Apple Online Stores are down :)

Exciting :) Bit too early for Snow Leopard, no? :)

Google: Ireland? What Ireland?

Interesting... when using Google Docs, for the first time for actually serious task, rather than playing around, I noticed that my time zone is way off... so I decided to change my spreadsheet settings...


How surprised I was, when it turns out that Ireland, according to Google apparently, doesn't deserve a position on the country list...


Hm... and one would think that Google won't forget where their European HQ is... :P

Snow Leopard aka "Golden Master" first impressions ...

I couldn't help and had to try the rumored Golden Master - almighty 10A432 build. Now - don't judge me - I am going to go to my local store the first thing when Snow Leopard is released - but i'm not a patient person :)

Installation went nice and smooth - much faster than the first Developers preview (10A380, was it?). Great move. Hard not to notice, that License Agreement doesn't read "Developers' preview" anymore.

"It really could be the real thing" I thought.

After installation, quick look around, installing few Apps, I am somewhat ... disappointed. Not much changed since last developers preview (then again, it shouldn't really, should it?). No WOW factor. Then again "wow factor" sort of lost it's meaning after Vista launch campaign called same... :P

I'm going to go straight to negatives ;) not because I would like to slag operating system altogether, but there's like a million reasons to upgrade it straight away on Apple website, so we all know those. I would like to mention few cons of upgrading...

Now, I know, Safari 4 is great :) and it is, but it's 64-bit version has this "feature" called sandboxing (I believe?). Idea is somehow taken out of Google Chrome, which lets 3rd party plugins (like Adobe Flash) run as a separate process, and as a result if that one fails, it won't take our entire browser with it. And that works. I noticed however two issues with this feature. First - and I am not sure whether is this related to the sandboxing or not - but Flash seems to be slower than in 32 bit Safari. Not much, but I'd say frame rates are about 10 - 15 % lower than in 32 bit. I am guessing I can survive, although my Facebook Restaurant just doesn't look the same (it's a 100% flash based game, which isn't as smooth as used to be :( ). I got similar results running several Flash 3d demos (like this one). Interestingly, even though the demo reports pretty much the same FPS, the graphic is clearly much less smooth when Safari is running in 64 bit... according to atMonitor, about 30% slower in frame rate...

Now here's a real killer. In 32 bit Safari, as it is in most browsers - when running my Flash Game, my CPU is working hard, at average of 160% - 170% of a core power (according to Activity Monitor, with 2 core of course). What I often do is - opening another browser tab. My flash game can be running in background, CPU goes down to about 20%, but game is still playing, and I can hear it's music :) I am guessing Flash simply doesn't render graphic anymore, as there is no need for it. This not only let me save some CPU resources, but also slows down my laptops fan, let it cool, and - what's most important - SAVES MY BATTERY.

64 bit Safari DOESN'T DO THAT. Or at least not at the same scale... Regardless, is my game active, in background, in different browser window or not - it's still using 170% CPU :(

I know what you're going to say - I don't play your game. Maybe you're not. But imagine, if you have 5 tabs of Safari open at the same time, with different websites. Each website has one - two flash ad. And all of them are being rendered. I'd say that can put strain on any system, not only my poor laptop running on battery, and trying to keep itself cool with a fan...

It's not too bad though - remember, you can always run your application in 32 bits if you wish, by changing it's preference in Get Info window. When switched to 32 bit, Safari doesn't use sandboxing, but it does solve the problem...

I also noticed Safari in Snow Leopard is also not compatible with LogMeIn plugin :( now, in 64 bit it's just not working, in 32 bits it's running it's Java based client :( I know that's not really Apple's fault, but then again, if you use LogMeIn, I would suggest to hold on couple of months, until LogMeIn releases compatible plugin...

Speaking of compatibility, I also have a problem with my favorite photo editing tool (no, not Photoshop :) ) - PhotoLine 32. I use this since around 1998 and love it. Latest version is a 64 bit app, and works great in Leopard. Unfortunately crashes shortly after start in Snow Leopard (one may wonder why...). Turns our running it in 32-bit doesn't solve the issue. I made it work however, slowly but surely (although not very steady ;) with Rosetta (yes, you can still run apps with Rosetta in Snow Leopard).

This brings me to conclusion. Remember over two years ago when Vista was criticized for it's compatibility issues? Even though it not necessarily was Microsoft fault? I have a feeling this time Apple make similar mistake. I really don't use many apps, but already found two that are having problems with SL, and worked seamlessly with it's predecessor. In the mean time, since I've started using Windows 7, haven't had a single compatibility problem...

Now, something that Apple was always great at. Look. I love pretty things, love pretty looking software. I love MacOS for what it looks like. But here we are. Windows 7 again. I think, it is beautiful. Now saying that I know it still has often this "computer" feel, as opposite to Mac, where experience is more seamless, and fonts are more print-like. But I must admit that I loved aero since VIsta, and now, in WIndows 7, there's even more of it. What I am trying to say is first of all, I am disappointed, that Apple haven't upgraded it's UI almost at all in years now. I do feel that application windows are bit outdated at this stage. But what I am really trying to say is that Apple forgot ... about wallpapers :( yes, there is a few, including well known picture of Snow Leopard, which appears to be a theme for the box as well as installation DVD itself (it's not default wallpaper in 10A432 however!), but I must say they are very average... especcialy when compared with absolutely gorgeous wallpapers which are now coming along with Windows 7... Call me shallow, but I am using them for my Mac OS desktop and they look great!

All that makes me wonder - have Steve Jobs seen Snow Leopard at all???

Apple-Nokia Morph vs Prada...

I love what Apple does. And that includes the latest discovered patent for ipod nano-like device, but exacted as a multi-touch screen device, instead of touch wheel.... i love the whole idea of finger being new mouse, screen being new keyboard, and device itself being... a new screen. just a step away from Nokia ideas from couple of years back, with having entire device (Nokia Morph, was it?) a one, big, flexible screen..,

It's actually quite interesting, then again nothing knew, that one giant came up with an idea, but another one got to actually execute it...

Very soon we won't be limited to choice of one (HP), five (from Dell) or even like a thousand (from Apple) of colors for our everyday use device. We will be able to change color, pattern, design as often, as we wish. And I am not talking of plastic, tacky clip-ons... I'm talking about complete transformation of our glossy-like, touch sensitive, flexible and totally adjustable computer... We make it go with anything we wear... Isn't that where it's all going anyway? more and more gorgeous gadgets (hint: Apple ;) which we could show off. Time to take them out of our pockets, and wear them... on us. on our clothing...

After all, didn't white iPod headphones, became the very first recognizable, actually usable, fashion statement? (with a bit of clever marketing behind of course...)

What's going to be next?

new all-screen iPod nano? Apple Tablet ? Maybe. HP Pavilon XYZ5000+ ? Dell (for people-renting-a-) Studio (-apartment...) 21(for inches)21(for price)? Doubly...

Windows 7 build 7600 goes RTM!

Finally, Windows 7 has been signed out as RTM, according to official Windows Team blog.

It's hard to say that it comes as surprise, that latest build 7600 becomes RTM (after they increased build number from 72xx), but at least now we know for sure.

Funnily enough, just few hours ago I installed build 7600 via Boot Camp on my MacBook. Didn't really get a chance to play around with this yet, but now I know I definitely should :)

Apple Mac OS! Brace yourself! :)

Disappointing Google announcement...

This is this huge, amazing, Google Earth announcement? THIS??? Moon?? Really?

I feel disappointed. Even more. Betrayed. They promise big announcement. Turns out to be version 5... the only real changes are bit improvements to ocean view and... Moon map. Very useful. Would be nice if they at least show live traffic conditions or whether cast for Moon, but no...

To be honest, after their announcement of web OS, based on Chrome, after mentioned improvements coming to Google Apps I was expecting big announcement to be migration of version 5 of Google Earth entirely to web. Especially with Google Earth plugin available for quite a while now. At least. I think that would be semi-big. Not adding Moon for crying out loud...

There is another update that have seen day light today, and it's Service Pack 2 for Office 2008 (for Mac). Now that's impressive. Huge performance improvements. Now, I know, I am being very pro-Microsoft recently. Weird, but they really seem to be doing good job recently, at least in software department...

Google, you can do much better than that... or can u?

Snow Leopard less and less fancy...

I found it very intriguing, that while Windows 7 with it's release scheduled for late October just hit RTM (or did it? :> ) at the same time, when Apple is still straggling with yet another Snow Leopard builds, after promise that it's going to be completed a month before Microsoft...

And to be very honest, I am still not sure weather Snow Leopard will be able to compete with Windows 7... I never realized, that majority of most useful "new" features, like Mail support for Exchange, CalDAV etc. are already available in MacOS 10.5... I also noticed, that in the latest build of Snow Leopard, 10A411, QuickTime playing HD movie is using much more (about 40% (!!!), up from about 6%) CPU... boooooo!

I decided to switch back to 10.5.8 for now. The day Snow Leopard appears in store, I'll be first one there. But I won't hesitate to visit shop next door a month later, when Windows 7 hits the shelves either.... And to be very honest, watching the way both OS's are going at the moment, more and more often I am considering choice of PC for my next laptop... (no, not $400 model :) time will tell!

Somewhere, deep deep in my heart, but far away from my head, there's hope that Apple will pull out a big surprise from their sleeve (or should I say Steve? ;) which will be sooo big, that we all forget about new Windows :D

In the meantime I visited local PC World store (there's no dedicated Apple stores in Ireland :( ) and here's what I found. Must be the only MacBook Pro 13" with GeForce 9600 in the world :) and that's for just €0.99 more than the 9400 model from Apple themselves :)