Category Archives: Apple

Throbbers

MajesticWhy settle for the Internet Explorer “e” logo (or the Netscape “N” logo, I guess, if you insist on using Netscape) spinning in the upper right-hand corner of your browser? If you’ve got a Mac, you can change this branding area — commonly called a “throbber” — with custom throbbers using Apple’s venerable ResEdit.

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Frustrating as Heck

Palm SucksIf Microsoft added Macintosh functionality to their PocketPC line of PDAs, it’s almost a sure bet I’d make the switch from the steadily declining Palm OS platform. Despite all of my patience with their dimwitted take on serving their customers, Palm Computing’s Mac OS support continues to be abysmal. Their USB implementations are screwy and unpredictable and result in terrible synching performance — I’m fed up with the frustration of trying to get my Palm Vx to talk to my Power Macintosh G4. It’s all nearly enough to make me want to chuck in the whole PDA thing for a DayRunner.

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Closing in on Mac OS X

Mac OS XThe long anticipated release of Apple’s Mac OS X is coming up in just over two months. Things are heating up.

Over at OS Opinion Jef Raskin, one of the Macintosh’s original fathers, defends his publicly stated laments that Mac OS X, in spite of its advances, doesn’t really represent a bona fide step forward in operating system paradigms — a viewpoint with which I happen to agree. And at his own site, Ask Tog, ex-Apple human interface guru Bruce Tognazzini (now a member of the HCI Legion of Doom) sounds off in a disturbingly shrill manner on the shortcomings of Mac OS X’s Dock feature.

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New Crop

I guess everyone loves the new Apple Titanium PowerBook G4, just announced on Tuesday. I admit that’s a slick little laptop, but I have to reserve judgement until I see the actual thing, up close and personal. At a distance, I’m not particularly enamored by its slavish devotion to squarishness. And at 5.3 lbs., I’m not particularly impressed by its weight economy, either.

The big question everyone should be asking is, what the heck is Apple’s long-term gameplan? This may be a fancy little machine, but it still leaves unmet most of the challenges facing the company today&#58 lagging processor speeds, poor price-to-features value, ever-shrinking marketshare. I’ve been down on this company that I care for so greatly for so long now, for the simple reason that the products they’ve delivered have seemed increasingly detached from reality. I know until this year, they’ve actually managed to prosper and show a profit, but I feel like the creativity is a pale ghost of what it once was.

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