Apple Briefs

Last week, Macworld posted a series of articles on various features in Leopard. Some of the hidden OS X features require terminal commands to active. I didn’t check, but I bet that many of them can be enabled with Mac Pilot.

• Finder and Quick Look
• Dock and Stacks
• Spaces, Exposé and Dashboard
• System Preferences
• Odds and Ends

Are you feeling a little nostalgic? Do you miss Lost in Space and boxy steel robot toys? If so, you may want to check out Firefox 3.0 beta 3 (you can download it here). Firefox 3.0 beta 3 is the latest vision of the browser of the future from the Mozilla Foundation. Thankfully, Firefox 3.0 beta 3 is a little more futuristic than Mozilla’s chosen new robot mascot. I wonder if this means we’ll be getting a new icon for Firefox?

I tend to use a variety of browsers – some Safari, some OmniWeb, and a very, very little Firefox. I use Firefox on Windows because it’s not Internet Explorer. On the Mac, though, Firefox just didn’t feel right. That is, until now. One of the most noticeable new features of Firefox 3.0 beta 3 is that it sports a more Mac-like appearance. It’s like Safari, with curves.

Firefox 2

Firefox 3

Safari 3

Firefox 3.0 beta 3 sports much more than a new skin, though. There are tons of new features. A few of the most significant ones (to me) are:

Download Manager. There is a new download manager that supports resumable downloads. This could be a boon for people who do some downloading, but not enough to justify buying something like Speed Download. This is a case of Firefox playing feature catch-up with Safari.

Bookmark Management. You now save bookmarks using a star button in the location bar. One click adds a bookmark. Two clicks lets you file and tag the bookmark. I would happily show you a preview, but the word is that the interface is likely to change from now until the final version.

Auto-Complete. The location bar auto-complete feature now lets you type either part of a url, the title of a web page, or a bookmark tag to get a list of results.

Smart Places. A smart places folder lists your favorite sites, recently bookmarked sites, and recently tagged sites.

Of course, there is a lot more to Firefox 3.0 beta 3 than what I have listed here. Many of the features, like the security features and coding improvements (to improve reliability and lower memory usage) won’t be immediately obvious but are equally important in the long run. Don’t be embarrassed, though. I know you just want to use it for the robots.

Remember, Firefox 3.0 beta 3 is beta software. If you use Firefox for work, you might want to stick with version 2. Users have reported problems with a few sites, including some of the major email providers like Yahoo, Windows Live Mail, and Gmail. But if you’re like me and have to be on the cutting edge, take a look at Firefox 3.0 beta 3 to see where browsers are headed.

I am usually one of the early-adopters of Mac OS X updates. This time, my tardiness may have saved me some trouble. A few people are reporting issues with the 10.5.2 release. Some have lost their iCal calendar data. If you’re an iCal user, you may want to consider backing up your iCal data to .Mac, Time Machine, or elsewhere before installing 10.5.2.

The 10.5.2 update also appears to break Linotype FontExplorer X. I am a big fan of FontExplorer X, so this is a real disappointment. I also own FontAgent Pro, but I find (the free) FontExplorer X to be much easier to use and much faster. Hopefully a fix will be released soon.

Today saw the release of three updates for Mac OS X: a new dot-release (10.5.2) for Leopard, a security update for Tiger, and a graphics update for Leopard. As usual, these updates are available through Software Update (although you have to download 10.5.2 before applying the graphics update).

The big news for 10.5.2 is that Apple turned back the clock on a couple of changes in Leopard. In 10.5.2, users now have the option to use the pre-Leopard List View when accessing a folder in the Dock. Leopard replaced the List View with Stacks, which only supported Fan and Grid view. The 10.5.2 update also reduced the translucency of the menu bar and menus and provides an option to turn off translucency altogether.

For all the press Microsoft has gotten lately over users “upgrading” from Vista to Windows XP, this has to be a little bit of a black eye for Apple. Steve Jobs has a reputation for being somewhat dictatorial when it comes to the design of Mac OS X interface. It’s nice to see Apple listen to their users when enough voices cry out together on one (or, in this case, two) issue(s).

I have posted an article called Why Use a Mac in Your Law Firm. I know that many of my readers are already Mac users. If that describes you, you may still learn a thing or two about your computer. If you’re not already a Mac user, then come in, get comfortable, and be prepared to be blown away.

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