In the wake of reports from TUAW and RoughlyDrafted.com that 10.6, also known as Snow Leopard, would be the smallest Apple OS in years, many have been scrambling to figure out how exactly Apple was going to be dropping that much heft from their mainline apps. An especially big loser was Mail, down [...]
While puttering about this morning, I noticed in the notes for Delicious Library 2 - yes, I use it, and yes, I know I don’t really need it - that it prefers 10.5.3. ‘10.5.3?’ I asked myself. ‘But that’s not out yet….’
Ah, but Software Update says it is! Bringing a host of fixes, including the [...]
After all the months of waiting, it’s finally here!
No, I don’t mean the rumored Apple tablet, sorry. Nor, more realistically, am I talking about the spec bump to the Macbook line. The first release candidate for Firefox 3 dropped yesterday, and a shiny new thing it is. (I can hear you now: [...]
As someone who both works in a high-theft environment (university campus, anyone?) and who owns a piece of portable Apply goodness that contains my entire life, I’m rather concerned about security and theft prevention. I had considered a laptop lock, but considerations of how much I really do move my laptop about and [...]
I normally avoid anything that looks like tech support in my entries here, but this may verge on an exception. Bear with me, and I’ll explain.
I rebooted my Macbook Pro about four days ago, and lo, to my surprise, the icon for my boot drive had vanished. I was, too say the [...]
It came to my attention recently - read: I’ve been checking - that Unsanity has, finally bumped at least some of their haxies to Leopard compatible versions. Many people, myself included, have been bemoaning the loss of such tools as WindowShade X, FruitMenu, and most especially ShapeShifter since their upgrades to the latest big [...]
A rumor surfaced on the internet this weekend hinting that the next revision of the MacBook Pro will have the same multi-touch abilities as the Air. That’d be logical, after all - the MacBook Pro’s haven’t been updated in a while, and that would be a nice feature, right?
The only problem with that is [...]
Since I heard that the MacBook Air didn’t come with an onboard optical drive, but did come, instead, with this magic virtual disk feature, I’ve been having a very interesting wonder - does this also mean that NetBoot now works - at least for the Air - over wireless?
And, fresh off the show floor today [...]
I love iTunes (and my massive music library); if my MBP is open, there’s a 98% chance that it’s got music coming out. Using it all day long like this, I wanted some hot keys for it.
Man oh man, did I find some. After trying a host of options - including Quicksilver - [...]
It’s fairly well accepted by most commenters at this point that Time Machine may be one of the biggest features to be part of Leopard. Even those users who managed their own backup solutions - and many still do, including myself - applaud it for making backups both easy and intuitive for the average [...]
Contrary to some belief, Macs are not just heavily used by designers, photgraphers, and other creative types, they’re heavily used by scientists as well. (As a scientist and computer tech in an all-Mac lab, I love my Macs.)
If you’re a scientist - and even if you’re not, so don’t stop reading, O Non-Scientists - [...]
The upgrade to Leopard has improved more than just the OS - it made Mail, in my opinion, much more usable.
One of the best features is the data detection in the mouse pointer. Running your mouse over a date produces a small drop-down arrow that gives you the option to add it to iCal. [...]
No sooner do I write about how I miss CandyBar then lo and behold it appears! CandyBar 3 was released today, available at Panic. It’s $29 for a license, and there’s a free 14 day trial if you want to take it for a spin first. A discount is available to registered [...]
As you might have guessed from my past articles here, I tend to heavily customize the appearance of OS X on any machines I use regularly. Looking at my desktop, I see no default icons, my dock isn’t much better, and every time I use someone else’s machine, I’m generally surprised by the candy-colored [...]
Since I installed Leopard, I’ve been noticing some strange behavior with my wireless networks. When my Macbook Pro wakes from sleep, I get a window warning that none of my preferred wireless networks can be found, and offering me a choice of the various ones it can see.
One of these, oddly, is my house [...]
I’ve been using multiple virtual desktops for years, in just about every operating system imaginable. Since sometime in 2004 I’ve used them in OS X, generally in the form of the now-mostly-defunct Desktop Manager. It’s a fairly good program, but lately I kept noticing an error reading: “: The function `CGSUniqueCString’ [...]
Anyone else tired of a Dock’d Applications folder that seems to be a link to Address Book?
I’m hearing a lot of complaints in various forums and reviews about the icons of stacks in the dock, and not much in the way of solutions, so I thought I’d suggest the one that’s working for me. [...]
Since I switched from Firebird to iCal a little while ago as part of an effort to try this ‘integration’ thing Apple’s been proposing for the last ten years, I’ve been frustrated by one thing.
…Where are my holidays?
I always look at iCal - or any calendar - in month view, so one of the big [...]
LifeBoat, from Martian Technologies, is a really cool idea. Automatically back up particular files to USB drives whenever I plug them in? Oh yes, please! However, in execution - well, it was a bit problematic.
Let me talk, first, about what it does, and does well.
You, the user, plug in a USB key. [...]
I have a vintage 800MHz iMac G4. There, I’ve said it, and wow, does that sound strange and unpleasant to me. I love my iMac - remember those commercials where it stuck its ‘tongue’ out at the guy on the sidewalk? - and I was very excited to hear, initially, that I could [...]
