Visit the Moom website for more information, demos, and a free trial. Moom is only $5 to buy, and is well worth it for something I use every day. You can download the program directly from the developer, but it is also available on the Mac App Store.

The new Mini is now encased in aluminum, matching the design of the iMac. It has access to the computer memory underneath the machine. The power supply is now inside the machine, unlike older models which carry a power brick. An HDMI port is now included! The new computer also sports a faster processor, graphics card, and more.

I like what I see. I’d love to have one!

Since dumping Quicken 2007 in search for a better alternative, I have experimented with numerous other programs. Those include Moneydance, Moneywell, iBank, Cha-Ching and others. I have never been completely satisfied with my experience with any of them. I believe Moneywell is the best program I’ve used, but lately I’ve grown frustrated with a few issues that I believe must be software bugs.

A wider question is whether to use money management software at all these days. A lot of people don’t bother. I can think of three alternatives to not using said software: 1) Not keep track of your money at all, 2) Use an online solution like Mint. I am not interested in using an online service to house my banking information, so that option can be tossed out immediately. 3) Track your finances using a spreadsheet.

Quicken has been promising a new Mac version for a couple of years now. It has been delayed time and time again. In fact, some in the tech press have called it vaporware. However, it seems that they are finally about to release it. I received an email from Intuit saying that the new version will be released by the end of this month. It is called Quicken Essentials for Mac. The screenshots look attractive, but is it worth it for me to spend any more money on software to help manage my money? After all, I find something that I dislike in all of them.

My needs in money management are pretty simple. I manually enter the data and I just want to know the bottom line to avoid possible overdrafts. With that in mind, I’m now trying a new approach to managing my checkbook. I’ve created an Excel spreadsheet that will house my transaction data. I tried a few iterations of my own, but I’ve taken a liking to the attractive Excel 2008 checkbook template that Microsoft offers for download on their Mactopia website.

So far, I like the complete control over the fields and information that I can store using Excel over a money application. Over time, I’ll see if tweaking the spreadsheet will be enough to satisfy my needs. If not, perhaps I’ll test drive Quicken’s new offering. Maybe they’ll get it right this time.

The above text was my post to Twitter this evening. It’s true. I woke up my Mac Mini tonight and in the middle of writing an email on Gmail.com in Safari, the entire OS failed, resulting in a dimmed, dark screen saying to power off my computer and restart. I’d never seen that before in my life. A report was sent to Apple. What in the world could have happened? I only had three open programs at the time. Let’s hope I never see that message again.

I snapped a photo of my screen with my camera for evidence, but I’m not going to include that photo in this post because the screen showed information in my Gmail account with too much personal data.

On my Linux laptop, I’ve taken a strong liking to Bluefish. Bluefish is a great free, open-source text editor for programmers of all types. Unfortunately, the latest version of Bluefish that can be installed on Snow Leopard involves jumping through several hoops to get it on the system. Totally unacceptable.

My favorite Mac text editor for HTML and CSS is Taco. I used the 30-day trial and really enjoyed using it. In the end, I purchased the full version at a cost of $25. I believe that is a reasonable asking price for such a useful and well written piece of software. If you use a Mac and don’t want to fork out the money for far more expensive programs such as Dreamweaver or BBEdit, then Taco is the answer.

In my opinion, the number one most glaring omission on Mac OS X is the lack of a true maximize button. As a former Windows user, I’ve always found this puzzling and odd. Fortunately, that issue is eliminated with Cinch. Try it now. I absolutely love it.

I’ve recently been trying the incredible Notify 2 for Mac from Vibealicious. It’s an awesome product that works not only with Gmail, but many more services as well. When it comes to Google services, not only is Gmail supported, but also Calender and Docs! The Notify’s slick integration with the Mac OS is fantastic. If you’re looking for a great notifier on your Mac, then look no further!

A favorite game of mine is Spore. I don’t think Spore got the best reception from PC gamers, but I personally enjoy playing it. EA Games generously provides both a PC and Mac version of the game on the Spore install DVD. Unfortunately, the system requirements for the game strictly forbid Mac Minis using the GMA 950 graphics chip. I did a lot of online research and found people who said they were able to rig it to work, and others who disputed that.

Frustrated at all of the conflicting information, I decided to try it myself. After a lengthy install, the game updated with patches from EA, but when the actual game launched, it failed time and time again. Therefore, I’m here to say once and for all, you cannot play Spore on a Mac Mini that uses Intel GMA 950 graphics. Period!

With that being said, you can run Spore on the very same Mac Mini if you boot Windows via Boot Camp. Within Snow Leopard, I activated Boot Camp and installed Windows XP SP3. From the Windows side, Spore is indeed playable with the same hardware. Go figure.

So now I am enjoying the fun of Spore, only I’m doing so running Windows on my Mac machine. Doing so, Spore runs just fine using the lowest graphic quality settings within the game, at 800×600 full-screen resolution. I hope this clears up all of the Spore/Mac Mini uncertainty that is all over the web.

Snow Leopard locks out old PowerPC users, as it available for Intel processors only. I’m at the shallow end of that requirement, using a two-year-old Mac Mini with an Intel Core Duo. You can visit snowleopard.wikidot.com for a list of potential software issues with the new OS. So far for me, in my tests, Cyberduck (FTP) won’t launch at all on the new OS, and Firefox 3.5.2 crashed once. A few other applications that I use have issued updates for 10.6 compatibility today. Expect more to come over the following days. I haven’t tried to load all of my apps yet.

In my short usage so far, the most notable difference is seem in performance and in the Dock. I’ve barely scratched the surface. Expect more posts to follow! Meanwhile, visit Macworld for updated information!

I probably sound like a crazed Apple fanboy, but it matters to me, being the Mac, iTunes and iTouch user that I am. Apple is the center of my computing world today. Hooray for OS X. In my opinion, it’s the best operating system on the market.

• apple.com
• apple.com/macosx

There are many ways to customize your notes. I found a good page that lists several ways to spruce up your Stickies here.

I have been a diehard Firefox user for years, on all platforms. I have even been using the latest beta release of Firefox 3.5 for a few weeks now. Despite my loyalty to Firefox, I am won over by the new Mac Safari 4. It is draw-dropping fast. Even on my aging Mac Mini, Safari blazes at lightning speed. Pages pop on my screen with such lightning speed and elegance, it has to be seen to be believed. Safari 4 is hands down the fastest web browser I have ever used. That is no exaggeration.

In addition to increased speed and efficiency, Safari 4 has other new features. Most notably is the new Top Sites view. Using this view, I can see (on a single page), a beautifully arranged collection of live thumbnails of my top dozen most visited places. Top Sites is very elegantly designed, complete with a 180-degree curved screen view, even sporting reflections and shadows. I don’t know how often I’ll actually resort to this new view, but it is downright gorgeous, I have to say.

Firefox, with its giant library of browser extensions, is nearly impossible for me to neglect. I use several Firefox extensions that have become invaluable to me over the years. Despite that major obstacle to my complete adoption of Safari, I can’t help but be lured by the extreme speed and polish that Safari 4 now has to offer. Wow!

• apple.com/macosx

I am using the free ad-based version, in which the ads are barely even noticable. To purchase the program, the author is only asking $14.95. In addition to Tweetie for Mac, a version for the iPhone is also available. This little program is a gem on any platform.

• blitzcraig.com/mac

I reviewed three possibilities for my approach. First, I’m a Mac user and looked into the FileVault encryption that is built into OSX. That solution is very easy, but it wants to encrypt my whole account user folder. In that scenario, logging into the OS decrypts all of the data. I worry that may slow down my computer, and that isn’t what I was going for in the first place.

Second, I researched the popular PGP encryption solutions. Their products all appear to go above and beyond my needs. PGP adds email and instant message encryption to their desktop offering. I don’t need any of that, and PGP’s products are all pretty costly for my taste, ringing in at $99. I’ve heard good things about PGP overall, but I am not looking to spend that kind of money on my project.

Third, and my favorite solution, is a free open-source application called TrueCrypt. TrueCrypt is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux! It’s free and easy to use. You create an encrypted volume that is stored as a single file on your computer. That file can have any file extension you want, or none at all. You can hide it anywhere you like, and the program won’t memorize locations if you ask it not to. Opening the contents of your volume is achieved by mounting the volume, which allows you to use it with a drive letter of its own. Dismounting the volume encrypts all of the data again. I’ve had a wonderful experience using this program. One downside for me is that I wish the program was faster at dismounting my volume, though speed will most certainly vary depending on your system. On my Windows PC, dismounting was nearly instant.

TrueCrypt was definitely the way to go for my needs. The program can also encrypt an entire drive as well. It does exactly what I want it to, with ease. It’s fast, secure, and completely free!

1) When I work with a credit card account, I must enter all balances as negative values. When I reconcile my statement with iBank, if I don’t put a minus (-) in front of the balance, even if it is in the thousands of dollars, the program just accepts it, wrecking my calculated balance. This is pure stupid. If they are going to use this horrible method of managing credit accounts, at least provide a warning against entering a positive value.

2) Reconciling statements on any account is very counter-intuitive and confusing. I have to relearn how to enter statements every time I enter one. Anyone used to using Quicken or Money will have a hard time for months trying to figure this out, and I am still baffled at the hoops I have to jump through. Transactions have a date and a time associated with them. Every time I reconcile a new statement, I have to change the time of the final date in the period to 11:59 PM, because the program insists on putting the current time, each and every time. Stupid!

3) When I enter a new transaction that has no recipient name (such as ATM transactions), iBank automatically fills in the recipient field with the last transaction entered. So, if I went to Target yesterday and entered it in iBank, then went to the ATM today, when I save the new transaction today, iBank will insert “Target” in the field for the ATM transaction, despite the fact that it is entered in the ATM/Cash category!

4) When I start to enter any memorized recipient on a new transaction, I still have to manually capitalize the first letter. For example, if I type “lowes”, which I frequently visit, if I start typing the name with a lowercase “L” it fills in “Lowes Foods”, except it displays as “lowes Foods”. I have to manually capitalize even the memorized transactions! Did a bunch of monkeys code this program?

Today I was presented with the final nail in the coffin for iBank. iBank routinely notifies me of any software updates when I launch the program. I typically exit the application and download the update. When I install the update, it says it can’t update because some process of iBank is still running. This has happened with every single update I’ve tried to apply. Only a full computer reboot will stop the error. Is iBank still running something in the background after every use? What?! Today, I used the program and when I was notified of a new version 3.32 update. I restarted the computer and tried to install the update. The update would not install, and after that iBank will not load at all, saying that the program is not compatible with my Mac system.

I’ve had it. Full price for iBank is $59! That is double what it is actually worth. I didn’t pay full price for this program when I bought version 2, which was less expensive, and I received the free upgrade to version 3. I have now deleted the program and will go back to using the frustrating Quicken 2007. Quicken was due to release a new Mac version called “Quicken Financial Life for Mac” this winter, but their website now says it will be pushed back to the summer of 2009. I think I can tolerate Quicken 2007 until that time. I just can’t overlook my frustrations with iBank any longer.

I wrote a post back in May that outlined my favorite software for the Mac. In that post, I cited AppDelete as my favorite such uninstaller. While that program is free and quite adequate, I have recently began to favor the program AppZapper. It seems to be more robust than the AppDelete program. AppZapper is $12.95 to purchase, but the company allows five free uses before you must purchase the software. I am very impressed with it so far, and think that $12.95 is a very good price for this program. I now recommend it as my primary method of completely uninstalling various applications and everything that is associated with it. Try it yourself.

This needs to change, and now. And while Apple is adding that preference, extended the automatic Bcc option to include an address that is not limited only to myself. And furthermore, the mail checking intervals could use some more options than the paltry list that is currently included in Mail.

I’ve been using Windows since version 3.0 was released in the early 1990s. Switching entirely to the Mac operating system took some getting used to. Having used Windows XP for years, and often tinkering with Linux, I can say that OSX is the best operating system on the market. I’ve used Tiger (10.4) and now use Leopard (10.5). Currently, Leopard is on version 10.5.4.

Still, I am not all praise when it comes to Apple’s OS. Below, I have listed some features/changes that I want to see in future updates to 10.5, or in the future 10.6 release, due in 2009. I’m sure I can come up with many more, but this is simply a conversation starter.

CRAIG’S MAC OSX WISHLIST:

1. Add a true maximize button to all windows. Currently, I like how the green plus sign usually resizes to make information display correctly automatically, but I want true maximization. True maximization is having the application window as large as it can be, barring space for the menu bar, and the Dock (unless on auto hide). Another button doesn’t have to be added, necessarily. Simply toggle the green plus button with, say, the Apple key, or CTRL. As a former Windows user, this is a glaring issue for me.
2. All web browsers should have a fullscreen mode. This is achieved by hitting F11 on Windows/Linux systems. Safari, Firefox, and Camino all lack the fullscreen browsing mode on the Mac OS. Why is this? Ironically, Opera has one that does this on the Mac. That is proof that it can be done. Make it so!
3. Add more features to the Dock preferences. A button to toggle a 2D or 3D appearance should definitely be there, just for starters. Too often, one has to access the Terminal to enter commands to edit the Dock.
4. Make it easy to add Dashboard widgets directly on the desktop. There is a way to jump through some hoops to do this today (via Terminal), but Apple needs to make it upfront and easy.
5. Include an option in the system preferences to turn the Dashboard off all together. Again, today we use the Terminal to manipulate this behavior. Come on!
6. Make the built-in OS firewall more obvious. A new install should at least tell you what it is set to by default, and explain the reasoning behind it. I don’t want it in my face, but a new user should be told upfront what it is doing for you in the background, then leave you alone. I had to search it out to find the firewall, and it was vague when I found it.
7. Time Machine needs to give the end user way, way more options. The on/off option of backing up every single hour, or not at all, is way too broad. Hacks and third-party tools shouldn’t be required to tweak the Time Machine.
8. With Spaces, I want to be able to switch to another space with a mouse gesture of some kind.
9. Mail needs more options for the mail checking schedule. I want to set mine to 10 minutes, but I can’t. I can only choose 5, 15, 30, or 1 hour. Fooey!
10. Apple needs to be more open about the updates to the OS. Each point release should be accompanied by a detailed list of changes, or at least as much as possible without compromising security.

Again, this is just a list a threw together. If you have more to add, then please comment on the post. If I think of more, I’ll do the same. In the future, if I come up with a lot more, I’ll make a new post.

So I have recently decided to revisit the Time Machine Editor tool, and I have been very pleased with it this time around. The latest version as of this writing is 2.0.1. I have it set to back up my Mac every night at midnight to my external hard drive. It has been working great. I can say I highly recommend it. I would also argue that the functionality of this program should be built in to OSX to begin with!

Note: When you visit the website for SuperDocker, you’ll find that the site is in French. I wasn’t able to find an English version of their product page, but when you download the program itself, choose the version labeled “Anglais”, which is French for the English version of the software. Enjoy!

Lately, since I started using Entourage for my email, I decided to get myself a standalone RSS reader. I downloaded the free NewsFire app for Mac. It’s terrific. It’s lightning fast, and I’ve found that all of its default preferences are spot on. I particularly like it that every time I copy a RSS feed URL in my web browser, then switch over to NewsFire, the program is ready to subscribe to the new feed without naming it or hitting Paste! If you own a Mac and like to keep track of the latest site feeds, I highly recommend it.

I’ll admit that a cold launch of Entourage is noticeably slower than the other programs. I did a memory test of Mail, iCal, and Address Book, and they totaled a use of 78 MB real memory combined. Mail.app alone was using 47 MB all by itself. In comparison, Entourage, after extensive use, used 78.5 MB of real memory — Roughly the same as the combined others.

At first run, my Mail data was imported with ease into Entourage. The address book was not so easy, and ended up doing most of it by cut/paste. I wasn’t able to find an exporter that would arrange my data so that Entourage would be happy with it. There is a sync option in Entourage for the Mac Address Book, but I didn’t try it.

In Entourage, I like the flexibility in assigning categories and rules to my mail. There is so much you can customize. Data searches are powered by Spotlight, which are lightning fast. I like how I get a message preview popup when mail arrives. That said, it would be nice if Office would use Growl as an option for popups, but it works just fine as-is. Personally, I like how Entourage stores all of my data in a single file on the hard drive, but this does create a burden with Time Machine. A single change of any kind to your information in Entourage will cause Time Machine to back up the whole Entourage data file again the next time it comes around. (This is one reason I chose to set Time Machine to backup manually.)

One possible annoyance to me is that there is no simple way to “auto Bcc” myself, or another address. I like to shoot a copy of my outbound mail to Gmail, so I can store it there, too. The only way to do this, that I’ve seen, is to create a Rule to redirect outgoing mail to another account. It does work, but it creates a duplicate message in your Sent mailbox for every piece of mail you send out. I can’t figure out how to automatically delete that extra copy, either.

My liking of Entourage mostly boils down to the fact that when I was a Windows user, I preferred Outlook 2003 to any other client. Entourage is the closest match to that on the Mac. It may not always behave in the same way that you have come to expect from Outlook, but it is a very powerful application in its own right. I plan to use Entourage 2008 exclusively for the near future on my Mac.

The following is my advice to Apple: Apple is riding so high today, with both the iPod and iPhone’s superstar product status. Considering that Apple and Intel are now all hugs and kisses, I would like Apple to turn the Mac OS loose for anyone to use on any Intel platform. Once 10.6 is ironed out, they could throw down the gauntlet to Microsoft and take Windows head on with the PC desktop market. The top exes at Dell have even said that they would sell the Mac OS to buyers, if Apple agreed with fair terms.

Considering my own Mac Mini is “Intel Inside”, I feel like anyone should be able to run it. Why does Apple want to fight it? Apple’s computers will still sell on their own awesome design merits. Still, I don’t think they’ll do it. Perhaps they suspect that Microsoft would yank their long-term commitment to future Mac versions of Office if they did this drastic maneuver. Who knows.

Despite all that, the best new feature, as far as I’m concerned, is Spaces. It is the one feature of the OS that I can’t function without. The grace and ease of hitting F8 to see all of my Spaces at once is just great. At first, I didn’t make much use of it, but over time, I have come to utilize a four-desktop system that makes me much more productive. I put my email and chat program on one desktop, web browsing on another, and iTunes on yet another. It is so much better than using a single desktop with all of my open applications in my way. Now, when I want to start something completely different than what I’m running, I switch to the empty Space and start from there.

Spaces is so terrific that if you’re still using Tiger, I can’t help but feel sorry for you. I once tried disabling it, and Leopard suddenly felt like a caged animal. I know Linux has had an option for multiple desktops for a long time, and it gets the job done. Also, not everyone agrees that Spaces on the Mac is as great as I make it out to be. It depends on your computing habits. But to me, it’s great!

• Browser: Safari, Firefox, Camino (I use Firefox the most, but Safari is defaulted)
• Email: Apple Mail 3, or Gmail (web)
• FTP: Cyberduck, or FireFTP (for Firefox)
• Online Chat: Adium, or Meebo.com (web)
• Finances: iBank 3
• Office Apps: MS Office 2008
• Calendering: iCal
• Media Player: iTunes, Quicktime (with Flip4Mac wmv plugin)
• Photo Editing: Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0, iPhoto ’08
• Video Editing: iMovie ’08
• Web Authoring: Dreamweaver CS3, or Taco HTML Edit (simple)
• Disc Burning: Disco
• DVD Ripping: Handbrake
• File Compression: CompressFiles
• File Decompression: The UnArchiver, or Stuffit Expander (UnArchiver is better)
• Bulk File Renaming: Renamer4Mac
• Backup: Time Machine
• Anal Application Removal (beyond dragging to Trash): AppDelete
• Virus Scanning (rarely used): ClamXav
• Satellite Imagery: Google Earth
• Fun/Games: Second Life, Pokerstars

I have burned a few discs with Disco already, with great success. It supports double-layer DVDs, disc spanning, and also works with .iso and .dmg files. It does that, and more, while staying small and very simple. I really appreciate how lean this program is. It has a small option set, but those options include the most important ones.

It has a fantastic transparent interface, with attractive animations and progress bars. Enabling Smoke creates graphical smoke to animate the burning process. Apparently, you can even blow into your microphone to blow it around on the screen. That sounds very cool, but my computer doesn’t need such frills slowing it down. I have not enabled the smoke feature.

As it turns out, for a limited time, Disco’s creators are offering the program for $10 off, making it only $19.95. What a bargain! Compare that to the $80 price tag for Toast Titanium. Disco doesn’t try to live up to the complexity of an application like Toast, but it does everything I need, in style, for a fraction of the price. I have already registered my copy. It’s great!

Below is a screenshot of the Disco interface.

Now, Photoshop Elements is back on the Mac with the new version 6.0, released March 24, 2008. The Windows version has been out since October 2007, and has received excellent reviews. So, when Adobe announced a pending new release for the Mac, I went online and pre-ordered my copy. Prior to this release, I’d always borrowed a software disc from friends to install myself a copy, or used less scrupulous methods. Now, I have given Adobe a sale, which they have certainly earned for such a fantastic product as Photoshop. I opted for a physical boxed copy of Elements 6, instead of the option to download the program online. I received my copy in the mail last Friday.

Installation from the software DVD took a long time. Also installed by default were apps for Adobe Bridge CS3 and Stock Photos CS3. After the lengthy install, the program loaded quickly, and with ease.

I love the new look of Elements 6. Its dark interface helps make your photos appear vibrant and alive. The new layout is just as wonderful, with the toolbar running along the left side of the screen. The palette bin on the right side provides easy access to filters, layers, and more. The palette bin does consume a bit of screen space, but it is easily collapsible.

The main functions of the program are divided into three colorful tabs: Edit, Create, and Share. I will likely spend all of my time in the Edit mode. Within the Edit mode, you can choose three editing methods: Full, Quick, or Guided. Users can use whichever they prefer based on their amount of experience with Photoshop. The Full mode is what most users will want, which is now more feature-rich than any old version of Elements ever was.

One complaint I have is that when I’m using Elements and switch to a new Space in Leopard, the program is mysteriously gone when I switch back to the Space it was running in. I have to click its Dock icon, or use alt-tab, to get the program to show itself after I come back from working in another Space. That is odd.

I haven’t yet had a chance to experiment with some of the new features of Elements 6, such as PhotoMerge. I may find a use for that when the time comes. For now, I am happy using the traditional Photoshop tools available in the Full Edit mode. I am already very satisfied with this application. Cheers to Adobe for bring Photoshop Elements back to the Mac!

Rumors had once gone around that Apple may pull the plug on the Mini. That would be a shame, considering it is the most affordable Mac you can buy. It’s an inexpensive way for iPod/iTunes users to try out the Mac side of computing. After all, that is what reeled me in. Macs are a very different world to some Windows users, and potential switchers are put off by the high price of the Apple brand. The Mini is a cheap way for anyone to experiment with the Mac.

While I’m glad that Apple is upgrading the Mini, there is a giant gap between the Mini and the extremely high-end Mac Pro. I wish Apple would design a desktop computer that falls somewhere in-between. One that doesn’t come with a screen, as the iMac does. That gap in their desktops is a glaring omission in their product line.

The first backup of my data took quite a while. It had to back up around 30 GB and it took most of the night, around 8 hours or so. Fortunately, only the original backup would take anywhere near that long.

I have to say I am impressed. I am now getting my full money’s worth out of my Leopard upgrade. Time Machine works exactly as advertised, running seamlessly in the background. Now, after a week of backups, I can “travel back in time” as I flip through my folders and files. So cool! I think Time Machine could use a lot more options, though. I don’t like that it wants to back up every hour, take-it-or-leave-it. I don’t want my external drive spinning up and down all the time. I have my music library on the adjacent partition of that drive, and I don’t want it wearing out faster than it should.

Fortunately, you can download a free app that will give you more control. No installation is necessary, either. The app is called TimeMachineEditor and it allows you to easily change the intervals of the backups, without using the Terminal. Using the editor, I changed my backup interval to every six hours. Give it a try, it’s great.

I decided that I’d try to install the new RAM myself. One thing about the Mini is that it isn’t meant to be opened. There are no screws or tabs to open the case. You have to pry it open to get inside, which effectively voids your warranty. I decided to take that chance. I bought two 1 GB chips from Crucial for an amazingly cheap price of $48 total. I successfully installed my new memory last night, and I am now up and running without any problems.

This was actually my second attempt at upgrading my memory. Last week, the chips that Crucial first sent me were high density RAM chips, and my Mac couldn’t use it. I think the company mistakenly thought I had the latest Core Duo 2 Mini, which apparently does support the high density memory chips. This was simply a misunderstanding and the company corrected the mistake.

If you own a Mac Mini and want to do this yourself, check out the following how-to videos on YouTube. If neither of these suit your fancy, there are a lot more videos and instructions on YouTube, and elsewhere online.

• Mini RAM upgrade video part 1
• Mini RAM upgrade video part 2

First, it is way faster than Firefox. Camino is a pure native Cocoa app for the Mac OS X. It loads pages quickly and effortlessly, and the program loads faster than Firefox as well. Camino also has a cool, built-in feature to block most web advertising. That said, the browser doesn’t have all of the features of Firefox (or Safari 3). For instance, the program’s options are pretty sparse, you can’t rearrange tabs, and there is no support for browser themes or extensions.

I have come to think of Camino as a fast trade-off. I like using it, but I can’t live without my favorite Firefox extensions. I have tried to find a way to incorporate adding new bookmarks into Del.icio.us from Camino, but it must be near-impossible, because I have not had any luck.

One thing I am used to in Firefox is opening new tabs for my bookmarks by middle-clicking them. This doesn’t for bookmarks in Camino, but does work for links within a webpage. The solution is to hold down the CMD key while clicking bookmarks. Another issue is apparent in my Netflix queue. In Firefox, I can click and drag titles around to rearrange their order. In Camino, this ability is absent. That alone makes me wonder what other cool AJAX-style goodies I could be missing while visiting other sites.

Frustrated at Camino’s limitations, I ran back to Firefox. It was only then that I realized how much faster Camino was. When I switched back, Firefox felt noticeably slow and clunky. And there’s the rub.

Both Camino 2 and Firefox 3 are in the making. While Camino will never support Firefox extensions by nature, perhaps new versions of both browsers will be able to settle the battle for my favorite. Until then, I’ll just have to use both. Camino is so fast, it is worth using regularly.

Docker does much more than just change the appearance of the Dock. Options are also included to modify behaviors and add new Stacks. Docker is free, but donations are welcome.

The Quicken manual says that version 2007 was made for Mac users, by Mac users. I have to tell you, it doesn’t feel that way at all. It feels very awkward compared to most every other Mac program that I’ve used. Overall, I can truly say it is the only program on my Mac that I take almost no pleasure in using.

My biggest complaint is the speed (or lack of). It is the absolute slowest program on my computer. Its startup and general response time is abysmal. Granted, Quicken 2007 is not universal binary, and must run in Rosetta mode on my Intel Mac. This could be to blame for some of the slow response, but it is worth mentioning that I have not experienced any similar slowdown with Office 2004, which also needs Rosetta.

Visually, I don’t care for the permanent toolbar that is hammered across the top of my screen when Quicken is in the forefront. It is quite bulky and the default set of icons I found to be somewhat unnecessary. Toning the toolbar down to a few useful items took me a while. Another major visual impairment is that my register windows only seem to remember their size and location when they feel like it. All too often, I launch the program to find my checking register scrunched up to a small rectangle for no good reason. In addition, I can find no way to change the default font for my register, which I desperately want to. The Insights window could use many visual improvements, starting with changing the small narrow font, which is the same used throughout the whole program! It looks bad and is sometimes hard to read.

There aren’t enough options to customize the program. One thing that is very annoying is that when I load the program, it asks me if I want to review my upcoming transactions. It asks the same question every time, even though most of the time I leave the upcoming transaction list open anyway. So it is already on the screen when the dumb program asks me at launch if I want to see it. Why isn’t there an option that I can set so that Quicken will never ask me to review upcoming transactions at startup?

The folks at Quicken.com are hush about a 2008 version, although 2008 versions for Windows shipped late last year. The same dull message has been on their Mac product page for months now. It vaguely states that information would be coming at a later date regarding future products. I think Quicken Mac needs a complete top-to-bottom overhaul. Start over with new code with native Intel chip support and a fresh interface. With a new Quicken Online service rolling out, some in the Apple community have questioned the company’s future support for a Mac line of products. Time will tell.

Meanwhile, I have been intrigued with the offerings from iBank and MoneyDance. I haven’t tested MoneyDance, but its feature list is impressive, and I’ve read a 2008 version is on the way. I have actually tried iBank 2, and it is indeed fast and clean. However, the $50 price tag feels way too steep for the simplicity of the program, and I don’t want to shell out more money after buying Quicken last summer. That said, version 3 of iBank is being released as a beta any day now, and looks to be a vast improvement with many new features. I’ll give it a try when it is finalized. By that time, I’m sure I’ll have had enough of Quicken 2007.

The crucial feature in Leopard for me is Cover Flow. I mentioned in a recent post how I’d been on an uploading spree with Flickr. In deciding what photos were worth sharing, I turned to Cover Flow to flip through my photos and folders. It was the best experience at such work that I have ever had! This feature for me is my absolute favorite. Even on my Mac Mini, flipping through material in Cover Flow is as smooth as silk. Unbelievable. Quick Look has already shown to be a real time-saver as well, but I am less excited by it as I am Cover Flow.

The new Mail 3 is really good. I love the RSS feeds and have actually been using them! Previously, RSS feeds weren’t something I much cared about outside of the occasional visit to Google Reader. The reminders are just great, too. Small details like a progress bar for incoming and outgoing mail are certainly welcomed changes. Mail 3 also offers a variety of stationary for rich text messages, though I have no interest in that. As a whole, Mail 3 fits my needs perfectly. Since installing Leopard, I haven’t used Gmail nearly as much as I had prior, since I enjoy the new Mail so much.

The new Stacks feature, which fans your files upward from the Dock to show your files, is actually pretty cool. At first I was skeptical as for the need for this, but now I like realize the benefit. It can probably be customized to show something other than the Downloads folder, but I am happy with it as-is for right now.

Spaces is not much of a time-saver for me. I actually decreased the default number of Spaces from four, down to two. I have experimented with putting windows in either space and toggling between them. While it is a cool feature, I don’t run enough things at once to take advantage of this. Too often, I’ll move a program to another Space, only to later need to drag a file from a folder to that program, only to realize they are in two distant Spaces. The best I have found for my needs is to put Mail in the right Space all by itself, and leave the left one for everything else. I have pondered the thought of disabling Spaces all together, but will try to make use of it.

I’d like to tie a complaint of mine about the Mac OS to the Spaces feature, and this issue was present in Tiger as well. When I minimize a window to the Dock, and later use cmd-tab to cycle through the running programs, I want the minimized window to get back onscreen when I choose it this way, automatically. This behavior is what I am used to with Windows. But on the Mac, when I minus the Mail down to the Dock, but later want to toggle to it with the keyboard, it doesn’t reappear on its own! If I could have the option to set Mac OS to behave this way for the tab program switching, I would have little need to enable Spaces.

I still have not enabled Time Machine, or even researched my plan to partition my external hard drive. I will work on this in the future. For the moment, I am still backing up manually. One thing I will voice complaint about is that my USB hard drive randomly spins up without me provoking it. While using Tiger, this did not happen. Now, it is awakening itself regularly for an unknown reason, even though I know I am not using it.

Leopard has plenty more great features than what I have listed in this post. I just want to write and touch on my first experiences with some of the ones that I have come in contact with the most. As for Leopard, Apple should be releasing 10.5.2 any day now. From what I have read, this should be a very large update.

The new Flickr Uploadr is extremely bloated. Quite buggy as well. My version 2 installer was 420 KB. That was it. The new version 3 installer is a whopping 20.2 MB! How is it possible to have an increase of that magnitude? That is insanely large for a batch file uploader.

It is certainly more flashy, but at what cost. New tags I type mysteriously disappear in the mid-word and later end up in my tag list on the Flickr site as a bunch of misspelled words. What is that about? It has crashed on me a couple of times, and it routinely gets hung up at some point during nearly every batch I have uploaded. I leave the room, thinking it is uploading its brains out, only to come back and hour later and it says, “27 of 100 photos did not make it. Retry?” Arg! That is so irritating, but sometimes I am glad the program is still responding at all. Also, my attempts to cancel a batch in progress have proven fruitless. It asks for confirmation, only to seem to get lost in some endless loop. I can say that I do like the drag-and-drop ability of version 3, but that is about all.

I erased the program and reinstalled version 2.31, which is so much faster! I have uploaded several batches since downgrading and the whole operation was so much quicker and easier, and I never had a failure. Everything now works as it should. It is supposed to be a simple batch file uploader! How much pizazz do you need? The new Uploadr is a great example of something good that they had to take way too far. What a mess.

In reality, I don’t know how often I’ll need to use a program such as this, but Handbrake works incredibly well, and doesn’t cost a cent.

Initially, I wanted to wait until I’d explored the new OS in detail before I made this post, but I’ll go ahead and share my first reactions. I am pleased with it so far, although I have only tinkered with it for two days now. I like the new features offered in this new version, most notably the new Safari, Mail, and Finder. Quick Look and Cover Flow in Finder are both fantastic, and are both features we’ll be wondering how we ever lived without. Safari 3 runs lightning fast in Leopard and outperforms the old version by a long shot. I am stunned at how slick and quick Safari has become! Spaces and Stacks are also nice. I hope to put those to some use.

I haven’t yet enabled Time Machine, one of Leopard’s biggest features, and one that I am most interested in. I already have an external USB hard drive that is many times the size of my internal drive. I do not want the entirety of this USB drive to be used for Time Machine backups. I want to try to partition the drive before I enable Time Machine, or limit its database size. I want to still use the drive for other purposes besides backups. I am still not clear on how to accomplish this.

The new transparent menu bar across the top of the screen is a change that has many users balking. I actually like it very much! To the eye, the new Dock and menu bar are what set Leopard apart from previous OS X versions. The new appearance of the Dock does take some getting used to. While it is very pleasing graphically, it eats up more screen real estate. I should add that the blue orbs surrounding active programs on the Dock are not nearly as obvious as the old black arrows from Tiger. Still, that doesn’t deter me from appreciating the new look of the Dock.

There are tons of subtleties that I have found in 10.5. I’m sure I’ll pick up something new every day. I’m sure I’ll post more as I explore and learn more about this elegant new operating system. Cheers to Apple for raising the bar, yet again.

Apple has updated its Mac Mini computer. I own a Mini, having bought it at the end of May. Since then, the Mini’s processor has been upgraded to a 2.0 Ghz Intel Core Duo 2 processor and 1 GB memory now comes standard (I paid extra). The hard drive option has been increased to 160 GB as well. I had read some online predictions that Apple would not be continuing the Mac Mini line. I am very happy to know that this isn’t true. It is truly a fantastic machine and is worthy of more attention. I absolutely adore mine.

Last week also saw the release of iLife ’08 and iWork ’08. Both sound like worthy upgrades to already exceptional software from Apple. I am not going to detail those now, but you can read all about them on their website. There has never been a better time to switch to a Mac. Also remember that the new Mac OS 10.5 Leopard will be out in October!

That said, I still mostly use Firefox on my Mac. Safari is indeed very fast and capable (I have version 2.0.4). It has everything I need, but I still prefer Firefox. I have several Firefox extensions that I rely on. Not to mention the fact that for some reason my visual post editor in WordPress doesn’t work in Safari. I do use Safari on a few sties, like Pogo, where I have to run Java. Java applets seem more stable going through Safari. When the final version 3.0 of the browser is out, I’ll definitely download it.

Second Life is more sophisticated than There. Not only are the graphics better, the application itself is a lot more grown up. It loads and responds quickly, despite its very advanced features. A plethora of options are available, detailing every aspect of your Second Life experience. The interface and controls are less cartoonish than There’s offering. The software feels tighter, more responsive, and runs smoother with less system resources. At least that is my experience. Controlling the software’s use of resources, graphics detail, and networking are all easy to change in the preferences. Updates come out regularly, some of which are optional, and some of which are required in order to log in. I have had the application crash once (on my Mac). This was unsettling, but the program generated an error report which was immediately sent to the creators to help identify software bugs.

Second Life uses Linden dollars, which are purchased using real life money. There are ways to earn Linden dollars, but that is beyond the scope of this post. To date, I have not had any need for any currency. In contrast to There, where you have to pay a one-time membership fee to utilize advanced features (such as voice, setting landmarks, etc.), with Second Life, most of this is available at no cost. You can customize your head, body, and clothing in stunning detail. There is no need to purchase anything unless you want to acquire some new items and fabrics beyond your original set. You can buy and sell land, and rent space for online business. Why anyone would need to do any of that is beyond me. For example, I have read you can rent an apartment and things like that. I do not understand what that is for. Why would one need a residence when you can do anywhere you want? Not to mention that a lot of the space in Second Life is deserted.

Flying is incredible in Second Life. There is no need to buy a jetpack or take out a machine. Simply tapping the Home key on your keyboard makes you soar up into the air, where you can then fly around Superman-style. Flying around is my favorite aspect of the entire Second Life experience. Everyone can do this in an instant. I love it! It far surpasses the way you have to get around in There. Your avatar flies around fast, but often travels more quickly than the graphics are able to fill in around you. It is not uncommon to be flying through the air, only to smack into a wall that hasn’t yet loaded. While that can be frustrating, it just comes with the territory.

As with There, this 3D world leans heavily on your Internet connection, as all graphics, sounds, communications, and worldly details must be transferred to your computer as you travel. No matter how powerful your PC or connection, you’ll never experience the same performance as you would playing a 3D game that is installed locally. That is just the way it is. You can help matters by turning off music or video streaming, or limiting their bandwidth.

There are a lot of places to go in Second Life, and many things to see. The landscape is ever expanding and changing. A few major companies are setting up virtual shops in Second Life. Dell is one of these companies. I went to their online store. You can sit down at a workstation and customize a PC to purchase in the real world. While this is really, really cool, I have doubts that I’d purchase a product this way. It simply isn’t as informative or reliable as a traditional two dimensional web page. Still, I applaud the effort by Dell and others.

I think Second Life is the best 3D virtual world available today. If you are interested, try this one out. Chatting, traveling, teleporting, and gesturing are all much easier than what There has to offer, in my opinion. And you can enjoy yourself without spending a single cent. Still, the fun wears off after a while. Besides exploring and occasionally chatting with strangers, I am not sure what you are supposed to do. After the initial trials, it is fun now and again, but unless there are more users logged in and more events, you’ll find yourself bored sooner or later. It will be interesting to see how the new “3D Internet” (as I have heard it called) will pan out in the future. Second Life already has a great foundation for this already in place. People all over the world are scheduling meetings and training classes using it. While this type of thing has a niche market, I doubt that the average computer user will want to interact with the world in this way. Time will tell.

I pay attention to what is universal and what is not, to try to get the most performance from my Intel processor. I am pleased with the number of apps that are already universal. For those that are not, Rosetta does a seamless job of running them anyway. The only single problem in this arena is the Shockwave Player from Adobe. They still have not ported that app to universal code, and the only way to run it on Intel chips (for now) is to force Firefox to run in a Rosetta mode in order for the player to be usable in the browser. I have no intentions of trying this. For now, I have left that program off of my machine. Hurry up, Adobe!

• I have Photoshop CS installed, which I love. Only the newly released CS3 version is written in universal code. Still, CS runs just fine on my system. I toyed with the idea of buying Elements 4 for the Mac, but I wonder if Adobe will come out with version 5 soon that is universal. After all, it has a version 5 for Windows. I’ll wait and see.
• Obviously, I downloaded Firefox for browsing. It is my browser of choice on any computer, but I have found Safari to be a nice browser on the Mac that is nicely integrated into the system.
• For email, I use Gmail a lot of the time, but I have settled into the Mac Mail program included OSX. I did this mainly because iPhoto only wants to email photos from that particular program. I have found the mail to be quite cool indeed. The program highlights other messages in the inbox that are related to that one. I like the paper airplane sound when I send mail!
• For FTP, I downloaded Cyberduck, an open-source program.
• For messaging, I am using Adium. It is free and universal as well. Adium, in particular, is fantastic in that it is far and beyond better than comparable programs that I have used before.
• I bought Quicken 2007 at the store and I am pleased with it so far, though I have spent less time in that program than others. I converted my data file with ease and the program looks very nice. Until now, I’d been using the 2005 version on Windows. The only downside to the Mac version is in that the price is so much higher!
• I have Office 2004 installed on my Mac as well. I did not install Entourage. Office and its programs are not in universal code, but Microsoft has plans to release version 2008, which should to be.
• Burning discs is very easy using the Finder, but I acquired a copy of Toast 7. I have only used it a couple of times, but I am thrilled to have an application that is as powerful as Nero Ultra, which I was using on Windows.
• For archives, Finder handles .zip files with ease, but for other formats, I downloaded the free version of StuffitExpander. I’m glad that .rar extensions are supported. I have a lot of files that I packed in that format.
• I don’t have a web editor yet, other than iWeb which is on here, but I don’t know much about it. The free Nvu program is very lacking and I can’t recommend it these days, even though they do have a Mac version. I did download the free Taco HTML editor for OS X and it is a very capable text HTML editor.
• Quicktime handles all of my video needs for now. And a .wmv video format plug-in lets me play all of those files, too.
• iTunes runs better on the Mac than in Windows. It runs great on Windows, but one subtle difference is that when you move music files around in the Finder, iTunes automatically keeps track of where it is and plays it instantly (even if a file is moved to the trash). In Windows you have to search for the file and point iTunes to it again.

Those are the programs I have used so far. I am sure there are more to come and to explore. The bottom line is that you can do anything and everything with a Mac. Again, I’ll say the hundredth time, I’m hooked!

I bought the faster Mini which has the Intel 1.83 Ghz Core Duo chip. I upgraded the RAM to 1 GB, which is definitely necessary these days. I also opted for the DVD burning superdrive. The hard drive is a SATA 80 GB drive. That is small by today’s standards, but the computer is a small machine. I’ll eventually buy an external hard drive and connect it via USB.

This is the longest period where I have used a non-Windows computer exclusively. I am so happy with my Mac and using OS X that I really feel that I have made the right choice. I had read a lot about Windows Vista, but never felt real crazy about it. A lot of the articles I have read sound off on the negative qualities, of which there seem to be many. Buying a new PC would mean Vista would be preinstalled. I wasn’t interested. After extensive longing for a Mac and many visits to the Apple Store, I was ready to take a Mini home. Everyone who owns a Mac speaks so highly of them, and now I can finally see why.

Windows works well also, so I am not going to be a PC basher. Personally, I just got tired of installing and maintaining utilities to keep it running well. Anti-virus, anti-spyware, registry cleaners, startup managers, etc. I found myself spending more time installing security updates and running scans than I did accomplishing something. With the Mac, I don’t have to consume my system resources with all of those add-ons and slowdowns.

Most notably is the fact that Apple computers and OS X are tailor made for each other. This shows in its perfection and smoothness. Apple calls it “hand in glove”, which I think is probably a good way to describe it. I love this machine.

I have most all of my major apps installed and they all work beautifully. I purchased Quicken Mac 2007 while at the Apple Store. That is a must-have app for me. I have really enjoyed using that one. In fact, every app I have used for whatever task I want have been among the best I have ever used in their class.

My Mac Mini is such a joy to use! It is hard to explain how slick and cool it is unless you really use one. Transitions and overall response from the computer itself are outstanding. The interface, super-cool graphics, effects, clarity, multitasking, size, and speed are all without question absolutely flawless. I have no regrets. I’m now in first class.

I have added a new category to the blog. This is the first post to the Mac category. Also, while this post is still hot, expect a lot of new Mac and Apple related material from my del.icio.us bookmark feed on my Links page.

I know Apple lives up to a high standard by working “hand in glove” (as they put it) with the hardware (which they also produce). But why not license it to quality manufacturers and, if they so decide, not offer it as a box on the shelf? For example, the Windows Media Center Edition 2005 is technically the latest release of Windows XP, on media steroids. You cannot walk into Best Buy or CompUSA and buy this OS on CD. It only comes pre-installed on new computers sold by participating manufacturers. If Microsoft can do this, then so can Apple. Apple can set a minimum level of PC performance required to effectively run their flagship OS smoothly, and poof, everybody can have an affordable machine running the splendor that is their operating system.

I certainly cannot ask them leave physical PC business, because all of their hardware products are so very sleek, stylish, and cutting-edge. They make some fantastic products and always get top rankings for customer satisfaction the PC magazines I read which conduct these surveys. Apple just needs to open the flood gates and really widen their software business. I suppose they already have, by making more applications in recent years, notably the iLife and iWork for the Mac, as well as strengthening their iTunes and Quicktime offerings. I think they can broaden their appeal by actually appealing to the masses instead of a niche audience, as they do now. The mass success of iPod, iTunes, and their surprising deal with Intel has put them back on the map, and on the path to broad consumer appeal. They need to embrace it by offering their goods and services to a wider audience.

Every young adult wants an iPod, and to use iTunes, both of which are the best of their kind. Apple is in a position today to rattle the computer industry with this bold move. A victory of such, and Apple may finally reverse their market share, which has suffered ever since their poor decision not to license their platform to outsiders back in the 1980s, opening the door to for Microsoft to run the world for the past 20 years.