New Technology Reviews!.: osx

Laptop magazine gives Lion the thumbs-up over Windows 7

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This week,<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;"> Laptop</span> compared OS X Lion versus Windows 7 to determine which operating system was "better," both overall and in individual features. OS X Lion took Laptop's top overall score, mostly on the strength of Lion's better interface, Multi-Touch gestures, Spotlight, iLife, and Time Machine. Lion's parental controls also got the nod for being slightly broader in scope than those offered in Windows 7, and Lion was also hailed as a more secure OS than Windows -- not for the usual "security by obscurity" reasons that such studies usually like to hammer to death, but for real improvements in the more secure way Lion handles applications.</div>
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Windows 7 offered a better multitasking experience for Laptop's money; the magazine considered Mission Control a decent but "confusing" interface in Lion. Windows 7 also took the crown for a better gaming experience -- I don't think anyone will be surprised by that -- and the magazine also considered Internet Explorer a better native browser than Safari. I'll be honest, I hate Internet Explorer more than I'm comfortable describing fully in a "family-friendly" format; however, as long as I'm being honest I'll also say that aside from iTunes, Safari feels like the part of OS X that still needs the most work. Apple's added some gee-whiz features like Reader to its browser, but in terms of overall functionality (and stability) Safari doesn't feel like it's changed much in the past couple years. Unless you're counting the nasty new memory leak introduced with Safari 5.1, that is, or the tab-reloading oddness that's causing issues.</div>
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The one portion of Laptop's rankings that I strongly disagree with is the magazine awarding Windows 7 higher marks for value than OS X Lion. The main reason I disagree with their analysis is that they don't actually compare Lion to Windows; instead, they compare Macs to PCs. While it's generally true that Mac hardware is more expensive than "equivalent" PC hardware, if you're going to make an apples-to-apples comparison you need to compare the operating systems themselves and not the hardware they run on. And as we've pointed out in the past, in terms of value for money OS X Lion blows all versions of Windows 7 away.</div>
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Naturally, since the magazine put Lion on top it's being roundly accused of a pro-Apple bias by Windows fans who can't seem to accept that Apple does indeed manage to do some things better than Microsoft. But with the sole exception of the "value" category, I'd say Laptop's comparison was fairly even-handed overall. I'll reluctantly admit that Windows is still better at some things than OS X, but just as Laptop claims, I maintain OS X Lion is the better choice overall.</div>
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Laptop magazine gives Lion the thumbs-up over Windows 7

This week, Laptop compared OS X Lion versus Windows 7 to determine which operating system was "better," both overall and i...

Apple opens Find My Mac to beta testing

Apple opens Find My Mac to beta testing

Apple has enabled beta testing of Find My Mac to registered OS X developers, according to MacRumors. Just like Find My iPhone, Find My ...

The Washington Post reflects on Lion's first week of availability

The Washington Post reflects on Lion's first week of availability

Like the rest of us, the Washington Post is taking a look at Lion after a week of use. It's mostly positive, but writer Hayley Tsuk...

Dear Aunt TUAW: If I sell my old Mac, does Lion go with it?

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<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">Dear Aunt TUAW,</span></div>
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So, the last time I sold a Mac I bundled it up with my Tiger install discs and sent it on its way, but having installed Lion on my MacBook and readying my bank account for the impending purchase of a MacBook Air, what happens to Lion when this laptop goes to the big eBay in the sky?<br style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;" />Can I sell something on if I don't own the physical product?<br style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;" />If it's tied to my iTunes account does it take records of my associated email account with it?</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">Your loving nephew,</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">Matt</span></div>
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<img alt="" mce_src="http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/8518/screenshot20110310at532.jpg" src="http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/8518/screenshot20110310at532.jpg" style="border-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px; max-width: 640px;" /></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">Dear<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">Matt</span><span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">,</span></div>
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Auntie is not a lawyer. She does not even play a lawyer on TV. But as a completely unqualified non-expert, here's how the matters seem to shake out.</div>
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<li style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;">App Store Lion licenses follow the account and not the hardware</li>
<li style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;">Pre-installed licenses follow the hardware, and not the account</li>
<li style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;">The install process from the recovery partition seems to follow the hardware as well.</li>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">Preinstalled Lion</span></div>
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Here's what Apple says about hardware that came with Lion.</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">If you obtained the Apple Software preinstalled on Apple-branded hardware, you may make a one-time permanent transfer of all of your license rights to the Apple Software (in its original form as provided by Apple) to another party...</span></div>
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Hardware that already had Lion on it, can be sold and the license transfers with it. You can restore the machine to its virginal state and sell it off. The new user should be able to use the recovery partition to re-install the OS whenever needed. Your e-mail should not be involved.</div>
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Since the hardware is newer, should the hard drive fail, the user should be able to use the over-the-air restore process.</div>
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That process does not seem to involve any user authentication. The hardware likely checks in with some kind of central Apple database that associates the machine ID with shipped-with-Lion install, but Apple is being closed lipped as usual in disclosing how the eligibility is determined. Auntie guesses it's the hardware identity.</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">Upgraded to Lion</span></div>
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For pre-Lion hardware, Apple takes a firmer line. Here's what they say about selling systems to third parties.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">If you sell your Apple-branded hardware to a third party, you must remove the Apple Software from the Apple- branded hardware before doing so, and you may restore your system to the version of the Apple operating system software that originally came with your Apple hardware (the "Original Apple OS") and permanently transfer the Original Apple OS together with your Apple hardware...</span></div>
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So as far as Apple is concerned, you still "ship with DVDs" but you also need to downgrade to the original OS. That means completely wiping the drive to remove the recovery partition as well as experiencing all the joys of an OS re-install from DVD.</div>
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Auntie suggests another way. Starting in August, you will be able to purchase an install dongle at the Apple Store. That additional $69 may simplify the whole process and the questions behind it ownership transfer.</div>
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When you ship a dongle along with a newly dongle-installed machine, you ensure that the new user can start fresh and will have a full license of their own. Of course, that extra $69 takes a bite out of your profit margin. But you'll be selling Lion-installed hardware rather than whatever your system started out with. (Do make sure to send the original install DVDs as well.)</div>
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Dongle installs shouldn't be associated with your identity either. So again, you should be safe there as well.</div>
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</span></div>

Dear Aunt TUAW: If I sell my old Mac, does Lion go with it?

Dear Aunt TUAW, So, the last time I sold a Mac I bundled it up with my Tiger install discs and sent it on its way, but having install...

Apple updating some packaging after OS X Lion release

Apple updating some packaging after OS X Lion release

Apple has updated the packaging on several Macs after the debut of OS X Lion, according to MacTrast. The site's managing editor com...

Microsoft working to add Lion features to Office 2011

Microsoft working to add Lion features to Office 2011

Like it or not, Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac is the most widely-used office suite for Mac users in the enterprise. While the existing ...

Hackinations: Making any OS X app full-screenable in Lion

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<img align="right" alt="" border="1" class="aligncenter" height="199" hspace="4" mce_src="http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/8052/screenshot20110725at309.jpg" mce_style="margin-top: 4px; margin-bottom: 4px; border: 1px solid black;" src="http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/8052/screenshot20110725at309.jpg" style="border: 1px solid black; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5; margin: 4px auto; max-width: 640px;" vspace="4" width="244" />Today, Steve Sande begged me to add a full-screen button to Colloquy. He offered me chocolate and kittens, neither of which is particularly good for me. But he's a good guy and I like him and his wife so I went ahead and figured this out. [<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">Editor's note: Actually, she was offered chocolate-covered kittens, not chocolate and kittens.</span>]</div>
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I am so warning you: if you are not comfortable at the command line, just skip on to the next post.</div>
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Seriously.</div>
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Still here? Let's go then.</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">Copy the App</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span>You probably don't want to edit the original, so copy the app to the Desktop.</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">Locate the compiled nib files</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span>Compiled nib files can be found in the app bundle's Contents/Resources folder. In more internationalized apps, they may appear in lproj subfolders. You need to locate the nib files you want to edit.</div>
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<li style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;">cd whatever.app/Contents/Resources</li>
<li style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;">grep -iRl NSWindowBacking *</li>
</ol>
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This returns a list of all nib files which define the NSWindowBacking key. That key more or less tells you that there's a window definition there. You can try to edit them all, or you can do what I did: just edited the three files in Colloquy's Resources folder that matched: JVChatWindow.nib, JVTabbedChatWindow.nib, and JVSidebarChatWindow.nib.</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">Convert to XML</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span>Use Apple's plutil or my plusutil to convert each nib file from a binary property list to proper XML.</div>
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plutil -convert XML1<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">filename</span>.nib</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">Edit those XML files</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span>Once converted, open the now text-based XML files in TextEdit. Search for the NSWindowBacking key/value pair in each file. After that pair add</div>
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NSWindowCollectionBehavior<br style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;" />128</div>
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This tells the window that its behavior includes full size resizing. Save your changes and close the file.</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">Convert back to BPlist</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Convert your edited files back to a binary plist. Strictly speaking? This isn't a necessary step. It just pleases me aesthetically.</div>
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plutil -convert binary1<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">filename</span>.nib</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">Run it</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span>With luck, your app now has full screen zooming support. Enjoy it. Make sure to back up the original app before replacing it with your edited version. And do not expect to upgrade this version, like, you know, ever.</div>
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<img alt="" border="0" class="aligncenter" height="152" mce_src="http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/3589/screenshot20110725at251.jpg" mce_style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px;" src="http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/3589/screenshot20110725at251.jpg" style="border-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px auto 8px; max-width: 640px;" width="259" /></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">UPDATE:</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>If you don't mind installing SIMBL, a system level bundle loader, you can check out chpwn's well-received maximizer app as well. SIMBL allows you to enhance existing applications with new functionality and features.</div>
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Hackinations: Making any OS X app full-screenable in Lion

Today, Steve Sande begged me to add a full-screen button to Colloquy. He offered me chocolate and kittens, neither of which is particular...

Blotter for Mac puts iCal on your desktop

<br/><p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="179" src="http://img804.imageshack.us/img804/2961/blottertuawle.jpg" style="width: 450px; height: 298px; margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;" width="270" /></p><br/>Back when I was in corporate America, an annual tradition was to order new calendars for the desk. I preferred the "day at a glance" type, but many of my fellow wage slaves liked these large desk blotter calendars that displayed a full month. Now there's a Mac app from WireLoad, Blotter (US$9.99) that turns your iCal events and tasks into the electronic equivalent of the desk blotter calendar.<br/><h3>Blotter</h3><br/>After you purchase Blotter from the Mac App Store, an app icon appears in your Dock. I have enough icons in my Dock, so I usually drag 'em off, and that was the case with Blotter. Not to worry, though -- once you've launched Blotter, a tiny menu bar icon appears for setting preferences and creating new events and tasks. Blotter can be set to auto-launch at login, and that's the way it should be.<br/><br/>The main feature of Blotter is the beautiful translucent calendar that appears on your Mac desktop. By default, it shows the current week, but can be set in preferences to show the seven days or only weekday dates. The current date is listed as a large number, with the month, year, and day of the week listed below. There's also a list of To Do items, as well as a "Right Now" mini-view showing the next four or five hours at a glance. I have my Blotter calendar set to fade out after 60 seconds -- a quick click on the menu bar icon brings it back to full intensity.<br/><div><br/><br/><strong>Gallery: <a href="http://www.tuaw.com/photos/blotter-for-mac/">Blotter for Mac</a></strong><br/><br/><a href="http://www.tuaw.com/photos/blotter-for-mac/#4263968"><img alt="" src="http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/502/blottertuaw1thumbnail.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.tuaw.com/photos/blotter-for-mac/#4263969"><img alt="" src="http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/8728/blottertuaw2thumbnail.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.tuaw.com/photos/blotter-for-mac/#4263970"><img alt="" src="http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/4217/blottertuaw3thumbnail.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.tuaw.com/photos/blotter-for-mac/#4263971"><img alt="" src="http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/7750/blottertuaw4thumbnail.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.tuaw.com/photos/blotter-for-mac/#4263972"><img alt="" src="http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/9784/blottertuaw5thumbnail.jpg" /></a><br/><br/></div><br/>Blotter isn't meant to replace iCal. Instead, it is meant to work with iCal so that you don't need to actually open your calendar to look at it. It's always there on the desktop for you to see if you need it, much in the manner those desk blotter calendars were on our real desktops in the past, soaking up coffee spills and giving us a look at what was coming up in the next few days or weeks. If you use Google calendars, no problem -- as long as you're subscribing to those calendars in iCal, they'll show up on Blotter.<br/><br/>The calendar can be set to take up a lot of screen real estate or a smaller area, and in the smaller views it is movable to various locations on your desktop. There's a "narrow" mode that displays just the date, To Do list, and the Right Now mini-view, but it seems to defeat the purpose of Blotter for me.<br/><br/>On my 27" iMac I tend to always have a lot of windows open, so they obscure the view of Blotter and also defeat the purpose of the app a bit. However, it's possible to hide windows temporarily by pressing Command-H repeatedly while in the Finder, and that makes it very easy to hide windows very quickly, glance at the Blotter calendar, and then return to work without taking my hands off of the keyboard.<br/><br/>Within the Blotter preferences, there is a setting for displaying all iCal calendars or just a selected few. One of the few negatives I see with this app is that for some reason, the color of one of my calendars -- which is orange in iCal -- came over as a sickly olive color in Blotter. The two main calendars (home and work) showed up in their proper colors.<br/><br/>What about adding new events and tasks to the calendar with Blotter? The app would be worthless without this capability, and Blotter makes it as easy as either clicking on the menu bar icon and selecting New Event or New Task, or by setting up a keyboard shortcut. In either case, a small dialog appears for entering in the scheduling information on the fly.<br/><h3>Conclusion</h3><br/>Blotter is a very attractive Mac utility for displaying iCal events and tasks on otherwise unused space on your Mac desktop. I fear, though, that Blotter might be made obsolete by Lion. While testing the next version of Mac OS X, I've found it useful to place iCal in full-screen mode. From any screen, it's available with a gesture and a click; much faster and easier than clicking on my desktop and hitting Command-H until I can see Blotter. Still, the translucent Blotter calendar is <em>much</em> sexier than even the Lion calendar in full-screen. Apple should take some design cues from the Blotter developers for the future.<br/><br/>Don't just take my opinion about Blotter. I've included a video review of the app by friend and frequent TUAW TV Live guest Doc Rock, who was the person who turned me onto this amazing utility.

Blotter for Mac puts iCal on your desktop

Back when I was in corporate America, an annual tradition was to order new calendars for the desk. I preferred the "day at a glance...