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Tag: macintosh

2010 Top Ten Software on My Macbook Air Laptop

My top ten software I will be depending on for the new year 2010. Every year end, I will evaluate and budget what software or tools I need for the next year.

Let start off ending the year 2009 with Time Machine, a backup utility that introduce with OS X 10.5, to backup my whole year of works that store on my machine. Since it invention, backup is no longer a hassle. I still keep my Carbon Copy Cloner to clone hardisk and other stuffs that Time Machine cannot do.

Adium an almost all-in-one instant messaging software that is always turn on, on my Air laptop. Without Adium, my thirteen inch screen will be invaded with all brands of messaging windows. Adium allows me to combine all my different brands accounts into one and skinning it user interface greatly reduce and reclaim my viewable screen property for better use by other applications.

Sociallite replaces Nambu. Socialite keeps all my social networks in one place, one login, one view, keeping it neat and tidy. If you have a thirteen inch screen like me, you will appreciate an application like socialite to manage and organize your friends and give you an overall view of what is going on among them.

In the era of Web 2.0, I am getting more and more dependent on internet, it is very important to me now that what tools allow me to work online safe and fast.

I used to use Rapidweaver daily for rapid deployment of websites. It is a very easy and fun application, but with limited blogging capabilities. Recently I change to Ecto, a weblog client on my Air laptop that allow me to draft my blog post offline and post it later on my WordPress based websites. I still use Rapidweaver for rapid deployment for website that do not need blogging.

My new favorite application is Text Wrangler. An easy and powerful text editor that now replaces my Dreamweaver and other text editors. Text Wrangler let me read web files like HTML, PHP, etc with ease and speed. It also allows me to edit and save online through FTP client, like Cyberduck.

Cyberduck is now my favorite FTP client. So easy to use and have variety of options to configure your login style. I can use it to login to my MobileMe account (formally known as.Mac) and all my FTP sites.

I love iPhoto! It is getting better with newer version. It now have face detection and geotagging but this is not what i use most of the time. iPhoto allows me to upload photos massively to my MobileMe Gallery, Flickr and Facebook. It saves me lot of time on uploading, tagging and managing them.

No more Final Cut and it complicated features to create a five minutes video. iMovies that come with OS X, let me rapidly create video and export directly to my YouTube account or export to my mobile phone. No more like the bad old days to go through codec setting to optimized video export. With iMovies you just concentrate on your creativity.

iBank helps me manage and keep track of my money. Before using iBank, I was using Microsoft Money through Parallels Desktop and that is a troublesome thing to do. iBank also has widgets for the Dashboard that allow me to update my record without opening the application. iBank now simplify my financial management.

Lastly, Viscosity, my newly acquired OpenVPN client. This award winning VPN client keeps all my internet activities safe from preying thefts and allow me to access websites that are blocked by my ISP. My internet speed is much faster and stable now.

My ten software are Time Machine, Adium, Socialite, Ecto, Text Wrangler, Cyberduck, iPhoto, iMovies, iBank and Viscosity. Not enough? Here is the Christmas bonus. Little Snapper, a web snapping utility that let me quickly snapshot websites for future reference or make comment to it. This is also another tool I will be heavily using in the new year.

Here are my top ten software plus one Christmas bonus, I will be using for the year 2010 on my 1.6Ghz Macbook Air Laptop.

25 Jan 2010
Macbook Air Laptop + Parallels Desktop 5.0 = Disappointment

Reading through all the bells and whistles of the new Parallels Desktop 5.0, I was so excited and downloaded the trial copy to install on my Macbook Air laptop. The installation window pop up was quick and the screen display was fast. Click, click, click and I was into the installation progress bar.

I was so excited with many new features, such as faster performance on Snow Leopard OS X 10.6, automated Parallels Compressor that keep the virtual machine optimized and reclaimed hard disk storage space, Multi-Touch gestures available in Windows, remote control windows using Remote Control and the new Crystal Mode. These were the features that got me enthusiastic especially the new Crystal Mode.

Once Parallels Desktop 5.0 was installed, I quickly ran my virtual Windows XP. The speed was impressive and XP was loaded faster than before. I clicked around and realized that it was responding slower and slower and then almost like completely hanged.

I quickly when to Parallels Website and confirm the minimum requirement. Macbook Air laptop was inside the requirement list. I managed to access the start button and clicked restart but it took me more than 10 minutes just to click on the Restart option.

Windows XP restarted again and the startup was fast and went into Windows and from here onward, I could never used my XP anymore. It hanged instantly and I had to hard reset my Air laptop. After three tries and three hard resets, I gave up.

I took the trouble to reinstall back version 4 from my backup. Sad to say I was disheartened that I could not upgrade it. My Macbook Air Laptop model identifier ‘MacBookAir 1,1’ running at 1.6GHz. Perhaps it’s time for me to get a new mac.

7 Jan 2010
The Best Mobile Computing – MacBook Air Laptop Plus Snow Leopard 10.6

With all the hypes and marketing brainwashing, I finally I got a copy of OS X Snow Leopard also known as version 10.6.

The installation was standard like the previous version but there was no Archive and Install option available and it went straight to upgrade my existing OS. I was worried. After more than a hour, I heard the Mac ‘ding’ sound and I ran toward the screen looking forward for a safe upgrade. I was glad that my Air laptop was successfully upgraded.

The first thing I did was to checked my hard disk storage space. To my amazement, 10.6 gave me back almost 13GB of storage space. I was worried again if my video and other files were deleted during the upgrade. Double checking again and again, I was so delighted that Snow Leopard 10.6 saved so much storage space. One thumb up!

The overall performance of my Air Laptop increased significantly. I could feel the speed. Everything I did was so much faster, applications loaded faster, Dashboard displayed faster, Spaces switched faster and the list could go on. I quickly restarted the OS to test the startup speed. The performance was over my expectation, at least two times faster than 10.5. Another thumb up!

Chinese language input on Multi-Touch. This was the main reason that enticed me to installed Snow Leopard. The Chinese input with Multi-Touch was first introduced on iPhone and iPod Touch. Combining keystrokes and keyboard input, now I could simply used it on my Air to enhance my writing. Three thumbs up already!

The most intensive Parallels Desktop 4.0 with Windows XP SP3 loaded in Snow Leopard. Another delighted discovery, my Windows XP was up and running two times faster than previously with 10.5. With Snow Leopard 10.6, I reclaimed a hefty lot of processor speed. For this, one big thumb up!

There were many more enhancements Snow Leopard offered. For me, These four reasons were more than enough to justify my upgrade. Four thumbs up for MacBook Air laptop running on Snow Leopard 10.6, the experience was awesome.

6 Jan 2010
7 Hidden Shortcuts In Mac OS X

The most common tasks we used

1) You can hide individual windows or entire applications instead of closing them. When you work with multiple applications or documents, windows sometimes overlap and make it difficult to see your desktop or other items.

• To hide all open windows in an application ( including any toolbars or panels), choose the Hide command from the application menu, or ⌘+H.

• To hide everything except the current application, choose Hide Others form the application window, or ⌘+Option+H.

2) You can take a picture of a window using the shortcut ⌘+Shift+3.

• If you don’t need a picture of your entire screen, you can capture just part of the screen using ⌘+Shift+4.

• To take a picture of a window, a menu, the menu bar, or the Dock, press ⌘+Shift+4, then press the Space bar. Move the pointer over the area you want so that it’s highlighted, then click. To drag to select the area instead, press the Space bar again. To cancel, press Escape.

3) Making the screen image appear larger

If you have difficulty seeing or reading objects on your screen, you can make items on your screen appear larger by setting zoom options in the Universal Access pane of System Preferences.

When zoom is turned on, you use keyboard shortcuts to enlarge and reduce the screen image.

• ⌘+Option+equal (=) makes the screen image appear larger (zoom in).

• ⌘+Option+hyphen (-) makes the screen image appear smaller (zoom out).

4) You can view and modify information about files, applications, and volumes in the Info window.

• To see information for one or more items, select the items and press ⌘+I

5) When you finish your work in an application, you may want to quit the application to make more memory available for other applications. This is commonly mistaken with the close window command. When you close a window, the program is still running in the background, taking up computer resources.

• To close a window in the Finder or application, press ⌘+W.

• To Quit an application, press ⌘+Q.

6) You can right-click. Windows users are used to having a right mouse click. Mac does come with this feature, but is hidden, as there is only a single click button on the computer.

To activate the menu list

• for portables, hold down the Control (ctrl) button while you click on the trackpad button

• for desktops or mouse users, go to Mouse option in the Keyboard & Mouse preferences

7) Moving items to trash and emptying the trash

• To move the selected item to the Trash, press ⌘+Delete.

• To empty the Trash, press ⌘+Shift+Delete.

• To empty the Trash without any warning or when it contains locked files, press ⌘+Shift+Option+Delete.

(Co-author with Puat)

7 Sep 2009
So Far So Good With Windows 7 RC

Gone through the hassle to Install Windows 7 from beta release to RC Build 7100. All the builds were getting better then the previous release and Build 7100 is by far the best and stable.

I think my Windows XP in Parallels now had the good Windows 7 as the contender to be replaced. I was very disappointed with Windows Vista when installed in Parallels. Vista was such a bloated OS that I spent most of the time waiting to click the next task.

Windows 7 when you switched to classic mode interface, the OS operated faster than XP. I could feel Windows 7 is much sleeker and neater than XP and Vista when you executed a task. Windows 7 integration with Parallels 4 had more bells and whistles than running with XP. I was not sure with Vista because I gave up on it.

Windows 7 had an old compatibility mode feature that let you run older software and drivers, and this feature worked so well that I had no problem running older application and support for older hardware.

So far so good, Windows 7, I had no complain. I am looking forward for the release.

11 May 2009
Macbook Air Laptop 365th Day

My Macbook Air laptop had been with me for the past three hundreds and sixty-five days. My best companion and ever since I had my PowerBook 12”. None of my Mac stayed with me for more than a year except my PowerBook 12” and now my beloved Air.

I just bought the Apple Care Protection Plan (ACPP) for my Air because it was going to be my lover, my entertainer, my postmaster and my best buddy for the coming years.

1 May 2009
Macbook Air 200th Day

I have been using my Macbook Air Laptop for the past 200 days. The more I use the more I like the machine. My Air is now my perfect travelling companion.

Many people have been complaining the shortfalls of Air. Like only one USB port, battery not swappable, no CD drive, etc. Until you use it like a road warrior, you will truly appreciate the ultra portability of Air.

One USB Port Only. Yes! One is enough. Think about it. How often do you two USB Ports concurrently. Road warrior like us will use Bluetooth to replace USB. We connect devices, like mobile phones, mostly by Bluetooth. My main use of the USB port is USB security key issued by bank.

USB port is hardly use these days unless I am performing an extensive backup to my external drive or transferring huge files. When I say huge files, I am taking about size of 100GB. With Wifi running 802.11n, transferring files of 10 to 20GB over wireless is not a problem at all. 10GB can be transferred within 10 minutes.

Why carry a CD drive. Seasoned traveller like us, will rip the DVD and playback from the harddisk. When on the move, we do not swap the CD in and out of the CD drive. We copy our required data into the harddisk and use it while on the road because we all know that accessing the CD drive will drain the battery faster.

Since this is the typical behaviour of a road warrior. Then removing the CD drive from the machine and make it an external device is a strategic move. It will conserves battery power and lighten the weight. Road warrior usually use the CD drive before travelling and after that the drive will not be used until the user is back to the base. If the user really need the CD drive, then take it along with him.

I do not need extra battery pack. The battery can last 2 to 6 hours depending on how I use. My Air has survive a 12-hour journey from a single charge. Of course a seasoned traveller like me, knows how to conserve and maximise the battery to last as long as it can. With combination of turning on and off wireless and use the lighted keyboard sparsely, I am sure you can prolong the battery life of Macbook Air as good as me.

Macbook Air laptop does have it shortfalls. The most important shortfall is, there is no security lock. You cannot secure it to an unmoveable object. Thus this make my Air really portable, I have to bring it to the toilet to pee with me if I have no one to look after it.

Another shortfall for me is no built-in LAN port. There are times I just need to get a quick task done, I would prefer to get connected faster by plugging in to the LAN port than configuring the Wifi. This problem is still bearable if I remember to bring along my USB-Ethernet adapter.

Running Windows Vista through Parallels Desktop, the performance is still acceptable. But running Windows XP through Parallels, I gain back more CPU resources and reclaim 4GB of harddisk space.

Is 80GB of harddisk space too small for the Air? Removing my seldom used mp3 and movies files and relocate them to my external storage. I still have 28GB left on my Air. If you are not a porn collector, 80GB is more than enough.

2GB of RAM and running on integreated graphics, I can multitask Photoshop, Parallels Desktop, iPhoto, iMovies and iTunes comfortably. I am also using Final Cut Express on my Air. The trick to run Air at it best is to keep the exhaust fan RPM as low as possible and that is around 2000 RPM. The lower the RPM, the more applications you can run and faster.

Remember Macbook Air laptop is not a Macbook Pro. But Air packs much more performance in the slimmest chassis ideal for the road warrior.

9 Nov 2008
Macbook Air 的第一百天

今天是我拥有 Macbook Air 的第一百天。Air 现在是市场上最薄的笔记本。

我好喜欢这个超薄笔记本电脑因为很方便随身能用。站着用，躺着用，传来传去用，在移动的时候都能轻轻松松的用，等等。因为这台电脑又薄又轻，随身随地都可以用的好处，不限制我的灵感或我的想象力，让我自然又轻松的发挥我的创意。

其实这样的电脑我已经等了两年，终于让我等到我理想的笔记本电脑了。

2 Aug 2008
My MacBook Air

Finally I decided to replace my MacBook Pro with MacBook Air. Although it was an expensive trade-off sacrificing performance for portability. It was sacrificed well. With Air, I was motivated to travel often now than previously carrying my Pro. Air was so light that I did not really feel like travelling with a computer.

21 Apr 2008
MacBook Air vs Sony Vaio TX

Still deciding to buy Macbook Air laptop or to keep my MacbookPro (MBP). The Air and MBP are about the same price point but Air sacifices performance for ultraportability. Lot of I/O ports are omitted especially firewire which is hallmark of Apple tradition.

I read a lot of reviews and benchmark reports and Macbook Air is a better than above average machine in the ultraportable market.

I am still making my decision of owning this sexy machine.

28 Feb 2008