News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
Our current network-enabled, instant-messaging, mobile-phoning, BlackBerry-toting world demands immediacy. With shiny things calling like sirens we try to deploy the latest and greatest for our students. In an attempt to satisfy the crowds baying for new we look to Leopard server to provide Web 2.0 goodness, but, down here at the institute, we've discovered that this emperor is scantily clad. It should go without saying that computer systems need stability, otherwise users will lose confidence and, rather than striding out, leading staff and students to learning Nirvana, you'll just be taking a walk.
Martin Levins | Feb 11, 2008
I've spent the last week mouseless, eschewing a handheld pointer in favour of living and working completely on the trackpad of a MacBook Pro and the multi-touch screen of an iPod touch. I did this pretty much on a dare: last week I said the MacBook Air's trackpad was large enough that I could imagine using it without the fallback of a mouse, and I decided to put that to the test. I don't have a MacBook Air yet, so my mouseless week had to be on a borrowed MacBook Pro (I'll buy one when Apple updates the trackpad -- soon ... soon ...). I've also made a point of using the iPod touch as much as possible, for instance when posting to the Australian Macworld forums.
Matthew JC. Powell | Feb 8, 2008
So, having discussed the Eee PC over on the Australian Macworld Forums – you should head there after you’ve read this (but not until you do – that would be rude), I cracked yesterday, and went out and purchased one. I’d been pondering the machine for a while; a cheap ultraportable that’s good for travelling and working in-between meetings? Something I can leave on a table in the house and check intermittently in between tasks? That’s ideal. I’d given some thought a while back to tracking down a cheap iBook for the same task, but to be honest I’ve never been that happy with the concept of a totally second-hand notebook. There’s just too much that can have happened to an older notebook that I, as a purchaser, might not be aware of.
Alex Kidman | Feb 7, 2008
Well, that kind of came out of nowhere, didn't it? With little fanfare and even less fuss, Apple Australia flicked the switch on its iPhoto printing service this morning, meaning that for the first time ever Australian customers have the full feature set for our digital shoeboxes. And not a moment too soon -- we've been paying full price all these years too. It appears that the books at least are beeing printed overseas, so it's not a matter of Apple Australia having done a local deal in that regard -- just that Apple US has discovered international shipping. It's a little less clear with the prints, as the ordering process doesn't indicate they're shipping "from abroad" as the books do, plus a little "Print @ Fujicolor" logo appears on the print ordering page, indicating that Apple might be subcontracting that work out to www.fujicolor.com.au — which offers the same range of print sizes at comparable prices. This should mean that the prints are delivered fairly quickly. I'll be ordering a bunch, and I'll let you know when they arrive. The next question is of course printing from Aperture, Apple's somewhat higher-end application that does much the same as iPhoto but for professional photographers. In the US, Aperture users have the same range of services available as iPhoto users. In Australia, not yet. For all we know, that's this afternoon's news.
Matthew JC. Powell | Feb 6, 2008
Microsoft’s not quite handing over the keys to its bank deposit box, but its aggressive $A49.5billion takeover offer for Yahoo is the largest takeover it has ever attempted and tantamount to admitting it has failed in online search. Embarrassingly for Microsoft, there is no way of hiding what an abject failure its forays into search have been, despite the billions upon billions of dollars invested in it. Anyone who runs a web site has the stats: referrals from Windows Live Search are so small that they rarely rank in the top 20 referrers, while Google dominates the #1 slot by a vast margin.
Dan Warne | Feb 4, 2008
The gold standard of Apple rumour sites has, for a long time, been the threatening letter from Apple’s lawyers. It meant you were onto something. So, with plenty of advance information floating around about the MacBook Air, arguably dampening the impact Steve Jobs’ MacWorld keynote revelations, why did Apple stopped suing? Has Apple suddenly got a conscience?
Dan Warne | Feb 4, 2008
Having used the MacBook Air's amazing multi-touch trackpad, I've been hooked. Now I just need that same functionality in a more powerful machine. Any help, Steve?
Matthew JC. Powell | Feb 1, 2008
Yeah, your iPhone has access to that high-speed cellular data network. But admit it: you use Wi-Fi whenever you can, right? Why, these days I’m tempted to walk into every McDonalds I pass and log in for free Wi-Fi just because I can! 3G may beat EDGE, but Wi-Fi beats both.
