First impressions are that this machine is much faster then my 6year old MacBook Pro.  Very nice.  The screen is pretty much all that everybody seems to say.  Bright, clear, and beautiful.

I did order the wired keyboard with the number pad along with the new trackpad, and the magic mouse…. So far I seem to go back and forth between the track pad and the mouse, which is interesting.  Not sure if it will stay like this or if I will gravitate to the trackpad.  The keyboard is comfortable to type on, and the keypad was a good choice for me.

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I knew that I could not afford a new MacBook Pro, so I started looking at my options.
I could get a windows laptop running Windows7.
I could get a Mac mini.
I could get an iMac.

Admitedly Microsoft’s Windows 7, looks pretty slick and they seem to have made major improvements to security. But it would cost around $800.00 to get the equivalent windows versions of the software that I need for my work.

Mac Mini sounded like a good solution until I realized that it would cost more money for a second monitor(not even sure if you can hook up a second monitor through the hdmi port).

This led me to the 21 inch iMac, I can hook up a second monitor with ease, plus for the price, it is probably that fastest solution available….

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I Moved from FireFox to Google Chrome as my default browser as soon as plug-ins became available on Google Chrome.  I tend to only use plug-ins that enhance productivity in web development, but those same plugins seem to slow FireFox to a crawl.  I just checked and these are the Google Chrome Plug-ins that I use.  They are very similar to what I used on FireFox.

• Development Plug-ins
  • csscan
  • Web Developer
  • Regular Expression Checker
  • Firebug Lite
  • Screen Capture
  • Measureit!
• Productivity
  • Better Gmail
  • Clip to Evernote
  • 1Password
  • DayHiker
  • Google Mail Checker
  • Google Voice
  • Send Using Gmail
• Entertainment
  • StumbleUpon

Unfortunately FireFox is much slower then Google Chrome both in starting up and rendering pages. The difference in speed is so pronounced that I decided for my own sanity to try Google Chrome, and never came back.

Now it looks like FireFox 4beta will be a real attempt at catching up with Google Chrome in speed and even wisely adopting the top tab layout to better support how web apps appear in the browser.  Unfortunately some of the layout stuff like top tabs are not yet available for Mac, though they say coming soon.  The good news is that there is a marked improvement in start-up times and page rendering.  Not as fast as Chrome yet, but much better then the current stable version of FireFox.  Things that I expected (since this is an early beta) without being disappointed are incompatibilities with some of my plug-ins.

I think that FireFox 4 holds some promise in the near future, but it still needs some time in the oven before it will be ready for another poke.  For the moment Google Chrome is still secure as my default browser, but the folks at google had better look out.  FireFox is starting to catch up.

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From the apple site…
This iOS software update for iPad contains bug fixes and improvements, including the following:

• Improved Wi-Fi connectivity
• Fixed an issue that could prevent copy and paste of single-page PDF attachments in Mail
• Addressed an issue that could cause video playback to freeze
• Improved reliability of video-out when using iPad Dock Connector to VGA Adapter
• Added Bing as an option for Safari’s search field

Products compatible with this software update:

• iPad (Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G)

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Image by geehall2 via Flickr

The new iOS 4.0.1 was released today that is supposed to address the “bar issue” where signal would seem to drop more dramatically then reality suggests when covering the external antenna.

So far it has not had a negative affect on my iPhone usability, but I seem to have lost a bar.  This makes sense due to how Apples change really just reflects a more even signal strength span between bars on the iPhone 3, 3Gs, and 4.

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This whole circus makes me wonder who is really behind the iPhone 4 bad press.  Perhaps the competition?  With all the other vast improvements found in the iPhone 4, this has to be making the competition very nervios.  If they can slow down the acceptance of the iPone 4 perhaps they will have a chance to catch up.

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Image via CrunchBase

THE beta 1 version of Firefox 4 released last week has a distinctly unfinished feel to it. I suppose this was to be expected, given the browser’s beta status, but after the dramatic improvements that Firefox went through going from Version 3.0 to 3.5 and 3.6, the jump to 4.0 seems almost anti-climactic.

via Manila Standard Today — Firefox 4 beta — 2010/july/13.

Personally I have become enamored to Google Chrome.  Google Chrome has all the plugins that I really need for development, and it is very very fast compared to Firefox.  If they can match or come close to Google Chrome’s speed and startup time, I may consider going back to Firefox as my primary browser, but I am not holding my breath…

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From the Gmail Blog:

“Rich text signatures have long been one of our most widely requested features. Some of you have tried your own solutions, including Greasemonkey scripts, browser plugins, and even using canned responses from Gmail Labs. Others have simply lived with frustration of not being able to change the colors or font size of your signature, or insert images and links. Either way, you’ll be happy to know that today we’re launching the ability to write your own rich text signatures right in Gmail.”

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I find the folder feature a fairly positive experience for some application types.  Photo apps like Hipstamatic, CameraBag, the Camera itself, and the Photo Album go nicely into the Photography Folder.  My Music Folder now holds FreeDrumLessons, Tempo, FreqTrain, TuneORama, and the iTunes store app.  Many of my other apps will not work in folders for me since they are so varied or needed on the launch bar.

I have not looked into “Multitasking” yet, but I doubt it will be much use to me at first, since I don’t use Pandora, and the three multitasking methods don’t seem to support instant messaging, which I would use.

Fast switching between apps is pretty cool and seems to make use of state saving.

I Like the ability to set wallpaper for both lock screen and dashboard, though the dashboard works best with texture based images rather then pictures.

Over the next few days I am looking forward to seeing what apps come out that make use of Multitasking, and discovering new features along the way.

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Apple released an update to iTunes today adding some new iOS4 specific features, some of which I am looking forward to on my iPad.  Organizing and syncing pdf documents as books will definitely be a welcome addition.

I am not too sure about organizing apps an the home screen into folders yet.  I want to see how it works in the real world first.

So here is the official short list of changes to iTunes 9.2:

iTunes 9.2 comes with several new features and improvements, including:

• Sync with iPhone 4 to enjoy your favorite music, movies, TV shows, books and more on-the-go
• Sync and read books with iPhone or iPod touch with iOS 4 and iBooks 1.1
• Organize and sync PDF documents as books. Read PDFs with iBooks 1.1 on iPad and any iPhone or iPod touch with iOS 4
• Organize your apps on your iOS 4 home screens into folders using iTunes
• Faster back-ups while syncing an iPhone or iPod touch with iOS 4
• Album artwork improvements make artwork appear more quickly when exploring your library

For information on the security content of this update, please visit: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222

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