The Camino browser team has released version 2.0 of the Gecko powered web browser. Version 2.0 brings a number of new features to the table for the browser, including…
- Tab Overview: Think of it as Exposé for your open tabs.
- Tabbed browsing improvements: You can (finally) reorder tabs, and when the number of tabs exceeds the window width, view open tabs in a drop down menu. Additionally, left and right scrollbars appear to allow you to scroll through the tabs.
- Download notifications through Growl (if it is installed).
There are a number of other smaller improvements and bug fixes to the browser as well.
I have a soft spot for Camino. Back in the early days of OS X, Camino (then called Chimera), was the best browser, hands down available for the platform. As a web developer, using Mac OS X in those days was a difficult task. The included web browser, Internet Explorer 5, was a big steaming pile of shit. It was slow, buggy, and its rendering engine was nowhere near as robust as the Gecko rendering engine. When the first builds of Chimera appeared, it was like seeing the Marines appear on the beach with reinforcements. By the time Chimera 0.2 was released, it was my default browser. I stuck with Chimera/Camino until Safari hit the scene in 2003.
But I’ve always appreciated what Camino offers Mac OS X users – a small, fast, lightweight browser built on top of a rock solid rendering engine.
Congrats to the Camino team for shipping version 2.0!
Category: Software,Web Development
Facebook Developer Joe Hewitt has written his last iPhone app. Or something like that. In protest of Apple’s well publicized AppStore approval policies, the iPhone Facebook Application Developer has handed the project off to another developer and is moving on to “more open” pastures.
Joe had this to say to TechCrunch:
“My decision to stop iPhone development has had everything to do with Apple’s policies. I respect their right to manage their platform however they want, however I am philosophically opposed to the existence of their review process. I am very concerned that they are setting a horrible precedent for other software platforms, and soon gatekeepers will start infesting the lives of every software developer.
The web is still unrestricted and free, and so I am returning to my roots as a web developer. In the long term, I would like to be able to say that I helped to make the web the best mobile platform available, rather than being part of the transition to a world where every developer must go through a middleman to get their software in the hands of users.”
I can definitely sympathize with Joe on the nebulous (at best) and nefarious (at worst) review process. Hopefully, Joe’s defection will cause someone at Apple to finally fix the problem once and for all.
Category: iPhone,Software
Safari 4.04 is available via software update. No word yet on whether the recent improvements to the webkit inspector landed in this update.
From the release notes:
This update is recommended for all Safari users and includes improvements to performance, stability, and security including:
Improved JavaScript performance
Improved Full History Search performance for users with a large number of history items
Stability improvements for 3rd-party plug-ins, the search field and Yahoo! Mail
For detailed information on the security content of this update, please visit this site: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222.
Update: The Webkit Inspector improvements noted above are not included in Safari 4.04.
Update: It appears the keyboard shortcut for Top Sites, Command-Shift-1 has been removed from Safari 4.04. If you use this keyboard shortcut, you may want to hold off on upgrading.
Update: Looks like the shortcut has been changed to Alt-Command-1. That’s the sort of change you would expect to be detailed in the release notes, if your release notes had any meaningful, detailed descriptions.
Category: Software,Web Development
The cat is out of the bag (excuse the pun), and yes, Snow Leopard will be shipping on Friday, August 28th.
If you haven’t ordered your copy yet, you can help us out by using the link below to order Snow Leopard from Amazon.com.
Mac OS X version 10.6 Snow Leopard
Mac OS X Snow Leopard Family Pack (5-User)
Of course, if you bought a new Mac after June 8th 2009, you can get Snow Leopard through Apple’s Up-To-Date program for $9.99.
Category: News,Software
Pixelmator continues it’s steady pace of adding features and fixing bugs with the new 1.2 “Draftsman” release. New for this version is a stellar implementation of guides and grids, along with some superb curves and auto adjustment features. If you’re looking for an image editor, the $59 you spend on Pixelmator may just be your best investment option.
Category: Software
OpenOffice 3.0 beta has been released (click to download). Why do you care? Because this is the first version for Mac OS X that doesn’t require X11 to operate. OpenOffice 3.0 for Mac OS X features an Aqua interface, among the other new features present in version 3.0.
My initial impressions are:
- Finally!
- Damn, that’s a big file (167.4 MB)…
- and – man, is this thing SLOW!
Still, it is nice to see a native version of OpenOffice available for Mac OS X. Personally, I love iWork and it does a great job at handling my word processing, presentations and spreadsheet needs, along with conversion of Office 2007 and older docs. But one can’t argue with a decent free product that handles the same tasks. If the community can get OpenOffice 3.0 a speed boost, it may just become a hit on the Mac.
Oh, and why you’re at it, get rid of the icon. It sucks.
Category: Software
Adobe blogger John Nack has let it slip that the next version of Adobe Photoshop (CS4 for those wondering) will be 64-bit… but for Windows only. While I’m usually one to cast blame at Adobe’s feet for decisions like these, I have to admit Adobe is doing the best they can with the situation they’ve been dealt.
Last year at WWDC, during the Mac OS X State of the Union, Apple dropped a pretty significant bomb that didn’t get much attention (probably due to the whole NDA thing, I guess). While Leopard would be a 64-bit OS through and through, Carbon would not gain 64-bit memory addressing. This essentially leaves developers with Carbon apps stuck in 32-bit land, with the only other option being migrate to Cocoa. This was counter to Apple’s promise in August of 2006 that Carbon would be 64-bit.
When I heard this news at the session, I immediately thought that apps like Photoshop, Flash, Office were going to suffer, long term. As Nack points out on his blog, this decision really did throw Adobe a curve ball. They were in the middle of developing against the previous Leopard seed from August of 2006, which did feature a work-in-progress 64-bit Carbon. (more…)
Category: Blog Watch,Opinion,Software
Apple has released Safari 3.1 for Mac & Windows. New to Safari 3.1 are additions from the HTML5 spec, including new audio & video tags and a storage (database) API, along with significant Javascript optimizations, and new CSS tag support.
Safari 3.1 is a free download for Mac & Windows.
Category: Software,Web Development
Apple has released Aperture 2, an update to its photo editing and management software. Boasting over 100 new features, including a new image processing engine. Aperture 2 also features a new lower price ($199).
New features include a redefined UI, new imaging tools for highlight recovery, color vibrancy, local contrast definition, soft-edged retouching, vignetting and RAW fine-tuning, and new output options that lets users directly post their portfolios on the .Mac Web Gallery* for viewing on the web, iPhone™, iPod® touch and Apple TV®
A free 30 day trial is available for download (138MB). If you purchased Aperture on or after January 1, 2008, you are entitled to an upgrade for only $9.95.
Category: News,Software
Shirt Pocket software released SuperDuper! 2.5 today after a long testing period. The new version, a free upgrade to current owners, is Leopard compatible. SuperDuper! 2.5 allows for creating a bootable backups on the same volume as a Time Machine backup. Additionally, there are Spotlight enhancements and other bug fixes. SuperDuper! 2.5 is $27.95, although you can use the program for free with various limitations.
Category: News,Software
