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Doing the Job With Obsolete Hardware in a
Recession

post from TheAppleBlog on 20 February 2009 11:30:00 AM. © TheAppleBlog

pismopb

While my new unibody MacBook is pretty state-of-the-art, and indeed the most contemporaneously avant garde computer I’ve ever owned, I’m still a fan of good older hardware and getting a lot of useful work out of my two nine-year-old Pismo PowerBooks.

The Pismo, for a variety of reasons, has proved an extraordinarily long-lived machine in terms of practical usefulness, thanks in no small part to its expandability, connectivity, and upgradability, representing what was arguably the all time high-water mark for those qualities in Mac laptops. It also has a really good keyboard, which makes it a continued tactile pleasure to work with.

Both of mine have been upgraded with G4 550 MHz processors, replacing the original 500 MHz G3s, and 8x dual-layer DVD-burning SuperDrives. The also have 576MB and 640 MB of RAM respectively (and would support up to 1 GB), larger capacity 40 GB and 100 GB hard drives, plus Wi-Fi and FireWire 800 PC Cardbus adapters. They’re running Mac OS X 10.4.11, which is as far as I intend to go with system software notwithstanding the potential for hacked Leopard installs. Pretty modest by today’s standards, but they’re lively enough as to not be at all frustrating for the sort of basic text and web-based stuff I do with them.

Just Plain Nice to Use

Heavier lifting I leave to my newer G4 PowerBook and now the unibody MacBook 2.0 GHz I just bought, but I have no intention of putting the Pismos out to pasture anytime soon. They suit a niche in my workflow and are just plain nice to use.

However, even more typical and less hotrodding-friendly laptops (and desktops as well) are capable of providing longer service than has been customary, or at least was before the economy nosedived.

Sufficiently Powerful

BusinessWeek’s Roger L. Kay sensibly contends, and I agree, that if your ancient IT equipment is running fine and sufficiently powerful for the work it’s tasked with, you shouldn’t hesitate to try squeezing a few more more years of service out of it until this foundering economy hopefully begins to recover.

Kay cites the example of his Hewlett-Packard Jornada notebook that’s even older than my Pismos, being a demo unit from a HP press event in 1998, observing that although dated by any definition (to say the least!), “the old Jornada remains - year after year - exactly the right tool for the job at hand… Every time I open this device, I of course have to endure the mockery of my peers. But at the same time, I am struck by a number of principles.”

One of those, he says, is longevity of technology, speculating that his Jornada could easily remain in service for another decade if not for a deliberate cycle of planned obsolescence characterized on the PC side by Microsoft’s replacement of Windows XP by Vista, Intel’s ongoing architectural changes, and the push to substitute Blu-ray for older optical drive formats, conceding that computers are getting better in some ways, have more features, but not necessary longer-lasting or more reliable.

The “Good Enough” Factor

Then there’s the “good enough” factor, which must be determined in the context of what you need it to be good enough for. If an electronic notebook is all you need it for, that ancient HP Jornada with its instant-on 8.2″ display, puny 190MHz StrongARM processor, 16MB of RAM and 16MB SSD running Windows CE and Pocket Word is more than adequate. I used to do real work — graphics creation as well as word crunching — on an 8 MHz Mac Plus with 2.5 MB of RAM, and it was lively too.

Compared to Kay’s old Jornada, my Pismos are powerhouses, and again, in the context of what I need them to do for me they are quite adequate, demanding little sacrifice in convenience, and regardless of what the economy does I’ll be surprised if I’m not still using at least one of them three or four years from now.

This distempered year, with household and enterprise budgets in tatters, leaving both individuals and corporate IT managers wondering if they can wring another year or two of useful service out of their existing hardware, the good news is that they probably can. As Roger Kay says, “A good tool should last a long time.”

That said, I’m going to enjoy using my new MacBook.

Read The Full Article:
http://theappleblog.com/2009/02/20/doing-the-job-with-obsolete-hardware-in-a-rece
ssion/

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Vuzix iWear AV310 viewer

post from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network on 20 February 2009 11:10:00 AM. © MacNN | The Macintosh News Network

Vuzix on Thursday announced that its iWear AV310 Widescreen personal media viewer is now available. ...

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http://feeds.macnn.com/click.phdo?i=561dc75b4cb5f68f0aeb8278073286f6

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Inherent Mac vulnerability

post from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network on 20 February 2009 11:10:00 AM. © MacNN | The Macintosh News Network

Macs are exposed to a dangerous vulnerability inherent to the structure of the Mac OS, claims a pres...

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HTC 80pc of Win Mo Phones

post from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network on 20 February 2009 10:45:00 AM. © MacNN | The Macintosh News Network

Microsoft's claims of a diverse Windows Mobile ecosystem may have been undermined by one of its own ...

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Super Simple Invoicing With Involer

post from TheAppleBlog on 20 February 2009 09:51:00 AM. © TheAppleBlog

involer_big

There’s no shortage of invoicing applications for OS X, with a notable few including Billable, iBiz, Billings, and On The Job. They all offer different functionality, and may fit your requirements perfectly. However, another contender has recently emerged on the scene in the form of Involer.

Rather than attempting to be a complete solution for project management, tracking time, and storing client details, it sticks to the basics — sending and managing invoices. Involer aims to keep this process as simple as possible with an intuitive user interface and basic invoice designs.

This review will take a look at the main features of Involer, explaining what the app does well and where the areas for improvement lie.

The Interface

The Involer interface takes one of the most simplistic approaches I’ve ever seen. Consisting of four areas: Company, Client, Invoices, and Invoice Preview. While dauntingly sparse at first, you do come to realize that it covers most of the basic functionality you need.

picture-110

One gripe I had immediately was the lack of any visual hints on how to get started after opening the application. It isn’t possible to actually add an invoice until you’ve entered a company and a client — something which would be easy to explain in any of the empty space when opening the app.

The preferences pane is equally sparse, with only a few options to handle updates and excluding certain items from an invoice.

picture-28

Adding Information and Creating Invoices

Adding a client and company is as simple as hitting the + icon in the left hand sidebar. This creates a new blank record, which then needs to be double clicked to edit the name. If you don’t add a name straight away, there’s no way of knowing that an empty client actually exists — some form of dialog box to request a client’s name when being added would be beneficial. However, it is possible to import client data from Address Book (limited to their name and email address).

Creating an invoice occurs in an attractive interface, with a simple two column layout for item and amount. You can edit the title and thank you note, and optionally add a tax value. Tax rates are specified for every company on an individual basis and calculated automatically for each invoice sent to them.

Previewing an invoice looks good, and the layout and style retains the simplicity inherent within the app itself.

picture-44

Sending and Exporting

There are two ways to distribute an invoice — via PDF or Print. Both generate a decent looking simplistic invoice, but I’d appreciate a way to have greater control over customizing the font and appearance to match my branding. In addition, it would be great to generate an email with the PDF attached, automatically addressed to the invoice recipient.

Searching and Organizing

Two of the main aims of Involer are to have “all of your invoices stored in the application, allowing you to refer back to them at any point” along with the ability to “find a specific invoice with just a few keystrokes.” This is achieved through both a timeline-style browser and a search function.

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The timeline browser is a great addition, especially if you send out a large quantity of invoices. Unfortunately, the search feature didn’t work at all for me, likely a glitch with the latest release and something which will be high on their list of priorities to fix.

Simplicity Gone Too Far?

Generally, I’m a huge fan of applications which cut back on unnecessary features and execute the bare minimum excellently (WriteRoom for instance). However, I feel that Involer may have taken this concept a little too far in cutting back on features that people do actually need.

One major oversight would seem to be the lack of any Invoice ID. This is almost always a requirement, and while it could be added manually to the title, it makes sense for a piece of software to automatically generate this for you. Design wise, I generally find that companies often use invoices and receipts as a good way to project the professionalism and style of their brand. Stripping all this away may not suit everyone’s taste.

Conclusion

Ironically, many applications which are perfectly production ready are labeled as a beta. Involer is one advertised as a full release, when I think actually it could have done with a few months of limited beta testing. There were a number of issues which made the app feel slightly difficult to use, not least of which was the search function not working correctly.

If you’re searching for an app to create and manage invoices in a basic way, Involer could well be for you. I’m confident that updates and enhancements are being made to fix problems with the early release of the app. An updated version (1.1) was released this past weekend with a whole host of fixes and updates from the original release, with more coming soon.

The concept of the app is great, but the execution needs a little more polish before I’ll be considering using it for myself. Involer is priced at $19.99 and a fully functioning 10 day trial available to download. It requires Mac OS X 10.5 and higher (Mac OS X 10.5.2 or higher recommended). Involer runs natively on bother PowerPC and Intel-based Macintosh computers.

Read The Full Article:
http://theappleblog.com/2009/02/20/super-simple-invoicing-with-involer/

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AAPL slides 4 percent

post from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network on 20 February 2009 09:45:00 AM. © MacNN | The Macintosh News Network

Apple shares fell approximately 4 percent in Thursday trading as a result of a report originally rel...

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Nikon D5000 Rumor

Nikon may be readying a new entry-level digital SLR that either complements or replaces the D60. A ...

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http://feeds.macnn.com/click.phdo?i=aa904abbde4d4977b5a24427dc2ab27b

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Pixel Qi Ships LCDs

Pixel Qi on Friday said it's closer to shipping LCD displays that should significantly extend the ba...

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http://feeds.macnn.com/click.phdo?i=1592c383daf22534ee458887d1b21186

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Synium Software releases vCarder - Send Contacts
Simply Secure

Synium Software is proud to release vCarder 1.0, their fourth application for iPhone and iPod touch. vCarder selects any number of contacts from the iPhone's Address Book and sends them to business partners and friends. vCarder fully supports Unicode for correct handling of foreign writing systems. vCarder sends contact information through the user's trusted e-mail account or via Bonjour. No new third-party services are needed.

Read The Full Article:
http://prmac.com/release-id-4497.htm

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Apimac introduces Timer 6.0 for Mac OS X

Apimac has announced Timer version 6.0, a complete and professional stopwatch, alarm clock, countdown and clock utility for Mac OS X. Apimac Timer is freeware and gives users the same well-known ease of use as other Apimac Applications. Easy-to-use and intuitive interface with clear tab-based browsing thru stopwatch, countdown, alarm clock and clock areas. Timer sports new improvements and fixes for all known bugs. Version 6.0 now offers support for Automator workflows, and more.

Read The Full Article:
http://prmac.com/release-id-4485.htm

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