The Merging Of Computer And Portable Device OSes

Starting with OS X 10.7 Lion, OS X has begun looking more and more like iOS. I mentioned it in my post on the launch of Lion in 2010, and it's not just my opinion - a cursory search for "iosification of os x" (without ") finds many articles on this topic.

iOS-like features of Lion

• Interfaces of Address Book, iCal and Mail
• Auto-Save
• Autocorrect
• Full-screen apps - this is particularly ironic since this is exactly what the Maximize button in Windows does, yet OS X has always had the maximize button use as much space as the app needs, not the full screen. Here OS X has become more like Windows. Actually as screen sizes and resolution increases, full screen makes less sense. Especially on a computer with proper multi-tasking.
• Launchpad - "an iOS-like icon grid of installed applications". All your applications in one place, i.e. a Start Menu, another thing OS X seems to have lifted from Windows. It's something I've always done by dragging the Applications folder onto the Dock. It works better than dragging Program Files onto the Taskbar because OS X applications are mostly individual .app files, with no other support files in the Applications folder.
• App Store

iOS-like features of Mountain Lion, OS X 10.8

• Notification Center
• Notes
• Game Center
• Address Book renamed Contacts, iCal renamed Calendar
• Most worryingly, Gatekeeper - only lets you install apps from the App Store. You can change it, but how long before this option disappears totally, and you have to jailbreak Macs? It's like that point in Animal Farm when the animals become like humans, or when Anakin joins the dark side. You get the feeling things have taken a turn for the worse.

Anyway, my point in writing this isn't to just talk about OS X, but WINDOWS as well. It seems Microsoft has noticed it was missing out on the tablet market, and wants to make up for lost time with Windows 8. Shunning the gradual approach of Apple, it made Windows 8 an OS for both computers and tablets. I think it's counting on people's familiarity/dependence on Windows to sell tablets. However, I don't think PC users will appreciate having to learn the Metro interface (see Office's Ribbon interface), and usability for PCs seems to be badly affected. See Heisenfeatures - "Heisenfeatures are documented features of Metro the new interface that may or may not work at any given time."

PS: When writing this I discovered the interesting term "skeuomorphism", which is "when a product imitates design elements functionally necessary in the original product design, but that becomes ornamental in the new product design". Seems very common in Apple software.

Spotlight as a calculator and dictionary

I found out this isn't as well-known as I thought, and it's pretty useful, so I'm sharing it here.

You can use Spotlight in OS X as a calculator by typing in the calculations. If you're already typing something, you don't even have to leave the keyboard - ⌘+spacebar opens the Spotlight query, and you can start typing straight away.

Hmm maybe this isn't as well-known either. You can also use Spotlight as a dictionary, by using the same method.

Boot Camp with 64 bit Windows

When installing a 64 bit version of Windows on a MacBook Air, I had the error message "Boot Camp x64 is unsupported on this computer model", apparently because Apple does not support 64 bit Windows on MBAs. I found a simple solution at http://michael.anastasiou.me/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=22:qboot-camp-x64-is-unsupported-on-this-computer-modelq-solution&catid=7:how-to&lang=en.

Speaking of Boot Camp, it's irritating that the Windows drivers are ONLY available on your Mac OS install discs. If you're installing Boot Camp, you need your OS X discs to install it properly. This is troublesome if you've lost the discs or don't have them with you.

VERY serious bug in iMovie '09

How serious is a bug? How about not saving your work? That makes the program effectively useless. In fact, it has negative use since it's wasting your time! iMovie '09 is supposed to save your work automatically - there are no save options - BUT IT DOESN'T! Fortunately, I finished a satisfactory version of my work and exported it, because when I opened iMovie today, some of my changes were gone! I pity the people who worked for hours and lost their work. This makes me feel that even with automatic saving, you need a manual option.

http://www.unlockingimovie.com/2009/01/how-to-save-your-movie-project.html
The important part is the comments

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2125029

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=12723166
Looks like iMovie '11 has the same problem! I'm steering clear of Apple software for a while.

Some people say iMovie '09 8.0.5 works, but I'm using 8.0.6, and I just came across this problem. Now searching for a way to "force-save".

OS X's sorting by name

OS X's sorting by name is inconsistent. Numbers should be first - I agree. However, looking at the second character, it puts letters before numbers - "1a" comes before "11". This doesn't make sense. Why does 1 come before a when it's the first character, but after when it's the second?

A thing I don't like about OS X

You have to empty the whole Trash, you can't delete individual items. I believe this is a security flaw. It's especially annoying when you're deleting things from removable drives, because they're still there and taking up space.

It's amazing how some people will defend Apple by saying, oh, it's trash, you shouldn't keep stuff in there, if it's so important to delete it then just deleting isn't enough, you have to wipe the disk etc.

Back to the Mac

On 20 Oct 2010, Apple held an event called "Back to the Mac". Things announced were:

• New MacBook Air, with solid state memory as default
• iLife '11
• OS X Lion
• FaceTime for Mac

http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/20/live-from-apples-back-to-the-mac-event/

Some interesting statistics from the event:

• Mac made up 33% of Apple's revenue last year - 22b
• 3x 5 years ago, 50m users worldwide
• 13.7m Macs sold in FY 2010
• Macs' share in retail was 20%
• Last quarter Mac grew 2.5x, outgrown market for 18 quarters in a row
• 600k Mac developers, growing at 30k a month
• Retail stores 75m visitors last year, sold 2.8m Macs, 50% new users
• Stores in China have highest traffic

Apple also announced their 4th quarter earnings:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/18/apples-q4-earnings-are-out-records-set-for-revenue-earnings/
More interesting statistics:

• Highest revenue and earnings ever
• 14.1 million iPhones sold, 3.89 million Macs, 9.05 million iPods and 4.19 million iPads
• All-time record for Apple of $20.34 billion in revenue for a net profit of $4.31 billion

 http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/10/18results.html

The Future Of OS X
It seems to me that since Apple is doing so well with mobile devices, they're taking what they're good at and applying it to OS X, making it more like a mobile OS:

• Mac App Store
• App Home Screens (Launchpad)
• Full screen apps

What does this mean for OS X? Hopefully it won't lose the power to run computer programs. Already, I think OS X is more like a mobile OS than Windows is, since it wakes almost instantly from sleep. Engadget also ran an article on how OS X is becoming like a mobile OS:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/07/switched-on-the-ipadification-of-mac-os/

Bug in OS X

If you use a picture as the desktop background, and overwrite that picture with another one of the same name and try and use THAT instead, the background won't update. I manually set it to the new picture in System Preferences, and when I logged out it turned back into the old one.

More problems with Safari

When accessing Yahoo mail with Safari, it tended to "hijack" Safari - when it finished loading, it would automatically become the active tab. This is VERY irritating, since I'm usually checking Gmail when Yahoo is loading. Just when I click on the Gmail tab, Yahoo becomes the active tab and I end up clicking on the wrong tab. I've found Yahoo doesn't do this on Firefox. Could it be a problem with Safari instead of Yahoo?

Bye Safari

I've stopped using Safari. I prefer sticking to default software if possible, and Apple's claims make Safari seem like a good browser, but recently it's been acting up too much. It's ridiculously slow sometimes, especially when I run Fusion. The last straw was not being able to click on the show # more posts links in Facebook or the notifications not being marked as read. Safari has failed, and it makes you wonder about Apple's software. So far, Firefox is looking good. The only problem is it doesn't save passwords to OS X's Keychain, and there are too many addons to choose from!

OS X is 10 years old

Wow, OS X hits 10 years this year. That's really really long. I wonder what they have planned next. Why do they release "small" updates like 10.6 instead of a whole new OS? A case of not fixing it if it isn't broken? On the Windows side, XP is 9 years. That's also amazing considering some new computers still come with it. Great success, or subsequent failures?

I wonder how long these links will work for.
Looking back at OS X's origins
Top 10 innovative features of OS X

I think the thing I like most about OS X is Spotlight. It's fast and useful - I can search for files, contacts, and especially use it as a calculator and dictionary.

Printing in OS X

By default, OS X prints pages in reverse order: page 3, page 2, page 1. This actually makes more sense, since the pages come out face up, so after printing they're stacked correctly and ready for stapling. But it's so annoying, because I keep forgetting, and when I rearrange paper to print double-sided it prints on the wrong pages, and I end up having to throw all the paper away!

Photo Booth not recording sound?

Today I was recording a movie in Photo Booth and it didn't record any sound. I fixed it by going to system preferences, changing my audio input to built-in mic and restarting Photo Booth.

"System-wide" text replacement in OS X

I type ° a lot, so I set up OS X to convert *o to that. It's quite easy to do in Word, but not as obvious in Safari.

First, go to language and text to set up conversions. There are some default ones already there. I also type (C) a lot, but I don't want ©, so I disabled it.

Next, you must set up replacements for each application. Type some text into a text box in Safari, select it and go to the Substitutions menu.

Enable text replacement.

Spotlight search tips

Isn't the Internet great for storing information? I used to keep a newspaper clipping for this, but I thought I'd post it here so I can search for it easily and I won't have so many things to keep track of.

Source: The Age (newspaper) Green Guide, 25 February 2010

• Open first hit - ⌘+return
• Open containing folder - arrow down to item, then ⌘+return
• Search by type - kind:pdf

MacBook Pro wish list

• How about red LEDs for the battery indicator as well? The idea is that there'd always be a total of 8 LEDs lit, like 5 green and 3 red. I look at how many lit vs. unlit LEDs there are to gauge the power, and when it's dark it's hard to see how many unlit LEDs there are.
• Paint. Preview is nice and powerful, and it can crop and resize well, but sometimes I just want to scribble something onto a picture, even if it's with a mouse.

Preview in Snow Leopard.

In Leopard, when I opened a few pictures in Preview and zoomed in, the zoomed area would change when I swapped between pictures. For example, if I zoomed into the centres of pictures 1 and 2, and changed from picture 1 to 2 and back to 1, it would now be zoomed into an area to the left. If I keep changing between pictures 1 and 2, it would eventually be zoomed into the corner of the picture.
I think they knew about this and "fixed" it in Snow Leopard. Now when you change pictures, they revert to default zoom.

More complicated than you think.

Most people think OS X is a simpler version of Windows (having only one button on the mouse helps), it's for people new to computers etc. On the contrary, I found that in some ways it's more advanced than Windows:

• Console - this app shows you messages about everything that's going on in your computer (I won't post a screenshot because I'm not sure what information can be gotten out of it). Actually, I'm not sure how to use the information, but it can be used for troubleshooting etc. I wonder what would be displayed if Windows had such a program?
• Applescript/Automator - these programs are my favourite features of OS X.

Automator is an easy to use program that lets you define a sequence of actions. You can use it to resize, then rename photos etc. I use it to rename files.

Applescript is like Automator, but without the GUI. It's more powerful, like it can do if-then decisions. This example script types some text into Excel, then copies and pastes it. Hopefully it's simple enough to understand. The thing I like about it is you can program by keystrokes instead of commands, which I find more universal - it works with almost every program, including World of Warcraft. Currently I use it to maximise my Safari (the "maximise" button in OS X doesn't maximise), and to open 2 Finder (Windows Explorer) windows side by side, in Tiled order (OS X doesn't have tile/cascade either).

In Windows I was looking for a macro program like this, to do repeated things. I only found Macro Mania and my mouse drivers, which weren't enough. It's nice that OS X comes with these by default.

• Grapher - Windows has no graphing software included. Not only is Grapher included, it's powerful. It can plot in 3D, parametric, polar and log plots, and it can calculate integrals and derivatives. It's come in useful for my Maths classes a few times. This is a Möbius Strip I plotted for a Maths report. I also used Grapher to calculate the integral from 0 to ∞ of a complicated function (but I couldn't figure out how to plot it). It can also make animations.

MacBook Pro / OS X design dislikes

• Max volume too low. This is probably to prevent distortion, but I think it can be set a bit higher.
• Trackpad button is a bit hard to press. It's ok for clicking, but hard to drag.
• Edge of unibody cuts into your wrists when typing.
• Only 2 USB ports?
• Character palette is hard to use. I wish they'd show things by font instead of by character. There's no warning when the character you choose isn't in the font you're using, and it uses another font instead. After searching for a character, double-clicking puts that character in the search box instead of in your document. (dragging works better)
• No HDD light. How do I know when my computer is busy? I like the minimalist design, but the HDD light is necessary.
• No mic jack. It has a line-in port. See. It needs a "line-level mic", most mics don't work with it.
• No good DVD burning software. I'm not paying $100 for Toast Titanium. What I want is to be able to burn multisession DVDs.

Upgrading to Snow Leopard.

I upgraded to Snow Leopard recently (almost 1 month after it came out), and here are my observations so far:

• Multiclutch doesn't work. Multiclutch is a program that lets you map multitouch gestures to any program. For instance, I use 3 finger swipe left and right to move between tabs in Safari. http://wcrawford.org/2009/09/01/multiclutch-and-snow-leopard/
• The mosiac screen saver doesn't work. It either keeps repeating the same picture and a black screen, or hangs.
• Volume used to reset to about medium everytime I restarted my computer. I fixed it from http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10327006#10327006 just by deleting some files.

If you're going to upgrade, make sure you have a backup first and choose a time when you don't need your computer that much. It's not a big upgrade but there's still a risk. That's why I waited so long to upgrade.