Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Leopard

11:23PM Sarah Stokely | Apple has confirmed that Leopard will go on sale in 10 days on October 26, for $158. Features of the new version of OSX include a new desktop; a new way to access files from the Dock; a redesigned Finder that lets users quickly browse and share files between multiple Macs; Quick Look, a new way to instantly see files without opening an application; Spaces, a tool for creating groups of applications and instantly switching between them; and Time Machine, which lets you perform automatic backups. Pre-order at the Apple Store now. More »

Flashback

10:00PM Tamar Weinberg | Two years ago, we put the Firefox address bar to work with 15 quick searches (importable bookmark file available for download). More »

Notmac – a free replacement for .Mac

12:00PM Sarah Stokely | The notMac Challenge offered a prize to the best entrant who created an alternative to Apple’s paid .Mac service, with the intention of offering a free, open source utility for using Apple’s client-side .Mac services. The challenge was won by Ben Spink, and the notMac software is now available for download. Danny Gorog reviewed it for APC magazine: “Installation effectively replaces your .Mac preference pane with the new notMac preference pane which is where you configure your notMac settings. Once you’ve completed these steps you should be able to use your own notMac server for iDisk access.” He concludes that notMac’s ease of use isn’t up there with Apple and thus it’s ‘not ready for primetime’ – you’ll need your own server running OSX and a robust knowledge of networking and IP configuration to get it running. “Sadly, it also doesn’t duplicate a lot of useful .Mac functionality like webmail and contact syncing among others. It’s also worth noting that .Mac users gets Backup, Apple’s backup client that is still the easiest way to backup your Mac and one of the main selling points for .Mac.” notMac released, notReady for first-time Mac users [APC magazine] More »

Naked DSL on the horizon

11:42AM Sarah Stokely | The Age has a writeup of the Australian ISPs gearing up to offer ‘naked DSL’ (ie broadband without the landline component). Cutting out the landline component has been appealing prospect for years – since often you get whacked for a $20 – $40 monthly line rental for a landline phone you don’t use. People on capped mobile plans will probably find it worth investigating – although some ISPs are also talking about bundling VoIP with naked DSL as another option. More »

One avatar to rule them all

11:31AM Sarah Stokely | Indulge me for a moment. It seems that the virtual reality world we were promised by William Gibson’s Neuromancer may be getting closer (geek aside – I’d still rather live in Neal Stephenson’s Diamond Age though). The BBC reports that IBM and Linden Lab (the company behind Second Life) are working on a project to create ‘universal avatars’ which can move between different virtual worlds. If someone could tell me which virtual worlds I need to start name camping, I’d appreciate it. :) Universal avatars bestride worlds [BBC] More »

Uclue – beta research service

11:16AM Sarah Stokely | The Cool Tool blog has an interesting writeup of Uclue – a beta which is offering a similar (paid) research service to the now defunct Google Answers. You ask your question, nominate the fee you’re willing to pay, and if a researcher thinks the fee is worth it, you’ll get an answer posted on the site. “If you want advice, go to the free and free-wheeling Yahoo Answers. You’ll get your money’s worth. If you want help on a particular question that the exact right person can answer quickly, I think Ask Metafilter is by far the best guru (and it is free for members). But if what you need is some real research and serious sleuthing, the kind of answer that is not just sitting in someone’s head, I believe your best bet will be Uclue.” One potential stumbling block is the fact that the research you commission is publicly posted on the Uclue website, rather than provided to you personally. I’d imagine that (particularly if you’re doing research for business reasons) there woudl be advantages in not publicly posting the results. But it’s an interesting business model – you pay them for the privilege of providing them with content!    [Cool Tools] More »

Keep your new credit card squeaky clean

10:25AM Sarah Stokely | The 43 Folders blog has a nice idea for storing your new credit card details to make it easier to find and replace your online banking and automatic payment details in the future. “Create an OmniOutliner (or text or Excel or Google Docs) document, and capture the name of every account, site, or other location where you needed to update your credit card information. Also, create a second column where you paste the exact URL for the page you had to visit to make your change.” He also suggests using this document to keep track of the customer service phone numbers for your credit card company/bank. The thing I like about this tip is that it gives you somewhere to track all those pesky subscriptions you sign up for, so you don’t get a nasty shock when that annual subscription you’d forgotten about (or meant to cancel!) shows up on your credit card bill. Toward a hygienic credit card  [43 Folders]       More »