SixApart today unveiled its next generation blogging platform, MovableType 4, and is open sourcing the software. The new release, now in beta, sports more than 50 new features the company hopes will put it on a competitive edge with other corporate blog platforms.

MovableType, which this very blog you're reading is published on, is the granddaddy of blogging platforms and once reigned supreme in its time. That is until an upstart open source platform called WordPress came along and took the online world by storm. SixApart hopes it can make up for lost ground by reaching out to developers and making its software free. They're moving in the right direction, but WordPress is now a major contender they will have to confront.

Download MovableType 4 Beta

A strange surprise awaited me when I booted up my Vista PC this morning; something had apparently tripped Microsoft's infamous Windows Genuine Advantage either during the previous shutdown or startup. An alert window appeared on my login display demanding that unless I activate (actually re activate) my copy of Vista immediately, WGA would henceforth hold my PC hostage. In Lehman's terms Vista would operate in "reduced function mode" until reactivation would allow me back into full user-rights mode. Great way to start off a morning, especially since this workstation contains much of my work for paying clients!

What better way to spend an hour by speaking to a barely comprehensible Indian tech repeat a cryptic 200-digit Activation key back to me, than having to retype the whole sequence over again after misinterpreting his broken english. Remind me again what the advantage is to Windows Genuine Advantage, and who benefits? Certainly not I.

The really comical part to all of this is that Microsoft's product activation is designed to combat software piracy, but in the end it does more to lock out legitimate users like myself rather than pirates who easily find ways to circumvent the system. Thanks for killing an hour of my productivity, Microsoft.

If you are a YouTube junky like me, this free application is an invaluable tool for copying video content to your hard drive for playback on portable devices. GetTube works with any Flash-based video sites, and additionally converts Flash video to MP4 or MP3 (audio only).

Download GetTube
Please, download responsibly. ;-)

MacBook users…are you looking for a better solution that tells you everything you ever wanted to know about your battery, including its original capacity when it left the factory? Look no further. CoconutBattery is your answer.

What is coconutBattery, you ask? I’ll let its developers explain…

coconutBattery isn't just a tool which shows you only the current charge of your battery - it also shows you the current maximum capacity of it in relation to the original capacity your battery had as it left the factory.
You also get information about the battery-loadcycles (how often did you fully load your battery), the current charger (coconutBattery even warns you if you plugged in a wrong charger for your Notebook) and last but not least information about the age of your Mac.

Sounds great. And it’s free! Though I do highly recommend generously donating money to the folks behind this software, if only a few bucks.

Download coconutBattery Now
You’ll be glad you did. Tell them Kent sent you

Chris Pirillo is dumping Vista. The well known Windows enthusiast and long time blogger has had enough with the many numerous issues afflicting this new Windows release, and is “upgrading” to XP. He shares his experiences in a blog entry, outlining the reasons for his decision.

He writes…

Sorry, I… I gave Vista a real chance. I just can’t use it as my primary OS anymore. It’s NOT horrible at its core (by any stretch of the imagination). If all of your hardware and software are fully baked, you’re good to go - but that’s not the world I live in. I will continue to recommend Windows Vista for some users, mind you. I wish I could take the best parts of Vista and bring them back with me to XP. I’m still more than willing to help Microsoft improve Windows and get the message out to users, but I simply can’t sacrifice my own time and productivity without benefits in clear sight.

His experiences largely mirror my own, particularly his assessment of Vista’s state of being as an OS that feels like its still Beta code. That’s exactly what I have said as well. Microsoft released this product too soon. In stark contrast, Windows XP was so stable during beta stages of development that I was using it as my primary operating system back when it will still in Beta 2 stage. The quality was that good. Unfortunately Vista doesn’t share that same level of stability even in its final release.

I have encountered many numerous issues that have me pondering a similar switch. In my case I am a multi-platform user, booting between Mac and Windows, so when Vista drives me up the wall I simply use my right-brain (the Mac). But for someone using Vista as their sole platform, the situation can be untenable.  

Be still, my heart. Apple seems to have taken an usually long time baking this operating system release. Which means either this was a major development effort incorporating a slew of innovative new features, or merely a strategic ploy based on timing and opportunity. I hope it's the former and not the latter. So little of Leopard's features have been show publicly the OS remains shrouded in mystery? Will it live up to the hype, or lack thereof? The silence is deafening.

Source: ThinkSecret

Technorati Tags: Apple, Mac, OSX, Leopard

For those of you that don't like Apple Mail.app, and don't want to downgrade to Thunderbird, a new open-source project is underway that promises to to with Thunderbird what Camino does for Mozilla; bring the application into full Quartz goodness. The software is called Correo (don't ask what the name stands for or where it came from), and although it's still in the Alpha stage of development (version .01), this app looks very promising and may in fact become a great option for Mail-hungry Mac users. Much work lies ahead and this app is nowhere near ready for prime time, it doesn't even have a preferences feature yet. But it's worth downloading simply to test and contribute feedback to the developers.

Click here to learn more about Correo and download

Technorati Tags: Apple, Mac, Mail, OSX

Nothing fills me with greater joy than watching one company pull the rug out from under its competitor the moment that adversary is about to step into the spotlight. That's exactly what Apple is about to do to Microsoft on the eve of Vista's launch. Now, keep in mind that Apple, or rather Steve Jobs, has stated publically that its next operating system (OSX Leopard) will ship sometime in the second quarter of next year. Microsoft meanwhile will ship Windows Vista to consumers in January. Well guess what? Apple is going to sucker punch Microsoft by launching OSX Leopard early in January at Macworld San Francisco. How do I know this? A few reasons.

• Steve Jobs loves to surprise the industry with his legendary "One more thing" product announcements. And nothing will give him greater pleasure than trumping Redmond by stealing publicity away from Microsoft with a surprise launch of Leopard.
• Apple is running out of dot releases. The latest system update to OSX Tiger is version 10.4.8. Now unless Apple plans on adding further incremental digits onto its builds, I don't see how they can protract one further dot release another 7-9 months.
  


• Apple has recently been turning up the heat on Mac developers in an attempt to cajole them into getting their apps released for Leopard at the earliest possible date. I've received two emails from Apple's Developer Connection program over the last couple weeks that boasted the benefits of supporting Leopard, and encouraging me to learn more about the new OS. This coincides with recent preview builds of Leopard to developers. Coincidence? Maybe.
  

Technorati Tags: Apple, Leopard, OSX

*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

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 has quietly added three new TV spots to its current nationwide ad campaign called "Get a Mac". As before the ads show the same two characters who symbolically represent a PC and Mac, played by actors John Hodgman and Justin Long, respectively. These particular ads I find much more humorous than the previous roll, especially the Out of the Box sketch. Funny stuff. See the ads here.

You've heard me blathering on about how madly in love I am with Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion...which is the hottest PC and console game right now. Great though it may be, it is replete with numerous bugs, some of which impact game play. Some are just outright comical. One bug in particular that I have come to know and love is something I affectionately refer to as "Anarchy Apocalypse". It doesn't always happen, but when it does, look out. The premise works like this. When you are in any city, attack a citizen or guard, preferably while other characters are nearby. Then run like hell. Now obviously doing this will cause AI characters to chase after you, which can be quite a laugh factory in itself. But where things turn comical is when, if you are able to, hide or somehow remain outside the range of contact from the AI, the characters will suddenly begin turning on each other. Guards vs. civilians, civilians vs. civilians, guards vs. guards, it's a total blood orgy.

I single-handedly wiped out the entire population of the city of Cheydinhal by inflicting a single stab wound on a local beggar, which then triggered a widespread murder rampage among the civilian population who (armed with swords and other stabbing weapons) set upon each other like a pack of bloodthirsty Huns. A feeding frenzy of violence ensued. The city guard soon joined in this murderous melee, and in no time the city was a ghost town, streets littered with corpses. I ask you, what could be more fun than watching a whole city descend into bloodrage? Nothing else compares to witnessing an elderly woman slashing away at mace wielding guards while being attacked by a high elf armed with an Axe. Pure comedy.

The screenshots below are merely a sample of some of the antics I've witnessed during these Anarchy Apocalypse outbreaks. But you get the idea.

("Don't panic, I'll slay you...err, save you." Guards attacking members of the local Fighter's Guild. Want to see something even funnier? Get members of the Mages Guild to go after the Fighter's Guild. Two words..."Shock Spell")

(Don't ask me where in the hell the ghost came from, he appeared out of nowhere. I guess even the dead like a good brawl as well.)

There's nothing I love more than an exceptionally well designed piece of software or game title. Bethesda's hot new role-playing game, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, is quite simply the most innovative game I have played in years. It's an instant classic that rivals such legendary names as LucasArts Jedi Knight series. Over the past month that I've played Oblivion I can't put it down. I plan on writing a more lengthy review I've been working in my spare time, later in the week. But needless to say if you haven't yet played Oblivion, run to your nearest retailer and buy a copy. You won't be disappointed.

What's this? Open Source isn't made from galvanized code, impervious to attack? This can't be! Only Micro$oft software has vulnerabilities, right? Call me sick, but I get smile on my face every time a flaw is discovered in Linux or other notable open source software. It just further validates my long standing belief that "free" software is actually just as bad, if not worse, in terms of security and reliability as any commercial product. Security is an illusion. Every piece of software written by human hand has holes. If you don't believe me, disable your firewall in Linux and OSX and post your IP address. Then sit back and wait for vandals to have their fun with your supposedly "secure" system.

Yes, Windows may be full of holes, but at the end of the day, so is any other OS developed outside Fortress Redmond. Link