iWeb 2.0.3
Version 2.0.3 does "... update addresses compatibility with Mac OS X."
Little iWork updates
Keynote 4.0.2
Pages 3.0.2
Numbers 1.0.2
Mainly compatibility fixes.
Get a Mac ads get gone?
The ads may not have been to everyone's tastes, usually rather anal people, but I found some quite funny.
That doesn't explain why they've vanished? No doubt it's something sensible to do with them not brining enough switchers and it's time for something new. As I mentioned below, perhaps an advert more on the lines of the iPhone would be better? Show off that OS and iLife etc.
Mitchell & Webb were a fun choice, although odd considering some of their sketches took the piss out of advertising, perhaps an unknown pair may've been better?
Update: The Japanese Get a Mac
page has
also been pulled.
Apple by design.
The first Mac was a well
designed machine, but sadly the Mac has become
associated with style over content in some people's
minds. When really it should be the content has
dictated the style, form follows function.
It wasn't always this way, I think people forget the
Mac existed for a long time between the first Mac and
iMac which helped bring the company back to life.
Macs were for a long time
light grey boxes and came in a variety of shapes and
sizes, and not all were that attractive. Just take a
look at Low End Mac.
Yes, that's a
Mac
For years I came across
Mac hating PC users, but style was never part of the
argument as to why Windows was superior. Nobody ever
said, "You're just a fashion victim". It was all
mainly about the OS, the speed of the chips, but not
what it looked like.
Besides, Apple had
licensed the OS in the early 90s and I
had happily used it on Mac Clone, a
Motorola Starmax. I never chose to use
Macs based purely on their design, it's always
been OS first. Which is why a lot of Mac ads have
been disappointing. So they should just focus on
the OS, and less on the case, or humour. Which is
where the iPhone adverts I think are more
successful.
Motorola
Starmax
The people I know that
switched to Macs just use their computer more than
when they had a PC, I'm talking normal people at
home. Mum's and friends.
Apple have brought design to our attention, and
although I probably would still use a Mac if it
wasn't that great looking (being it's the OS first
for me), I have come to expect that a Mac will be
generally unobtrusive, which to me helps you focus on
just getting whatever it is you're doing done, with
less distraction (or at least not like it was
manufactured in the eastern block in the 80s)
Gateway PC -
It's a new one, honest!
Apple think more as
computer as appliance, not some sort of hobby in
itself. There are those who think the PC
should be some sort toy for those nerdy back-room
boys, a bit like train sets (not that there's
anything wrong with a train set), but a very male
pursuit that you tinker with and bash, like your
old car you've been doing up in the garage.
Apparently it's a very British thing?
(Oh, and Charlie Brooker,
Macs have had two button mice for along time. It
just doesn't look like it has.)
Why shouldn't a computer not look like a
Frankenstein's monster? Buttons splattered all over
and you'd certainly not want it where anyone could
see it. An ugly thing that you bash your shins on
under the desk, but great for flat pack companies who
created a dozen types of boxes to hide your shame
away!
My eyes, will
someone close the doors!
Apple are not perfect,
far from it, but they do have a way of pushing new
technology into the mainstream, which is then copied
by all and sundry. I'm talking more software there,
but Apple were first to get rid of the floppy, and
though vilified at the time, who on earth really
wants a floppy drive now? You may also remember when
the iMac arrived, everything suddenly was coming in
transparent plastic and Compaq stuck coloured bits of
plastic on the front of their Presario PCs, this is design by
decoration.
Compaq
Presario - We do transparent plastic
too!
Apple doesn't have an exclusivity on design, and
there are others I'd use if I could take my favoured
OS with me. I think now it's just normal to expect
something well designed, and if I ever end up running
Linux, I probably would want a non-hideous computer
to run it on, call me crazy.
To fault Apple over
design should also mean you're questioning
all companies concerned
with improving design.
After years of many people not knowing what a Mac
was, I still find it strange that Apple has risen to
such a well known brand, so I guess they're bound to
get some people's noses out of joint.
So, my point? Macs aren't and never have been just
for those who are design conscious and design isn't
just how something looks, but how well it works as a
whole. Ah well, seems as a Mac user you can't ever
win.
Further reading:
From Beige to Bondi
Blue
Mac images
courtesy of Apple Computer, Inc.
MacSpeech Dictate
Until now, to get really decent speech recognition you had to look at the PC, mainly products like Dragon's Natural Speech software.
Well finally there appears to be a decent product for the Mac, without having to rely on BootCamp or a virtualizaiton product. It's called MacSpeech Dictate which uses the same technology behind the Dragon software!
This should free up a lot of people that may have wanted a Mac, but had to go down the PC route because they needed this sort of technology. It's not really just for people too lazy to type, but is an important way to input text for those who may have no other means to do so.
It may be still in Beta, but that didn't stop it picking up a Best of Show award at MacWorld 2008 recently. It should ship in February.
Apple Autogiro G-AXVK
It's an Autogiro (G-AXVK, Campbell Cricket) in old Apple livery. You may remember seeing a similar one in James Bond - You Only Live Twice (1967) called Little Nellie.
I can't remember the programme, it was in July 2005
on the UK Discovery Channel (+1), but I did take a
quick snap (on the ancient telly).
Why Apple was sponsoring it I do not know, and the
only other images I've found of this
particular Autogiro has it in British Airways livery
in the
late 70s.
Check Off
I write notes in TextEdit, Mail, Stickies, Journler etc. It will probably stay like that until I have Leopard with its notes function in mail.
However; a lot of the time I just want to write a tiny To do note and have found the perfect little application, Check Off.
It lives in your menubar, appearing with a click or short cut key and is just so simple to use. Oh, and it's free.
Give it a try!
Inquisitor 3 & CoverSutra 2
This really is a great add-on to Safari, and well worth downloading.
CoverSutra is my favourite controller and enhancement to iTunes, it's not free, but it just great. Try it, and you'll want to buy it.
Quicktime 7.4 & iTunes 7.6
QuickTime 7.4 addresses security issues and delivers:
- Numerous bug fixes - Support for iTunes
iTunes 7.6 for Mac & Windows
"Rent and download your favourite movies with iTunes on your computer or directly to your living room on Apple TV. Enjoy rented movies in sizes up to 720p HD with surround sound on your Apple TV and sizes up to DVD-quality on your computer. Transfer your rented movies from iTunes to your iPod or iPhone and enjoy them on the go.
Also, purchase and download your favorite TV shows, music, and more directly on your Apple TV. Effortlessly transfer purchases made on Apple TV back to your computer with iTunes."
Start-up Keys
I recently inherited an
old iMac G3 from my brother (thank you).
I love it, I never had one of the original coloured
iMacs, however; it refused to start, instead flashing
the folder question mark at me.
Simple fix you'd think? Just stick in a Mac OS CD,
and off you go! Not quite. Every version of the OS I
stuck in the CD slot, it spat back out. It also
ignored an external USB drive with an OS on.
Puzzled, I thought I'd best try and remember some of
those start-up keys, problem is there are so many and
some are from my Mac OS 9 days, I wonder if any
normal Mac user would remember any?
I tried resetting the PRAM (Preference Ram) etc.
which involved holding down various keys, until I
remembered to just hold down the Option key!
Holding down the Option key at start-up allows you to
decide on which drive to boot your Mac from, in this
case it allowed me to select a Mac OS 9 CD, and
finally started.
Strange, I thought it would've just selected it
itself when putting the CD in, but there you go. It's
now up and running Mac OS 10.3 Panther very happily.
Not everyone will know these various start-up
keystrokes, so I thought I'd provide links (rather
than retyping them all).
Apple's list
and a more in-depth explanation of the keys
from Peachpit.com.
More from Macworld 2008
Time Capsule: Essentially, it's an AirPort Extreme with either a 500GB - £199 or 1TB - £329 hard drive inside. This works with Time Machine to automatically keep your Mac backed up wirelessly. This is the perfect solution for notebook users who don't always remember to plug backup drive in.
Apple TV 2.0: As Steve Jobs announced on stage, this is their second attempt at Apple TV, and it now does seem much more like a useable product, at least in the US. You can now download content directly to the device, rather than just streaming from your computer. This ties into Apple's movie rental deal (sadly, not in the UK yet). You can now rent as well as buy films (again, no films in the UK yet), download music and TV* direct from iTunes and play them on your computer, iPod as well as your Apple TV. So you can sit back and rent HD quality films from your sofa to play on that HD TV of yours, without having to get a HD player or sign up to some service from Virgin or Sky. First generation Apple TV users will get all this with a free software update.
* Apple recently added more TV shows for the UK, mostly US (maybe I do want to catch up on the complete series of V?) but there is now Wallace & Gromit hmm. Sadly, without content from the BBC/Channel 4 etc. it doesn't seem that inviting. Having the movie rental's will, when they arrive. I do like the idea of Apple TV changing how we watch TV, but often with this sort of thing, the technology is ahead of the various countries regulations.
The iPhone software was updated to 1.1.3. This added a pseudo GPS function called locate me in Google Maps, which uses triangulation to find where you are. You can also send text messages to multiple recipients, display lyrics and rearrange your home screen etc.
Many of these features have been added to the iPod Touch in a 1.1.2 update, plus finally Mail! (for £12.99 - there are legal reasons for the fee).
To really get a feel for all these updates, watch the keynote speech. Available as a stream & podcast.
MacBook Air - Macworld 2008
The big news from this
years Macworld Expo was the
MacBook Air, a super lightweight
super thin notebook. It weighs just 1.36 Kg or
just 3 pounds, for comparison the previous
smallest notebook, the PowerBook 12" weighed 2.1
Kg.
If you travel a lot,
or as my girlfriend says, find MacBooks too heavy for
her lady like arms, then this is the machine for you.
It may not be a super-sub-notebook, but I find it's
the weight more than the size of a notebook that puts
my back out and this way you still have that 13.3
inch widescreen.
It has a couple of unique features, other than the
weight & how thin it is. The trackpad now
supports gesturing, like you'd find on the iPhone,
pinching to zoom, three finger side swipe to go
back and forth on a web page. It also has an
option for a solid state hard drive, 64 GB or a
standard drive at 80 GB.
The Air comes as a 1.6 Ghz £1,199 or an optional 1.8
Ghz £2,028 with 2GB of memory, built in 802.11n wifi.
Behind a cool flap hides the Audio Out, USB 2.0 and
Micro-DVI for external monitor support and of course,
a built in camera. Full specs can be found
here.
What's missing is the optical drive. This reminds me
of when Apple removed the old floppy drive when
introducing the iMac, people got all hot and bothered
about it, but now who uses floppy drives? Apple will
sell you a USB optical drive (or buy a 3rd party
device), but what's clever is, they've introduced
some clever software, Remote Disc, which allows you
to use an optical drive of another PC or Mac, just
as if it were attached to your machine wirelessly.
The whole point of this machine is to go wireless.
Some have complained about the built-in-battery,
probably the same ones who complained about the iPod,
I don't see it as much of an issue when Apple won't
charge to replace it, plus it's bound to have some
third-party battery replacements for those who don't
mind using a screwdriver, just like the iPod. You
just need to think about what you want, and if the
Air ticks all your boxes, it's for you, if not
there's always the MacBook and Pro.
Apple have put together a handy video tour to explain
a lot of the features here.
Update: Reviews of the MacBook Air
The Ars Technica
Review
MacWorld US
MacWorld US - Fitting files
on
MacWorld US - Migrating
Lower iTunes Prices
Apple have said this is what they wanted to do at the start, but were prevented by the major labels.
The new prices should be available in 6 months.
Reports from the BBC & MacWorld UK
Mac Pro & Xserve Updates
Apple has started the year early, before the MacWorld expo. next week, announcing updates to their Mac Pro and Xserve lines.
The Mac Pro now has 8 cores, that's two Intel Quad-Core Xeon 5400s running up to 3.2Ghz, up to 4.2TB of ram and can fit 4 terabytes into those 4 storage bays. Also new graphics and faster front side bus. Full tech specs.
The Xserves also gain the Quad-Core Intel Xeon 5400s up to 3.0GHz. Full specs.