No big ideas or design insights today; just a few Mac-related things I wanted to clear off my notepad.
First, I tried hard to spend my US$100 iPhone rebate at the Apple Store in SoHo yesterday — without going over the hundred dollar-mark. So I bought myself a Contour Design Showcase for my iPhone, and one of those slick new Apple keyboards.
Total price, including tax: US$90.98. So close; now I need to find something for US$9.02 to spend the balance on. I know I can just put it towards something of a greater value that I probably would’ve bought from Apple anyway (e.g., iWork ’08) but for some irrational reason, I’m feeling defiant. I guess I don’t want to feel like a sucker for letting Apple’s rebate offer trick me into some larger purchase… though as one of those faithful drones who waited in line to buy an iPhone in the first place, it’s hard to make the argument that I haven’t already got “SUCKER” written all over my face.
The Case of the iPhone Case
Speaking of the iPhone, after much informal research of the cases currently available, I finally settled on the Contour Design Showcase as the one that best suits my needs. I was really reluctant to put my iPhone in a case because doing so seems to run counter to the phone’s slim form factor. Besides, unlike past Apple handheld devices, the glass surface on the iPhone appears to be pretty scratch-proof, which almost obviates the need for a case.
Ultimately though, it’s not scratches that worry me so much as it is dents. The fact is, I will drop my iPhone at some point. There’s no use in denying that. So I needed a case that will protect it when I inevitably let it slip through my buttery fingers, sending it crashing towards the ground. The Showcase’s combination of clear plastic and rubberized edges strikes just the right balance for me. I also owned a Showcase for my iPod photo and still use it to this day with satisfaction, so the decision wasn’t that hard once the Showcase finally shipped for the iPhone.
Brand New Keyboard
So I plugged in that new Apple keyboard last night and it’s great. I’ve always been partial to the key switches on Apple’s laptops, which, I believe, are essentially the same ones built into this keyboard. I found my typing to be instantly more accurate; I guess different factors inform everyone’s typing accuracy differently, but so far this one seems to be impacting my typing positively. I only wish that Apple had manufactured the full-size keyboard (with the numeric keypad and arrow keys) in a wireless model. It seems only obstinacy would suggest that it would be a good idea not to do so.
Goodbye to OmniWeb
Finally, can I just tell you that I’m a big, big fan of the OmniWeb browser? Straight out of the box, it has the best built-in features for a superior browsing experience: visual tabs, site-specific style sheets, source editing and previewing, zoomable text entry fields, etc.
But… I just can’t use it any more. It seems to have more memory leaks than a Swiss cheese schooner, and it crashes and crashes and crashes some more on my Intel-based iMac. Its publisher, the Omni Group, have apparently neglected it so much of late that it saddens me. I can only hope that when they finish their upcoming and very promising OmniFocus product that they return to OmniWeb to spruce things up a bit.
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