Shit Apple Fanatics Say - Love these videos…because they’re true. Have found myself saying this shit to my wife on more than on occasion.

Surface - by Microsoft. There is a lot to like about this, mainly the cover doubling up as a keyboard. It’s definitely the first time that I can think of I’ve actually wanted something to come to the iPad (even though I still don’t own one).

Apple goes back to the future with logo revamp - I hadn’t realised that Apple updated it’s logo. It’s interesting, but it reminds me a little bit of the spinning rainbow wheel which unfortunately presents a negative connotation in my mind.

Start Developing iOS Apps Introduction - While I may currently be unemployed….my god that’s even more painful to write than to say, I am working hard on my pet project that started in the summer of 2011. An iOS app. This week has been immense in the development of our first app, so it’s kind of pertinent for Apple to release this excellent guide to starting App development. If you’re looking to do something similar, now might be the chance to start.

Das Keyboard For Mac - I have to say I’m jealous of Merlin Mann and John Gruber’s clickity clackity keyboards. It’s like when someone eats a burger on TV and you have this amazing craving for a burger…same sort of thing. This Das keyboard is the closest I’ll get, but I honestly don’t know if I can cheat on my aluminium Apple keyboard, which honestly is a thing of beauty.

App Icon Template - Excellent resource and something that I’m hoping to be using in the not too distant future.

Bill Gates Interview - Excellent interview with Bill Gates. It goes into some details with regards to the comments Steve made in relation to Gates.

iBooks Author - It’s a mixture of Microsoft word and Indesign but you get the added bonus of being able to publish and sell your wares on the Apple iBookstore…it’s going to be fun to see what comes out of this.

iPen - Don’t own an iPad (yet, I’m holding out for the 3rd revision, always wait a couple of versions on a new Apple product), but when I do get one, this will be a key accessory for me.

Noah Case - I like this case, but it’s extremely pricey to even think about. Still it’s nice little niche projects like this that are inspiring (via minimal mac )

The Insanely Great History of Apple - Great print. Can you imagine the research that went into this!

So the new version of TaskPaper (version 2.2.3) is out, offered at a great discount, which is nice for us original buyers. Also the latest version of Notational Velocity is also out (Beta 5)

Now I’ve got nothing but good things to say about Hog Bay Software, but I think I’ve finally seen why Notational Velocity works for me and the reasons why TaskPaper, although an excellently put together application, really actually never clicked, even though I tried, really hard to get into it.

###Workflow The workflow is probably the single most significant aspect of Notational Velocity’s success with how I want to write things. The secret sauce is the single input text field at the top of the application.

After a few years with Google Chrome I am now completely programmed to use an application using a single text input field. I now crave the single line input text field that also offers search and inputing text flexibility, within that same space in all of my applications.

I guess the single essential innovation that works for me on Google Chrome that I miss the most when I flip over to Safari, is that input text field. Sure I love the tabs at the top, but the input field is far more essential and without it I feel like something important has been disrupted.

The thing is TaskPaper is great in it’s own right. It really is a well crafted piece of software, and one that has a lot of quality oozing everywhere, the problem is that there is a fundamental problem with regards to how it was conceived to be used.

Also another important feature is how titles are generated in comparison. While both pretty simple, the fact that the first thing you write in the text field before pressing return is the title, again just works.

###Synchronisation One of the things that NV has over TP is the seamless integration with Simplenote and Dropbox. It seems that Jesse wants to get this done for the iOS version, however the sad truth is that this doesn’t exist at the moment. You can synchronise using simpletext.ws, which has a pretty horrible web interface. So much so it’s distracting.

While the web version of simplenote has the clever search bar at the top and visually reminds you of the software on your mac. I guess because I write notes at work on my windowz machine, and then edit on the fly on my iPhone and then do the heavy writing on my Mac at home, the integration works so much better for me.

From the comments in the post it does seem like it’s on the cards, but basically taking too long, the free versions have won me over (even though I’ve paid for both the Mac and the iOS versions).

###NV wishlist Don’t get me wrong, I still think there are a few things that I would like Notational Velocity to have before it honestly becomes the perfect text editor. In particular is markdown integration.

I’d like to be able to write in markdown and have the words change in front of my eyes, if it’s an option that I choose to activate. Leave the text exactly as it is (so all the original markdown text will be available when I view it in Simplenote) but this would be an excellent feature. I don’t really want a separate generator, just let it update then and there.

While this isn’t a feature request, I would like some of that animated polish that is found in TaskPaper to find it’s way back into Notational Velocity. I know that Zachary Schneirov is already taking some queues from TaskPaper (such as the lists and @done), so some other little interesting visual animations would add to the polish (as in when creating formatting etc).

So will I be slapping down some cash on TaskPaper? No, because it doesn’t fit my workflow and I’ll be deleting it off my iPhone as well since it’s just not something I’m likely to use now that I have established my workflow with the NV/Simplenote note taking combination.

The “q” trick - Posted over a year ago, but I’m only now starting to get into Notational Velocity and Simplenote so it’s all starting to make sense now.

So I've been on an iPhone for a little over 7 months, and I've kinda stumbled my way through most things on my first iDevice. As of late, I've decided to sort myself out and by extension sort my iPhone out as well.

Email and Calendar Sync

The first thing that I sorted out was converting my email/calendar to a push notified Gmail account. The way you do that is not by using the Gmail option to creating an account, but rather using the Microsoft Exchange option on the iPhone which basically does that automatically. That I've found to be completely awesome as opposed to the Fetch protocol that I was using before, with my Mail app being updated every hour or something.

The next thing that I needed to sort out is my calendar options. I will use my Google Calendar on occasion, but will rarely use iCal really. In fact I probably use my office Outlook more than I've ever used my iCal application, it's just not something I'm used to doing at home. Calendars are definitely something I do throughout the day, rather than the evening.

Photos Mess

The last part of the puzzle that needs to be sorted out is my photos. What a complete and utter mess these things are in at the moment. The thing is they're also taking a whole slew of space on my iPhone as well. Ever since I migrated over to my new macbook install I basically put aperture...big mistake. Thought I was doing something clever. As it turns out I screwed myself as Aperture doesn't allow for the files to be deleted from the iPhone when you're synching. There are other options, but honestly I'm not all that enamoured by Aperture and it's just as slow as iPhoto (so I've not gained much in way of performance).

I need to get a few older files from my previous back, get iPhoto up and running on my mac, migrate back to iPhoto completely and then clean up my photo folder.

iPhone Applications Purge

Once that's done I just need to clean up my Files folder and also my Scanner Pro folder as it's got a bunch of additional stuff that doesn't need to be there, and I think my minimal setup is complete.

It's also probably time to purge a few applications off the phone as well, as the number of applications creeps back up to 45, which obviously I don't use all the time.

Also while I'm talking about iPhone applications, there are a couple of serious keepers for the forseeable future:

• Piggie: This is a direct change from MoneyBook
• Simple Note: Just can't believe I did without this application for so long. It's basically the gmail of notes. I'm finally bloody organised enough to have all of my notes with me all the time in a way that is clear and synced across my machines. Game changer.
• NightStand Central - The only alarm application that you will ever need. Or at least till something simpler comes along, but I have to say I love this application and the way it uses the hardware is excellent.

Since I started with a new slate on my macbook (ie just reinstalled everything and started from new), the one breakout piece of software that will forever become a part of my computer experience is Notational Velocity.

They say that the best things in life are free, well this is definitely one of the best applications that I currently have on my machine. The reason for it is simple. It’s does one thing, but it does it better than anything else on the mac.

It takes notes and allows you a level of customisation and has been thought out soo well. It’s completely unobtrusive and it’s one of the lightest programs you’ll ever run. The thing is nearly instantly loaded.

I currently love having the note titles on the left hand side, with the actual notes located on the right hand side.

I remember downloading this years ago, and then just uninstalling it pretty quickly. I just didn’t understand the beauty of the simplicity.

Everything is achieved through shortcuts, which are pretty easy to learn.

1. J and K for up and down

2. Tab for flipping between the omnisearch bar and the notes

3. Esc for clearing the ominsearch bar

4. Return for adding a new note

5. Cmd R for renaming a note

And that’s about all you need to know.

It syncs to Simplenote with a free iPhone application, which is awesome. The actual application is super simple, nothing overly complicated, and it’s blindingly fast. Seriously fast in syncing. It’s not instant or live, but it might just as well be.

For my needs at the moment, which is basically putting down ideas and thoughts, it’s nice and simple and extremely convenient. If you tried this application years ago and didn’t know what to do with it (like I did), I seriously think you should check it out again, it’s worth your time.

A selection of Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts - For my own purposes, wish this was done as a pdf as well.

There really isn’t much of a “tablet” market - Excellent post by Marco Arment, who is definitely taking the place of Gruubs in the go to Apple guy (hell he even mentioned it slightly in the recent ‘Talk Show’ podcast. To be clear, I actually really love what Gruubs has done and honestly didn’t think there was space for another similar kind of blog, but Marco’s is definitely one of them.

RSS5000 - Damn I want an iPad just for that (well and a bunch of other things, but I’m waiting for the second if not the third generation). Shame about the name, what is this? A pun on The Terminator?

Also, Minimal Mac, eh, very nice.

The Web Designer’s Guide to iOS Apps - This should be an interesting read. Not heard much from anyone about this, but I’m sorting out my wishlist, so this is definitely on there.

TeuxDeux - To do lists are one of those things that every person does in a different way. What’s funny in my mind is that there definitely seems to be a trend of white and red apps designed in a certain way, <a href"calvetica.com">Calvetica is another solid example. Strange that they’re created by two completely different parties, although the Calvetica app is slightly more polished I feel.

Busy couple of days for Google. I didn’t see any of it coming and it’s Google’s fault.

Well, that’s not completely true, as I was kinda expecting the Nexus S and Gingerbread around about now, but all the rest of the stuff doesn’t feel as well structured. I’ll explain what I mean by drawing that analogy that everyone and their dog has been drawing for like a few years now.

With Apple we now have a pattern as to when they typically present their latest products. It’s a pattern that has developed over the last few years, there have been some alterations, but typically Apple has been pretty consistent.

1. Early summer is all about the iPhone

2. September is all about the iPod (not sure why an iPod is considered a back to school item)

3. October/November is all about the Mac.

4. January/February used to be about OSX, but I guess now it's all about iOS and the iPad maybe?

In any case there is a pattern that any Mac boy can tell you pretty quickly. With Google, it just all seems less formal. Don’t get me wrong, I love Google. Until the very day that I decided to get my iPhone I was contemplating getting an HTC Desire (one of the reasons could easily be for something like this

• I sooooo want cached Google maps.).

It’s a different philosophy at play here. Apple feels organised in every step they make. Google on the other hand feels like the important thing is to get the basics out there (even if no product is shipped). Just the information in an unusable format and then build anticipation and excitement and sometimes animosity, until you finally ship the product, even in a slightly unpolished way.

It happed with Android and it’s happened with Chrome OS.

I’m not saying which is better, because I generally like both companies and what they do, it’s just interesting to see how their philosophies while may have started pretty close to each other have no definitely moved apart as they battle for supremacy in the mobile market.

For those wondering, watch www.youtube.com/googlechrome later on today for when Google releases information about their browser operating system and the machine’s they’ll run on…. 1 year after they officially announced this. How much changes in a year eh?

Nexus S - The new Android phone from Google. Not that it matter to me as I’m set with my iPhone for the next 3 years I would imagine. The thing is it’s always interesting to see what Google is up to because they’re the only real competition to the iPhone, and if they get better then you know Apple will need to up their game. Currently I think it’s all about the software, and iOS does a ton of stuff well, but needs a ton of stuff to make it better.

What do I think of the industrial design of the S? I personally don’t like it. I loved the Nexus One (and the Desire). HTC have something that Samsung really don’t. Samsung always have this really plasticy feel to their stuff, from their TVs to this high end smart phone. Plasticy.

Google eBooks - The other Google news. Can’t get excited about this, because it’s only available in the US, which is why I can’t get excited about something like Google Voice either. It’s annoying, because I WANT to get excited about this stuff, but I can’t…that and I don’t own an ebook reader (and no an iphone is not a book reader, you’re starting to remind me of those twats on Mac|Life who snuggle up to watch a movie on their fucking iPhones), it’s just silly. I can’t read it on my computer because I’m not used to that action. I am considering a Kindle because of the low price point and the form factor, but still waiting for the next generation of iPad, maybe a third generation or something would be good.

iPad Sketch Elements AI - If I used Illustrator and made iPhone or iPad mockups, this would definitely be something i would use…unfortunately I do neither, at the moment.

While it’s been pretty quiet over here on the site, it’s mainly because life has gotten in the way. This includes work, finding a house to buy, sorting out a wedding and a few public holidays with family obligations have all had their toll on my time.

One thing that has happened in the last couple of days however is the fact that I’ve finally started using my iPhone for something other than consuming data and information. It’s now become something I am creating art on….I know. I basically bought Brushes, which after testing out Sketch Pro and Adobe’s Ideas is by far the single best art creating software app in the app store. Simply because of the work follow process and the fact that the creators seem to understand how someone using the iPhone would go about creating art.

One of the things that I absolutely love is the fact that in contrast to something like Photoshop the toolset is limited (as you would expect) but having less things to think about, actually means that by limiting yourself you become more inventive with how you show things, you stop depending on the software and trying to solve a problem by thinking. One thing I’m thinking is stuff life layer effects. Apart from transparency there isn’t much more you can do. You can merge layers down and rearranging them, and that’s about it. The limitation increases the boundaries.

My current tool of choice is the Pogo Sketch Stylus. It’s a tiny little thing, beautifully designed, although I’m honestly all that sure about the nib. I know, the most important part right? Well the nib on this is a fluffy spongy ball, which is pretty responsive. As I’ve not seen or tried any alternative I have no idea which one works better. I would have imagined that a hard rubber tip to be better for this sort of thing, but without a sample from somewhere I can’t tell. I might ask someone to lend me an old Stylus (nopefully something that’s a little meatier than the traditional thin metal strips that came with most Palm handhelds.

Speaking of limitations, I think the size of the actual phone means that feature creep will be limited, but hopefully they will provide additional features. Personally I would welcome the following features:

1. More layers. I think 4 just isn’t enough. I know the iPad version has 6. While I like the fan formation of the layers, doing them in a row might save on space and allow for additional layers.

2. I would like to be able to move things around on a layer easily. The way this could be done is within the layers view.

3. The ability to choose a colour and add them in a favourite dock (I think the iPad version has this, which really means they need to bring that somehow to the iPhone. As I am using the same colour palette for the project I am working on, I’ve created a layer with the colours I generally use, how it’s a whole layer, and when you’ve only got 4 it’s creates an additional limit, which I can see they’ve resolved on the iPad version..

Since I bought this app, it is by far my most used one on my phone. The blog is pretty quiet at the moment (they’ve not posted anything since August) which is a shame as I’m sure there is a ton of stuff that people have been creating since then.

How many images have I created so far? So far it’s 5. I’m aiming for a minimum of 1 a day. I don’t think it’s too difficult as some of these images I’m able to create pretty quickly. There is a purpose to all of this. It has nothing to do with my main graphic novel, which has been coming along slowly but surely. It’s great to see the pages slowly taking form, but this is a side project that provides me with a great deal of liberation and pretty quick gratification of creating a character, then another, then a world that they live in, all within a week.

Watch this space as I will be talking about this a lot more in the coming weeks and months – I honestly have a good feeling about this.

So yesterday I made to purchases. The first was the Pogo Sketch stylus. The second was Brushes. The obvious reasoning is to start making a comic on my iPhone. I know probably not the best medium for this thing. Maybe getting an iPad for that sort of thing would be better, but I’m not getting a first gen iPad (that’s another post for another time).

I’ve actually have several drawing applications on my iPhone, but I’ve found that Brushes is the best for actually creating, even if the icon sucks many many balls. Adobe Ideas doesn’t provide you with enough options for the brushes (you have one), and Sketch Pro (from Autodesk) I found to be incredibly annoying with it’s unresponsive zooming in and out. This is a major issue on a small screen as you’ll be doing that a lot to get the finer details. Also the layer system on Brushes just works nicely and five layers should be about enough to deal with things.

All of this is my attempt to create a daily comic from my iPhone. I’m going to try and build a few weeks worth of material (don’t even know what I’m going to be drawing at the moment) but hopefully it’ll be fun while I continue to toil away at my other comic book work (on the 7th page of my second draft, slowly but surely people, slowly but surely).

So I’m looking for an iPhone stand, and I happen upon this little thing, the iAngle. Clicking around to see how it actually works, I came onto the little quote from Mac|Life magazine:

The “iANGLE charms me by pulling double duty. One side lets you coil up your earbuds as usual, but the other side serves as an iPhone holder that props it at a nice angle for vegging out to a movie”

Who the fuck does that? Vegges out to a movie on their iPhone…seriously. I can imagine you watching a few clips or whatever on the move…what a bunch of idiots.

Still haven’t found my idea iPhone stand btw.

Broken Kode, there’s an app for that - not really, it doesn’t exist but if you like having websites as icons on your Iphone (you known by making a bookmark in mobile safari and then saving it to your homepage), the ‘Kode now has a customised icon just for that.

The way to do it is pretty simple, here’s a couple of links to help you with the “technical bits”, templates you might want to use and how to hide the address bar in mobile safari to show more of the site straight away:

1. Making an website icon without the gloss

2. Iphone 4 icon templates PSD

3. Hide address bar in mobile safari

My god, it’s been a good long while since I’ve posted here, and honestly there is sooo much good stuff to talk about. The main issue I guess is that now my thoughts are distributed across the net. From Flickr, to Facebook, from Twitter to Instagram, to Google Reader. It’s no longer concentrated in one spot.

Also, I don’t update with personnal stuff, which really is what this blog was originally meant to be about. It’s a long form of expression, something that none of the above are.

So here’s the first bit of news, I’m officially engaged. Yeah, pretty sudden, even for me, but I guess, when you know, you know. And I knew very very quickly with Yasmine, from the first date I knew there was something up. Hopefully I might get her to start blogging on here as well.

Now all I need is a Habari app for my iphone and I’m good - yeah I got myself a brand spanking new iphone, which I love of course.

Macworld iPhone 4 cover - I love this sort of thing. It’s no DLSR, but you definitely don’t need your point and shoot at the bbq any more. Now if only I could get my hands on an iphone 4 I would be happy.

AutoCAD for Mac - It’s a long time coming, but one of the main reasons for not jumping to a mac for business just went out the windows (get it).

iPhone and iPad Apps for Absolute Beginners - Obviously couldn’t find this book at any of the book store that I frequent in Lebanon. Need to find a good store with computer manuals. But this books looks very interesting indeed. Put this in a long list of todo pile.

Apple store in Covent Garden - This is significant, because one of my best buds (Stathis) was the main MEP contractor on the project and has been living and breathing that project for a while now. Good work buddy, it looks awesome.

New Mac Mini - New Mac Mini is out today. As an owner of the previous version, I can honestly say it was one of the best buys for me. It’s been slimmed down even further and makes it easier for additional RAM to be added. Friggin awesome!

Android 2.2 - And Google keeps on rolling (a month?) before Apple releases the latest iPhone. Of course we already know what’s coming on that front thanks to a drunken Apple employee.

iTunes Visual Redesign - I soo wish that Apple would sort out the UI elements of iTunes, because it really is a complete joke. Here’s soemthing Brandon did for free. Use it damn you.

Welcome To Macintosh Documentary - I’ve come relatively late to the house of Apple, so this was good watching.

Minutes Widget - One of the simplest and best widgets I’ve ever downloaded.

Screenshot Plus - Best. Widget. Ever. You want to take screenshots? This is the only thing you need. Seriously.

AppleGeeks 3.0 - I’ve not heard of this, but it’s actually pretty well done. I think I’ll be buying the first volume when I get back to comic book civilisation (yeah there’s not my in way of anglophone comics here in Lebanon, the fekking landscape is completely barren).

Earlier this month I moved this blog back over to WordPress in an act of madness. I hated it and did little blogging in that time. In considering why I hated the experience at WordPress so much, I came upon an interesting parallel. Habari is to WordPress what Apple is to Microsoft.

One of the things that can be said about Apple when compared to Microsoft is that Apple provides a more elegant computing experience that has been better thought out. In a similar fashion Habari is by far the more elegant product where the details have been sweated out and the experience has been better considered.

As a simple example when you install WP you get a random password in your email box and then the second you log into the panel you get a message asking you to change your password. Why didn’t you let me choose a password during the installation process?

Meanwhile on Habari, the installation is all done on the same page, you insert your preferred password right there.

As another example once you’ve logged into WordPress you’re bomobarded with this clusterfuck of items - TMI (too much information). Yes, i know you can remove most of that stuff (but this is all feeding into my analogy). These items aren’t necessary, they’re added first and you are asked to remove them. It’s like when you buy yourself a Dell PC and get a whole bunch of crapware installed on it, which you can remove (most of the time).

Habari doesn’t have that shit to begin with. These items have not been added from the outset. These things have been considered. And who else do we know that doesn’t like superflous stuff cluttering your view and generally getting in your way? These are just a couple of examples which I might expand upon, because the above is basically the tip of the iceberg.

These are subtle differences but important I think in the final assessment, afterall the devil is in the details.

List of Mac OS X Keyboard Shortcuts & Keystrokes - Even though I’ve been on a Mac for nearly 2 years now, I can’t count how many times I’ve looked for how to take a screenshot. Excellent reference site.

iDon’t - Very funny campaign. Mainly because they just did it in a pokey-funny-jab-way. However my amusement (and that of many others can turn) as there’s NOTHING more annoying than building up hype on the back of shit. That’s the real issue here, is the phone going to be any good?

Wow, can you believe it’s October already? Seriously where the hell has this year gone already? Yesterday we watched Godfather and ate chocolate santa. Seriously chocolate santas are already in the supermarkets, WTF? The countdown has begun before I move out of Golders Green after 7 years and go on walkabout. Loads of shit to sort out before then, which all basically starts this week as I order by boxes and self storage options and start getting rid of clothes and unwanted stuff that have accumulated over the last few years. It’s not too bad (yeah you might hear me complaining later on this week) but I know I’ve got my work cut out for me.

In other quick and dirty news, we went and saw Joe Sacco at the ICA this week, which was brilliant, since he met everyone later on and did some signings, which was really cool. His latest books sounds like it’s going to be amazing, so I can’t wait (Footnotes from Gaza). We saw a few images and it does look like it’s going to be a keeper.

On a completely separate note, I’m looking for a good font creator/editor for Mac. I’ve not found any that won’t break the bank (I’m looking in your general ugly direction Fontlab). Fontographer is no longer part of macromedia/Adobe, but surely there’s a nice indie developer out there who has made something that can be used to make a font? I refuse to believe there is nothing else out there.

Garfield Widget - Easily the greatest widget ever created. The whole archive of Garfield is there. These strips were meant to be consumed in byte sized chunks, so I’m incredible excited to read a bit of Garfield every day.

DoubleTwist - Sync all of your devices from your mac. This would have been awesome back when I used a Blackberry. Now that the Pre has been announced for the UK, I’m considering it, even though I’m not going to be around for like 6 months at least, and the contract is a minimum of 18 months and 720 pounds poorer. Should I get an iphone 3GS, or wait till the summer and get myself the Pixi, or the new iphone 3GS2? Dilemmas.

Incredible, amazing, awesome Apple - No wonder everyone feels like they’ve smoked something after watching these keynote speeches. It’s pretty amazing when you see it like this (see what I did there).

Developer Color Picker - I’ve been using Hex Colour Picker, but I’ll give this a try and see whether it’s any better (love anything Panic are involved with).

Tweak Your Finder - Nice little collection of things to do to make the Finder better. I like the plugin for the quick look in folders.

Native Google Chrome for Mac OS X - Still version 0.1, but you can definitely see that it’s still the fastest browser on the market; that and the Omnibar works so much better than anything Apple of Mozilla have created.

Tweetie for Mac - Another couple of hours, another twitter application for the Mac. Yeah, sorry Tweetie looks like it just took it all several steps further than everyone else. Check out the video and you’ll understand what I’m talking about. Coming out on Monday.

Nambu - Native OS X twitter agent. I thought Destroytwitter would be it for me, but this is definitely the best one so far. A lot of great little features, like tweets and comments back that are threaded, being able to classify people into various groups, and the list goes on.

MacHeist 3 Charity Breakdown - For all the flack that MacHeist gets for being something that rapes the indie developers that contribute their software for such a low price, there is this little element of the whole deal, which somehow doesn’t get a lot of press. Nearly a million dollars donated to charities. When’s the last time that a Windows bundle made money for charity? Seriously. I was a windows boy for years. Not once did i buy a software bundle (does that even exist), and therefore no money ever made it to any charities from that effort.

MacHeist 09 - For those in the Mac community, you probably know about MacHeist. I bought last year’s bundle which I believe was a hell of a lot stronger offering than this year’s. Is it me, or is it not selling as quickly as the previous bundle did? I could be wrong, but it seems to be stuck under the $300,000 mark (for charities that is) for the last few days. From all the apps on offer, I only am interested in LittleSnapper and maybe iSale. Apart from that, the rest of the bundle doesn’t particularly interest me (Espresso would be nice, but I already own Coda).

Integrity - website broken link checker. Just going through it all right now but damn that’s something I should have downloaded a while ago.

Apple’s Red-Headed Stepchild - Why do I have a Mac Mini? It’s my entry into the world of the Mac. It took a year before I got a unibody macbook, but that first step was through the mini. It’s a work horse; I am only now thinking of reinstalling the operating system (nearly 1.5 years) after I actually bought the machine (which can be attributed to my meddling with things that I don’t understand). It is weird how long it’s taking Apple to actually update it; maybe there are more people like myself that start on the mini and move to other hardware in the future? Apple does know about all my purchases after all.

Safari 4 Beta - Nice to see some good little additions making it into Safari. Now if only they could get the plugin architecture sorted out, it might stand a proper chance at making inroads on Firefox.

Snow Leopard screenshots show interface tweaks - Although pretty minor, what’s great is this small incremental design philosophy that I think I’ve really come to like about OSX. Don’t fix something that isn’t broken. Address things that users are looking for/complaining about (as much as is possible). I guess it’s all down to coming up with a solid foundation and not letting your ideas get the better of you.

Saulius review Pixelmator Sprinkle’s new feature - I’ve been using Pixelmator for nearly a year now and month in an month out the guys have been doing a bang up job of moving the software forward. What’s incredibly pleasing to see is just how far this little application has grown in a year between version 1.0 and the current version 1.4. A great deal of the gripes that I had have been rectified and here’s hoping that the few I have left will be addressed soon (grouping layers and better text control).

First Screenshot of Chrome for the Mac - Easily my favourite app on Windows (after Excel). Although I’ve been using Webkit proper for a week now (much faster), the speed and the general feel of Chrome is exactly what I want in a browser (along with plugins like Firefox). It’s just a matter of time before Chrome becomes a real player.

Google Search Box - From the creator of Quicksilver, comes Google Search Box. Kinda explains why he was ok about leaving the Quicksilver development; he was working on something better.

Palm Pre - Never used anything from Palm so I wouldn’t know what to expect based this their latest attempt at. However early buzz from everyone has put this squarely up against the iphone and actually comes on top in certain areas. Although the form factor is smaller than the iphone in general, it’s also much much thicker as well (which is always an issue for me). Lets see how this effects the smartphone market (hopefully proper competition will force Apple to address simple things like cut and paste).

Scathing review of the Apple keynote speech today at MacWorld - Unfortunately I kind of agree. Although I do like the battery idea, it’s still a battery and I don’t believe a word they’re saying about 8 hours. My macbook is meant to give me 5 hours, but the truth is I can only hope to get 4.5 hours that if I turn the screen brightness right down and do some word processing (something with a white background so I can actually see what I’m doing), so really it’s closer to something between 3.5 - 4 hours of actual productivity.

Netbooks compatibility chart - If you’re in the market for a Hackintosh.

Together - Interesting little note and file compiling application. Particularly like the web as pdf feature.

Macbook Nano - I’d definitely buy one for £200. I am however starting to sway gradually into getting a Macbook though.

Eventbox from The Cosmic Machine - A Mac only app, which helps integrate a number of social media networks in one single place.

Many Tricks - I’ve only been on a mac for a year so you’ll have to excuse me while i compile my indie software developers list of useful apps.

Cruz browser - the big difference here is the fact that it’s got an API ready for plugins to be developed and installed. Interview also up on Cult of Mac with the developer.

Anand Tech reviews the new Macbooks - as always love the size of these reviews. Surprising recommendation, wait till next year’s model.

Gizmodo is claiming that Apple will no longer be making the Mac Mini anymore - this is a shame because it’s my first (and only) Mac. I have nothing but good things to say about the experience. A relatively inexpensive machine that does exactly what i have asked it to do, for a price that didn’t hurt me.

Apple’s new ‘Get a Mac’ ads that directly address the resent Microsoft ‘I’m a PC’ adverts - Although these ads do feel a bit long in the tooth, the best ones are those that have subtle gestures or facial expressions by the actors.

Apple Command Prints by Christopher David Ryan (via theappleblog).

In case you missed it, Apple released their new line of notebooks earlier this week and as you will imagine it looks like an amazing bit of artwork. As I’m currently in the market for a nice portable computer, of some description I’ve been following the online rumours surrounding this event with a lot of interest, holding my breathe, waiting for the news to come through. Sadly after I play around with one today I can’t bring myself to buy one.

Form Factor There is no denying that the new Macbooks sport some seriously sexy looking shells and have an awesome glass trackpad (which you need to play with to fully appreciate it’s greatness), however this line of Macbooks are missing something for me and the real reason I’d buy a laptop computer at this time. It’s down to what I ultimately will use the notebook for and that comes down to the form factor.

In this context I’m not looking for a first machine, I bought my mac mini last year and I’ve got say that I’m extremely happy with this machine. I’m not a believer of getting equipment that I will never use it’s fully capacity for which i have paid for. So why would i want a notebook? To actually take it around with me. Isn’t that what laptop computers were originally created for? Apart from price entry, I think the reason why netbooks have taken off as a consumer product is down to the actual weight associated with them, they’re typically a little over or under a kilogram and they deliver minimal power for work on the move, with a decent sized screen and a keyboard.

I like well engineered stuff that is beautiful to look at and beautiful to use. Arguably the new Macbooks fit into that ethos. However the thing that these notebooks don’t address is portability. at a little over 2kg for the lightest Macbook (the plastic version is actually heavier than the aluminium version), the weight factor is out the window. They’ve provided the computer at 13.3 inches which is a good size, but again, I would have preferred to have an even smaller thing that I could lug around with me and not really feel it.

The new notebooks feel more like a primary machine that you have in your house, that give you the option to move about the house, but don’t seem to have the makings of a true road warrior. Maybe if you’ve got a car and using that to move you and your notebook around, but in my city slicker mode, I don’t own a car and it’s me who will be lugging this thing around. As such weight is paramount.

Is it Apple’s fault that their latest notebook offerings don’t actually fit in to what I want? To be fair to Apple they have something that more or less fits in with my ethos, get the Macbook Air, at 1.3kg that more or less addresses my weight issue. The only problem with this is that the Air is £1300. That’s £350 more expensive than an already expensive machine (and I doubt the new Macbook Air actually has the glass trackpad which is many shades of awesome).

Sadly like Gruber says, Apple won’t release a netbook for another few years and when they do it’ll be awesome, but it will have a stripped down OS X and will fit my needs now, in 2 years. So what’s a guy to do? What are the available options?

I could either get a Macbook Air, get a Lenovo S10 when it gets here and Hackintosh it or I could get a Dell Inspiron 9 and Hackintosh that. Arguably the second option is much cheaper (by around £1000).

I’m making a collection of links for how you can install OS X on a Lenovo S10 netbook ; you know, in case I decide not to get the uber expensive Macbooks.

The Guardian’s take on what yesterday’s Apple notebook event - I will say that i think Jony Ike definitely looks like he could be a worthy successor to Jobs. Calm, collected, articulate and not annoying.

Fortune’s round up of apple notebooks from 1989 to 2008 - interesting for those of us who have come late to the Apple game.

I want myself one of these Dell Mini Inspiron 9’s with OS X on them. The thing is, I don’t want to do any of the hacking, I just want to go to a store tomorrow, walk in and buy the bloody thing. I’d even settle if Apple actually released a friggin netbook, but somehow I seriously doubt that is going to happen. Their ultra portable machine is the Air pure and simple. Anything else is wishful and naive thinking.

I’m here to also confirm what everyone on the blogosphere has been saying, the Genius setting in the new iTunes 8 actually works. Creating playlists from a single song that actually is PERFECT. It’s like listening to the radio but it’s actually all of your tunes, stuff you hadn’t heard in years sometimes that work perfectly with the tune you’re listening to constantly today.

And can I also gush at the visualiser which is an absolute peach, yeah, I think I will a bit.

I was listening to Gruber’s podcast the other day, and they mentioned the blue screen that appears for Leopard users after an upgrade. They attributed this to a bit of software that might have been installed (can’t remember what the name is) which can get itself installed so that it can be used by another programme, like the Logitec mouse software. Not sure if anyone knows what I’m talking about, but if anyone’s got any links or whatever regarding this could you please drop by and tell me what the deal is, because it’s really annoying to have to wait 10 minutes sometimes for the system to get itself going again. I don’t have a Logitec mouse (although that’s another post for another time) so that’s not the problem.

In a word, RUBBISH. The newest MacHeist is up and running and basically it’s a really poor showing this time around. See the last time was an AMAZING collection of applications that included Pixelmator and VectorDesigner. This time around you have some of the same applications and a few random new ones as well, but NO killer application.

Don’t get me wrong I REALLY rate Awaken, use it every day, I really like Coversutra, use that every day (tried using Cha-Ching but couldn’t really get to grips with it at all); crucially all three of these applications were in the previous MacHeist that was held not 3 months ago. What is the application in that bundle that would make you excited? Seriously? It’s not there. Unless they start adding some good stuff, there is no way that this Heist will be as good as the previous one and for good reason. Who exactly are they trying to get on board on this?

On a personal note, there is really no application out there that I want, apart from maybe a better FTP application (there are a couple of good ones knocking about but I’ve not decided which one i should go for) and a better torrent client (transmission is doing exactly what I want and the development is constant so hopefully there’ll get some basic UI issues sorted out and add being able to search and add torrents from within the application itself and I won’t need a new torrent client either).

Firefox 2 is slow as donkeys on a Mac. It’s true. Even with my 2Gs of RAM I can still notice the strain, that and it’s constantly crashing for some reason (usually whenever I use Gmail. Alas I’m eagerly waiting for Firefox3 to be released which is looking a lot better for everyone. In the meantime here are a couple of plugins I’ve found for Safari that I think are really useful: (I’ve updated it with a slew more cool little plugins, based on the comments)

1. Safari-stretch

2. DeliviousSafari

3. Piclens

4. Inquisitor

5. SafariStand

6. SafariTidy

7. And of course we shouldn't forget Pimpmysafari

Anyone got any other ones I should look at?

Fake Steve Jobs accepts one of those crunchie awards. Absoultely awesome video. The guy’s just as funny (probably more funny) in person than as a blogger to be honest, although I do read his stuff occasionally. And while he’s doing that thing he does so well, he also raises some really valid points as well.

Today was the first time I used Awaken from Embraceware. It was a whole new experience for me waking up today to a bit of Soundgarden. Tradiitionally I’m jerked out of bet through the bitter sound of my cheap £4 alarm clock that’s been going strong for YEARS. I tell you what, I am most definitely not going to miss that horrible, horrible sound.

Oooohhhh right, now I get it.

So my mac mini arrived last week. Three seperate boxes, one for the mini, one for the wireless mighty mouse and another for the wireless keyboard. What made me laugh was the fact that Joyce, arguably the smallest person in the world was carrying them to give to me. This stuff is actually completely tiny, it’s really incredible. So much so, that I’m not actually sure what I’m going to be doing with the rest of the real estate of my desk, the bottom of my desk is also looking pretty barren, so I’m thinking there’s going to be a trip to Ikea to get a table to put my stereo, thus freeing up enough space to get myself an A1 drawing board, as I see that coming in handy a lot in the coming year.

It took a total of 12 minutes from the second I connected all the wires to the second i was surfing the net and talking to Bonsai online. The machine picked up the mouse, keyboard and wireless router in seconds and I was actually up and running in no time at all.

So what is my initial reactions to OSX now that I’ve played around on it for more than 30 minutes? There is genuinely a hell of a lot to like. Things that as a windows user I came to accept because that was the norm. That all changed last year when I got into Ubuntu and realised that there was actually a different way. The problem I faced with Ubuntu however was the lack of sophisticated software aimed directly at the operating system and the lack of hardware drivers for a lot of my peripherals. Obviously this isn’t the case here.

One of the greatest things for me however is the lack of having to shut down my computer every day. I put it to sleep and that’s pretty much it. Loading it up again takes a total of 3 seconds and I’m up and running again. The quiet nature of the machine is an incredible selling point to me, since my previous machine, although a work horse in it’s own right was fucking load as you like. So this was a breath of fresh air.

Then there’s how it all clicks together. All downloads go into the downloads folder which I can access. Hardly anything is actually on my desktop anymore (save for my blue shuffle icon, which I love btw). Installing a programme requires me to move the downloaded programme into the applications folder. I’ve got several funky ways to see my documents and applications in that is slightly less archaic than the traditional drop down menu and the list goes on.

Reading through that last paragraph you’d think that I had absolutely no negative comments about the system. Unfortunately you’d be wrong about that. However as that’s another post in and of itself I’ve had to split it up a bit.