Apple

Hello Safari

For those who follow me on twitter you will know that I have been having some problems with FireFox on OSX. As I used FF on Windows I naturally loaded it up first on my iMac and didn’t really give Safari a chance. I have several extensions that I have used for awhile to make life easier when designing. I wasn’t ready to give up these extensions and still not. However, after using FireFox with no problems for a few weeks it started to crash often. This alone was a pain but then the keyboard would just stop responding inside FF. Did I switch yet? No, of course not. After the almost hourly crashes and daily keyboard not responding it started locking up my iMac to the point that I would have to perform a hard restart. So, as I was in the middle of client work and was having internet problems with my AT&T DSL and (mt) was having Grid-Service problems as well it was just a really off day. I finally had to force quit FireFox and just launched Safari instead.

At first Safari was a little different and I didn’t like it. In fact as I was changing some settings I was still eyeing the FF icon in the dock and kept thinking I would give it one more try, although I didn’t. After changing a few preferences I jumped back into client work as I really needed to get this design sent off. I was missing my extensions a little but overall Safari started to grow on me. I have found it to also be faster then FF which has been great. Best of all though is that it hasn’t crashed or locked up once. This alone makes it that much greater then FF. The only thing that really bothers me is that there is currently no way to middle click (button 3) to close tabs in Safari. I did find a ‘dirty hack’ that does this but I will just learn to do without it. I haven’t given the latest FF Beta a try (I’ve been meaning to, but haven’t gotten around to it) but will to see if this might solve my problems. If it doesn’t, I don’t think it will bother me much as Safari has been good for me.

The Switch [Mac Apps]

It has been a little over a week since I made the switch from Windows to a Mac. The switch itself was pretty easy as I did a load of research and came across tons of great resources plus having several online friends who have Macs helped as well. This post is basically listing some of my favorite apps so far and what they replaced on Windows.

When I first started thinking about making the switch the first thing I looked at was the software that I use for work. I spend all my time in a code editor and FTP client and needed one with the features that I already used and maybe more. On Windows I had used Notepad++ for over 2 years and never had a problem with it. In fact I recommended it to lots of people as it had been great to me. I also used FileZilla for FTP for several years which has had its ups and downs but has made several great improvements over the years. Looking at Mac Apps I started looking at not only free apps but also shareware as I wanted the best. I did test a few text editors but as most recommended TextMate has been great and at only $59 it isn’t that bad. Loads of great features and several new ones that I didn’t have in Notepad++. For FTP I ended up going with Transmit from Panic for $30. I had thought about buying Coda (the all in one) which includes Transmit but in the end as I had already been messing with CSSEdit and TextMate I only needed an FTP client and it has also been great. Lovin’ the features and the look. No problems with either. I also got a copy of CSSEdit (through the MacHeist 2 Bundle) which runs for $30 as well. I feel more productive with CSSEdit and how it organizes the sections in a side bar. Between TextMate, CSSEdit, and Transmit I have a perfect setup and have been very happy with the purchases.

I of course have checked out other apps that don’t relate to working and so far love the Mac Community and the apps it offers. Most of the apps I have were bought through the MacHeist 2 Bundle. 1Password ($30) is a great password manager. I had used a few things on Windows including KeePass and 1Password is a must have. Adium is a free messenger that supports a ton of protocols including AIM and Google Talk. As GTalk isn’t available for Mac I gave Adium a try and don’t think I will be using any other (are there others?). CoverSutra ($22) has been the app that has gotten the most use. It allows you to control iTunes via shortcuts, support for Last.fm, displays CoverArt on your desktop, and more. If you spend a lot of time listening to music on your Mac then this app is a must have period. Skitch allows for screen captures and image sharing directly from your Mac desktop. It is simple and fast when you need to share a screenshot without any hassle. Snapz Pro X ($70) is a screen capture and movie capture app to not only capture screenshots but also doing screencasts. I have played with it a little and will more soon as I prepare to do some screencasts for a client but so far it has been great. Transmission is a bit torrent client which so far has worked perfect. It would be nice if uTorrent would just release an OSX version but for now they haven’t. The last one that I just recently started using is Connect360 ($20) which allows you to network your Mac with your Xbox 360. Before I did it through the laptop running Vista however after testing Connect360 recently it does exactly what I need which is stream shows to the 360. Plus it is nice having my iTunes library available on the 360 instead of having to move music via the iPod in the past. Will come in handy on Burnout Paradise (which doesn’t have the greatest soundtrack).

There are a few other apps that I haven’t had the time to fully explore so those have been left out. They include OmniFocus, VectorDesigner, Pixelmator, LaunchBar, iStopMotion, Cha-Ching, and Anxiety. Of course I left out the iLife suit which is awesome on its own. iPhoto has been great when importing recent pictures including Rachael’s 3rd Birthday Party yesterday and although I haven’t fully played with iMovie or iDVD from what I did explore they are going to come in handy in the future. Some of the apps can get kinda pricey but for what they offer they are worth it or at least for me they were (granted the MacHeist Bundle helped a lot with pricing). There are also plenty of opensource apps for the Mac keeping things free. I will have more Mac posts during the week of my thoughts on not only OSX but networking it and other features.