Sunday, November 18, 2007

The Apple Blog (10 сообщений)

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  RSS  The Apple Blog
The Apple Blog, published by and for the day-to-day Apple user, is a prominent source for news, reviews, walkthroughs, and real life application of all Apple products.
http://theappleblog.com
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  • OmniFocus: Dropping in January

    Omnifocus
    The Omni Group has been working feverishly on their version of a GTD (Getting Things Done) application for the Apple platform. They’ve been letting 16,000 individuals play with their “sneaky peek” of the application and enhancing the code daily for months.

    Well I just heard today - and you can verify this on their website - that they’ll be releasing the 1.0 application on January 8, 2008. At that time it will cost $79.95 for a license - however if you act fast, you can pre-purchase your license for half the cost ($39.95)! Now there’s a deal for ya!

    If you’re unfamiliar with OmniFocus and what it does, you can of course check out the website, but in the meantime, here’s what Omni Group has to say:

    Let us worry about keeping your goals and tasks, both personal and professional, in one ordered, easy to access system that you can depend on.

    With features like Task Management, the ability to capture tasks in almost any way that fits your workflow (Quicksilver, or Services menu for instance), Securely storing your data, and smart auto-completion of items upon entry, it’s a great step forward in this application space. And if you’re one who likes integration, they’ve got you covered there too with iCal, Mail, and Spotlight tie-ins. Lovely!

    As I’ve used OmniFocus for the past few months, I’ve also learned to leverage the GTD system to help organize my life. I’ve tried several of the offerings in this area - iGTD, Kinkless GTD, etc - and have never found the sweet spot (remember of course that your mileage may vary). Other applications seem to do too much, or have too much interface and options available - really, there can be too many features sometimes! - and I always found it rather daunting trying to get my tasks captured and manage them. The whole point in GTD is to capture these things without much effort so you can focusing on the ‘doing’ of these things, rather than the management. In my opinion, OmniFocus is the sweet spot for these needs.

    This is in no way meant as a review of OmniFocus, just that it’s been a breath of fresh air as I’ve been testing it these past months. If you’re looking for a superb GTD application, or are finally ready to give this ‘craze’ a try, OmniFocus is a great starting point - and for now, a great price point as well!

    If questions still remain, check out Ethan Schoonover’s (if you’ve been following along at home, Ethan is the creator of Kinkless GTD, and has now taken up employment at Omni Group) great new Quick Start Guide of this awesome new productivity application. Happy GTD’ing!





  • iPhone Goodness (and Gotchas) from Google

    Apple did something very evil this summer: they timed the launch of the iPhone to almost perfectly coincide with the start of our familial migration to Seattle from Pennsylvania (for a new job opportunity). Knowing that we would need to be interacting remotely quite frequently for some time, my wife and I made the decision to free ourselves from the backwater phone tech that Verizon had to offer, bite the (extremely painful) early termination bullet and purchase two iPhones. (As an aside, while I do not miss Verizon’s choice of phones, I do miss their stellar network service). It has been the first phone my wife has actually enjoyed using and I was looking forward to the opportunity (during the pre-launch hype, at least) of writing applications for it and converging mobile broadband computing, telephony and entertainment – a path was loathe to take pre-Apple. I had no idea it would be the key to at least my survival in our new hometown.

    It started with relatively painless access to e-mail (Google hosts e-mail for our domain, so there were some initial challenges with Mobile Mail) and the brilliant iChat-like SMS implementation. We were able to easily exchange vital data regarding the house sale, house purchase, flights, etc, and visual voicemail and no-brainer conference calling made vocal coordination a snap. The real power of the iPhone – for me, at least – came from Google. Prior to this opportunity, I had never been further west than Vegas, so I was completely new to the greater Seattle area. Google Maps for iPhone made it a breeze to figure out where I was and where I wanted to be. The gotcha was how to get there. I was car-less for a while (in transit for a while as it made its way across the country) and didn’t really want to drive anyway – trying to be as eco-friendly here as possible. That’s when I discovered Google Transit. Until the most recent incarnation of the web tool, it made getting around the mass transit system here a breeze. Now, it’s pretty much useless as the results page brings up Google Maps for iPhone and driving directions instead of a well-formatted transit schedule. [Gotcha #1] Thankfully, the other local transit web apps are more than usable in Mobile Safari until Google gets their act together.

    The initial hiccups with POP mail access to hosted GMail accounts were frustrating, and the Mobile Safari experience to the full GMail client was less than stellar. Google’s recent switch to IMAP helped, but since they did a pretty rudimentary IMAP implementation it was also lacking. Then, I was pleasantly surprised to see that they completely overhauled the Mobile Safari version of their mail interface. Even over EDGE it beats IMAP by a wide margin and is overall less buggy than Mobile Mail. Plus, there is far more consistency between it and the full web interface than IMAP or POP.

    Being a mass transit road warrior, I use the iPhone for entertainment even more than I had originally expected, but at some point during my first few weeks in Seattle I was longing for a dedicated RSS reader (it’s an application that is still sorely lacking) to go beyond moving pictures and sound. I reluctantly imported all of my feeds into Google Reader – I’ve been a die-hard NewsFire user for quite a while and have not looked back. I was able to catch-up on-the-go and not have to sift through the same feeds when I was at a full browser. The mobile interface wasn’t perfect, but it worked. So, I was further impressed when the fine folks on the Reader team gave the mobile version an awesome face-lift for the iPhone. Not only does it look better, but it’s much faster as well.

    They’ve applied the same cosmetic surgery to practically their whole suite of mobile web apps – including Docs & Calendar – and have done such a good job that http://m.google.ccom/ now retains a permanent spot in one of the eight coveted open “tabs” in Mobile Safari. Despite a few areas that still need improvement, Google has provided the tools that really make the iPhone indispensable.





  • Hidden image filters in Address Book

    Address Book Filters

    A little hidden gem in Leopard has been discovered. It would seem Address Book holds the key to a slew of additional image filters that can be applied to user images in Address Book. From my rough guess, there are about 25+ new filters here that don’t seem to be available anywhere else.

    A short listing of some of the filters:

    • ASCII Art
    • Blue Print
    • Color Invert
    • Color Controls
    • Dot Screen
    • False Color
    • Film Stock
    • Kaleidescope
    • Line Overlay
    • Line Screen
    • Monochrome
    • Motion Blur
    • Neon
    • Pixellate
    • Tracer

    Thanks Adam Wilcox for the tip





  • Apple releases first Leopard update

    Apple Leopard

    Apple is on a roll today, releasing a new version of Final Cut Express, as well as the last update to Tiger. Now, Apple has released its first update to their newest version of OS X, Leopard.

    This update includes a slew of fixes mainly related to reliability and compatibility with the new features in Leopard and is now available in Software Update for download.

    Let us know if you have any issues after the update is made or if this update fixes any issues you were having.





  • Logitech G5 Laser Gaming Mouse

    Logitech G5 Laser Mouse I’ve never really liked the Apple mice that I’ve gotten with my machines, and I usually try to get something a bit nicer, like a Logitech or even - *cough* - a Microsoft mouse. These 3rd-party devices feature more buttons with more customization, and better ease-of-use than dealing with the annoying touch-sensitivity of Apple’s recent offerings. Most of the time.
    (more…)





  • Last version of Tiger released - Includes Safari 3

    Today, with the release of OS X 10.4.11, Apple’s beloved Tiger took its last breath. This update to Tiger is to be the last update to an OS that helped usher Apple in to one of its most profitable and market-share changing eras in their lifespan.

    The biggest addition with this update is that Apple is updating Tiger users to it’s latest version of Safari, Safari 3.

    A few other updates include:

    • Improved reliability when running VMWARE’s Fusion
    • Improved compatibility when using OpenType fonts in QuarkExpress
    • Improved syncing between iPhone and Yahoo! address books
    • Improved compatibility with third-party wireless wide-area network devices
    • Improved reliability when mounting external USB hard drives.
    • Support for Microsoft Presenter Mouse 8000
    • Addressed issues with certain Apple Dashboard widgets: Unit Converter, Calculator, Stocks
    • Allowed use of the special keys on aluminum Apple Keyboards to control Aperture slideshows

    Full details available here. The download should be available in Software Update.





  • Final Cut Express 4 Released

    Final Cut Express 4

    Today Apple announced the release of Final Cut Express 4.

    New features include:

    What’s even more interesting with this release is that Apple has now knocked the price of FCE down to $199 (from the $299 it previously sold for). With the reduced price they are certainly aiming to bring the casual video editors up from iMovie and in to something a bit more full-featured. I think this is fantastic news for people who want to do more serious editing but don’t want to drop $1,300 for Final Cut Studio.

    Final Cut Express 4 is available now on Apple’s site.





  • "No Software"

    After my recent painful experience of doing a fresh install of Leopard, I’m going through the paces of reinstalling and reactivating my software. I’d already gotten AppZapper, Quicktime Pro and Final Cut Studio 2 reinstalled with no hitch whatsoever. Now it was time for iWork. After popping in the install DVD and clicking through the first couple of screens, I was presented with this error message:

    no_software2.jpg

    That’s right - “The installer could not install the software because there was no software found to install.”

    Am I missing something? As I said before - I did a brand new install of Leopard and wiped everything. There’s no reference to iWork anywhere in my system, let alone the actual software. I had split the software with a buddy who had installed it (with some minor issues - he actually had to put in the key after a reboot to get it to work correctly) successfully just minutes before my attempt. And even after a couple of ejections and a reboot, the message remains. I’m not incredibly peeved about this, just baffled by the error message. I can’t really think of an instance where this wording would make sense. I would think if there was an issue with the install disk or if the software already existed, it would say as much. But this just looks like it fell out of Windows.

    So as I scratch my head, I’m curious - are there any other iWork users out there with a similar issue?


    Комментарии к сообщению:
    http://theappleblog.com/2007/11/15/no-software/#comments



  • Mozy On Out: My backup and restore experience with Leopard

    SuperDuper, Mozy, Time Machine

    Thinking back a few years, I remember every time I needed to upgrade my system or prepare for a format, I'd rely on using CD-Rs as a method for backing up my media and documents. Pain yes, efficient no, effective, yes. Of course this was back in the early XP days when I needed to format every 6 months to keep my sanity, and my computer booting. But as I grew older, so did my volumes of content. Eventually good fortune was bestowed on me, and a bad Trojan Virus led me to my first iBook. From there formatting wasn't an issue, now it was only a matter of backing up. Three years and one hard drive later, I had learned my lesson the hard way.

    Needless to say I began to look for much more efficient tools to remain organized and safe in case that one inevitable day should return, hard drive hiccups and all. I began using an external for basic back up. Thanks to OS X's ability to simply copy files from my Library to save settings, I was able to back up my iCal, Address book and other application preferences. For software it was more of an issue, keeping .dmg's can be tough. Documents were simple drag and drop, and media, in all its extenuating glory took quite a bit of time. Then came Mozy. And I was happy. It seemed that for 2 gigs of space I would be able to keep a constant back up of key files, documents, few pictures, and application preferences. Having it completely in the cloud and up to date without me touching it, seemed like the perfect blend of web and application.

    I did come across SuperDuper! in my trials, and without paying, the free version only allows for a complete wipe of an external drive and an exact duplicate of your hard drive. I gave it a shot, and felt content only until I realized how quickly I add or update files. Without paying for it, free would be out of the option. I finally saw Leopard spots on the horizon and began preparing my backups for a completely clean install and restore for my now MacBook. I figured now would be the best time if any to put all my backing up methods to the test. So I re-plugged in my external and re-SuperDuper!'d my entire Tiger operating system to create a bootable external drive. Thinking about it made me feel the most secure, mostly because of the issues I kept hearing regarding Leopard installs. Next I made sure my Mozy was synced up ready to go with the nearly all 2 gigs filled with documents, app preferences and more. CD-R's you ask? I think I've had enough for a few lifetimes, and for the record I never had a Re-Writeable drive in those days, so you can imagine how fun it was for me every 6 months to re-burn everything. Having a 2 gig thumb drive, however, I duplicated all the files going to my Mozy on it for reference, and well, just in case.

    Despite the few Leopard install issues I was hearing about, I was prepared for my clean install, and ready to migrate everything if necessary from my external drive. It was my hope that Mozy would be the most efficient method for getting set back up on Leopard. So now came the faithful moment. I popped in the Leopard CD and after one necessary Disk Permission Repair, I had a completely formatted MacBook and Leopard ready to go. So I accessed Mozy's site, logged in and saw three choices for retrieving my files. One, download the client and restore; two, request the files be sent to me via email; three, buy a DVD burned of my files mailed to me. One, I downloaded the client, set it up, but when I chose to restore files, no files appeared in my directory. It took me a minute, but I finally found them. Browsing through my files, a few were missing, namely my iCal. I attributed this to Leopards new and improved iCal which no longer resides in the Library. However I soon realized more was missing, including documents, and other application files. Odd, I remember backing them up, yup, they're all on the thumb drive. Let's see the other options. Two, sure, I'll request it by email, but it takes a few hours to receive the e-mail, and 2 gigs will take a bit of time to download. And three, despite being cheap, I decided that CD/DVD's would be a bit aged for my transition, after all this isn't Windows anymore. So I figured having them e-mail me my files would consist of the same ones the client found, so I hit restore, choice number one (the one Mozy recommends). Seeing the amount of time it would take to download for files that are patchy at best, I gave up after the first twenty minutes. It wasn't worth my time to reorganize files that weren't going to be there. So I fired up my external drive, and migrated my life back over, applications and all.

    I know, you're all thinking well it's great you now have Time Machine. It might be for some, but I haven't set it up yet, and still remain a bit apprehensive about it. I've been hearing issues arising with it, moreover I feel a possible hard drive plus RAM hog. The alarm bells are ringing, and until I see it in physical action, I think I'll stick to what I have. Unfortunately SuperDuper! isn't Leopard ready, and for the record I did eventually opt to buy it and be able to sync only new files, or updated files to the external. For Tiger it was an immense life saver, and once it's Leopard ready, I believe it will be my go to system. Maybe it's hard to let old methods die, and maybe I'm taking the long way, but I've always been a, "better to be safer, than sorry" kind of guy.

    For those who love the idea of uploading to cloud for immediate access wherever you are, I did finally find something worth trying. Box.net offers a 1 gig free account with a good number of features to boot. You can publicly share files, folders, or have a Facebook widget of your files. And so I've decided to backup my entire Documents folder to it in case I need to access it globally. But dragging and dropping files can be really tedious, especially if you have to do it one at a time. So thanks to Firefox, and the FileUploader application, I can access my Box.net account and simply drag and drop my entire Documents folder at once for an entire sync. It's no "back up" system that will automatically retrieve files, and update files, but it is a simple tool provided you keep organized.





  • Defending Apple's Good Looks

    Apple Leopard

    The Apple nay-sayers of today offer what they think is a solid argument against the Apple consumer; that Apple's "game" is solely based on good looks alone and, as such, Apple consumers are nothing more then superficial ego-consumers who buy the product solely for social value. Trend, it would seem, is the buying power for Apple.

    Now, before judgment is cast upon my soul, hear me out and see where I'm going with this. First, as a complete Apple fan boy you would think I fall into this argument as well. I, just as any other Apple consumer, may be attracted first by a product's look, feel, and possible "trend" status. Ultimately however, it's more than that. Steve Jobs' goal has always been to meld form with function, and that's where the meat balances the potatoes. We as consumers can appreciate a beautiful-looking piece of technology, but what is more important is the utility we receive from it. Therefore, arguably, the user experience is the sole foundation for a products success.

    To get a better idea of what I mean, let's take a look at three "competing" products. We'll base this solely on the actual user experience, operating systems alone.

    • Form and Function equal - Leopard
    • Form but no function - Windows Vista
    • Function but no form - Linux

    Function but no form

    Let's go from the bottom up. Linux provides a secure foundation for developers to continue building upon. Just as the Linux community grows, the operating system itself seems organic, and grows with them. An open-source operating system, completely free to use, yet has never become mainstream. Why is that? Could it be due to the lack of form? Maybe by design Linux looks and feels more complicated; perhaps its role as a "developer tool" makes basic users quiver in fear. Whatever the reason, Linux never had the break that OSX has had since its onset.

    Form but no function

    I hope many will agree that, while Vista is one beautiful piece of glass, it's a hollow space past the surface. Its innumerable new, eye-catching features are tantalizing, but on a practical scale, it shows little variation from the preceding XP. Coincidentally, like most beauty in this world, it seems to come with a price: either your sanity, or your RAM. It begs the question, why would users put up with such a bad relationship? Naturally, the operating system's open quality led to its massive globalization, but at what further cost? Interoperability was what seemed to hold Microsoft together, but now with more customization available and the growing abilities of Web 2.0 sharing and creating, it seems more relevant now than ever to rethink what the true balance of form and function is.

    Form and Function equal

    The key to Apple's success is their ability to balance function and form. Never will a device hyperextend itself at the risk of failing. Only the most secure features are added slowly into newer upgrades. The jump from Tiger to Leopard alone reflects this. Instead of recreating a completely new operating system that requires massive hardware upgrades, or so many new features that the system itself feels completely unique and unfamiliar, we see a simple system that reflects characteristics of its ancestors. A few features, here, a few features there, and you're still secure in your space.

    So judge us as you will, but remember, that in a world of trend, somethings are popular for a reason.







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