Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Aperture's Share of the Market
Come on Apple... You can do better than this. Where's Aperture version 2.0?
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Leopard Impressions
Leopard is up and running on both my Mac Pro and trusty old PowerBook G4. Installation went very smoothly on both machines. Remember when you'd have to budget an entire weekend for a Windows upgrade? Oh, maybe you still do with Windows? Just be on the safe side, I did make a fresh bootable backup with SuperDuper prior to pulling the trigger.
With Leopard running since Saturday, there's still much to learn, but here are my initial observations:
The MacPro is noticeably faster, particularly while running Photoshop and Aperture. I guess all the Multicore technology is really starting to mature. And the laptop certainly isn't suffering from a slowdown. Typically, an OS upgrade just doesn't run as swiftly on an older machine. Sure the eye candy features aren't as punchy, but all in all, the PowerBook is running just fine. No slower than before.
Mail and iChat are much improved! To Do and Notes are built in to Mail. And it even recognizes appointments and phone numbers within a message - very intelligent.
I was interested to give Time Machine a try, but it appears Apple has got some work to do yet with Aperture's compatibility with the new feature. So I'm going to hold off for now.
Spaces has taken me all weekend to get the feel of, but now it's starting to click. Perhaps the best way to think of it is as separate configurable desktops. Select the applications you want viewable in each space and go back to work. So I might have Aperture in it's own space with Mail and Safari in another space. With Aperture in it's own space, I can focus solely on the images without distracting windows in the background. If I need to flip back to Safari or send a message, then I slide back to the other space with a key stroke. I think I'll really find this feature handy. One odd thing I've noticed is that I can't seem to shut it off - maybe a bug...
Screen Sharing is one of the more radical changes in the OS. I can connect to the MacPro via the PowerBook with complete control over the entire system. It's almost spooky. If I need an image out of Aperture while sitting on the couch, I just call it up, export the image, and then pull it back to the laptop. All without getting up. Apparently this also works over the Internet with a dot mac subscription.
In my opinion, the upgrade is more than worth the price. I'll save you the full review and just point to two solid reviews.
David Pogue of the NY TImes
Andy Ihnatko of MacWorld
With Leopard running since Saturday, there's still much to learn, but here are my initial observations:
The MacPro is noticeably faster, particularly while running Photoshop and Aperture. I guess all the Multicore technology is really starting to mature. And the laptop certainly isn't suffering from a slowdown. Typically, an OS upgrade just doesn't run as swiftly on an older machine. Sure the eye candy features aren't as punchy, but all in all, the PowerBook is running just fine. No slower than before.
Mail and iChat are much improved! To Do and Notes are built in to Mail. And it even recognizes appointments and phone numbers within a message - very intelligent.
I was interested to give Time Machine a try, but it appears Apple has got some work to do yet with Aperture's compatibility with the new feature. So I'm going to hold off for now.
Spaces has taken me all weekend to get the feel of, but now it's starting to click. Perhaps the best way to think of it is as separate configurable desktops. Select the applications you want viewable in each space and go back to work. So I might have Aperture in it's own space with Mail and Safari in another space. With Aperture in it's own space, I can focus solely on the images without distracting windows in the background. If I need to flip back to Safari or send a message, then I slide back to the other space with a key stroke. I think I'll really find this feature handy. One odd thing I've noticed is that I can't seem to shut it off - maybe a bug...
Screen Sharing is one of the more radical changes in the OS. I can connect to the MacPro via the PowerBook with complete control over the entire system. It's almost spooky. If I need an image out of Aperture while sitting on the couch, I just call it up, export the image, and then pull it back to the laptop. All without getting up. Apparently this also works over the Internet with a dot mac subscription.
In my opinion, the upgrade is more than worth the price. I'll save you the full review and just point to two solid reviews.
David Pogue of the NY TImes
Andy Ihnatko of MacWorld
A Weekend of Rest
This busy October has finally started to settle down for me. I returned from Idaho on Friday. I spent the week out west traveling for work. Boise, Twin Falls, and Sun Valley were among the stops. Unfortunately there was little time for any sightseeing. My point and shoot only found its way from the case a few times. We traveled hard and ate well. Now I get to look forward to catching up on Monday.
Prior to the Idaho visit, I was down in Port St. Lucie, Florida for a photography workshop. We spent a great four days shooting and having loads of fun. I figured southern Florida couldn't be much more humid than north Florida - so much for that theory. The humidity was intense and the rain fierce. But fortunately, the weather didn't impact our schedule. This was the fourth workshop Chris put on the United States. It was also one of the smaller gatherings. But that kept the schedule flexible and the level of personal attention high. I was one of the more experienced shutterbugs in the group. A few the attendees were just discovering the world of DLSR photography.
Having gone through some of the workshop photos, I've finally had a chance just to relax.
Oh, and I had to pick up a copy of Apple's latest OS X upgrade... More on that later.
Prior to the Idaho visit, I was down in Port St. Lucie, Florida for a photography workshop. We spent a great four days shooting and having loads of fun. I figured southern Florida couldn't be much more humid than north Florida - so much for that theory. The humidity was intense and the rain fierce. But fortunately, the weather didn't impact our schedule. This was the fourth workshop Chris put on the United States. It was also one of the smaller gatherings. But that kept the schedule flexible and the level of personal attention high. I was one of the more experienced shutterbugs in the group. A few the attendees were just discovering the world of DLSR photography.
Having gone through some of the workshop photos, I've finally had a chance just to relax.
Oh, and I had to pick up a copy of Apple's latest OS X upgrade... More on that later.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Another Busy Weekend
The busy month continues... The in-laws were in town this weekend and Bonnie wasn't feeling well. She was actually considering not going in to work - so she must not be in good shape. We passed the time with a sampling of Wii Sports and Wii Play. While we don't play the Wii that often, it's always so easy to just pick up and play with some rookies. Nintendo is on their game!
It's another short week for me. On Thursday morning I'm heading down to Port St. Lucie for a photography workshop. I'm really looking forward to a great experience! I'll return from the workshop with barely 24 hours to turn around and head out to Idaho for work. After that trip I should finally have a weekend to myself.
It's another short week for me. On Thursday morning I'm heading down to Port St. Lucie for a photography workshop. I'm really looking forward to a great experience! I'll return from the workshop with barely 24 hours to turn around and head out to Idaho for work. After that trip I should finally have a weekend to myself.
Monday, October 8, 2007
Fighting Illini
We're recovering from a great getaway weekend in Illinois. I can now say I've experienced the Big 10 (and a whole lot of corn fields en route). It was a great game between Illinois and Wisconsin amid the sea of orange. And the Illini pulled out the win! For an early October afternoon, it was surprisingly warm.
The ride home from Illinois was also an experience. We began our trek home on Jet Blue from Chicago. The leg room was ample (especially for Bonnie and me) and the satellite TV kept me somewhat occupied during the ordeal.
After sitting on the ramp for maybe 15 minutes we were informed of a computer glitch. We would return to the gate for a rebooting of the airplane - even airplanes get those damned blue screens of death. With the restart unsuccessful, we had to change planes. So about 2 hours behind schedule, we were finally on our way back to water logged Jacksonville. Our heads hit the pillow about 3am with $50 JetBlue credits on the way.
The ride home from Illinois was also an experience. We began our trek home on Jet Blue from Chicago. The leg room was ample (especially for Bonnie and me) and the satellite TV kept me somewhat occupied during the ordeal.
After sitting on the ramp for maybe 15 minutes we were informed of a computer glitch. We would return to the gate for a rebooting of the airplane - even airplanes get those damned blue screens of death. With the restart unsuccessful, we had to change planes. So about 2 hours behind schedule, we were finally on our way back to water logged Jacksonville. Our heads hit the pillow about 3am with $50 JetBlue credits on the way.
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