Wednesday, October 31, 2007

PC Magazine 'Leopard is “by far the best operating system ever written'

In his 4.5-star (out of 5) review of Leopard, Edward Mendelson (pcmag.com) maintains that Leopard is “by far the best operating system ever written for the vast majority of consumers, with dozens of new features that have real practical value.” Mendelson “found Leopard to be startlingly fast, brilliantly streamlined, and packed with conveniences.

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Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Apple bits

All is well and good for Apple computer (yes I know they dropped the computer from their name but I still like the sound of "Apple computer" better then just Apple) as of today they have sold over two million copies of Mac OS X Leopard!  

So far there have been very few problems reported in the news about Leopard bugs. So if you are a user of APE you are sure of have some problems. I recommend that you uninstall the software before you install Leopard.

Recently there have been a number of articles written about how well Mac's do when compared-with PC's in the area of total cost of ownership (TCO). While the numbers are small Apple is growing in the corporate and small business worlds as a viable work tool. Have you noticed that Apples have less support calls then PC's so have many an open mined IT manager. But of course there are always those Apple haters in the world and to them I say hey if you enjoy working on your broken computer great I have real work to do.


Last but not least how many times must I be told that this or that user can't use a Mac because they don't have a second button? Check out an Apple Mighty mouse and if that's no to your liking well there are other options such as the Microsoft Intellimouse. Chris Pirillo as written a interesting article about this mouse myth

Apple will shortly be selling the iPhone in the Europe but how many will want them without 3G? I for one will be very interested in seeing what the sales numbers are for Europe are because there are rumors that Apple will be selling a 3G iPhone in the not too distant future. The heavy text users in the UK should keep an eye out for so called premium text services as they are not covered under the iPhone plan. One father had a rude surprise, when he received this daughters $10,000.00 phone bill? Some in Europe will are predicting that the iPhone will cause a crime wave but IMHO no more then any iPod has.



Chris | Live Tech Support | Video Help | Add to iTunes


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Friday, October 26, 2007

Apples Leopard the death knell for Microsoft's Vista?

Last evening all Apple retail stores will start selling Leopard to the masses. However if your like me and you pre-ordered the software then you had the 10.5 hologramed box in hand by early morning. I would have to say that this is the best designed OS packing that Apple has ever shipped. Even the manual they have included is actually useful and really covered all the new features so that there is not need to run to your local book store and buy additional books on how to use Leopard unless you really want to.

Leopard very well could be the death knell for Vista. Well in short its every thing that Vista is not and should have been. While Leopard is slick and faster then Vista it's familiar easy of use is ever present and best of all it will not bog your older computer down or add useless copy protection onto your computer. Sorry Microsoft but why to I need to buy a new crazy fast computer just to run Windows at a usable speed and why must I spend hours trying to find the correct drivers so my system will work correctly? The computer industry loves Microsoft because they know most users will opt to go an buy a new PC rather then go though the pain of an upgrade. Another dirty industry secret is that Apples are really cheaper in the long run as they require less support and IT staff but you will never hear that from most IT folks because it might mean they would be out of work. You see if they implement a complex solution that the common users can't support then they have jobs for life. Why I even read that one IT person sends Mr. Gates a Christmas card every year thanking him for writing bad code and keeping him employed. Yes, Apple can be a viable computer in your home or office.

Leopard is boasting over 300+ new or updated features. While not all the features will be useful to everyone I am sure everyone will have their favorites that they like. The new email templates are a lot of fun! But most may not be excited by ZFS but you have to admit it is very interesting for the future. After extensive testing I have found that the new Leopard OS is every thing that Apple said it would be. However I do strongly recommend that you upgrade your computers memory to at least 1GB from RAM because while it will run with 512MB of RAM it's a bit slow. If you are using FileVault then you will have problems with Time Machine because it must back up (or restore) your whole home directory and you may not restore individual files.

I also thought it was worth a click for those interested in a bit of computer trivia to check out the fantastic articles recently from AppleInsider titled the road to Mac OS X Leopard: System Preferences, Parental Controls & Directory Services, Desktop, Media Features, Collaborative, Dashboard.



Chris | Live Tech Support | Video Help | Add to iTunes


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Thursday, October 25, 2007

Mac shows off its business side

Macs are not the standard in the corporate world, in part because of a false perception they are more expensive and offer fewer software choices than Windows PCs. "We run Macs and we don't need many people in IT. In fact, they have more problems fixing printers and peripherals than the computers themselves."

read more | digg story

Friday, October 19, 2007

Getting your Mac ready for OS X 10.5

Check for updates to all your programs so that you are sure that they will run under 10.5 as well as they did under 10.4. "Over time, most computers accumulate clutter, including outdated software, forgotten downloads, and files you no longer need. Not only can this clutter slow down your Mac and make it harder to find things, it can cause problems when you perform a major upgrade—incompatibilities may show up, or you may run out of disk space, for example."


Chris | Live Tech Support | Video Help | Add to iTunes


read more | digg story

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Apple now sells 1 in 12 U.S. computers

"Apple now sells 1 in 12 U.S. computers: Gartner says Apple's growth rate is eight times the industry average"

read more | digg story

Why Leopard rocks and Vista is a sleeper for older PC's

Don't get me wrong Vista is much better then Windows ME but is it better then Windows XP? Well much of that may come down to your preferences and if you own a new computer or not. The major problems with Vista is that in addition of the sucking sound of your CPU used by all the extra DRM that unless you do a lot of work making sure you have the correct drivers Vista is not a simple upgrade.

What is the average use to do thinking of upgrading to do? Well if you are going to by a new computer you might as well consider the Apple Macintosh running Leopard and of course the OS will work with most of the current Mac's as well. Leopard will offer 0ver 300+ new features that are sure to dazzle most users but not all. In my mind there are a few features that really jump out like much improved security, parental controls, automatic backup, and Unix! Yes, Unix and that is a major reason why OS X is so stable. Lets not forget that every Macintosh comes bundled with iLife 08 which I would say is a must have and there is no bundle software on the Windows side that you can even compare to iLife.

Another option for users of older computers who can't afford a new PC running OS X or Vista is Linux. There are many flavors of Linux and each has its plus and minus but if you have no preference then a very popular choice is Ubuntu. I was able to take and install Ubuntu on an antiquated dell laptop with no problems. The Ubuntu software recognized all the systems hardware and made the system feel almost new.

However these days do you even really need a full computer? If you are not a heavy Internet user consider the iPhone or iPod Touch. So far the iPhones have had very strong sales and I have yet to meet an iPhone owner who is sorry they bought it. Both devices ship all the software you should need to be productive and soon Apple will add third party software.


Chris | Live Tech Support | Video Help | Add to iTunes


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Wednesday, October 17, 2007

The Secrets of Safari 3

A selection of tips for Safari 3 beta aimed at the average Safari user as well as more experienced users. Includes undocumented features that can be enabled through the Terminal such as the Web Inspector and the pie chart progress indicator. Also explains some more well known features such as merging windows and bookmarking all open tabs.

read more | digg story

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Mac OS X Leopard ships this month!

Apple will be shipping Mac OS X Leopard on October the 26th. A special event will he held at every Apple Retail Store from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m and if you’re one of the first 500 guests, you’ll go home with a special edition Leopard T-shirt.

Leopard will be the latest in the line of Apple OS X releases replacing Tiger (notice the cat theme) and it boasts 300+ new features. While I must admit it's becoming harder for Apple to wow us (and Microsoft for that matter) there are a number of useful features being built into the operating system that I am sure most will find very useful.

I have had the chance to run the Leopard beta and it seems pretty solid so I am looking forward to the new release on the 26th. Will you be upgrading? I will, but remember folks its always a good idea to backup your system before you leap.


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Monday, October 15, 2007

Interesting sites to visit today

Today I found four sites that I enjoyed visiting today and I thought I would share them with you:
1) Sanity check: 10 dirty little secrets you should know about working in IT
2) How to track the original location of an email via its IP address
3) Review: Apple Wireless Keyboard (aluminum)
4) Want to be depressed? See your salary in real time!
I was very depressed when I found that I do not earn any money per second! I must find a higher paying job!


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LinkedIn?

Not long ago I use to be in the anti LinkedIn crowd but after losing contact with some coworkers from the past I began to see the real value of the LinkedIn. Now I never have to worry about keeping updated as old friends change jobs and email accounts as they do all the work for me updating their accounts. If you have not used LinkedIn give it a try I think you will be surprised at just how easy it is and addictive and much better then myspace or facebook!


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