Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Review
Posted by Stretch | Filed under Apple, Reviews, Software
Reviews of Leopard have been popping up all over the internet. Some are better of others, and some are looking at specific features. Here is one review that compares it to Tiger, and tries it out on two different architectures. Testing on both a G4 Powerbook, and a C2D Macbook Pro.
What this article is is a frank evaluation of a brand new OS performed over the 5-days since it’s release using a fairly current computer, a October 2006 MacBook Pro with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, both at home and at work, which is a Windows dominated environment. 5-Days is not a long time but I have tried to “kick the tires” thoroughly (certainly more than I did for the Tiger review) and I’ve quite a lot of material to work my way through. While I consider myself an Apple fan since I switched about 4-years ago I am not an Apple apologist and I’m not going to be pulling many punches in this article. I’m also writing this review without having read other reviews or opinions of the OS so that what you read here is my own review without influence from others.
It is an excellent review. Well worth the read, although he recommends not installing Leopard quite yet. Wait til 10.5.1 is released, and a few of the bugs are fixed.
Via 9rules
Aperture VS Lightroom: The Pros
Posted by Stretch | Filed under Photography, Reviews, Software
For digital photographers there are two major options for managing and editing their photos. Apple’s Aperture, and Adobe’s Lightroom. So what do the pros use, Lightroom or Aperture?
InfoTrends recently surveyed 1,026 professional photographers in North America to determine which software they used for raw file processing. Here’s what folks reported:
- 66.5% using the Photoshop Camera Raw plug-in
- 23.6% using Lightroom
- 5.5% using Aperture
To be fair to Aperture, it might be helpful to remove Windows users from the equation for a moment. Even after doing so, Lightroom’s usage among Mac-based pros is still nearly double that of Aperture (26.6% vs. 14.3%).
I’ve tried both, and like Lightroom much better over Aperture, and it seems that the Pros mostly side with my thinking.
Via Daring Fireball
Windows VS Mac OS X: The Hype
Posted by Stretch | Filed under Apple, Reviews, Software
Windows Vista and Mac OS X Leopard both have something similar. They were both delayed, although Vista was delayed almost 3 times longer. Roughly Drafted has a comparison between the two of what you expected, and what you got.
What you expected:
What you got:
Need I say more? 
TUAW’s Apple Keyboard Review
Posted by Stretch | Filed under Apple, Gadgets, Reviews
TUAW has gotten their hands on Apple’s newest keyboard, the one that is razor thin, and has Macbook style keys.
When I heard that there was a new keyboard, I was eager to see what was going to be shown. Until I saw it, then I wasn’t quite as impressed. But TUAW went ahead, and gave us the rundown on it.
So what did I think? I wasn’t kidding when I called it an engineering marvel– the Keyboard is unlike any other keyboard I’ve seen. It is extremely, almost dangerously thin– Apple is already making stuff the width of cardboard, and pretty soon they’ll move on to paper-thin. It’s not actually flexible, but I got the feeling that if I really tried (or just landed a heavy phonebook on it), I could break it in two. Probably not true, but I still felt that way.
But you don’t buy a keyboard for its durability– you buy it to type on, and that’s where I ran into problems.
Yep, that’s not good news. Problems typing is not good for a keyboard. Plus what is up with the number pad-less bluetooth model? How many people use their keyboard on their lap versus the number that use it on a desk?
Flow Impressions
Posted by Stretch | Filed under Apple, Blogs, GUI, Reviews, Software
Flow is an upcoming FTP app for Mac OS X. Currently in a private beta, with a public beta coming sometime soon.
Flow is a brand-new remote connection client. It aims to bring FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, WebDAV HTTPS, and .Mac to new levels with a combination of tried and true paradigms, and clever new concepts, like Auto URL Copying, among others. But Flow isn’t just a remote connection client. It’s also a powerful web-editor — without the bloat you see in other products which all too often seem to mangle the two together…
Will, of MacApper, is part of the beta testing, and writes about what he thinks of Flow so far.
The interface is simple and intuitive for an FTP client; everything works just like the way it looks. Although the icons could be slightly prettier, I’m not complaining, given the beautiful “Mac look”. Thumbs up to the Flow team for more great design.
Like any other respectable FTP client out there, Flow supports bookmarks. There’s not much to say here, apart from the fact that they’re really easy to use. Create a bookmark and the address shows up in the sidebar. From then on it’s one click to connect and edit the files.Flow is fast too; it may not be much different compared to the competition, but like I said I’m not that experienced with this stuff. However, I’ve noticed that it is not noticeably slower than Transmit, Cyberduck, or Yummy FTP.
I’m waiting for a chance to try this out, and see how good it really is.
