Killer App: OmniWeb 5.5

No Comments »September 27th, 2006

*Movie announcer voice*

“In a world…where one web browser looks and works just like any other…a small company with big ideas challenges an industry with a browser unlike any before.”



Ok, with that dramatic opening out of the way I’d like to introduce you to a product that I am crazy about…OmniWeb. Not excited by web browsers, you say? This browser may have you singing a different tune. OmniWeb has a few advantages over its contemporaries. Like its blazing speed, for starters. OmniWeb 5.5 actually renders web pages much faster than either Apple’s own Safari browser, or Mozilla derivatives like Camino and Firefox. Even more so on Intel Macs.

But what really appeals to me is this product is geared towards power users whereas the aforementioned browsers are designed solely for mainstream usage. For example, when visiting any web site, OmniWeb offers a Preferences feature that enables you to tweak and customize any personal settings related to that site such as cookie caching, pop-up blocking, scripting options, etc. This makes OmniWeb the perfect tool for web designers. It has proven to be a handy tool for me on many occasions.

Another feature I love is the sidebar tab viewer that replaces the venerable tabbed browser interface we are all accustomed to. Instead of a row of anonymous looking tabs that appear at the top of your browser window, OmniWeb displays tiny thumbnail images or snapshots of the web page you visit and displays them in order of retrieval. You can easily move these thumbnails around, placing visited sites in any order you choose.

Granted these aren’t world changing features. But they are done is such a way that is both innovative and useful to the end user. I encourage you to experience OmniWeb for yourself. It’s free to use unlicensed, and $29.95 for a fully supported license.

Technorati Tags: OmniWeb, OSX, Safari

Apple Finally Releases iTunes 7 Bug Fix

No Comments »September 27th, 2006

iTunes 7 is with little doubt the best “new” application Apple has released in quite some time. But as early adopters (like yours truly) soon discovered, this release is a roach motel of bugs and software glitches. Some of which can be downright critical. One issue in particular struck a blow below the belt to any iPod user; after installing iTunes 7, podcasts can no longer be played back on your iPod. Any attempt to play recently downloaded podcast in your playlists results in crashing the iPod. The only workaround to this problem is to pre-play the track within iTunes on your Mac or PC. Then and only then will the audio file successfully playback without failure. Imagine having to do that with every audio file in a podcast playlist that contains nearly 50 feeds? Yeah, lots of fun that is.

Another issue I experienced deals with iTunes best new feature: Coverflow. Coverflow, for those of you that don’t know, is a new way to view and interact with your music library; displaying a horizontal animated side-scrolling CD cover interface that works much like a Roldex. With this visual interface, one can navigate through their music library in much the same metaphor as a bookshelf filled with Vinyl records. After using this feature for a few weeks now I am completely hooked! I often find myself thumbing through music I haven’t played in a long time or nearly forgotten about. Best of all, iTunes will grab album art for any albums you’ve burned off of CD. Well, most albums anyway. Coverflow is ingenious!

Unfortunately, as iTunes 7 was clearly a release that was rushed out the door, Coverflow doesn’t work very well. It’s slow to navigate, and more often than not CD album art fails to load in system cache without reading from disk. Scroll quickly from left to right, or vice versa, and the only music you’ll hear is the sound of your hard drive crunching away as it fights like hell to keep up with Coverflow’s demands. Sigh.

Thankfully Apple seems to have addressed most of these issues with the release of iTunes 7.0.1, available as of today. Coverflow is still a bit sluggish at times, but at least in a more tolerable state than before. So far I can report no problems.

Download iTunes 7.0.1 from within System Update (Mac) or click here (Windows)

Apple Rolls out new iMacs

No Comments »September 6th, 2006

Apple unveils new Intel Core 2 Duo (Conroe) based iMacs, including a new 24″ widescreen whopper that retails for $1,999. In addition, prices have been slashed across the product line, and the entry level model can now be had for a mere $999. Not a bad deal.

Learn more.

Photos From the Indy Apple Store, at Keystone

No Comments »September 5th, 2006

Over the Labor Day weekend I and a fellow Mac fanboy decided to pay a visit to our nearest Mecca to all things Apple…the Apple Store located at Keystone, in Indianapolis. The store was oddly vacant when we first arrived at around 10:00 AM on Monday, but a couple hours later we returned after some shopping and a bite to eat. The store had suddenly become packed with customers during our absence. It was a madhouse!

My friend (actually a client of mine) purchased a Mac Pro with 23″ Cinema Display, which is an upgrade to his existing G5 iMac. I think he was jealous of my Mac Pro with 20″ Cinema and thought he would upstage me by getting a larger display. Curse him!

I will say this about the staff at this Apple store; they are absolutely well trained and on the stick in customer relations.

View my photos on Flickr.