What will Apple think of next? 
Nice find, Darren!
January 6, 2009
November 15, 2008
Magic Number Machine
For those Mac owner’s who need some higher math tools, Magic Number Machine is the (free) app for you.
November 6, 2008
October 16, 2008
MacBook Pro Clearance @ Amazon.com
Holy Frijoles! It looks like Amazon.com is looking to clear out their inventory of “old” MacBook Pros! A brand new MacBook Pro going for $1444? Dang.
Here’s what $1444 will get you:
- 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 3 MB on-chip shared L2 cache running 1:1 with processor speed, Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard
- 2 GB RAM (two SO-DIMM) 677 MHz DDR2 SD-RAM (PC2-5300), 200 GB 5400 rpm Serial ATA hard drive, slot load 8x Super Drive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
- One FireWire 400, one FireWire 800, two USB 2.0 ports, and ExpressCard/34 slot
- Built-in 10/100/1000BASE-T (Gigabit); built-in 54 Mbps AirPort Extreme (802.11n); built-in Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
- 15.4-inch (diagonal), 1440 by 900 resolution, matte TFT LED widescreen display with NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 256 MB of GDDR3 memory and dual-link DVI
September 2, 2008
Google Enters the Web Browser War
If you haven’t seen the buzz in the blogosphere yet, Google is releasing their own web-browser, dubbed Chrome, tomorrow. I just perused the info-comic (made by Scott McCloud of all people) explaining the ideas and architecture behind Chrome, and I must say that I’m curious.
Here is what stands out to me:
- Multi-process *and* Multi-threaded - Each browser tab will be its own separate process with its own thread pool. If a website causes a crash, the whole browser won’t go down–only that one tab. There will also be a built-in task manager that will enable you to kill processes and threads and also identify exactly what is causing the crashes. This will require more memory up front, but could potentially save memory in the long run.
- Process compartmentalization - Google reinforced process boundaries to an even higher degree to prevent malware attack and bad plugins from hosing the entire browser. The “sandbox” (as they call it) is completely user driven.
- Compiled Javascript - Instead of being interpreted, Javascript will be read once and then compiled into machine code. Huge performance increase potential here. Chrome will be using multiple garbage collection strategies to further optimize memory usage (e.g. precise and incremental)
- Using WebKit - The Webkit rendering engine is fast, light-weight and used in both conventional laptops/desktops and mobile devices. Potential iPhone app anyone?
- Omnibar - This will be Chrome’s equivalent to Firefox’s “Awesome” bar, or what we traditionally refer to as the location bar.
- Open Source - Google’s entry into the browser war can only help the internet as a whole. The entire Chrome project will be open sourced so I’m sure we’ll start to see some of these features absorbed into Firefox, Safari, IE (maybe), etc.
- Stability - Google has an index of, I daresay, trillions of webpages. Apparently they are subjecting test builds of Chrome to millions of websites each day and are approaching asymptotically that “100% compatibility” mark.
UPDATE (9/2/08):
Google Chrome is available for download now for Windows users.
Technorati Tags: chrome, google, open source, web browser
August 15, 2008
What’s Keeping Me?
I think that a universal operating system law should go into effect that requires OS developers to notify the user exactly which process or program has its vice-like grip on the file/folder you want to delete (or the device you want to eject).
Luckily, there are handy little apps like What’s Keeping Me (for OS X) that help you out of these annoying situations.
July 22, 2008
WordPress App for iPhone
The free WordPress application for the iPhone is all sorts of handy. I just wrote this entire post, screenshot and all, from my iPhone.
Only caveats so far are the inability to do URL links and lack of control over placement of inline images.
July 10, 2008
Free iPhone Apps
Okay, I’m nearly wetting my underoos in eager anticipation of the iPhone App store tomorrow. The iTunes 7.7 software update is already available in preparation for all the iPhone Apps.
Lifehacker has a great list of free (and awesome) apps that will be available.
Which free apps am I most excited about?
- Remote - controlling your iTunes library via local wifi
- Google Mobile - think “Quicksilver” for your iPhone (written by the same guy who wrote Quicksilver”
- NetNewsWire - RSS reader that syncs between a desktop app, a web app, and now my iPhone
via Lifehacker
July 9, 2008
Search Your Google Docs Using Spotlight
Precipitate is an open-source app for OS X that indexes your Google Docs and Google Bookmarks making them available to Spotlight searches.
This is especially handy for users who collaborate heavily with co-workers using Google Docs.
Precipitate -> via Lifehacker
del.icio.us to Firefox
Firefox 3’s “awesome bar” is just that. If you start adding tags to your bookmarks, the awesome bar becomes a website launcher akin to Quicksilver for the Mac or Launchy for Windows. If you have a del.icio.us account and want to take full advantage of Firefox 3, check out this handy tool which merges your del.icio.us bookmarks with your Firefox bookmarks and preserves all of the tags.
