Apple Grrl

I finally treated myself to a new MacBook! I was holding out for battery life and a slightly lighter model, and boy did Apple deliver! I LOVE this machine.

I got a refurbished White 13″ MacBook 1,1 generation laptop shortly after they first came out. I loved it, and it was working fine, but I outgrew it eventually. When it got to the point that I was making more demands on its use than it could handle, even with the most RAM upgrades I could get in it and other fixes, it was time to move on.

I went for the 15″ Aluminum MacBook Pro that came out at the conference this summer. With 4GB RAM (upgradable to 8GB), a better graphics card, a glossy screen, glass multi touch trackpad and other improvements, it is already beating the pants off of my old MacBook. My two favorite features of the moment are the illuminated keys (I take a lot of notes at conferences and do a lot of late night typing) and the extra long battery life. I’m able to work and travel for most of a business day before I start to look for an outlet.

It’s pretty light, also, and comes with a roomy hard drive as well. My music collection is on my hard drive for the first time in years. I plan to back it up to the slim profile, ultra light 500GB external hard drive I bought to take with me in my laptop bag, but for now I’m being lazy and enjoying my music right where it belongs. Also appreciated is the row of iTunes and Dashboard and other controls on the function row of the keyboard. That’s a nice, easy touch from Apple that makes the whole experience much better.

So far the only drawback is that it is very scratch-attracting on the case, and the screen collects fingerprints and dust motes. Luckily, I already keep a microfiber cloth handy for my glasses, so I just give it a bit of a swipe once in a while. If you have eyes that are sensitive to light or enjoy working outside, you are also not going to like the glossy screen, and Apple removed the option of a matte screen for those who work on outdoor locations.

The difference in this new 15″ screen and the 13″ on my old MacBook is remarkable. It’s very roomy. I looked at the 17″ and felt I didn’t need the extra weight or the extra screen real estate - this model was more than adequate. I also appreciate the bringing back of the firewire port, and the addition of the card reader slot. A long over due touch that makes total sense.

I’m only having one issue with it so far, and that is with two third party apps, Seesmic and TweetDeck. They just wont work on this machine and I have no idea why - they worked fine on my old laptop. It’s a double bummer that they aren’t working, as they are meant to handle Twitter, and that’s kind of my job (or at least part of it). Irony? You decide. I’m loving how FAST this new MacBook Pro is though. What a pleasure over all to use.

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I don’t have much to say about this news other than WTF? It turns out that Apple very quietly started replacing the displays on a few of their 13″ MacBook’s with the same one that they use on the Air - a better quality part. Cool, right?

Wrong, judging by the online response in forums and blogs. I can’t decide if people are genuinely upset over the switch (and if so, why??) or if they are just posturing for page views. Either way, I think it is kind of cool, and a nice little boost from Apple.

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I’ve stuck stalwartly by the side of FireFox 3.x because it was the only browser to offer some of my main daily tools, such as Jay Meattle’s Shareaholic and the fabulous Stumble Upon bar. I also like the Awesome Bar in FireFox, and some other things. I missed my beautiful Apple interface and my stable, non-crashing Apple browser though, so I kept trying to go back.

Enter Safari 4 beta and a few well timed doodads for it, and I’m back in “like” again with Apple’s browser as my daily option (it has some issues, but that is for another post). Jay Meattle created a browser button you can click and drag to the Safari 4 beta tool bar and use just like the Add-On I was familiar with in FireFox’s latest version. Someone created a Stumble Upon script using SIMBL and named it Stumbi, which was then bought by Soya Software. Stumbi puts a menu option in your Safari browser, right next to help, that gives you several of your favorite Stumble Upon options back (Shareaholic also has a StumbleUpon option for discovering new pages).

You can find Shareaholic’s Safari Browser Bar Button by clicking this link.

You can grab the Stumbi script from Soya Software (downloads SIMBL also) by clicking this link.

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According to this note online, that may be coming. All I can say as a loyal Verizon user is “it’s about time!” The iPhone should have been available on all carriers from the start.

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This amused me

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You can read more of my thoughts and suggestions over on Mac.Blorge today

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A few months ago, the folks at CodeWeavers threw down a challenge to President George W Bush. That challenge was an offer of free software if gas prices fell below a certain level in a certain amount of time. Well, no thanks to Bush, gas prices did fall. That means the folks at CodeWeaver will be honoring their challenge and giving away software for free for one day: today.

What were the terms of the original challenge by CodeWeaver CEO Jeremy White? From the notice that went out alerting us to the free software today: “If the president achieved one of White’s six “Lame Duck” goals during the twilight of his 2nd term, White would make Windows-API enabler & WINE GUI CrossOver free to customers for one day.”

Crossover is a software that allows you to run Windows on a Mac. It isn’t widely supported yet, but those who use it, love it. It has been gaining both traction and popularity since it was first released, rapidly catching up to favorites Parallels and BootCamp.

White is following through on his pledge. Not only will you be able to get CrossOver for Mac for free over the course of the day today (10/28), you will also be able to get CrossOver for Linux and CrossOver Games as well. Each title retails for around $40, so this is a fairly good deal I highly recommend snapping up.

In order to use CrossOver, you need an Intel Mac running Tiger or higher, and adequate RAM for the job. Some sites following the give away have noted that users must make a choice between a Mac or Linux version and look forward to seeing the statistics on the choices made the day after the software giveaway. I’m betting Mac wins, how about you?

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I seem to have lost my voice due to some kind of horrid illness, so MacJunkies will not be on this week. We’ll resume our regular Wednesday at 2PM schedule next week.

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I have been writing a lot for Mac.Blorge (and Tech.Blorge, and Mashable, and TouchBase, and Media Bulls Eye, and Uptown Uncorked… you get the picture) and sorely neglecting poor AppleGrrl.  I bet y’all didn’t even know I have a new podcast about Apple news, rumors, tips and tricks. Well, I do, called MacJunkies, every Wednesday (or listen to the recording later). Be sure to send me your questions for the Q&A portion!

Episode 2:

Episode 1:

Click to play

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While writing about Safari’s developer tools and the new Ecto 3 blog writing beta over on Mac.Blorge, I realized I have been making a list of things I’d like to see in Safari. Why bother making a list? Because I’d like Safari to be as good as FireFox for my daily browser needs, and it still falls short. It is beautiful and simple, but has no plugins or extra features to do things I’ve come to love in FireFox.

I’d love to see Foxy Tunes make a Safari compatible plugin. I adore Foxy Tunes for controlling iTunes in my browser, for looking up artist info on the fly and for the social aspects of meeting people who like the same music. It works in both Flock and FireFox, so why not Safari?

Tab Mix Plus. The session manager and session history are two features I can’t live without. I write for a living, often having up to 200 or more tabs open. In the event of a system crash or power outage, the Tab Mix Plus ability to remember all of these tabs and re-open them for me in the next session is a feature I simply can’t live without.

Stumble Upon Toolbar. The lack of a StumbleUpon toolbar in Safari kills me. How can I see the lovely surprises of Stumbled pages, or give neat pages some linky love without this? The answer is: I can’t.

There are other features and plugins I would love to see on Safari, like Shareaholic or the Alexa and Compete ranking bars, but those are my top three. Come on, third party develpers - get with it and make your stuff work with Safari!

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My real life best friend made a movie style photo montage about her love affair with her Mac. It is pretty funny:

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come give me your video reply on Seesmic

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I am a relatively fresh face in social media, and I have big ideas. I’ve been writing about social media behind the scenes for years at blogs like Profy and others, but only recently did I decide to turn the advice I’ve been giving for so long into a business, Uptown Uncorked.

All this time, the social media community has been nothing but supportive and generous to me, welcoming me into the community here in Boston and giving me ample opportunity to spread my wings and fly. It is my hope that by joining the interim board at Social Media Club, I’d be able to spend some of my free time giving back.

I see social media as an integral part of our society, and I see the various players on the social media field as a giant team that can lift each other, and our community outside of the social media arena, into the stratosphere. There is so much we can do to bridge the gap between each other, and between social media and our communities - I’m excited for the chance to be part of it.

I’m on a list of stellar social media types, and I’d be honored if any one of us nabbed the nomination. Even so, what I think I bring to the table that some of the social media giants may not is a fresh face, an untapped, uncorrupted point of view. Because I haven’t been as immersed in the lovely cloud of social media alone for the last while, but have also seen the other side of the horizon, I think it will lend a unique point of view to the ideas and projects we generate at the Social Media Club.

I’m looking forward to working more with the amazing people. If you’d like a fresh voice joining the chorus, please go here and vote for me. Poll is open until July 17th, 2008.

Thanks!

As a side note, I was privileged to be a panelist on Aaron Brazell’s show, The Aaron Brazell Show, the other night. I had a blast talking technology and politics with Aaron (who you may know best as Technosailor), Leslie Bradshaw, and Andrew Feinberg We were also joined by S. Dawn Jones, Steve Hodson and Art Lindsey III. If you’d like to read about it and hear the episode, visit this link.

NOTE: I don’t usually cross post to Smoke Rings and Uptown Uncorked, but in the interest of getting the word out about the vote, this post is being posted in its entirety on both Smoke Rings and Coffee Stains (my personal blog) and Uptown Uncorked.

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It appears to be the case. Check it out. Possible new Mac products in the MSFT pipeline? That would be good.

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If you read my keynote review on Blorge yesterday then you know I don’t own and iPhone. I’m not the only one. Read what fellow blogger Cyndy has to say about the drive by crime Apple and AT&T are committing on loyal customers with the 3G upgrade and rate increase here.

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If you want my thoughts on the keynote, you can read them over on Tech.Blorge today. Let’s just say that I was underwhelmed by the whole keynote, and send you over there for the details of why. Yes, Jobs announced the release of the 3G iPhone (affectionately known as the Jesus Phone by my friend Cyndy who writes with me on Profy). He looked as under excited by it as the Apple WWDC audience did, frankly.

Also announced was the Mobile Me synching plan, a much needed but still less than adequate replacement for .Mac, several iPhone applications and iPhone 2 - none of which were ready today, interestingly enough. Meanwhile AT&T, the carrier you are forced to use with the iPhone and the reason I don’t have one yet, is hiking rates to go along with the new 3G iPhone. Typical. What did you think of the WWDC keynote? Was is all you had hoped for?

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I must admit, I have sorely neglected AppleGrrl over the last many weeks. On one hand, being a great blogger and writer on my own blogs breeds success and writing gigs elsewhere. The down side of that is less time to write about what I care about on my own blogs. A vicious cycle resulting in some unplanned time away from AppleGrrl, WritersWell and BooksWithoutLimits. I’m hoping to be back to my normal garrulous self now, so sit back and read some Apple happenings:

I was happy to hear that an Apple Store was opening near me, junkie that I am. It is the largest in the country, no less, right in the heart of Boston, America’s most parking challenged city. I have half a mind to stick a camera or two out on the street to view the chaos that will ensue once the winter parking bans remove what little parking there is nearby for 6 - 9 months of the year.

I did a quickie review of some applications designed to make your calendar synching life easier over on Mac.Blorge recently, so if you are looking for a synch program, check it out.

A post I wrote a while back on one of my favorite sites, Twitter, is suddenly scaling the charts over on HubPages. Follow me on Twitter.

I’ve been busy, and I remain busy, but I’m making a point not to neglect my blog babies any more just because I’ve got work going. If there are any topics you’d like covered, let me know.

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This amused me. Some of my Twitter people discussing why Colleen should switch to Mac. Awesome.

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If the video won’t play for you above, here is the link.

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