Flock 1.0 is out on the Mac
Flock 1.0 was released a little less than two weeks ago. It runs very well on the
Apple Macintosh. At least it has been working very nicely for me last night and this morning.
Flock is a supercharged
Firefox web browser with lots of slick features that make it far easier to use certain types of web sites: blogs, photo sites, and so forth. And it has very nice support for taking in news feeds too.
Flock developers have selected certain specific web sites and certain kinds of web sites, and taught the browser do more than simply display generic web user interface for that site. They provide vastly improved dialogs and browsing panes that dramatically simplify and enhance the experience.
With a typical web site, to some degree even a nicely done Web 2.0 site - you are very conscious of the fact that you are using a client-server application and that your browser is in essence just a fancy terminal that knows how to do hypertext and can display images.
Flock gives you a sense that some of the best sites on the web are actually part of an
application running on your computer. And in a sense, they
are.Flock does a great job of making even sites that already seemed to have a good user interface become simply wonderful to you.
Blogged with Flock
Labels: flock, macintosh, software, web
A lot of times people are left with a problem when a new operating system is released.
They have to guess what the new features are. Or read a dozen different articles, each of which portrays different things - and fit the pieces together. Or trawl through many pages on the manufacturer's web site.
To alleviate the effort required to find how much new stuff you will like in Leopard,
Apple put the
whole list of new Mac OS X features on one web page.
That way you can find out for yourself what interest you. No need to go on a big scavenger hunt for the information this time.
Labels: apple, macintosh, macosx
In the first week or few weeks after Apple or Microsoft has released a new operating system, a couple things happen.
One, the company releases a software update right after releasing the brand new OS. Two, people find some significant new bugs and affecianados figure out just how to prevent or deal with the problems they can cause. Third, more patches come out.
It seems like the most intense flurry of this activity takes place during the first week the new OS is released. The highly elevated bug finding/fixing seems to go on for about three weeks or so after that.
Then things seem to settle down quickly.
If you are risk-aversive, do not have as much data or software backed up as you should, or your computer is used for vital activities every single day - then I think you should wait until Leopard version of
Mac OS X has been out about
three weeks (mid-November 2007) before actually installing it.
That way the initial "breaking in" of the released version of the OS will have been done for you. The combined efforts of the most active members of the Macintosh user community and Apple employees do a good job of knocking down some possible big surprises in the brand new OS.
The same pattern has been evident in releases of Linux and MS-Windows.
The phenomenon is not new. MS-DOS 6.0 - which was actually updated on a seemingly continual basis until MS-DOS 6.22 was released.
The situation does not seem to be getting worse. If anything, things have gotten much better in this regard since MS-DOS 6 came out in the 1990s. However, new OS releases are still not perfect.
No harm done if you buy your OS and do not install it that same day. You should be
aware of the return policy for your purchase.
If you buy it 10 days, 14 days, or 90 days before you unwrap it and try to install the OS, you miight run afoul of limits on how long return limits and warranty periods cover. So find out what those are, and plan your purchase and "install day" accordingly.
And when you do install, enjoy the new goodies! Waiting can make them all the sweeter.
Labels: apple, macosx, safety
