct 2009</div></div>
<div class="article_preview" id="blurb_10695" style="display:none"><div id="popup_inner_10695">Computerworld's John Brandon looks at the sensor technology that enables the iPhone to perform some of its more amazing tricks. It's not magic, but it is sufficiently advanced to seem like it at times.</div><!-- blurb inner --></div><!-- blurb outer -->
<div class="featured_meta"><a href="/index.cgi?tbcat=21" class="category">External Links</a> | 29 Oct 2009</div></div></div>
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