After leaving MobileMe, I learned about Foxmarks, which touted itself as a great way to sync Safari bookmarks across Macs, but I found it less than stable, especially on my work machine. So after some head scratching, I am now using my Dropbox account to sync Safari’s history and bookmarks across my Macs.
The process is actually very simple - just make sure Safari is closed before you start. Here’s how to do it:
In the world of podcasts, there are many choices, especially when it comes to shows centered around technology (and even more so centered on Apple technology), but very few of these podcasts would ever talk about the Macintosh Quadra 660AV, the Apple Lisa, or the Performa 5200.
That’s just one reason the RetroMacCast ( iTunes Link) stands out. Each week, James and John sit down and discuss Apple news, unique eBay auctions (like a pallet of Color Classics and PowerBook Duos), and the “Retro Mac of the Week.”
Macworld’s Jason Snell recently test-drove a MSI Wind running OS X. In his two pages of ponderings on the little notebook, Snell does something that I found surprising: comparing the Wind to Apple’s MacBook Air:
While the Wind is not a terrible laptop, it most definitely feels cheap. Apple’s Aluminum-clad laptops all feel solid, and even the white plastic MacBook feels sturdy. The Wind’s plastic skin feels thinner and more flexible, especially on the bottom—it feels more like what you’d find in a clock radio or other cheap consumer appliance.
U.S. Senator John Cornyn and Representative Lamar Smith, both Republicans from Texas, held a press conference Thursday to announce separate bills in the Senate and House of Representatives, both called the Internet Safety Act. Along with sections stipulating stiffer penalties for activities related to accessing child pornography on the Internet, the law would require Internet and e-mail service providers to retain “all records or other information” about anyone using a network address temporarily assigned by the service. The provision about retention would apply to any provider of “an electronic communication service or remote computing service,” as well as someone who receives the content and recipient list of e-mail messages that it “transmits, receives, or stores,” according to the text of the Senate bill.
I love retro computing, and I like well-done mods. RetroMacCast forum member option8 loves both, it seems. The hardware hacker has put a Mac mini inside a Apple Disk II case. Check out that link for photos.
Dan Knight, of Low End Mac:
Income per page doubled in 2003 and kept moving upward, peaking in 2005/06, then slipping just a wee bit in 2007. Then came 2008. Through June, income was close to the 2006 level, but July fell well short of the previous year’s level. Through October, income seemed to hold steady, and then came the crash.
November income was less than half what it had been in 2007, and December was even worse. We’d hoped to see things turn in January, but instead it was lower still. We don’t know what February holds (checks usually arrive the last week of the month), but we’re looking at our options.
From The Gadgeteer’s interview with Marisa Giancarla, who is developing an e-book reader for the Newton OS:
I have not seen the iPhone SDK so I don’t know how it compares development-wise to the Newton, but the lack of pen and ink support and handwriting recognition still haven’t been reached on the iPhone. There is a natural draw to try and compare the two, both being handheld computing devices from the same company, but they are still quite different. I would love to see a tablet device from Apple, then at least the hardware features would be comparable.
On this first touch, the keyboard felt cramped, probably a result of the screen size, which is smaller than the iPhone’s—which is the obvious soft keyboard reference, since it was the first one to implement a finger-touch software keyboard.
It’s going to be hard to beat the virtual keyboard on the iPhone.
CNN:
Thousands of indignant members either canceled their accounts or created online petitions. Among them were more than 64,000 who joined a group called “The People Against the new Terms of Service.”
On Monday, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg tried to quell the controversy by saying the company’s philosophy is that “people own their information and control who they share it with.”
But members were not appeased because the site did not fix its Terms of Use. The company, in its post Wednesday, said it was returning to its previous Terms of Use because of the “feedback” it had received.
The problem with desktop email clients is that they’ve gone nowhere, and appear to be going nowhere fast. While Google has delivered solutions that make email less excruciating, Apple, Mozilla, Microsoft, and now Postbox are twiddling their thumbs and staring at the ceiling. The primary recommendation for a desktop email client is that you end up with a copy of your messages on your hard drive, and even that argument is moot.
iPhone and Mac developer Craig Hockenberry:
I’ll pass on a small reminder that an Apple employee gave me during Macworld: the App Store has only been live for a little over six months. Last month’s 25 year anniversary of the Mac should also remind us that this new market for our products is still in its infancy. Yes, it’s a wild ride at the moment, but if you think about your costs, customers and revenue streams, I think you’ll enjoy a very long journey.