Posts filed under "apple"
My god, it’s been a good long while since I’ve posted here, and honestly there is sooo much good stuff to talk about. The main issue I guess is that now my thoughts are distributed across the net. From Flickr, to Facebook, from Twitter to Instagram, to Google Reader. It’s no longer concentrated in one spot.
Also, I don’t update with personnal stuff, which really is what this blog was originally meant to be about. It’s a long form of expression, something that none of the above are.
So here’s the first bit of news, I’m officially engaged. Yeah, pretty sudden, even for me, but I guess, when you know, you know. And I knew very very quickly with Yasmine, from the first date I knew there was something up. Hopefully I might get her to start blogging on here as well.
Now all I need is a Habari app for my iphone and I’m good - yeah I got myself a brand spanking new iphone, which I love of course.
Macworld iPhone 4 cover - I love this sort of thing. It’s no DLSR, but you definitely don’t need your point and shoot at the bbq any more. Now if only I could get my hands on an iphone 4 I would be happy.
http://www.brokenkode.com/peter-belanger-blog-macworld-iphone-4-cover
AutoCAD for Mac - It’s a long time coming, but one of the main reasons for not jumping to a mac for business just went out the windows (get it).
iPhone and iPad Apps for Absolute Beginners - Obviously couldn’t find this book at any of the book store that I frequent in Lebanon. Need to find a good store with computer manuals. But this books looks very interesting indeed. Put this in a long list of todo pile.
http://www.brokenkode.com/iphone-and-ipad-apps-for-absolute-beginners
Apple store in Covent Garden - This is significant, because one of my best buds (Stathis) was the main MEP contractor on the project and has been living and breathing that project for a while now. Good work buddy, it looks awesome.
New Mac Mini - New Mac Mini is out today. As an owner of the previous version, I can honestly say it was one of the best buys for me. It’s been slimmed down even further and makes it easier for additional RAM to be added. Friggin awesome!
Android 2.2 - And Google keeps on rolling (a month?) before Apple releases the latest iPhone. Of course we already know what’s coming on that front thanks to a drunken Apple employee.
iTunes Visual Redesign - I soo wish that Apple would sort out the UI elements of iTunes, because it really is a complete joke. Here’s soemthing Brandon did for free. Use it damn you.
Minutes Widget - One of the simplest and best widgets I’ve ever downloaded.
Welcome To Macintosh Documentary - I’ve come relatively late to the house of Apple, so this was good watching.
Screenshot Plus - Best. Widget. Ever. You want to take screenshots? This is the only thing you need. Seriously.
AppleGeeks 3.0 - I’ve not heard of this, but it’s actually pretty well done. I think I’ll be buying the first volume when I get back to comic book civilisation (yeah there’s not my in way of anglophone comics here in Lebanon, the fekking landscape is completely barren).
Earlier this month I moved this blog back over to WordPress in an act of madness. I hated it and did little blogging in that time. In considering why I hated the experience at WordPress so much, I came upon an interesting parallel. Habari is to WordPress what Apple is to Microsoft.
One of the things that can be said about Apple when compared to Microsoft is that Apple provides a more elegant computing experience that has been better thought out. In a similar fashion Habari is by far the more elegant product where the details have been sweated out and the experience has been better considered.
As a simple example when you install WP you get a random password in your email box and then the second you log into the panel you get a message asking you to change your password. Why didn’t you let me choose a password during the installation process?
Meanwhile on Habari, the installation is all done on the same page, you insert your preferred password right there.
As another example once you’ve logged into WordPress you’re bomobarded with this clusterfuck of items - TMI (too much information). Yes, i know you can remove most of that stuff (but this is all feeding into my analogy). These items aren’t necessary, they’re added first and you are asked to remove them. It’s like when you buy yourself a Dell PC and get a whole bunch of crapware installed on it, which you can remove (most of the time).
Habari doesn’t have that shit to begin with. These items have not been added from the outset. These things have been considered. And who else do we know that doesn’t like superflous stuff cluttering your view and generally getting in your way? These are just a couple of examples which I might expand upon, because the above is basically the tip of the iceberg.
These are subtle differences but important I think in the final assessment, afterall the devil is in the details.
List of Mac OS X Keyboard Shortcuts & Keystrokes - Even though I’ve been on a Mac for nearly 2 years now, I can’t count how many times I’ve looked for how to take a screenshot. Excellent reference site.
http://www.brokenkode.com/dan-rodneys-list-of-mac-os-x-keyboard-shortcuts-amp-keystrokes
iDon’t - Very funny campaign. Mainly because they just did it in a pokey-funny-jab-way. However my amusement (and that of many others can turn) as there’s NOTHING more annoying than building up hype on the back of shit. That’s the real issue here, is the phone going to be any good?
Wow, can you believe it’s October already? Seriously where the hell has this year gone already? Yesterday we watched Godfather and ate chocolate santa. Seriously chocolate santas are already in the supermarkets, WTF? The countdown has begun before I move out of Golders Green after 7 years and go on walkabout. Loads of shit to sort out before then, which all basically starts this week as I order by boxes and self storage options and start getting rid of clothes and unwanted stuff that have accumulated over the last few years. It’s not too bad (yeah you might hear me complaining later on this week) but I know I’ve got my work cut out for me.
In other quick and dirty news, we went and saw Joe Sacco at the ICA this week, which was brilliant, since he met everyone later on and did some signings, which was really cool. His latest books sounds like it’s going to be amazing, so I can’t wait (Footnotes from Gaza). We saw a few images and it does look like it’s going to be a keeper.
On a completely separate note, I’m looking for a good font creator/editor for Mac. I’ve not found any that won’t break the bank (I’m looking in your general ugly direction Fontlab). Fontographer is no longer part of macromedia/Adobe, but surely there’s a nice indie developer out there who has made something that can be used to make a font? I refuse to believe there is nothing else out there.
Garfield Widget - Easily the greatest widget ever created. The whole archive of Garfield is there. These strips were meant to be consumed in byte sized chunks, so I’m incredible excited to read a bit of Garfield every day.
DoubleTwist - Sync all of your devices from your mac. This would have been awesome back when I used a Blackberry. Now that the Pre has been announced for the UK, I’m considering it, even though I’m not going to be around for like 6 months at least, and the contract is a minimum of 18 months and 720 pounds poorer. Should I get an iphone 3GS, or wait till the summer and get myself the Pixi, or the new iphone 3GS2? Dilemmas.
Incredible, amazing, awesome Apple - No wonder everyone feels like they’ve smoked something after watching these keynote speeches. It’s pretty amazing when you see it like this (see what I did there).
http://www.brokenkode.com/youtube-incredible-amazing-awesome-apple
Developer Color Picker - I’ve been using Hex Colour Picker, but I’ll give this a try and see whether it’s any better (love anything Panic are involved with).
Tweak Your Finder - Nice little collection of things to do to make the Finder better. I like the plugin for the quick look in folders.
Safari 4 is now out of Beta. And you can definitely tell that they have been listened.
Tabs
First off the location of the tabs has changed. In the Beta, they were located at the top (like Chrome). It was an interesting experiment that doesn’t fit within the Mac mold. The only way to make the tabs work, is for the top menu to completely disappear. Clearly this was too radical (or cannot be done?) that they’ve opted to put the tabs back to where they have always gone.
The work on the tabs doesn’t stop there however. They’ve gone back to allowing you to select the whole tab rather than a corner to drag them across. That was a function that really pissed me off with the Beta.
Speed
It’s definitely MUCH faster. Both at loading and at rendering pages. In fact I’ll go so far as to say it’s giving me the same speed surprise I had when I first ran and installed Google Chrome (read item 4). Clearly Apple aren’t resting on their laurels. They’ve taken it back to Google who only recently released their Alpha version of Chrome for the Mac.
Buttons and Interface
In Safari 3 I often resorted to hacks to add some much need functionality, such as a bloody tab button. Yeah I know it’s cmd+t but dammit I wanted a button for when I was feeling bloody lazy. Thankfully they’ve brought in a bunch of buttons that can sit in the menu now. Another favourite is removing/adding the bookmarks bar button.
Loading and Reloading
The loading graphic has also changed now. I don’t actually mind this at all. In fact I would go on to say that I actually like this, however I actually liked the previous integration of the blue bar across the entire address book a lot more.
Reloading a page is still in the address line; When this was first introduced I was not a fan, however this has grown on me.
Overall impressions is that this feels like the next logical step forward for Safari. The Beta actually for once showed that they are willing to go back on their original ideas and that they do actually listen to user’s opinions, which is always nice.
Mac OS X Snow Leopard - Coming out in September, for $29 (probably £30 in the UK) for a single license, more for the ‘family pack’. I’ve got two macs, does this mean I need to buy the family pack? My understanding is that it’s not actually enforced (through serial numbers) but through the end user’s conscience.
Native Google Chrome for Mac OS X - Still version 0.1, but you can definitely see that it’s still the fastest browser on the market; that and the Omnibar works so much better than anything Apple of Mozilla have created.
Tweetie for Mac - Another couple of hours, another twitter application for the Mac. Yeah, sorry Tweetie looks like it just took it all several steps further than everyone else. Check out the video and you’ll understand what I’m talking about. Coming out on Monday.