7 posts tagged “mac”
For my friends and readers who don't often watch all this tech and nerd stuff, Apple released a new operating system back in October called Mac OS X Leopard (version 10.5, to be exact). While it does tons of fancy new things many people might not notice (at least consciously) or care about, one bit advancement is the ability to control another Leopard user's screen with just the click of a mouse (and their permission of course) in iChat, Apple's chat program that works over AOL's AIM service.
I've had family members and friends pick up new Macs or upgrade to Leopard since October and the holidays, and this feature has already become a god-send to me for helping people fix problems or learn how to use something. A nice touch is the fact that audio chat gets turned on as well, so we can speak with each other while I'm poking around or explaining how to do something.
I know there are plenty of other programs and services out there that have offered this for a while, but many of them cost money in one way or another, and none are as simple for both parties as iChat's single click to start the Screen Sharing feature (well, technically, it's two clicks: the first is on my part to ask permission, the second is on the recipient's part to grant it).
So to my friends, especially the long distance ones, who are considering picking up your first Mac or just upgrading, I'm always happy to help. With this new Screen Sharing feature though, I can hopefully be more useful.
Holy CRAP - while browsing some RapidWeaver themes in Camino 1.5, nearly half the apps I had open spontaneously and simultaneously killed themselves. Not seen here are Twitterrific and Photoshop CS3 also crashing - wtf?
Potential Mac purchasing friends of mine (you know who you are) and strangers, don't take this to heart. I blog about software for a living which means I play with a *lot* of crap sometimes, and that includes beta and otherwise unstable programs - all in the name of readers. After this crash I still had nearly a dozen apps running, half of which are in beta or possibly alpha.
Good news is that I started them all back up again and everything is fine, and so is the rest of Mac OS X. One week of continuous uptime and still counting.
I told most of my non-nerd friends that I would try to segregate nerdy content to 1FPS, my other blog. However, since I'm always down for helping to spread the word about and for those who help make the Mac better, I thought this was worth mentioning since it's Vox specific.
Justin Williams, of MacZealots.com fame, has started a Mac Developers group here at Vox. I'm no developer myself (though I have been known to whip up the killer Photoshop or Automator actions and droplets from time to time), but I hope others who are more skilled can get their code on.
What, Microsoft doesn't cover the purchase of a Mac or two as a company perk? For shame! How are their employees supposed to get anything done during the day, let alone at home?
Originally published at 1FPS : David Chartier. You can comment here or there.
*Phew!* Close call! Glad Skype made sure to let us know they're clean.
Now don't get me wrong - I use Macs, but I don't believe they're infinitely impenetrable. Still, this seems completely out of place, given the current virus-less and malware-less state of the Mac's existence.
I goof around with a lot of software, both as a personal hobby and for my blogging on TUAW. Syncing software is always a sweet spot for me, as Apple has built a really nice platform for 3rd parties to keep your machines in sync. I use Plaxo - a contact syncing service, and I've been testing SOHO Notes to see if it's a competent alternative to Yojimbo, as well as a few other apps that take advantage of Apple's Syncing Services. I'm also playing with Spanning Sync, a new private beta that can synchronize iCal and Google Calendar. One way or the other, *something* screwed up during a recent sync and threw my Address Book completely out of wack. I typically have just over 400 entries, but after this I had 866. Obviously, it wasn't Spanning Sync (I'm diggin' it so far), but I honestly suspect Plaxo, as my Address Book has always been acting a little wonky (disappearing contacts, sudden dupes, etc) since I installed it.
The things I do in the name of blogging... though one thing's for sure: I am pretty thankful for AB's ability to seek out duplicate entries, as it just impressed me by seemingly cleaning up the mess by itself. Hooray for Apple's software engineers.
How many computers do you have in your house?
Submitted by Foomper.
Three: an iMac G5, one of the new iMac Core 2 Duos and a MacBook. I'd *like* to get another MacBook for my wife, but we have bigger things on our plate, like taking a real honeymoon next summer and the possibility of moving to Chicago. I personally prefer notebooks, but since I'm doing more motion graphics and video editing work these days, I needed to get rid of my MacBook Pro in favor of a dual setup: a powerful desktop that I could let sit and render for hours on end, and a decent portable for when I need to get on the move for campus, meeting clients, the internship, etc.
