Since the announcement of the iPad I’ve been amazed by the strength of feeling demonstrated by both sides of what has become the great Flash debate of 2010.

The iPhone has never supported Flash and while mention was made of that fact when v.1 was released it’s continued omission has not engendered any great depth of feeling. Since the iPad runs on essential the same operating system I didn’t expect Flash to be supported and therefore wasn’t surprised when it wasn’t.

What has happened since has astounded me: the vitriolic claims and counterclaims have flowed thick and fast.

Adobe have voiced their willingness to work together with Apple to resolve any concerns Apple may have. While Apple initially said nothing Steve Jobs this week had plenty to say on the subject at least to his own employees. According to Wired and Macrumors (US spelling is correct!) Apple’s CEO said “They are lazy. They have all this potential to do interesting things but they just refuse to do it. They don’t do anything with the approaches that Apple is taking, like Carbon. Apple does not support Flash because it is so buggy. Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it is because of Flash. No one will be using Flash. The world is moving to HTML5.”

The world may be moving to HTML 5 but Jobs is overlooking the fact that the majority of the browsing world isn’t there yet and as the longevity of Internet Explorer 6 demonstrates old technology takes some considerable time to die out completely.

As an active member of the Adobe Community Programme I have access to the very best Flash developers, programmers and users. Obviously their stance is that Apple are missing a fantastic opportunity to offer a full browsing experience on their newest product by continuing to shun Flash.

Many Apple users are of the opposite opinion even going so far as disabling Flash in their more than capable Mac desktop computers and laptops. To the uninitiated that may seem tantamount to removing the nose to spite the face but to a large percentage of Mac users it makes perfect sense.

Why?

Well while Flash runs admirably on the Windows platform it does so because Microsoft have granted Adobe, the manufacturer of Flash, access to the Windows graphic APIs. Apple have steadfastly refused to do so for their OS X platform. So while the Flash development platform and the Flash Player is available for OS X is does not have access to the Apple OS X graphic APIs and as such is unable to benefit from the performance enhances access to them would provide. The workarounds Adobe have employed to mitigate the effects of having no API access have meant that Flash does not run as well on OS X as it does on Windows.

Hence, Flash is regarded by many OS X users as a resource hog and they choose to deploy third party applications whose sole function is to stop Flash running in their browser. The most popular of these Flash blockers is ClickToFlash available at no cost from http://rentzsch.github.com/clicktoflash/

No-one can deny that much of the Flash content that is presented to users in a browser falls into the category of “annoying adverts” but Adobe would no doubt prefer that their tools are not blamed for the output of web designers with predilections for creating such content. Flash gets such a bad press for the “annoying adverts” that it’s easy to overlook the innovations that it was responsible for and the inventiveness the Flash developers and community continue to demonstration.

Much has been made in the pro-Apple camp of the fact that HTML 5 is an open standard whereas Adobe and it’s Flash platform is a commercial entity. However, this stance conveniently ignores the roots of the Mac community exemplified in the pivotal 1984 advert for Macintosh. The ideology of Apple as the David against the Goliath of IMB is clear from that advert and the seeming reversal of roles is clearly advanced by this erudite post from Adobe Community Manager Rachel Luxemburg.

So a week on instead of enjoying the buildup to the release of the iPad we are bombarded with requests to petition Apple to change it’s stance and subjected to Steve Jobs scornful opinion of Adobe. At the same time we’re witnessing users blocking Flash on one class of device while another equally vocal group of users are demanding it’s deployment on another platform.

As a Mac user for the last four years I personally have never disabled Flash. I have never found it to be so annoyingly slow, unstable or capricious to warrant such treatment but I personally know many who have. Since Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro, an online conferencing system I use on a very regular basis, requires Flash I won’t be doing without it anytime soon either.

Sadly the omission of Flash from the iPad means I won’t be lounging somewhere comfortable while presenting or participating via Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro when the iPad is released. However, I’m not too concerned about it as I’ve had a Flash-less iPhone for over 18 months now and can’t say life without it has been unbearable.

So what’s your take on it?

So the magic day has arrived … I’m out of contract on my iPhone 3G *deep joy*

Time to change to a better value tariff so off I headed to O2 in Bolton. I knew what I wanted was a tariff called Simplicity 20 for iPhone … if only acquiring it had been simple. Sadly, it was a complete disaster, for the full horror of the day take a listen to MacBites episode 40.

The store staff had clearly had no training in what was available to cater for the specific needs of iPhone customers. A glaring omission given that all the customers who purchased an iPhone 3G on the day of release are out of contract this month. The staff were all most helpful and cordial but this didn’t translate into a smooth transaction when they were unaware of the difference between a Simplicity tariff and a Simplicity for iPhone tariff.

For the record this is the difference:

Simplicity (During January promotion) – £20

• 700 Free voice minutes (100 minutes more than usual)
• 700 Free text messages (100 texts more than usual)
• 1 free bolt-on (they recommend unlimited internet)
• No visual voice mail
• No free wifi

Simplicity (After January promotion ends) – £20

• 600 Free voice minutes
• 600 Free text messages
• 1 free bolt-on (they recommend unlimited internet)
• No visual voice mail
• No free wifi

Simplicity 20 for iPhone – £20

• 600 Free voice minutes
• 1200 Free text messages
• 2 free bolt-ons (they recommend unlimited internet and unlimited wifi)
• Includes visual voice mail

The Best Way to proceed?

From my experiences I’d by-pass the stores, they don’t seem to have a clue what is the best option for iPhone customers coming out of contract, and call O2 directly. If given a choice, which you should be if ringing via your iPhone, select the option to speak to the cancellations department. The option actually connects you to a department called Retentions who seem to be the only people at O2 who have any knowledge of the existence of the iPhone version of the Simplicity tariff.

Tell the Retentions department you want to switch to Simplicity 20 for iPhone with 600 free minutes, 1200 free texts, 2 bolt-ons and visual voice mail. If they deny all knowledge of its existence ask to speak to a supervisor and/or show them this screen capture of my O2 account … it really exists!!

You might have to wait 24 hours for everything to be activated and you might have to manually reconfigure your settings. One of the side effects of changing tariffs was that the phone reset itself and failed to connect to the 3G network. This was easily rectified by entering the following settings into the General > Network > Cellular Data Network of the phone:

The only other gotcha I encountered was having to set Visual Voice Mail up again from scratch but this shouldn’t be necessary if O2 transfer you to the correct tariff in the first place. Being without my visual voice mail made me realize that it was a feature of the iPhone that I had greatly under-appreciated … a mistake I won’t make again

Good luck with your tariff transfers and I’d love to hear how you get on so be sure to leave me a comment below!

I thought I beyond being surprised by the depths to which Microsoft will stoop to gain a user. Sadly this week has proved that I am not and I viewed the latest attempts from Redmond to woo users to the newly minted Internet Explorer 8.

The strategy this time is to offer the chance to win $10,000 to those prepared to use Internet Explorer 8 to pinpoint clues which reveal the location of the cash.

Nothing wrong with that so far if you’re prepared to be bought but where the promotional campaign took a distasteful turn was in the phraseology used to those visitors using a browser other than Internet Explorer 8.

How is telling potential users to “… get rid of it, or get lost.” likely to charm them into using IE8?

Visiting with Safari resulted in:

Firefox visitors don’t fair much better:

Visiting via Opera? They don’t even bother to refer to your browser by name!

No concessions for older versions of IE either but at least those users don’t get told to “get lost”.

However, if there are any remaining users of IE for the Mac they don’t get treated so well and are indeed told to get lost.

Not satisfied with leaving it there Microsoft then produced a broswer comparision chart. They limited themselves to comparing IE8 with only Firefox and Chrome but this didn’t stop Wired Magazine from filling out on the “facts” Microsoft provided in said chart, very amusingly. Soon others where taking the initiative and making their own amendments to said comparison chart including Kilian Valkhof.

This sort of negative approach is so old hat that Microsoft should be ashamed of themselves. Competition between browser creators is good for the users but only when the competition results in the creation of better browsers and a better browsing experience.

Negative promotions like this do not move us forward. If Microsoft want to entice more users here’s a radical idea … make a better product.

In the midst of the iMac fiasco I made the decision to buy a Mac Mini. I’d toyed with purchasing one before deciding to wait for the inevitable upgrades – trouble was Apple took far longer than I anticipated to upgrade the Mini.

Well the upgrades finally arrived and I bought a base model priced at £499.

I had a specific job in mind for the machine, as well as it being a spare system available in the case of a failure elsewhere. That job was for it to act as a host for several external hard drives and the two office printers. By hosting the external drives on the Mini I would be able to run backups and archive data to discs without impacting the performance of my main workstation.

Now there would be no point in opting for the Mini for compactness and then having to find space for a monitor. For this reason I had planned to use the Mini in headless mode, i.e. without a keyboard, mouse and monitor, via Screen Sharing.

I’m not naive enough to think there wouldn’t be a few gotchas along the way but the show-stopper came as a surprise!

For initial setup I had no alternative but to use a keyboard, mouse and monitor. Everything went smoothly and once the operating system was configured sufficiently I disconnected all the extraneous equipment.

First problem: when OS X boots without a keyboard and/or mouse the system, by default, searches for a bluetooth version of each and while this search is ongoing a dialog box is displayed on the screen and with no way to close it you’re stuck. This one wasn’t too tricky to solve.

In the System Preferences > Bluetooth section click the Advanced button to display extra options.

Bluetooth Dialog Box in OS X

Uncheck the “Open Bluetooth Setup Assistant at startup when no input device is present” and you’ll never be troubled with complaints about a keyboard or mouse again.

Second problem: much worse and one I certainly hadn’t foreseen … the curious case of Toast!

I have a love/hate relationship with Toast. I love the way it’s integrated into many applications, such as Elgato EyeTV, allowing a disc burn process to be instigated from within that software.

I hate the way Roxio impose an annual upgrade tax. Every year (usually in January at Macworld) they announce a new version which does pretty much the same as the last version with the possible addition of a few bells and whistles I’m unlikely to use. Now, knowing me I’d probably upgrade anyway if the upgrade price was realistic. Sadly, Roxio’s upgrade pricing is ridiculous, often meaning an “upgrade” is 80% to 90% of the price of the full product.

If it burns a disc I’m happy so I made the decision not to upgrade from version 8, which was the first version I bought. It was also the first universal binary version. I wasn’t sold on the interface “improvements” either so it was no hardship not to upgrade.

So I install Toast 8 on the Mini, check for all updates and run the application. The application icon bounces in the dock twice and then vanishes. Figuring it was a blip I run it again with the same result. I reboot and try again, same result. OK so clearly there’s something wrong: I uninstall and reinstall, same result.

Then I begin running through the mental checklist of why something would run perfectly on one system but not another. It didn’t take long for me to make the connection that one system had a monitor and the Mini didn’t. But wait, since when is a monitor a prerequisite for burning a disc?

Pedantically I check the system requirements for Toast 8 and it doesn’t mention NEEDING a monitor. I appreciate most systems will have one for obvious reasons but there must be system administrators running servers or other machines headless.

I start to Google the issue and guess what? I’m not alone, my supposition was correct, other users have found the same issue and not just with Toast 8 but also Toast 7 and Toast 9. No updates or patches are available so it just isn’t going to work. I briefly consider upgrading to Toast 10 but there is no information available as to whether this show stopping bug is fixed in this version either. Strangely there is no trial version of Toast available either, so try before you buy is not an option either.

I was sure I had some other disc burning software in one of the earliest software bundles I bought so I dig it out and yes it might be basic but it should do the simple job of allowing me to burn a DVD data disc. The software in question, Disco, wouldn’t run at all.

To burn a disc, such a simple requirement, yet here I was struggling to find a piece of software willing to do it. (I know the Operating System can do it but there are niceties in burning software that Leopard doesn’t provide.)

A trip to MacUpdate.com leads to the discovery of a free disc burning application called simply Burn. It installed, it ran and yes it burned a disc!

It now has pride of place on my Mini as the disc burning application of choice.

As for Toast well I doubt they intend to fix the problem affecting so many users of versions 7, 8 and 9 because version 10 runs perfectly in headless mode. Finally, a real reason to update but I have no intention of doing so because I feel let down by a company who have a crippled product and the only way for me to be able to use it is to give them more money.

Roxio get your house in order.

I’ve had enough

So where were we up to with the story of the repair from hell?

Oh yes Friday, 24 April 2009 no news, status “Repair in Progress”.

Worse than that I haven’t had any communication from the Store regarding my e-mail sent 4 days ago. This is despite a promised investigation, by the staff member identified only by a first name, I have heard nothing at all from anyone.

Chasing Smoke

So it’s Monday morning, still no reply to last week’s e-mail.

Unbelievable.

A follow up is required but I have no intention of running through the whole sorry saga again. I only need to know one thing are they bothering to address my concerns or not?

I’m up early and send a follow up e-mail just after 6am asking that very question.

Good Grief

Remember the date and time … 14:11 on 27 April 2009 … I receive a telephone call from, another, unidentified Apple Store employee proudly announcing that my iMac is now repaired and ready for collection.

Still no reply regarding the e-mail I sent at 6am.

No I speak too soon!!

A Reply

19:00. Yes, finally a reply to the, by now, several e-mails I have sent to various staff members regarding this matter.

Three sentences. Yes, three whole sentences. The essence of which is he’d like to ring me and discuss the situation.

You’ve got to be Joking

Judging by the fact that everything that could possibly have gone wrong with the repair has done if anybody thinks I’m prepared to “chat” about it on the telephone they are mistaken.

I reply asking if there’s some reason why he can’t just answer the questions posed in the original e-mail in writing as requested, oh let me see now, yes, a whole eight days ago!

Another Reply

Wow, we’re on a roll, another reply.

Sadly, the only apology was a repetition of his earlier comments regarding the length of time it took him to address the points raised. The rest of the reply is two long rambling, incoherent, grammatically lacking, paragraphs aimed at absolving all concerned of any and all responsibility for everything.

Not responsible? How about:

1. Telling me to bring the Mac in at any time and then refusing to deal with it
2. Failing to complete the paperwork correctly
3. Losing my telephone number
4. Failing to contact me
5. Denying there was anything wrong with the machine
6. Insisting I attend a second futile Genius Bar appointment to do nothing more than bring the empty box home
7. Having rude and aggressive staff manning the Genius Bar
8. Failing to address the legitimate concerns of a customer in a timely manner
9. Needing two reminders before replying to a complaint
10. Taking 22 days to “repair” my iMac when it was a two hour job

He reiterates the contents of the earlier telephone call from Mr. Anonymous and proudly proclaims: “On a happier note, we have fixed your Mac and it is now ready to be picked up.”

Now while that is good news if he thinks he’s going to get away with never addressing the circumstances surrounding this farce of a repair he’s sadly deluded. In fact it’s worse than that now as he’s made incoherent denials of several of the facts. Including just how rude the Genius on duty was and there can never be an excuse for that.

Moreover, he made excuses for their failure to contact me at any point saying they didn’t have my telephone number. Yes, the telephone number I spent the best part of two days ensuring they had after they made a complete mess of the initial paperwork.

I was assured that the error had been rectified whilst I was on the telephone. If it was not rectified, as he is now claiming, then this was another misrepresentation from the Store. However, that still does not explain an inability to contact me. If they’d tried actually using the telephone number they’d have discovered their error and the obvious course of action would have been to use my e-mail address and contact me that way instead.

Needless to say that did not happen.

Other gems from this “deny it all” mail included:

- Me reporting too many problems with the machine.

What I had actually done was give a comprehensive account of the issues I had seen with my Mac during it’s functional decline.

My thinking was the more information I was able to provide the more rapid and accurate the diagnosis should have been.

- A complete denial of what the Genius said on my second visit about the screen captures showing a definite software fault.

The Genius I saw INSISTED the problem was software related. He was completely unequivocal about it, saying he had seen it before.

Now, according to this e-mail he had only said it “might” be software related.

Luckily for me, I was not alone when I took this Mac in for repair and the person with me heard the rude and hostile comments made by the Genius in question.

- Not enough room in store for boxes.

A classic!! Try fixing some of them and there would be plenty of room.

Worst of all it contained no assurance that this type of treatment would never be repeated. A critical point given I have AppleCare on every other Apple product I own.

My Turn Again

So here I go again. Whether this iMac is fixed or not (and I have my doubts) I still want the issues I have raised addressing in a full and coherent manner.

I draft another e-mail that demolishes his ramblings point by point in the politest possible terms.

Yes, I am still displaying the utmost restraint and no I don’t know how I’m managing it either.

Collection

Wednesday, 29 April 2009. The great day arrives and I head off to collect my Mac, my dutifully repaired Mac … nothing can go wrong now can it?

It didn’t augur well when arriving at the Genius Bar all the staff vanish before I’d manage to utter a word. Oh well I could wait. So I did, for almost 20 minutes before a Concierge appeared and taking the paperwork disappeared in to the back of the store.

After another wait she returned with a second Concierge in tow carrying my iMac. Not in protective covering as I’d been promised of course. He dumped it on the Genius Bar and left.

The original Concierge got it cabled up and uttered a memorable line I’m still bemused about now. She said “Don’t worry if it takes longer to boot than normal, that’s because it’s been repaired.” What? I was hoping it would have been returned to it’s former glory not rendered sluggish and lethargic by it’s Apple Store sojourn.

However, I wasn’t about to be drawn by this statement because I was by now examining the machine. Now you need to know that I look after my tech toys, extremely well. This particular iMac arrived and was unboxed next to the desk it has lived on since it’s arrival. It was carefully placed there the day it arrived and it’s never been moved since. When it arrived at the Apple Store it was in pristine condition. Not a speck of dirt anywhere and not a single finger print on the screen.

I know you know what’s coming next. Yes, it was filthy. It was covered in dust and a sticky residue (I didn’t dwell on the source of that I can tell you). The screen was literally covered in fingerprints. I was speechless. Is it not basic practice to clean a machine before returning it? Certainly after all the other problems.

I mention this to the Concierge, she looks at me blankly. She then wants me to show her the screen captures of the previous problems. Shouldn’t be a problem as I’d left copies in a folder on the desktop. Only problem is they’re not there now. She attempts to explain to me that I can use Spotlight to find files on a Mac: stop laughing … you know I’m a system engineer and I know I’m a system engineer, she had obviously got me confused with an idiot. I tell her they’re not there and she tells me I must have been mistaken in thinking I’d left them there.

That was not the wisest move on her part. I explain that I do have a more than passing familiarity with the basic functioning of a Mac and she heads for the hills leaving me in the … oh dear, I nearly said capable then … hands of one of the Genius Bar staff.

I reiterate my previous comments regarding the deplorable state of the machine to the Genius, he agrees and cleans both the screen and the case.

I then set about testing it. It was unlikely to completely fail in the time available but one thing I could definitely check for was the electronic buzz that was previously evident when the brightness of the screen was reduced. Yes, despite the thumping “music” being pumped throughout the store I could still hear it. The Genius denied he could hear it saying if it was there it was within the bounds of what was acceptable. Surprise, surprise. I explained I have personal access to 3 other iMacs and all are completely silent when making the same changes to the settings. This made no difference.

So the iMac was packed back into it’s well travelled box but not before I notice that the plastic cover that should be attached to the metal plinth on which the iMac stands was severely scratched and completely detached from the support. All attempts to reattach it failed and it travelled home in the bottom of the box.

But, at least it was home … right?

… more to follow …

My iMac

As those of you who follow me on Twitter or those who have heard the Mac20Q Roundtable Podcast or the International Mac Podcast will know I am the *not so* proud owner of a sick iMac right now. Many of you have contacted me with advice and/or support for which I publicly thank you all now. I thought for posterity I should detail the whole sorry saga, here goes …

My iMac is a late 2006 built to order 24 inch model, 2gb RAM, 250gb hard drive and a 256mb graphics card.

The main built to order element was the graphics card. Important to me since I work in Creative Suite extensively and you can never have too much RAM or a graphics card with too much memory.

Since arriving in December 2006 it has served me well.

The Problem

Or at least it had served me well until late in 2008 when an intermittent, but annoying, fault developed.

The first indication there was something wrong was a string of multi-coloured pixels appearing inside various windows. It wasn’t something I had seen before and resizing the window or moving it between monitors in my dual monitor setup cured the issue, at least temporarily. As stated it was annoying but not a show stopper at that stage.

I have AppleCare on all my equipment but even so running off at the first sign of an issue the occurrence of which couldn’t possibly be reliably predicted or forced would only frustrate the repairer and me.

By January the problem had been more frequent and more severe. Instead of just a single line of rainbow pixels I had whole patches of the screen showing various things: either a solid block of colour, static or distorted windows.

However, despite the fact the symptoms were worse they still weren’t predictable. Moving a window between monitors or resizing it still rectified the issue. The system was fully up to date and it happened in various applications or even just running Finder at times.

The increasing severity of the issue meant I was coming to terms with the realization that I would have to be parted from my baby while it went in for repair but, and this was a big but, other than describing what I was seeing how could I prove what I was seeing? Obviously, I’d tried capturing it in screenshots but using the built in screen capture tools didn’t work as activating them often forced the screen to redraw which corrected the display prior to the capture.

Taking photographs was fine but I felt they weren’t really clear enough to show the issues. LittleSnapper came to my rescue and I managed to capture the various issues I was seeing over the period of a few weeks.

While resizing the affected window and/or dragging it to my second monitor tended to clear the problem, over time the only way to clear them was to go into the System Preferences Desktop settings and selecting a different wallpaper before changing it back again. This was fast becoming tedious.

It still wasn’t an easy decision to take it in for repair as I had no idea how long I would be without it and there’s never a good time to be without your main machine.

Making the Decision

The decision was made for me when I was about to deliver the opening address in an online conference and the machine threw a kernel panic … I can assure you it wasn’t the only one throwing a panic!! I dashed from my office into my studio and managed to persuade the MacBook Pro to play ball just in time to calmly introduce the evening’s speaker.

I spent the hour long presentation considering my options with the iMac. The conclusion was there really was no option other than to take it in for repair.

Preparing for Repairing

Reaching that sad realization was one thing but the next hurdle was completing all the necessary things that you generally only recall after the event! At a minimum I would have to:

• Image the system with SuperDuper!
• Remove all my data
• Deactivate the activated software
• Remove auto-logins for services such as DropBox, ZumoDrive and Evernote

So ensued a long period of cloning, backup, and software engineering.

This process was even more complicated than I had anticipated.

I managed to deactivate the necessary software and create an image but then the machine began to fail even more drastically.

The first thing that happened was that the iMac screen froze and the machine refused to turn off. There were numerous pixels stuck on various colours at this stage. I pulled the plug, waited 5 minutes, then plugged in again but it refused to boot at all. Leaving it off overnight I was able to boot it again and after taking the time to remove some data I was able to boot using the Leopard DVD but then when I reached the screen where you select the destination for the install there were no drives shown at all. I loaded up the Disk Utility and although this could see the drive it could not see any partitions on the drive so the space where I could choose my destination was completely empty.

I’d decided at this stage to just take it in as it was but I did leave it stood at the Leopard “select partition” screen for 2 hours while I did other work. Deciding I better turn the thing off before it completely self destructed I turned round to see my single partition was now displayed as an available installation location!!

I selected it and did a complete erase and install. This did not cure the problem and the whole machine is now seriously too erratic to use. Unfortunately the symptoms were intermittent enough that I was still worried about being without the machine only to get it back with them unable to find the fault. Hence, taking all the screenshots.

I then needed an appointment at the Genius Bar. This appointment based thing is a beautiful system until you need an appointment urgently and the first they have is days away but I managed to book myself and my iMac in for first thing Monday morning.

The Big Day

My nearest Apple Store is only 2 miles away at the Trafford Centre, in South Manchester, so leaving the house with 30 minutes to spare what could possibly go wrong?

Oh dear with the benefit of hindsight that’s a rhetorical question if ever I heard one!

My first problem was that the traffic on the motorway was being slowed down to 30 miles an hour with all the overhead signs insistently flashing “incident”. Luckily I was leaving at the first junction so there I am breaking my arm patting myself on the back that I’d missed the worst of the traffic. They do say pride comes before a fall don’t they?

The Trafford Centre entrance I use is only yards from the motorway so minutes later I was making my way to the car park, or I thought I was. As I reached the actual car park entrance I could see the barriers were locked down, all of them, including the barrier that is actually broken and provides quick entry when the Centre is shut. Not only were they locked but they were also guarded, lest the peasants revolted I suspect.

I navigated my way from car park to car park until I could see this wasn’t some isolated problem it was centre wide and necessitated some shrewd manoeuvers to extricate myself from the queue for my preferred car park.

Now anyone who has visited the Trafford Centre can testify the surrounding roads were never intended to carry the volume of traffic the centre generates and this is especially acute outside Selfridges where the narrow road also carries all the local traffic for Asda and CostCo. Suffice it to say it’s never quiet and this was not a normal amount of traffic.

My only option was to divert into the Asda car park and re-group. I managed to locate a perfect parking space with a full view of all that was happening at the Trafford Centre opposite.

There were people streaming out of the Centre, which had only been open for 10 minutes at this stage. The place was also crawling with police and the force helicopter was insistently buzzing overhead.

Luckily my iPhone was fully charged. My first call was to the Apple Store to inform them I couldn’t get in to the Centre never mind the store. They were aware of an incident but had no further details. I asked them if it would be possible for me to bring the machine in later in the day once the situation had resolved itself. He went away to check and returned telling me I could take it in anytime that day and they would deal with it. He even apologized for the inconvenience … sadly that proved to be the high point of my dealings with Apple in this regard.

The next call was home to advise I would be late back. This was followed by a swift Twitter to see if anyone had any idea what was going on. No-one local could find anything but Gav came to my aid with details suggesting there was an armed gang on the loose and the police were giving chase … yes around the Trafford Centre! Ever had one of those days?

The traffic was unrelenting and with no sign of the Centre opening again or the police having caught their man I made the decision to go home and try again later. That was when I tried starting the car … notice the tried in there? Yes, the car was not having it. It was turning over nicely but showing no sign whatsoever of actually starting the engine. Cursing I vacated the vehicle and got the bonnet up. I checked all the basics, no sign of trouble in there. It was going to have to be a job for the RAC.

The RAC had kindly provided an 0800 number, free from all phones except mobiles (handy when you’re in a car … NOT). Luckily I was speaking with Mike at the time and using that fantastic site SayNoTo0870 he found a landline number I could use. The RAC were most helpful, I explained the problem, outlined where I was and gave them details of the ongoing police incident to pass on to their mechanic prior to his arrival.

Within minutes they had rung back and apologetically told me it would be an hour and 15 minutes before they could get to me. I didn’t think that was too bad in the circumstances. I settled down to wait when my eyes alighted on a sign in the car park informing me that there was an automatic fine for cars staying in the car park over 2 hours. Needless to say I’d been there well over an hour already. So ensued more phone calls. I located a telephone number for the actual store via their web site and explained my predicament to the Customer Services representative. She was most obliging and assured me I’d be fine and incur no penalty. Very understanding of them I thought.

Now all I needed was one of the armed gang to jump out of the adjacent shrubbery and issue a directive to “drive”!! The way my day was going that would have made it complete

Luckily that didn’t happen and in fact I’d no sooner hung up on the Asda Customer Services representative when my phone rang and it was the RAC engineer telling me he was 5 minutes away. What fantastic service, 15 minutes from my initial call and he was under the bonnet agreeing with me it wasn’t anything engine related.

He tracked it down to an electrical fault which he could bypass to get the car started but it would need a long term repair. The mechanic knew of a local auto-electrician and we headed off to their garage … with my iMac still in the back I might add.

I was having visions of dragging the thing back home on a bus when the RAC man said he’d take me and it back home. A kindness I think he had second thoughts about when he saw the size of the box. It took a bit of a reorganization of his van to make enough room for it but finally we managed to squeeze it in between his trolley jack and a large tool box. Oh boy I really know how to enjoy myself don’t I? LOL

I spent the rest of the day waiting for the call that my car was ready and with only minutes to go before closing it was done. As good as new and the garage owner even said he’d stay at the garage until I could get there to collect it. Again, what great service.

Finally There

So off I go again, iMac in the back and high hopes of getting it into Apple before close of business.

We arrived in the Apple Store at 17:20, I explained what had happened and explained what I had been told on the phone earlier in the day. For clarity that was, bring it in anytime today and we’ll deal with it.

Trouble was they had no intention of dealing with it without me rebooking a Genius Bar appointment with a Mac Genius. Despite two of these being stood at the Genius Bar doing nothing I was told the earliest they could arrange an appointment was 20:30 … over 3 hours away. Are they joking? Sadly, they weren’t.

I asked why I’d been told anytime that day was fine when there was an at least 3 hour period with no one available to deal with anything Mac related without an appointment. No answer. He returned to the Genius who again refused to do anything to assist.

I couldn’t believe that the worst service of the day was from the company I’d expect the best service from. I again explained why I was so unhappy with their suggestion and finally they agreed to take the iMac in for service.

I gave them as much information as I could, it went on for pages and was complete with screen captures. I was then assured they would call me with their diagnosis as soon as possible.

Now I know they had the correct phone number at that point because I’d just hiked all the way back to the car when they rang and asked me to go back because they had completed the paperwork incorrectly. So back I go and wait around for another 25 minutes while they correct their mistake.

I get back to the car for a second time to discover that in transferring the information from one system to another they had managed to remove my phone number from my repair and replace it with a completely different number. I immediately rang them to get them to rectify this fundamental mistake but no-one answered the phone. Constantly on hold for 40 minutes before I gave up.

The next morning I try again and finally get through to someone who assures me he has corrected this and they’ll be in touch as soon as they have tested it.

Waiting … and Waiting

With all the information and screenshots I was able to provide I didn’t think there would be much argument that there was in fact something wrong with it. However, I hear nothing on Tuesday, or Wednesday, or Thursday. Just how long does it take to test an iMac anyway? And while I’m ranting, the lack of communication either directly or via the AppleCare web site is very poor and not what I expect from a premium service I pay extra for.

I decided to ring them on Thursday night to see where they were up to.

The Bad News

I was horrified to be told they could find nothing wrong with it. Nothing wrong with it? It’s barely usable!

This of course meant I had to arrange another Genius Bar appointment, to do precisely what I wasn’t sure as I didn’t have any further information to give them. It’s broken, I know it’s broken but it’s not my job to tell them what’s wrong with it. All I can do is give them as much information as I can and exclude various causes by a process of elimination.

I attend the appointment to be told that it’s not Apple’s policy to repair machines unless they have personally seen the issue reported. How this relates to an intermittent fault is not explained.

I detail all I have done, yet again, but it’s like facing a cross between a brick wall and a parrot. They are not prepared to do anything without personally seeing the issue.

He takes the machine out of the box, boots it up on the Genius Bar and does precisely nothing to force any kind of failure. He looks at the screenshots I have provided and assures me that the issue is NOT hardware related but is a software issue.

Now I have a few issues with that.

1. The issue got worse over time without changing the software on the machine
2. The issue was present irrespective of what software I was running
3. The issue got worse the longer the machine was running
4. The issue got worse the hotter the machine became
5. The issue persisted after a clean install of Leopard, with no other other software installed
6. How could a software issue explain the iMac’s inability to see the drive during the Leopard reinstall?

His attitude bordered on both rude and aggressive, just repeating that it was not Apple’s policy to repair a machine unless they personally had seen the issue.

What Next?

Eventually he agreed to put the machine on test for longer, over the Easter weekend.

Redux

So here I am back to where I started on Monday, no machine and no idea when or even if the Apple Store will fix it. In fact no idea whether they will even acknowledge that there is something wrong with it.

Looks like it’s going to run and run …

Progress?

So despite promising me faithfully they would call me on Tuesday (14th April) to let me know the results of the testing conducted over the Easter weekend, they didn’t, I had to ring them.

After a long wait while the Concierge found the necessary information he informed me that that despite initially finding nothing wrong with the machine they had since discovered a fault with the graphics card. He further stated that a replacement was now on order and would be arriving in store the next day (Wednesday, 15th April). I was assured that the repair would be dealt with in a timely manner and I would have my machine back in working order within a couple of days.

After showing as “No Status Available” for 9 days the status of the issue finally changed on the AppleCare web site to “Repair in Progress”. Now what exactly does repair in progress mean? Seems simple enough but if you look at the lexicon of status messages on the AppleCare web site each status message has a very specific meaning and “Repair in Progress” means “Repair work has begun on your product.” Compare that with “On hold – Part on order” which means “We are waiting to receive a part necessary to complete your repair. We will continue with the repair once we receive the part.”

Wow, they finally came round to my way of thinking … i.e. There’s something wrong with it and they’re actually fixing it right now. Yeah, right … did I mention deeming it wise not to hold by breath?

Progess? I Don’t Think So

Wednesday, 15th April? No news, status “Repair in progress”

Thursday, 16th April? No news, status “Repair in progress”

Friday, 17th April? No news, status “Repair in progress”

Saturday, 18th April? No news, status “Repair in progress”

Sunday, 19th April? No news, status “Repair in progress”

Monday, 20th April? No news, status “Repair in progress”

Seeing a pattern here?

The repair is actually in progress, they’re working on it. Really? They’re working on it? If they are then they’ve been working on it according to the AppleCare web site for 7 days solid!!

Tuesday, 21st April? No news, status “Repair in progress”

OK, my world renowned patience is wearing somewhat thin now, well it was somewhat thin days ago so now I’m far beyond annoyed.

I put all the pertinent details in an e-mail marked for the attention of the store manager. Within minutes I had received a reply. From whom? Your guess is as good as mine. It was signed simply with a first name. No surname, no title, no position within Apple.

Since when is that acceptable in a corporate scenario? But I digress.

The reply assured me that my criticisms would be passed on to the responsible person and they would contact me shortly.

Indeed they did contact me at just after 9am on Wednesday, 22nd April, assuring me that as a matter of urgency they would be investigating the issue and contacting me again shortly. Yet again I notice it is signed off by only a first name, no title, no position. Do all companies allow such lax communications with customers? If I ring Apple they want all sorts of details from me before they will talk to me about my repair, but it seems institutional anonymity is rife within Apple’s corporate culture.

And for the sake of completeness:

Wednesday, 22nd April? No news, status “Repair in progress”

Thursday, 23rd April? No news, status “Repair in progress”

They’re still working on it? Still? For, according to the AppleCare web site, 11 days solid now!! Good grief it didn’t take that long to build the thing and ship it to me, from Shanghai, when I bought it.

BTW, Friday, 24th April? No news, status “Repair in Progress”

As listeners of MacBites will be aware I have been suffering greatly with streaming Flash video problems in the last few months.

The purpose of this post is provide details of the configuration settings I’ve used on a Netgear router to solve my problem, so if you’re affected read on and see if it might work for you.

I first noticed a problem a few months back when I was accessing AdobeTV via the web site or the Adobe Media Player. The streaming video would start to play but after 3 minutes the router reset itself taking up to 20 minutes to reconnect but faster if I manually reset it a second time. This was completely repeatable right down to the exact 3 minutes the stream would play before resetting the router. All the lights would come on the router and these would be static not flashing as usual.

I then noticed that the same thing happened when using the BBC iPlayer – this was now getting beyond a joke. There were anomalies in that using the same physical machine but accessing each site using Windows XP running in Parallels the router wouldn’t crash!

I mentioned it on MacBites a couple of times more as a curiosity than expecting anything to come of it but I couldn’t believe how many people contacted me with similar stories or just to say they have been following my progress with it.

As I said on MacBites episode 14 all is well here now but only because I’ve reconfigured an old Netgear router to connect to Be and stopped using the BeBox. Many people asked about the BeBox with the problem – it’s a SpeedTouch 585 r.7 manufactured by Thomson. Thomson are the manufacturer of BT home hubs so if you’ve got a similar problem but are with BT that might explain it.

There are no more details from BBC/Adobe/Thomson/BT or Be regarding what they’re doing about it if anything so if you’ve got access to another router it might be your only hope at the moment.

My, formerly, spare router is a Netgear GT845PN and I set it up as follows:

1. Backup any existing settings you may need to retain on the router.

2. Reset the router to factory settings.

3. Connect to the router – usually at http://192.168.0.1 using admin/password as the user and password

4. Select basic setup from the menu on the left

5. In answer to the “Does your ISP require a login” Click No

If you have a Static IP Address follow 6.1 if you have a dynamic IP address skip to 6.2

6.1. Select Routed IPoATM and enter your IP Address and Default Gateway as provided by Be

6.2. Select the “Get Dynamically from ISP” option

7. Specify your selected DNS server addresses: Be’s DNS addresses are as follows:

Primary DNS: 87.192.0.51
Secondary DNS: 87.194.0.52

You may elect to use alternative DNS addresses such as OpenDNS (which I use)

8. Click ADSL Settings from the menu on the left, configure the settings as follows:

Multiplexing Method LLC

VPI = 0
VCI = 101
DSL Mode = ADSL2+

And if you’ve got the problem at least you know you’re not alone – I thought I was going mad when I figured out what it seemed to be – assuming nobody else could be having similar problems or that there would be an outcry.

If you’re having problems let me know how you get on using these instructions or just drop me a line to share your pain!!

So after 8 million downloads in it’s first day and amidst claims of speed increases and enhanced stability am I about to make Firefox 3 my primary browser?

I’m a Browser Junkie!

Well first of all I need to say I’m a browser junkie!

It’s true, I have 10 browsers installed on my Mac and an extra 3 on Windows in Parallels. Which ones I hear you ask? Well, here goes:

• Safari
• Opera
• Firefox
• OmniWeb
• Fluid
• Camino
• Shiira
• Flock
• Fluid
• Sunrise
• Netscape Navigator (yes I know it’s dead but I like it!)

And on Windows (in addition to Safari, Opera, Firefox, Flock and Navigator):

• Internet Explorer
• Konqueror
• Maxthon

I’m always open to trying more so if you find one I’m not using be sure to let me know and I’ll give it a try. Until then here’s a personal take on the final release version of Firefox 3.

What Was Wrong with Version 2?

I’ve never really used Firefox consistently as my primary browser. Obviously on Windows I gave it a try as my desperation to be rid of Internet Explorer reached critical mass. I could never quite understand why Firefox didn’t work for me, it just didn’t feel right.

On Windows I used Opera and Firefox languished neglected on my hard drive save for testing web sites in. Moving to the Mac I tried it again but it still didn’t feel right.

So what were my pet peeves with version 2?

Interface

The Firefox interface as shipped didn’t look like a native application on Windows or the Mac. Themes provide an opportunity to change the entire look and feel of the interface but each seemed to have it’s own idiosyncrasies.

It’s actually frightening how honed one can become using a piece of software, to the extent that anything else feels sufficiently alien to slow down every task undertaken.

Speed

Despite reading plenty of claims regarding how Firefox was a fast browser it never felt that great to me.

It was a slow application to launch and a memory hog when it had been running for any length of time.

Missing Features

If I’d moved from Internet Explorer I would undoubtedly have felt Firefox had numerous features that IE did not, tabbed browsing alone was always worth switching to Firefox for. I’d go so far as to say that compared to IE, Firefox didn’t have any missing features

However, using Opera for several years meant that I had a different perception of Firefox. Opera had every feature I could imagine I would ever need and if something didn’t look right or work the way I hoped then it’s configuration options where amazingly flexible and I could fix it instantly.

Of course Firefox can be made to do anything via it’s extensible add-on based architecture but that just meant:

1. Testing several add-ons before finding a suitable one
2. Installing it on my desktop, laptop, office machine etc. etc.
3. Keeping all the add-ons updated
4. Trying to overburden the Firefox installation with more add-ons than core code

Some of the missing features were just plain infuriating, like the inability to re-order tabs. I shouldn’t need an add-on to add that sort of basic functionality.

And Version 3?

I’ve been beta testing version 3 for a considerable time and there are many changes, some positive, some negative and even glimpses of exciting future developments.

The Positives

Completely New Look

The first apparent improvement is the interface. It’s much more Mac-like and made a huge difference to my perception of the entire browser.

In fact Mozilla have gone to great lengths to integrate Firefox into each operating system it supports. On Windows there are two separate skins, one for XP and another for Vista although they are so similar it’s difficult to discern much difference other than the colour of the icons.

Of course now Firefox natively integrates much better aesthetically with OS X I managed to find the perfect theme – but more on that later.

Talking of themes, there are plenty of themes available some specifically designed for the new version 3 so if you’re either looking for the perfect theme or trying to waste an hour while looking busy visit the Firefox theme download page.

Personas

One of the issues with themes is that each time you download a new one and apply it the browser needs a restart. A big time waster when you’re testing several themes seeking that perfect browsing experience.

In fact Mozilla themselves point out that themes can be hard to find, install and use. Creating themes also requires coding knowledge, something the best graphic designers may not have.

It’s to address these issues that Mozilla have created Personas. Very much a prototype concept and installed as an add-on, Personas adds lightweight theming to Firefox. The idea is that the user is able to select a Persona from a dynamic menu and instantly see the changes, no restart required. Personas can be added, removed and updated by their designers at any time, without the need for the software to be updated.

It is Faster

The first few betas I installed didn’t appear to differ greatly in speed from version 2 but towards the latter stages of the beta program the application felt much more responsive and certainly started up faster than I’d ever known.

The same can be said of the final release version too. Personally, I think Safari is still that bit faster but I have to say I no longer dread the startup wait Firefox previously engendered.

Google Integration

My primary use for Firefox is an interface to Google’s tools and services.

I use Google Notebook extensively and the availability of the Google toolbar and in particular the Google Notebook add-on make using it a breeze. For the uninitiated Google toolbar is an extra toolbar available for several browsers (but sadly not Safari) that adds direct access to many Google features such as Gmail, Notebook, Bookmarks, Docs and much more. In fact if the slew of tools provided aren’t enough you can generate custom buttons to further customize your Google toolbar. Google have a great page demonstrating all the features of the Google toolbar with all the details you’ll need to customize your installation.

The Notebook add-on extends the integration between Firefox and Google Notebook even further, adding an option to send selected page elements straight to your Google Notebook from the “Note This” context menu within Firefox. One click access to your Notebook is added to the chrome in the lower right corner, clicking this option opens a small window containing your Notebook. Useful as that is it’s even better to click the option to open your Notebook in it’s own chromeless window showing your whole Notebook.

Scrolling Tab Bar

When you have so many tabs open that they aren’t all displayed in the tab bar a common way for a browser to handle the extra tabs is to have them appear in a drop down list on the right of the browser window.

Although Firefox still has that very feature it now also allows the user to scroll the tab bar to the left and right using a mouse wheel. On the mighty mouse logically the ability to scroll to the right and left functions as expected but for those using a different mouse, with a wheel, scrolling up and down has the same effect.

It might be a little disorientating but it’s a positive addition for me.

Tab Management

In fact the handling of tabs has been improved all round.

Whereas adding the ability to re-order tabs using drag and drop required an add-on previously, this is now built in and the implementation is a good one with small white arrows showing where a tab will appear when dropped.

Sadly it’s not all good news with tabs though (see below).

Keyboard Shortcuts

It’s great to be able to use a plethora of browsers and not have to learn a completely different set of shortcuts to be up to speed with each one.

Firefox keeps the majority of the commonly used shortcuts standard, such as command & T for a new tab and command & N for a new window. It might not sound like a big deal but a few years ago when Opera decided to change their more non-standard keyboard shortcuts to match those in other browsers the furore was both long and loud.

Smart Location Bar

The Smart Location Bar, or AwesomeBar as it’s colloquially termed, has to be the biggest advance in Firefox 3.

The Smart Location Bar selects pages from both your bookmarks and history if it can match your input to any part of them. This is vastly different from Firefox 2 and most other browsers which match only the beginning of a URL.

The results are at first somewhat disorientating, each displayed on two lines and seemingly a random mix of entries. However, the undoubted power of the Smart Location bar is that it learns your intentions as you use it and adapts it’s results accordingly.

It might take practice and patience to get the most from it but if you’re not convinced of it’s benefits (too much like Clippy for you?) then you’ll be pleased to know you can turn it off and regain the Firefox 2 address bar.

Another time saver is that a single click in the Smart Location Bar selects the entire URL. Although, for this Safari user, that has proved to be something which will take more getting familiar with as I’m in Safari mode most of the day and that needs a triple click to achieve the same. My work around is to use command & L which performs the same in both browsers, it selects the URL of the current page.

Bookmark Management

Selecting Books > Organise Bookmarks from the menu gives access to the Library window, a ‘one stop shop’ for managing your bookmarks. It might sound uninspiring but this new implementation of bookmark management integrates everything you’ll need to micro manage your browsing experience.

For traditionalists Firefox has folders to store related bookmarks in but that’s only the starting point for marshaling your bookmarks. A single click is all that’s required to create a bookmark but if you require more classification another click on the star icon in the toolbar allows additional meta data regarding the bookmark to be specified.

Live Bookmarks show RSS feed items as individual bookmarks updating them as the feed updates while Smart Folders allow a user to define a set of criteria and every bookmark matching the criteria appears within the Smart Folder. The criteria available allow advanced search queries by providing matching rules on the page title, date last visited, and location.

The ability to apply tags to bookmarks brings one of the most attractive features of online bookmark management services to Firefox. It’s perfectly possible to forget folders and mange your bookmarks using tags alone.

Having the History items integrated in the same Library windows means items not saved as bookmarks at the time of browsing can be added as bookmarks later with a simple drag and drop from the History to the required location.

Confession time for me, I use entirely my own system with the majority of my bookmarks, a process I’ve mentioned before in Creating Global Shortcuts with Typinator but despite this I can certainly see the benefits of the new management system Firefox brings with it in version 3.

Partial HTML 5 Support

A cherry picked selection of HTML 5 specific elements are supported in Firefox 3.

The support for offline caching certainly caught my eye. Google Gears is aimed at providing a similar functionality but that is specific to Google. Firefox offline caching could potentially provide the ability to use a range of web based applications without a web connection.

Exciting times ahead then.

The Negatives

Of course into every life a little rain must fall and it wouldn’t be new software if it didn’t have a few gotchas.

Closing Tabs

Primarily using a different browser means coming to Firefox and finding that the option to close tabs is on the right of each tab and not the left side as in Safari and as I’m more used to.

In Opera I was able to make numerous configuration changes and altering this would be relatively simple. Together with many users I’m not familiar enough with the Firefox configuration system to easily change this but I did find a simple solution for this particular foible in the form of a wonderful theme from takebacktheweb.org I went for the GrApple Yummy (blue) theme.

Another issue I noticed is that to close a background tab (i.e. Not the active tab) it takes two clicks rather than one. The first click makes the tab active and the second click actually closes it. In Safari background tabs can be closed in exactly the same way as the active tab.

Merging Windows

Safari has this feature and it’s amazing the difference it makes when you’re trying to tidy up the myriad browser windows you’ve managed to open throughout the day and completely forgotten about. A click on ‘Merge All Windows’ in the Window menu gathers all the tabs open in any number of Safari windows and consolidates them in a single window.

Sadly, Firefox lacks this feature. However, all is not lost as the Tab Mix Plus add-on adds it and many more advanced tab management options.

Moving Windows

A bit of a strange one this but I did notice that when attempting to move either the main Firefox window or, for example, the Library window you need to be extremely precise where you click to attempt to drag the window or it just doesn’t move.

More explanation needed there I think!

The majority of OS X applications have a very wide toolbar area just under the strip containing the control buttons and title. Clicking and dragging either on the title strip or a clear area of the toolbar allows the user to move the window but Firefox behaves differently. In Firefox clicking on the toolbar and dragging has no effect. To move the window you need to be precise and click and drag only on the title area.

It sound like much and I wouldn’t have thought I was that imprecise anyway but I noticed it in the first session I had using Firefox 3.

Printing

While the printing feature is a huge improvement from the early days of the browser there remain a couple of gotchas. For example, there’s no indication that the print job is in progress until the printer icon appears in the dock and there is no thumbnail preview feature.

Firefox does have a neat shrink to fit page option though that certainly helps with pages that otherwise wouldn’t print correctly, important when you consider how many times IE proved it was incapable of printing anything without losing at least an inch of text from one side or the other.

Services

Firefox still has no OS X services support which for inveterate services users is going to be a show stopper when it comes to using Firefox for anything other than casual browsing.

It is the services function that powers such useful things as the CircusPonies NoteBook clipping system, so it would be a welcome addition to future versions of the browser.

The Future

Mozilla Labs plays host to countless clues as to the future of Firefox. Three in particular caught my eye:

Fennec

Although Firefox have ventured into the mobile browser market before with less than astounding success, undeterred they have returned with Fennec (named after the Fennec Fox).

Opera have traditionally had much more success with their mobile browser so Firefox has some catching up to do but competition has got to be good news for users.

Prism

Prism is the code name given to a single function lightweight version of the browser. The idea behind this is that you can create a dedicated application to handle a specific site, this works really well for sites such as Gmail or Google Notebook.

Given the popularity of other implementations of the single source browser, such as Fluid, this is something to look forward to as it should be possible to create a browser dedicated to the site of your choosing while at the same time retaining all the functionality of Firefox.

Weave

Increasingly important in the ever more connected world is the ability to transfer your familiar settings to other machines, which is where Weave comes in.

Weave is the code name for a Mozilla Labs project aimed at providing an open-standards-based hosted online service to provide this synchronization together with sharing options and much more. Details of Weave are available on the Mozilla site.

So Am I Won Over?

Well since I use Firefox most as an interface to Google I’ll certainly be using version 3 and the speed increase both in start up and use means that I’ll enjoy using it much more than version 2. With my new theme I’ve managed to solve the problem of interface incongruity and in fact my installation of Firefox now look so much like Safari it’s difficult to tell them apart, which is great .

My verdict is give it a go you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the changes.

At a recent Mac club meeting one of the talking points was the differences in how Windows and OS X handle application switching. So I thought I’d consolidate some of the ensuing discussion in a blog post.

Dock

I prefer not to use the dock at all so I have it on the right of my primary monitor and hidden. I have a secondary monitor on my 24 inch iMac which is also 24 inches and sits on the left of the iMac screen so placing the dock on the right of the iMac screen means it’s out of the way and there if I should need it. Having the dock hidden at the bottom of the screen means attempting to resize an application can inadvertently activate it.

The inevitable question is then – how do I run my applications?

QuickSilver

QuickSilver is my launcher of choice but I also tried LaunchBar which is very good – and I know QuickSilver can do a lot more than I actually use it for. I must find some time to have a look at triggers and the more advanced features.

QuickSilver is open source and available from Google Code with many tutorials also available from the original developer.

LaunchBar

LaunchBar also provides all the application launching features a Mac user could need. Available from Objective Development with licenses starting at $19.95.

Switching Between Applications

Of course running the applications is only half the story and not the main focus of our MUG discussion.

In OS X, command and tab allows switching between open applications but not in the same way as Windows.

If an application is minimized in OS X, command and tab activates the application but doesn’t maximize the open windows or allow you to select a specific open window.

This was one of the few things that drove me crazy as a new Mac user.

I had to learn to adapt to the Mac way of working and one tip I found useful was to hide an application (using command and H) rather than minimize it – when I then used command and tab to go back to the application it was in the same state as when I hid it and thus the windows weren’t minimized making me hunt through the dock to locate the required one.

But I found a perfect long term solution with a couple of small apps.

LiteSwitch

LiteSwitch replaces the default application switcher and the replacement has the ability to mark apps for closing, you can hide apps, unhide them and obviously switch between them. Small enhancements really make the difference such as having the application name displayed at the bottom of the app switching display.

I leave LiteSwitch set to just do the same as the default command and tab switcher but love the extra functionality.

LiteSwitch will also remap the command and tab key to it’s own use which 10.5 doesn’t seem to do easily.

LiteSwitch is available from Proteron.com where you can download a free 30 day trial. A license is $14.95 (approx. £8.00)

Witch

Witch is the second half of my solution and although it can do much more I use it to switch between the different windows of the app I’m currently using.

I map option and tilde (between shift and z) to this function and life is good again!

Witch can actually completely replace the command and tab functionality giving you a switcher which displays not only a list of apps but a list of apps and their associated windows.

If I could map cmd & tab to Witch without using a system hack I’d probably use Witch alone most of the time.

Witch is available from ManyTricks.com and priced at €9.95 (approx. £7.90).