Apple

A few opinions which seem to reflect my own entirely uninformed thoughts on the iPad.

I didn’t think I’d care much, but there’s a few things I need to get off my chest.

One of the main complaints aimed towards the iPhone is that camera is deemed to be a bit crap. So I thought I’d do a quick comparison with my old phone to see how it stands up.

How to have disentangled headphones without resorting to buying a new iPhone.

Christmas bargains are upon us, with indie Mac application bundles galore. Also, 24 ways is back for a third year and dConstruct t-shirts are now just a fiver!

Widgets on my Mac OS X dashboard.

Like many other Apple-loving tech companies yesterday, Clearleft were huddled around MacRumours following its coverage of Steve Jobs’s keynote. And Gruff Rhys.

Just recently Jeffrey Zeldman was bemoaning the sub-standard state of text rendering in Firefox on a Mac. And the sad truth is he only skimmed the surface; Firefox, Safari, Opera and Camino may render even the same font differently.

Why oh why did Apple have to re-skin iTunes? Is it not bad enough to have Aqua, Brushed Metal and that other skin GarageBand uses? Now I have four different looks to Apple applications. And this latest one is terrible.

Regular readers, and anyone who’ll listen, will remember the problems I had trying to get my iBook fixed through AppleCare. Once I had finally got my laptop back I wrote (a real letter on paper) to Apple to complain, and got offered compensation.

Those of you who have just updated OS X to 10.3.9 may have noticed that Safari is now a full point release older at 1.3. And this means that the clear:none bug I reported a year ago is finally fixed. In fairness Dave Hyatt fixed this bug ages ago but he’s had to wait…

For those of you following the saga, my iBook is finally fixed and it feels like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders.

If you’re wondering why Clagnut has been so quiet in 2005, blame AppleCare.

As is no doubt being reported across the entire blogosphere and tech news feeds everywhere, Apple had a bit of a bumper Macworld 2005, introducing in particular a new desktop, a new iPod and a new software suite.

Westciv, home of StyleMaster, have turned the content of their excellent CSS guide into what theyre calling a podGuide, so now you can read it on your iPod.

A gloat and a moan. I can’t mount my iSight onto my iMac (without forking out another 25 quid).

So the Apple Store in London has finally opened. My bro had intended to get up super early and get himself a Lucky Bag. Even if he hadn’t slept through his 6am alarm, reports indicate he would still have been 12 hours too late joining the queue.

As yet, I haven’t bought anything from the iTunes Music Store. The reasons for my ambivalence to iTMS are threefold: value, tangibility and information. Let me explain…

First impressions of Tiger (and its in-built rip-offs). Also DigitalRefueler and Mark Pilgrim’s IBM blog.

So after much anticipation, the iTunes Music Store finally launched here in the UK. But don’t get your hopes up for finding anything you actually want to buy.

Out of the box, the Apache Web server that comes with OS X does not take any notice of .htaccess files. It took me a while to figure out how to get them working, so I thought I’d share.

As recommended by just about everyone, I installed Quicksilver. Fantastic. With it I discovered the OS X calcuator, complete with unit and currency converter. Bloody brilliant.

Well wouldn’t ya just know it. Two weeks after receiving my iBook, Apple ups the specs to a 1 Ghz processor and doubles the memory capability. In a weird way the past fortnight evokes memories of holidays in foreign climes.

My new iBook arrived just in time for the Easter break. This is not only the first time I’ve owned a Mac but also the first time I’ve used one for more than about a minute.

So I’ve just downloaded iTunes for Windows and it’s lovely. Straight away, here’s three things it’s got over Windows Media player: Music sharing with your local network. Quick browsing – play an individual album in your library with one click.