iStat Menu, the geeky tool that fills your menubar with system information released version 2.0 today that includes several nice upgrades and Snow Leopard compatibility. A must have, for any self-respecting nerd.
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The internets are abuzz with a small uprising against Snow Leopard. Some pundits even argue it is simply a service pack. I disagree.
The most frequently cited evidence by critics is the lack of significant changes to the user interface. They aregue that because Snow Leopard doesn’t look much different from Leopard, it is somehow lacking. I think this position misses the point. Apple never intended to make Snow Leopard look significantly different from Leopard. Indeed, Apple posted a slide at WWDC that Snow Leopard had “0 New Features”, which was received with applause by the audience.
Of course there are a lot of new features in Snow Leopard, but this sentiment is understandable. How many times have you received an operating system or application upgrade and said to yourself, “Gee, rather than adding three new broken features, I wish they had made the old version work better, faster, and smaller.” The thing is, Apple called our bluff. They did it.
It is like bringing your car to the shop where the mechanic upgrades your engine, drops in a new transmission and replaces the windshield wipers. You then pick up your car and say, “Hey, you just replaced the wipers. What good are you?”
Putting aside the fact Snow Leopard does so much work under the hood, it also adds quite a few significant interface improvements to Leopard. There is a lot more here than new wiper blades. The new services menu is much more useful to me than anything Leopard brought to the table. The dock Expose’ changes are also welcome. Indeed, I like all of the user interface changes. Some of my favorites are the little ones like easy linking in e-mail (command K), the speedy Finder, a sensible naming protocol for screenshots, and easy sound source control (option click the menubar sound icon). I’m sure I’ll discover more in the coming weeks.
While prior cats may have given us a new paint job or leather seats, Snow Leopard is all about horsepower. In many ways, it may be the most important OS X upgrade yet as it enables the Mac to seamlessly transition to the hyper-speed world of 64 bits and multi-core processors. To top it off, using the family pack licensing, I was able to upgrade every Mac in my house for $10 a machine. In short, I’m a fan of Snow Leopard.
Congratulations to Will and Michael M. for winning the Mercury Mover Giveaway contest. Thanks everyone for participating and many thanks to Keith at Helium Foot Software for his generosity. If you haven’t tried Mercury Mover yet, what are you waiting for?
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Over the past few years I’ve podcasted quite a bit about one of my favorite Mac utilities, Chronosync, but never given it a feature review. It is time. Chronosync handles synching and backups from your Mac with style.
For instance, using Chronosync I have one script that looks at the contents of some of my most important document folders and copies them to a backup folder on my iDisk every week. This way my key documents get offsite backup. The best part is Chronosync does this on a schedule and it requires no user involvement.
Selecting files for synchronization for backup requires selection of the volume and applicable directory and selecting, or unselecting, individual components for Chronosync’s attention. It is not entirely intuitive but makes sense once you understand it.
Once selected you cansynchronize or backup with just about any device. It will work with local or attached storage or even other computers. The developer’s separate application, ChronoAgent makes this particularly easy with other Macs and an excellent solution for synching between desktop and laptop machines.
The interface makes it easy to choose between unidirectional and bi-directional syncing. So whether you are looking to simply create an archive or sync multiple changes between two working machines, Chronosync can handle it. The application can even sync non system files with a Windows PC. It analyzes your data and allows for trial synchronizations. Additionally, Chronosync can create version archives on your backup to allow you to fetch prior versions of files.
In performing this bit of magic, ChronoSync uses “Relative State Monitoring” that allows it to detect deleted, moved, or renamed files and folders, and resolve conflicts. ChronoSync protects data integrity by verifying data, ensuring proper copies are made before replacing data, and providing detailed logs. Because it only copies changed files, the process is remarkably fast.
The scheduling tool allows you to set repeating and single run backups with the precision of a Swiss watch. It even emails you when backups complete or, more importantly, fail.
Because each synchronization or backup process is its own file, you can save as many templates as you require. I’ve been using ChronoSync for several years and never had any problems with it.
A license will cost $40. Interestingly, that is it. There will never be an upgrade fee, ever. When the software recently updated to version 4.0, I got it for free. You can check it out at econtechnologies.com.
You can listen to this review on the Mac ReviewCast, episode 223.
I used to have a keyboard shortcut under Leopard that allowed me to insert links to text when composing email messages. Someone at Apple must have had the same need. In Snow Leopard, you can do it with the built in shortcut: command-K.
Happy Snow Leopard Day to all of my Mac geek readers. Like you, I’ll be neck deep in it this evening (and probably twittering away about it). If you want some advice on getting ready for the update listen to the Mac Power Users episode 9. If you aren’t in the mood for my dulcet tones, please just remember to backup before pushing the big red button.
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Spot on. This is particularly impressive in light of the fact Apple surprised everyone with the early release.
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One of my very favorite Mac applications, TextExpander, found its way to the iPhone (iTunes link). This is an indispensable text replacement tool. I was going to write it up in detail but noticed my friend John Chandler already did. One of the most intriguing features is their release of the text expansion engine to other developers. While you can bet money this will never end up in Apple’s Mail app, I can easily see twitter and other text heavy apps embracing it. Nice work SmileOnMyMac.
Continue readingMore proof. Everytime I multitask, at least two jobs get done at the same time, inadequately. Just don’t do it.
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I recently reviewed the window control application for keyboard savvy Mac users, Mercury Mover. I’m pleased to announce the Mercury Mover developer has agreed to give away two licenses to MacSparky readers. Drop me an e-mail with the line “Mercury Mover Contest” in the subject line and you are entered. I’ll announce winners next week. In the meantime, head over and download the free trial.
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