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Posts tagged with "mac"

So, Uhm, Soon You’ll Be Able To Use AirPrint With 6 More Printers

We thought AirPrint would make us print again, thanks to the power of iOS 4.2 and printers shared through OS X or Windows. It turns out achieving stable driverless printing ain’t that easy even for Apple, and the engineers at Cupertino were forced to remove support for AirPrint on OS X 10.6.5. We’ve already heard this story.

Steve Jobs promises more is coming soon and a few alternative solutions to print via OS X have surfaced, but as it stands now AirPrint officially works only with 7 HP printers out of the box. Read more

Old Macs Still Rock→

Old Macs Still Rock

Of course, using Tiger means I personally couldn’t use a lot of the apps I require, like Espresso, nor could I manage Photoshop or InDesign with such a small visual canvas. I can’t stand notebooks anyway. But the intended audience wasn’t me. I chose Tiger over Leopard because it was intended on being used by people in an office environment, who needed word processing, internet, and email. And this is what most people use a computer for. They’ve been using the iBook for the past week, day-in day-out, and I’ve received no complaints so far — they have no clue that the brushed metal UI is ugly, even though they also have a Snow Leopard Mac mini running.

Techno-lust can lead to a flawed vision, making it difficult to see the true value in things.

Such a re-discovery wouldn’t be possible on iOS. You can’t download old versions of apps, and if you run the latest version most likely you’ll end up frustrated by the lack of optimization on older units.

You’ve got to play the update game with iOS.

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I Finally Closed My Google Reader Tab. Reeder for Mac Is That Good.

RSS readers for Mac have been ignored for too long. After an enormous, and maybe initially unexpected, success on the iPhone and iPad, developer Silvio Rizzi set out to create the best new desktop RSS reader. A very simple goal. Perhaps the most difficult to accomplish.

See, they say RSS is dead. Some claim saying “something is dead” is dead. Truth is, Twitter users, Instapaper lovers and Foursquare dwellers don’t know what “dead” means anymore. Especially when it comes down to apps and services, everything can be dead or excellent in a matter of a few weeks. Just take a look at Instragram’s numbers. RSS isn’t for my father or my average non-tech savvy friends, but it definitely isn’t dead. It was just looking for a new desktop house to spend his retirement days in.

Here comes Reeder for Mac to redefine the rules, conventions, UI decisions and navigation schemes of RSS on the desktop.  Read more

The MacBook Tablet Shows Up, Again

According to the most loyal Apple fan, two are the “dream products” Apple has in store: the iMac Touch and the MacBook Tablet. While we don’t know whether such machines would make for great innovations or terrible hybrids, the loyal Apple geek surely can dream. And it’s not that patents Apple is granted do anything to convince him that these products aren’t real.

As noted by Patently Apple, the much rumored and long-awaited MacBook Tablet showed up again in a patent published a few days ago. It’s a convertible MacBook / iPad-like device with a touchscreen and a physical keyboard, something that Steve Jobs could really describe as a MacBook hooking up to an iPad. Other patents Apple was granted include one for multi-touch scrolling behavior and the iPad’s virtual keyboard.

Dell is getting ahead of Apple in the convertible notebook market with its latest Inspirion Duo hybrid, and we’re not sure whether Apple will actually ship something like a MacBook Tablet in the next few years. It sounds cool thinking about some sort of MacBook Air with a touch screen, but, as usual, Apple patents are something the loyal Apple fan shouldn’t rely on.

Public Beta of Reeder for Mac Now Available

Reeder developer Silvio Rizzi promised a public beta of Reeder for Mac by the end of November and he didn’t break his promise: Reeder for Mac “draft 1” is now available for download here. Reeder comes to the Mac after two very successful iterations on the iPhone and iPad (our review of the iPad version here).

This is a first rough beta of the app, which has been in the works for several months now, and it’s still missing key features such as in-app feed management, search and downloads. The application is already pretty fast and stable, but it can’t be considered a final version at all. Feedback can be submitted to: mac@reeder.ch.

A lot of things have changed since our exclusive first look at Reeder for Mac months ago. Rizzi has been busy polishing the overall feeling of the app and adding features (especially sharing ones); he completely redesigned the navigation of unread items in Google Reader by putting folders and subscriptions in “boxes” sitting in a left sidebar, he tried a more iPad-like approach.

Reeder for Mac is going to be huge, and this is just the beginning. I guess the app will eventually find its way to the Mac App Store after initial testing. Look for a detailed review of Reeder “Draft 1” on MacStories tomorrow.

Update: review online here.

Update #2: Reeder Vs. Fitt’s Law.

A Wooden MacBook Case I’d Actually Buy

Usually, I’m not into wooden accessories. Heck, I’m not even a fan of wooden-like interfaces (hello, iBooks) – I just don’t like the feeling of wood when put next to a shiny Apple product.

The wooden cases from BlackBox, though, are a different thing of beauty. They are detailed, hand oiled, hand rubbed and numbered. They are unique pieces made for the exclusive Apple user. And they don’t come cheap: $129 for the 13” and 15” cases.

Still: they look good. Even to someone who’s not into this kind of accessories. [Gizmodo via BlackBox]

Mac Of The Future→

Mac Of The Future

From its experience with iOS, Apple believes it has discovered—or perhaps rediscovered—the secret to selling consumer technology products: simplicity. This doesn’t mean that the Mac we know and love will disappear. Rather, by stealing the most successful ideas from iOS, the Mac OS of tomorrow could slowly shed its legacy constraints while still remaining true to the power, utility, and spirit that has always defined the Mac.

And we haven’t seen anything about Lion yet – Mac App Store and Launchpad aside. Exciting times ahead for Mac users.

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