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Reviews du jour...
Mar. 12th, 2004 12:05 pm1) Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther)
After running an "Archive and Install," it only partially worked. Synergy screwed the pooch, and CodeTek caused the entire environment to bite the big one. Once I disabled those, everything started to fall into place. With the upgrade, I've also moved from MS Entourage to Apple's Mail.app.
In general, it's significantly faster, and even prettier. Fast User Switching actually works without crashing, something that XP can't claim on Thanatos (although I partially blame that on Thanatos being a disgusting hodgepodge of software and extra drivers,) and it's just pretty to see the cube animation. Exposé just works, and I just now discovered how to add accented characters (alt-e, then pick a vowel. Alt-U for umlaut, and a few others. Neato.) I'll have to say that Exposé is a godsend, what with the pathetic 1024x768 resolution of the 12" PB and either iBook. It's not like I can expect a higher resolution on a small system, but on a Mac, it's just not usable for someone like me unless I use virtual desktops, or a very smart window manager, which is what Exposé does.
Next up, is Mail. Okay, grabbing 4500+ message IMAP folders sucks over a 128K pipe, so that's my own fault. However, while Jaguar Mail sucked horribly, Entourage gets its teeth kicked in by Panther Mail. I don't need all the features of Entourage, and built in Bayesian spam filtering makes all the difference. It also helps that the client does everything faster than Entourage. Since my Treo is synchronized to the Mac Address Book, Mail knows most of the email contacts already, and that's just the icing on the cake.
All in all, I'm pretty happy with this. It's made my Mac feel a lot faster, and while I'm not terribly pleased by the loss of CodeTek, but it wasn't half as responsive anyway, so smart window management trumps virtual desktops... for now. (Note: CodeTek Virtual Desktop has been upgraded to support Panther, but I never paid for it in the first place. If I change my mind in the future, I'll just pay for the damned thing, since it'll clearly be worth it.)
Pros: Fast, stable, pretty.
Cons: Minor third-party usability apps broke.
2) Nokia 3595
My spare phone, a T-mobile on a family account, gets upgraded whether I like it or not. I used to have a Samsung R225m, which had a blue backlight, a variable color LED, and non-polyphonic ringtones, with a simple built-in ringtone programmer. Nothing special, but it was small, light, and it worked. Last weekend, I was handed a 3595 to futz with, and so far, well, it's neat and flashy, but it sucks. It's got the nice new features, like polyphonic ringers, a color screen, call group programming, voice recognition, Java program support, Internet access, and swappable faceplates. I'm a huge gadget geek, but I think I hate it, and my reasons are simple.
1) Size. It's too large for a simple phone, and too small for a smartphone.
2) Key layout. Give up the crazy jigsaw-puzzle designs, and give me a fucking 12-key pad, 4-way nav, and call answer/end buttons. That's all I should NEED.
3) The screen. Color is nice. White backlight is nice. This screen works in ALL lighting conditions. However, the faceplate that protects the actual screen is made of a super-secret transparent alloy designed by the government to get scratch marks from being in the same vicinity as anything more abrasive than silk. Not even a week, and the fucking thing is scuffed to hell. Meanwhile, my Treo 600, sitting in the same pocket as a shitload of change and some headphones, has no such screen problems. That's an overpriced smartphone, though, but it doesn't explain why my cheapass R225m also lasted almost two years in the same conditions with no such damage. I call bullshit, Nokia. You made a bad choice in screen protection.
Make it a wee bit slimmer, and make the case a bit less susceptible to scratches, and it's a great phone. Hell, the battery life is already phenomenal, getting 3 days or so per charge.
Pros: Battery life, bells and whistles.
Cons: Shitty shitty faceplate, size, oddball key design by default.
After running an "Archive and Install," it only partially worked. Synergy screwed the pooch, and CodeTek caused the entire environment to bite the big one. Once I disabled those, everything started to fall into place. With the upgrade, I've also moved from MS Entourage to Apple's Mail.app.
In general, it's significantly faster, and even prettier. Fast User Switching actually works without crashing, something that XP can't claim on Thanatos (although I partially blame that on Thanatos being a disgusting hodgepodge of software and extra drivers,) and it's just pretty to see the cube animation. Exposé just works, and I just now discovered how to add accented characters (alt-e, then pick a vowel. Alt-U for umlaut, and a few others. Neato.) I'll have to say that Exposé is a godsend, what with the pathetic 1024x768 resolution of the 12" PB and either iBook. It's not like I can expect a higher resolution on a small system, but on a Mac, it's just not usable for someone like me unless I use virtual desktops, or a very smart window manager, which is what Exposé does.
Next up, is Mail. Okay, grabbing 4500+ message IMAP folders sucks over a 128K pipe, so that's my own fault. However, while Jaguar Mail sucked horribly, Entourage gets its teeth kicked in by Panther Mail. I don't need all the features of Entourage, and built in Bayesian spam filtering makes all the difference. It also helps that the client does everything faster than Entourage. Since my Treo is synchronized to the Mac Address Book, Mail knows most of the email contacts already, and that's just the icing on the cake.
All in all, I'm pretty happy with this. It's made my Mac feel a lot faster, and while I'm not terribly pleased by the loss of CodeTek, but it wasn't half as responsive anyway, so smart window management trumps virtual desktops... for now. (Note: CodeTek Virtual Desktop has been upgraded to support Panther, but I never paid for it in the first place. If I change my mind in the future, I'll just pay for the damned thing, since it'll clearly be worth it.)
Pros: Fast, stable, pretty.
Cons: Minor third-party usability apps broke.
2) Nokia 3595
My spare phone, a T-mobile on a family account, gets upgraded whether I like it or not. I used to have a Samsung R225m, which had a blue backlight, a variable color LED, and non-polyphonic ringtones, with a simple built-in ringtone programmer. Nothing special, but it was small, light, and it worked. Last weekend, I was handed a 3595 to futz with, and so far, well, it's neat and flashy, but it sucks. It's got the nice new features, like polyphonic ringers, a color screen, call group programming, voice recognition, Java program support, Internet access, and swappable faceplates. I'm a huge gadget geek, but I think I hate it, and my reasons are simple.
1) Size. It's too large for a simple phone, and too small for a smartphone.
2) Key layout. Give up the crazy jigsaw-puzzle designs, and give me a fucking 12-key pad, 4-way nav, and call answer/end buttons. That's all I should NEED.
3) The screen. Color is nice. White backlight is nice. This screen works in ALL lighting conditions. However, the faceplate that protects the actual screen is made of a super-secret transparent alloy designed by the government to get scratch marks from being in the same vicinity as anything more abrasive than silk. Not even a week, and the fucking thing is scuffed to hell. Meanwhile, my Treo 600, sitting in the same pocket as a shitload of change and some headphones, has no such screen problems. That's an overpriced smartphone, though, but it doesn't explain why my cheapass R225m also lasted almost two years in the same conditions with no such damage. I call bullshit, Nokia. You made a bad choice in screen protection.
Make it a wee bit slimmer, and make the case a bit less susceptible to scratches, and it's a great phone. Hell, the battery life is already phenomenal, getting 3 days or so per charge.
Pros: Battery life, bells and whistles.
Cons: Shitty shitty faceplate, size, oddball key design by default.
