It’s been long enough. And, this has been something bugging me of late.
My Week with Safari
Safari 4 was released last week. Finally including proper tab controls and a few other features that really peaked my interest. So, on the Mac, I decided to make it my default browser for a week.
Keep in mind that I have been using Firefox since before it was called Firefox. Plugins, hyper-lever control over the behavior of tabs and a great experience are tough to match. And, for me, Safari doesn’t quite fit the bill.
The new Safari is pretty rockin’, don’t get me wrong. It’s fast, it displays webpages well, has pretty ok tab controls and the new coverflow feature on new tabs is very cool. But, and this is a big but, there are a few issues that are forcing me to switch back to Firefox for full time browser duties.
First up is weird behavior in Gmail. Weirder still is that things happen (or don’t) seemingly at random. For example, in the image above, I was trying to mark that message as spam, but I couldn’t click the Report Spam button. Other times the message window won’t get focus, so when I start to type who knows what’s going to happen with the Google Keyboard Shortcuts kick in.
Next up is Facebook. The same thing happens there as does with Gmail. Buttons not clickable, comment fields don’t grab focus and sometimes, the site won’t load at all (eventhough it will in Firefox).
I was thinking maybe this is a Webkit issue. But, using Google Chrome on the EeePC under Windows is perfect on both of these sites, everytime. I’ve never had an issue.
I’ve had these issues before when I was using Fluid.app for Gmail and Facebook, both on the iMac and the Macbook. As cool as Fluid is, I had to stop using it because it was too unreliable on the 2 sites that I use the most.
Much like Safari is now.
Alternatively titled Don’t let this happen to you.
I’m a fan of backing up, we know this. For said backup duties, I rely on SuperDuper, which has been rock solid and relatively problem free since I’ve been using it.
I say relatively because I have recently had a few issues with how it backs up. I am down to using a single, 1TB, external drive for backup and media storage. I didn’t think this was a problem at all. I even configured SuperDuper to not overwrite the drive, only the files. Problem free for about a month.
I went to re-edit a video and found it was gone. Not only was it gone, but everything else I was storing on that drive was gone as well. Great. So, I configured SuperDuper again, making sure it wasn’t overwriting the drive.
Fast forward about another month. All of my AMVIV video, all of the swim meet video and everything else I was again storing on that drive is gone. Crap. At least it’s not going to happen again.
Last night I reconfigured that drive. It’s now 2 partitions. The first is set to 320GB (which is the size of the drive on my iMac). The other partition is using the rest of the space and has been designated as my media drive.
If you too are trying to get 1 external drive to pull double duty, I would highly recommend doing this. Just in case.
I’ve had the chance to use this device a little bit more and wanted to jot a few things down before I forgot.
- Battery life is excellent. Like I mentioned before, at least 4 hours of use, but it might be closer to 5.
- The keyboard size isn’t an issue except
- The position of the right shift key is horrible. If you aren’t a touch typist, this probably won’t be as big an issue for you, but as I am and the majority of words I capitalize start with letters that live on the left side of the keyboard, it’s a bit of a problem.
- The screen is very good, especially for it’s size.
- Full screen video playback from Hulu is ok, unless it’s high quality. For that, you need to be plugged into power, not running on battery. Even then, playback isn’t what you would call ideal.
- Viddler videos do not playback at all on the Eee. Doesn’t matter if it’s plugged in or not, or if the power settings are set to max power. Playback is jerky and sound is horrible. This particularly sucks for me. I have tried YouTube and get similiar results, although not as bad. Still have yet to try Vimeo or other video sites.
- The trackpad is almost completely unusable. The problem with it is that it is too sensitive. Barely touching it triggers a click which can, and has, caused problems in almost every application, especially the Start menu.
- The trackpad is pretty cool otherwise. 2 and 3 finger functions that actually work, most of the time. Not bad for a Windows device. 2 finger scroll always works, 2 finger taps usually works and 3 finger taps work sometimes. But they do work.
Still a great device, but not without a few comprises in use. I have found that using a mouse whenever possible is the best course of action. As for the right shift key, I just have to think a little more before I need to capitalize any of the letters on the left.
I still want to get OS X loaded on this, but that will be slightly delayed while I save up the money for an external DVD drive. I might try dual booting Ubuntu or DSL on it, possibly from an SD Card. More on that as it happens.
Something I am suddenly finding myself in need of is another laptop computer. The MacBook has been passed down to teh Lad and still working great, but I’m wanting something very portable, very small and very light. With enough power to write, do some light surfing, watch a video or Hulu and maybe process photos. Easy stuff.
So I have found myself eyeing the latest crop of Netbooks and I have to tell you something. They are pretty small. I mean, like tiny.
I thought I would cruise through BestBuy, just to see what they had so I could check them out. They had the Dell Mini 9 and the HP1000. Both seemed capable enough, but the 8.9″ screen is barely useable for me. And the Dell keyboard is awful. The keys are about the same size as those found on a pocket calculator and they are spaced even closer together. It’s completely unusable for someone with moderate-sized hands that can touch type (much like myself). The HP on the other hand had a very nice keyboard and everything was laid out as it should. But it still only had a 8.9 inch screen.
A little Amazon searching and some review reading later and I think I have settled on the Asus Eee PC 1000HA. 160GB hard drive, 10″ display, 1GB of RAM and the Intel Atom processor, plus a few other features that I think are cool. From what I can tell, the only true downside to this device is the fact that it’s running Windows XP. Not really a problem, but boy wouldn’t it be cool to have one running Leopard.
So more searching (and crowd sourcing) brings me to the OS X Netbook Compatibilty chart that BoingBoing has assembled. And what do you know, the Asus is on the list with almost 100% compatibility.
I poked around some more and it looks like a doable project that should keep me occupied for the better part of a few days. I’m hoping that when I do finally purchase this device and start the transformation that I can actually use it to dual boot OS X and Windows XP.
Is there anyone among us that is using a Netbook now? If so, which one and what do you think of it?
And don’t say buy another Mac. Both of money trees are dead and I didn’t win the lotto this week. Even from the refurb shop, the best deal I can get is either on a Macbook ($899) or an Air ($999). But with the pricing of the Eee PC (with 2GB RAM upgrade) coming in just under $400, it’s much more attractive to me. That and the fact that it kinda works, which means I’ll get to tinker a bit. Fun stuff!
Playing with a few things, changing a few things, updating a few things.
A couple of new apps this week. The first I heard about on Mac Break Weekly called Shape Collage. You can read the write up at dbmini. I know I know, I don’t normally post software reviews there, but most of the readers carry camera and they still out-number you 2:1.
Second app I’m playing with is called DoubleTwist. It’s an app for getting media to your device of any shape (mp3 players, phones, game consoles) and for sharing with your friends. I don’t see a real need for this on the ATP, but if you have anything else that holds media, it might be worth checking out. Full write-up to follow after I play with it some more.
Oh yea, both of these run on Windows and Mac. So go nuts.
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