Posts filed under "technobable"
Well that was not what I wanted to happen. Three posts made their way into the RSS feed that were not meant to be posts since they were emails….
Thankfully they are not that bad and hopefully we won’t be seeing that sort of thing again.
Back to our regularly scheduled programme….
Biolab Disaster - Damn that boy is talented. From the creator of Asaph (which runs my the Elsewhere part of this website) comes this excellent platform game, done in HTML5, CSS, Javascript and Canvas. Look mum, no Flash required.
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
Slide Screen - If I owned an Android phone, this is possible the first App that would be top on my list…if I had a smart phone (only a few months before that becomes a reality).
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?
Microsoft courier tablet - I’m actually completely and totally shocked that this is coming from Microsoft. This digital notebook is the kind of thing I’ve been clamoring for, even though I thought it would come in the form of a netbook. If it turns out to become a reality (and keep the slick design) then I might be all over this (even though it’s MS, I’m still shocked that this is supposed to be coming out from them).
Palm Pixi - I think I just found my next phone. I am all over this when it gets released.
Tour the Bugatti factory, Molsheim - It’s but a glimpse, but a glimpse I’ve never seen before, for the single most expensive supercar manufacturer in the world.
Elonex eBook reader - Interesting looking ebook reader to rival the Sony version (which IMHO is way to expensive and has an annoying page turning interface).
@font-face: The Potential of Web Typography - Great showcase of what’s to come by using the @font-face rule in CSS. Open this in Firefox 3.5 only. Tried a couple of times in Safari 4, only to have the browser crash on me twice in a row. (via Daring Fireball).
http://www.brokenkode.com/font-face-the-potential-of-web-typography
“Outside the Box” Navigation with jQuery - Although I absolutely LOVE how stacks looks on OS X, I can never get around to using it because I hate the dock at the bottom of my screen. However the implementation onto a website looks so appealing.
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.
Moblin v2.0 Beta - Short for Mobile Linux, this is the OS that has been massaged by Intel to better integrate (and utilise) with their atom processors. Definitely one of the best operating systems I’ve seen for netbooks (apart form OS X). Definitely check out the video to see it in action. Also with a rumored 2 second startup time, this does seem like the way to go for these smaller computers.
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.
MacHeist 3 Charity Breakdown - For all the flack that MacHeist gets for being something that rapes the indie developers that contribute their software for such a low price, there is this little element of the whole deal, which somehow doesn’t get a lot of press. Nearly a million dollars donated to charities. When’s the last time that a Windows bundle made money for charity? Seriously. I was a windows boy for years. Not once did i buy a software bundle (does that even exist), and therefore no money ever made it to any charities from that effort.
Linux Turns 15 - 15 years ago today, version 1.0 of Linux came out. I used Ubuntu for a year, but the lack of the kind of software that I wanted just wasn’t forthcoming. This isn’t to say that there isn’t great software, just not completely for me. I am happy to see how Linux does see poised to take over the mobile world (who would have thought it) - in the forms of WebOS and Android.
Switch Display Options - Added to my collection of options I might use for my eventual illustrations category on the site.
Apple’s Red-Headed Stepchild - Why do I have a Mac Mini? It’s my entry into the world of the Mac. It took a year before I got a unibody macbook, but that first step was through the mini. It’s a work horse; I am only now thinking of reinstalling the operating system (nearly 1.5 years) after I actually bought the machine (which can be attributed to my meddling with things that I don’t understand). It is weird how long it’s taking Apple to actually update it; maybe there are more people like myself that start on the mini and move to other hardware in the future? Apple does know about all my purchases after all.
Safari 4 Beta - Nice to see some good little additions making it into Safari. Now if only they could get the plugin architecture sorted out, it might stand a proper chance at making inroads on Firefox.
Saulius review Pixelmator Sprinkle’s new feature - I’ve been using Pixelmator for nearly a year now and month in an month out the guys have been doing a bang up job of moving the software forward. What’s incredibly pleasing to see is just how far this little application has grown in a year between version 1.0 and the current version 1.4. A great deal of the gripes that I had have been rectified and here’s hoping that the few I have left will be addressed soon (grouping layers and better text control).
Palm Pre Software Product Manager interviewed - Great little interview with the Palm Pre software product manager. What’s interesting are the potential future products that use WebOS as the software of choice.
Snow Leopard screenshots show interface tweaks - Although pretty minor, what’s great is this small incremental design philosophy that I think I’ve really come to like about OSX. Don’t fix something that isn’t broken. Address things that users are looking for/complaining about (as much as is possible). I guess it’s all down to coming up with a solid foundation and not letting your ideas get the better of you.
First Screenshot of Chrome for the Mac - Easily my favourite app on Windows (after Excel). Although I’ve been using Webkit proper for a week now (much faster), the speed and the general feel of Chrome is exactly what I want in a browser (along with plugins like Firefox). It’s just a matter of time before Chrome becomes a real player.
feedly: a magazine-like start page - Easily my favourite Firefox plugin; so much so I’m considering using Firefox as my main browser because of this plugin.