Apple’s New “Lion”, and More for Your Monday

Apple announced that it had 1 million downloads of its newest operating system, OS X 10.7 codename “Lion”, on its first day of availability. Available through the Mac App Store for $29.99, Apple says people are buying Lion faster than any other OS release in Apple’s history.

Microsoft could take a lesson from this (IMHO). Not from adding a feature or two and a dozen tweaks and calling it a new version (with a new name), but to get a clue about their archaic pricing structure. If I could get Windows 7 Home upgrade licenses for $30 – $40, I would buy a dozen of them today.

I am not an iFanatic, and do not know any more about Apple machines than what I have to as a Technician living in Appleland (aka ‘silicon valley’) — yes, I fix Macs. But I don’t use them. I haven’t powered up my “Tiger” machine in.. oh, let’s call it 2 years. And, so far, I do not own any iGadgets either.

With that said, I have looked at various “reviews” and it seems to me that the main thing Lion gives you (new) is direct integration with the iStore, and touchscreen ‘gestures’.
Hmmm… I don’t want either of those things.
It kind of looks to me like Apple is “blending” their operating systems for their gadgets into their desktop OS. (People are accusing Windows 8 of this same kind of thing..)

It also has something called “natural scrolling”, which apparently nobody likes.

I will say, it is kind of hard finding less-than-enthusiastic reviews.. ahem. Such as this one: Here Are 12 Amazing Hidden Features In Mac OS X Lion

“Lion touts more than 250 new features, but Apple only advertises a few of them. We picked out some of the best tips for customizing and making the most of Lion. Read more..

I dare you to look at those, and then I ask you think about the definition of the word “amazing”, and then find any correlation. (And note that one of the ‘tips’ is how to turn off natural scrolling..)
I was kind of surprised that some of the ‘features’ are only now available…

I had questions if improved 64-bit capability would make Lion “faster” than Snow Leopard, so I found this article interesting (though, it is way too early to really tell): Snow Leopard vs. Lion: Performance head-to-head

Since we had the 27-inch iMac on hand, we thought we’d see if OS X Lion introduced any performance changes. Read more..

(And for those considering “upgrading” to Lion, I would suggest reading the comments, too.)

As I said earlier, I am not an “Apple guy”, and I do not have any ‘hands on’ experience with Lion. So I am not going to presume to advise you Apple users on whether to upgrade to Lion or not. I will only offer (repeat, really) my ‘general policy’ which goes — yes, you want to keep all your software up to date with the newest versions; but, you do not want version 1.0 of anything.
A seeming contradiction.

I – myself – would wait a bit on Lion. Until the first patches have been released. Then I would upgrade. And learn the new “productivity enhancements” like “spaces”. Maybe (probably) even buy a “gestures” mouse.

If you are at all curious about Apple’s new operating system, (“The World’s Most Advanced Operating System”) the place to start is to take a look at the official Apple page, here.

Today’s reading reco: Four Things Google Plus Could Do To Fix Google Plus
(There are “big” issues here.. I urge a read.)

“Saturday’s Google Plus user account deletion purge plunged the new social network into a crisis of user trust: the community wants it fixed.” Read more..

• Read also: Google Plus Deleting Accounts En Masse: No Clear Answers

“Google+ is not warning users before deleting user accounts, and some people have reported being locked out of all Google services, including docs and Gmail.”

~

Today’s quote: “Joy is a flower that blooms when you do.”  ~ Unknown

Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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Amazingly Dangerous Email: Must See To Believe

Amazon.com (Evil) Deal of the Day

Folks, I just received an amazing (and dangerous) e-mail that my phishing filter/spam catcher did not catch – claiming to come from Amazon.com as one of my “notification subscriptions” –> Amazon’s Deal of the Day. It looks identical to my real notifications but…

every single link is dangerous, and they’re pushing ED drugs! These hyperlinks really take you to websites titled “http:\\######.fishenough.ru”. Seriously! (.ru = Russia)

Do I need tell you what will happen should you click a single link? Nothing good, I assure you!!!
Here’s more..

What are those red warning signals? They are automatically inserted by a tool I have installed on my machine, see, Why You Want WOT.

I kind of admire the craftsmanship that went into this.. this.. criminal attack. It fooled me for a while. But, sheeze: anyone else wonder how come these guys are still getting away with this? And maybe.. a bit fed up with it?

Are you listening, cyber czar?

Copyright 2007-2010 © Tech Paul. All Rights Reserved. post to jaanix.

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The WorldWide Telescope: An amazing app

Yesterday I attended an event at Microsoft’s Silicon Valley Research Center and learned  about the technologies of the future.

Well, sort of. What I saw was an overview of what Microsoft is doing in the area of R&D– research and development.
Microsoft is planning on sticking around for a while, and they understand that technology is innovation… not a stagnant build-it-once-sell-it-a-million-times type thing, like a paperclip.

This from their Website: “Microsoft Research is dedicated to conducting both basic and applied research in computer science and software engineering. Its goals are to enhance the user experience on computing devices, reduce the cost of writing and maintaining software, and invent novel computing technologies.”

It was an interesting and informative event, and I want to take a minute and thank those folks involved.

* The keynote technology displayed was a program that is available now, and it is pretty amazing — especially when one considers the amount of data that must be accessed — it’s a virtual picture of the universe. And the best part is, you can explore it.
Yes, you can fly to Mars… or Rigel.. or the crab nebula.. or the top of Mt. Rainier here on earth (Virtual Earth is one data source).

“A state-of-the-art combination of software and Web 2.0 services, WorldWide Telescope offers terabytes of high-resolution images, astronomical data, and guided tours that bring the universe to your fingertips.” (again, from Website.)

This isn’t just pictures folks, when you right-click on Mars (for example) and select Properties, you will be offered practically every known fact about Mars. This is an unparalleled learning tool!

The engine behind this is kind of hard to explain; maybe.. real-time, super-advanced PowerPoint? Infinite MSN Maps?
But I don’t have to try to explain it. You can see it for yourself, and I highly suggest you do. Simply stunning.

To read more about the project, click here.
To download it for yourself, click here.

 I found this clip which was a “sneak peak” presented by Roy Gould and Microsoft’s Curtis Wong. It will give you some idea…

Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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