As someone who manages real estate for a living I can confirm that these are some great tips for everyone. Especially getting your furnace and vents checked and cleaned, you would not believe how many times that is the cause of a loss of heat. Your heat by the way never goes out when it is warm, it will always happen on the coldest week when the HVAC techs are at their busiest.
Category: Links
-
Dave Caolo on Mac OS 10.7 Lion
Dave Caolo:
Just expect the best of the iOS to find a home on the Mac.
-
15 Secrets of Transmit 4
The Panic blog:
It’s a minor point, but worth mentioning — if you use Quick Look on any image, local or remote, we’ll put the dimensions in the title bar.
I use that almost daily, some great tips here and really if you need FTB access and aren’t using Transmit, then you are missing out.
-
The 37signals Suite
For $99/mo you can now get Basecamp, Highrise, Backpack and Campfire for your business, all as part of one account. A great and welcomed feature.
-
Boy Genius Reports Samsung Galaxy Tab impressions
Jonathan Geller:
Seven inches of display on a tablet, for us, feels pretty odd and makes using the device pretty uncomfortable. It’s a very weird in-between feeling; we can’t decide it feels like a smartphone that is too big or a tablet that is too small. We still can’t figure out the best way to use the keyboard in portrait mode. Hold it with both hands and try and thumb type? Hold the tablet in one hand and only use one hand to type? Use Swype?
[via DF]
-
iWork ’11 to Be Mac App Store Only?
Neil Hughes and Kasper Jade reporting on iWork ’11 (Pages, Numbers, Keynote) found out it was ready to launch at the back to the Mac event, but:
Apple’s revised plans currently call for the company to launch the new productivity suite alongside the forthcoming Mac App Store, these same people say. The applications included in the bundle — Pages, Numbers and Keynote — will be available for purchase individually when the Mac App Store debuts.
Those familiar with the matter said it remains undecided whether Apple will also release a retail box version of the iWork suite, as it has been sold previously. Alternatively, it could become the first piece of major Mac software from the Cupertino-based company to be available exclusively online.
If the suite is done this makes a lot of sense, Apple would want to give customers a compelling reason to sign up and use the Mac App Store right away. Making the Mac App Store the only place to buy the latest version of iWork would give customers a great reason to try out the App Store.
-
Andrew Hyde: Two Months with iPad as My Computer
Andrew Hyde sold everything he owned except for 15 items and decided to travel the world. Two things he kept were his iPad and a bluetooth keyboard, he just switched to a MacBook Air and as he says:
iPad as a toy? Oh yeah, best product out there. iPad as a computing device. When things go wrong, they go really, really wrong.
He brings up some really interesting points, so be sure to read the whole article as it is not that long.
-
Someone Was Kind Enough to Interview Me
I wrote this up for Jorge a bit ago so the computer system is out of date but the rest still stands (I hope).
-
Marco Arment On Other Tablets’ App Stores
Marco takes a very interesting look at why he thinks the iOS App Store is thriving and why he isn’t sure that the same will ring true for the deluge of new tablet computers set to hit the market. I think he makes a great point, but time will tell on this one.
-
Going Flash-Free on Mac OS X
John Gruber on removing Flash from his Mac:
For the vast majority of my surfing, this new setup works great. I prefer it over my previous setup using the ClickToFlash plugin because Flash Player is never left running in the background because of a background Safari web page on which I clicked to load Flash content hours (or even days) ago. It also means that the Flash plugin never gets loaded into other non-browser apps that happen to use WebKit — eliminating the number one source of crashes for many of these apps.
I performed the same setup on my machine when Gruber tweeted/linked to this a while back, it is without a doubt much better. The performance even seems snappier than it did with ClickToFlash and I highly recommend reading this for great tips that Gruber points out.
Also this bit from Gruber:
As of today, there are significant performance and battery life gains to be had by disabling Flash Player on Mac OS X.
-
Say Goodbye to Xserves
From the Apple release:
Apple is transitioning away from Xserve. Xserve will be available for order through January 31, 2011. After that date, customers looking to upgrade, replace, or supplement existing Xserve systems with new Apple hardware have the following two server solutions to choose from.
Those two options are Mac Pros and Mac minis. A lot of people will be annoyed by this, it is a very interesting decision.
-
iPhoto 9.1 Now 100% More Calendars
New release adds calendars back to iPhoto 11 – why were they gone to begin with?
-
MacStories Interviews: Ben Brooks
I am honored to have been interviewed by Federico Viticci of Mac Stories for their new interview series. We talked a lot about iOS and SSDs so be sure to check it out.
-
Apple Allegedly Confirms MacBook Air Bugs
BGR has a purported leaked memo of Apple confirming issues with the MacBook Airs display. I have not seen these issues on mine, but the good news is that it appears a software update will remedy the problem. The memo also notes that sleeping and waking the machine should solve it in the short term. Nice. Still though what’s her name should probably sue.
-
‘Use Safari Reader to Send Multi-Page Articles to Instapaper’
Stephen Hackett tells you how to send an entire multi-page article to Instapaper, genius. A thousand thank yous for this tip.
-
Lawsuit: Apple Hampered iPhone 3Gs
Jacqui Cheng:
We all saw this one coming a mile away: Apple is finally being taken to task over iOS 4 performance on the iPhone 3G. In a lawsuit filed in the Superior Court of California for San Diego, plaintiff Biana Wofford alleges that Apple purposely crippled the iPhone 3G with its introduction of iOS 4 in order to boost iPhone 4 sales, and hopes to get her lawsuit elevated to class action status.
Here’s what I hope happens to these people bitching about this: Apple stops giving away iOS updates for free to devices that are not currently being sold as new. Seriously this person is pissed that an update on a 3 year-old phone made the device slower – a free update. Get a life.
-
Technology in Education
A wonderful post from Fraser Speirs about how he thinks about technology deployments in education:
I don’t much care if, in five years, we’re using Android tablets – as long as those Android tablets last longer, are easier to use and deploy, are better and cheaper than an iPad. If future devices deliver information faster and better than an iPad, then we’ll switch to those devices.
Fixating on specific technologies, such as interactive whiteboards, has cost schools dearly and has largely failed to meaningfully transform classroom practice.
-
‘AppleCare Protection Plans Now Transferable to New Products’
Now you can transfer your AppleCare protection plan to a new Mac if you still have time left on it – a great touch.
Stephen Hackett swears you should buy AppleCare – I have never purchased it, but with the Air now as my primary Mac I am really thinking about getting it. I will probably wait until closer to the one year mark though.
-
‘The Russians Used a Pencil’
This is an old post – the first post actually – on The Russians Used a Pencil blog by Dan Provost:
There is something to be said about a simple and elegant solution versus a bloated and complicated one.
If you don’t know the story behind the name already click through to read it, I try to keep that story in my mind every time I think about buying something and every time I review something.
-
Using LaunchBar 5 on your Mac
If you don’t already use LaunchBar now would be a good time to join the party.