Extreme!

So those pesky AirTunes drop outs just got too much and I shelled out for an AirPort Extreme.

Like I suggested a few posts ago, by harnessing the technology that is WDS (Wireless Distribution System) I can avoid having to send an AirTunes signal around the world for a shortcut, and route it directly to the AirPort Express instead. The result? My music never cuts out... just pure uninterrupted musical loverlyness.

Setting it all up was a little troublesome, mainly the connection of the AirPort Extreme to the previous router (which is now basically just a DSL modem)... but alas, I got there in the end.

Other bonuses include: the stronger wireless coverage around the house; the availability of the printer across the network; and, the inherent extra layer of security, right?

And the snags? My sister's Windows 98 laptop went crazy over the combination of WPA with two base stations of the same SSID... I had to switch WPA off (I didn't attempt WEP... something to save for a rainy day), so, we now have no wireless security apart from the old MAC address filtering. Also, the AirPort Extreme doesn't sport any IP reservation system, so in order to use my iBook's webserver, I had to set up its IP manually (rather than via DHCP) and forward incoming traffic on port 80 to that IP. If I then want to join a wireless network elsewhere I have to remember to change my location setting away from 'Home'.

The AirPort Extreme is a nice bit of hardware... typical Apple design and so on. Setup though an actual application is a nice touch too.

Oh now that's fast

My iBook is now the proud owner of 1.5GB of memory, and very proud he is too. And why shouldn't he be? Look how quickly he can leap between apps.

But seriously... this extra memory is absolutely great. Currently I have open: Finder, Safari, Mail, Address Book, Adium, iTunes, iCal, Pages, Photoshop CS8, NetNewsWire, Dictionary and Preview. I can jump between them instantly; no lag whatsoever. Now this is what using a Mac is all about. And... I still have 760MB or RAM still free. That's crazy!

I bought from Crucial, which was quick and painless. The cost totalled around £80. And fitting the module was straight-forward enough.

The purchase of this RAM module was instead of a brand spanking new MacBook. I'm sticking with my trusty iBook for the time being, and that built in 512 just wasn't cutting the mustard.

Argh!

Cut outs in AirTunes are quite possibly the most irritating thing God ever created in the entire universe. I hate them. I want them to stop.... ahhhh... one just happened right there now!

Anyone with a remedy will earn my eternal gratitude. So far I have tried fiddling with:

• B and G
• Multicast rate
• Interference robustness
• Streaming Speed in QuickTime (doubtful - that's for "internet media")
• Streaming Buffer Size in iTunes (doubtful - I believe that's related to the iTMS)
• Turning off wireless security

All that's left to try now is the purchase of a MacBook, which (with the addition of a second horizontal antennae) has better wireless range/strength. Or I could get a longer fibre and move the AirPort Express closer to the Netgear router, yes, that might be a bit cheaper, but what of the ugly cables running around my bedroom?

I'm wondering about WDS. Assuming I had a WDS setup, would the AirTunes signal be routed directly from my iBook to the AirPort Express and therefore avoid the router altogether? Thus, dropping the signal's travelling distance from about twenty metres to one or two metres. This would require me to replace the Netgear router with an AirPort Extreme though since the Netgear doesn't support WDS.

If only you could change the buffer size in iTunes. Come to think of it, why did Apple choose to use the Apple Lossless format for AirTunes, surely a compressed format would make more sense. An encrypted 320AAC would suffice and would be four times smaller in size.

I'm a UNIX-jocky

It's true, I, Jon Carr, am a UNIX-jocky. Well... sort of. I've finally found a use for Mac OS X's UNIX underpinnings, and it's called SIPS.

SIPS (Scriptable Image Processing System) is, as far as I know, a little-known image processor built into Darwin which amongst other things can convert an ICNS file into a more useful image file of your choosing.

In several of my last posts I have used icons from a number of apps, and I got a hold of these using SIPS to convert the ICNS files from the apps' resources into PNG. It gives you lossless quality complete with transparency. Yay! So much better than screenshooting the icon in the Applications folder.

I believe there are GUI apps about to do this, but they cost money!

Okay, so how do I sip?

• Open Terminal, which you shall find in Applications > Utilities, you UNIX-dummy.


• You then type
  
  sips -s format YOUR-CHOSEN-FORMAT PATH-TO-ICNS-FILE --out PATH-TO-NEW-IMAGE-FILE
  
  replacing the stuff in capitals with the relevant variables. For example:
  
  sips -s format png "/Users/Jon/Documents/icon.icns" --out "/Users/Jon/Desktop/icon.png"


• In a split-second a shinny image will be sipped from the ICNS, ready to be dropped into Photoshop (or whatever).


• You can convert to png, tiff, psd, jpeg, gif, jp2, pict, bmp, qtif, sgi, and tga - what other format could you possibly want?

A big thumbs-up to macosxhints.com for making this known to me.

Surfing the int... RSS feeds

Safari got me into RSS a good year ago, and now I wonder how I ever lived without the beast. Having the news come to me makes life that bit easier and for a change in my life I feel like I'm up to date, and I don't even have to try.

Like most of my fellow Mac users I am a NetNewsWire boy, although only the lite version, because I'm a dirty pauper. I started out with Safari and loved the premise. Then I gave NewsFire a wee seeing to, but within five minutes moved to the little goer NetNewsWire, and I haven't looked back since.

All the stories that interest me stream in and are there ready and waiting for me when I feel like something to read. I can't imagine life without it.

Vigilant Mac users will have noticed that Leopard's iteration of Mail will handle RSS feeds. I'm still in my head trying to decide whether I will like this. The reason I moved away from Safari's RSS functionality was because I preferred to keep RSS and websites in separate apps, and... I think I'd prefer to keep Mail for, well, mail. That said, Apple seem to be pushing Mail as a do-it-all, Entourage-like, life-management app with the addition of To-dos and Notes previewed in the keynote speech on Monday. I guess I shall just have to try it out and see, but I have a feeling NetNewsWire will remain on my dock for some time yet.

Disappointing, I guess

Right... where to begin. Erm... there was no "one last thing!"

Time Machine
Pretty kool. Pretty suave. Pretty, pretty. In terms of looks it's quite amazing, stunning even, and it's implementation is quite spectacular too. The idea behind it is great. Keep constant snapshots of your system and jump back to files when you suddenly realise you really shouldn't have trashed them. Apple are very right in that very few people back up... I don't... and certainly a solution is needed. But, I wonder about the finer points. It seems you need a massive external hard drive, which is just not practical for a portable user like myself. And even for Apple, Time Machine is completely over the top. Do we really need a whole new space just to restore files in? I mean, it's kool, but so OTT. I don't even think I'd make much use of it. I'm pretty careful with my files, and I certainly can't see myself using it often enough for it to warrant a place on my dock.

Mail
More eye-candy with the stationary. And haven't Windows' users had this sort of thing for ages in Outlook Express? Okay, so Outlook doesn't implement it just as nicely, but still, it feels like Apple are desperately trying to make sure that they can do every single last thing that Windows can. I always thought Mail didn't have any stationary because Apple considered it childish and unprofessional. I'm not an aficionado of this sort of thing, I want my email to get straight to the point and avoid any superfluous HTML.

Notes sounds damn useful. I need a place where I can make notes, and Mail is the perfect place for that. I've tried third-party note-taking apps, but they jus' don't feel right to me. Notes in Mail does feel right, and my Inbox is a good place to store this sort of thing. I don't really use To-dos so much, I guess I just don't have enough things to do, but for a certain user I can see this being useful.

iChat
Yet more eye-candy, can you believe it. The only serious new features are tabs and photo/keynote sharing. The video backdrops are pretty kool, and I guess you could have some fun with the Photo Booth effects, but I would have much preferred Apple to address more important issues like the fact that iChat can't talk to half the world's IM users. Seamless support for the MSN and Yahoo! protocols would have been much more impressive.

Spaces
Oo... I like this one. The idea of multiple desktops is pretty kool. I first came across them in my flirtation with Ubuntu (apparently Linux has had them for ages). The premise is simple, instead of having all your apps cluttered together you have separate 'spaces' or desktops to group certain apps together. Having a separate space for Photoshop, for example, would be heaven. Then I could maybe keep a space for my IM chats and Mail. A space for Safari. And then a space for whatever project I'm working on. It really would solve a lot of my desktop clutter issues, and along with a higher screen resolution I would be flying.

Along with Time Machine, Spaces gets its own icon on the dock. I'm not sure I like this. I don't like the way Apple is putting a lot of system-wide stuff, Dashboard included, into the dock. It doesn't feel like the natural place for it to reside. Time Machine should go in the Apple menu. Spaces should be just a keystroke, although which keys is beyond me. In fact I don't think I'd need to move from space to space manually, instead I'd rather use Exposé to jump around between spaces, by clicking an app within that space. I do hope Leopard's iteration of Exposé is Spaces-wide rather than separate Exposés specific to each space.

Dashboard
I'm not sure how advanced an environment Dashcode is, Apple clams you can make Widgets without writing any code. So is Dashcode really aimed at developers or more at average Joe? I've never even attempted to create a Widget, but it doesn't seem all that hard, but regardless I imagine Dashcode will be a welcome addition to Apple's developer tools.

Web Clip seems pretty awesome. I can see a use for that. Often there's a little piece of a website which you want to keep an eye on, and Web Clip is just right for this job. And it seems extremely easy and quick to use.

Spotlight
Not much to say really... I like this idea of Spotlight showing your recent apps and documents or whatever... that's useful. Searching other Macs has no impact on me at all, since I only have one Mac, and don't plan on ever owning more than one at any one time. In fact, the idea of using more than one computer on a regular basis is horrible. I hated using the computers at school, not least because they were Windows machines, but because I've made myself at home in my iBook, everything's how I want it to be. For the foreseeable future I plan on only ever owning one Mac portable at a time, and thus I have no use for multi-Mac search.

Quick Look seems handy I guess, but it should have been there a while ago.

I use iCal, but would have no use for the new features Leopard introduces - I'm just not a busy enough guy. A lot of people seem joyous about the CalDAV support though.

The new VoiceOver voice Alex is pretty sweet, but again, not really much use to me. Although it has occurred to me that I could use VoiceOver to read back my writing, which should make proofing a bit easier. It's good to see Apple doing things for Accessibility though.

64-bit: didn't we get this in Tiger? Apparently not fully. 64-bit was only at the Unix level and didn't actually affect Mac apps. Now it does. Not that it will effect me for a long time since only the Intel Xeon chip is 64-bit. I doubt any Mac I buy in the next few years is going to be 64-bit, and I don't care too much... the most intensive stuff I do is in Photoshop, and we probably won't get a 64-bit app from Adobe until at least CS6.

With Core-animation we look set to see an explosion in the amount of eye-candy in future apps. Whether that's a good thing or not is debatable, but still, that iTunes artwork screen saver is pretty swanky.

So Leopard's features are nice, but nice isn't super. For me the most exciting new announced feature is Spaces. I can see it changing the way I use my Mac. I think it'll allow me to start keeping loads of windows open (and therefore more easily accessible), without having to worry about wading through apps irrelevant to what I'm currently doing. Otherwise Leopard (as it stands) is pretty boring... but let us not forget what Steve Jobs said: The most exciting new stuff is top secret so that the folks in Redmond won't get a leg up before they have to.

Overall though the keynote was disappointing. And there was definitely a feeling of Leopard isn't anywhere near ready yet. It's a shame to hear it's being set back to Spring '07, although, that'll quite possibly be before Vista. It also feels like Apple have run out of steam as regards innovation. Everything announced was kind of old news, even the only hardware announcement, the Mac Pro, was predictable. That said, Jobs is holding back on us, how innovative this unannounced stuff will be is yet to be seen... but remains exciting.

Oh the excitement!

So I was surfing the RSS waves, avoiding anything Apple related, only to accidentally come across "Apple releases wireless keyboard..." I quickly shut my eyes and ⌘W'd it away. It's maybe not related to the keynote speech but still... I've told myself, no Apple news until you've seen the Stevenote. It strikes me as odd anyway since Apple already have a wireless keyboard.

Right now it's 10:45 in San Francisco, so Steve should be about half way through his speech. I wonder what's going on there right now? Oh, if only I knew.

Anyway... I do hope the footage is posted tonight, I'm not sure how long it'll take them to get it all together, and I'm not entirely sure how their servers are going to hold out.

I must find something to take my mind off it.

Leopardy wishes

Well... everyone else in the macosphere is doing it, so here are my leopardy wishes on this fine WWDC-eve.

New character palette
Using the character palette is a hideous experience. It truly is horrible to use. Having a low screen resolution doesn't help. For it to be useful I like to have its window relatively large but this obscures everything else, plus it forces itself atop of all my other apps. It's slow, especially when involving font variation, and the search is often less than useful. On a number of occassions I have hit ⌘W to close it away only to find I've accidentally closed the app I'm working with.

However, I love its category organisation view and it's certainly a lot better than Windows' character map. I would love to see Leopard introduce us to a new way of using non-keyboard characters. In my head I view a pop up along the bottom of the screen, much like Dashboard's available widgets pop up area. It would have all the features of the current character palette but it would be neatly tucked away below the screen. Edit > Special Characters and a system wide keystroke would invoke it.

In fact, I feel so strongly about this one, that I've actually done a Photoshop mock-up:



Okay, so my mock-up is, well, crap... but Apple could pull it off nicely. I know they could. The current character palette is such an unbelievable pain in the arse.

Faster Spotlight
I love using Spotlight to find documents, applications and such like. For me it's just more productive. I hit ⌘Space and up pops my faithful detective, ready to hunt down exactly what I need. In Leopard Spotlight needs to be faster and more intuitive, although to be fair I am currently using a G4 1⅓Ghz. I would like to see Spotlight having a short delay before it begins its search. Currently it wastes resources searching for the initial letters of a search command. And, once I actually select a hit I would prefer Spotlight to pause searching, as again, this is wasting resources while an app or document is trying to load.

Better Finder
Finder is awful. Dare I say I prefer Windows' Explorer? It needs to be entirely rethought. Tabs, split views etc. Finder right now is not what you expect from a built in Apple 'app', and can often be awkward to use. Integrated FTP would be sexy too, for the once-in-a-year occasion when I'd need to use it, and would usually end up downloading an FTP client.

Loose the brushed metal
Brushed metal is so 2004. I want to see Leopard sporting the gorgeous unified-iTunesish look which we are now becoming so accustomed to. Currently Tiger is a bit of a mess in terms of stylisation, Apple need to pull it all together and settle on one style throughout.

MSN support in iChat
That would be heaven, assuming Apple supported it well. Microsoft Messenger is too Windowsish. aMSN is too Linuxish. Adium is a little behind and buggy as regards MSN. iChat is the app I can only dream of using.

Exposé for tabs
I ♥ Exposé. Quite often I find myself in Exposé looking for a particular website, only to realise that it's in a separate tab within Safari. I want the tabs in Safari to all be shown as separate Exposé items so I can move between websites and other apps more fluidly. I also want tabs to be saved when I close a Safari window.

Better SMS support
I love the way Apple's Address Book can handle incoming and outgoing text messages via a bluetooth phone. However, I want Spotlightable messages stored in a small mail-like app and the ability to properly send and receive mulitipage SMSs. Think BluePhoneElite, but nicer.

Better security
Firewall on by default, it's just plain silly otherwise. FileVault not limited to just the home folder, I want my whole Mac encrypted, so long as the system maintains its speed and reliability.

And that's everything really.

WWDC is looming

So Monday sees my first ever WWDC as a Mac user and I'm very excited. By my reckoning it begins at 6:00PM BST and I imagine I should be able to watch the footage within two hours. I shall be avoiding any Apple related website all day and NetNewsWire will be quit, so that the Stevenote truly is nice and Steveful.

I'm not one for rumours and speculation, but I must admit the predictions of an 'iPhone' are very exciting and the possibilities for Leopard are, well, unimaginable. All in all, it should make for good viewing assuming I can access the QuickTime Apple Events page and actually get the footage to stream.

After Monday I can make up my mind about whether to get a MacBook at the end of August or not... I might hold out for Leopard, if it'll be here for the holiday season.

How uncanny!

Hot on the heels of my "The mightiest mouse" post, Apple have brought out the Wireless Mighty Mouse, which I have to say looks pretty darn promising.

I first heard word via TUAW after some idle soul found a prototype published on the FCC's website, as is required of laser products. The very next day it was up on Apple Store ready for buyers.

Apart from being wireless the mouse has a couple of other features which set it apart from its antecedent. For a start there is laser tracking replacing that old fashioned optical stuff everyone else is using. Apparently it does make a difference to the way the mouse feels over the Apple Wireless Mouse, which I have right now. The wireless connection is over bluetooth, so no stupid dongle required (take that PC folks) and excepting that the mouse is exactly the same as the wired Mighty Mouse. Same 360° scroll ball, right clicker (it'll be revolutionary I swear), and side squeezy buttons.

Rather oddly, but kool anyway, is the mouse's ability to run on either one or two AA batteries... I guess in case you get into some sticky situation where you only have one battery.

The mouse seems to be exactly what I need, and no doubt I'll get one to complement my new MacBook, whenever I'm actually rich enough to afford one.