I remember a time when the thought of a Web browser crashing was unheard of. I mean, it’s only a Web browser, what is there to crash? When Firefox was launched back in 2004 . My first thought was why does the world need another Web browser? Windows users have IE and Mac users have Safari for free. Soon though Firefox won me over, primarily because of the Web developer tools plug-in greatly simplifies Web development and Firfefox displays valid Webpages and CSS more accurately than IE or Safari. And let’s face it, there are some pages out there that don’t display correctly using IE and there are some pages that ignore the Safari browser.
This was all well and good up until about six months ago. Then I started noticing the dreaded beach ball of death appearing more and more often. Then Firefox would stop responding altogether and I would have to force quit the application. Having to force quit an app is pretty drastic in my opinion, and indicates some serious bugs. I’ve reinstalled the latest version and only added the Web Dev add-on, yet at least once a day I’m having to force quit Firefox. It’s gotten to the point that I surf with both Safari and Firefox open. I’d go over to only Safari but WordPress admin doesn’t seem to like Safari, and I’m still attached to the Web Dev add-on for Firefox.
What to do? The Apple crash reporter sends to Apple not Mozilla, and it IS a free app. I mean I would expect a complex app with millions of lines of code like Photoshop to crash every once in while, but a Web browser? Cmon.
Of all the applications that come as part of the Mac OS, iTunes is without a doubt the oddest creature in the zoo. First off like the blind men describing an elephant, if you ask ten people what iTunes is, you’ll get ten different answers.
For podcasters, it’s the place to subscribe to and sync podcasts, But only if the podcast has been submitted to the podcast directory of the iTunes store. Also iTunes and Quicktime Player are the only applications that will play “enhanced” (.M4a format) Podcast.
For a DJ, iTunes is a great way to put together a playlist for a set. And it’s the only way to play songs from your iPod through your computer. I you want to play music from your ipod from a third party DJ program you are outta luck.
The other thing is that Syncing your music though i Tunes, doesn’t sync it at all. Sync would mean that you would have the same music on your computer and your iPod, but iTunes version of “sync” is a one way deal. It only moves new music from your computer to your iPod. Forget getting music to your computer from your iPod. That’s a No-No because that would make it too easy for you to steal and copy music. The Sync Process makes it WAAY too easy to wipe all your songs from your iPod that you may have put on there from an older Mac or some other source. losing music (or any other data) is never good.
It’s good that iTunes makes it easy to buy music from the iTunes store, but it’s horribly bad that most the music is AAC DRM encoded music. Screw that !I’m buying .mp3s from Amazon or E-music.
Buying TV shows is pretty cool if you don’t mind watching TV on your computer. But the movie rentals are absurd.,the 24 hour limit to watch a movie is just plain silly.
Also you can use iTunes to convert sound files import CDs and Burn CDs. But you had better be a power user to figure it out. Here’s a situation that comes up in my Music class all the time.Let’s say you have an imported .wav file on your desktop and you want to convert it to .mp3. Do you know how to do it in iTunes? It’s simple:
1. Open iTunes
2. Go to the file menu select Add to Library, navigate to the desktop and add the wave file to the Library.
3. Find the file in your music library by going to the recently added items playlist.
4. Go to the iTunes menu and select Preferences.
5. go to the advanced Tab and select Importing.
6. Select MP3 Encoder from the pull down selector and choose a sampling rate. and click on the OK button
7. Go back to your file in the recently added items playlist and highlight the file.
8.Go to the Advanced Menu (or option click on the file) and choose Convert Selection to MP3.
9. Once the file is converted to MP3 you will have 2 files with the same name in your playlist, one of them is a .wav file and the other is your converted .mp3 file. To tell which file is which, go to the View menu and select view options, Then make sure that the kind checkbox is checked.
10. In the playlist window scroll right to expose the kind column. You will see that one of the files is an .mp3.
11. Finally option Click on the .mp3 file and select Show in Finder, to find where iTunes saved your .Mp3 file. And then ypou can drag the file to where you actually want it.
See, an easy eleven step process.
There are many other reasons I love/hate iTunes. I’d love to hear a few of yours.
Reports say that Apple has data saying the iTunes music store is now the top retailer in the U.S. So, where do they do from here?
Well, the answer is obvious: they need to use their top position to get rid of DRM.
Steve Jobs has commented before that he doesn’t like DRM. iTunes introduced DRM-free music more than a year ago, but for only a small portion of its content, and at a higher price. Meanwhile, Amazon, the number 4 music retailer, has only DRM-free music downloads, and cheaper than iTunes’ crippled music.
At this point, Apple should set a deadline for the music labels. They should announce that they will only sell DRM-free music starting on Jan. 1, 2009. Maybe they should even join with the other online retailers in solidarity. Amazon is already there, so they should sign up right away.
Now Apple has another reason to want DRM, besides bowing to the desires of the music labels. DRM has enabled Apple to have iTunes-downloaded music only work on the iPod. So once you start downloading from iTunes, you are locked into using iPods.
But the iPod has clearly won the MP3-player wars. Time to move on. THe future of the iPod is the iPhone and iPod Touch anyway, which will continue to win the war based on features and interface, not DRM tricks.
Now that Apple is pushing Safari for Windows, it must be listed as a legitimate competitor to Internet Explorer and Firefox in the browser wars. While it is far behind both of its competitors, for some sites (like this one) it is actually used by a majority of users. And being the only browser on the 4 million + iPhones out there, it actually accounts for quite a bit of Web surfers.
So when thinking of the differences between Safari and the other two, one thing comes to mind: installable toolbars. You know, those Yahoo! or Google toolbars that add an extra slice of buttons at the top of the browser. Or maybe you don’t know. If you are using Safari then you may not even be familiar with these. But the users of other browsers, particularly on Windows, are very familiar. Chances are they have one, or five.
These toolbars install themselves along with other downloads and services. So avoiding the main two: Yahoo! and Google is tough. Then there are the ones like Alexa, StumbleUpon, Microsoft and Complete. Then it seems like lots of entertainment Web sites and gaming sites have their own toolbars. Some software requires that you install a toolbar for it to work. I’ve seen Windows users who cannot resist a toolbar with 10 of these things stacked at the top of their browser. Button city.
What do they do? They provide quick access to searches, like that is a tough thing to do. They provide stats, sometimes, and information about the Web site you are currently browsing. Quite often they also send information back to the service to gather stats on what Web sites people are viewing.
But mostly they are junk. Unnecessary junk. That is probably why they aren’t in Safari. Apple wants Safari to stay clean and fast. By not allowing toolbars at all, they don’t have to worry about it.
I’d love to have the choice of whether or not to add toolbars to my browsing experience, but I can see Apple’s viewpoint. And since I have Firefox running as an alternative on my Mac, along with StumbleUpon and some developer-oriented toolbars, then I can live with it.
(Note: Adobe has not yet updated their main Shockwave link, but you can download Shockwave 11 for Intel Mac here: http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/alternates/)
Adobe, which bought Macromedia some years back, has finally released a version of the Shockwave browser plug-in for Macs with Intel processors. You can get Shockwave version 11 here. Shockwave is a browser plug-in like Flash, but it plays back content created in Adobe Director. The main difference today is that Director allows for the creation of real 3D content, using Open GL on the Mac. There are thousands of Web applications and games in Shockwave that have been unavailable to Intel Mac users since the last released version of Shockwave was only for PowerPC processors. There was a work-around to get Shockwave 10 to work in Safari or Firefox, but it also would slow down browser performance so few people used it.
Once you get the new version of Shockwave, head over to the free online games at GameScene.com to try some Shockwave games like World Conquest, Word Spy, Something Fishy, Block and Roll and Free Style.
There is one catch to Shockwave 11 for Mac, though. It uses a new physics engine for 3D games. Many of the older Shockwave 3D games use an old physics engine and are not compatible. It will take some time for developers to port their old Shockwave 3D games that use physics to work on Macs.
If you have never bought a Windows machine, then you have missed out. That is, you’ve missed out on getting a machine packed with trial versions of software that you most likely don’t want.
Windows users frequently complain about this. They get a new machine that already has lots of desktop icons linking to Internet services and trial software. Some pieces of software are installed right down to the system level, so performance of the machine is already reduced under the burden of extra processes running. Even after uninstalling this software, the only way to get that “fresh clean feeling” is to wipe the drive and re-install Windows. Many people do this.
But Sony added an option to one of it’s Vaio laptops to order it with no trial software. It is called the “Fresh Start” option. But the catch is, it cost $50. That’s right, $50 to get less on your machine. People complained, and after one day, Sony started offering this for free.
Actually, I didn’t think the $50 was that bad. Maybe a little high. But I knew that manufacturers make some money from this trial software. Companies offer them cash to install their software on machines so they can get the trial versions in front of potential users. In turn, one can assume, manufacturers can keep prices for hardware low. There has even been speculation that machines sell at a loss from time to time because the manufacturers make their money from trial software installs.
So the idea of getting a clean machine for, say, $25 more, isn’t that bad. But free is better, I guess. Dell has offered a clean install of Windows on some higher end machines before as well. I guess they figure someone buying a $4000 game machine isn’t going to be signing up for AOL anyway.
So how about Macs? Is this a problem for us? We do get some trial software. Microsoft Office comes on every new Mac as a 30-day trial. Also, iWork. I’ve seen links to ISP sign-up pages as desktop icons in the past, but not recently.
These seem pretty easy to uninstall. Just drag and drop the applications to the trash. And that might be a good idea is you never intend to purchase them. I’ve seen Microsoft Word launch itself when a unknowing user double-clicks on a .doc file they got in an email. What they really want is for TextEdit to open the file, but instead they get the trial version of Word launching.
Still, we’ve got it good. Apple has protected us from the scourge of trial software for the most part. They’ve got an interest in keeping OS X fresh and clean. Microsoft has a similar interest in keeping Windows fresh and clean, but then it is not Microsoft adding this junk, it is the PC manufacturers. In the case of Apple, they are both the producer of the OS, and the hardware manufacturer. And that has made all the difference.
There is a rumor that the Mac Mini will get a refresh later this year. I love the Mac Mini. I don’t really use one but I love it. Here’s why:
1. It fills an important sub-$1000 niche in the Mac world. Not everyone can afford an iMac or MacBook. But for $600 you get a pretty decent OS X Leopard machine.
2. It is a low-priced option to a Mac Pro in terms of a headless Mac. Not everyone likes an all-in-old machine where you are tied to the attached LCD screen. But $2,500 would be too much to pay for being able to use your own LCD.
3. It’s kinda portable. While not being something you can use in your lap like a MacBook, it is small enough to carry from one location to another without loading something into the trunk of your car or packing it in its own case for a plane trip. So it would allow college students to bring it home for a weekend, for instance.
4. It fits well into the living room. Perfect if the Apple TV isn’t quite enough for you, like if you want to also surf the Web or run some other software.
5. It is a great machine for home, if you already have a powerful Mac in the office.
6. It is a great machine for someone who wants to have both a PC and a Mac and share the same screen and keyboard.
7. It makes a great Windows machine. If you need to test software and Web sites in Windows, like I do, but cant bring yourself to buy a normal PC. The Mac Mini runs Windows very well.
8. It makes a great home base Mac for VNC, file serving, Web serving, etc. If you want a machine to be always on and available to be connected to from outside the office, the Mini is a good choice.
9. It doesn’t try to be for everyone. If all Macs were for everyone, we’d all have a Mac Pro, MacBook, iMac and a Mini. The idea is that some models are for some people, and not for others. The Mini doesn’t try to be a computer for everyone, but just serve those who find it to be their best option.
10. It is very powerful. For the top-end of $950, you get a 2.0 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 Gigs of RAM, 160 GB hard drive, 3 USB ports, a Firewire port, DVI-out, Leopard and iLife 08. The only weak point is the integrated video.
So why don’t I use one? Well, back to point number 9. I use a MacBook Pro. That’s what fits be best. But I love Minis anyway!
So Adobe announced today that it wants to bring Flash to the iPhone using the new SDK. But this presents several problems.
First, the SDK allows developers to create applications, not browser plug-ins. So this is not Flash as most people think of it. It may allow me to create stand-alone applications that run inside Flash as an application, much as stand-alone Flash projectors do on Macs and PCs. But it won’t allow Flash to play inside a Web page, which is what most people expect.
The second problem is that Apple doesn’t allow this kind of thing, according to the SDK guidelines:
“An Application may not itself install or launch other executable code by any means, including without limitation through the use of a plug-in architecture, calling other frameworks, other APIs or otherwise.”
Flash by itself doesn’t do anything, it relies on a Flash movie (swf) to tell it what to do. Apple doesn’t seem to want things like this. This issue has been talked about since the launch of the SDK in regards to Sun’s interest in bringing Java to the iPhone.
So until Apple allows Flash to run as a plug-in in Safari, and Adobe makes a Flash version that runs as a plug-in on Safari, announcements like this one don’t mean much.
So with the Safari 3.1 update today, it moves ahead of the other browsers in a few ways. Safari has had an interesting 12 months. First, it came out for Windows. Not that anyone besides developers are using it on Windows, but it means that sites with special Safari-only abilities can be viewed by Windows users, at least. Then, the iPhone and iPod touch came out, with the Safari browser built in. Not a dumbed-down version of Safari, either. It supports all sorts of special Safari things, like the drawing canvas and drop shadows. So Safari is definitely a major player, even if it is missing the market share.
Now we’ve got three new features in Safari 3.1. The first is Web Fonts. This is the ability for a Web site to use a font that the end-user doesn’t have on their machine. The page will specify the location of the font on the server, and Safari will download and use that font.
The second new feature is CSS transitions. Designers can specify various transitions in their style sheets. For instance, when a user moves the cursor over an element on the page, it can smoothly transition from one border size to another. Or an element can be made to “rotate.” Hopefully, these will be used well by designers, and not made to simply grab our attention.
The third new feature is the implementation of the
We’ve just completed a new section of MacMost: free iPhone ringtones. We’ve got a dozen categories with several ringtones in each. They are all in .m4r format, and can be easily downloaded and added to your iPhone. We’ve also got a special feature where you can subscribe to each category as a podcast. This will allow you to easily download the ringtones into iTunes, and they should transfer automatically to your iPhone if you have iTunes set to put all ringtones on your iPhone.
So give our new iPhone ringtones section a try and leave feedback here.
Thanks!
