Category: Thoughts

  • Google saves Outlook email search

    Like many Mac users, I suppose, I must make do with a Windows XP box at work. Blah. But the true horror is being forced to use Microsoft Outlook, likely the worst email program I have ever seen. One of the very worst features is the brain-damaged search function that works like a snail in…

  • Earth to Apple – how about a webcast

    Apple makes its most important announcement in years and yet blocks everyone from watching on a webcast. It’s so 1980s…

  • Simple advice — do not install Tiger today

    In the history of personal computers, there is one iron-clad rule: never, ever, no matter what, do not, www.noway.com, no-how, nada, NEVER install an operating system upgrade the day it comes out. Brand new operating system upgrades are for loons, people who use computers mostly to watch the cute screen savers and reviewers who get…

  • Verizon Wireless Broadband plays with Macs pretty well

    (Updated 4/19) I’m posting this entry from my laptop on a moving train using Verizon’s wireless broadband service. It’s pricey ($80 a month for “unlimited” service) but thanks to some serious OS X gearheads, can work pretty well with Macs. I did have to activate the required PC card (a Novatel v620) on a Windows…

  • Mac mini mondo good

    There’s something ridiculous — as in ridiculously good — about the new Mac mini that arrived last week. Open box, unwrap computer the size of a Michael Chabon novel, place on desk, connect mouse, keyboard and monitor. Turn on. Ten minutes after arriving, everything just works. And everything works just fine, speedy for Web browsing,…

  • Someday my phone will come…

    In the continuing saga of my seeking a new Sony Ericsson S710a cell phone that doesn’t cost $900, I discovered that Amazon.com is, or maybe is, selling the phone for just $420 and offering a $150 rebate making the final price just $270. That is an amount that could be in the budget. But —…

  • This is a test of the emergency relaxation system

    This is only a test. You are booked on the last flight of the day out of Logan Airport in Boston to Miami, where the temperature is 80 degrees. A snow storm is bearing down on New England. If you don’t get out tonight, you aren’t getting out — there is no sunny beach vacation.…

  • Nifty weather display for Macs

    Someone was recently complaining that there was no Mac equivalent to the program Weather Bug, which sits in the Windows taskbar and displays the temperature and an icon for current weather conditions in a city of your choosing — and links to a lot of ads when you click for more details, yuck. Anyway, all…

  • This could be my next PDA

    A blogger on the site 43 folders writes: Recently, I got sick of lugging my Palm V around, so I developed a vastly superior, greatly simplified device for capturing and sharing information. I call it “The Hipster PDA.” This was me back in the old days and it still might be me if not for…

  • Review of iPhoto 5.0

    (Updated with quick slide show button on 1/27 and on 2/3 with 5.01 release) Steve Jobs’ introduction of the updated iPhoto in the iLife suite had me salivating immediately. Cutting the price of photo prints in half from 39 cents to 19 cents and offering a zillion new options for photo books (also at lower…