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Zaphu recently posted an article on the number of third-party programs and utilities that OS X Leopard has—in one way or another—effectively put out of business. Or as he put it, "mauled" to death.
Among them are VirtueDesktops, a multipe desktop manager supplanted by Spaces, and OverFlow, which does to Docks what Stacks does to Docks, only better.
This lead me to wonder what else has been eliminated from my Applications and Utilities folders.
Amazon is now (finally) shipping Western Digital's 320GB 2.5" Scorpio notebook hard drive.
I have a 200GB drive in my 17" MacBook Pro, and you'd think that would be enough space. But between projects for my clients, my photography, audiobooks, and my iTunes music and movies and TV shows, it's bursting at the seams with just 8GB free.
And there's only that much room available because I'm continually managing the space, deleting files and swapping things back and forth to an external drive.
In a way, the iPhone was a godsend for Apple.
Not just because its revolutionary multi-touch technology boosted Apple's already stratospheric cool factor. Because it did.
And not because it gave Apple an important step into yet another major market. Because it did that too.
But because back in April 2007, the iPhone's upcoming June 29th release date gave Apple a much-needed excuse for delaying OS X Leopard.
Kent Sutherland's Warp gives you new ways to navigate Spaces using your mouse.
Know the trick where you can drag a window across Spaces by moving it to an edge? Well, Warp let's you do the same thing, only without the window in tow.
So you walk into your local Starbucks and stand in line. Reaching the counter, you ask the cashier for your usual half double decaffeinated half-caf with a twist of lemon, and hand over your credit card. And then wait for your order to be filled.
Typical beginning of a typical day.
But if Apple has its way, someday soon you won't need to speak to the cashier. Nor will you need to hand over your credit card. Nor even stand in line.
Just walk in, pick up your hot cup of java, and go on your way.
Let's face it. If you're like me, system utilities rarely have the power to invoke your "buy it now" creditcard reflex.
Especially when the category is as pedestrian-sounding as a "clipboard-manager".
So let's set the record straight up front: if you write about practically anything at all, you need this product.
Russell Brown has created three new video tutorials on printing from Photoshop to several popular "semi-pro" printers from Canon, Epson, and HP.
Each video is roughly eight minutes long, and focuses on properly setting up color management and obtaining and using the right paper profiles.
Apple Insider posts that Apple has released OS X Leopard 10.5.2 to external developers for testing.
The update, which weighs in at a mere 345MB, focuses on the Dock, Finder, Mail, iCal, iChat, Quick Look, Rosetta, Safari, Time Machine, Printing, and WiFi/AirPort compatibility.
Hmmm. Perhaps "focuses" is the wrong word here. At any rate, release of the update could be as late as MacWorld Expo in January, so you still have plenty of time to enjoy your Mac as is.
[via Apple Insider]
We've all done it. You've just unpacked that new high-definition television and, in hooking things up, realize that you're missing a cable.
So you grab your credit cards, checkbook, and (just in case) a mortgage refinancing agreement. Then everyone piles into the car and you all head out to your nearby big-box retailer.
But check your local Apple store first. Seriously.
Because Apple carries 6-foot XtremeMac HDMI, component, and those really expensive Toslink fiber-optical audio cables, all for just $19.95 each.
So unless you like paying $40 or $50 or more for a few strands of wire or glass, try Apple. And then sit back and enjoy that new TV.
A string of system outages on Saturday and Monday have left thousands of Apple's .Mac members without access to email and access to the www.mac.com website.
Six outages have occurred thus far, ranging in duration from "intermittent" access problems to some users being unable to access mail services for up to 12.5 hours, culminating in the entire mail service being down Monday night for "scheduled maintenance".
Apple claims that in most cases just 2% of their subscribers experienced problems, though one incident indicates that anyone attempting to access the www.mac.com website during a three-and-a-half-hour period could have experienced intermittent problems.
I too, am a .Mac member, and have been unable to access my primary email account all day.
And when you work on the internet, that's a problem.
As I've no doubt mentioned before, I'm a Space-oholic. In fact, I've just returned from my weekly meeting, and I thought I've give you an update on how things stand.
The support group isn't helping.
OS X Leopard has over 300 new features, and yet the one I use daily, hourly, to tell the truth nearly every minute I'm on my machine, is Spaces.
I use the newer faster Spotlight, but only perhaps once or twice an hour. Time Machine continually runs in the background, silently doing its job, but I think I've recovered perhaps two files since Leopard's installation.
But Spaces is always there, ready and waiting the instant my attention shifts to another task.
On January 9th of 2007 Apple introduced the latest AirPort Extreme, a new wireless networking device that was said to deliver up to five times the performance and twice the range of the previous model.
But since that time, Apple's rollout of products capable of talking at these "extreme" speeds has been spotty at best. Some have been upgraded while others have simply languished. Worse, several new products have backpeddled speed-wise, only supporting the slower 802.11g protocol.
It's well known that achieving the fastest data rates requires that all of the computers or devices on a network to be 802.11n-enabled. But can you actually do so in practice?
Or are we simply chasing Apple's high-speed chimera?
Apple reminds us to remind you that if you're planning on ordering from their online store for that perfect holiday gift you'll need to do so soon.
Order deadlines are approaching rapidly for US ground-based deliveries, and are in fact here for delivery of custom Macs and engraved iPods shipping to Canada.
Lead times are longest for iPhones and iPods, shorter for standard non-systems, and as mentioned shortest for custom Macs and engraved iPods.
See the Shipping Deadlines page on the Apple Store, or check out the list of products and final order dates following the jump.
Continue reading "Apple Warns Holiday Deadlines Approaching Fast" »
Bee Docs' has just released Timeline 2.0, a ground-up redesign of their popular timeline-charting software.
So what's it do?
It makes timelines, those fancy date-and-time-based info-graphics used in articles and presentations to clearly communicate a series of events.
While not for everyone, Timeline can make professional-looking graphics in—quite literally—seconds.
Anxiety is an aptly named super-lightweight to-do list application that floats silently on your desktop, subtly reminding you of all of the little things you've yet to accomplish.
Hence the name.
According to a recent InfoTrends survey of a 1,000 professional photographers, 89% of the images they capture are now digital.
In addition, over 90% of those images are saved and stored, which points to a rising need for new software and hardware to manage workflows and to archive and backup images.
Consider that a RAW file from Canon's new 21MP 1Ds Mark III digital SLR is 25MB. For just one image. Now do the math. Take hundreds or even thousands of photos for a shoot. Now multiply that for every working day of every year for the life of the photographer.
"Terabytes" of storage doesn't even cut it.
Apple has released two new tech notes on their support site detailing issues with OS X Leopard.
The first note summarizes some printer setup and driver installation issues, a problem when a Canon inkjet printer with built-in scanner does not scan in Leopard, an issue where a shared printer no longer appears in your printer list after waking the computer from sleep, and an error that occurs when printing to a HP LaserJet 1200 printer.
The second note discusses using and troubleshooting problems with Time Machine.
Continue reading "Leopard Printing And Time Machine "Solutions"" »
If you're into things Kindle, then you may be interest in Joe Wikert's new blog Kinderville.
Wikert is a Vice President and Executive Publisher for John Wiley & Sons, so he definitely has some experience in the publishing field. And judging from the number of Wiley books on Amazon, some skin in the game as well.
Quoting Joe, "I'm a book publisher by day and a book lover by night. Although I think Kindle Version 1.0 is far from perfect, I'm excited to see what Amazon has in store for us with versions 2.0, 3.0 and beyond."
And so am I.
A Technology Review article points to new advances in materials and coatings that repel oil and are able to clean themselves without the help of soap and water.
This could lead to a number of applications, including self-cleaning displays, something that cell-phone manufacturers have been working on for years.
My take? I'm all for it. As much as I love my iPhone, it's already lead me to new heights of personal hygiene in my attempts to keep the silly thing clean.
And a in minor search for the best iPhone cleaning rag.
[via Technology Review]
Two of the best new features of Leopard are Cover Flow and Quick Look, which auto-magically let you peer inside and examine the contents of your files right from the Finder.
Some of them, anyway. Apple covered the basics with text, images, PDFs, and Microsoft Office and iWork file types, but that still leaves a few stones unturned.
But fortunately for us, Apple made Quick Look extensible, and plenty of little Mac elves have been hard at work solving some of those deficiencies.
So here are 10 free Quick Look plugins to make your Finder browsing experience even better.
As you probably know, finding significant discounts on Apple's iMacs, iPods, and other hardware can be next to impossible, primarily because Apple has MSRP agreements in place with anyone that sells their products.
But what you may not know is that Apple has their own store where you can buy products at significant discounts. All of these "refurbished" products are tested and certified by Apple to be as good as new, and all are backed by Apple's full one-year warranty.
How good are the deals? How does anywhere from 15% to 60% off the retail price sound?
Apple has even just listed several items not usually seen, from new Aluminum iMacs (save $250) to Apple TVs (save 24%), and even XServes for you super-power-user types (save $700).
Some previous generation iPods and aluminum "skinny" nano's can be also had for nearly half off.
So do your holiday pocketbook a favor, and check them out.
Long struggling computer and electronics retailer CompUSA announced Friday that it will be going out of business after the holidays.
After closing half its stores this spring, the remaining 103 stores have been sold to Gordon Brothers Group LLC, a Boston-based retail store liquidator. Gordon Brothers will be negotiating the sale of the real estate, the technical services business, the online site, and other assets.
Financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed.
So if you're shopping CompUSA for Macs, iPods, or other holiday gifts, be aware that while you can probably score some good deals, the odds of returning defective or unwanted merchandise aren't good.
And whatever you do, do NOT buy the CompUSA extended warranty.
[via SFGate]
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom has been updated to version 1.3.1, and fixes many of the problems that have been plaguing Mac users of the product.
This includes several of the printing issues that caused Lightroom to crash under Leopard, image importing failures under Leopard, and numerous other fixes.
The update also includes additional camera support for the Canon 1Ds Mark III, Nikon D3, Nikon D300, and the Olympus E-3.
Visit the Lightroom download page for more information.
Over on Roughly Drafted, Daniel is proposing a new subscription-based video rental system for iTunes, much like a NetFlix "five-out-at-a-time" plan.
Using his solution, you pay a monthly subscription fee to have several slots that can be filled with movies or TV shows. Selected movies are downloaded to your computer, and from there can be "checked out" to your iPhone or iPod or Apple TV.
Like NetFlix, you can keep your rental as long as you like, and watch it as many times as you like. When done, you check everything back in and select the next movie to be downloaded.
This fixes several problems with existing movie rental schemes, and solves one major issue that I believe is holding back digital video purchases.
Continue reading "Movie Rentals: Coming Soon To A Mac Near You?" »
