I reviewed Path Finder awhile back. It is, essentially, a supercharged Finder. Today the developers released their new version 5.0 which is very Leopard friendly and sports several new features including a dual pane window. I’ll be reviewing it in detail later but for now head over to the developer site and check it out.
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Here is an excellent guide to recharging in the afternoon. I’ll post more on this Saturday with this week’s feature review.
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Yesterday during the financial call, a question was asked about Apple getting into the growing netbook space. In case you didn’t know, netbooks are the very cheap, very small laptops that are cropping up. According to AppleInsider, Steve responded explaining:
We’re not tremendously worried. As we look at the netbook category, that’s a nascent category. As best as we can tell, there’s not a lot of them being sold. You know, one of our entrants into that category if you will is the iPhone, for browsing the Internet, and doing email and all the other things that a netbook lets you do. And being connected via the cellular network wherever you are, an iPhone is a pretty good solution for that, and it fits in your pocket.
I would have to generally agree with Steve there. I don’t feel a tremendous need for a netbook so long as I have my iPhone in my pocket. If he really wants to sway me however, he simply needs to make the call and tell the iPhone software team to turn on the switch to allow use of a bluetooth keyboard. I’ve asked for it and even written haiku about it. This wold be a game changer when combined with a good AppStore word processor.
We know the iPhone has a bluetooth radio. We know just about every other smart phone has an external keyboard solution. So what is taking so long?
My good friend, Darren Rolfe, pointed me to a Technologizer article comparing the pricing of the new MacBooks with a similarly configured PC. The author concludes:
The MacBook is close in price to the laptops I looked at which it resembles most closely, all of which target what I think of as the low end of the high end of the notebook market; if there’s a Mac Tax here, it’s not worth worrying about.
While this article is very good, I think it misses a very large point with respect to bundled software. Specifically, the inclusion of the iLife software and exclusion of crapware you find on most new PC’s is another huge selling point in my mind.
Over the weekend, I was fortunate to participate in recording the 51st episode of the Mac Roundtable. As always, it was a lot of fun talking with fellow Mac geeks. We covered the new MacBooks, MacBook Pros and Allison’s tale of woe when she wiped out her brand new MacBook Pro with a magnet. In the picks I covered PGP Whole Disk encryption which will get more attention here at MacSparky in the not too distant future.
Continue readingFunny how these ideas develop. It has been bugging me that since I got the MacBook Air, I never seem to take my MacBook Pro off my desk. I’ve slowly come to the realization that an iMac would be much better suited to the way I am using the MacBook Pro. As a result, I’m toying with the idea of selling my MacBook Pro. It has the following specs:
* 17″ MacBook Pro (circa April 2008)
* 2.6 ghz
* 4 gig Ram
* 320 Gig HD
* AppleCare through April 2011
* I’ll also include a Rain Stand, case, and extra power supply.
This is the current MacBook Pro but I’m sure it will be replaced with the new model shortly. If any readers are interested, I’m selling it for $2,200 plus shipping. I’m not sure if I am being silly switching to an iMac but I’m going to put it up and let fate decide.
********* Update ********
I actually had a guy call me and offer my asking price but in the end I got cold feet. When the MacBook Pro needs to be replaced in a few years, I’ll probably do so with a desktop machine but for now I’m going to stick with it. Thanks everyone for the ideas and notes.
MacMommy twittered today about this excellent article where James Wages explains how useful his SE/30 is to him. He uses it to write, play games, and surf the web. That is right … surf the web even though the web didn’t exist when this machine was manufactured. This is particularly exciting to me since, thanks to the generosity of a reader, I’m about to come into possession of my very own SE/30. More on that to come.
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Apple Insider today ran an article about Snow Leopard including a complete rewrite of the Apple Finder. I started using Macintosh computers in 1985 and the Finder really hasn’t changed much since then. I’d love to see someone scrap the Finder and start from scratch but I have my doubts.
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So we’ve had a few days and the reality distortion field is breaking up. People seem to be generally excited about the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros. The one major complaint I’ve heard is the removal of firewire from the MacBooks. I can appreciate this complaint but also must admit I don’t miss firewire on my MacBook Air at all. If I were to try and hook it up to my video camera and it was my only Mac however, I’d have two bags of hurt.
So I’m already now hearing people ask what Apple will possibly bring to Macworld. They’ve already released new iPods, new laptops, and they just updated the iMac design last year. So what is left? I’ve got no clue but I’m still burning a candle for the tablet device I asked for last year. Tim Robertson wrote an excellent article summarizing the last few Macworld announcements here. What do you think Steve will pull out of his bag of tricks this year?
Tomorrow morning is the big announcement for the new MacBooks and some sites are now reading the tea leaves to predict colored MacBooks. On a certain level this makes sense with the recent excitement over the new iPod Nano colors. I could almost see them doing something like this with laptops. I know a few people for whom color would make a difference. Time will tell.
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