3 posts tagged “os x”
I thought I would make a quick post about my two favorite efficiency apps for OS X. These two apps save me so much time in my day to day computing that I don't know what I would do without them. So without out further ado here they are!
1. QUICKSILVER: This ever-famous extensible interface for streamlining your work with applications, contacts, music, and other data. Quicksilver is what spotlight should be. Although I don't think of it as a complete replacement of spotlight it is pretty close. Quicksilver can be a little tricky to get the hang of, but once you do you will find that its power is impressive. With just a few key strokes you can find a file, compress it, attach it to an email message, and send it out. A mastery of this app can skyrocket your productivity.
2. SPARK: Is a very powerful and easy to use shortcut manager. You can program hotkeys to launch apps, documents, and folders, execute scripts, control iTunes and much more. I find this application particularly useful to navigate to directories deep within your HD seamlessly. It allows you to get where you need to go quickly without cluttering your desktop or dock.
I truly believe that these two apps make a great difference in my productivity (especially directory navigation). I encourage anyone to check these apps out. The best part of course is that they are both absolutely free (although the Spark developer will accept donations) ! To visit the developers' website click on the links above.
Rumors of an iTunes phone have been circulating around blogs and forums for several months now. Some mention the phone as a certainty, while others think it's unlikely that Apple would enter into this mobile carrier dominated market. Well, it now appears that Apple will be entering this market, at least to some degree. This video depicts an OS X Mobile operating system on a Nokia phone. This is great for those consumers who have, for whatever reason, hesitated to latch onto a PDA phone operating on the Windows Mobile OS. I hope you are as excited as I am. Enjoy!
It may seem like a great time to buy a new Mac, but is it? Although Apple only recently completed the Intel transition it may not be the ideal time to buy for several reasons.
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Apple just announced at WWDC that Leopard will ship this spring. You could save money (about $130) by waiting to buy a system with OS X Leopard preloaded. Additionally, Vista ships in the first quarter of 2007. Apple has said that Boot Camp will ship with Leopard but we may see better an alternative means of windows integration in Leopard ( a la parallels?). Parallels recently reported that their newest beta is capable of handling Vista. But, if you plan to run Vista and OSX, make sure you have the RAM and video card to do it.
- Despite the wonderful reviews of Intel’s new Core 2 Duo chips, it looks like there will be something even better in the near future. Intel has reported desktop and server launch of quad core processors in the fourth quarter of this year. It is likely that a notebook version ships in the first or second quarter of next year. Is this why Apple has not announced plans to incorporate the Core 2 Duo chips in the Mac Pro or Mac Book Pro product lines? I guess we will find out soon enough
- Apple is preparing a new network card for MacPros called Airport Express (not to be confused with the Airport Express base station). Although it is apparent that this card will not support wireless N, there has been speculation for some time that Apple will be one of the first adopters of the 802.11N spec, which is capable of data transfer speeds up to 200Mbits/sec. It is likely that we will see apple computers shipping with wireless N WiFi cards once the details of the N spec are finalized next year.
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Intel has announced that they will launch their Wimax chipsets in the fourth quarter of 2006. WiMax is an emerging wide area broadband service that will help to provide wireless access to the massees. Speculators suggest that these chipsets may appear in apple computers soon after their release. WiMax may not be broadcasting that soon but it would be nice to have the integrated chipset in your notebook once it is.
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While it will probably be some time before we see BluRay in macs, it may be sooner than you think. It is obvious that the extra slot in the recently released Mac Pro was built to incorporate this future upgrade. Although unlikely, maybe these drives will ship sooner we think. One can always hope!
So should I wait for all of these advancements to hit the marketplace, probably not. Whether you should buy or not depends upon your situation. If you need a new computer now then get one. The new Macs are amazing, but so are the old ones. If you can wait to buy your new Mac, you may benefit by waiting until spring of next year. At the very least you will be getting Leopard and you will likely get yourself a Core 2 Duo machine or even a quad core. If the world was perfect you also find options to integrate BluRay, WiMax, and 802.11N. In the end it all comes down to your needs and desires but you should know what lies on the horizon.
