I like this Otterbox a lot. The silicone sleeve (which comes in a choice of seven colors) hugs the phone closely without slippage, and felt very solid and tight in my hand, even when my hands were sweaty. I had no problem pressing the lock and volume buttons, or moving the headphone flap aside to plug in headphones. However, the dock flap is a little tricky to move aside in order to plug in the USB charger cable, as you really have to push it aside to get the cable inserted.

The solid plastic snap on over the back looks to provide protection in case the phone is dropped on its back. I obviously didn’t test this out, but the plastic seems more for style then real protection – the silicone case is the real armor in the Otterbox Commuter, and will absorb much of the shock if you drop the phone from a normal height. As for the screen protector, well, it’s a standard peel-on film that will probably save the screen from minor scratches but won’t save the glass from a crack should anything impact the front of the phone.

Overall, I feel the Commuter is a good compromise between the tank-like bulk of the Otterbox Defender line and the naked feeling of leaving the phone totally unprotected against the slings and arrows of the average purse or pocket. It protects well without adding too much excess bulk, and that makes it a winner for me.

Pluses: Good basic protection without excess bulk, looks pretty good
Minuses: Hard plastic snap-on seems gratuitous, tricky to move dock flap aside to plug in USB cable

Overall: 4 out of 5 dog cows.

Reviewed for the Lawrence Apple Users Group by Mike Silverman

The iPhone is an amazing portable computer. It features capabilities that twenty years ago would have been something out of the pages of science fiction. Instant communications access with anyone in the world, the ability to seamlessly access the corpus of human knowledge that is the Internet, and of course, an ability to be entertained by music, video and games limited only by your imagination.

Almost.

The iPhone, as shipped by Apple, is a wonderful device for 95% of its users. But Apple locks iPhone users into a gilded cage. The cage is sumptuously decorated, but it is still a jail cell. You are limited to using your iPhone in ways Apple approves of. “The man” (or Steve Jobs) decides what applications you can run and what capabilities your phone has. Like a bridled horse, the iPhone is docile, but unleashed, it could do so much more!

To really set the iPhone free, you need to “hack” it. Once you do this, your phone becomes the powerful computer it is meant to be, and you can run much more diverse software, giving your phone new abilities, like being able to record videos, customize the user interface, emulate popular video game consoles, and send and receive multimedia messages. You can even give your phone the ability to act as a wi-fi “access point” to the internet for your laptop, and unlock the phone to use on other carriers.

“iPhone Hacks” by David Jurick and Adam and Damien Stolarz is your guide into this brave new world. The authors act as friendly guide into the world of iPhone customization. This book is not meant for beginners; the authors assume both some technical computer knowledge and a curious nature. Some of the software-based “hacks” can be done by any experienced user, but other hacks require programming and even hardware “breadboard” skills, such as handiness with a soldering iron.

The authors first explains some of the basics of the iPhone operating system, including its history, the phone’s boot process, and how the file system is put together, which is an excellent overview, before they head into the basics of “jailbreaking,” which is the process where you use some simple software tools to open your phone’s operating system up to customization.

I should note that many of the hacks in this book require the jailbreaking process, which, contrary to its name, is neither illegal nor very difficult. There are several hacks which do not require jailbreaking, however, these are more in the vein of “power user tips” rather then true hacks. It is worth noting that Apple will not provide warranty services to jailbroken phones – luckily, if anything goes wrong, it is very easy to “restore” your phone to pristine condition before seeking warranty service.

The actual hacks are divided into various sections by theme. The first two thirds of the book is all software-focused, and as such accessible to those without programming or hardware hacking skills. For example, there are sections on using the phone as a multimedia devices, sections on enhancing the camera and video recording functions, as well as sections on topics such as SMS messaging, gaming, and user interface customization. Any of these sections can be accessed in an ad-hoc manner; there is no need to go in order after the initial chapter on the jailbreak process itself. Simple pick the topic you are interested in and dive in. It is easy to browse the book to get an idea of what the iPhone can do, and all of the chapters are very clearly explained, with excellent use of screenshots and supplementary information to guide you in the process.

The final third of the book covers both application programming, and actual hardware hacking, including how to disassemble and reassemble your phone. Many of the hacks in this section are very entertaining to read about (and fairly useless in a practical sense), especially since it would take someone way braver then me to actually crack open my phone’s case! The programming section is a useful introduction to both the official Apple-provided way to program for the iPhone as well as the unofficial ways to get access to private APIs and methods which can be used to program applications that could never make it into the App Store.

More controversially, “iPhone Hacks” also describes the process to “unlock” your iPhone (this is different then “jailbreaking”) so you can use it on a carrier other then AT&T. This information is presented fairly and accurately, with both the risks and rewards clearly outlined for those users who may need to use an iPhone on another carrier. The book also describes how to activate tethering, where you can use your iPhone as an internet access point for your laptop. This may violate your contract with your carrier, but the book doesn’t moralize here; it simply describes the “hack” and leaves the decision as to how to use the information up to you, the reader, which is as it should be.

Overall, this is an amazing book, clearly and thoroughly describing the dozens of ways you can truly make your iPhone your own. It manages to cover challenging information fairly and accurately in a manner that will appeal to any adventurous, curious and technically-minded reader. Even if you never plan to do anything other then the tamest “hacks” to your iPhone, browsing this book will teach you a lot about your phone as a computer, and leave you stimulated and fascinated.

Rating: 5 out of 5 DogCows
Plusses: A through and interesting book on how to expand the iPhone’s universe
Minuses: None

If you are an experienced Mac user, you probably start wondering about the way things are. Why did Apple do something this way? Why can’t iTunes play AVI files? What does this ‘Automator’ thing do? In the past, there have not been any decent books for experienced Mac tinkerers; a large gap existed between “Macs for Dummies” one one end and professional programming guides on the other. Luckily, “The Big Book of Apple Hacks” by author Chris Seibold has stepped in to fill this gap very nicely.

Overall, this is an interesting book, with a wide variety of hacks, ranging from relatively simple and harmless (customizing icons) to intermediate (changing the default Safari error page) to downright complex hardware hacks that may require some handiness with a soldering iron (as well as steady nerves). Some of the hacks aren’t really hacks at all, but rather short tutorials on interesting topics, such as how to use BitTorrent or how to simulate a static IP address with a dynamic IP service.

The book is laid out by general topic, rather then difficulty, with topics for Safari, the iPhone, AppleTV, iPods, and so forth. Each topic has a half dozen or more hacks, and the book overall has dozens of hacks. It is a very detailed and long book, and is an excellent value given the enormous breadth of data contained therein.

I made direct use of the book by following the hack to install a web browser on my Apple TV. Unfortunately, the book stumbled a bit here. This involved essentially making a special bootable USB flash drive and booting the AppleTV from this device, called a patchstick. The instructions in the book were a lot longer and more confusing then they had to be, and the first attempt, following the book’s instructions to the latter failed. I then followed the instructions contained in the actual patchstick download itself (not provided by the book) and it worked fine; however, it left my AppleTV with a working web browser — and an extraneous menu item for something called Jamen — an unpleasant surprise not mentioned in the book.

I do not want to ‘ding’ this book too much for my poor experience with their AppleTV hack, as by its nature this kind of thing will not work perfectly every time. You have to be willing to experiment to really enjoy the book, and the other hacks I tried worked flawlessly. Even for the hacks I didn’t need or want to try were enjoyable to read about; if nothing else the book will give you ideas and inspiration for your own computer use.

Note that this book is not for beginning or even intermediate Mac users. While some of the hacks are not difficult, they all have the potential to screw up your system, and while an intermediate user is probably OK, especially with a few of the topic-based tutorials, this book is really meant for an experienced user who is not afraid to get his or her hands dirty…and who always has an up-to-date backup of their system available for the inevitable screw-ups! It is also worth noting that the world of computers changes quickly, and portions of the book have already become out of date with new MacOS and hardware releases. So, check the book’s web site and as always, backup before playing!

Summary: A good overall guide filled with interesting ways to expand and enhance your Apple equipment for experienced users.

Plusses: Good mixture of easy and difficult ‘hacks’, very engaging writing style, lots of very useful ideas

Minuses: Some hacks were incompletely documented, quickly out of date.

Rating 3.5 out of 5 Dogcows

Color Decoder 1.0 by Stray Cat Technology

“Colors” are not just the theme of a mediocre 1980s gang movie starring Sean Penn and Robert Duvall. We mammals perceive the world in color, including our computer screens. However, a significant portion of the population experience color vision deficiency (popularly and somewhat inaccurately known as “color blindness”) where certain shades of color are unable to be properly perceived. Given that this is a fairly common phenomenon, and given how important color is in the Apple user interface, it seems rather surprising that Apple has neglected to handle color vision deficiency in their otherwise thorough Universal Access preferences. Luckily, Stray Cat Technologies has stepped up to fill this gap with their initial software release of Color Decoder.

Color Decoder is a simple application that does one thing – it tells you what color the screen is displaying underneath the mouse pointer. Color Decoder does this one of three ways; via a pop-up bubble the displays the color name, by speaking the color name out loud using Apple’s voice technology, or by flashing all pixels on the screen that share that specific color. Any of these three methods of color notification can be used by themselves or combined, so for example you could have the computer speak the color’s name and display it’s name in a bubble, but skip the flashing, or vice-versa. These preferences are controlled from a small palette on the screen which is the application’s entire user interface. Color Decoder’s recognition system can be turned off or on entirely via a hot key in case you only need it on occasions. The only other user interface option is the ability to turn on a magnifying glass to see exactly where the mouse pointer is pointing, which can be very useful when trying to find a single colored pixel in a huge image.

In actual use, Color Decoder works exactly as advertised. After launching, the palette opens where you can select your settings (you can hide this window once you have things set up as you wish). I tried out all three of the methods for communicating color in turn. The color name display only is a very minimalist method of showing the color, and is very useful when you have images on the screen where color is important, especially things like charts, graphs and other documents which use color to communicate data. The “flash colors” feature works well on images that are more complex with many colors mixed together such as gradients, weather radar displays and similar items. For most daily use, naming colors, supplemented by flashing colors works well. Magnification is usually not needed, although it is nice when you are looking at very complex images where there may only be a few pixels you need to track down or see (in these cases, the flashing feature is excellent as well).

I wasn’t as excited with the speak color name feature, where Color Decoder uses Apple’s speech synthesis to actually say the color names out loud. I can see this be very useful to someone with severe vision deficiency, but in actual use, having this feature on resulted in a continuous stuttering stream of half-spoken color names as I moved the mouse around the screen. I think this feature would be much more useful if there was a longer delay between mouse movements and the color being spoken, or even better if you could assign a separate hot key to speak color names on demand without having to leave the feature on all the time.

This minor quibble aside, I found Color Decoder to be a very functional and useful piece of software. Those with color vision deficiency will absolutely want to check this program out, but I would also recommend that anyone who works with color on a regular basis give Color Decoder a test drive. It fills an important hole in Apple’s OS and makes using a Mac easier for a large segment of the population, in a clean and elegant way.

Plusses: A great way for those with color vision deficiency to recognize and differentiate colors on the Mac; useful for designers and other users to find all examples of a particular color on a busy screen

Minuses: The spoken color feature could use some polishing

Summary: Color Decoder fills a gaping hole in Apple’s otherwise fairly complete Universal Access accessibility preferences and is definitely worth a download for those with color vision deficiency or who work with colors.

Color Decoder by Stray Cat Technology.
Price: $21.95; fully-functional demo version works for 1 week
Requires MacOS 10.5 or higher

It certainly has a pretty face, but like it’s celebrity brethren, does the new iMac have some brains behind her good looks?

Apple recently introduced their newest revision of the venerable iMac line of MacOS computers. The iMac is Apple’s mainstream home desktop computer, designed to cover a wide variety of consumer needs. It truly is the computer for the masses, but how does it stack up? I recently purchased a new 24 inch aluminum iMac and after using it for nearly a month, I believe Apple has definitely scored another winner.

The iMac comes in two screen sizes, 20 inches and 24 inches, the latter being as large as Apple’s 23 inch cinema display (remember how big those looked a couple years ago — now that resolution is available on a relatively inexpensive consumer Mac!). All the iMacs have the same processor, Intel’s zippy Core 2 Duo, with the only differentiator being your choice of 2.4 or 2.8 gigahertz speeds. Mine came with the 2.8 chip. Unfortunately, in an effort to shave an extra $50 off the price, Apple still shortchanges the iMacs with RAM, only shipping them with 1 GB standard. Luckily it is cheap, and easy to add additional RAM. You will want to put at least 2 GB if not more (up to a maximum of 4 GB) if you plan to do any more then basic web surfing.

The first thing anyone notices about the iMac is the screen. Controversially, Apple added a glass panel over the LCD itself, resulting in bright eye-popping color, but also introducing a possibly-annoying glare. I haven’t noticed any glare myself, but still, perception of glare is a very personal thing, depending on your own eyesight and the lighting in your office or room. I would recommend finding a friend (or traveling to the Apple store) and spending a half hour using the iMac before making your decision. Unfortunately, Apple doesn’t provide an option for a matte screen, although I expect eventually there will be third-party “enhancements” (the glass panel comes off easily, although I wouldn’t try it at home!) Ironically, my own iMac arrived with a distracting speck of dust caught between the glass and the screen, necessitating a trip to the Apple Store in Kansas City.

So how is the iMac in day to day use? Very fast and very nice. It seems zippier then my “old” 2 ghz Mac Pro, and benchmarking tests bear this out, showing the iMac to be about 20% faster. Web surfing, using email, listening to music in Tunes, and editing photos in iPhoto are extremely fast, and the perception of speed is palpable. I also was very pleased with how fast Parallels ran on the iMac. Watching movies and TV shows on the huge screen, especially sitting back with the included Apple Remote is a pleasure as well. I use an Elgato EyeTV to record live television and combined with the iMac, this gives you a legitimate home entertainment center.

One unique feature of the new iMacs is that they come with a very different Apple keyboard (also available separately) which looks (and types like) the keyboard on the Macbooks. I have found the keyboard to be very pleasant to use, but like with the screen, I recommend trying out yourself first. Of course, if you don’t like it, you can plug in any USB keyboard.

Other nice touches in the iMac include a firewire 800 port (new to this generation of iMac, and very useful for adding fast external storage), extra fully-powered USB ports on the keyboard, and built-in Wi-Fi and bluetooth, and of course the video camera, useful for iChat as well as fun with Photobooth.

What is the iMac missing? For a consumer machine, very little. The only obvious oversight by Apple is the continuing omission of a built-in card reader for the most common digital camera memory cards. Attaching an ugly external reader ruins Apple’s clean lines, and given the design attention paid elsewhere, seems like an oversight. I also would like at least one USB port tucked away on the side of th iMac rather then the back, to make it easier to quickly attach a removable device. The workaround for this is, of course, a hub, once again, cluttering up the view! I should also note that, other then memory, the iMac has no user-upgradeable parts (most previous iMacs were this way too); if you ever think you might want to upgrade processors or hard drives, go with a Mac Pro.

In summary, despite some minor quibbles, the aluminum iMac is a winner. A powerful, fast consumer Mac that has long legs and will make a great Leopard machine for several years to come. Anyone in the market for a new Mac who doesn’t require the portability of a laptop should consider the iMac.

Aluminum iMac
$1200 – $2300 depending on configuration and screen size

Plusses:
- Extremely fast and powerful mainstream desktop Mac
- Gorgeous screen and all-around good looking machine
- lots of built-in extras

Minuses:
- Standard RAM is barely adequate
- No built-in memory card reader

Best for: General consumer and home/family use, students, office use, public-facing areas, consumer-grade digital photography or video editing
Consider a laptop instead if you require portability
Consider a Mac Pro instead if you do commercial-grade video/graphic design work or engineering

While Leopard is certainly a nice operating system and a definite improvement over Tiger, there’s not too much that is truly exciting from a user perspective, the way, say Spotlight was in Tiger. From a developer perspective, there is a lot of cool new features under the hood that will make for some really great applications in the year ahead, but as an end-user, Leopard doesn’t offer very much that is new beyond some “eye candy” and some evolutionary improvements in the Finder and built-in applications (such as Safari), including a more 3-d look in the Finder and some new ways of browsing files and networks.

While watching a Steve Jobs keynote is always a highlight, this year wasn’t nearly as exciting as years past, probably because there was nothing hardware-related. When you think about it, the last truly “new” Mac Apple introduced was the Mac Mini, almost three years ago. Since then, all new Macs (with the slight exception of the Macbook) have been the same old form factors with faster and different internal hardware (moving to Intel was a big deal — but of more interest to geeks then normal users). Consistancy and solid improvement over time are worthy accomplishments, but “exciting” they are not. The iPhone was pretty exciting, but there was no news about the iPhone at WWDC beyond Apple’s encouragement for developers to write web applications for the phone. Many developers have been very disappointed with this because a “web app” is just a glorified bookmark in the iPhone’s Safari browser — it is not a real application that would show up on the phone’s main screen.

Still, keep in mind that WWDC is not as much for the public as for software engineers, and like I said before, there are many under the hood improvements in the OS I can’t talk about, and these promise some brilliant new third-party applications in years ahead….so don’t replace your Mac with a Dell just quite yet :-)

Although I will be demonstrating Timbuktu, I will also be discussing what remote control software is in general and how it can be useful for you. Basically, if you have more then one Mac in your house, have friends or family members with Macs, or have a computer at work and at home, you probably could save time, stress and money with remote control software (and don’t almost all of use fall into at least one of those categories?)

In addition to Timbuktu Pro, there are numerous other remote control products that work with Macs. Below you can find links to all the various products. I’ll talk about many of these on Wednesday. After the meeting you can come back here rather then try to remember all those URLs.

Mac-Compatible Remote Control products

Timbuktu Pro
Desktop Transporter
SpyMe
AstroShare
CoPilot
MacHelpMate
Apple Remote Desktop
Chicken of the VNC (client)
Vine VNC Server

This error is the result of a real situation that any web surfer runs into on ocassion: sometimes a server is just plain busy, and rather the rejecting the connection entirely, it sends partial data and then gives up. When this happens, you can usually just hit “reload” and the page will then load just fine.

Anyway, click here to view the offending error:

The worst Mac error

Let’s pick this horrid error message apart, a line at a time.

Safari can’t open the page “http://support.apple.com/batteryprogram”

This is the most accurate part of the error message.

The error was: “lost network connection” (NSURLErrorDomain:-1005)

An overly technical explaination that is meaningless to the average user and doesn’t really explain what happened. The error code only adds insult to injury.

Please choose Report Bug to Apple from the Safari menu

The user has just been told that an error occured. Rather then be given tips on solving the error or an explaination of what is going on, they are instructed to stop what they are doing and contact Apple to report the error. Very unfriendly, especailly given that this is not a bug in Safari, and reporting it to Apple is a waste of everyone’s time.

Of course, Safari’s inability to properly handle dropped HTTP server connections is indeed a bug. Maybe if everyone who saw this stupid error dialog reported it as such to Apple, they’d fix it, right? Or at least improve the error message…

“Note the error number and what you did before you saw this message.”

“Well, I jacked the flux capicitor up to 48 gigawatts and set the phase dilation matrix to 110% of nominal.”

Really, I clicked on a link on a web page. You know, like every user in the history of Safari who has stumbled across this dumb message.

I don’t want to be accused of simply whining, so in that spirit, here are two ways Apple could handle this common and predictable situation (dropped HTTP connection).

The easy way

Just change the error message to actually be informative and useful:

Safari can’t open the page http://support.apple.com/batteryprogram. This often happens when the web site you are trying to visit is very busy. Please click “Try again” to try to open the page again. If this problem still occurs you may wish to wait a few minutes and try the site later.

Follow by two buttons: “Try again” and “Back to previous page” (or something like that).

This error message clearly tells the user what happened in non techie detail, and gives two logical and helpful suggestions for what to do next.

The hard way

Considering that the usual reason for these errors is a busy or slow server on the other end, Apple should have Safari automatically retry the connection when this error is encountered, ideally without the user even seeing what is going on. They could provide a preference in Safari’s advanced settings to control this behavior, giving the user the option to turn on or off “automatic busy site reconnection” (or whatever Apple calls it) and setting the maximum number of retries before giving up (I would set a hard maximum of 5 or 10, to avoid turning Safari into a DoS tool.)

(this post cross-posted to my own blog at mikesilverman.com

“Dinosaur” Mac applications are not “abandonware” or useless. All the applications I will discuss are professional applications that are still supported and developed, and have many thousands of loyal users. Each one of them is still a real-world solution. Still, they all have seen their moment in the sun pass, as the changing nature of the Mac market, new competitors, OS upgrades, and the cruel passage of time have knocked many of these grand old applications from their former pre-eminence. Among these grandfathers of Macdom are Qualcomm’s Eudora, Extensis’s Portfolio, Bare Bones’ BBEdit, Netopia’s Timbuktu, and EMC’s Retrospect.

Each of these products is still actively developed. All of them run on OS X, and several are already Universal Binaries, running natively on Intel Macs. They all have engineers fixing bugs and working on new versions, and each product can be purchased right now. Every one of these applications was once the undisputed champion (and in some cases founder) of entire Mac software genres with life-spans well over a decade and heritages dating back to the old “classic” MacOS days.

Although these Mac applications all do different tasks, ranging from remote control to data backup, they all share many features in common (scaly skin, anyone?) “Dinosaur” apps generally feature very “old-school” user interfaces that pre-date OS X, have very powerful but complex feature sets, can be intimidating for beginners, and enjoy a rabidly loyal (if declining) user base. These apps also tend to be priced somewhat higher then their competitors, often as a legacy of the “old days” when they could claim a premium price as the founder of a new market segment.

Qualcomm’s Eudora is one of the grandfathers of email on the Mac. The first version came out in the early 1990s and Eudora has evolved through many revisions since. Geeks love it for its very powerful customization features; you can literally tweak hundreds of obscure options. Eudora is also very fast and has a powerful filtering mechanism. Yet Eudora is missing many modern email features. It doesn’t handle HTML email, has poor built-in SPAM filtering, and doesn’t take advantage of any modern MacOS features such as Spotlight. In spite of these flaws, Eudora still has a loyal cadre of users who are sticking with this mature product in the hope of upgrades to come. In an era when the capable Mail.app is free with every copy of the OS, Eudora has some major work ahead of it in order to stay relevant in the modern age.

The Mac has always been the favorite of creative users such as photographers and designers. Extensis’s media asset application, Portfolio, was one of the first products of its type, allowing users to catalog their collection of digital assets such as photos, illustrations, and clip art. Stuffed with an amazing and powerful suite of image categorizations tools and output options, Portfolio has managed to maintain a loyal user base and continue with a steady upgrade cycle through the years. Extensis will have to maintain this innovation in the future, as (in a common scenario for all the applications covered here) Apple has muscled in on their user base, with programs like Aperture, designed specifically for pro photographers. Still, Extensis is fighting back, with new features and a Universal version that may keep this dinosaur alive even as the mammals take over.

BBEdit is a humble text editor, beloved by programmers, scripters, and HTML jockeys everywhere. It has the level of power you expect in professional application and a feature list to match. BBEdit is renown for its extensive library of text manipulation tools and support for many common scripting and programing languages, but it has faced some serious competition in recent years from both a new generation of powerful OS X shareware applications such as TextMate and free editors. In addition, like many of it dinosaur peers, BBEdit’s user interface is very “old school” and doesn’t take advantage of much of the modern look and feel of OS X. Still, BBEdit has fought back, with aggressive support for some new OS X technologies, and Bare Bones has created a stripped-down free version (called Text Wrangler) to both head off the more inexpensive competition and addict a new generation of text fiends. BBEdit’s future looks good, and its legion of fans will likely be happy for years to come.

Netopia’s Timbuktu was the very first application that let you take control of a faraway Mac from the comfort of your local desktop. Over the years, Timbuktu has gathered a loyal base of users including system administrators, consultants, and road warriors. Although Timbuktu has been kept up-to-date (the latest version is a universal binary and features optional integration with the popular Skype application) it has faced some new and stiff competition over the years, and its powerful features are wrapped in a somewhat dated user interface. In a familiar refrain, Apple itself has taken a bite out of Timbuktu by offering its own remote control program, and several smaller, more inexpensive competitors (including the free open-source VNC) are busy scurrying around Timbuktu’s large scaly feet. Timbuktu has kept fresh by adding new speed and security features that its competitors have not matched, and has hung on to a solid user base, but as Apple and others continue to make remote controlling another computer ubiquitous, Timbuktu will need to evolve right along with them.

Backing up has always been a necessity of computing, and EMC’s Retrospect is one of the longest-lived Mac backup applications. It remains the only enterprise-class Mac backup option, and its ability to do cumulative backups to a wide variety of media types is unparalleled. Still (and stop if this sounds familiar) they are threatened by both a slew of new OS X-only competitors, and Apple themselves has added backup to the MacOS, reducing Retrospect’s market even further. Retrospect also suffers from a very complex user interface, and has been somewhat slow to support new OS technology, such as modern file metadata. Nonetheless, Retrospect is pretty secure for a big old reptile, given that its enterprise-level support (such as being apple to back up to tape drives) is not matched by any other native Mac software. With a Universal version on its way, this dinosaur should be roaming the Earth for a while to come.

There are more dinosaur applications around then these five. Roxio’s Toast used to be the only way to burn optical media on a Mac, something that the Finder and most Apple applications can now do themselves. Extensis’s Fusion (previously Suitcase) was an essential font manager, until the OS began to come with built-in font management. Equilibrium’s DeBebelizer once was the only way to convert graphics between different formats, a function now handled by Preview. As we’ve seen, no matter what ecosystem a dino has evolved in, several things are working against it, including competition for mindshare and marketshare from Apple and others, as well as expensive price points and dated user interfaces. Nonetheless, all these dinosaurs, unlike their biological counterparts, are likely to survive. Loyal user bases and ongoing engineering efforts will likely keep all of these applications going for years to come as they hopefully find new users in the fast-changing world of the Macintosh.

I’ve learned a lot about the new OS which I cannot share with you, due to Apple’s legal requirements, but there is still plenty of new information on the OS which Apple has made public. You will definitely want to go to Apple’s web site to see the demoes and read about all the new features in detail, but I will share my initial thoughts on a few of the highlights.

The big “cool” new feature is built-in, automatic backup, called “Time Machine.” Time Machine lets you restore your entire system, or an individual file from any point in the past, through a really cool interface which looks like something out of a sci-fi movie. The only requirement is that you have an extra hard disk to back up to, such as an external firewire drive. If you went to the LAUG meeting last month, you learned about how important backing up is, but also how confusing it can be. If Time Machine works as advertised, backing up will be automatic and easy, and millions of Mac users will be able to rest a bit easier. And no, as hard as Apple engineers worked, Time Machine can only go into the past, you can’t yet travel into the future!

A couple other cool new features and improvements are a major upgrade to iChat which gives those with video cameras many new options to share presentations and videos, and a much faster and more advanced Spotlight. Apple also has built in virtual desktops, which will allow you to “switch” from one desktop to another as you move between applications. In effect this gives you a monitor that is four times bigger then its physical size!

However, in my opinion, some of Apple’s new stuff for Leopard isn’t quite as exciting as Time Machine. In fact, I was very disappointed that Apple made no improvements to the Finder, which is one of the weakest part of the Mac. Apple also added some fairly silly features to Mail without apparently fixing Mail’s many flaws. You can now have to do lists in Mail and send attractive HTML email messages easily, but there’s no sign that Mail’s horrible Spam filtering or clumsy user interface has seen any improvements.

Still, I am eagerly looking forward to seeing Leopard become more polished as it heads towards release. The new OS is certainly a step forward from Tiger in many areas and anyone using a Mac can look forward to it when it ships next Spring.   

Publisher: Addison-Wesley
ISBN: 0321278542
Price: $64.99
Author web site: http://osxbook.com/

“MacOS X Internals” is the first book introduced since the advent of OS X that focuses on the low-level details of the MacOS in a way that will give technical people, ranging from geeky end-users to hardware-level programmers, a thorough and fascinating tour of the MacOS. This book is not for “average” end users; it is not an introduction to how to use a Mac. Nor is this book for people looking to get started programming on the Mac; there are plenty of books designed for new Mac developers. What “MacOS X Internals” tries to be is something unique: a guide to the MacOS from the bottom up, and it hits this mark very well.

“MacOS X Internals” can be roughly divided into three parts: a technical history of the MacOS, a review of the MacOS firmware and booting process, and a technical tour of various parts of the OS itself (such as interprocess communication and the file system, to pick two at random). The first section will appeal to any technically-included user of the MacOS, the latter two are aimed more at programmers, although there is plenty there to increase the knowledge of anyone with a strong technical bend, whether they have coded before or not. The MacOS history is a detailed trip down memory lane from the very first post-Next developer builds of MacOS X right up to Tiger and beyond. The features introduced in each OS are described in detail with emphasis on technical and “under the hood” changes. The author is clearly an enthusiast as well, as he frequently sprinkles entertaining bits of trivia in with the meat of the main narrative.

Moving on from the historical sections to the present, author Amit Singh gives a blow-by-blow description of the process of the Mac booting. If you have ever wondered exactly what the Mac is doing as the power flows and the grey apple logo appears, this is for you. Everything from the sequence of initial power-on tests, to the bootloaders and Open Firmware onto the higher level unix boot process are covered in detail. Of special note is the extensive coverage of Open Firmware, which is much more then a merely the “BIOS” of a PowerPC Mac. Singh describes many activities that a system programmer can do in Open Firmware, including making a draggable windowing environment and even programming the famous “Towers of Hanoi.” Unfortunately, this book was mostly finished before the Intel Macs arrived on the scene, and while there is a section on the EFI (extensible firmware interface) that is the “BIOS” of all Intel Macs, it is not nearly as deep as the Open Firmware section (updated information on EFI and other topics can be found on the author’s web site at http://osxbook.com/).

Roughly following the guide to the MacOS booting, Singh delves into the meat of OS X’s Unix underpinnings, describing how the MacOS really runs “under the hood.” This section covers all the expected topics, including the kernel, interprocess communication, and memory is very thorough fashion, with tons of code snippets all clearly explained. This will be especially useful for readers who are familiar with how other Unixes work behind the scenes, as Singh frequently and helpfully points of the areas where MacOS differs from other flavors of Unix. There is a great section on the various file systems that OS X supports, which is notable because other then a simple list, I have never seen this information in a book with such detail. The section of the primary OS X filesystem, HFS Plus, is very useful for both developers and power users alike.

“Mac OS X Internals” clocks in at 1641 pages in the end, and is over two inches thick. I was thoroughly impressed by this book. The author’s technical knowledge, as well as his enthusiasm and skill at presenting these topics is excellent. It’s hard to find anything negative to say about this book other then the the above-mentioned need to have more information on EFI (which isn’t the author’s fault, it was a matter of timing). I do wish the book came with an electronic version, as this would have made searching and copying the code snippets much easier. There is a coupon included for a time-limited trial of online access to the text, but I would prefer that a PDF be included on a CD with the book, even if this required an increase in the price (you can buy an electronic version on Amazon, but this is separate from the print version). These minor complaints aside, I cannot recommend “MacOS X Internals” enough. It is the finest technical book on MacOS X yet published, and puts Apple’s own technical documentation to shame in comparison. If you are a highly technical end user of developer, this book belongs on your shelf.

Summary: a technical tour-de-force and as thorough an overview of the MacOS as has ever made it into print with appeal to everyone from very technical end-users to system programmers

Plusses: Amazing wealth of technical detail, thorough coverage of all aspects of MacOS underpinnings, great sections on OS X history, boot process and file system, tons of programming examples
Minuses: A bit too much Open Firmware minutiae and not enough EFI minutiae, no searchable copy included

4 dog-cows

(this review has been updated from the original version…additional information on the author’s web site and availbility of the PDF version have been added based on reader comments on this blog)

The first annual LAUG picnic took place June 7th at Broken Arrow Park in Lawrence. It was a lot of fun; about 15 or so hungry Mac-heads showed up to enjoy a bounty of homemade cookies, lasagne, salad and more. We also had a mini swap meet, with numerous cool antique Macs and other computer toys from the past decade available for sharing and purchasing.

The Squeezebox itself is small and elegant, about the size of paperback book. It comes with a small stand so it can rest on top of your stereo system or anywhere you have a few inches of shelf space. The design of the Squeezebox is Applesque in its minimalism, without any buttons and a beautiful blue screen which displays information on the current song and can be used (with the included remote) for navigating through your music library or viewing news headlines. As a nice touch, the display will even broadcast holiday and seasonal greetings, which was amusing except it was still wishing me a happy new year in mid-February!

The actual setup and use of the Squeezebox is easy. You use the included RCA cables to hook it to your stereo, and then follow the guided setup with the remote. You will need to enter data such as your wireless network’s name and password (if any), but these steps are very easy thanks to the setup assistant. You also need to have a computer that actually holds the music library (the Squeezebox itself doesn’t store your music; the music streams from your Mac). Setting up the Squeezebox software on the Mac is a piece of cake, and it will automatically scan your iTunes music library and import all your playlists. Once this initial setup is done, you are ready to listen to music. You can navigate, play and control everything from the Squeezebox itself using the remote control, or if you wish you can manage the tunage from your Mac (or any other Mac in the house) using a simple Web interface. The web interface gives you a lot of power; you can create and manage playlists, set preferences, and if you pride yourself on your geekiness, delve into a plethora of highly technical and fully customizable settings.

If you have an Airport Express, you may wonder why the Squeezebox commands double the price to do roughly the same thing. There are many advantages to the Squeezebox over the Airport Express, especially for audiophiles. The Squeezebox has both a remote control and a display, so it can be controlled from your living room without making you walk over to the computer in order to do something as basic as switch tracks or pause the music. Another advantage of the Squeezebox is that it plays a much wider variety of music types then the Airport Express, including FLAC, Window Media, and OGG. It can even automatically connect to numerous internet radio streams directly from the Squeezebox! The device itself also features an optical output for connection to higher-end audio equipment and can have its built-in software upgraded automatically to support more features in the future. I would also like to add that Slim Devices’ support is phenomenal. They have a very thorough web site, with excellent and responsive technical support, and an active user community, a nice change from Apple’s sometimes truculent support.

With so many superlatives,it is difficult to find any negative aspects to the Squeezebox, but unfortunately, a few things stood out. Navigating through a large music library using the remote and Squeezebox itself (as opposed to doing it on the computer) can be slow and and the web interface, while powerful, doesn’t have the polish of a native OS X application like iTunes. Worse, whenever I added new music to my library, the Perl process used by the Squeezebox software churned away using some 80% of my processor for several minutes at a time. I also noticed rare music dropouts while listening to the Squeezebox, although to be fair I was using an 802.11b wireless network rather then the faster 802.11g. Finally,the Squeezebox will not play copy-protected music downloaded from the Apple music store; keep in mind that this limitation is Apple’s fault (for not licensing their copy protection), not Slim Devices’.

Those small areas of criticism are minor compared to the amazingly powerful pluses of the Squeezebox. This device is truly revolutionary,and it will give you the ability to enjoy your Mac-managed music library on your stereo system anywhere you wish. If you want to listen to your digital music library on a home audio system, “Squeezebox” is the only thing you need to know.

Pros: Amazing feature set, plays a wide variety of music formats, beautiful and elegant, excellent support.
Cons: Navigation and performance quirks, won’t play copy-protected tracks.

http://www.slimdevices.com/
$249 – $299

4 out of 5 dog cows

NetNewsWire uses a technology called RSS (short for Really Simple Syndication) to work its magic. RSS feeds are simply special URLs that get updated whenever a particular web page is changed. NetNewsWire keeps track of these feeds automatically and lets you know when new information gets posted to a web site on your watch list. After initially telling NetNewsWire what sites to track (a process as simple as clicking a link in your web browser) the rest is automatic. When web sites are updated, NetNewsWire lets you know and if you are interested in reading the new posting, you can simply click a headline to view the new information. In practice,this is as intuitive and easy as reading email.

In fact, if you have ever used email, you’ll find NetNewsWire very familiar. It has a beautiful and easy-to-use interface, laid out similar to most popular email programs, with a list of sites you are watching on the left side (where an email application shows all the mailboxes). Clicking on any site name will show you a list of postings, with new posts showing up in bold, once again similar to how email works. Click any subject to view the full web page. NetNewsWire will actually display the web page itself, using the same technology Apple’s own Safari uses. NetNewsWire will check for updated web sites on a schedule you set and once you start using it,it will really change how you use the web. NetNewsWire lets you become lazy, in a good way. News and web sites come to you, automatically. Surfing the web becomes both more efficient and more fun.

If you only used NetNewsWire to keep track of favorite web sites, it would be well worth the shareware fee. However, as you become a more experienced user, you will likely find that many of NetNewsWire’s extra features really make your internet experience even better. NetNewsWire can keep track of podcasts (which are actually just a special kind of RSS feed) and send them to iTunes. A very useful synchronization function uses .Mac to automatically sync your preferences and subscription list between two or more computers. You can also create “smart lists” of web sites to track, which works similar to smart playlists in iTunes.

NetNewsWire is one of the finest shareware applications written for the Mac. Apple’s own RSS reader, built in to Safari, pales in comparison. You pretty much cannot go wrong with NetNewsWire; it will save you time and make your web experience much better. The software comes with a 30-day fully-functional demo period so you can try it yourself, and then wonder how you lived without it.

Pro: An elegant,well-written application that will change how you use your computer.
Con: None
$24.95

http://ranchero.com/

5 out of 5 dog cows

Software developer Extensis has stepped into this void with their application Portfolio which is designed for the professional – or pack-rat amateur who has moved beyond iPhoto. Portfolio is not a replacement for the consumer features of iPhoto. It doesn’t include any editing functions (as a pro or semi-pro, you use Photoshop or something similar, right?), or the ability to order prints, or automatic easy web sharing with dot.Mac. What Portfolio does offer is the ability to easily classify tens of thousands of files in a wide variety of graphics formats, to share these files with others, and to quickly search and find files based on numerous criteria, including custom tags.

Portfolio is very fast, even with several thousand files. As a test, I imported about 2000 digital photos and about 3000 other graphics files, and the searching and moving among the various folders was much faster then iPhoto. Searching for a needle in this digital haystack is quite easy. You can of course tag files based on their type or subject, but Portfolio also tracks files based on several dozen other criteria, making it easy to create customized searches and find the exact file you are looking for. Portfolio also contains support for advanced functions such as integration with third-party SQL databases, workflow automation, file format conversion,and Adobe’s Digital Negative file format.

When it comes time to share your database – either with other members of your team or potential clients — Portfolio gives you several options. At the simplest, you can export selected items to a web site, and Portfolio provides several nice templates and more flexibility in this task then iPhoto’s built-in reliance on dot.Mac. For a more sophisticated approach, you can publish a live version of your entire library or selected items to the web in real-time using a companion program, Portfolio Server, which does cost extra.

Finally,you can burn your library to a CD or DVD both for backup or to share with others. Extensis provides a free read-only version of Portfolio (useable on both Mac and Windows) to make sharing and distribution of your images easier.

Portfolio is not perfect. The user interface has some glitches and in many areas is non-intuitive, and it is missing many consumer-level features like the ability to order prints and do basic photo-editing. However, if you are a professional designer, photographer or artist with thousands of files to keep track of, Portfolio may be just what you need. Portfolio 7, published by Extensis (www.extensis.com) $200.00, Requires a G4 processor and MacOS X 10.3 or higher.

Pros: A powerful and full-featured professional image management application
Cons: Rough interface in spots, missing some beginner features.

4 out of 5 dogcows