Snow Leopard Exchange Support

I'm holding my breath regarding Microsoft Exchange support in Apple's new OS10.6 Snow Leopard.

You see, I dropped using my PC altogether about a week ago. Well, almost. I still have to remote into my server and use Outlook that's installed there, as we rely on Exchange for our email and calendar.

Which is a bit of a nuisance, as any links clicked in the mail open up in IE on the server inside the Remote Desktop window. And saving attachments? Sheesh.

So apparently my copy of Exchange-supporting Appleness is being shipped on Friday.

I really hope it "cuts the mustard". I'll post my thoughts here once I've installed it!

iTunes 8

I was prompted to update iTunes today, but little did I realise what was in store!



A new feature called Genius looks at your tracks and can suggest playlists based up any track in your library that you select. And the Genius Sidebar links off to iTunes Store where you can purchase other tracks by the same artists that you don't have, as well as other related suggestions.

It's optional, but I think it's a nice addition. Of course, I expect it's sending info about the tracks you play off to Apple, so if you're concerned about that then it's probably not for you.

Energizer Software Gotcha

I had a bit of a rant recently about the software that comes with some new USB Charger packs.

Well, not I feel like a bit of a goose... It actually installs as a Dashboard Widget! Found it totally by accident... but there it is!

Ah well...

Engergizer Software Low on Batteries

Purchased a nifty little USB charger yesterday that charges a couple of batteries - you guessed it - straight from the computer's USB port.

Cool!

It even has software you can download so you can keep an eye on the charge level on screen.

Cooler!



Except do you think it will install for me?

I download the Mac - Intel version, expanded the folder, and ran the install program. At the end it wanted to restart the Macbook (that sounds a lot like something that Windows wants to do) so I did. But alas, there's nothing there!

Nothing in Applications. Nothing in Spotlight (apart from what I downloaded). Nothing in Quicksilver. Nada. Zip. Zero.

I thought that maybe plugging the unit it will launch something? Nope.

So I installed something, but I dunno where it is, or how to open it. Hmmm.

Anyone managed to successfully install this software? Does it work?

Video Conferencing with Messenger

Video conferencing with Windows Live Messenger was always a great way to keep in touch with family spread far and wide. It was a bit of a pain hooking up the webcam though, so it didn't really happen as often as it should.

So my new Macbook has a built-in webcam. Handy! Time to get back to using video.

Except everyone I know uses Windows Live Messenger.

I had Adium installed - a great little IM (Instant Messaging) program that you can use to type notes to people with Live Messenger (among others). But no video.

So I tried Yahoo Messenger. Yep, it has video. Yep, you can message people using Live Messenger. But you can't video conference with people using Live messenger. Sigh.

Microsoft even make a version of Messenger for the Mac. But would you guess? No video!

It was actually while writing this post that i found aMSN - a Live messenger clone that actually supports video! So instead of signing off this post with despair, I have a glimmer of hope. About to download it and try it out now...

New MacBook

Well, the bug bit.

Having to share the iMac became too much. My new MacBook arrived today!

It's a 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo with 2 GB of RAM, with OSX Leopard (10.5).

And of course, it has the cool little Apple logo that lights up on the lid when it's on, too!

One of the things I miss the most is the old right-click - but I'm pleased to say that's been taken care of on this new machine.

Go to System Preferences and choose Keyboard & Mouse. You'll see this:

The bit that says "Tap trackpad using two fingers for secondary click" basically lets you tap the trackpad with 2 fingers for a right-click. Easy!

And the 2 finger scrolling is pretty cool too. That saves trying to line the mouse up on the scrollbars.

Now, back to playing,,,!

Printing from Open Office

Had some trouble printing from Open Office Writer (an open-source word processor). Didn't seem to matter what setting I changed, it didn't fit on the page properly.

I even contacted Canon who emailed me some steps to follow. It was around then that I figured out it was printing fine from other applications, just not from Open Office!

Fortunately, Open Office lets you "Save as a PDF" - so that's my temporary solution... Save the document as a PDF, and then print that.

Hopefully the next update will fix that little bug.

The end of the line

I was playing around in Aptana (a code editor) and was desperately trying to get the cursor to the end of the line. In Windows, pressing then End key does that (and Ctrl + End takes you to the end of the document).

Not in OSX though. 

I tried Command + End, Control + End, Option, Shift, and just about everything else I could think of. 

The trick?

Command + Right Arrow!

And obviously (once you know that) Command +  Left Arrow takes you to the start of the line.

I found a screensaver!

Just a quick follow up post to yesterday's gripe about not being able to find any software for OSX Jaguar (10.2) - I found a screensaver!

It simply displays this big retro-style digital clock on the screen.

Yeah, I know, it's not much. But at least it works on Jaguar!

I'll post if I find anything more interesting...

Software for older versions of OSX

I have a couple of Macs in my life these days: A shiny new 24" iMac, and an old G3 iMac like the photo here.

The new one is running OS 10.4 - so no dramas there. But this old one is on 10.2. Not that old - but I can't seem to find any software for it! Everything I find (either free or commercial) wants a newer flavour of OSX.

So with the exception of Firefox (which I'm using at the moment) I'm stuck with whatever came on the OSX Jaguar CDs.

That strikes me as a bit weird. Surely there must be a place to go for older OSX software. Anyone know of such a place?

What's all this about then?

Everything "cool" these days seems to be prefixed with an "i".

So what does someone who's been using Windows since version 3.1 make of all this?

As they saying goes: if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!

I purchased my first iPod - a Nano -  back in October 2005, and fell in love. I have since added a Touch and a Shuffle to the lineup. Let me tell you: the Touch has been an experience! More on that later.

As far as the bigger ticket items are concerned, I was fortunate enough to win an iMac at a conference last year (thanks guys!) That was a real bonus - being able to try out a Mac without having for put my hand in my pocket!

It seems that more and more people are switching from PC to Mac - so we all must be having similar issues. Like not being able to maximise a window. And plenty of other stuff. So I thought I'd post some experiences and observations here. Feel free to add yours in the comments too, and maybe together we'll figure out all these "i" things!