Just in case you missed me waxing poetic about Leopard in this post, I have more Leopard-y goodness to share. Leopard fixed my speakers. That’s right. This MacBook has had sound quality issues since day one, and no amount of firmware updates or software upgrades fixed how quiet the speakers were. Since I installed Leopard, the sound has been perfect. Amazing. I can hear without my stupid headphones now! Wheeeeee! I’ll consider that a much needed bonus, Apple!
As the well-loved company becomes more and more mainstream, expect more hackers to try to cause problems for the users. This is the first Trojan virus discovered on the Mac OS. (Hat tip to JP)
“We’ve been made aware that a small number of Web sites attempt to trick Mac OS X users to install malicious software on their Macs,” said Apple spokeswoman Lynn Fox. “Apple has a great track record for keeping Mac OS X users secure, and as always, we encourage people to install software only from trusted sources.”
The timing of the Trojan horse suggests there are more to come, say some computer and Internet security professionals. As Apple’s popularity rises, “the bad guys are taking Macs seriously now,” wrote Bojan Zdrnja, of the Internet Storm Center, which is led by the Escal Institute of Advanced Technologies.
You can protect yourself by taking precautions, such as installing free virus protection software like Clam XAV and running it on a regular schedule. At this time I can’t recommend Norton for Mac, but in future that could change.
Y’all I just installed Leopard, and I can’t even begin to describe the gorgeous eye candy that is this software. I haven’t even really begun to play with all of the shiny new features yet, and I’m already in love.
For those who were wondering, installation was, as usual with Apple products, a complete breeze on my MacBook. I put the installation disk in at 9:30 and by 10:30 had a brand new operating system up and running. On the eMac, it was a touch slower because I was testing the minimum requirements on the box, but still hassle free. The eMac was upgrading from a much older version of OS X Tiger, to be fair.
So far, my thoughts on Leopard pretty much consist of the not-very-articulate “OOOOOOOOO PREEEETTYYYYYY”. I’m going to stop drooling and start playing with it and write a little bit more informative review as I go.
As a test, I removed the additional RAM in the eMac and put the original cards back in to make it barely meet the minimum requirements for Leopard. I wanted to see how it would install. The answer is slooowly. But, as promised, it did install a fully featured version of Mac OS X Leopard, and automatically kept honey’s Mac OS 9.2 installed and active so he could play his older games without my having to do anything special. Nice!
Running on the eMac with the bare minimum of RAM installed Leopard was functional. If you used more than two programs at a time you got some system drag, but no crashes. It performed as promised. Of course, being used to more RAM the drag was too annoying to play with for long, so soon after installing it and nosing around I flipped the newer SDRAM back into it, giving it the full 1GB. What a difference! Leopard running on the eMac with the maximum RAM is a complete improvement over Tiger – fast, interesting, useful and more intuitive. Honey loves it. On my MacBook, running 1.25GB RAM and with plenty of room on the hard drive, Leopard runs like lightening. I’m so pleased with this installation, not to mention each new feature I discover.
My favorite feature so far is Stacks. Clicking a folder or application package in your dock and seeing all of the contents without having to commit to opening anything is a definite must-have feature. It has saved me tons of time already. So far the biggest drawback is having to resort some of my filing so that I have room in my dock for the things I use daily, without having to set the dock size to “microscopic”.
Dashboard is still here, and still a nice collection of widgets. I like Dashboard for its novelty, but I have to admit I don’t use it all the time. I keep a few widgets going, like weather and word count widgets, but often forget to click over to see them. It’s more of a matter of personal work habits than anything else. Exposé helps handle that, but still Dashboard sometimes gets ignored in this house.
TimeMachine was quick to set up to work with our external drive, and it was easy to create different backup areas on the same external drive for both computers. Even honey should be able to back up his machine regularly without frustration. (He isn’t bad at computers, he just doesn’t like to play with them the way I do – he wants to do what he has to, finish then go play his games without hassle.)
I always opt out of .Mac – I have plenty of storage using external drives and JungleDisk, and .Mac so far doesn’t offer enough space for me. I’d love to hear from a .Mac user how TimeMachine and .Mac worked together for them in the comments. Right now I’m sticking with the TimeMachine/external drive set up.
Leopard comes with a variety of goodies, including two good games: Tony Hawk and Daemos Rising. Other new features include using the Cover Flow application for your files. The cover art browsing system you have come to love in iTunes has been applied to your folders and files. It’s pretty fun, actually, especially when browsing photographs or web pages where there is plenty of visual input.
You can also “cheat” with Leopard, “seeing” what’s in your files before you open them using Quick Look. Seeing the first bit of a file before you open it has been saving me time all afternoon. As a writer who earns most of her bread and butter on non fiction writing, its easy for articles on similar topics to start to blend together in your memory. Quick Look saves tons of time when I need to go back and revise or reference earlier work.
I’ve already discussed Time Machine’s backup capabilities, but it also offers you a way to see how your files looked day by day, or restore to a specific time frame. Even Mail has had an upgrade. I haven’t had a chance to test this out yet, but it is supposed to integrate with iCal and online calendars like Google calendar. It also is supposed to let you create your own stationary and other cool things. I’ll have to keep you posted on that. Up until now I’ve hated the Apple Mail application and have used Thunderbird instead.
More fun things arrive with the new iChat, which now includes special effects, art effects and visual options for how you display your video self in your chat sessions. I’ll try this at some point, though I am quite camera shy and dislike video chat intensely myself. Nothing says “Fuuuuck. Me.” like having to do an 8 AM video conference with new clients groggy, uncoifed and uncoffeed. Luckily, you can even change your “backdrop” and mess around with your chat text if you want.
Another groovy program is called Spaces. This basically gives you visual work flow and sorting for any project. You can dump files from any program into the Space for that project, keeping them together in a fast, easy to remember conceptual sort pattern. You then use a combination of Spaces and Exposé to flip back and forth from file to file and project to project. I have so many uses for this in keeping my majillion blogs, web sites, forums, and web sites sorted it isn’t even funny. This is a great feature, especially combined with Quick Look and Stacks.
Safari supposedly has a plethora of new features. As a general rule I tend not to use Safari. Unless one of those new features is being compatible with forms and web sites like FireFox is, it won’t be in my repertoire, still. It simply doesn’t see the web the way I need it to in order to work. But if it is your browser of choice, read all about its new features (tabbed browsing, inline search, clippings, and more) here. Also on the “meh” list for me is the Parental Controls feature (no kids) and integrated BootCamp (no Windoze shall ever touch my Mac. The end.).
All in all Leopard is a solid, multifaceted release that has significant performance upgrades and new features. I’m definitely happy I invested the time and money in putting it on our home and home office network. I can’t wait to hear how you are using the new features in your work and play!
I ordered Leopard from the Apple Store this weekend. I’ll let you know how the install goes when it arrives. Any favorite features so far in your installations of it?
You can preorder Leopard at the Apple Store, no lines, no waiting – shipping out the minute it is released.
PC Magazine readers give Apple an over all 9.1 score on customer service. Way to go Apple!
Of course, no Windows machine comes close to Apple’s 9.1 overall score. But even Apple was down from last year in just about every category except technical support, which went up to 8.4 points. Apple’s high marks extend even into areas we don’t have room to print charts for, such as the 85 percent rating for the reliability of software included on the computer (aah, iLife), the 93 percent score for new desktops working right out of the box, and the 9 out of 10 score for the attitude of the tech-support provider. Even the Apple.com Web site gets kudos for how much information it makes available.
An internet buddy of mine, Amy, turned me on to MacGourmet. I downloaded it, tried it, and used it so much right away that I bought it. I am in love with this inexpensive, easy to use little program! Thanks, Amy!
MacGourmet is a recipe managing software, but it goes the extra mile. It integrates with Safari and uses Mac Services to let you pull in recipes from the web as you surf (this has been my hands down favorite feature so far). It also calculates the nutritional value of your recipe if you grab the Nutrition plug in, prints out shopping lists, lets you make notes on each recipe, add photos and rank each recipe. It also lets you add wine notes and more.
I’m recently a red wine addict, so the wine notes have been fun. I also am an amateur gourmet who loves to cook and briefly owned their own catering business. I have a lot of recipes. A. Lot. The chance to organize them on my MacBook and toss the massive wooden recipe box the size of a Buick is making my honey very happy. It might take a while to get them all entered in using my spare time, but in they will go.
Amy wrote a comprehensive review of MacGourmet for Epinions, which is how I discovered this little gem of a program. I give it two thumbs up for people who want to organize their cooking life. My only complaint so far is that is does not integrate with FireFox, my browser of choice, but that is Mozilla’s issue, not MacGourmet’s. FireFox won’t accept Mac services yet for some reason.
This is a well written piece on why Windows users are often reluctant to make the switch to Mac.
Let me say it right off the bat: Macs running OS X give the best computing experience on the planet. It’s not that Macs are perfect, but compared to everything else, there is nothing like the Mac experience. With that in mind, it’s difficult for many Mac users to comprehend why there are so many Windows users suffering needlessly by running a Windows system. That’s where I come in.
It seems Mac is taking steps to make its PDF and image viewer, Preview, into a fully integrated image editor with Preview 3.0. The 3.0 version of Preview will be released with Leopard, and includes many more features than its previous incarnations.
today’s news flash: Apple has updated iLife 08, including iMovie. Get started on the update by grabbing the file at the Apple site here.
I got a bit busy this week, as I mentioned over on Smoke Rings. That means I missed some excellent Apple news for you. By way of apology for tripping over my own deadlines this week, here is a quick recap of some of the highlights:
Have a great rest of your weekend! Can’t wait to see what Apple news and rumor abounds in the coming week.
You can also read my work today at Profy (NovelMaker, Mog vs LastFM), The Writer’s Well, and Smoke Rings. Enjoy!
Apple has released the fine print of the $100 iPhone credit. (SecretNotes)
Apple has released a software update for iMacs that fixes a few glitches. (Apple)
Marketers dissect Apple’s strategy for loyal customers. (CRM)
PC Magazine plays with the new iPod Touch. (PC Mag)
MacWorld talks about user driven news versus media conglomerate driven news. (MacWorld)
Learn to create Keynote slides for a series of images. (MacWorld)
Is Apple breaking into the movie rental business on iTunes? (Money)
Undercover security application recovers 4 MacBooks. (MacNN)
Nothing to do with Apple, but I thought you’d like the geeky goodness nonetheless. Thanks, JP!
I have never used iMovie to make a movie.
Pick your jaws up off the floor! Seriously! What???
I am no cinematographer. I have enough trouble getting good images with a digital camera, and these days they do a lot of the work for you. Also, both myself and my honey are camera shy. If we won’t sit still for a snap shot, how can you expect us to be the focus of a movie? I have friends who make movies all the time, like one of my best friends Meleah. She is living proof of just how intuitive Macs are. She went from knowing not one single thing about Macs, movies or laptops last year when she got her MacBook to making frequent home movies of family events and video blogs. In fact, movies have become a much loved way of keeping her extensive family together and up to date on each other’s lives.
Regardless, there has been buzz around the interwebs that while overall iLife ’08 improved the rest of the programs (GarageBand, iWeb and iPhoto), iMovie actually took a step backward. I find this interesting because Apple doesn’t usually lose ground on their own software. I’d love to hear from readers who are using iMovie ’08 what they think, since I obviously can have no opinion on this one. I’ll make songs, podcasts and ringtones in GarageBand and iTunes all day long, but no movies for me!
I’m not sure if this is an application I would personally use, since I use the Dock and Expose to surf my open files. It still seems cool, offering the ability to drag any open file or application to any side of your desktop and turn it into a discrete little tab. Made by Donelleschi and priced to move at $16, it’s an affordable way to keep your desktop clutter free if you find tabs easiest to work with.
MacWorld has written a very fair side by side cost comparison of PCs and Macs. I highly recommend checking it out. They have remained objective in acknowledging places where Apple falls short (such as business priced models with service access in mind) and they have managed to avoid the fanboy trap of using Apple ad tag lines to defend what they like. I thought it was a balanced analysis.
1. There is plenty of software available for the Mac, both from established software houses and from individuals. Surprisingly, there are more products in some product categories than there are for Windows. For example, every time I turn around, I stumble across another project management tool for the Mac. There are more browsers for the Mac than there are for Windows.
I don’t think Windows users realize just how many Windows software product categories Microsoft has come to own, eliminating all or most of the viable competition. Though it’s true that in some categories there are only two or three Mac offerings, all in all there is a very solid, rich spread of software makers creating Mac applications. As a longtime software reviewer, I’ve been surprised by the quality of these applications.
That’s just one of many points he makes. Never fear, Windoze fans, you win out in several categories, but overall the Macs have a good showing here.
Related Articles By Me: Laptop Dilemma: Mac or PC?
Tags: Mac vs PC, MacWorld, Compare Windows and Mac, Jobs vs Gates
It was big news this year when EA Games made the decision that their games would be made compatible with Macs. Well, the first wave of new games is scheduled to hit a brick and mortar Apple store near you soon, and to be in the online Apple store also.
The first four games are Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Need for Speed Carbon, Battlefield 2142 and Command and Conquer Three. Next up for release will be Madden NFL 08 and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08. The plan is to release as many old titles as possible on the Mac platform, and all of the new titles on both Mac and Windows platform.
In response to an inquiry about the delay for Madden NFL ’08, an EA representative said “we’ve shorted the gap between the Mac launch and other platforms to just a few weeks. This is a huge leap compared with past launches. Over time, as EA gains experience in completing and shipping Mac games, the gap will narrow.”
Tags: ea games, madden nfl, tiger woods pga tour, need for speed
This site, Creative Mac Tutorials, offers brief tutorials on using a variety of programs on your Mac. They have a series on Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks and more. Add them to your resource links.
We discussed DocX, the new Microsuck Word format, and it’s issues with compatibility before. Microsuck programmers have been hemming and hawing about producing Office 2008 for Mac to include DocX compatibility, and now Apple has beaten them to the punch. That’s right, iWork 08 includes Open XML (that’s what DocX is) compatibility, suckas.
Tags: iWork 08, Office 2008 for Mac, Microsoft, Microsuck, DocX, Open XML
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