It’s hard to believe it’s taken this long, but Camino (formerly Chimera), the Cocoa based browser based on the Gecko rendering engine, has finally reached version 1.0 (even if it is the first beta). Camino uses the Gecko rendering engine, the same rendering engine that Mozilla 1.8 and Firefox 1.5 use. It’s a fast browser that features tabs, advanced bookmarking tools, all based upon a solid rendering engine.
It’s hard to believe that it’s been four years since Camino began it’s existence. Originally started as a “proof of concept” project by Dave Hyatt (who now works on Safari/KHTML at Apple) and Mike Pinkerton (who now works on Firefox at Google) under the name “Chimera”. Camino/Chimera was the browser to use on OS X until Safari made the scene. Even still, it is a worthy competitor to Safari, and even bests Safari in some areas (many say it is much faster than Safari).
If you haven’t used Camino since it’s last “official” release – 0.84, get the newest version, 1.0b. Even if you love Safari, you’ll come to appreciate Camino and what it has to offer.
Category: Software
A couple of other Mac blogs have recently posted their thoughts on the top 10 Macintosh applications. I decided to take my spin on the topic and focus on the applications for $25 and under. All of these applications are used by me on a daily basis. Their existence is a tribute to the quality of software available on the Mac, and the ingenuity of the developers who produce these wares. All receive my highest recommendation.
1. Wallet 2
The first entry is a password storage/creation application called Wallet. It is the brainchild of Waterfall Software, which is lead by a 16 year old developer named Dustin MacDonald. The first version of Wallet was a nice Real Basic application that was better than the rest of the password storage applications available for the Mac. Wallet 2 is a complete rework in Cocoa. The attention to detail in this application is impressive. The only feature this application is missing is .Mac syncing. The author says he is currently working on it. Easily worth the $14.95 price tag.
2. skEdit
Another application by a lone developer under the age of 21. Sean Kelly’s web development coding environment is an amazing piece of software. Featuring code completion, hinting, integrated SFTP, site view, line numbering, search, HTML tidy integration, syntax highlighting, snippets and more.
If you do web development on a Mac, the $20 spent on this application will go down as one of your best investments ever.
3. Transmit
The reigning king of Mac OS X FTP applications. Version 3 adds a lot of useful features to the already established application like tabs, .Mac syncing, dock status icons, dock send, and much more. If you FTP, you need Transmit.
4. SuperDuper!
SuperDuper! has emerged as the best disk copying/cloning application on the Mac. It’s interface is super simple, and it’s results are super solid. Another piece of Mac OS X software that costs less than dinner and a movie ($20).
5. CocoaMySQL
CocoaMySQL just barely makes this list. Stuck at version 0.5, development on this open source application has languished since 9/11/03. Still, if you use MySQL on your Mac, this application makes maintenance and administration of your databases super simple.
6. Word Services from DevonTechnologies
When it comes to simple word processing, I like to keep it simple and use TextEdit. It does 95% of what I need from a word processor. The other 5% is handled by Word Services from Devon Technologies. This set of services adds several pieces of functionality to any cocoa application. Of particular importance to me – the statistics service, which gives me a count of words, characters, lines, and spaces in a document. As someone who writes papers that are counted by the word, I find this piece of code invaluable. And best of all – it’s free!
7. Snapz Pro X 2
If you do any sort of screen capture on your Mac, this app is a godsend. Apple provides you with some pretty good basic screen capture features in Mac OS X, but this program gives you a myriad of options for your static and motion screen grabs. A bit pricey at $69.00 for the full version, but well worth it. The upgrade price from version 1.0 is $20. Snapz Pro X was included on many Powerbooks that Apple shipped, so you might qualify for the upgrade pricing even if you didn’t purchase version 1.0.
8. EvoCam
EvoCam is a great application that will use your webcam (or iSight camera) to capture images and either store them locally, or send them via FTP or WebDAV to another server. I use this to keep an eye on my dog when I’m away from the house. $25 can buy a lot of piece of mind, can’t it?
9. Adium
Open source instant messaging application that words on AIM, MSN, Jabber and Yahoo protocols. A constantly improving feature set, along a kitchen sink approach to instant messaging makes this application a must have for any Mac user.
10. Still Life
Every year for Christmas I produce a DVD for the family. I’m usually short on video footage, but I have an abundance of still clips. Still Life allows you to take those clips and create movies from them. Much in the same way that you can use the Ken Burns Effect in iMovie, Still Life creates motion movies from images with start frames and end frames. It is much more powerful than iMovie’s KBE, and easily worth the $24.95 price.
Category: Opinion,Reviews
Apple announced that Jon Rubinstein, who had been acting as the Senior Vice President of the iPod Division, will retire on March 31st 2006. He will be succeeded by Tony Fadell. Apple also named Tim Cook as it’s new COO (chief operating officer).
Category: News
OK. So, like every other Mac junkie, I’ve read the news, I’ve watched the webcast of the event, I’ve read the specs on Apple’s website, and now I’m ready to chime in.
iMac
What else is there to say? Apple has upped the ante on the iMac yet again. Adding an built in iSight, making the Superdrive standard on all models, and upping the systems specs while retaining the same prices, is nothing short of amazing. But Apple has taken it to the next level with Front Row. Obviously, this is just the start. While it makes sense to be able to use your iMac as a media hub in your living room, the future implications are obvious. This software (along with the stylish remote control) enables your Mac to be the center of your digital living room. Take a Mac mini, hook it up to a HDTV, throw in some DVR software, and you have a recipe for success. We all know it’s coming. It’s just a matter of how long before we get there.
iPod
Another home run. Again, the price remains the same while specs and storage are increased. My only concern is whether the $249 iPod nano sales will be canabalized from the $299 iPod sales. The size on the nano is it’s selling point, but 7x the storage, along with video playack capability is a lot of feature for $50. With nearly 1 million nanos sold in 17 days, I doubt Apple is too concerned.
iTunes 6
Really this should be iTunes 5.1. But if Apple wants to skip a version, who am I to complain. All of the additions to the music store are welcome. I really like the new Gift features. You could always buy someone iTunes credit, but being able to buy them a particular track/album to me says more. Of course, if the recipient doesn’t share your taste, they might not necessarily agree.
As for iTunes 6 biggest feature – video… Well, $1.99 for music videos seems reasonable. I can’t think of any music video I would ante up for, but hey – I’m 35 and not the target audience. I’m a little bothered that your download is only a 320×240 resolution movie. Perfect for the iPod of course, but played on your Mac, this will be tiny. During Steve’s demo, he played the U2 video purchased from the music store on the big screen, and it looked decent enough. Of course, the true test will be when it’s on your 20 inch display in front of you.
Content will be the determining factor for iTunes 6 success. Getting Disney/ABC onboard with selling $1.99 replays of shows is a great start. I’m sure most people wouldn’t mind ponying up $1.99 every now and again to download an episode of their favorite show that they missed. Of course, the geeks (like myself) will go to great pains to find the shows on BitTorrent, download them, and recode them for insertion on to our iPods. But Joe and Jane sixpack have little interest in doing this themselves.
The video content is light right now (only about 2000 titles), but that will change quickly. Other networks will be clamoring to have their shows available for download on iTunes. Independent film makers will start selling their wares as well. Podcasts will go video. DTV will quickly find itself dumping its video on an iPod.
Lastly, I have to thank Steve for closing out his performance with Wynton Marsalis and his bands performance. After the classlessness of Kanye West on the last special event, Wynton was a treat.
Category: News
Bleeding edge users have had the option for the last couple of months of downloading the nightly builds of WebKit and compiling your own version for testing purposes. However, the process was not for the faint of heart, or the command line challenged. No more.
As of today, compiled nightly builds of WebKit are available for download. There are two flavors available for testing – WebKit, and WebKit with SVG enabled.
And for those who are wondering, yes – the nightly WebKit builds do pass the CSS AcidTest.
Enjoy.
Category: Software
Apple managed to pick a location for their event with no wifi access, and no cell phone access, virtually ensuring that no news would leak out before the event was over. Well, almost. Here’s what we’ve been able to piece together.
- New iMac. Thinner than the previous model, includes a built in iSight camera, and two new applications – Front Row and Photobooth. FrontRow uses a remote control to access music, videos and photos from your couch. Photobooth turns the iMac in to a virtual Photobooth.
- New video iPod. 30GB for $299, 60GB for $399. Thinner than the previous iPod. Available in black and white (it also comes with a case).
- New iTunes 6 (yes, just 3 weeks after iTunes 5). Big changes include gifting, customer reviews, and recommendations. Also, now featuring 2000 music videos for purchase.
We’ll have more information as it becomes available.
Category: News
David Wantanabe, author of OS X gems Acquisition and NewsFire, has another amazing little application out. Called Inquisitor, it is a plug-in for Safari that replaces the Google search field with a predictive search field, somewhat like Spotlight. You can download the app for free (donations welcome). Also in beta is the Inquisitor Instant Search, a web based version of Inquisitor that will run on any browser on any platform.
It’s little applications like these that make turning on my Mac every morning a joy. The Mac OS X development community is truly second to none in inventiveness, ingenuity and quality.
Category: Software
Back in the mid 1990′s, there was a program that was a low cost alternative to Photoshop. If featured a comparable feature set to Photoshop 3.0/4.0, and cost about 1/5th the price. It used Photoshop’s plug-in format, and accepted most of the Photoshop plug-ins of the day. The program was called Color it!, by a company called MicroFrontier.
MicroFrontier still exists, as does Color It!. MicroFrontier is set to release a new carbonized version of Color It! soon. The application is now in beta, although no timetable is given as to a possible release date. Those interested can sign up for an email notification when it is available here. The OS 9 version of Color It! costs $49, or $29 for upgrades from any previous version.
Category: Software
shrankmonster blog has photos and details about the upcoming iTunes for Windows Mobile 5.0. The software, which is still in alpha, is at version 0.9. While this is obviously not a customer facing release, the blog details that most of the features (except syncing) are in place and functional.
It’s good to see Apple take the mobile phone market seriously. By porting iTunes to both Motorola’s phone OS and Windows Mobile, they have taken a significant step in securing dominance in the emerging mobile phone/music player market.
Category: Blog Watch
Apple has acknowledged that less than 1/10th of 1 percent of the iPod nanos that have shipped have an issue with their screen quality. Apple has been beseiged lately with reports of users who have had their nano screens either seriously scratched or shattered altogether, with no recollection of any stress placed on the unit. Some of these users have mentioned that they did store their nano in the pants pockets.
Apple is issuing no recall, but have said they have tracked down the problem and ask any who have had this problem to contact Apple. Phil Schiller, Apple’s VP of Marketing, also suggested those concerned with protecting their iPod nano use one of the many iPod nano cases available.
Category: News
