Archive for Mac OS X
July 1, 2008 @ 5:17 pm
· Filed under Cameras, Computers, Copyright, Gadgets, Internet, Mac OS X, Microsoft, Movies, Music, Open-Source, Photography, Security, Software, iPhone, iPod/iTunes, society
‘Digital Manners Policies’ is a marketing term. Let’s call this what it really is: Selective Device Jamming. It’s not polite, it’s dangerous. It won’t make anyone more secure — or more polite”
Best argument for open-source software; now what about open-source hardware?
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June 27, 2008 @ 10:32 am
· Filed under Apple, Internet, Mac OS X, Macintosh, Security, Software
How to Protect Yourself From The New Mac OS X Trojans
The first rule of using a Mac is to always trust Adam Engst. I’ve been trusting him for 15 years, and I’ve never regretted it.
This issue isn’t likely too likely to bite any individual user, but the precaution is easy to take.
All that remains to be seen is whether the next patch from Apple requires us to put ARDAgent.app back before patching.
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June 8, 2008 @ 11:02 pm
· Filed under Apple, Gadgets, Mac OS X, Software, iPhone, iPod/iTunes
It’s just over 12 hours until Steve takes the stage at WWDC, which makes this as good a time as any.
I think we’ll see the following announced tomorrow:
- Another price drop, but more modest than last time; I’m thinking ~$75
- Storage increase: 16, 32 and 64 GB models
- Video camera capability for conferencing and uploading to YouTube and/or the rumoured-to-be-rechristened .Mac
- International launch of iPhone in 2-line-press-release countries (like Canada) this summer; I’m thinking late July
- Screen size will be unchanged
- Battery life extended
- GPS on iPhone: sure, why not? Not for iPod touch, though…
- 3G? I can’t bring myself to give a shit about cellular networks, since the companies are all radically overcharging in Canada, so I have no opinion on this, except everyone else expects it…
- Apps like Email, Notes, etc., will work in landscape and portrait mode, making typing easier
- App Store to launch tomorrow
On a sidenote, I got a phone call from Bell this week, asking me if I was happy with my cell phone, pointing out that my package was okay since I wasn’t going over my alloted minutes, and letting me know that I could switch to any cellphone I wanted and get $150 off my renewed contract. I resisted the urge to ask for an iPhone.
I’ve had a cell phone for years now, and this is the first such call I remember. The timing is interesting, coming less than a week ahead of a possible new iPhone release and new competition from Rogers.
June 9 update — here’s my report card:
- Another price drop, but more modest than last time; I’m thinking ~$75 — I was $25 short; not bad, though
- Storage increase: 16, 32 and 64 GB models — unbelievably, wrong; I thought this was a safe prediction
- Video camera capability for conferencing and uploading to YouTube and/or the rumoured-to-be-rechristened .Mac — wrong; no partial marks for .Mac becoming MobileMe.
- International launch of iPhone in 2-line-press-release countries (like Canada) this summer; I’m thinking late July — not bad; off by less than 2 weeks. Staff at a Rogers dealership told me they’d have them for Christmas.
- Screen size will be unchanged — score.
- Battery life extended — score.
- GPS on iPhone: sure, why not? Not for iPod touch, though… — score.
- 3G? I can’t bring myself to give a shit about cellular networks, since the companies are all radically overcharging in Canada, so I have no opinion on this, except everyone else expects it… — I’ll take that.
- Apps like Email, Notes, etc., will work in landscape and portrait mode, making typing easier — partial marks; apparently Calculator now has extended functionality in landscape mode (becoming a scientific calculator in that mode). No word either way on other apps that I’m aware of…
- App Store to launch tomorrow — a miss, unfortunately. I suppose I should’ve seen this coming; despite the possibility of being banned from the store, I find it hard to believe that word hadn’t leaked if the store were going to launch today.
So, 6.5 out of 9: 72%. They were pretty conservative predictions, though, to be fair.
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March 27, 2008 @ 8:08 pm
· Filed under Apple, Browsers, Internet, Mac OS X, Macintosh, Security, Software, iPhone
Mac OS X first to fall: “In the first attempted attack in the PWN2OWN contest, a security analyst breached the defenses of Apple’s Mac OS X using a bug in the Safari browser and won $10,000 as well as the computer that he compromised.”
(Via SecurityFocus.com.)
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February 12, 2008 @ 11:50 pm
· Filed under "beta" software, Apple, Computers, Mac OS X, Macintosh, Software, Usability
TidBITS Macs & Mac OS X: Leopard Emerges from Beta as 10.5.2 Ships.
What is it with everyone’s obsession with Leopard’s transparent menubar?
If you’re using a desktop image that’s in any way useful — as in it’s easy to find icons on the desktop, you know, big blue sky, as opposed to some noisy, distracting pattern that camouflages everything you put on it — then it’s not a big deal.
I agree with Matt’s assessment that iCal’s new behaviour of requiring a double-click to show event details is still an annoying step backwards, though.
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February 6, 2008 @ 6:10 pm
· Filed under Apple, Computers, Mac OS X, Microsoft, Open-Source, Software, Windows
The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) (via the Sydney Morning Herald):
However, [Torvalds] went on to say that both companies are using their operating systems to propel more software and hardware sales.”
Simply shocking. I can’t imagine what they’re thinking…
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January 25, 2008 @ 5:17 pm
· Filed under Apple, Computers, Email, Mac OS X, Macintosh, Software, Usability
Apple’s calendar software, iCal, has taken unfortunate steps backwards in Leopar, Mac OS X 10.5, which were not remedied by the 10.5.1 update.
When users of iCal under Mac OS X 10.4.x invite users of 10.5.x to an event, the behaviour is quite different than it used to be. Regardless of the calendar the sender had assigned an event to (e.g. Home, Work, etc.), when inviting a Leopard iCal user, the event arrives as part of the Home calendar.
Worse, it’s impossible to edit the event or its notification/reminder. You can’t change the Calendar to which it belongs, it will have a 15 minute alert — even when the sender chose an hour — and there’s no way to confirm or decline the invite.
Here’s hoping 10.5.2 addresses some of these issues.
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December 24, 2007 @ 12:24 am
· Filed under Apple, Mac OS X, Software, Usability
Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5) is a fine update to Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4), which was already quite solid as a day-to-day operating system. I’m going to focus here on the most prominent changes to the user interface; these are my observations after a month of using Leopard (10.5.1) day-to-day in a production environment.
Read the rest of this entry »
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August 20, 2007 @ 6:43 pm
· Filed under Apple, Email, Mac OS X, Macintosh, Software
Mac OS X 10.4.10’s Mail programme has a very serious flaw, and it’s not one I’ve seen written up anywhere before.
One of the things I have to deal with is multiple email accounts, on different servers. Due to ISP issues, I can only send messages from certain accounts when logged on via different ISPs.
In Apple’s otherwise-excellent Mail programme, switching the account which an already-composed message will be sent from sometimes deletes much of the message. Trying to close the message without saving doesn’t work, because it doesn’t prompt you to save, thereby denying the opportunity to revert to whatever you might have saved before catastrophe struck.
There goes a whole lot of work down the drain. Thanks, Apple.
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June 26, 2007 @ 7:55 pm
· Filed under Accessibility, Apple, Browsers, CSS, Design, Internet, Mac OS X, Macintosh, Usability, Web
Remember those wonderful web badges that obnoxious webmasters used to put on their home pages? You know, “Optimized for Netscape 3.0″? As if people would go to the trouble of downloading and installing a web browser just to see some idiot’s latest enhancement to their web site (usually something involving the “blink” tag).

Well, I had a flashback to those days today. I visited Bell.ca, and I had the audacity to do it with a Mac and ?
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