iSlayer’s new widget: Organized

So the oh-so-amazing widget maker “iSlayer” (makers of iStat Pro, etc) has released a new widget called “Organized” (leopard only),basically to sum it up really quick - it replaces the World Clock and iCal widgets in dashboard, combines them, and then adds 2 more features. The interface of the widget is that clean iSlayer UI that we all know and love (at least if you use iStat Pro you do). It’s a calendar with 4 tabs under it: Clocks, Notes, Events, To Do. So basically, its kinda like iCal at a glance! The clock tab is simply the world clock, and you can add more clocks onto it, you don’t have to open a whole new widget, just to have another clock.

World Clock and “Organized”

The notes tab is the notes feature you find in Mail, simply put into widget form. The only downside to this is that it doesn’t sync with mail; so you wont find your mail notes in this widget and vise versa. However, it does borrow from the iPhone interface a tad which is nice. Also, if you’re not a big fan of the Marker Felt font that is featured in notes you can turn that off in the widget’s prefs.

Notes in “Organized”

The Events tab does however sync with iCal, and shows the events that are today/upcoming if you’re on the today view or if you click on a date it’ll show you the events for that day. You can click on an event to see its details, however you can’t create new events in “Organized” (they do give you a button to launch iCal though).

“iCal” (widget) and “Organized”

Finally you have the To Do tab. It does exactly what you’d expect it to, however you can add new to do’s and a new calendar to ad the todo’s to. You can also complete and delete to do’s and view their details.

To Do in “Organized”

So basically its a great widget, and I’ll probably adapt to it really soon, however I just think its odd that you can create stuff in Notes, but not sync them with Mail. Then not create stuff in Events, even though that IS synced with iCal. Also you can create to do’s AND CALENDARS in this widget, which are also synced. (Not sure why you’d need to create a whole new calendar for your todo’s at random.) So basically they just need to do syncing and creating in all the sections and then it’ll be flawless. So I give it a 4.5 out of 5 (simply because it has a great interface and its easy to use, it just needs complete functionality). Its a great widget and you can download at www.islayer.com (once again, its leopard only folks)

Re: iPhone Physical Keyboard

So I wanted to say a quick word about this whole “physical keyboard on the iPhone” rumor. I really hope it doesn’t happen, I like the virutal keyboard, its clean and effective. Sure its a little different, but so was the iPod. I like the fact that the buttons can change as needed and that its not in the way. So, no I really hope they wont do it. What do you think about this rumor? Leave your comments.

MacBook Design Change

Usually if one little thing changes when it comes to product design, its all over the Apple blogs. However, I ran across this yesterday (on apple’s website), and no one seems to have reported it anywhere. Apperently, they’ve changed the way the back vent is designed.

This is good considering the MacBooks are known for having some heat issues, however I can’t help but feel somethings going to get stuck in there…..hopefully nothing ever will, but it seems like this will definately help.

WWDC Recap - Finally!

About 3 weeks ago Apple held its annual conference at Moscone West, where Apple C.E.O. Steve Jobs would take the stage to commence the weeks activities. He opened by saying that they were going to be talking about iPhone that morning. Then after lunch they’d be having a session with Bertrand Serlet who will introduce Snow Leopard.
The keynote started with a talk about the iPhone 2.0 Software. First topic: Enterprise support in the new software. To sum it all up really quick; this means than an employee can do push forwarding/active sync with their business or a business with their employees. Also adding support for VoIP, etc etc, To the average consumer this means nothing, to businesses and their employees this means a lot.
Next in the program came a long talk about the iPhone SDK (Software Developers Kit), if you don’t know what this is, this lets third-parties build applications for the iPhone. Scott Forstall (SVP of iPhone Software) started by giving a run through of the SDK for those who may have missed it back in March. There wasn’t a lot to this part, just him showing how quick and easy it is to build an App in the SDK. Then he let some various developers show off their creations, starting with Sega. Sega had presented the first stages of their game for the iPhone, Super Monkey Ball back in March, and simply showed how it had evolved since then. Then eBay showed off their application for the iPhone; which I found useless because first off, I don’t use eBay at all. Also, I don’t really think many people are going to spend time bidding on items through their phone. Yes, I understand the iPhone is a mobile computer so to speak, but it still seems pretty useless.
Then Loopt, TypePad, and the Mobile News Productions made their presentations. Loopt, a social network that uses the iPhone’s “location base” to find friends nearby. This was the beginning of developers talking about “location base” (besides when S. Forestall mentioned it) which hinted at GPS in the (rumored) new iPhone. TypePad presented a nice looking blogging application, but I wouldn’t use it simply because I don’t want to have to pay for a blogging service. The Mobile News Network application uses your location to find news thats relative to you, you can also view the photos and video that are related to those articles.
Thats when Pangea Software took the stage, at first I seemed excited for their presentation because, Pangea is a Mac game developer. However, I lost interest when they mentioned they were simply porting some Mac games over to the iPhone, both really boring. The first was Cro Mag Rally (a game which was a big deal when OX 10.1 was released), the second was a puzzle game named Enigmo (which looked pretty boring to me). (All the bloggers who I pay attention to were saying they were bored back when Sega presented, and now it was just plain dreadful.) Then this guy came on stage who made an application called “Band” for the iphone which lets you play software instruments on the iPhone - interesting but still nothing too exciting. Then a man from MLB came up and presented a baseball App for the iPhone which had some really cool features, considering this was being run on a phone (for example, you can watch the game almost as its happening; its like a minute and a half behind he said). Finally, there were 2 more developers who presented, an anatomy application for medical students, and another game (which looked really cool but it seems like it’d be really hard to navigate on a phone). Then Scott closed with Apples push notification solution which lets Apps notify without running in the background (which would suck up CPU power).
Finally Steve, came back on stage and gave us a quick run through of the new features that will be in the 2.0 software which are: contact search, iWork and Office support (so you can read documents sent to you via email; you can’t edit to my current knowledge), Bulk delete/move of eMail messages, the ability to save email images, also when you turn the iPhone landscape while in calculator it transforms into an advanced calculator, it now has parental controls, and finally tons of language support. Jobs closed by saying that the new software will be free for iPhone users, and $9.95 (USD) for iPod Touch owners.
Then Steve said that they had something new for us, finally in anticipation of the rumored iPhone 3G we were sitting on the edge of our seats. However, we were disappointed again, because he asked Phil Schiller up on stage to introduce: Mobile Me. I started watching Apple’s stock as it fell due to disappointed Apple fanboys who were anticipating the iPhone 3G. Basically Mobile Me is dot-Mac’s replacement and is the same as Enterprise except its for the average person and not business executives. It simply keeps your iPhone in sync with your computers (both windows and Mac) and vise versa. So that if some of your information changes, such as a calendar appointment or an address change, all your devises are updated so that you always have the latest, up to date information. I think Mobile Me is a nice replacement for dot-Mac, and its very useful, but that $99 a year price tag is just too high for me.
At this point there was only 15 minutes left in the keynote, and Apple stock had dropped about 10 dollars. Thats whens Steve started talking more about the new goals for iPhone, the first one: 3G. That’s when the crowd went nuts, and Jobs unveiled the iPhone 3G. The new iPhone features a black (or white) plastic back, with recessed headphone jack, and metal buttons (the volume rocker and silent switch), besides those 3 things; there aren’t many cosmetic changes to the iPhone (thank goodness). Obviously, the iPhone 3G has 3G internet support, which is supposedly just a hair slower than actual wi-fi, which is amazing if thats true for everywhere (its not a surprise when you’re getting good speeds in a big city). The iPhone also packs in “real” GPS and better battery life. Apple also says that iPhone will be available in 70 countries by the end of the year, which is a remarkable feat.
However, the most amazing part of the iPhone 3G (at least in my opinion) is the remarkable price drop. When the iPhone was originally released, the iPhone 8GB was $599, the current (original) iPhone is $399, and now its only $199, The 16GB model is available for only $299, which is so amazing. Sure, it seems like there are way more strings attached, but whatever I’ll take it!
So enough of iPhone and the keynote, now I need to talk about OS X (10.6) “Snow Leopard.” Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Okay, maybe I’m not giving it a fair chance, but c’mon I posted a blog about this in April. 10.5 is not mature enough to be passed off for 10.6, however in a way Apple justifies its move to 10.6. What Apple has done is they’ve put a hold on the new features in Snow Leopard and focuses directly on performance, this is good, because Leopard definitely needs some improvement. So, in a way I’m all for Snow Leopard (and I like Apple’s play on words with how they make the name alike Leopard but not exactly Leopard), but at the same time can’t help but feel that this shouldn’t be a “major” upgrade (meaning it should be like 10.5.5 instead of 10.6). So thats my little WWDC recap. Sorry its late, and sorry its so long.

Firefox 3: What’s all the ruckus about?

Disclaimer: I have a theme on my version of Firefox 3, so your version of Firefox will look a bit different

If you like it: the theme is called GrApple Yummy (blue)

If you have an internet connection (and I’m assuming you do; since you’re reading this), you’ve most likely heard about the new Firefox 3. I was amazed at how many people had jumped on the “beta” bandwagon with this upcoming release. So what exactly is all of this excitement about it, and is it something you should be interested in? Well thats exactly what I’m going to cover in this article.

So, what does Firefox have to offer?  Well a lot actually. First of all, Firefox excells when it comes to the navigation. Newly incorporated in Firefox 3 is what the folks at Mozilla call the “Smart Location Bar,” which is an amazing tool. It works like anormal URL bar would work, however, its not as specific (in a good way). For example, it searches all parts of the url. So if you were going to go to apple.com/iPhone, you could just type iPhone, and youll see your various results (whether it be a page with the title iPhone, or an article with iPhone in it or a /iPhone).

The URL bar also features, one click bookmarking, you’ll see a star on every webpage you visit. If this isn’t bookmarked, the star will be just the outline of a star (not filled in), and if the page is bookmarked, the star will be solid blue. Honestly, I’m not sure how much people will use this, I didn’t even realize it until I was reading Mozilla’s site. Another new feature, Smart Folders, are another one of the features that I don’t really think I’ll use. They work like iTunes’ Smart Playlists work, except with your websites, stuff like “most visited” and stuff. It can be interesting to read, but besides that it’s pretty pointless. And finally, a feature that’s not so new but still important, is the “suggested results” in the search engine bar. It’s nothing amazing, but it can be extremely useful.

If there’s one area where Firefox really has “bragging” rights over the other browsers, its the browsers’ security features. First off, a feature that’s not so new, password management: a feature that’s quickly being integrated into every browser (if it hasn’t been already). If you don’t know what it is yet, basically it lets you save and store your passwords for the websites you use, so that you don’t have to re-enter them every single time you go to a website. However, Mozilla has given it a bit of a face lift, now instead of saving your password as it logs you in, it waits till after you’ve logged in, so that you can cancel the save if you’ve typed in your password wrong. Even though it seems like such a small detail, it saves a lot of headaches in the longrun. Also, Firefox greatly protects against pshing and malware, basically in the url, you can now check if the site is valid or not, which is great for doing online banking and stuff, so that you can make sure your information is secure. Something that is growing more and more important as hackers continue to figure out how to hack into secure websites and systems. Mozilla states that Firefox will constantly update its list of web-forgery sites 48 times a day, so you’ll always know what’s secure and whats not. Firefox also automatically downloads its updates, so you don’t have to worry about it, not only keeping you constantly secure, but you’ll always have the latest stuff.

Firefox also incorporates a feature called “Session restore” which is exactly what it sounds like, basically if Firefox were to crash for some reason, you’ll pick right back up were you left off (Mozilla says it’s word for word, I find this hard to believe, because I’ve lost work before in firefox..) Firefox also sports a new feature, that you can save your tabs when you quit out (I’m pretty sure this was in earlier versions; just not as apparent). This is really awesome, because a lot of times I’ll have multiple articles open on my computer, and then all of a sudden have to go somewhere. Well now thanks to Firefox 3, I’ll be able to pick back up where I left off.

Firefox also ups its performance with, Memory Management (also meaning a smaller memory footprint, some people were having ridiculous problems with Firefox taking up their RAM). They also, say they have improved their page and graphics rendering.

So that’s features; now onto Look and Feel/Usability. Now Firefox 2 was ugly, I’m sorry but it was, and that’s honestly one thing that kept me from using Firefox is because of its appearance. Being a OS X user I’m used to a nice sleek look through out my whole system. That’s exactly why the developers at Mozilla decided to incorporate a native look for each Operating System (one for OSX, one for XP, one for Vista, and one for Linux). This was a really nice move on Mozilla’s part! When I first started testing the beta, I loved the new interface, and I still do (however I wasn’t crazy when they decided to incorporate that gigantic back button). Here’s what the different UI’s will look like that (in order from OSX, XP, Vista, and Linux):

As far as usability goes, there are a lot of horrible browsers out there when it comes to ease of use, Firefox 3 is not one of them.

Now, I’m a safari-fanboy at heart, however I’ve been using Firefox 3 for about 2 months proximately, and I really like it. Is it better than Safari? I can’t answer that, simply because I think when it comes to Safari and Firefox, there’s no clear cut winner (and I say that just between these two browsers). For example, while Firefox is very diverse in what pages it can show etc etc, Safari has a MUCH better RSS reader. So, I think it comes down to 1. what you’re going to use it for 2. what your personal preference is. I’ll leave it at that

Firefox earns a 5/5 without a doubt, this is an excellent browser, and I highly recommend it!

WWDC Recap coming soon!

I made a prediction about WWDC, that no other tech-blogs did (to my knowledge), and I was right. Oh the horror!

Read the post here

Stay tuned for my WWDC Recap!

Apples Teams Missing, and Apple its self is lost!

Okay, so whats up apple, is your leagal team completely gone? Because so far, the Psystar Open Mac is STILL out there! Not to mention there’s this really stupid looking OS, that’s a 100% a rip off of The Dock, Stacks, Fast User Switching, and the “space” background thing (obviously that ones kinda debatable ;). JUST LOOK AT THIS THOUGH! (Also, their website is thinkgos.com, that’s kinda close to Think Different isn’t it?)

Now lets talk about the team that names Apple’s ingenius products. The last few Apple products released, have been very unapple like in their names (unless Apple is changing their naming pattern…which they shouldn’t). First off, Apple is known for its simplicity in its naming; keeping it simple so you dont have to wonder what it is, it just makes sense. For example, their desktops are Mac Mini - obviously a smaller end Mac, iMac, and Mac Pro - obviously a Mac for Pro users. Their Laptops WERE the MacBook and MacBook Pro. All very self explanitory (another example would be the iPhone, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that this is Apple’s phone…)

But recently, Apple hasn’t exactly been up to par. Lets look at some examples:

• MacBook Air
• Mobile Me
• OSX Snow Leopard

Now these aren’t terrible names, when you break them down and really think about it, however they’re not exactly innovative? First off, the MacBook Air, I get it okay…its light & thin, but the name AIR seems very….kiddish and somewhat unprofessional. However, I can easily cut it a break, but 2nd example is just plain rediculous! That’s the new version of OSX, Snow Leopard. I seriously want to know who came up with this name. Were they so short on cat names that they had to shove snow in front of their current OS name!?!?! That’s like asking, someone “Do you have a any pets?”

“Yes, I have a tabby cat”

“Oh, thats cool, cats are pretty good pets”

“NO!! I DONT HAVE A CAT! I HAVE A TABBY CAT! COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!”

Yeah, this was a bad Idea Apple. The only way I can justify this, is by reminding myself that this is an OS update that has no new features, only performance upgrades, same features, different “abilities.”

So basically, Apple needs to fix whatever has gone wrong in recent months, because things are getting rediculous! It seems like Apple has lost itself so to speak, for example, they seem 10% focused on mac, 20% focused on iPod, and 70% focused on iPhone. Thier focus was on iPod for a very long time, but now that they have like 80% of the market and the #1 music retailer positions locked, that’s pretty much on auto-pilot right now. So lets just take that out of the equation for right now. In a priority list of Mac & iPhone, it should be more like 60% (Mac) and 40% (iPhone). I understand that for the last two years iPod sales have boosted Mac sales dramtically, and now that’s what iPhone sales are doing. However, it wasn’t long ago that Apple was near bankrupcy and clinging viciously to life, but they can easilly slip and send themselvs right back there. I trust apple and their brilliant marketing team, but I get concerned.

Just like I got concerned back in the day that they’d start focusing on iPod too much (they did that….). So Apple, be careful, your Mac-heads love you.

People Chill Out!

Okay so everyone is freaking because of the iPhones unavailability. I’d love to say that the new 3G iPhone is coming out, but I doubt it. Knowing Apple, they’re gonna make a big deal about this new iPhone. So I’m gonna go with a few of the other blogs and say that we probably wont see one till WWDC.

MacBook Love

So this isn’t a new tech item or anything, just something I felt like talking about. I was on IM, chatting with a friend, while reading Jonathan Livingston Seagull for school. As my hands were reaching to the keyboard to respond, I had one of those Apple love moments. Where I just see the beauty in the design. Apple’s biggest selling points (next to the solid OS) is their signature design. It didn’t look like I had a laptop sitting on my desk, but just a keyboard that almost appeared as if to be “built into” the desk. I know the MacBook isn’t as thin as the Air, but its still so thin and small compared to a good handful of PC Notebooks that it amazes me. The MacBook doesn’t sit there and buzz or click, it just sits there making my life easier. I can’t recall where I herd it, but is was basically capturing the idea that a Mac just gets out of your way and lets you do stuff, however a PC you kinda have to work around it (if it decides it wants to crash or BSoD). It’s amazing how their innovation works. So there you have it, a few words I just wanted to put out there.

 

Also, Apple, if you wanna send me a MacBook Air to test out I’ve got plenty of time. Seriously though, I would love to know what its like to have a MacBook air (not really to own, just for like a month-3 months). I’d like to see what kind of difference its size would make in my day-to-day life (and I’ve already got an 80GB harddrive on my notebook, so that wouldn’t be a hard transition :-p).

Catching Up

For those of you who haven’t been paying attention to tech news over my break here’s what you missed:

-Tons of 3G iPhone Rumors

-The Psystar Mac is still around

-Microsoft dropped their proposal to buy Yahoo

-NBC delivered the ultimate “b**** slap” to Apple by teaming up with Microsoft. NBC shows are now available on the Zune Marketplace

-Supposedly iPhone owners would receive free wi-fi in some locations, courtesy of AT&T. However, then the “service” disappeared, and now there’s talks of it happening…..again. Don’t you just love rumors?

 

Well I’ll be sure to keep you all updated, sorry about the break.