Archives for February, 2009

The Omni Group, maker of high quality Mac applications, has released four of them as freeware:

• OmniWeb
• OmniDazzle
• OmniDiskSweeper
• OmniObjectMeter (for developers)

These join the previously free:

• OmniDictionary

The Omni Group got their start writing applications for Steve Jobs’ NeXT operating system, the predecessor to Mac OS X, and used that experience to write high quality applications for Mac OS X when most developers were still learning the basics. OmniWeb was one of the first truly Mac OS X native web browsers and set a standard for elegance and simplicity that Apple eventually championed in Safari. Basically, The Omni Group writes good stuff!

So head over to the Omni Group’s web site and start by looking at the freebies. If nothing else grab OmniDiskSweeper and you’ll finally be able to figure out what is consuming so much space on your Mac’s hard drive. And while you’re there take a look at their other excellent apps: OmniFocus, OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner and OmniPlan.

Strictly for the adventurous souls in the group: Apple has posted a pre-release beta test version of their Safari web browser. Versions for Mac OS X 10.5 (“Leopard”), Mac OS X 10.4 (“Tiger”) and Windowsâ„¢ are available. Follow the link in the press release to download it:

• Apple Announces Safari 4—The World’s Fastest & Most Innovative Browser

In addition to significant speedups in some aspects of web page display it also incorporates:

• Top Sites, a display of frequently visited pages in a stunning wall of previews so users can jump to their favorite sites with a single click
• Full History Search, where users search through titles, web addresses and the complete text of recently viewed pages to easily return to sites they’ve seen before
• Cover Flow, to make searching web history or bookmarks as fun and easy as paging through album art in iTunes®
• Tabs on Top, for better tabbed browsing with easy drag-and-drop tab management tools and an intuitive button for opening new ones
• Smart Address Field, that automatically completes web addresses by displaying an easy-to-read list of suggestions from Top Sites, bookmarks and browsing history
• Smart Search Field, where users fine-tune searches with recommendations from Google Suggest or a list of recent searches
• Full Page Zoom, for a closer look at any website without degrading the quality of the site’s layout and text
• built-in web developer tools to debug, tweak and optimize a website for peak performance and compatibility
• and a new Windows-native look in Safari for Windows, that uses standard Windows font rendering and native title bar, borders and toolbars so Safari fits the look and feel of other Windows XP and Windows Vista applications.

As attractive as all of that may sound be aware that this is a BETA TEST version and not a final release. That means you are more likely to bump into problems using it than you would be with a release version. If anyone does give it a try by all means post your experiences in the comments.

Topic

Backing up your Mac

When

Friday, February 13th, 7:30pm – 10pm

Who

Bob Applegate & Mike Bloom

Where

Room M129, Building M, ACCC Mays Landing Campus

Mike will tell us about the backup strategy he uses for his business data and Bob will talk about his experiences with Leopard’s Time Machine.

Presentation topics may change so be sure to verify on the day of the meeting. Got questions you’d like to have answered? Feel free to post them as comments before the meeting so the presenters have a chance to prepare.