Firefox 3 beta 5

Firefox 3 beta 5 for Mac and PC was released today, and although it brought 150 fewer changes than beta 4 brought, the 700 beta 5 changes really made a difference.

Firefox 3 beta 5 has been tweaked and is now much more integrated with Macs, PCs, and Linux.  Beta 5 has also provided a speed boost with a new JavaScript engine and other optimizations to speed up web apps.
Personalization has also been taken one step further with new view, organization, and search tools and preferences.  Also, for Mac it also has the newfound ability to save frequent searches, much akin to Leopard's Finder.

Overall this beta update improved an already wonderful application and added some much needed and essential features to make the program just that more wonderful to use.

Troika 'Newton Virus' (It's NOT Harmful!)

In the computer's early years, viruses, unlike today, were created for fun and amusement. They would not cause any harm to the computer, but would perhaps make the screen tun blue or make all the victim's icons turn purple. However, although computer viruses have harmful and joyful roots, today's computer viruses are threatening to people's files and information.

A London-based design firm named Troika has decided to temporarily relive the surprise of the original computer viruses by launching a project called the 'Newton Virus'. The virus is designed for Macs, and as of today it is not yet available to the public, however, it is currently on display at the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art).

The harmless virus simply adds gravity to your Mac's desktop, causing all the icons and the menu bar to fall to the 'ground', bounce, and come to a stop. If you pick up the laptop and tilt it, the icons and menu bar will fall to the new 'ground'!

This is a great toy for people of all ages, and although it's not available to the public today, it maybe sometime in the near future!

Review: The New Airport Express

The new Airport Express, introduced today, has given the Airport Express new potential to appeal to even more people than before. With improved range and signal strength, it outperforms its predecessor by more than 30%!


With up to 5 times the power and 2 times the range, it can't get much better, but Apple also included 802.11n and expanded connectivity to allow up to 10 Mac and PC users on the network at a time. Although Apple changed a lot on the inside of the device, the design has not changed at all. It is still a mere $99.00, and is compatible with Airport Utility, the wireless network managing tool Apple provides with all Macs in /Applications/Utilities/Airport Utility.

As well as functioning as an amazing wireless network, it also provides a feature called AirTunes. Airtunes allows you to play your iTunes music on your stereo or speakers wirelessly. The available speakers are shown in iTunes in the bottom-right corner. Simply click the arrows and select the speakers you want!

The Airport Express still supports wireless printing, but a feature I was hoping for is wireless USB drive sharing, which has yet to appear in the Airport Express. I wonder if Apple is trying to force people needing this feature to buy an Airport Extreme...

Review: Macbook Air

If you don't have time to read this whole article, in short, the Macbook Air is great for users looking for a small, light computer for simple tasks and travel.  However, it is NOT for power users or people who will be behind a desk often.

As Apple describes their new product, it is "Thinnovation", and it certainly is at 0.76" at its widest, and it tapers to an amazing 0.16"!  However, it gives up many key things to achieve such portability.  You have an option of an 80GB 4200 RPM PATA Hard Drive, or a 64GB solid-state drive.  It comes standard with 2GB of RAM in all models, but the RAM is soldered to the logic board, so it is impossible to add more.  Apple boasts that the Macbook Air's battery lasts 5 hours, but in my tests, it lasted 3:05 at maximum.  Unfortunately, the battery is also not user-serviceable, so people looking to use this on long car/planes trips will be disappointed.

Another plus which I encourage Apple to work on with their other notebooks is temperature.  The Macbook Air does not get as hot as either of Apple's other notebooks.  In fact, after being on for 1 hour, the Macbook Air was 22.4% cooler than the Macbook Pro, and 13.8% cooler than the Macbook.

* tests were done with a Macbook Air (1.8Ghz, 80GB Hard Drive @4200RPM, 2GB RAM) a black Macbook (2.16Ghz, 200GB Hard Drive @5400 RPM, 4GB RAM) and a 15" Macbook Pro (2.6Ghz, 250GB Hard Drive @5400 RPM, 4GB RAM)

The Macbook Air weighs 3 pounds, has a gorgeous 13" LED-backlit display, and surprisingly, it has a full-sized backlit keyboard.  Instead of becoming part of the Macbook or Macbook Pro families, it creates its own category in Apple's growing notebook family.  Another impressive feature is the trackpad.  The trackpad is full-sized, and even bigger than the Macbook's!  A new feature Apple introduced with the Macbook Air is multi-touch gestures.  Although the Macbook and Macbook Pro already supported 2-finger scrolling, the Macbook Air took after the iPhone in that it supports pinching, rotating, and more using up to 3 fingers.

As I sit here in my office, typing this article on my macbook, I wish that I had my new Macbook Air booted up...