I’m a bit of a WordPress enthusiast and excited for the upcoming 3.0 release. As I continue to work on many projects centered around WordPress, they continue to push away with new releases. The beta for their upcoming release, 3.0, is looking quite impressive and includes several things I did not expect to see. First, it seems, WordPress and WordPress MU are going to merge into one install (which is great!) There’s also a new default theme to play with (called Twenty Ten), and there’s going to be tweaks to the UI! Sounds like fun!
It’s currently in Beta 1, which means it will blow something up if you’re not careful. But, if you’re interested, take a peek, download, and have fun!
I’ve had Snow Leopard for about a week, and there’s a few things I’ve noticed with Apple’s recent operating system.
First, there’s a slight focus on security. Outside of the introduced malware scanner in Snow Leopard, removing files from the trash has become more security. The default has been changed to secure delete, a feature in Leopard, but was optional. It’s almost as if Apple is trying to stay a step ahead of the game for a looming attack or marketing towards business use. The downfall, deleting a large amount of files now takes a ridiculous amount of time.
The next change with Snow Leopard relates to my interactions with it. I find myself the Finder more often instead of opening applications. With the new thumbnail abilities and an improved Quick Look, I find myself not having to open applications as often to determine what I may or may not need.
Snow Leopard did not change a lot on the surface. All of my old programs work as anticipated and there are plenty of improvements, but I’ve not used half of them. This is not to say they aren’t welcomed, but Snow Leopard is clearly the groundwork for something’s to come.
Apple released Snow Leopard today and I decided to join the early adopters and perform the upgrade. Snow Leopard is Apple’s recent update to OS X and an upgrade to Leopard, building on many of it’s impressive features. Snow Leopard is akin to what Windows 98 was to Windows 95, same interface but new useful features. With a price tag of $29 ($25 on Amazon as of this posting), and a MacBook Pro that’s barely 6 months old, it was a no brainier to perform the upgrade. Continue Reading »
There’s a difference College Humor’s movie trailer for Minesweeper and Microsoft’s Office 2010: The Movie. College Humor is entertainment web-video company, Microsoft is a major software development corporation. When I read about Office 2010: The Movie on CrunchGear I thought this had to be a joke; after visiting office2010themovie.com the sad reality set in. This is Microsoft’s new viral campaign, and it’s stupid. What’s next? A trilogy called “The Adventures of IE 8″?
The decision to promote a product as a theatrical trailer has been done before; usually with some mention of features, displays of the product, and some cheesy catch line. If anything, Microsoft is promoting keyboards, Pac-Man, and Blackberries with this video. Of all the things to waste money on, a movie trailer for your software isn’t one of them.
The release of Safari 4 and Firefox 3.5 release candidate 2 available for Mac I wanted to know which browser performs the best. Other websites have performed benchmarks comparing a bevy of browsers within a Windows environment. While the results may be similar, Internet Explorer and Google Chrome are not available for Mac (Chrome is currently in Alpha). I wanted to provide a benchmark for Mac users comparing the two major browsers in their ability to render JavaScript, their ability to display websites, the amount of memory they used, and their adherence to web standards. For this test I compared Safari 4.0.1 and Firefox 3.5 Release Candidate 2 using my 2.66 GHz MacBook Pro 17” with 4 GB of RAM. Continue Reading »
Image Credit: "Apple Enlightenment" by SeenyaRita on Flickr
30 days later and I’ve come to the end of this journal a different computer user than I entered. At this point, I find it difficult to think about using anything that isn’t a Mac. Its not the applications, the look, the feel, that has swayed my mind, it is the simplicity. The MacBook Pro is a top of the line laptop, regardless of any operating system you use. My computing life is easier, I save more time performing tasks, and I’m able to do more with less. Continue Reading »
Image Credit: "IMG_3092.JPG" by {Guerrilla Futures | Jason Tester} on Flickr
The past 29 Days of my life with a new Mac has been an awesome and rewarding experience. I’m surprise how much my life has changed merely by switching to a Mac. It may sound corny that a computer has changed significant parts of your life, but in a world where we rely on computers more often it makes sense. The approach of Apple is very different from Microsoft of the general open-source community and it makes computing approachable, useable, and adaptable. Nothing is perfect and while I believe Apple has made major strides since my last experience with them, there’s are some things missing on Mac. Continue Reading »
Image Credit: "A Mac Playing the Piano" by jochenWolters on Flickr
I’m on my last three days of My Mac experiment. I wanted to use a program that comes with Mac that I haven’t. Something fun and interesting. My choices left me to either trying Front Row or Chess. I never understood the purpose of Front Row until I tried it. I had no clue what Front Row was, did, or provided to the Mac experience. I was delighted when I experimented with the program. Continue Reading »
Image Credit: "Ready to attack" by trekkyandy on Flickr
27 Days Later and I’ve become a Mac Zombie (get the reference win a cookie). Apple has infected me with the evil “I Love Mac” Virus through Avalon (my 17” Mac Book Pro) and I want to spread my evil Mac germs everywhere! So far my life with Mac has been amazing, I don’t have any major complaints and with Snow Leopard around the corner, I’m excited to see what Apple improves.
On Day 26, I talked about customizing your Mac, mainly though the physical appearance and icons, but I want to highlight some tweaks I found helpful. Continue Reading »
Image Credit: "Pimp my mac" by Krudo. on Flickr
I have been afraid to customize Avalon. With Windows, I always feel I may break something when customizing the system. In my new Mac Life, customization is simple and easy. While background and color options can be managed within the system preferences, there are some additional ways to customize the Mac to your preferences. Continue Reading »