Fresh Apple: The Apple Blog (6 сообщений)

На что подписаться? | Управление подпиской

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
другие подписчики этой ленты также читают >>

Finally Time For Leopard?
Apple managed to sneak a few security updates in at the tail end of December and Security Update 2007-09 adds 41 to the CVE totals for OS X in general, with 31 for 10.4 (Tiger), and only 20 for OS X 10.5 (Leopard). This is in addition to the Java and QuickTime updates released on December 13, 2007.

Windows users need to pay Apple’s security site a vitit as well if you’re using Safari (all three of you).

Given the unexpeced, end of year, full-on security patch release and the disparity between the number of Leopard security fixes and Tiger security fixes, it looks like it really might be time to bite the bullet and switch if you haven’t already. The miscreants may just be waiting for Leopard to gain further popularity before concentrating efforts, but I suspect that the engineers at Apple did a solid job reviewing and fixing the new operating system before its release (there will always be functional and security bugs in something as large as darwin/OS X) and the new security components should make it even more difficult for attacks to be successful.

I have two workstations converted and have been pleased (mostly) with the results. I was waiting for Parallels to get their act together before migrating my primary workstation and their recent release seems to have squashed the remaining Leopard bugs (I run both VMware and Parallels and VMware was ready to go far earlier). The upcoming long holiday weekend should provide enough down time to make the switch on the rest of the systems, with the security situation providing even more incentive. (Truth be told, I’m also really interested in being able to take advantage of the fully integrated scripting bridge, but more on that in another post).

Комментарии к сообщению:
http://theappleblog.com/2007/12/18/finally-time-for-leopard/#comments
Apple's New Look
Apple certainly did "Think Different" when they began using the white body iMacs. Soon it transcended across all Apple products and accessories. Is a new trend coming? One away from the white light?

From the launch of the iPhone it became clear that Apple was reinventing their look. All previous artist renderings referred to Apple's classic white approach. But with metal, glass and black accents, it was clear Apple was entering into a new phase and a new look. The new iMac redesign became another indicator for Apple's changing taste. Now rumors are abound concerning metallic MacBooks. Looking back on the most recent changes I think the pattern is becoming more 'clear'. With iPods no longer offered in the classy white casing, soon nothing will be left. Even the rumored Cinema Displays will probably become twins to the new iMac casing.

Can we expect accessories to follow suite? New metallic keyboards may not fully translate the new style, but I think we're beginning to see the picture…the new Apple. Perhaps businesses will find them more suitable? Or consumers will appreciate the finer materials? Either way, soon enough the Mighty Mouse will be the last of its kind. A plastic white figure, in an aluminum world.

Комментарии к сообщению:
http://theappleblog.com/2007/12/17/apple%e2%80%99s-new-look/#comments
Community Activity: December 17, 2007
Комментарии к сообщению:
http://theappleblog.com/2007/12/17/community-activity-december-17-2007/#comments
Quick Look Plugins List
Apple’s Quick Look has quickly become a feature I use on a daily basis. It’s integration with Finder (and other apps) is done so well that it’s become second nature to use it.

One thing that’s becoming clear is that Apple’s developers had the end user in mind more than we thought by making Quick Look extremely easy to extend.

Jon MacDonald realized this and has started compiling a solid list of Quick Look plugins.

My favorite plugin by far is qlcolorcode, which gives Quick Look some syntax-highlighting magic.

Комментарии к сообщению:
http://theappleblog.com/2007/12/17/quick-look-plugins-list/#comments
Living a Microsoft Office Free Lifestyle
As part of my Leopard switch, I set one goal for myself: run nothing but Intel native applications. That meant finding a clear alternative for Microsoft Office.

Pages

Sticking with the iWork '08 trial, I began my migration quickly and easily. All my Word documents changed peacefully to Pages by default and all opened just fine. The only minor issue I ran into was not having Microsoft’s font book, and therefor several obscure fonts were reset to Times New Roman. If anyone has a quick fix for this, I'd be interested to hear. I imagine I could take the font book from a Mac with Office installed and simply replace my font book with it?

Opening new documents was simple. Using the Blank template I was able to manage around Page's Inspector. However I quickly ran into problems re-saving edited documents. Pages by default saves in the Pages format. So even editing a .Doc requires you save it as Pages. That's a bit frustrating. You can export a file into Word for convenience, especially if you're planning on sharing those documents with others. But it would be much more convenient to be able to choose your format directly from the Save screen. So I began saving my documents in the Pages format and getting rid of the normal Word documents when done editing them. Fortunately for me, I didn't need to export documents as much as I thought I would. But again, it is frustrating after awhile. At least offer a keyboard command to quickly access the export feature so I don't have to rely on my mouse as frequently.

The one real benefit I found with Pages and iWork was how quickly it opened. I imagine since Office is currently not Intel native, it requires more time to open. We'll see how that remedies when Office '08 goes on sale. But it's nice not having to wait for a document to open. So far I've been happy with Pages, until it comes to creating a new flyer, not based on any of their templates. When creating a new layout or design, I can get more done and faster through Photoshop.

Keynote & Numbers

I'm lumping Keynote and Numbers together because as a writer my main focus lies solely on document editing. So for a more precise comparison, I recommend trying them out yourselves.

I think watching Steve Jobs' Keynotes has created a bias for me. Or if you're more familiar with An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore relies on Keynote for his presentation. Feature wise, Keynote offers very similar features as PowerPoint, just in a more clean, streamlined fashion. Since it meshes directly with iPhoto and iTunes, it's a lot simpler to import music, photos, or even videos. One feature I truly love about Keynote is my ability to export it directly to iPod. When giving presentations I find it easier to carry around my iPod and A/V chord instead of a laptop and chords. Much less fuss, and much more streamlined. You may not retain as many features, but for someone that needs something portable, it's a great idea. Over all I feel more satisfied with my Keynote presentations than I have with PowerPoint, so I'm going to stick with it.

Numbers was an interesting one for me. I could open my previous Excel files fine, but if they contained drop down menus, or set fields I began running into issues. Not a spreadsheet fiend, I think I'd prefer Excel only because of its familiarity and the fact it seems a business staple.

Recommendation

One thing I appreciate overall with iWork and Mac is the attention to detail. For example iWork allows you to move a document currently being editing to another folder without any errors. The document will kindly ask whether too start saving there, or save in two locations. Between Pages and Keynote I feel satisfied for most of my current office needs.

For students, something to keep in mind, is universality. Obviously Office is the preferred choice for schools and teachers, so it might be best for you to stick with it. Especially for note taking, I remember enjoying Word's Notebook feature. Not only could I simultaneously record lecture from within Word, I could write clear outlined notes using its Notebook format. It was simple, efficient, and helped a lot.

If price is a factor for you, be sure and check out NeoOffice. It provides a classical approach and is completely free. iWork can be purchased for $79, and it looks like Office '08 will run you up $150 for the Student/Teacher edition or $399 for Office Basic. If you're running low on hard drive space, try testing out Google Docs and Spreadsheets, ZoHo, or Adobe's new Buzzword. There are a variety of ways around office applications, so find what works most efficiently for you. If you have any recommendations or ideas, feel free to comment.

Комментарии к сообщению:
http://theappleblog.com/2007/12/17/living-a-microsoft-office-free-lifestyle/#comments
veni, Vidi, vici
Here’s a simple little app which works a treat if you need to view and/or import video from a firewire DV device onto your Mac without firing-up a fully fledged FinalCut style application…it’s called Vidi.

Vidi has a number of extra facilities, all relating to owners of the Formac Studio range of DV devices, which I have never accessed and can’t comment on, but for sheer ease of use and accessibility it can’t be beat for DV import over firewire.

Connect your video camera or other firewire input and open Vidi, this takes but a second. If all is well, Vidi will recognise your input device and show a preview screen which can be windowed or full screen. This is useful for, of course, previewing your input before or during recording, but I have also used this as a standalone viewer for larger workshop groups when sharing clips straight off a video camera which can be handy.

When ready to record, select a place to save the file to and click Record. You’re off. When you’ve finished click the big red button to stop recording.

That really is all there is to Vidi, but if you need to capture dv footage simply and quickly this is enough.

Vidi is a Universal application, but for me it works well on both an iBook G4 and MacBook Pro, both still on Tiger.

Vidi puts a Vidi Server resource in your Log-In items, for those of you who like to keep an eye on such things, but the documentation assures this takes up almost no system resources when not running. I have no reason to doubt this. You will need to quit or remove this before Trashing Vidi if you ever need to. Vidi comes with a little AppleScript to Quit Vidi Server, should you need to, as well as excellent documentation for any application let alone a free one.

Oh yes, Vidi is freeware. Happy Christmas.

Комментарии к сообщению:
http://theappleblog.com/2007/12/17/veni-vidi-vici/#comments