Where’d the Ambition Go?

Tue 31 Aug 200408:05 PM

My initial thought on Apple’s new iMac, which was announced today at Apple Expo in Paris, is that it’s a nice bit of engineering, but unfortunately it amounts to little more. That the product team seems to have jumped through some nontrivial technical hoops in fitting a G5-based CPU on the back of an LCD screen seems insufficiently impressive to me — I wanted something more groundbreaking. The form factor of the iMac line has, since its inception in 1998, always represented the vanguard of Apple’s consumer thinking; both the net appliance cutesiness of the original and the elegant, sunflower-like articulation of its 2002 successor were new ways of thinking about consumer computing.

Talking Points on Keynote

Fri 20 Aug 200410:50 PM

I’m beginning to think that I’ve given up the world of Web design for a career in business presentation graphics. For five weeks now, I’ve been making a regular Friday presentation using Keynote, Apple’s would-be PowerPoint killer. By now, I feel like I have a pretty decent understanding of the ins and outs of both this program and its Microsoft-published competitor. Everyone knows how frustrating PowerPoint can be. But switching to Keynote is more like trading in a bag of a hundred problems for a bag of about fifty — it’s an improvement, but it’s not a solution.

Get on the OmniWeb Bus

Wed 18 Aug 200411:32 PM

For the week or so since the final release of the Omni Group’s upstart Web browser OmniWeb 5, I’ve been trying to integrate it into my workflow, using it as a replacement for my normal full-time browser, Safari. It’s been a decent experience, and generally, I remain as impressed by the aggressively innovative feature set that Omni has rolled out as I was back when I tested the beta version.

Ecto Plurbius Unum

Wed 11 Aug 200402:58 AM

The Real World

Mon 26 Jul 200412:44 PM

It’s kind of a strange feeling to actually find myself rooting for RealNetworks. For years, they have distinguished themselves with software installation practices that have struck me as… well, as exceedingly impolite, to use civil language. I’ve harbored enough ill will towards them that, when given a choice between using their Real Player software and Microsoft’s not much better Windows Media Player, I’ll always opt for the Redmond solution.

Long in the ’Tooth

Thu 15 Jul 200408:05 PM

Apart from the initial wow factor of having my Mac OS X Address Book more or less instantly synchronized with my new Sony Ericsson T608 via Bluetooth, I’m not entirely sure I’m completely pleased with this new purchase.

There’s the shortcomings of Apple’s iSync, of course, such as a lack of a report detailing what happens — what changed and what didn’t — each time I perform a sync. The process is slow, too, and to avoid having to manually update the changed contacts on the phone, I pretty much have to do a complete synchronization, wherein every contact is reviewed by iSync; it’s a slow process.

Moving into a New Office

Wed 14 Jul 200401:43 AM

There have been some bad things written about Microsoft Office 2004 for Macintosh, as there always are when the Redmond giant releases anything for the Mac OS. But after having upgraded to this latest version of its business productivity suite this morning, I’m not sure I’d be willing to throw in with the often heard assessment that Office is bloated and clumsy. It’s true that none of the revised programs that make up the suite come close to being the most gazelle-like software I’ve ever run. Nevertheless, the one word that keeps running through my head, here at the end of a full day of using them, is ‘elegant.’ Really.

Sync Like a Pirate

Mon 12 Jul 200411:19 PM

Which Path to Take

Mon 28 Jun 200401:29 PM

Twenty days into a free 21-day trial license for the latest version of Cocoatech’s PathFinder, I’m still teetering on the fence, trying to decide between uninstalling this replacement utility for the Mac OS X Finder or paying the US$34 license fee to continue using it.

On the one hand, PathFinder is still full of bugs and unexpected performance hiccups, something which should disqualify it immediately as a replacement as a file management tool. This was my initial reaction when I first took a look at the program last year, when it ran on Jaguar. The critical bugs I saw then have been fixed, but newer or different ones have taken over in prominence.