gotta love Apple

I've been trying out the new version of Safari for the past couple of weeks, and *I love it!*

They have a beta version out... for both Mac and PCs, so you PC-users can't get all grumpy about not being able to be in on the next cool thing. And best of all... you can download it for free!

So here are a couple of the things that I think are really cool (maybe flashy, but hey, they are cool!):

When you open up Safari, it opens all your "top sites" (the ones you visit most often?) in the background, and you can see them in this really cool gallery.

Then you can just click on the site you want to open.

Supposedly, you can also view your bookmarks this way. I haven't had time (surprised?) to try this out yet. (Or many of the 150 features.)

Anyway, I'm sold.

I think I've posted this before, but here it is again:

bonjour iPhone

Evidently, the iPhone has been release in France, and for 100€, you can get it unlocked and be able to use it with any company. That's a sweet deal.

what I want for my birthday...

So, with the advent of the new Mac operating system, J and I have been discussing buying a laptop so that he can work while we go away during the week. He needs to have a PC to do his work from home (or away, in this case), and the new Macs have been capable of working as either Macs or PCs for a while now.

I did a comparison of how the new laptops stack up against my desktop iMac (do they even call them iMacs anymore?), which is, let's see, between three and a half and four years old. How time flies...it doesn't seem that long ago.

I'll try to get all the jargon down.

My current computer has 1.25 GHz processing speed. The new MacBook/MacBook Pro has a range of 2.0 GHz up to 2.4 GHz. So the slowest is quite a bit faster than mine, and the fastest is almost twice as fast.

My computer has 768 MB memory (and I added an extra memory card, as it only came with 512MB I think). The MacBooks all have 1GB memory; the MacBook Pros have 2GB.

My hard drive must have 80GB, as it says 74.41 GB, and that is an usual number, to be sure. The MacBooks have 80GB/120GB/160GB; the MacBook Pros have 120GB/160GB/160GB.

Not sure if I need another (bigger) external hard drive for the automatic backups that happen with Time Machine.

J has been asking what I want for my birthday (on Sunday Saturday), and what I want to do. His response was...something on your Amazon wishlist? I've been thinking, "Don't you know what I want, I mean, what else have I been talking about for the past month...?"

Specifically, the 15-inch, 2.4GHz, 2GB hard drive with 160GB memory (just in case he's checking this out for ideas...).

He's a little clueless about these kinds of things, I love him dearly, don't get me wrong, but birthday goings-on and presents and things--not his forte. It would be a big present, but it's a big birthday. You know, when the first number in your age changes, it seems to be a bigger deal. (I'm feeling a bit old.) So, we'll see....

I love Apple

The clever folks at Apple have come up with a new version of their operating system. Go watch the guided tour of Leopard and tell me that you're not convinced. I am completely amazed by their uncanny ability to come up with ideas that are so amazing. I wish I could come up with ideas like this. I am astounded. How do they do this? Go ahead and watch it. I can wait. Then we can discuss.



Seriously, using Cover Flow (like on your iPod) to be able to preview all your documents??!! How cool is that!

And Time Machine, to back up everything automatically on an external drive every hour, so you can go back and find anything you've lost, thrown away accidentally, etc. Love it.

Spaces and Stacks are kind of cool, too. I like how they're trying to keep me organized. Because I really need some help here.

The built-in stationery in Mail is pretty cool, too. (I was snookered in by the birth announcements, which we haven't sent out yet. We did send emails to people to let them know, to everyone whose email addresses we have. But my mother-in-law kind of took me to task for not having sent out real ones. When do people have the time/energy to DO that? Seriously.... I guess I could have done it rather than starting a blog, but...should I feel guilty? I DO feel guilty about not having started the thank-you-cards yet. But I will. Really. At least I have them, as well as a list of what & who to send them to.) Oh, and they have a very cool way to easily send out e-postcards. You can just drag & drop your own photos into the template, then position and re-size them in the postcard!

Back to Leopard:
The only thing I don't like (and this is admittedly small) is that they name the operating systems after big cats. Not that I dislike big cats. I understand why they do it, they're powerful, fast animals, sleek, cool. Fine. But I can never remember which one I currently have. I think I have Tiger. But that's only because I can't think of the other animals' names: was there a Jaguar maybe? I don't think there was a Lion. There was a Panther, I'm pretty sure.

In any case, now it's Leopard, which must be 10.5. And I HAVE to have this. Really, I was convinced the first time I saw the guided tour. Yes, I actually watched it more than once. The first time, I got distracted. Maybe the baby needed something. Or the phone rang. Or my attention wandered. But I went back when I got the second email from Apple. Then I watched a second time when I made J sit down and watch it.