Handy Battery Tool for MacBook Users

No Comments »March 14th, 2007

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

Windows Vista: The Whoa starts now

No Comments »March 4th, 2007

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.  

Leopard Coming In March?

No Comments »February 20th, 2007

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

Correo..it’s Thunderbird In Quartz Clothing

No Comments »February 20th, 2007

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

OSX Leopard Coming in January?

No Comments »October 25th, 2006

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.

Now, granted I don’t have any insider information to confirm my suspicions, but the pieces fit. Just as Apple surpised analysts and the media with a January release of Intel-based Macs early this year, which weren’t supposed to ship until Q2 of this year, history will repeat itself again this MacWorld with Leopard.

Technorati Tags: Apple, Leopard, OSX

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)