Wesley's Tool-Box

Here's a minor annoyance that didn't affect the DVD creation process but still merits a mention. If you look at the 'Status' of the DVD being created, the maximum DVD capacity will show up as 8.0GB for double-layer project and 4.0GB for single-layer project.



The unit 'GB' is calculated under 'kilo is 1000', which is used by the storage device manufacturers, not 'kilo is 1024', which the operating system generally uses. Now, the unit itself isn't really a problem since as long as I know exactly how much I'll be using, I'm fine with that. The annoyance arises from the fact that under this unit, a double-layer DVD holds 8.5GB and a single-layer DVD holes 4.7GB. This means that iDVD does not let me choose to add 500 or 700MB worth of more video onto the disc even though the space is available. That's a sad waste of space. The extra space could have been used to either put more footage, or if 4-hour (or 2-hour for single-layer) limit must be kept, used to increase bitrate and thus quality of video.

Mac mini, as with any Macs you buy today, comes with great tools for creating and watching DVDs out of the box. You would edit the video on iMovie HD, then use iDVD to prepare the menus and burn the actual DVD. Later, the DVD can be watched using an application appropriately named 'DVD Player'. But I hit a couple of annoying snags while creating an extremely long DVD.

Okay, I think I got this asked enough times (I already have 52 people in my GT contacts list) so I think it merits an explanation. It's still a bit clunky, and yes I really hope Google Talk gets this streamlined in the final version, but since a lot of us are using it anyway, let's see... how to change your screen name on Google Talk! You can also do this without affecting your Gmail account, and I'll cover that, too.


Okay, so you got this name from your Gmail account stuck on your Google Talk (left arrow). You want to go to 'Settings' first (right arrow).

M4300 was the smallest WM2003-based PDA-phone on the market before X501. X501 is even smaller. Let's see how they compare.

For those of you still waiting for this device to hit the local shops, here are the photos of what final production model CP-X501 looks like.