Making the most of OS X on your Mac |
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Ask MNJ? - You ask, I answer, you donate... - Mac OS X apps ranked by category - Using Graphic Converter for image management - Maximizing battery life under OS X - TidBITS - Apple Internet Explorer System Preferences Terminal Backup
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Program enhances Safari, but you may want to wait Safari Enhancer 1.0 is an application that reveals hidden features in the public beta version of Apple's new OS X Web browser. It gives access to the debug menu, lets you set minimum font sizes, and allows you to import Internet Explorer bookmarks as often as you like. The program is a simple 79k freeware app. Before you rush out to tweak your copy of Safari though, think twice. It appears that Apple developers are fixing the most glaring bugs with the browser in a short time span and it is possible that new versions of Safari will be forthcoming soon...
Support Mac Net Journal It has been a month since I last reminded MNJ readers that this site is supported by individuals who put enough value in the site to click the PayPal badge and offer a small donation to keep Mac Net Journal alive. So far in 2003 there have been no donations to support the site, so if you value MNJ and the forum it provides for Mac news, discussion and debate, please consider making a donation!
Which PowerBook would you choose? For someone considering a new PowerBook in the near future, like me, yesterday's product announcements added a ton of options for what to buy. The G4 PowerBook 17-inch looks like a monster of a machine that will work great for graphics pros, while the G4 PowerBook 12-inch looks like a great machine for those who actually need to carry their laptops around more. The dilemma I face is that I spend a lot of my time working with my current Pismo PowerBook in my lap, with no external monitor hooked to the machine. I wonder about how tough it would be to balance the 17-inch PowerBook on my lap, as well as how well this wide and thin machine would hold up to travel. On the other hand, I wonder about just how small that 12-inch PowerBook screen feels. The great news about both of these machines is that they push the envelope with great PowerBook features. A 12-inch PowerBook with a SuperDrive and a G4 processor is great! And while I am a little disappointed that it can only hold 640 MB of maximum RAM, if I opted for a 12-inch machine with maxed out RAM, a 60 GB hard drive, a SuperDrive, an extra power adapter, extra battery, and AppleCare it would run to roughly $2800. If I get a new machine soon, this is the route I would lean toward. Of course, just to make things more interesting, Apple also cut the price of the 1 GHz G4 PowerBook yesterday, lopping $200 off the price of the former top-of-the-line machine. This may be an attractive option as well. If you were buying a new PowerBook today, what would you buy?
Problems printing and otherwise after installing Safari? An MNJ reader comment on the Safari thread raises a good question: Is anyone having problems with printing, CD burning, or booing into OS 9.x after installing Safari? Here is the original comment:
Is Apple trying to bring everything in-house? Following yesterday's keynote speech and the announcement of more software developed internally by Apple, I have been wondering if anyone else sees how Apple is turning inward? First there is news about the current batch of bundled Apple apps in OS X - iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie - and the move to wrap those three apps which remain free with iDVD in the new iLife suite. While iLife is sure to appeal to many OS X users, the moves to keep iPhoto, iTunes and iMovie free for the time being is another example of Apple's move to dominate software categories by flooding the market with free applications at the expense of competition from worthy third-party apps. Then there is Safari. While I welcome the thought of a faster Web browser, which would address the speed portion of Steve Jobs' stated reasoning for creating yet another browser, nothing in the beta version of Safari fulfills the second stated reason for a new browser, innovation. And in the process of creating yet another browser, Apple has made conscious resource decisions that are troubling. Why spend resources on a browser when the underlying Java libraries in OS X fail with some Java sites on the Web? Isn't it more important to create an OS with the best Java capabilities than to create a Web browser when other free browser efforts are making major advances. Chimera kicks Safari's ass with better standards support, acceptable rendering speed, and a tabbed browsing option that far surpasses the random windowing behavior of Safari. And how about the way that Safari is a slap in the face of developers at places like The Omni Group, creators of the truly innovative though now stagnant OmniWeb browser? These are just a few of the examples where Apple has decided that essentially, if a job is going to get done that it must do it itself. The new Keynote application is another example, though I doubt many will complain since it is a direct hit on Microsoft and PowerPoint with its ability to import and export PowerPoint presentations - something that third party apps in the presentation category have failed woefully at integrating on their own. While on the one hand it is good to see Apple innovating and making OS X more of a must-have operating system, Apple is doing so at the expense of squashing third-party developers. And as I mentioned in another post earlier today, I worry about the staying power that Apple will show in all of these different product categories. The company has a history of creating software and then dropping its development just as abruptly as it arrived. Will this continue to be the case? Or can we expect that all of these bundled apps - Mail, iChat, iPhoto, iTunes, iMovie, iCal, iSync, and more - will be ongoing products that won't be dropped when an important stockholder sneezes?
ExtendAIR antennas for AirPort Extreme I noted yesterday that the new AirPort Extreme base station and the new G4 PowerBooks offer connectors for external wireless antennas. MacNN has a short story this morning about new ExtendAIR add-on antennas from Dr. Bott that use the new connections to acheive modest 250-foot range with the ExtendAIR Omni that sells for $100 and a more impressive 500-foot range with the directional antenna, the ExtendAIR Direct, which sells for $150. The Omni is available for worldwide use, but the Direct is a U.S. only product due to regulatory restrictions. I wonder how many other new wireless antennas will spring up now that Apple has embraced extending wireless range? Meanwhile, I wonder how long it will be before I get really sick of the name "AirPort Extreme" as a cartoony way to refer to a current generation wireless networking system? Apple referring to the first-generation 802.11b networking as "AirPort" was catchy and it didn't sound all that funny, but "AirPort Extreme" has the same tired feel as extreme sports. If you have to call it extreme, it isn't...
Excellent: Safari designer Dave Hyatt has a weblog Thanks to Dave Winer for pointing out that Safari developer Dave Hyatt has a weblog called Confessions of a Mozillian, and in it he answers a few of the concerns raised on the dive into mark weblog about the new Apple browser's rendering shortcomings. Reading through Hyatt's response it is pretty clear that the current Safari beta, as speedy as it feels and as capable it is as a beta version, it is still a major work in progress with major design decisions to be made before it is the be all and end all OS X browser. My suggestion: Start sending in those bug reports and feature requests if you want to help make Safari a viable resource. And throughout the process keep it in the back of your mind that Apple has built browsers and email clients and other useful tools before, only to abandon them when it became apparent how much work it would take to make a killer app.
Article proclaims Mac fans are big geeks Not PC But True: Mac Fans Are Geeks I have to agree with the premise of this article because of the distinction made between Mac users and Mac fans. Those who use Macs because they feel they make sense as a computing tool are the users. Those who use Macs and eagerly await each announcement by Steve Jobs with their credit cards ready for the latest cool new thing are the fans. Yesterday's keynote speech catered to the fans. Now it is time for the users to make sense of the flurry of announcements.
.Mac users: Beware Backup foibles If you are a .Mac user like me, you may be using Apple's simple Backup program in conjunction with Net space on your iDisk to backup information on a set schedule. For me, while I do backups to a FireWire drive here in the home office using ChronoSync to keep a current copy of everything in my User folder, but since I don't do a physical backup like this every day then I also have Backup set to do daily backups of my most important outlines from TinderBox as well as any current AppleWorks files I am using to write our book, Birding Washington. My use of Backup as a simple off-site storage, automated to connect overnight and backup files, seemed to work fine until shortly before Christmas. Then I am not sure what fouled up. I noticed last week that when I fired up Backup out of curiousity to ensure that my files were being magically backed up on a schedule each night, it turned out that nothing had been backed up since Dec. 22, 2002. This was disconcerting. I did a manual backup and checked that no settings had changed on Backup, then I shut down the program and returned to work. I just did another check of Backup to see how it was doing this morning and sure enough, it hadn't done an automatic backup at all since the last time I ran the program. I am not sure what is causing the problem, but I am sure that Backup cannot be relied on for anything critical. Hopefully this problem will be addressed soon by Apple...
Be careful of your Web preferences and Safari Beware if you go into the Safari preferences and choose Safari as your default browser. I cannot remember actually setting this preference earlier today, but in order to change my default browser in OS X back to Mozilla, which wouldn't change using the Internet preference panel under System Preferences as usual, I had to launch Safari and change the browser preference there. To be clear, if I tried to view a Web site URL by double-clicking a link in NetNewsWire Pro, rather than launching a new window in the default browser I have set in my OS X preferences, after running Safari earlier today it was Safari that co-opted my browser preference and launched instead...
Key links from today's announcements Use these links to go directly to pages related to today's announcements: PowerBook G4 17-inch - http://www.apple.com/powerbook/index17.html PowerBook G4 12-inch - http://www.apple.com/powerbook/index12.html Airport Extreme - http://www.apple.com/airport/
iLife - http://www.apple.com/ilife/
Safari - http://www.apple.com/safari/ Keynote - http://www.apple.com/keynote/ is the new presentation tool selling at $99. Final Cut Express - http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/ is the boiled down version of Final Cut Pro selling for $299.
External antenna connectors on 'Books and base station As I dig through the specs for the new PowerBooks as well as the new Airport Extreme wireless hardware, I notice that the 'Books and the new 802.11g Airport Extreme base station offer ports for connecting external antennas. This should be a welcome addition for those looking to set up wide-ranging wireless networks. I am still digging to see what this does to the range...
Let's go on a Safari One of the first new apps that you are likely to grab after this morning's Macworld Expo announcements is Safari, the Apple baked and branded Web browser that offers higher speed page rendering than anything else running on OS X. I grabbed my copy after the keynote and so far, it works great. I can guarantee one crash though, and unfortunately it has to do with the work I do on Lycos.com. Go to clubs.lycos.com and create a username, then click to go into a chat room. What the Java applet load, watch it appear to start working, then watch it lock up the browser just as it does with IE 5.2, OmniWeb, Mozilla, Chimera, and all the rest of the OS X browsers. This one thing is the reason I still have Classic on my machine, because IE under Classic loads the Java applet just fine. Other than this fatal flaw for me and the lack of a tabbed browsing interface, Safari feels like the speedy and convenient browser that Apple has billed it as. Pages snap online! But some others have noted rendering weaknesses with Safari. (Check out the quick Safari review on the dive into mark weblog.) I will keep using Safari as my main browser throughout the day, and as you do the same, offer your comments about what you are finding and what kind of feedback you are offering Apple. Update: I have to give Safari credit. It is blazingly fast! But since I develop Web pages, I am among those disappointed that Apple has chosen to introduce a host of new problems for page designers. Safari has serious display problems with some pages, and it may have the goal of being a standards compliant browser, but just take a look at some of the security issues and old bugs mentioned in the review on the Dive into Mark site noted above and you will see just how far Safari has to go. Safari is a beta version, so hopefully some of these things will be addressed quickly. Among the most annoying features, there should be an option for tabbed browsing and at the very least I hope the browser has better window handling when it reaches 1.0 status. Right now, opening a new window you could see the window draw just about anywhere on your screen, which is a great reminder of how well tabbed window interfaces save screen space...
Macworld keynote coverage Below is a fairly exhaustive look at today's announcements during the Macworld Expo keynote presentation done by Steve Jobs in San Francisco, in reverse chronological order: New 12-inch PowerBook
New Airport Extreme base station
New AlBook - the Aluminum PowerBook
Keynote - a new presentation application
Safari - Apple's own Web browser
I am curious if this new browser will offer better Java support than other OS X browsers (IE had the best support going into today, but it still breaks with many sites) and if it will offer the kind of pop-up ad killing like Chimera. And how about great rendering like OmniWeb? Digital Hub - Users want to use their music with their photos. - All new versions of the iApps are available now that are integrated with each other. - iLife is the new name of the new suite - Available Jan.25 and bundled with all new Macs - Free iPhoto 2, iTunes, and iMovie 3 - iDVD 3 for sale in a bundle with iPhoto 2, iTunes, and iMovie 3 for $49 - iTunes 3
- iPhoto 2
- iMovie 3
- iDVD 3
Mac OS X update - 5 million active users of OS X, 3.8 million new users in 2002 - 5,000 native apps today. - All new products no longer boot into OS 9 starting today - A few lagard apps need to get out ("We all know which one we are talking about") - Office Party promotion extended to April 7 - QuickBooks Pro from Intuit was one of the most requested apps that just started shipping - Virtual PC 6 out now - Macromedia Director for OS X now out - Pro Tools 6.0 for OS X shipping this month from DigiDesign
- Final Cut Pro now the No. 1 pro video program - Final Cut Express a new product with a few top-end features removed
iPod - A new iPod accessory from Burton, a snowboarding jacket with an iPod pouch, with controls built into the sleeve. Steve calls the jacket "wicked." Selling for $499 as an Apple online store exclusive... - 600,000 iPods shipped since a year ago November, one every minute since it began shipping - No. 1 player in U.S. and Japan, where it has a 42% market share .Mac - 250,000 paying subscribers and growing every month iCal and iSync - iCal sites on the Net - iSync an important strategic asset for Apple X for teachers program - 290,000 free copies of OS X sent out so far, and now the program is extended through this quarter. Apple retail stores - $148 million in sales, with 50% of computer sales to Windows switchers - 51 stores across America now - 85 million people within 15 miles of an Apple Store now Switcher campaign - 7.8 million visitors to the switch site since last summer, 68% of those using Windows Once again, more demand than bandwidth It looks like the organizers of Macworld Expo once again tripped on providing enough bandwidth for everyone who has an interest to watch the live QuickTime video presentation of Steve Jobs' keynote speech this morning. I am muddling through... and finally connected on my wife's computer!
Investors urged to sell Apple stock Merrill Lynch to Apple investors: Sell Of course, if enough people pay attention to this recommendation, this could be a good opportunity for real Apple fans to pick up some cheap stock...
Live coverage of the keynote, from afar I will offer live coverage of the keynote speech at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco this morning, even though I am not in the house for the big show. If you want to listen to or watch the keynote you may want to get in the queue early to listen to the QuickTime broadcast here. My fingers are crossed that this time there is enough bandwidth for me to watch the presentation live. I had a world of frustrating problems trying to do this for the Macworld Expo keynote last July...
New .Mac Address Book unveiled Apple has combined the capabilities of iSync 1.0 with .Mac to offer a new feature to .Mac members today: .Mac Address Book with contact synchronization. Quoting the .Mac member Web site:
Is anyone else seeing an odd error with MNJ and IE? My friend John contacted me twice today to say that he is seeing an odd error message when he tries to access Mac Net Journal from his OS 9.x-based Pismo PowerBook. A screen shot of the error can be seen below:
Has anyone else seen something like this when trying to access MNJ? I am baffled a bit because I cannot duplicate the error on my PowerBook 3400c running IE under OS 9.1, and this is the first report I have heard of the error. Anyone else?
iCal has iKilled my Palm Desktop software I noted late last week that I was surprised how well iCal and iSync worked with my Palm Vx, but when I decided that the experiment had gone on long enough this afternoon and I tried to switch to Palm Desktop as my organizer, I found a world of problems. Palm Desktop's Background app keeps saying that my disk is full, which it isn't, and as long as it keeps giving me this error I cannot even launch Palm Desktop. Luckily, I have my organizer of choice, Personal Organizer 4.5, all fired up and running, and now all I need to do is to restore the syncing capability of the program and I am away from iCal as slick as can be.
How will small developers do without a Macworld? Many signs point to the possbility that this week's Macworld Expo in San Francisco may be the last of its kind. While I sit here kicking myself that I never did make the trip to the Mac mecca that is Macworld Expo, I also wonder what the practical impact of a Mac world without a Macworld Expo will be. How will it impact small developers who today can make a spendy pilgrimmage to the expo to talk about and show their products? The Mac computing community responds to the buzz for products as much as to the actual products themselves, and I wonder what companies will plan to do to replace the impact of two big Mac showcases every year. Thoughts?
No PowerBooks in the house? MacReviewZone offers an update about PowerBook prices and availability every week, and today's update notes that there are no PowerBooks available at all at the Apple Store right now. Does this signal a new model or upgrade tomorrow? Time will soon tell...
An addition to my digital photography links AppleScript Info is full of useful notes this morning, including the note that the makers of iView Media Pro have a weblog. I have added a link to the weblog under my digital photography links....
A must-read for AppleScript fans AppleScript Info points to an article on Macscripter.net that sounds like a must-read for anyone interested in where things are going with UI browser preview and Mac OS X GUI scripting:
Adam Curry: iCal hoses Pocketmac sync utility Adam Curry offers a warning for those using the Pocketmac sync utility with iCal:
Are others using Pocketmac syncing seeing the same problems?
Coursey: Macworld Expo must die ZDNet columnist David Coursey fires a parting shot before leaving for the CES industry conference, offering reasons for Why Macworld must die.
Let the flood of Mac news begin The opening of what may be the final Macworld Expo ever tomorrow in San Francisco will lead to a flood of Mac related news this week. Count on MNJ to weed through the product announcements and dig out the important gems, and be sure to stop by to talk about the impact of new products and software. My goal: Make sense of the madness...
iCal updated to 1.0.2 Apple has released another update to iCal today, this time without any information about changes to the calendaring program. With luck, this will address some of the problems noted by MNJ readers late last week...
Which iApps would you pay for? If Apple does indeed announce that it will begin charging for upgrades to iPhoto, iDVD, and iMovie at the Macworld Expo, as expected, which of these and other iApps are you willing to pay for? Will you consider paying for iPhoto and iTunes, but not iMovie? In my case, the only iApps I use regularly right now are iChat - which is a surprise even to me - and iTunes. If Apple starts charging for these applications as they should then I will reconsider which of the apps I will continue to use. Suddenly Apple's offerings will be on a level playing field with other applications, and I may decide to use Audion or another MP3 player rather than iTunes, for instance. But I suspect that there will be some iApps that I will be willing to pay for, simply because they are the best solutions out there. And I will pay without any ill feelings for Apple. After all, they need to keep those in-house developers working on something that actually pays for their keep.
MacSpeech offering Macworld special pricing If you have been waiting to grab a copy of the OS X speech recognition application iListen, next week may be time to bite the bullet and pick up a copy. MacSpeech is offering iListen 1.5 with a headset bundled at $129, or $89 for the software only. The special is good from Jan. 5-11 if purchased through the MacSpeech booth or the online store, and iListen with a USB headset will be available for $129 through the end of January through MacMall and ClubMac. MacSpeech is also offering show special pricing on Mariner software products, with Mariner Write and Mariner Calc each priced at $49, or $89 for both.
TypeIt4Me for OS X coming next week TypeIt4Me, the autotext application that has been a mainstay for Mac users dating back to the days of Mac OS 8.5, will make its worldwide OS X debut next week at Macworld Expo. The $27 shareware typing utility lets you type more text with fewer keystrokes by defining commonly used phrases that can be automatically typed with text shortcuts. And it is being offered for a special Macworld show price of $19.95. Upgrades from the Classic version of TypeIt4Me are $9.
Hmmm...what is happening with OmniWeb? I made some major revisions to my outline of Mac OS X apps ranked by category today, and in the process I was struck by how long it has been since there has been either a public beta update or any news at all about the excellent OmniWeb browser. The last time anything happened with OmniWeb was Oct. 1, 2002. It makes me wonder just what The Omni Group has up its sleeves for Macworld Expo next week?
NetNewsWire Pro 1.0b6 NetNewsWire Pro 1.0b6 fixes a crashing bug with Blogger sites and adds the ability to create custom tags for the weblog editor. [ranchero.com]
More iSync notes Michael McCracken offers some additional notes about hotsyncing a new Palm Tungsten PDA using iSync 1.0.
Developer Robb Beal on the end of free iApps Writing on his Weblog, UserCreations founder and Spring developer Robb Beal offers what I imagine will be a common response to news that Apple is about to start charging for iApps:
In other words, it is time to pay the piper...
Will you pay for a new version of iPhoto? CNET is reporting this afternoon that Apple will unveil a new pricing policy for some of its iApps at Macworld Expo next week:
And so, this begs the question: Are you willing to pay for the formerly free iApps? And how much are you willing to pay when there are other shareware and commercial programs with even better capabilities available already?
Damien Barrett comments on 'Mail.crapp' New York Mac consultant Damien Barrett confirmed that Mail.app still hoses attachments after more than two years of development and updates. A client wondered why no one could open attachments she sent to them, no matter whether they used Macs, Windows, or had AOL accounts.
I can also add that PowerMail 4.1 and many other OS X email clients can reliably send attachments to any and all other email clients. Apparently there is simply a disconnect in the design of Mail.app and a stubborn refusal to admit that the current encoding option is a major screw up...
Comfort Keyboard: another ergonomic option If you are interested in more ergonomic computing, you may want to check out the review of the Comfort Keyboard on the MacHome Web site. The reviewer gives the highly customizable $300 keyboard a four apple ranking.
Moore interesting PowerBook notes Charles Moore digs up some more interesting tidbits for PowerBook and iBook users in this week's installment of The 'Book Review. Among the highlights: Smith Micro's QuickLink Mobile, the Supergo ergonomic stand, the Macally iceKey slim USB keyboard, and a 2.5" IDE to USB hard drive enclosure for less than $10.
Some quick MNJ stats for 2002 Although these numbers are a bit incomplete as they only include a tally through Dec. 23, 2002, the following stats offer an interesting glimpse at the sheer number of visitors and hits for MNJ during 2002: 3,992,987 hits 290,301 unique visits 55,471,518 kbytes of data transfered Thanks to all the MNJ readers for a great year! And an especially big thank you goes out to the dozens of you who donated to keep MNJ alive during its astronomical growth in 2002! Keep those donations coming. They are what makes creating, writing, and managing Mac Net Journal possible...
Is or isn't it a high resolution JPEG? One of my resolutions for this new year is to learn how to use Photoshop better than the basic knowledge I have now. I currently do most of my photo editing in GraphicConverter, which is a great application, but I would like to see how much better my photos can look with the touch of the standard high-end photo editing capabilities of Photoshop. Right out of the gate on Jan. 1 I took some high quality JPEG images of a shorebird despite my understanding that all JPEGs shot with my Nikon CoolPix 950 were, accoriding to the info offered by GraphicConverter, being captured at 72 ppi rather than the richer 300 ppi of the uncompressed TIFF format images I can take with the same camera. Throughout 2002 as we did research for our upcoming book Birding Washington, I tried to shoot everything as a TIFF, despite the fact that each image takes up more than 5 MB on the Compact Flash card and takes 20-30 seconds to save once the photo is taken. The main reason for doing this is that I need the 300 ppi images to be shooting high enough quality shots for publication in our book. 72 ppi looks great on a computer monitor, but it looks hazy in print. My quandary is that now I see that both Photoshop and iView Media Pro say that the high quality JPEGs I take with the Nikon CoolPix 950 are indeed 300 ppi images, compressed at a 1:6 ratio. But if I look at the same image with GraphicConverter it says that the high quality JPEGs from our camera are 72 ppi. I wonder which is right? And do I dare sacrifice the compression ratio difference in shooting JPEG vs. TIFF images if I want to make prints of these photos later on down the road? Let's talk digital photography...
Color me surprised - iCal and iSync success I have been cautious and pessimistic about using iCal and iSync until deciding to take the plunge in the name of research and trying to sync my Palm Vx using today's new versions of each program. It took a while, and some digging to figure out how to get my Palm to sync, but after 20-30 minutes of digging around I have the same info on iCal and in my Address Book as I do on my Palm! A quick tip if you haven't used iSync with your Palm yet. Apple's directions for how to enable Palm syncing are horrible. They say you have to enable the Palm device from Palm's HotSync Manager application, but they give you no clue how to do so. The process is really pretty simple: Open HotSync Manager (it is in the Palm folder in your chosen Applications folder) and go the Conduit Settings section under the HotSync menu. If you were sure to install the iSync Conduit when you upgraded to iSync 1.0 earlier today then it will show up in the Conduit Settings area - if you haven't, stop, go back and look in the iSync 1.0 installer folder and double-click the Palm conduit installer. In order to get the iSync Conduit to work, double click on it in the Conduit Settings area and enable it and you are in business! My feelings about iCal 1.0.1 are yet to be determined. I want to be able to keep and sync notes in my organizer. But I will give iCal another chance...
Odd...MS and Apple both have major outages today Does anyone else find it odd that first Apple suffers what appears to be an all-day long outage of .Mac services, and then Microsoft users lose access to .Net Passport servers. Murphy has been busy today (as in Murphy's Law, of course...).
Notable software releases As found this evening on Macupdate:
A reader warning about iCal 1.0.1 MNJ reader Chris Bentley is reporting problems with his installation of the new iCal 1.0.1:
Is anyone else seeing problems with iCal 1.0.1?
iCal and iSync updated to start the new year iCal 1.0.1 offers performance enhancements and more in a 10.4 MB update to Apple's calendaring application, and iSync 1.0 is the first non-beta release of the file synchronization tool that lets users sync Address Book entries and iCal calendars with compatible mobile phones, an iPod, or a Palm OS PDA. Automatic sync scheduling and performance improvements are rolled into the first full release of iSync. iSync 1.0 is a 5.1 MB download, and it also allows users to synchronize two Macs, but a valid .Mac account is required. For more info about iSync, be sure to check the list of compatible devices.
A great collection of free AppleScripts AppleScript Info notes: Essential Script Menu Scripts for Web Developers.
A new year, a new life bird I spent one of the wettest New Years Days in memory sloshing around Southwest Washington yesterday in an easy search for a rare bird for our state, a Eurasian species of shorebird called a Ruff. Natalie and I joined a friend from the Tahoma Audubon Society to go view the bird in the Grays Harbor area, and despite the rain I did manage to get a few decent photos of the bird as it was feeding and flitting about in a ditch outside the small town of Satsop. I posted photos of the Ruff on the Web last night.
A happy New Year to all! We at MNJ offer wishes for a happy New Year to all people around the world. I raise my glass to a great 2003, to exciting Mac OS X and Apple developments in the near future, and to wishes of peace in these tenuous times. There may not be any updates to MNJ tomorrow, as Natalie and I plan to kick off the new year fittingly with a birding trip to the Washington coast and the Pacific Ocean. Peace...
Some final software updates of 2002 Here is a final round of software releases for 2002, as found on Macupdate:
Predictions for Apple in 2003 A number of contributing editors at Macworld take a look at their crystal balls for Macworld's Third Annual Look at the Year Ahead in Macs. There are some great ideas here, and I think some are on the way soon. Fingers crossed!
Observations of the 'Gigabook' Jason O'Grady offers his take on the 1GHz PowerBook G4 Titanium today on the PowerPage. His notes are intriguing, but the review is missing any mention of improved wireless reception, heat generated by the new faster processor, and the fan noise issue that has bothered some early users.
MNJ's changing face through 2002
The three screen shots above give a feel for the three looks of Mac Net Journal during 2002. I started the year managing MNJ solely with BBEdit (first shot on the left), then transitioned in mid-January to Radio Userland 8.0 (the middle image). The last change took place more than a month ago, when I moved to Eastgate Systems' Tinderbox information manager to create the MNJ site. The site's design went from a fairly simple and easy to read template at the beginning of the year to a much more text heavy and somewhat busy layout during the months I used Radio Userland. I like the feel of the site more today using a slightly altered default template with Tinderbox. I don't expect such drastic changes in the look and feel of MNJ in 2003, but there are no guarantees.
NetNewsWire Pro 1.0b4 released Brent Simmons at Ranchero announced tonight that NetNewsWire Pro 1.0b4 is available.
Last bird photo of the year?
I couldn't resist setting up our spotting scope and playing a waiting game this afternoon in an attempt to get a shot of the Anna's Hummingbird that comes to our yard repeatedly throughout each day. Despite the dark cloud cover that created bad lighting all day, the bird did show up and stay still long enough for me to get the shot above. This may turn out to be my last bird photo of a 2002 full of bird watching, book research, and adventure!
Notable software releases Here are some highlights from software updates and releases of the last few days, as found on Macupdate:
Quickbooks 5.0 is fatally flawed Damien Barrett takes Intuit to task over the shortcomings of Quickbooks 5.0 for Mac OS X. Why? The file format used by Quickbooks 5.0 is not compatible with PC versions of the software....
Aching for a new laptop, but waiting... The temptation to buy a newer TiBook or even a svelte and rugged iBook to replace my aging Pismo PowerBook is growing stronger each day, but with Macworld Expo in San Francisco just around the corner, this is a great time to sit tight and see what Steve Jobs and the rest of the people at Apple have up their sleeves for the expo. What do you think lies ahead at Macworld Expo? An iBook running a G4 processor? Bluetooth built into new TiBooks? A revamped AppleWorks? What are you hoping to hear out of the expo?
Another birding weekend I didn't update MNJ over the weekend because I was off having late holiday celebrations and then spending all day Sunday helping out with the Kent/Auburn Christmas Bird Count - the second bird survey that Natalie and I have done in the last eight days. Under partly cloudy skies and in the face of a cool breeze, we didn't find as many bird species in our assigned area as I expected going into the day. We did have a great look at a Cooper's Hawk and a Sharp-shinned Hawk, both within a tiny wooded park. Last night I took the time finally to restart the updates to my nature journal and photography Web site, The Equinox Project. If either of those topics interest you, take a look.
MacSlash discussion: Which mail server for OS X? MacSlash has another interesting discussion underway, this time asking Which mail server runs best under Mac OS X.
Could this be the end for Macworld Expo? Mulling Over Fate of Macworld
How to configure Jaguar's firewall capabilities Configuring Jaguar's Firewall
MacMegasite's picks for top 10 freeware of 2002 MacMegasite: My top freeware pics of 2002. As with many of the top 10 lists being written today, this places the Chimera Web browser at the top of the heap...
Labels X 1.1.1 released MacMegasite notes: Labels X 1.1.1 adds file labeling features into Mac OS X. This means, you can apply various color tints to file icons, and sort the files by label. This gives you more freedom and options in organizing your files. Additionally, Labels X shares file label information with Mac OS 9, so no matter, where you label your files - you will see the labels in both Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X (file labeling is a built-in feature in Mac OS 9). [MacMegasite]
Another tip: View PowerPoint presentations without Office v.X? An MNJ reader wrote about his desire to view PowerPoint presentations without forking over the big dollars for Microsoft Office v.X. Since I don't have a need for PowerPoint, I didn't have an answer to this Ask MNJ? question off the top of my head, but a quick search of Macupdate revealed a couple of interesting alternatives: BigShow 0.7 is a freeware presentation viewer released in late Oct. 2002. It is unclear if it actually works with PowerPoint files, but it can create slide shows. QuickPresent is a $10 shareware application that uses QuickTime Pro to create and play back slide show presentations in its first beta release from early Nov. 2002. It doesn't work directly with PowerPoint. This doesn't really answer the MNJ reader's question though. Does anyone know of a worthwhile PowerPoint replacement?
Tip: Opening Word docs with AppleWorks Have you ever run into a Word document that just won't translate into AppleWorks? I ran into this common situation last week and with a little experimenting I was able to get around the problem. The trick was the go into the Finder and look at the file name. If the document contains a filename too long to have the file extension show in the finder, then rename the file and be sure to tag on the obligatory ".doc" file extension at the end of the file. Do this and you can open the file in AppleWorks without the need for another Word-compatible processor...
Preparing for a wind storm This could be an interesting weather day here in Puget Sound country, as forecasts predict a strong wind storm with 40 mph sustained winds and gusts up to 60 mph to move through the area this afternoon. Forecasts can change, so it isn't a done deal, but if the storm hits as predicted we could lose power here at Mac Net Journal for the first time in years...
NetNewsWire Pro 1.0b2 released NetNewsWire Pro 1.0b2 fixes some bugs with the Weblog Editor, including some crashing bugs. Here are the change notes. [ranchero.com]
What new Mac toys are you playing with today? What interesting new Mac goodies found their way into your home over the holidays? Let's talk show and tell, and help each other get the most out of our new Mac-related tools and software.
Mercury News: The digital day after The Mercury News offers some common sense tips for new digital camera owners, along with pointing out the ease-of-use advantages that OS X users have with iPhoto in The digital day after.
Notable software releases As noted over the last few days on Macupdate:
Confirmation: Entourage X is sold separately from Office v.X I am not sure when Microsoft changed its mind and decided to free Entourage from its exclusive bundling with Microsoft Office v.X, but MNJ reader Edward Miller had the time to dig around and follow up on his initial note about seeing Entourage on sale separately at a CompUSA store in Michigan. Edward writes:
No need to be sorry, Edward. This is bound to be a great find for folks interested in trying Entourage without spending $400 or more to get the whole Office v.X suite...
Entourage available as a stand alone app? An MNJ reader wrote over the weekend to say that he was in a CompUSA store and saw a stand-alone copy of Entourage, the email app from Microsoft that has only been available as part of the huge and costly Microsoft Office v.X application suite. Has anyone else seen this? I haven't had the time to check with my CompUSA, but this seems like an unlikely development. For what it is worth, the Web site for CompUSA doesn't list Entourage as a stand alone item...
Apple documents changes with AppleScript as related to Mail Mail + Applescript in 10.2.3
Strength to Dave Winer I am sad to hear through the latest post by Dave Winer that his father's health is failing after making an apparent rebound over the last few weeks. Strength to Dave, and to his father.
AppleScript 1.9.1 for Mac OS X AppleScript 1.9.1 for Mac OS X - Release Notes
FileMaker Pro 6.0v4 fixes big scripting bug FileMaker Pro 6.0v4: Externally scripted whose clauses fixed
MacSlash: Good GPS software for Mac OS X? Since I know I am not the only Mac OS X user who may be receiving a GPS unit around the holiday season this year, this discussion from MacSlash about Good GPS software for Mac OS X should offer some interesting reading... MacSlash also has a discussion underway today about file synchronization software for OS X...
NetNewsWire Pro beta arrives NetNewsWire Pro public beta I have been using earlier beta versions of NNW Pro and found its new features a great asset so far. I am still trying to figure out how I will integrate the use of NNW Pro with my TinderBox Weblog solution...
Grab the new version of Chimera The makers of the excellent Chimera Web browser suggest that people download the daily builds that started to be offered on Dec. 20. This build has a host of improvements, listed from the Web site:
Working with the new Script Editor Preview Script Editor Preview tip - Go to System Preferences > Universal Access - Turn on "Enable access for assistive devices" [AppleScript Info]
A follow up on the woes of OS X disk utilities Roger from the technical support staff at Alsoft, makers of DiskWarrior 2.1 which I purchased in my attempts to fix a disk problem yesterday, offers a follow up on the need for Mac OS 9.x disk drivers on a disk used soully with Mac OS X:
Apple December Developer Tools release Apple December Developer Tools Posted The download can be found on the ADC site, and it weighs in at a whopping 301.2 MB...
And even more scripting with GUI Scripting Apple: GUI Scripting (System Events) I point to these stories with info about AppleScript because AppleScript and other scripting tools are one of the most powerful ways to customize how you interact with Mac OS X. And if you have a unique problem or a command you want to add to your favorite scriptable application, AS is a powerful asset.
Apple's Script Editor 2.0 Apple: Script Editor 2.0
PowerMail 4.1 a major update for usability The final version of PowerMail 4.1, which brings on-the-fly spell checking and integration with the Apple Address Book application, is available today. This problem has been excellent for me in the beta version, so, if you are a PowerMail user already, go for it! One thing to remember: PowerMail 4.1 uses a slightly different database setup for your email and a quite different database for address book entries, so be sure to back up your files before installing the update. Release notes are available as well.
Macintouch reader reports for OS X 10.2.3 Some early reader reports of how Mac OS X 10.2.3 is performing are offered on Macintouch this morning. One important note that isn't mentioned in these reports but is mentioned on the MacFixIt report that I linked to earlier is an apparent incompatibility between OS X 10.2.3 and the Wacom Intous Tablet. I will try to confirm this one later today, since that is the kind of tablet that Natalie and I share in our home office... Update: Mark Bernstein says he has upgraded to OS X 10.2.3 and his Intous tablet is working fine, so either that reported bug only affects certain users or maybe those who aren't using the latest Wacom drivers... If you have more comments about how Mac OS X 10.2.3 is performing for you in its first full day since being released, add your comments.
Canon RAW image file viewer updated Canon released an updated version of its File Viewer Utility v1.1.1 with improvements in RAW image handling yesterday. The update works with .CRW files from the following cameras: EOS-1Ds, EOS-1D, EOS-D60, EOS-D30, PowerShot G3, PowerShot G2, PowerShot G1, PowerShot S45, PowerShot S40, PowerShot S30, PowerShot Pro90 IS.
MNJ updates through the weekend and Xmas While the pace of business in the U.S. slows to a crawl today as we slide toward the weekend and Christmas around the corner next week, here is an update about the schedule here at Mac Net Journal. I plan to keep updating the site through the weekend and Monday, but things will slow considerably on Christmas Eve and Christmas next week. Expect things to be back to normal by next Thursday. Meanwhile, if Xmas finds you with a new Mac, peripherals, or new Mac OS X questions and you could use a little help, consider using the Ask MNJ service. I hope to have some exciting announcements about Ask MNJ following the holiday!
Other software updates As usual, there were more software updates and releases than the update to Mac OS X 10.2.3 over the last day. Here are some highlights from Macupdate:
Notable Apple Knowledge Base updates If you are holding out on upgrading to either Mac OS X 10.2.3 or Mac OS X Server 10.2.3, you may want to check the following documents from Apple:
MacFixIt offers troubleshooting tips for OS X 10.2.3 MacFixIt offers Troubleshooting tips for Mac OS X 10.2.3. Look quick before the information is yanked into the pay-for-view archives...
CUPS printing tools carry vulnerabilities Multiple Vulnerabilities Discovered In CUPS
How is OS X 10.2.3 treating you? I have installed the huge update and started working with it, but I am interested in hearing how others are doing with Mac OS X 10.2.3. Have you run into problems? Found any surprising additions?
Mac OS X Update 10.2.3 From the notes included with the whopping 51 MB update available now through the Software Update panel in System Preferences:
Transmit FTP client updated Transmit 2.2 is a scriptable FTP client for Mac OS. This version includes many fixes and improvements (a full list of changes is included in the download). Writing the above update about Transmit 2.2 on AppleScript Info, Rob Jorgenson notes:
Whatever you do, install the OS 9 disk drivers A mistake made a couple of months ago when I first initialized my 40GB hard drive that I installed in the aging Pismo PowerBook cost me about two hours of clicking OK and reinstalling things this morning. When you first initialize a new drive using the Apple Disk Utility under OS X you have to be sure to click to install the OS 9 disk drivers on the drive or you will not be able to work with the disk at all if you boot into OS 9.x. You can use Classic without the OS 9 disk drivers, but you cannot boot from an OS 9.x installer CD in order to run a disk utility like the $70-plus DiskWarrior program I paid for and tried to use to fix a disk problem this morning. So, long story short, install those OS 9 disk drivers if you want to be able to fix a Mac OS X disk...at least until an OS X version boot CD for DiskWarrior is available...
The woeful state of OS X disk utilities This morning I have been trying to deal with a pesky disk problem on my PowerBook, and in running through the repair possibilities I am reminded just how poor the choice of disk utilities are for Mac OS X. Here is a look at what I did and what problems remain: First, I knew there was a problem because all this week Chimera, which is normally a rock-solid application, has been crashing over and over. Now it won't even start up without crashing. And so this morning I decided to deal with the problem. The first step I took was to restart OS X while holding down the Shift key, which boots OS X into a "safe mode" which runs the built-in disk utility behind the scenes during the start up routine. The problem with booting up in the safe mode is that when the boot process is done, services like my Airport card and other critical services are not running like they are after a normal reboot. And the other shortcoming is that I have no assurance that anything was actually fixed during the running of the disk utility. Since I needed to restart the machine anyway, I figured I would reboot into Single User mode by holding down the Command-S key combination, which boots into a text-based interface for my machine and allows me to run the built in disk utility FSCK at the prompt when the machine finishes booting. When the start up finished I ran fsck by typing "fsck -y" at the prompt and sure enough there was still a problem to be fixed - an extents overlap problem in the disk catalog. Normal procedure with fsck is to run it over and over from the command line until the disk comes back with no error messages. That isn't working for me this morning. No matter how many times I run fsck the same two extents files overlap. On to the third option, which is to reboot the machine once again and start up from the Jaguar installer CD by holding down the "C" key on the keyboard during start up. Once the machine slowly boots from the CD, I go to the File menu and scroll down to start the Apple Disk Utility and then run Disk First Aid on my hard disk. Yep, DFA shows the same problem with two files, and although DFA tells me that the disk is repaired when I finish running it, I do a Verify and find that the problem remains. Now I have rebooted my machine again and I am running OS X 10.2.2 with no signs of problems other than the fact that I cannot run Chimera at all. The disk problem remains, even though the built-in disk utilities, with the exception of fsck, show me that the disk is fixed. So, what should I do to fix the problem that obviously still remains? Yes, I could go buy DiskWarrior and see if it will address the problem. Maybe that is the only option short of erasing and reformating my hard drive. I know for sure that I won't let any Norton utilities touch my disk...
New Flash Player addresses header vulnerability The Register points to a page on the Macromedia site today that contains a description of the buffer overrun flaw in Flash as well as a link to download a new version that addresses the problem. The Mac OS X version of Flash 6, posted on Dec. 12, 2002, is available here.
NoteTaker looks like an interesting app AquaMinds' NoteTaker 2003 looks like an interesting take on notes, outlining, and more. I will have to take a look at it when time allows...
Think twice before viewing Flash content...even on a Mac Yesterday's article Compromised in a Flash on CNET points out that a flaw in Macromedia's animation software poses a risks to Macs as well as PCs.
And so, until Macromedia updates Flash, avoid those cute animations like the plague...
An AppleScript to refresh the front Finder window Update Finder Front Window 1.0
More about Spring from The Register There is a lot of buzz for UserCreations' Spring today. The Register adds to the buzz with Spring has sprung: A new desktop era for the Mac? In response to the buzz about Spring, I wonder how many people have downloaded the program and are starting to create their own canvases? If Spring appeals to you, what are your ideas for using the program?
A new Mac BU chief for Microsoft Microsoft chooses new Mac chief
Notable software releases As found on Macupdate:
A Q&A interview with Spring creator Robb Beal UserCreations president Robb Beal, creator of the innovative Spring 1.0, sits down for a question-and-answer interview in a Mac Net Journal exclusive.
Clarification from Real about the bug mentioned earlier Greg Robbins from RealNetworks writes with a clarification of the post earlier today about a bug with RealOne Player for OS X:
PhotoMover 1.2.3 simplifies work with image files PhotoMover 2.1.3
Jordan Hubbard interview on MacSlash MacSlash has what it says will be the last Q&A interview with Jordan Hubbard, Apple's Engineering Manager for BSD. Among other things, Hubbard says he will no longer talk with the press in his current position with Apple. He isn't leaving the company...
This patent madness is bad news for instant messaging It appears from a story on CNET today that when you read this, AOL will own all instant messaging rights. How? According to the story, Patent creates IM wrinkle:
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