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news of 2005-04-05
The fastest OS 9 Finder ever?
If you're hanging on to an old, OS 9-savvy, PowerMac G4 (any model but the Cubes or the Yikes!), you can now get GigaDesign's 2.0 GHz processor upgrade card. It comes as a 1.6 GHz card but can be set to 2.0 GHz - and was tested at that speed. The Freescale 7447A processor runs its 512K level 2 cache at full processor speed. I guess you've never seen Mac OS 9 run so fast - and probably crash so fast. But with a G4 beast like that, you're good to make your switch to OS X, anyway. ;)
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-04-05 at 17:38 CET ]
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7 things I'd want Nokia to do with the Communicator
First and foremost, I'd want Nokia to work more closely with Apple. I understand that they at some point stopped supporting the Mac themselves (although now they do a little, media-related), but it'd be both in Apple's and Nokia's interest to have iSync support with phones even before they appear on the shelves. And I really don't think it can be too hard to write a description file for a new mobile phone, as they usually use the same protocols more or less for synching.
And now for what Nokia should do. Second thing I'd want: The UI speed should be considered a priority. I'm sure they'd have to sacrifice some battery life for better performance, but it seems to me that the much faster processor in the 9500 (compared to the 9210i) is mainly used for an eye-candy new theme, rather than to speed things up. Sure: Eye-candy is nice, too, but having used (but owned only the first and the last in the list) a 9110i, a 9210, a 9210i and the 9500, I think things got worse from the 9110i, which was perfectly acceptable in speed.
Third thing: Zoom and light indicators. What I mean is this: You have three zoom and five light levels. But when you move through them using the keyboard-combos, you don't know at which level you are. Something like Apple does in Mac OS X for the light and sound controls etc. would be nice. Wouldn't even have to be translucent. But right now, I usually have to go through the five levels of backlighting at least twice until I know I'm at the highest or lowest setting.
Fourth thing I miss: Target mode. Lemme connect the thing to the Mac via the USB-2 cable and show me both the internal as well as the media card as volumes on the desktop. Shouldn't be too hard: Cameras do it all the time.
Number five: Give it a good set of standard applications. Sure: The office part is covered, and so is messaging and webbrowsing. But there should also be an FTP client as well as an SSH-client in my opinion. Most communicator users I know use them to remote-administer a linux box. And even if the users wouldn't be using the things, it'd still give them the nice feeling that the software suite is quite complete out of the box.
Sixth: Messaging. Sure, the messaging client is quite complete and comfortable to use. But we have a large screen here. Why is it that I can only see three message titles at a time? And that when I expand the view, I don't actually see more information and only seven items? This could be solved more clearly. I'd also like to know which of my E-Mail accounts is used to create a message if I have more than one E-Mail account. Also in messaging: Let me define conditions under which different E-Mail accounts should automatically check for new E-Mail.
And number seven: A today-screen. A good one. There are several around (or coming out) as shareware, but I think they mostly suck. At least for now. Show me my next five meetings (even if they're tomorrow, please). Show me my todos. Show my favourite apps (so I can have more shortcuts than just the one you let me choose for myself in the current iteration). And also, of course, icons for new messages and the like.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-04-05 at 12:23 CET ]
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Why UN*X geeks do/don't switch to OS X
Some interesting thoughts to be read over at daringfireball.net.
[ written by fryke™ on 2005-04-05 at 09:49 CET ]
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