Posted by Michael on Feb 25, 2009 in
Rumors,
Site News,
Software,
Web The beta version of Safari version 4 is all the rage on the web right now, and for good reason. It is light, fast, and works well. But it also include a bunch of user interface changes that you may not like. Now, thanks to the guys over at Swedish Campground, you can set some of those interface deviations back the way you want them.
Using the tweaks detailed in this Swedish Campground article, you can move the tabs off the top of the browser, get rid of the Cover Flow view in bookmarks, and a get rid of the Google suggest menu, and a number of other changes. All of the adjustments will require a bit of typing, or copy and pasting, at the command line, but if those new design elements bother you then they are well worth it.
Tags: Safari, Web Browser, Web Development
Posted by Michael on Feb 24, 2009 in
Software,
Web Apple on Tuesday announced a public beta of Safari 4, a new version of its share-gaining web browser that packs a powerful new JavaScript engine and support for the latest web standards.
Dubbed “Nitro,” the engine in Safari 4 is said to run JavaScript 4.2 times faster than Safari 3. Other new features include Top Sites, for a visual preview of frequently visited pages; Full History Search, to search through titles, web addresses and the complete text of recently viewed pages; Cover Flow, to easily flip through web history or bookmarks; and Tabs on Top, to make tabbed browsing easier and more intuitive.
“Apple created Safari to bring innovation, speed and open standards back into web browsers, and today it takes another big step forward,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Safari 4 is the fastest and most efficient browser for Mac and Windows, with great integration of HTML 5 and CSS 3 web standards that enables the next generation of interactive web applications.”
Check out the full details, and download the beta, on the Apple Safari site.
Tags: apple, Safari
Posted by Michael on Feb 23, 2009 in
Learning,
Software The Unauthorized Apple Weblog (TUAW) has published the second part in their series on Apple Script actions. In their first AppleScript post, they talked about some of the useful ways to create Folder Actions, and showed how to use one of the built-in scripts to perform a pretty useful action. In this new AppleScript post, they dive into the built-in scripts in more detail, and show how each of them works.
Tags: AppleScript, training
Posted by Michael on Feb 22, 2009 in
Software This really doesn’t strictly pertain to Mac development, but I found this article so interesting I though I would share it. Recently Smashing Magazine published a piece on 50 Beautiful and User-Friendly Navigation Menus. I spent quite log time going to each of the links and checking out the action of the menus in question. While some weren’t really my style, they were all attractive, different and thought provoking.
What I really took away from this article is that we need to re-examine the mundane components of the software and websites we develop. While maintaining the usability and intuitiveness, we need to come up with creative ways to reinterpret what we are doing. Too often we accept defaults or just do things as we have always done them. But we need to stop, look at what we are creating, and ask ourselves, “what would make this program easier to use,” or “what would make this website fun and attractive while adding to its message?”
I guess the real bottom line is architect vs construction crew. Are you taking the time to architect a well rounded solution when you build something, or are you jumping right in with your standard bag of tools and doing the same thing over and over. Food for thought.
Tags: development, Web Development
Posted by Michael on Oct 22, 2008 in
Learning,
Software,
Web Apple has posted an interesting new tutorial on developing OS X applications with MacRuby. MacRuby is an implementation of the Ruby programming language “ported to run directly on top of Mac OS X core technologies such as the Objective-C common runtime and garbage collector, and the CoreFoundation framework.ported to run directly on top of Mac OS X core technologies such as the Objective-C common runtime and garbage collector, and the CoreFoundation framework.”
What this means is that applications written with MacRuby can be a full-fledged Cocoa application with all the advantages that entails. The tutorial will take you through the process of installing MacRuby as well as building a sample application with Xcode. So if you’ve ever wanted to get started thinking about developing for the Mac, but have always been intimidated by Objective-C (which pretty much describes me), playing around with MacRuby might be just the ticket to get you started.
Tags: apple, Ruby, Tutuorial
Posted by Michael on Aug 18, 2008 in
Software,
Web Just received this from the Apple MobileMe team…
We have already made many improvements to MobileMe, but we still have many more to make. To recognize our users’ patience, we are giving every MobileMe subscriber as of today a free 60 day extension. This is in addition to the one month extension most subscribers have already received. We are working very hard to make MobileMe a great service we can all be proud of. We know that MobileMe’s launch has not been our finest hour, and we truly appreciate your patience as we turn this around. Read this article for more details.
Tags: Customer Service, MobileMe
