Adium: One less reason to run Parallels
Posted on April 29, 2007
Filed Under Macintosh | 4 Comments
I’ve been a happy Trillian user for 3 years now, with contacts on AIM, Yahoo, MSN and Google Talk. I tried Adium a few times and just couldn’t get used to it. Never could quite articulate why I didn’t like it as much as Trillian. So I did my IM’ing through Parallels.
This morning, I decided to give Adium another try, as I knew there was a major new release a couple of months ago.
Now it feels just right. Can’t quite put my finger on what I didn’t like before that’s changed now. There were a lot of changes. All I know is that I finally feel comfortable telling Trillian not to load at Windows startup.
Growl helps. Growl is a free universal notification system for Mac OS X. It’s like the little bubbles over the notification area on a Windows XP task bar, but on steroids. You can choose exactly which applications pop up notifications, in which way, what color, how long…you name it. So when an important contact tries to reach me, Growl puts a notification where I’ll see it but it won’t be offensive or in my way. It also works with Skype, Transmit, QuickSilver and other applications I already use.
I’m working to the point that I can fire up Parallels only when I need it for specific applications, and not for things that run all the time.
Here’s what I still need in order to get rid of Outlook:
- Airset (our family calendar) syncing with Google Calendar or Blackberry.
- Salesforce working with Thunderbird (my Mac OS X mail client of choice).
That’s about it. I recently managed to move my task management needs back over to UseTasks (after trying more online task management systems than I can possible count…UseTasks won because of its mobile interface) and I use Plaxo for contacts.
Apple reality distortion field at it again
Posted on April 26, 2007
Filed Under Macintosh | 1 Comment
I’m thrilled to be back on the Mac fulltime and I wouldn’t have it any other way. But I’m back without the rose-colored glasses I used to wear.
I’m reading the reports that Apple is going to keep the software for iPhone and Apple TV up-to-date “free of charge” and that these updates will include new features and software.
“We are taking this bold step to leverage what we do best,” chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer said during a conference call with analysts and members of the media. He added that some of the new iPhone applications will be “entirely new applications.”
Oppenheimer offered few additional details on the two-pronged initiative, but implied that the new features and applications would be made available through automatic software updates to both iPhone and Apple TV.
Okay, I can see where this is news because it’s more typical that phone/mobile OS users stick with one version of the device’s operating system for the life of the phone. Sure, they may have incremental upgrades that add small new features or fix bugs, but nothing along the lines that Apple is promising. Plus, firmware updates are typically desktop downloads that require the user to wipe out the phone’s data and upload and are not for the technically weak-knee’d.
But…come on, people. Make sure you step away from the Kool-Aid. Do I need to remind anyone that the iPhone (and Apple TV) are closed systems? If I want to add new features, applications, skins or whatever to my Windows Mobile or Blackberry device, it’s a download away. Apple has been clear that the only applications and features that can be added to an iPhone are ones that either Apple has developed or Apple has sanctioned and you’ll have to deliver them to the phone through Apple. So how on earth is it a bold step that Apple is in effect saying, “Since we’re the only way you’re going to get new applications and functionality to your iPhone, we’re actually going to deliver them and not charge you above the $500 or so you spent to buy the phone and the outrageous monthly data fees you’re already paying Cingular The new AT&T.”? Gee, thanks.
GrandCentral mobile
Posted on April 26, 2007
Filed Under Internet & Technology | Leave a Comment
A couple of weeks ago, I moved my work phone number from Vonage to GrandCentral. So far, I am very impressed with the service. I’ve given out my GrandCentral number to some important non-work contacts, explaining that even though it’s in a different area code it’s a number that will find me wherever I am.
Yesterday, GrandCentral introduced a mobile version. Finally! Looks and works great in the Blackberry browser. In addition to visual voicemail that you can see and browse through, it has a click-to-call feature. Why would you want to use GrandCentral to place the call instead of your carrier? For starters, you can hit * in the middle of the call and seamlessly transfer the call to a landline. You can also record a call (which I haven’t tried yet). Also, if you call from GrandCentral, that’s the number that will show in their caller ID. I often have to explain when folks notice that my area code is in New Jersey when they thought I was calling from Virginia.
They are planning to introduce a feature that will let you forward your cell phone’s voicemail to GrandCentral. I can’t wait for that. I was trying CallWave, but I ended up turning that off. I really liked CallWave’s widget, but when I wasn’t near a computer it wasn’t as useful. GrandCentral is doing a great job of addressing this issue with their mobile interface.
At some point, they’ll also announce pricing for some of the premium services, such as click-to-call. It will be interesting to see if it will be a subscription plan (like Skype), or a per-call thing. I’m happy enough with GrandCentral so far that I would certainly consider a reasonable monthly fee.
I’ve got to consolidate headphones
Posted on April 25, 2007
Filed Under Internet & Technology | Leave a Comment
This is silly.
I’m on the phone a lot during the day. Some days, I’m on calls for 4-5 hours. I have a vtech cordless phone handset for my landline, with a basic Plantronics over-the-head microphone plugged into the 2.5mm port on its side. I don’t like clip-over-the-ear microphones at all.
Sometimes I get calls via Skype. When that happens, I have to quickly switch to a headphone/microphone on the computer, since the MacBook Pro’s built-in microphone makes a terrible whiney sound when used with Skype or iChat. Someone once told me it’s because notebook computers have the soundcard too close to the microphone. Or something like that. I don’t know why, all I know is that I can’t do Skype calls just by speaking towards the computer. Usually I take the call long enough to say, “wait a sec…have to switch microphones.”
If Eric is sharing my office…usually to hide from the kids, I’ll listen to my music and podcasts silently (and will ask him to do the same), so I have regular stereo headphones for that. My two microphone headsets have only one ear speaker.
I’m spending way too much time switching headphones, not to mention the mess of cable on my desk as the switching makes them all tangled with each other.
My dream: A landline phone with a cordless over-the-head stereo headset that works with either the phone or computer (via Bluetooth or USB dongle).
Possible?
Adobe CS3 at last
Posted on April 20, 2007
Filed Under Design | 1 Comment
This morning, I had a bad scare with Laini’s blood test results. Everything’s fine, but it took an hysterical phone call to the pediatrician’s office to calm me down. After my heart returned to its normal rhythm, I did what I’ve been known to do when life caves in a bit…shop tech. Always does the trick. I’m just grateful I’m no longer a stress eater or I’d be 400 lbs. by now.
I had Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium upgrade on order at Amazon. It was due to ship today and arrive on Tuesday. It hadn’t shipped yet, so I canceled that order and downloaded it from Adobe instead. Not much difference price-wise.
2.52 GB download! Remember when it would take an hour to download a few megabytes? Nonetheless, the Adobe hamsters are running wildly on their wheels, because it took just under an hour to get the whole thing.
I had the Photoshop CS3 public beta, and I was beta testing Fireworks so I had some housekeeping to do before installing the package. I’ll be honest, I was very nervous about Adobe’s new installer while testing. It’s not exactly fast and it was prone to some strange errors. But Adobe pulled it out, because the final version installer worked just fine. I do miss the little teaser splash screens that used to come up while the applications were installing in CS2, though. The new installer is nothing to look at.
Overall, I’m pleased with the CS3 applications. I love the new interface in the Adobe Adobe applications (Dreamweaver and Fireworks still look like Macromedia). Since I know InDesign best, I’ve spent the most amount of time getting familiar with its changes. The control panel is much improved. In CS2, you were constantly switching between the character and paragraph sections of the palette. In CS3, you can change the font even if you’re on the paragraph side, and you can change the alignment even if you’re on the character side. The difference in speed on my Intel Mac is incredible. Launching and quitting no longer take an eternity.
There are a few things that I had hoped would make it into CS3, but didn’t. This isn’t meant to be a whine…it’s still a great suite…but…
In Fireworks, I was hoping for more Adobe-like interface improvements…such as the ability to change values by clicking on the field’s label and then using the keyboard arrow keys. Or moving an object 25 pixels to the left by appending “-25px” to whatever number is in the “X” field on the properties bar. Font handling in Fireworks still leaves a lot to be desired. I use Fireworks to comp web layouts and optimize graphics, so none of the new features are all that interesting to me. Maybe I’ll be more excited about Fireworks CS4. For now, I’m just glad that the application survived and is Mac Intel-native, and I’ll be satisfied with that.
In InDesign, I was hoping for better integration with Adobe Acrobat review and commenting features. I can’t be the only one who exports layouts to PDF, then uses Acrobat’s Shared Review feature to send a PDF out to colleagues for comments/editing on our WebDAV server. They use the free Adobe Reader to mark up their comments/changes. When they save the file, it publishes their changes back to the server. I then have a file with all the comments in a layer over the PDF. It would be cool if I could take that comment layer and bring it in to InDesign so I can make the changes right in the file, instead of having to bounce back and forth between the marked up PDF and the InDesign document in two completely different applications.
In Illustrator, I’m disappointed that there’s still no “rubber band” for the pen tool. Photoshop has it. Makes no sense to me that the application that “invented” the pen tool doesn’t. What am I talking about? When you use the pen tool for bezier paths, a rubber band feature shows you where the path will land before you actually commit to it. You spend far less time correcting your drawing, especially when you’re tracing around something.
Just in time for C3’s Summer 2007 newsletter that I’m starting to lay out this week.
