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10 wishlist features for Mac OS X 10.7 - Lion
Posted On at by zovic
As published by many blogger… Apple’s currently working on Mac OS X 10.7 - codenamed Cheetah, Lion, Ocelot, Lynx, or, er, Lolcat, depending on which rumour you subscribe to - isn’t interesting in itself. What I believe, it should be Cheetah. What we’d love to know is what new features it’ll bring to the party.
We’ve listed what we’d like to see below; post a comment if we’ve missed something from your wish list.
1. A unified interface
Since Apple started mucking about with brushed metal in 1999, the Mac interface has lost the elegance and consistency it had in its early years. Apple should unify the interface, perhaps drawing on recent iterations of iLife, along with Quick Look and Dock stacks. And if the revised interface is sluggish, this merely leaves the door open for Mac OS X 10.8 - “Cape Lion” - to increase snappiness, the cape referring to the operating system’s superhero-like qualities.
2. System-wide tagging and smart collections
From online services to mobile devices, it’s clear the hierarchical file/folder system is on borrowed time. Apple realised this when it introduced Spotlight, and yet system-wide tagging doesn’t seem to be on the company’s radar. Along with adding such a feature to Mac OS X 10.7, we’d like to see smart collections extended to other apps, such as smart bookmarks for Safari.
3. Superior Spotlight
Spotlight is a great technology with a poor interface. We hope Mac OS X 10.7 improves Spotlight’s usability significantly, perhaps taking a few tips fromLaunchBar. At the very least, Spotlight’s menu should support Quick Look, and although Apple rarely looks back, it’d do well to revisit the excellent Spotlight sorting window from Tiger.
TAKE A TIP: LaunchBar is what Spotlight could be, if it wasn’t a little bit rubbish
4. Better Stacks
Stacks evolved in Snow Leopard but still fall short of the original rumoured concept: an arbitrary but easy to access ‘pile’ of user-defined documents. A workaround would be to make smart folders accessible in a stack - currently, clicking one in the dock opens it in Finder. Stacks should also support Quick Look.
5. More multitouch
Although an industry-wide transition to multitouch is underway, it’s going to be a while before it’s the default system for interaction; no-one wants to spend their time with an arm outstretched, swiping at a vertical iMac screen. However, Mac OS X 10.7 will likely integrate more concepts from iPhone, enabling laptop and tablet users to benefit from system-wide gestures and actions that developers can utilise with ease.
6. Configurable Spaces
Spaces are quite powerful but configuration options are basic and limited. Advanced options should ape Hyperspaces, enabling you to name and define an individual background for each space. And while we can’t see Apple doing this, space-specific Docks would be great.
7. Cloud services
Apple’s web services are stale, but perhaps Mac OS X 10.7 will improve things. We hope a user-friendly and robust built-in cloud back-up and sync system will be integrated and that more Apple apps will integrate with cloud services. We don’t, however, want to see the operating system called Cloud Leopard, because that’s a rubbish name.
8. Finder tabs and enhancements
Finder is now a Cocoa app, but it still needs a kick up the bottom. We’d like to see broken FTP support fixed, optional window tabs (see TotalFinder for an indie’s crack at this), per-folder show/hide settings for hidden files, cut/move, window snapping, and better labels that offer user-definable colours.
FIX THE FINDER: We’d like to see Finder tabs in Mac OS X 10.7, as per TotalFinder
9. Embrace third-party services
Some Apple apps now deign to notice non-Apple services - iPhoto can upload to Flickr, and iChat grudgingly works with Jabber. Apple should take this further - iChat should become a truly multi-service IM client, Address Book should integrate with Skype, and Mail should integrate with social networks like Facebook and Twitter.
10. A Mac app store
This might be a controversial choice, but it could be a smart one. The iPhone/App Store ecosystem has shown that making apps affordable and accessible, easy to install and simple to update, benefits developers and Apple alike. A Mac app store shouldn’t be the only way to get apps into Mac OS X 10.7, but we’ll be astonished if it isn’t announced as an option within the next year.
Apple shows off the iPad
Posted On at by zovic
BRAND NEW: The much anticipated Apple iPad. — AP
The iPad doesn’t completely overhaul the iPhone’s touch-driven interface. It is still very much a touch-driven experience so just about anyone who’s used an iPhone will immediately be familiar with the iPad’s interface.
The works
Like a Swiss army knife, the device has a long list of functions that include web surfing, gaming, and reading e-books.
Confident in its web surfing capabilities, Jobs said web browsing on the iPad is like holding the Internet in the palm of your hands.
Users can browse entire webpages using Apple’s Safari browser on the iPad and employ the same finger gestures used on the iPhone to scroll up and down, or flick pictures and pages.
SIMILAR: The iPad has the same touchscreen driven interface as the iPhone. — AP
Leveraging on Apple’s large collection of existing applications, the iPad can readily run any native iPhone application from the App Store. The iPad can run them either in their native resolution of 320 x 480-pixels or scale up them up to fit the entire screen.
Apple had several developers to showcase their applications during its press event in San Francisco with Electronic Arts showing off an iPad-optimised Need for Speed: Shift car racing game.
Initial impressions show a rather smooth-running game with high-resolution graphics. Driving the cars in the game is by both touch and motion controls.
Other applications announced for the iPad include a new version ofiWorks featuring Pages, Keynote and Numbers that allow users to create text documents, presentations and spreadsheets.
The three applications will be available separately through the App Store for US$9.99 (RM34) each.
March date
Giving the Amazon Kindle a run for its money, the iPad also functions as an e-book reader, courtesy of Apple’s new iBooks application. The iPad will use Apple’s new iBookstore that will feature books from major and independent publishers.
The iPad comes in two versions — one with WiFi and the other with both WiFi and 3G.
It will go on sale in late March, with prices starting at US$499 (RM1,697) for WiFi-only models and up to US$829 (RM2,818) for the WiFi- and 3G-enabled 64GB model.
There was no announcement at the San Francisco event about when the iPad will be available in Malaysia.
Ubuntu 10.04 provides essential User Manual for beginners
Posted On at by zovic
Ubuntu operating system, due for launch in late April this year, will come with a comprehensive manual! The manual is created as we speak and it will be ready to accompany the final release of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. The Ubuntu manual will be designed for beginners in Linux and Ubuntu (of course) and it will contain essential how-tos, guides, basic information about Linux and its components, and everything one needs to know after installing Ubuntu.
“As a beginner user once upon a time, I found myself struggling to find useful and easy to understand documentation in an accessible location. The Official Ubuntu Book is great, but it is expensive. The Pocket Guide by Keir Thomas is informative, but doesn’t delve into enough detail in some areas, and is now out of date (written for 8.04/8.10). The Community Docs are excellent, but are not structured and do not follow a consistent writing style. The Ubuntu Help pages inside the Operating System are the best option for newcomers, but are often underused and lack screenshots.” – the Ubuntu Manual Team said.
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The Ubuntu manual is distributed as a PDF file and it will be revised every 6 months. The manual will be well written (it appears that only in English, but no one stops you to translate it), with a professional appearance and very easy to follow, even by the users that just heard about Linux or Ubuntu. And it is created and maintained by the Ubuntu community!
At the moment, Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) is in an alpha state, with just one release out. The second alpha release is expected next Thursday, January 14th.
We remind everyone that Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) will be a quality and stable release. Canonical plans to make Ubuntu 10.04 LTS a bug-free operating system, with lots of quality improvements to the user interface, installation & boot experience and support for the latest hardware components. Another important goal for the Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) release will be to improve the startup speed to about or less than 10 seconds!
The Lucid Lynx will be the 12th release of the Ubuntu operating system, and the third LTS (Long Term Support) release, supported for 5 years on the server and 3 years on the desktop. Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) will ship on April 29th, 2010.
A snazzy looking notebook, the HP Pavilion DM3 is great
Posted On at by zovic
Slim, slick and sexy are some words you can use to describe the Pavilion dm3. We liked the brushed aluminium frame which nicely contrasted with the black bezel surrounding the LCD screen on the inside.
This is one tough looking notebook with a solid body. And as it is also very compact and slim, you could easily lug it everywhere you go.
Though the Pavilion dm3 is compact, it weighs 1.9kg which is a little on the heavy side for an ultraportable. For a notebook that lacks a built-in optical drive, we would have preferred it lighter as well.
The Pavilion dm3 comes with lots of connectivity options — you’ll find four USB ports, a HDMI port for hooking it up to a larger display, an Ethernet port, a VGA out and a multi-format card reader.
It’s handy to have so many USB ports because one may eventually be taken up by the external optical drive, leaving another three for other devices.
SLIM PROFILE: The notebook does away with the optical drive but it has a lot of ports.
One thing odd about Pavilion dm3’s design is the power switch which is located at the side of the notebook — though not a bad thing but it took us a few minutes to locate it.
The Pavilion dm3 has a gorgeous 13.3in LCD screen with a resolution of 1,366 x 768-pixels. The screen is well illuminated which makes it great for viewing pictures and videos.
However, the glossy black bezel’s reflective surface is rather distracting and especially so if you use it outdoors.
Below the display sits the Pavilion dm3’s cool looking chicklet-style keyboard which is comfortable to type on.
There aren’t any dedicated keys for media functions, so you’ll have to use the standard function keys.
The Pavilion dm3 has a decent-size trackpad that is so shiny that it could double up as a mirror. The drawback is that it is a fingerprint magnet and becomes smudgy and dirty after in use for only awhile.
Feature-packed
Looks aren’t everything, so it’s great that the notebook packs a 1.6GHz Athlon Neo X2 dual-core processor, 4GB RAM and an ATI Radeon HD 4330 graphics processor.
Performance-wise, the notebook holds up well when it comes to multitasking with several different applications running at once.
We tested the Pavilion dm3 by playing a 720p video while using a heavy duty application like Adobe Photoshop. Much to our surprise the notebook didn’t skip a frame when playing the video.
Like most modern notebooks, it runs relatively quiet when in use. It does, however, emit a considerable amount of heat along the underside of the notebook, making it uncomfortable to use for long periods.
The notebook ships with Windows 7 Home Premium which is a lot more efficient than Vista, so start up and shut down times were relatively short.
Space isn’t an issue with the Pavilion dm3 as it has a huge 500GB hard drive which should be more than enough for storing all your programs and media.
HP has included preinstalled software though they aren’t that impressive.
For instance, the HP MediaSmart program acts as the default media player for handling pictures, songs and videos. But because it takes 12 seconds to start up it is way too sluggish to be used for even viewing photos as Windows Photo Viewer takes just a second to launch.
The HP Pavilion dm3 is by no means a perfect machine as it has its share of ups and downs.
As an entertainment machine, the notebook is capable of playing HD contentsmoothly and it has a large 500GB hard drive which is perfect for storing lots of media.
The notebook has a slick aluminium frame and a compact design but unfortunately it is a little on the heavy side. Plus, you will also need to carry an external optical drive which adds to the bulk.
Another problem are the built-in speakers which were incredibly soft and lacked punch. Also, the notebook isn’t really great for gaming.
Overall, the HP Pavilion dm3 is great for handling productivity apps and watching HD movies. Plus, with its long battery life of five hours, you can use it for an entire day on the go.
PAVILION DM3 Technical Specification
Hewlett-Packard
Ultra-portable notebook
Processor: AMD Turion Neo X2 (1.6GHz)
Memory: 4GB DDR3 RAM
Graphics: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330 512MB VRAM
Display: 13.3in widescreen LCD (1,366 x 768-pixels)
Storage: 500GB SATA hard disk
Connectivity: WiFi 802.11b/g, Ethernet port, Bluetooth
I/O Ports: Four USB 2.0 ports, HDMI port, VGA out, headphone and microphone jacks
Operating system: Windows 7 Home Premium
Other features: webcam, card reader
Battery: Six-cell lithium-ion
Dimensions (W x H x D): 326 x 230 x 24.3mm
Weight: 1.9kg
Ultra-portable notebook
Processor: AMD Turion Neo X2 (1.6GHz)
Memory: 4GB DDR3 RAM
Graphics: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330 512MB VRAM
Display: 13.3in widescreen LCD (1,366 x 768-pixels)
Storage: 500GB SATA hard disk
Connectivity: WiFi 802.11b/g, Ethernet port, Bluetooth
I/O Ports: Four USB 2.0 ports, HDMI port, VGA out, headphone and microphone jacks
Operating system: Windows 7 Home Premium
Other features: webcam, card reader
Battery: Six-cell lithium-ion
Dimensions (W x H x D): 326 x 230 x 24.3mm
Weight: 1.9kg
Source: ERM Blog