When I bought my iMac last summer, I was fortunate enough to receive some software with the computer. As with all new Macs now, I received the multimedia iLife suite from Apple which is quite good though I rarely use any of the programs right now. I expect to use the iMovie and iDvd more in the future.
As well, there are quite a few utility programs that i found useful for occasion use especially those that address cross-platform file formats like WMV files for videos.
There are other programs that I have downloaded as trial versions to see if they were useful to address certain needs of mine.
One of my needs is a software development tool for personal use. At work, I use a variety of IDEs like Eclipse, Dreamweaver, IntelliJ but those are paid for by the company if required though we tend to use a multitude of open source software like Eclipse and MySQL among others for small and medium size projects. There are ports of these programs for the Mac but there are some commercial programs that are worth a look too.
The best of the lot is Coda. For web development that relies on PHP, MySQL and Apache as the primary development environment, this tool hits all of the marks. While it has all of the necessary elements of a good text editor (code completion, syntax highlighting etc…), it has much more. It has a built in FTP program that makes switching back from local to remote sites a simple matter. You could go into Terminal mode if you wish. A previewer of images and the webpages is built right in the program. An integrated library is there for accessing information on programming languages such as PHP. There is a CSS editor with built in previewer for text and block items. A Clips applet is at the ready to insert common bits of code and text and so it goes.
Now most of the functionality within Coda is readily available elsewhere as open source software or standalone packages. But there is nothing out there that readily combines all of the necessary elements for software and web development into one package. The application is gorgeous and well laid out in a tabbed single window layout.
Now it is not a cheap program to buy at $99 considering the free alternatives out there but there is question of perspective. If you only dabble in software development, then the alternatives may be more appropriate. But for productivity, this program can not be beat. Much better than switching back and forth between different programs. You can focus on the code rather than trying to manage your development environment.
There are some things that Coda can not do such as photo editing. Macs come with iPhoto as part of the iLife suite of multimedia applications but it is just a basic editor. Lightroom by Adobe handles the processing of all of the shots I take with my camera in getting the exposure, sharpness and colors right but on occasion I have need for a specific functionality like cropping an image or adding text to it.
Now there is the Photoshop line of photo editors with Photoshop CS4 available at an astronomical price along with the more affordable Photoshop Elements. I have used Elements extensively in the past on Windows. Indeed all the way back when it was called Photo Deluxe with capabilities that are quite laughable now but considered to be leading edge at the time. Generally I have been satisified with it but as I have been using Lightroom to handle my requirements to get photo just right, I have less of a need for all of the functionality of Elements which makes its $90 price tag a bit too much.
So a search of alternative photo editors brought me to Pixelmator. At $59, it was cheaper than Elements. It certainly has an attractive interface and for editing photos, it leverages the OS and the underlying graphics engine to deliver outstanding performance. There are some effects like Swing I never seen before but are capable of being done in Pixelmator as it is replicated elsewhere in the OS. Really snazzy. The selector tools are top notch and much of the tool set is familar to anyone who ever used Photoshop or Elements.
So what is the problem with Pixelmator?
Well, it may be the product of using Elements for such a long time but some things I have come to take for granted like text effects and noise filtering are not there in Pixelmator. While the cool filters are really nice to play around with in Pixelmator, I will rarely ever use them as I stick to more traditional rendering of photos. The lack of a History panel to jump to different edits of a photograph is a bit unsettling and irritating as that is something I use extensively to revert to a different point in the editing to view the changes. continually using the undo function is tiresome when you are several levels deep in the editing process.
So the position I am in is choosing between an inexpensive program that is lacking in some features as opposed to a program that plenty of functionality for a price but functionality that will be used only intermittently. As it stands now, I am leaning towards the Pixelmator with the hope that it acquires additional functionality in the near future that addresses my needs for a first class photo editor. Given its history to date over the past year in rolling out updates, I am reasonably encouraged that it will be done.
It has been six months now since I got my Apple iMac and I have never regretted buying it.
Perhaps it is the combination of the more powerful hardware compared to my old slow Dell along with the more efficient Mac OS, but it seems that I can get more done faster on the Mac. Straight from the outset when booting up the Mac, I can start working on it in 30 seconds whereas on the old Dell, I had to wait over 2 minutes for the system to boot and be operational. Similar effect with powering down. It does not seem like much to be concern about but it was those sort of aggravations that made me want to switch to the Mac.
It has taken some time to get comfortable with the different operating system. Certain habits I have picked up in the Windows world have no counterpart with the Mac OS; whenever I am editing a document on the Mac, I continually use CTRl-End to get to the end of the line. That keystroke combination does not exist on Mac programs. Still, I do not mind giving up those little things for what I received in return.
Everything about the OS seems so intutive. When I think about doing something in whatever program, I try it and it works. No guessing, no cryptic series of steps to do something. A simple click or keystroke and it works. Having said that, though, I find many things sort of hidden from the user but when I discover them, it uncovers some powerful functionality. For example, using the Option+Shift+4 key combination gives me a cursor to snag parts of the screen to save as an image. In Windows, you could use Alt+Prt Scrn to get the whole screen or buy a program that allows what the Mac gives you for free.
The Preview application is a wonder of a program that allows me to see any file, text document or image. It is quick and powerful. No more separate photo viewing programs. It even allows basic photo editing.
Another great thing about the Mac is the integration of the applications with each other particularly with the Apple branded applications. Using iMovie to make videos, I found it could add in photos from iPhoto or Aperture, music from iTunes or Garage Band. Now this sort of coupling of applications with the OS was considered to be bad when Microsoft did it but I do not think Microsoft ever made it as easy and effective as Apple has done with its products.
Still, I had to make some compromises. Giving up all of the software I accumulated over the years, meant losing some nice games and utilities. Indeed, losing access to games is probably the most significant loss as most game developers only develop for Windows or consoles; the Mac world is still relatively small compared to the rest of the computer world in number of homes using the system.
Using the Mac has been a great learning experience and one that I am continually learning every day to become more productive and creative as well.
Nope, no regrets at all.
Apple has it big media conference this week. This conference highlights the innovations in Apple’s music business which is focused on the combination of iTunes and the iPod lines. As usual, there is always something to talk about from this conference. Relative to previous conferences, the announced updates were modest. The Nano line of iPods were updated with a new look, sleeker & thinner with a larger screen for showing video. More colours too. I have never really understand the attraction of seeing video on a screen the size of four postage stamps. On the other hand, the iPod Touch, which as adopted the new look of the iPhone is a much better way video viewer with its larger screen.
As it has in the past, buyers will get the iPods for a lower price and/or larger storage ability.
Of course, anytime there is an update in the iPod line, iTunes gets an update too to handle the new technology. Much of it is under the covers and if you do not have an iPod now, it is sort of irrelevant except for two things. There is a new way of viewing your music which is by album through a mechanism similar to cover flow. Looks better than the old list view of albums and if you are a listener of music by the album collection, this may work out well.
The second thing is the new Genius suggestions. part marketing ploy and part organiser, the Genius API will scan your music collection to suggest like music for a particular song based on genre and other factors. In some ways, it is like a smart Shuffle function.
Also, Genius will suggest songs from the iTunes Store library that could complement your selection based on how other iTunes users bought in concert for the same song. For example, if I am playing Bruce Springsteen song, it will suggest buying the album the song came from, similar Springsteen tracks from other albums and then songs that other people bought or playing with the song you have. Much of the benefit of the new feature depends on other iTunes user uploading IDs of their song collection to Apple’s iTunes Store and allow the service to do the cross-referencing.
On both counts, Genius seems to be a good feature to have and appears to be implemented well. Of course, I could do without the blatant marketing pitch on buying more songs but I will endure it.
Playing with Apple’s Aperture program for photography editing. First impressions are that it looks to be a solid application that provides most of the functionality that Adobe’s Lightroom provides. The interface is similar enough to Lightroom that it did not take too long to come up to speed on it. Probably will need some more practice on it before making a firm decision on whether to go with that program or Lightroom.
Speaking of photography, Flickr is revamping its site in a big way. Users will be getting a new home page which you can get now ahead of the official release which I did. It looks better organised in some respects. Groups you belong to are more visible now as is the stats page of all of the views of your photos. One thing I do not like though is the comments listing. Before comments for your photos and comments you left on other photos were kept in two distinct lists. Now they are combined in one listing. this makes it a bit more difficult to see what is happening in terms of activity on your photostream especially after a recent posting. Let’s see if that changes in the official release.
I am a big fan of iTunes and this was even way before I switched over to the Mac. It was perhaps three years ago that I made the iTunes my standard player for home and then later for work. Its blend of user interface aesthetic, the interface to the iTunes store and the ease of integration with the iPod devices make it hard to beat. I have had other players like WinAmp and MediaPlayer but those are now in the distant past and I have never look back.
I am not alone in thinking this way as the millions of people who own some variety of iPod device , a Mac computer or just have the player for their ripped CDs and non – Itunes downloads.
However, there is one feature many people overlook of iTunes and that is the streaming radio stations it provides. Pick a genre and there is likely a station for that somewhere in the world. Many of the stations originate overseas and one I like listening to on a regular basis is Virgin radio out of the UK. It is predominantly Top 40 but when I tune into it at around 10-11pm, the time is 4 am in London so what I get is “golden oldies” from the 60’s through the early 90’s. When they switch into the “morning ride”, that is when it gets interesting. It is kind of strange hearing about traffic conditions on M25 and the latest football (i.e. soccer) scores and highlights but I like it. It reminds me of the time when I lived in Europe. The format of the show is much like North American radio with the hosts bantering back and forward. The topics they discuss in blue collar British accents give it away as not your local radiocast. The voice over on intros and station break is actually an American voice, one that you hear at nearly every radio station in North America.
What is good about this station is that music that may take up to a year to cross the ocean, you can now hear as it is released in the UK.
There are other stations I like. Radio Fusion for electronica is a good choice especially for mixes you would not normally find anywhere else. A slew of NPR stations on the Talk category; plenty of stations that broadcast 80’s hits, the songs I grew up on are also available and the list goes on.
So I find it a chance of pace to listen to the radio via iTunes especially as I pretty much avoid listening to local radio stations with the exception of WFDD (local NPR) and Davision College for their classical music fare. I like having choice for my listening pleasure because I get so little of it here.
With all of the going ons in my life, one thing that has been put on the back burner has been my oft-discussed move to the new iMac computers. As a priority in my life, it has been downgraded quite a bit. But like many other things in life, sometimes waiting for something may prove more advantageous than rushing in.
This week the iMac received a bit of an upgrade with faster CPUs and more default RAM for the same price pints as before. Apple also released a new top-end version of the iMac, a 24″ monitor version with a 3.06 GHz CPU and a NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS graphics card making it more a gamer’s machine than anything else.
Considering that the desktop line received a major overhaul last summer, it is premature to expect any significant upgrades for the iMac. This year, it is the MacBooks that will get the overhauls as we have seen first with the Air version.
The Leopard version of the Mac OS will be getting a new update in the very near future and may get another one yet by the time I get to buying the iMac. So far I am still comfortable with my decision to switch but holding back for a bit looks like a prudent decision if not a totally voluntary one.
The new 20-inch 2.66 GHz iMac, for a suggested retail price of $1,499 (US), includes:
- 20-inch widescreen LCD display
- 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with a 1066 MHz front-side bus
- 2GB of 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM expandable to 4GB
- 320GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7200 rpm
- a slot-load 8x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
- ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB GDDR3 memory
- built-in iSight video camera
- built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking & Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
- mini-DVI out (adapters for DVI, VGA and Composite/S-Video sold separately)
- built-in stereo speakers and microphone; and
- the Apple Keyboard, Mighty Mouse and infrared Apple Remote.
I have been musing of late on upgrading my computer and I wonder it is time for a radical break with the past.
I have a Dell PC that is five years ago and while it is still quite functional, it is severely lagging in several areas like memory and processor speed that impede what I primarily use the computer these days which is photograph processing and storage. Secondary uses are simple document creation like Word documents and some web work mostly with maintaining this blog but those uses do not near tax the system as trying to edit several large images in a row.
From time to time I have been fixated on what I call my Dream Machine of the moment but eventually the need will pass and I will try to make do with what I have. The machine has been upgraded in a few areas: better graphic card, more hard drive space but eventually, if I need more performance out of my machine, I will need to upgrade. The question is what machine do I upgrade to?
As usual, I looked at the Dell machines and for a change of pace HP boxes as well. I go to the customizer screens, pick my options and usually get a machine that is nearly the top performance machine generally for $1400. But every time I did one of this custom jobs, I do not feel very enthused about the machine.
This past year has been the year of Apple. With the successful launch of the iPhone and updates of its iPod lines, people have been giving Apple quite a bit of attention. It is more than just computers but computers remain the central focus of its business. As such, Apple also rolled out an updated line of computers and releasing today an update to its OS, nicknamed Leopard, which features significant improvements to the software.
Now my buddy Jerry uses a MacBook computer at work and I must admit, whenever I see it in action, I am quite impressed. While much of it is eye candy, what makes it a viable alternative to Windows Vista OS is that it is much more logically capable for the individual user than a Windows Machine. You want to look for something and two clicks there it is. Things are where you think they should be unlike Windows and its emphasis on file hierarchy.
I like the fact that such tools as the Dock and Finder greatly improve productivity.
One knock against moving to iMacs from Window machines is that for so long, Macs tend to be somewhat underpowered compared to the top of the line PC machines. With the migration to the Intel processors, Macs have essentially caught up in that regard and you will find Macs of all sorts with comparable technology in RAM, Hard Drive space and Graphic capability.
The second knock against Macs are the smaller number of applications available for the Macs as compared to Window machines. Most software developers can not afford to port their software to Macs. But there is a way around it now. With the move to Intel, Macs can run Windows applications in one of two ways: Boot Camp which allows the user to choose which OS to boot up in or Parallels, a software package that allows the user to run Window apps natively in concert with Mac OS. I have seen Parallels in action through Jerry’s machine and it seems to work just fine and it is compatible with Windows XP or Vista. So if I need to run an application that is written only for Windows, I can start Parallels within the Mac and all will be fine.
I like the compactness of the iMac. The all in one machine where all of the components are incorporated into the monitor. Few cables, easier transportability, less noise and heat are quite attractive features. The white case does certainly stand out in its environment.
The machine I am looking at, the 20″ monitor version, runs at $1500 which is comparable to PCs I have configured in my custom jobs online. I certainly makes me think but as the Leopard OS is only just released, as with all software, it is good to wait awhile to allow the inevitable bug fixes and patches are sent out though as Apple keeps a tight rein on its computer components, there is less likelihood of incompatible hardware and software problems as there are for Window PCs.
It may be months before I make decision on my computer upgrade but there is a good chance that an iMac may be in my future.