Mac Net Journal

Rob Winchester sent along a pointer to a useful Mac OS X Hints post today about a way to get around an important limitation in Pages - the word processor included in Apple's iWork application. The key add-on is called WordService. Read the post on Mac OS X Hints for the whole story...

Speed-bumped PowerBooks announced
Monday, January 31, 2005, 5:15 PM

As many expected would happen soon, Apple announced a revised line of PowerBooks today. The updates add a little speed and larger hard drives to the former line of PowerBooks, as well as a new scrolling trackpad.

My question after this upgrade is whether the speed increase and other minor improvements will be enough to keep PowerBooks selling? Or whether the iBook line will continue to be the better proposition for buyers looking for a new Apple laptop?

Speaking of the iBooks, my wife's 14-inch iBook took a spill over the weekend. We came home to find that the animals (two dogs, three cats) had somehow toppled the wood TV tray that Natalie's iBook was sitting on and the machine had fallen to the floor, hitting the power connector on the way down. The power plug is a little bent, but otherwise the machine is completely fine after the roughly three-foot fall onto the carpet. |

Apple releases security update
Wednesday, January 26, 2005, 7:26 AM

Apple Releases New Mac OS X Security Update
- The update for 10.3.7 client includes updated versions of ColorSync, libxml2, Mail, PHP, and Safari. By MacMinute

[myapplemenu]

Taking a major leap into digital photography
Monday, January 24, 2005, 7:50 AM

Natalie and I are about to take a major and long-awaited leap into shooting photos with a digital SLR. This week, probably today, we will head out to a local camera shop and buy a Canon EOS 20D digital SLR with at least a 75-300 lens and an extra battery pack. Why buy now? Simple. We are heading to southern Florida in a little more than a week and we hope to explore and see some new bird species not found here in the wet Pacific Northwest. I can't see relying on the same 2-megapixel Nikon camera we have used to shoot the photos for our last two books while on this trip - although I will likely take it along so I can do some digiscoping through our spotting scope. Who knows when we would head to Florida next. We may as well make the most of it now.

Speaking of which, another pastime this week will be exploring online for the best birding sites in southern Florida. We will fly in to Miami and have three days to explore in that portion of the state before heading out to Key West, where Natalie has a four-day conference. Then we will make the long flight home to arrive just in time for our annual banquet for the Tahoma Audubon Society. |

On building a website with Tinderbox
Monday, January 24, 2005, 7:07 AM

Greynotebook: Building a website with Tinderbox

This is an interesting post for Tinderbox users like me who have just scratched the surface of what the information manager can do. Sure, I have published Mac Net Journal for more than two years using Tinderbox, but I still haven't taken the time to really dig into the guts of the application.

Mac mini made for video?
Sunday, January 23, 2005, 9:33 PM

PBS' Cringely: Mac mini is all about movies - Robert X. Cringley, author and technology writer for PBS, speculates that the Mac mini and Apple's forthcoming H.264 video codec will be key elements in an Apple movie download service... [MacMinute.com]

An interesting primer on aacPlus
Sunday, January 23, 2005, 1:21 PM

Paul Boutin writes an interesting primer about the benefits and working of aacPlus audio compression...

Derrick Story: Tips for installing iPhoto 5
Sunday, January 23, 2005, 1:15 PM

If you are making the switch to the newest version of iPhoto, Derrick Story has some Tips for installing iPhoto 5.

Wow. Engadget really likes the mini
Wednesday, January 19, 2005, 10:59 PM

Engadget: "It has ample computing horsepower to play and optionally record DVDs, store thousands of music files, and produce beautiful OpenGL-based high-resolution photo transitions that are beyond the scope of today's best digital media receivers."

That is a pretty good review for the little new Mac that some buyers say began shipping today...

iPhoto 5 impresses
Wednesday, January 19, 2005, 10:52 PM

A RAW Look at iPhoto 5 - Apple overhauled much of iPhoto in version 5 and presented photographers with a more robust tool for managing their media files. Derrick Story looks at importing existing iPhoto libraries, using the new editing tools, and working with RAW and QuickTime files. Image samples of RAW comparisons are included. [O'Reilly MacDevCenter.com]

Mac market share growing, barely
Monday, January 17, 2005, 9:39 PM

A Microsoft blog on the Seattle P-I Web site digs into the market share numbers from last quarter that show the Mac making a small gain. The unsaid point in these numbers is that Apple has carved out a niche - a precarious niche, but a niche nonetheless. The challenge will be seeing whether the ongoing entertainment gamble will pay off for Apple in the long run. Apple continues to innovate, but mostly in the consumer space. Meanwhile, work-a-day Macs are straggling along.

Jim Heid's favorite iPhoto 5 things
Monday, January 17, 2005, 9:23 PM

Jim Heid writes about his favorite new features in the new iPhoto 5. I will try to keep track of what others say about the improvements, since I don't use iPhoto. I still use iView MediaPro to manage my digital photos.

Taking remote computing to the extreme
Monday, January 17, 2005, 8:53 AM

Leander Kahney's latest article on Wired News appeals to me, since I just set up an old Pismo PowerBook with a VNC connection in our living room - once again setting up a Mac media center of sorts to play my MP3s and AAC files through the stereo and to offer the possibility of playing photo slide shows on the TV. I control this machine through a VNC connection on my now almost two-year-old 12-inch PowerBook G4, and with a little tweaking I could do remote computing with this setup. I don't have a big-screen portable device like the one used by the fellow in this article, though: The portable Mac OS X geek.

Gruber on the Mac mini
Sunday, January 16, 2005, 9:45 PM

Small, Cheap, And Without A Display - With millions of happy iPod users new to the Apple brand, and millions of unhappy Windows users fed up with crapware security issues, there's never been a better time for Apple to make a move into the low end of the market. By John Gruber, Daring Fireball [myapplemenu]

Henry Norr's Macworld notes and the Supacam
Wednesday, January 12, 2005, 12:17 PM

Macintouch has a detailed write up from the Macworld Expo floor by Henry Norr that is worth reading for more details about the buzz around the iPod shuffle and the Mac mini. Norr also points out the excitement among show attendees for a new all-in-one portable media player and recorder called the Supacam. This little $270 machine records MPEG-4 video at 30 fps, takes photos at up to 6.6 megapixels and includes an MP3 player. This may be the best podcasting tool I have seen so far. |

I echo Brent Simmons take on the keynote
Tuesday, January 11, 2005, 10:11 PM

Brent Simmons sums up many of my thoughts about today's keynote, now that I have had a while to think about it after returning home from work. I especially agree with the comment of Dori Smith that Pages is not a word processor. I dug through the documentation of iWork and was even more underwhelmed than I was in initially hearing about the program. If the marketing folks write about doing "snazzy" layouts with a word processor, they are from a different planet than the one I live and work on.

One good thing is that at least today it appears Apple is continuing to sell AppleWorks as its real productivity suite. iWork is nothing but a new way to package Keynote - yet another program I don't need.

No wireless news from Apple today
Tuesday, January 11, 2005, 10:05 PM

No News - In case anyone was wondering, there's no news from Macworld San Francisco's keynote address or from Apple that relates to AirPort today. The new Mac mini has AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth support, but they're built-to-order options. You cannot install either option (or memory) after purchase yourself, but will need to have an Apple service center do it--this isn't one of those "you might void the warranty" situations. There's a pretty tightly fitted together set of innards.... [Apple AirPort Weblog]

TextWrangler is now free
Tuesday, January 11, 2005, 10:01 PM

TextWrangler: now free, and better than ever - A terrific text editor is now free for the taking. I suggest you take it. [O'Reilly MacDevCenter.com]

Underwhelmed with Macworld announcements
Tuesday, January 11, 2005, 12:10 PM

The small buzz around the Apple keynote this morning at Macworld Expo in San Francisco is over. The reality after the hype and lawsuits is the new Mac mini, iPod shuffle and iWork.

Mac mini

The Mac mini looks like it could be Apple's best attempt yet at capturing a home media server market. The machine looks cool, sells for as little as $499, and comes with everything you need to hook it up to a TV or monitor along with a keyboard and mouse. The downside is that the machine doesn't ship with wireless capabilities out of the box. You have to pay for a build-to-order model to get AirPort and Bluetooth support. I am currently unable to access the Apple Store online to get a price on a fully functional Mac mini.

It will be interesting to see how the Mac mini plays with the buying public. The machine is missing a few things - it has no audio-in port and it also is missing gigabit ethernet, even though it does offer 10/100 ethernet - but I am not sure either of these will be deal-killers for people. The need to pay more for AirPort and Bluetooth are big issues in today's wireless world, however.

The biggest issue with the Mac mini could be whether Apple can actually build enough of them to sell them when the buzz is still hot. If Apple falls behind, as it consistently does, then this could fizzle. The Mac mini is supposed to be available Jan. 22.

iPod shuffle

Apple finally jumped into the market with a flash-based iPod for under $100. This could be popular with people looking for a tiny music player for exercising with or for those like me who simply don't want to spend hundreds for a portable music player.

iWork

This is the most disappointing announcement of the whole keynote, in my mind. Why? Because iWork is being touted as a replacement for AppleWorks, but it has far fewer capabilities than AppleWorks. It's no wonder that Microsoft is not quaking at the thought of Apple selling this program.

iWork includes Keynote 2 and Pages - a new word processing application. In comparison, AppleWorks included a word processing module, spreadsheet, database and drawing program all rolled into one to create a full productivity suite. With iWork Apple is giving up the productivity suite niche completely and instead concentrating its efforts on juicing up Keynote with better text handling and calling the combination iWork. I'll have to see how Pages works in the real world before I can completely write it off, but right now I am not impressed.

What are your thoughts about today's announcements from Apple? Are you lining up to buy a Mac mini, iPod shuffle or iWork? |

Things to do on the eve of Macworld announcements
Monday, January 10, 2005, 9:19 PM

Who knows what Apple will unveil tomorrow. Rather than predict, I am going to prepare for all contingencies. After all, if the rumored iWork office suite makes its way from rumorware to reality, I want my PowerBook to be ready to give it a spin.

What's on my list?

Run DiskWarrior on my machine, which means I will reboot for the first time in a month
Repair disk permissions
Back up my machine to an external hard drive

The Tinderbox Public File Exchange
Monday, January 10, 2005, 11:08 AM

If you have ever wondered what Tinderbox can do, the Tinderbox Public File Exchange is a good place to get a feel for how some people are using the program. Tinderbox, the personal information manager from Eastgate, is on my mind a lot this morning as I dig around to find a way to take a plain outline I started in Tinderbox to keep clippings related to my work and convert them into an HTML format that I can share with co-workers in my office through our intranet. Although I have been using Tinderbox to run Mac Net Journal and a number of other Web sites for quite some time, there are still many parts of the program that I don't use to their full advantage. The file exchange offers some templates to get started, which are great for modifying to fit your own needs. |

Beware if you are using Internet Explorer on Windows
Monday, January 10, 2005, 11:05 AM

It looks like Microsoft has been sitting around with another critical security bug lying in wait in Internet Explorer. NewScientist talks about the bug in Microsoft browser bugs 'extremely critical'

Scott Rosenberg on iPod fascism
Sunday, January 9, 2005, 10:16 PM

Scott Rosenberg rails against the limitations of the iPod, in a post that reminds me why it might not be a bad thing that I listen to my music on my Powerbook rather than on a tiny, crippled hard drive:

The point is, I shouldn't have to hack my way through the software jungle just to share music with my own spouse. As it is, if we sync the iPod to iTunes on her Mac, the files I've moved onto the portable device get overwritten. It's clumsy and rude: the syncing should be two-way.

What? No keynote? Ah well...it can wait
Friday, January 7, 2005, 12:21 PM

I join with other Mac sites complaining today that Apple has decided not to offer a Webcast of Steve Jobs' keynote address at next Tuesday's Macworld Expo in San Francisco. Apparently Apple has decided that only those attending get to hear about any new products or new tidbits about the next release of Mac OS X. Of course, this is consistent with the growing paranoia coming from Apple, since the company has been suing small Web sites that publish "secret" information being leaked by Apple employees - something sure to raise Steve Jobs' hackles.

I would have liked to hear what was coming from Apple in 2005 live, right along with the Macworld audience, but it can wait. Jobs' lauded "reality distortion field" surrounding his marketing hype has definitely faded in the last couple of years, at least for me, and whatever Apple plans to roll out next week can wait a few hours before it is unveiled on the Web. Maybe Apple's attitude toward sites covering the company will help convince some of us to take a more realistic rather than rah-rah approach to reporting what is coming from the iPod company. I have been out of the rah-rah mode for years - computers are tools to do things in the real world. Damn it...I must be growing up and out of the geeky must-have-it-now mode. |

Cold in the Pacific Northwest
Thursday, January 6, 2005, 12:42 PM

The weather is chilly and the threat of snow is in the forecast here in Puget Sound county this week. In my work capacity I am maintaining the latest snow-related information in Tacoma, Washington, on the city's online newsroom that I created last fall. So far all there is to report is ice on the roads this morning, but if the snow flies then the page should get more interesting in the coming days.

What Mac software have you purchased this year?
Thursday, January 6, 2005, 12:32 PM

We're almost a week into 2005, and I am already refreshing some of the most useful software I use on my PowerBook. Two days ago I upgraded my license for Tinderbox and bought a second copy for my wife, and as soon as there is a Windows version available I will likely buy a copy or two to run on that platform as well. New copies of Tinderbox are on sale now for $95 a copy - a $50 discount from the standard pricing. Meanwhile, with The Omni Group's releases today of OmniWeb 5.1 and OmniOutliner 3.0 in the standard and Pro versions, I am likely to spend even more money on software soon.

Have you bought any new Mac OS X software? |

Apple lawsuit seems to confirm rumors
Wednesday, January 5, 2005, 12:41 PM

CNET writes about Apple's lawsuit against the publishers of the Think Secret Web site regarding rumors about upcoming products - specifically iWork and the headless Mac. In pursuing this suit, Apple seems to be confirming at least portions of these widespread rumors. I guess we will get the real scoop next week when Macworld Expo kicks off in San Francisco. Steve Jobs is scheduled to deliver the keynote on Tuesday morning...

How the Mac was made
Tuesday, January 4, 2005, 10:53 PM

The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac was Made - An Interview with Andy Hertzfeld - What really happened in Cupertino during the early '80s as the Mac was born? Andy Hertzfeld was there and talks with Derrick Story about the early days of the Macintosh, folklore.org, and his new book, Revolution in The Valley. [O'Reilly MacDevCenter.com]

Could a Mac Home Server be coming?
Monday, January 3, 2005, 12:36 PM

Macsimum News asks if the stars are aligning for a Mac Home Server. It is an interesting and popular thought on the Mac rumor sites, and even Macintouch has a reader report underway about ways to use a Mac right now as a home media server. Will it happen at the expo? It's still hard to read the tea leaves. Ask me after the keynote speech...

It's a new year, and I am ready to be wowed by Apple
Monday, January 3, 2005, 12:26 PM

As we open the doors on the first business week of 2005, I am thinking, like many others, about what could be coming from Apple in this new year. I have no juicy rumors, but I do have a major wish. I want to be wowed by Apple again in 2005. Speed bumps and iPod enhancements aren't going to cut it. I want to be wowed. I expect to be waiting for a while before that happens, though.

What would you like to see coming from Apple in 2005? What do you hope will be announced at Macworld Expo? |

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