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TidBITS Macworld Superlatives
TidBITS is perhaps the grand-daddy of electronic Mac publications (their motto should be: we were the Mac-web before the Mac-web was even invented). Anyway, they have published a lot of great articles over the years and their wrap up of MWSF '07 is no different. There are links to a variety of interesting things you may have missed in the flurry of coverage, and this superlative article (i.e. the best/worst/most whatever at Macworld) manages to sum up the Macworld experience nicely for those of us who couldn't make it to San Francisco. Enjoy.
iTunes 7 tidbits: it now respects the Browse state
This is most likely at best a minor bonus on most iTunes users' lists - if it's on them at all - but I was pleasantly surprised to discover yesterday that iTunes 7 (pre-7.0.1) now respects the Browse state when switching between the Library and playlists or other sections of the software. If you're scratching your head as to what I'm talking about, let me give you an obnoxious user scenario from previous versions: Let's say you're viewing your music library, and you enable the Browse button so you can track down that exact Genre, Artist or Album you have a craving for. Then, you switch to a playlist to maybe edit it or check and see if the track you're grooving to is on it (yes, I know you can do that by other methods). Upon switching back to the main Library, iTunes has now blown away whatever Genre/Artist/Album selection you had made, disrupting your flow and forcing you to hunt it down again. If you don't use iTunes like this, feel free to move along at this point. But, if you're feeling my aggravating pain, I am happy to tell you that an iTunes engineer had you and I in mind my friend, as this behavior is now gone. iTunes 7 will respect your Browse state if you start hunting around in other playlists, Library sections or the store, maintaining that Genre, Artist or Album selection you made. Again, this is admittedly a tiny detail, but c'mon - we're talking about Apple, a company known for its attention to the smallest of details which often illicit the largest of "thank you's!" Enjoy.
Mac OS X Leopard tidbits roundup part 3
Here we go with another Mac OS X Leopard tidbits roundup - yes, certainly to be confused with our running WWDC 2006 tidbits roundup; I figured it's all about the Leopard now, as we've pretty much exhausted everything WWDC-related besides which brand of socks Mr. Jobs wears with his new Nikes. So enjoy this latest batch of small tips and improvements in the next big cat from Cupertino: The ReadMe included with the Leopard requires G4, G5 or Intel processors - sorry G3 owners (ok, so maybe this isn't an improvement for the G3 folk out there, but it's still good to know) We're receiving reports that Safari can resize any text areas (such as comment fields) on the fly. We can't confirm because we don't feel like risking the wrath of Jobs. Some of us have families, y'know "Smart Renaming" - when renaming a file, the extension is no longer included in the file name selection (Someone buy that engineer a beer!) If you have to rename a file extension, the Finder now includes a preference for disabling the extension renaming warning (a second round, comin' up!) A new preference in the Dock System Preferences pane allows for toggling how quickly the Dock 'springs' when hidden The Finder allows for customizing the amount of space between icons iChat includes many handy window organizing features, such as a customizable keyboard shortcut for bringing the app to the front, as well as a preference for tabbed chats (instead of simply forcing it on those who aren't quite as hip on tabs) It sounds like Safari will know when you've entered text into a website (for example: when leaving a comment in a forum), and can prompt you before quiting and blowing away unsaved changes Spaces, thankfully, allows users to bind applications to one desktop or another. This will be handy for, well, keeping everything in its place, but it will probably be something to get used to for virtual desktop newbies That's it for now. We'd post more, but we still have to walk that aforementioned line of not having to relocate to a building with "minimum security" in its title.Thanks to everyone who sent these in
All the little things: WWDC 2006 roundup part 2
It's a sequel! That's right boys and girls: in our never-ending quest to dig up every detail we can on the recent events surrounding WWDC, Leopard and other random tidbits, we've gathered a few more juicy items for your digestion. Apple 'Teams?' Readers sent in various tips, and even The Gruber™ linked it. So it must be real. But what is it? [UPDATE: Looks like Teams is an advertised wiki feature of Leopard Server.] Readers are noting that, in the keynote, Bertrand Serlet says "With Spotlight, finally, it's easy to find information on your local disks and information on the web." Could this be a prelude to an even farther-reaching (and slower) Spotlight in Leopard? MacFixIt has a nice roundup of actual application versions included in Leopard. Of specific interest, they note that Exposé is listed as a 1.0 app, which might also mean that this icon in the dock heralds Spotlight as a full-blown app as well. Happy Finder, Sad Finder - neurotic Finder? Sorry for the crummy screenshots, but these were both taken from different times of the keynote (36:28 and 1:01:25, to be exact. Thanks David B.!). Could they have been from different Macs? If so, why the curious change in such a fundamental icon? This is on iChat's preview page, but it's still worth mentioning in part because no one did on stage: along with the new video and slideshow features, it also has screen sharing so users can get truly collaborative over a chat. This might be a new type of file preview ability in the Finder, or it could just be an extra feature in Time Machine. Either way, it looks handy. It also seems to be an indication that Apple is moving towards a broader use of palettes like those in iWork and iWeb, including the transparent style found in iPhoto '06. Some readers are reporting a new icon in Safari's toolbar (which can be seen on the Dashboard preview page), but that's just the Dash Clippings widget tool. That's it for another round of WWDC and Leopard tidbits, and thanks to the many who sent these in; you readers have some good eyes. Keep those tips rolling in, and we'll keep rounding them up.
All the little things: a WWDC 2006 tidbits roundup
With big events and announcements like yesterday's WWDC, there's always a few bits and pieces that manage to fall through the cracks. New product details as well as features and screenshots of new Mac OS X functionality are prime examples, and these bits and pieces are now starting to trickle in. Instead of posting each minor piece of info, we figured it would be better to simply round them all up together, so here we go with the first WWDC 2006 tidbits roundup post of what we've found so far: In the Spaces video preview at Apple's new Mac OS X site, you can clearly make out a new RSS sidebar item in Mail.app (pictured). This isn't in the dedicated Mail.app preview section and wasn't mentioned on stage. Woops. [UPDATE: Commenter David is right: this RSS feature is mentioned lower on Mail.app's preview page, but it isn't featured at all in the demo video. Strange.] In a screenshot of the Dock, a folder on the right side of the divider has a black triangle underneath it, denoting the same 'yes, it's running' UI feedback that applications have. iChat is also featured with a new UI sans brushed metal (pictured on left). If it's already been stripped from iChat, could brushed metal have gone the way of the PowerMac G5 for the rest of Leopard? The Mac Pros are apparently the first (and only?) Intel Mac to not include Front Row and an Apple Remote. This also means (to our knowledge) they don't have an IR port either. That's it for now. If you've uncovered more juicy new details not mentioned so far from yesterday's keynote, feel free to leave a comment in this post or use our tips form.Thanks to everyone who sent these in
TidBITS reviews Yojimbo
I wrote about Yojimbo (and revealed my ignorance of Japanese phrases) when it first came out, but my post was far from a review. Matt Neuburg has taken Yojimbo for a spin, and overall he likes what he sees. He agrees that there is a very slight learning curve, and that Yojimbo provides a user with a number of ways.However, all is not sunshine and unicorns. Yojimbo's simplicity is a two edged sword, since the application doesn't offer much to sway people from leaving their current workflows behind. Plus, it isn't AppleScriptable.[via Daring Fireball]
