Dock

Helix Apple Watch Dock for Apple Watch Launched on Kickstarter

Mike Hudson

Makes charging Apple Watch simple, and taking it go easy. (PRNewsFoto/Standzout)

Standzout is proud to announce that their newest product, Helix Apple Watch Dock, is now raising funds on Kickstarter. Helix is a compact housing for the Apple Watch charging cable and USB charger that makes charging Apple Watch simple and easy, and taking it to go even easier. Helix is the first of its kind, an Apple Watch accessory thoughtfully designed to fit the way people are using and charging the Apple Watch.

Helix uses the USB charger and magnetic charging cable that comes with the Watch to create a charging platform that plugs directly into an outlet. It eliminates the clutter of an extra charging cable, making it the perfect product for travel or home.

Helix is easy to use: simply wrap Apple Watch’s charging cable around the barrel, insert the charger, and plug it in. It is compatible with any of Apple’s one- or two-meter magnetic charging cables.

The last thing any of us needed in our lives was another cable, says Helix co-founder Blake Frazier, Helix is the solution that makes it easy to grab your charger and go. No mess, no tangles, no fuss.

Helix was built on real-world testing of the Apple Watch, observing the way that users are interacting with and charging the device, and carefully considering feedback.

Once we had the Watch in hand, we quickly realized that the nightstand isn’t necessarily the only place to charge Apple Watch, says Brandon Barnard, Standzout CEO, Helix lets you charge wherever works best for you, and keeps another charging cable off of your already-cluttered nightstand.

The Kickstarter campaign for Helix will be live until Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015. Backers of the project can pick up a Helix in any of three colors black, white, or clear at reduced Kickstarter-only prices

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Disable OS X Dashboard

Mike Hudson 6 Comments

When I very first got my Mac I loaded up the OS X Dashboard with countless widgets, doing all sorts like checking share price levels to little puzzle games. However, I soon started to realise that some of my dock items where hogging precious memory, and stealing CPU cycles.. Not to mention the fact the only time I saw the widgets was when I accidentally ended up in the dashboard view.

Because of this I have been looking at ways to disable the Dashboard all together, sure, it’s a cool place to hand out, and a nice party trick.. However I’d much rather have the free memory and CPU cycles!

So, if you’d like to disable OS X Dashboard, launch a new Terminal session fro the utilities folder and copy/paste in the following commands:

As the Dashboard Process is controlled by the Dock, you will also need to relaunch the dock, to do this simply copy and paste the following code into the terminal window:

As with all of the terminal tutorials I post they are easy to reverse, to re-enable the OS X Dashboard:

Then you will once again need to relaunch the dock:

It really is as simple as that..

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Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac

Mike Hudson Leave a comment

For a good few months now I have been happily migrating my computing habits and loosing my windows dependancy to shuffle over to being completely Mac based. When I first migrated over I was happily using Sun’s VirtualBox, but recently one of my friends told me about Parallels.

My first impressions where that I am happy with my current Virtual Machine set up and no need to change! However, I today managed to get round to downloading a trial copy of Parallels. First impressions was a bit of mixed feelings. It took quite some time to convert my VirtualBox VM to Parallels. However now it’s done – I love it! 
The Windows applications and icons integrate seamlessly with the Mac OS X. Giving you your running Windows apps in the dock, along side your other Mac apps. You even get your normal system tray apps in the toolbar!
Upon running your Windows based applications, they launch as if they are standard mac apps. Seamlessly integrating into the Mac Environment. All the file opensave menu items operate as if there running as normal, giving you access to your windows file systems. 
I really can’t believe how seamless the integration is.. This is a must have application for any heavy mac user. Even Steam powered games seem to work well. With for VM’s is quite unusual! 
Parallels even claims it’s able to support the aero application switching, I am currently unable to test the fact as I only have XP on the VM currently.
Parallels is available direct for £59.99, I have seen it selling in high street stores for at least £10 more then the online price. So this really isn’t a bad price!

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