| Subcategories: | By Ed Hurst | Jul 11, 2008 at 22:37:58Take a deep breath and repeat after me: A computer is just a
tool. It is only so good as it serves to make life better for
users. A “better” life is obviously not the same thing for
everyone. For me, it means making my Mac more like Linux, as I began to discuss
in my last article.
By Ed Hurst | Jun 20, 2008 at 23:13:14Sometimes you stumble across a decent system, still working fine,
but getting old. If the price is right, you might take it anyway. For
most people in non-profit work, which is like running a business on a
very poor budget, this is about the only way to get enough computers to
get the job done. A few weeks ago I stumbled upon an eMac running
Panther. It cost almost nothing, so I took it.
By Jonathan Sidener | Jun 9, 2008 at 18:45:50For years, Flash software has added pop and sizzle to Web pages, making possible animations, slide shows and interactive games. Now the graphic interface technology is coming to the mobile phone screen. Qualcomm and Adobe recently said they will create a version of Qualcomm’s BREW - a system for bringing games, news and other data to the mobile screen - that works with Flash.
By Timothy R. Butler | May 30, 2008 at 13:12:50Seven years ago this week I published my first online commentary piece. The topic was the predicted death of the Linux desktop brought on by the demise of Eazel, the original developer of GNOME’s Nautilus file manager. A lot has happened since that time, but not precisely how I would have predicted it would. Let’s review.
By Ed Hurst | Apr 25, 2008 at 11:19:16In the coming months, Serenity Systems and Mensys will be offering the
latest release of eComStation,
2.0. This is the new name and face on the venerable OS/2. It’s all too
easy to find websites discussing the history of OS/2, articles that walk through the
installation process, and lists of drivers, software, and so forth.
Despite the ardent love for OS/2 one finds in the user groups, it
remains a fairly small niche operating system. This has little to do
with the technical merits or demerits of OS/2.
By Timothy R. Butler | Mar 6, 2008 at 21:25:50Comparisons between iPhone and the Wii have already been fairly abundant simply because the two have arguably garnered the top spots in “electronic gadget mindshare” for at least a year each. But looking at the demos today, I think the iPhone could be on its way to being the Wii of portable devices – literally.
By Timothy R. Butler | Jan 16, 2008 at 16:0:5The MacBook Air is, at first glance – or really any glance – one of the most impressive looking little laptops ever to appear. Anyone who hauls a laptop around a lot would be hard pressed not to be excited about the prospect of a good, lightweight laptop with a full sized keyboard. For me, the easy to carry PowerBook 12” has long served as my trusty mobile companion and I was excited about the idea of a lighter, newer model to follow in its path. Having seen the MacBook Air, it seems in many ways to be the true successor to my PowerBook – but if I were shopping today, a MacBook Pro would get my money.
By Timothy R. Butler | Jan 14, 2008 at 19:38:18It’s that time of year again. If you are at all interested in the trends of technology in the next year, January is the time to learn what is coming up. And not at the CES mind you – these years, the future shows up at MacWorld. Last year it was the iPhone, which managed to shake an industry that had never faced Apple before and start a major shift in the way cell phone development is done. What will this year bring? Tim puts his money on more devices coming out of the Apple-AT&T partnership, for one thing.
By Timothy R. Butler | Oct 27, 2007 at 21:37:25Few would deny that Apple’s ill-fated Newton PDA was ahead of its time. While it would take a few more years and a few smart decisions by the company then known as Palm Computing to make a PDA that worked really well (the first Pilot), Apple was clearly on to something. Though Steve Jobs assassinated the device nearly a decade ago, it seems perhaps he has — in not so many words — started to bring it back to life.
By Timothy R. Butler | Sep 20, 2007 at 18:48:49Dear Steve, so you’ve reached the big one million mark. There were a lot of doubters, but I knew you could do it all along. The iPhone exemplifies Apple’s “think different” attitude, and that has helped it to fill a need that was really being ignored. This is Apple’s chance to introduce many people to its philosophy of creativity and ease-of-use. But that leads us to an obvious question: why on earth are you making it so hard to do something as typical (and potentially creative) as creating custom ring tones — not to even mention adding applications?
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