 Like many an Apple user I’d been looking forward to getting my hands on Snow Leopard for a while, perhaps since Bertrand Serlet’s presentation at WWDC 2008 announcing “zero new features”. That might sound silly but the vibe given was clearly that Apple weren’t planning to mess with the user interface too much but instead focus on improving performance and tweaking existing functionality and that sounded great to me given that Leopard already catered for almost all of my OS requirements. So coupled with the “evolution not revolution” approach and the price announced at only $29 I was practically on the edge of my seat with anticipation.
The install ran well enough, I was a bit confused at first about whether the default mode was an “upgrade in place” or an “erase and reinstall” because the installer no longer offers a choice – the default is an upgrade in place so you don’t have to worry too much about losing all of your date (though it’s always worth backing up first). On my old Black MacBook I chose to erase the disk manually and do a fresh installation, mainly because I don’t tend to store much data on there so it was easy to back it up and I wanted to see how it worked from scratch – I didn’t have to worry about losing the iLife suite either because I lost that in the upgrade from Tiger to Leopard anyway. I was watching TV and doing other things so I don’t really know how long it took but it was probably a shade over half an hour for a slightly tweaked install, my 24″ iMac however took at least an hour but I did do an upgrade in place (too many apps to reinstall otherwise) and imagine that’s a little more complicated. The only incompatibility I encountered (constantly being asked for Admin password) was something called Plug Suit, it came as part of Afloat – a great little utility to keep selected windows on top of everything else but sadly does not work with Snow Leopard, a few Googles later and I managed to remove the plugin (instructions here).
On first boot you could quite easily think “hold on a minute, this is Leopard” because nothing really seems to have changed, the Welcome video and the nebula desktop are exactly the same, I even went to About This Mac to check that the version number had been upped from 10.5 to 10.6 (it had) to make sure I was actually using Snow Leopard. I really think Apple missed a trick here, for a company that’s usually so focused on marketing and user perception it seems bizarre to me that they wouldn’t take this opportunity to reinforce the value of the purchase in the customer’s mind by having an even cooler welcome video and a brand new (maybe very similar) default desktop background. I also think there should have been a (skippable) video or slideshow demonstrating “What’s new in Snow Leopard” just to help people appreciate the benefits they’ve got from the time and money they’ve put into the upgrade, it’s not that it’s really much money or time but I consider the fact that Apple didn’t do something like this as a ball dropped.
So you’ve probably guessed already that in the first instance I was a little disappointed, I even went to Apple’s Snow Leopard Refinements site to see what I could test and play with to get some inspiration. After using Snow Leopard for about half an hour though I was pretty certain of the speed improvements, even performing simple activities such as running the mouse along the Dock and opening TextEdit so I began to think to myself that for $29 (or in my case £39 for a 5-license Family Pack) the upgrade was worthwhile for the peformance increase alone.
It took a few days but I slowly began to realise that I was begining to feel the benefits of Snow Leopard, beyond the performance increases it’s the little changes that started to make a difference in how I used the OS. The most noticable change to me is that Exposé is now much cleaner and clearer, previously in Leopard the window arrangement was haphazard and therefore harder to comprehend in a split-second. I noticed that rather than command-tabbing through apps I kept coming back to Exposé, the new grid based layout is much clearer and makes it possible to switch tasks in sub-second times. I can’t really see what use I’ll get out of the Dock Exposé or the new Stacks as I’ve never really found a need for them in my workflow but they’re pretty slick and I guess it’s nice to know they’re there. The same goes for many of the other features although I’m quite excited about the potential applications developers might find for some of the ‘under the hood’ functionality such as Grand Central Despatch, Open CL and the future of 64-bit computing. I guess the new Quicktime is pretty sweet with its YouTube integration and screen/cam capturing but I’m not really planning to be the next LonelyGirl15 just yet so I’m not sure if I need that either.
If I were asked whether or not to upgrade right now I’d say almost certainly yes to home users but ‘wait’ to anyone that uses the Mac for their work, it’s still early days in terms of finding compatibility problems which is always a worry if your livlihood depends on your IT infrastructure. Other than that, I think it’s a great OS and I’ll look forward to making the comparison to Windows 7 when I get my pre-ordered copy in October.
written by thirtyfootscrew
\\ tags: 10.5, 10.6, Apple, Expose, Leopard, mac, macintosh, Operating System, OS, osx, Snow Leopard, Software, Upgrade, Windows 7
Today for the first time I used Apple’s Genius Bar, for those of you that haven’t used it (or don’t own a Mac) I’ll explain what it is. Essentially it’s an in-store helpdesk, if you’ve got any problems with your Mac hardware, software or accessories you can pop into the store and they’ll do what they can to help you out.
The other day the scroll-wheel on my wired mouse stopped working an (as I Twittered) it felt like having my arm cut off. I’m just so used to scrolling as part of my web workflow that everything felt so much slower without the ability to scroll up and down without moving the cursor. Luckily I had a spare Logitech wireless keyboard/mouse combo so I switched to that for a while but the ergonomics aren’t quite the same and I much preferred the plain Apple white mouse – I had to get if fixed.
So this morning after visiting a costume hire shop (my work’s Christmas party has a 70′s theme) I thought I’d pop up to my nearest Apple store and get them to have a look. I booked a slot at the Genius Bar on the web so that I didn’t have to wait around (it’s a Saturday leading up to Christmas, it’s busy), after wandering around the shopping centre buying imported American cereal, chilli sauce and cornbread mix I went to the Apple store in time for my 12:40pm slot.
I just walked right up to the concierge, she checked my time slot and summoned one of the ‘Geniuses’ over to help. We sat down at the bar (it really is laid out like a bar, complete with bar stools – no beer or free nuts though), I explained the problem, he tested the mouse on his laptop and then set about performing a strange trick with the mouse and a piece of A4 paper. Essentially the little wheel was gummed up with finger-grease (eeew) and after testing the up/down and left/right scroll capabilities we were all done.
In retrospect I could’ve tried that myself and considering the fact that I’m a techie (or ‘IT Professional’ in résumé-friendly lingo) I probably ought to be ashamed of myself. But I’m not – in fact, I’m kind-of pleased with myself. I’m pleased because I took that leap of faith in Apple, I had a problem with some Apple stuff so I took it to the shop and they sorted it out. This seems like a very simple concept but the fact that they’ve got a dedicated area of the store with dedicated staff just to help people out with problems to me seems brilliant. You won’t get that level of service with a Dell, an Asus or a Compaq that you buy from a regular high-street retailer – you’d be lucky if the Saturday jobber in Currys even bothers serving you.
Now I know that my problem wasn’t exactly quantum physics and I’m sure that these ‘Geniuses’ have their limitations but the fact that they’re there gives me comfort, especially as I tend to buy gear online. Knowing that theres someone in-store to help me out if I need it is great, especially given that many retailers have utterly disconnected physical and web presence. It’s absurd how many times I’ve heard something like “Oh, we can’t help you with that – you bought it On-Line, it’s a different department.”. Usually you’re asked to email something like: wasteofmytime@uselesscustomerservice.com and they get back to you with a within three working days with a ‘ticket number’, the whole thing ends up taking a pathetic amount of time to solve and often involves sending physical (i.e. snail mail) letters to confirm x, y and z. In this case I think that Apple have definitely got it right, my only criticism is that there aren’t that many Apple stores around the country and even I had to travel for an hour to get to my nearest – at least I got to play with the ‘shake’ functionality on the new iPod Nanos, damn they’re sweet.
written by thirtyfootscrew
\\ tags: Apple, Customer Service, Genius, Genius Bar, ipod, mac, macintosh, Mouse, Nano, Repair
Having had the Mac for a good few weeks now I thought it would be a good time to post my experiences back on the blog. Initially I still found the user interface confusing as OS9 is quite different from Windows, I also had my suspicions confirmed in that there is almost no application support for legacy operating systems. To get round this I decided to take the plunge and get a copy of OSX, this is a decision I do not regret in the slightest – it’s great!
The install for OSX ran like a dream, though I’m not really sure how long it took as I was watching TV in the other room for the bulk of it. Once it was up and running I downloaded all the patches (being a Windows user this made me feel at home) then got hold of the latest version of Firefox so I could start using the Mac in earnest.
So far I’ve found it very enjoyable getting to know OSX, most things seem to be where you’d expect and I love that funny toolbar that pops up at the bottom for launching applications – much nicer than the Start Menu. I decided to make the Mac my primary web-surfing machine and have moved it into the living room, saving my PC for more hard-core use as well as my email (I’m currently tied-in to Outlook).
Every second I use OSX I am mentally comparing it to Windows and it’s obviously way ahead of XP in terms of graphical niceties and general usability. That said, Vista is hot on it’s heels and in honesty the whole Aero/Glass thing beats OSX’s graphical style hands down, MS are clearly taking their cues from Apple and hoping to go one step further.
Of course, Apple will have a chance to bite back with Leopard so I’ll keep watching that space and I’m sure Vista will usher-in a whole new world of security issues and bugs that need fixing – comments I’ve heard from Steve Gibson on the Security Now podcast have been quite alarming and I’ve stopped using my copy of Vista Beta 2 because of security concerns. That said, I will hopefully receive Vista RC1 soon but I’ll try that one inside a virtual machine if I can.
On a final note I had a very helpful and friendly email conversation with a guy from my local Mac user group, if you’re reading this – thanks, I may be in touch again once I’ve gotten to grips with things a bit more. Also, I still find the Mac press to be over-zealous and have resolved not to buy magazines any more (barring useful cover disks) – I’ll get my news from the MacBreak Weekly podcast (yet another great podcast from TWiT.tv).
written by thirtyfootscrew
\\ tags: Apple, mac, macintosh, noob, osx, podcast, vista, xp
Until the other day, the last time I used a Mac was circa-1994 when I got my hands on a Macintosh IIsi and some variant of the Macintosh Classic. They belonged to my parent’s employer who needed a bit of help with printing and other IT tasks and I was pretty good at figuring these things out. I enjoyed using the GUI, at the time my only PC was either an IBM XT or AT running DOS and a mouse was an object of desire way beyond the budget my pocket-money would stretch to.
I’m giving you this backgroun because the other day I had the chance to get a much more modern Power Mac G4 that was being thrown out of some offices near where I live. Obviously I jumped at the chance as it had been well over 10 years since I last used one and getting Mac skills back on my CV can only be a good thing. First impressions – I was underwhelmed. I must point out that this thing is running OS9 and not everybody’s darling OSX, this makes it very hard to get software that will run on it – Firefox, Mozilla, Opera, none of them have released browsers compatible with OS9 for quite a while. The main source of my disappointment is that it basically looks the same as it did back in the day, nothing really new or innovative seems to be there and I’m finding it pretty tricky to navigate. As a born-again noob I realise that things aren’t going to be plain sailing and I do need to invest some time to read tutorials and familiarise myself with the OS, what I don’t want to have to do though is go out an buy OSX to get some decent use out of it – from what I’ve seen though, there may be little option.
I also bought a copy of Mac Format magazine and one thing that shines out of it’s pages is the adoration Mac users pour on their systems, something that seems a little odd for a platform whose most recent innovation is that it can run Windows. I’m far from a Windows fanboy (why do you think I want to switch), it’s just that the realities of working in a commercial environment mean it’s the OS I am most familiar with – Mac users seem to be so absurdly protective of their environment that approaching it from an outsiders perspective seems quite tough. My next course of action is to go to the community and see if they can help, I mean websites, user groups, etc. I’ll post back if and when I get any further in my quest, stay tuned…
written by thirtyfootscrew
\\ tags: Apple, g4, mac, macintosh, noob, os9, osx, power mac, switch
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