The Incredibly Dumb Solution To Photoshop CS4 & Spaces
So, I’ve been using Adobe CS4 Photoshop with Leopard’s Spaces for quite a while now. Originally I had Photoshop not assigned to any space, and then I tried with Photoshop assigned to a specific space. Neither setting worked, and anytime I’d switch from a different application back to Photoshop, I’d end up with what you see above.. a completely unusable Photohsop CS4… menus missing and nothing working.
Then Matty gave me the idea to try using Photoshop CS4 in every space… and magically, it worked!
Its extremely sad that I didn’t think to switch it myself… but its seriously nice to not have a UI mess every three minutes. Adobe should make their products work properly with a major Leopard feature, or at least warn Leopard users about it. Seriously.
The Lighter Side of Macworld
So Macworld this year. What is there to say? Basically… not much. I have to admit I’m relieved though, I’ve spent more than enough money on Mac products lately.
I am not even tempted to try the iWork update, I don’t need any of the new features. As for iLife, iPhoto sounds interesting, but I’m not in too much of a hurry. There are great free plugins for Flickr & Facebook to use in the meantime.
I think it was a good year for a lighter keynote. Good job Apple. <3
The Top 5 iPhone Apps of 2008
A very short list of my top five iPhone applications of the year…
Tweetie - Twitter was made for mobile interaction. There are many great Twitter iPhone apps out there. Twitteriffic is gorgeous. Tweetsville has a great UI. But Tweetie just beats theem all in speed and stability. After it gets a little makeover and fixes the UI of the direct messages… Tweetie will be set.
Collapse! Chaos - When Apple first announced software development on the iPhone, Collapse was the first game I thought of. Man, I love the general concept of this game. Its a bit slower (in style) than it is normally, but, I’m still happy they brought it to the iPhone.
BlocksClassic - It might be the simplest game on the planet, but I play it all the time. Its great for when you’re waiting around for five minutes.
Tris (no longer available) - Tetris might just be the most perfect game ever for portable gaming (or for any platform). But of course the iPhone’s Tetris game is pricey and slow. Tris was perfect… simple, quick, free, and very pretty. Unfortunately Tris was forced to disappear. :(
Klick - I find myself using Klick more and more. Klick makes Flickr viable for the iPhone. Period.
Bonus - NetShare (no longer available) - This should really be at the top. Those of us who were lucky enough to get it while it was available know why its so awesome. When you’re stuck without internet and your laptop, it is just priceless.
The Top 5 Mac Apps of 2008
A (very) short list of my favorite mac applications of the year…
Dropbox - Dropbox might just be the best and most original idea of the year. File sharing and file syncronization became simple and speedy. Enough said.
Bowtie - Easily the best, simplest, and most affordable iTunes accessory ever. You can read my quick review here.
LaunchBar 5 Beta - Years ago before Quicksilver I used LaunchBar. Well, LaunchBar has come back in a big way. Its incredibly quick and smooth. Once you try it, you won’t be able to use anything else. Its that good. It just really needs a way to customize its appearance and perhaps a way to add Del.icio.us bookmarks.
Eventbox - Eventbox is a great concept with a great design. It still needs some development, though. But its really has awesome potential… and the guys who make it are open to ideas, which is the best part.
Flow - The fact is that Transmit by Panic is still a great and reliable Mac FTP app. No question. However Flow attempts to be a bit different. I have to say I was weary of switching from Transmit, but I have really grown to enjoy using Flow.
Fall Screenshot
For no particular reason, a screenshot!
Feel free to ask any questions. :)
Bowtie
My friend Laurent helped create a new Mac application called Bowtie. It’s easily the best app out there to accompany iTunes.
Its basically an iTunes remote app. The beauty of it is in its simplicity. It can display album artwork and let you control iTunes from the desktop. It will post what you’re listening to last.fm for you. It does these things without hogging your computer’s resources and while looking beautiful. Bowtie boasts an extremely easy to use theming system based on html+css+javascript. It already has tons of themes, and promises to have many more. Absolutely fantastic.
The best part though is… its free! So go get it! :D
New Macbook Extravaganza
So incase you didn’t know, Apple had a huge presentation of new MacBooks, Macbook Airs, and Macbook Pros today.
They are a great bunch, all in all. The Macbook Airs are a bit disappointing simply because they don’t get a speed bump. I would have been pleased with even a bump to 2.0 Mhz.
The new “high end” MacBook is what has interested me. It seems to be what I’ve been waiting for since the PowerBook 12”, and is even better than the PowerBook 12”. It’s got the power of the MacBook Pro and the size of the MacBook. For those of us who really hate lugging stuff around (me).
So… I’ve put my MacBook Air up for sale. Here are the specs:
**Its been sold! Thanks! :) **
I Wear My Glasses Far Too Often
Ever since I got my new glasses, I am wearing them far too often. Pretty soon the world without them will be completely fuzzy.
Love, love, love the Delicious redesign. I was part of the beta, but I didn’t really use it. Definitely seems speedier, which was my only complaint. I am such a delicious addict.
Speaking of addictions, if Apple ever gets totally rid of Input Mangers, I’m screwed. Edit-in-TextMate is just indispensable.
Not surprised that TiVo has let the Series 3 go.
Loved the SYTYCD season finale. I voted for Katee, but I knew that Joshua would win. I’m very happy that she was the top girl, though. I would also like to point out that Katee was in four of the ‘favorite’ dances while the rest of the four finalists were only in two (or three, in Twitch’s case) dances each.
I’m liking Shear Genius much more than Project Runway. I didn’t expect that at all.
Cablevision added a whole mess of HD channels last week. Including Discovery HD, FX HD, AMC HD and Spike HD. All this really means are HD versions of MythBusters, Deadliest Catch, Rescue Me and repeats of CSI. Pretty awesome though.
Incase you couldn’t tell, I’ve really been missing lists.
Twenty Gigs Free!
It took way too long, but I’ve finally cut my music library by about half, from thirty gigs to fifteen. This means I actually have some breathing room on my tiny eighty-gig Macbook Air. At least for a little while, that is…
iPhone 3G, Baby
As you might have guessed, I got a 3G iPhone. There is no way around it, I love it. Is gorgeous, white and significantly faster than the old one.
Luckily though I didn’t wait on a three hour line. I called the two closest Apple Stores every couple of hours. I started around noon, getting reports of “three to four hours” of wait time for a phone. I started to get worried that they might sell out when I heard around 2 that there was still three-hour long wait times. When I called around four, I was told that around fifty people were only online. So I took my chances and headed to the store.
Altogether It took about an hour and a half to get my phone. Afterwards, though, seeing that the line was about same length I ended up waiting on the line once again to save a place for Matt who was still stuck at work.
Obviously not too much is different. I had installed the iPhone 2.0 firmware the day before, so even less is unique. Yet for some reason it really does feel sleeker, smoother, and faster.
