24 hours later....

Well it looks like the rumour mill is in full pitch since I posted yesterday.

It's highly probable that the new Mac Mini and new iMacs will be launched today but there is still some talk of a special event later on in the month. More goodies to come?

For some reason Apple always seem to slipstream product updates on a Tuesday following a fairly well established pattern. Being in the UK, it usually seems to mean that the US Apple online store goes off line either late morning or early afternoon building up incredible buzz within the Mac community. At the time of writing, I've just seen a tweet that the New Zealand Apple store is down (and now the Australia store) so it looks like we're off!

I'm sure there is no technical reason why Apple need to take the entire worldwide network of Apple stores down to simply update a few HTML pages, but kudos to Apple marketing in that they do know how to build up the anticipation and fuel the rumour mills. Of course, this can lead to disappointment when the announcement perhaps isn't all it's cracked up to be. A case in point was when they brought the entire site down, and when it re-appeared the only new product was an updated version of Aperture - nice though the Aperture is (circa Monty Python 1970 - The Architects sketch)

But this time round, there are some significant updates on the horizon especially for the MacMini, the machine people have often thought that Apple have given up on (and the one which has a special significance for me as my very first Mac)

It sounds like the MacMini will be given a significant performance boost all round with additional processor speed, faster graphics, more memory, lots more ports and an upgrade to 802.11n, along with DisplayPort support for the new Apple Cinema Displays (today or special event?) Some discussions about the MacMini revision not having a external redesign, but I can live without that. It's current form factor and importantly its low heat and noise output, make it unsurpassed as a small form factor computer.

I really hope that Apple price the MacMini aggressively and look to turning this into a killer switchers machine for 2009 and beyond. With the downturn in the PC market, they really need to look at the price point for Windows users considering a Mac and price the MacMini accordingly. Belts are being tightened in all markets so they really need to take a hit on the MacMini and perhaps lower their usually significant margins on this particular device.

By all means keep the price premium on the MacBooks, iMacs and Mac Pros but come on, cut a little slack on the Mac Mini to let people try it out. And yes, I know the premium for Apple computers is hotly debated, and you get what you pay for, and the equivalent specified Dell is more often than not more expensive that the Apple machine. But for the average man in the street, walking into a PC World and seeing the crap PCs at bargain bin prices, Apple just can't compete.

So come on Apple, take a profit hit with the MacMini so more people can experience the Apple experience. You know once they're hooked, they're hooked for life and you then start selling your premium products.

I know, that's what happened to me!

PS - I might even go for two MacMinis if they are released today.

One as a new Media Center for the TV and one as a Snow Leopard training machine. My original G4 based MacMini has given me sterling service but it just won't hack it as a media center.

Click to read more ...

Mac Event Soon?

Apple Event on March 24th? Other Products Maybe Sooner? - Mac Rumors

Well it's March and time for all the rumoured hardware product announcements to start up again (see above!)

In all fairness, I think there is a huge chance we'll see some pretty major announcements from Apple in the next month with respect to the Desktop range of Macs. Every single one, The iMac, The Mac Mini and the Mac Pro are all well overdue for a refresh both in processor upgrades but also in the area of graphics processors and Mini DisplayPort updates. An what about the Cinema Displays and thre recent withdrawl of the 20" model? The only monitors available for sale on the Apple store are the 24" LED model, only really usable with the new MacBook Pros, plus the very old 30" model.

I think it's unlikely we'll see any major design changes on the iMac or Mac Pro, but the Mac Mini may surprise us.

Will Apple spring all the updates out at a separate media event or just drip feed them?

Well, you know, I think they just might. They need to create a splash and a complete re-launch of the desktop range just might give them an extra boost in light of the economic downturn. They need to do something following the fairly lukewarm reception the Philnote received in January.

As well as the re-launch of the Desktop machines, they really need to start cranking up the hype for the forthcoming Snow Leopard release slated for later this year.

I'm sure they've got enough up their sleeves to fill a 60 minute special event.

Click to read more ...

Safari 4 First Impressions...

I like it!

Have to admit I've been pretty impressed with Safari 4 in the few days I've had it. It's still a bit of a struggle getting used to the tabs at the top of the window but I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually. Hopefully you've read my blog post on my theory behind it. Might be worth spending the time getting acclimatised to it now, just in case they decide to adopt this for other applications in Snow Leopard - new Finder design anyone. It does seem very modern and clean and I can well see them moving forward with this UI change.

I've seen a few comments about Apple ripping off the tabs placement from Chrome but unfortunately, as Google never released a Mac version of Chrome, I've never played with it. Call me a fanboy if you want but I realy didn't want to fire up my Windows virtual machine just to play with a browser!

Top sites is sort of OK but I'll have to admit to being a little bit perplexed on how to configure it? I mean, can you actually add sites to it manually? I know in edit mode you can delete and re-arrange but how do you add?

Have I missed something?

The adoption of Coverflow within history seems reasonable enough and does actually add to the experience so no issues there. I just hope that the lone developer who created Coverflow, which Apple then bought, was suitably compensated for his efforts when you consider just how much of a cornerstone Coverflow is to many Apple applications.

There is one aspect of Safari 4 which I don't like however and that's removing the progress bar and replacing it with a circular indicator. Whilst it tells you something is happening, there is no feedback on how long it's going to take. I may have to switch that back to the original behaviour but I'll see how long before it really irritates.

On the whole though, I think this is a really solid release from Apple and one that bodes well for the future. Now I must check if my on-line Bank supports this new version!

UPDATE - Yes it does! Result :-)

Click to read more ...

Safari 4 Tabs - My Theory!

You've probably already had chance to play with the new beta version of Safari released today - Safari 4 beta. As well as the new Top Sites panel, Apple have made a significant change on the positioning of the window TABs and moved them to the very top of the Safari Window pane. There are already hacks out to move the tab bar back to its original position, but you might want to hold fire before doing that. I sort of scratched my head when wondering why Apple have moved the tab bar and as usual, I think they've moved it to increase usability and functionality. Look, two Safari windows:

OK, now click on Window and hold the Option key down and select "Arrange in Front"

Look what happens....

The windows align themselves neatly yet all the tabs remain visible on both Safari windows:

Very neat and very Apple!

Click to read more ...

Mac Financial Apps

I started a mini twitter storm yesterday by expressing my frustrations with trying to find a simple yet effective Money management application for the Mac. Up until a few months ago, I was still using MS Money 95 (yes 95!), the last application from my pre-mac days and the only one I needed a windows virtual machine on my mac for. Well I decided to bite the bullet and transfer over to a Mac application to remove my dependancy on the windows environment. Well, there are tons of really smart Mac applications out there for every niche under the sun so shouldn't be any problems? After a very brief mooch around, I ended up with iBank. After using it for a few months, I want my MS Money'95 back. You know, if I enter 02/01/09 I really don't expect my consumer level package to interpret that as 2nd Jan 0009 - I mean, come on FFS!! Anyhow, I'm not happy and want a Mac app that makes life easier and makes keeping on top of my finances fun, you know, like all my other apps behave. As a side note, I've found a great online package for my business accounts called Kashflow (affiliate link) Whilst not a Mac app, it's brilliantly simple and just works. I'd like something similar for my home finances please. I've found that most apps are either too complex or too simple. I just want something that makes data entry easy and gives me a forward looking view for the next few months to see if I'm going to go overdrawn and allows me to juggle things about to stop that happening. The leader in the recommendations appears to be Moneywell but I'm not too sure if I really want to spend the time setting up all these buckets and moving stuff about. I still can't see a nice simple projection of how my finance will look over the next few months, but that just may be me. With all the packages, there is a big investment in time in setting them up and I want to be sure I choose the right one. James Oberwetter was kind enough to email the links below to me following the Twitter thread yesterday. I've not tried all of the apps but it's a good place to start. MoneyWell Cha-Ching moneyGuru MTH Software: Home of the high quality personal financial software Moneydance® 2008 - Personal Finance Manager for Mac, Windows, and Linux iBank | Personal finance, money management and small business software for Mac OS X EasyMoney IGG Software | Personal finance, money management and small business applications for Mac OS X Jumsoft | Money Squirrel - Personal Finance Application Feel free to leave your own comments and recommendations for financial software on this post. It shouldn't be this hard!

Click to read more ...