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 »
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 »
