OS X Aqua apps - update?

I've just skimmed through the Apple Human Interface Guidelines, but I can't spot where the 'Check for Updates' option is supposed to go in a desktop app under Aqua. I really like this feature, esp. when the app goes off, downloads the update, and unpackages and deals with any migration of existing versions/data etc without having to mess about with it. But it's never in the same place in every app!

Sometimes it's under the Application menu, sometimes under the Help menu, and sometimes hiding in a preferences panel for the app somewhere. Personally, it logically should be under the Application menu, as it's an application action (not a 'help' action really).

Weird that it's not documented in the guidelines. Hint, hint Apple!

Has Vodafone NZ gone crazy?

I can't believe the iPhone tariffs in NZ... [link]. NZ$250 for only 1GB/month of included data? Are they totally crazy?!
I pay £35/month here for unlimited data (GPRS/EDGE, and 3G when it kicks in, plus unlimited wifi at selected wifi providers), the same number of minutes, and 500 texts which is only 100 less than the voda nz plan - the 1GB tariff in NZ converts to about £95 at today's rate.

And I thought O2 were ripping us off in the UK, but that's just ridiculous!

Better sort this out before we move back to NZ (if we ever do!). Things like this going on in NZ really p*ss me off.

Oh and while I'm at it, there is some clown already camped out at the Auckland store, wanting to be the first iPhone 3G owner in the world. Erm... congratulations? [link via Koz's twitter]

living with the iPhone

It's been almost six months since my inital post on buying an iPhone, and it's about time I had a bit of a rant about it.

Things that are great:

The touch interface. Lovin it!

Google maps with the 'locate me' functionality. Very cool, tho I hear in the US they are adding Wifi connections to the 'locate me' functionality to get the location even more precise. Can be a bit random in the City sometimes, showing me anywhere within a 1km radius, which in the City of London can mean the difference between getting a cold beer, and a warm flat beer!

Data on the run - 24/7 email and internet is great. A bit slow at times when stuck on a GPRS connection. And not worrying about the bill is great too!

Things that are annoying:

Safari getting a bit grumpy occasionally and not loading pages or responding to 'clicks'. Sometimes sorted by resetting Safari (holding the 'home' button down for 5 secs until Safari closes), but sometimes I have to resort to a hard reset (power down). Not a biggie, but annoying (will have to check the crash reports when I get home and see if I can spot what's causing it)

HTML emails which are designed for 'wider' screens (yup, some people hard code the width of html elements in emails grrrr) - should be able to flip the screen sideways for these

Some text areas are a bit hard to type in as they don't fit on the screen, so it's often a case of type and hope for the best! Not too sure how that could be solved, perhaps limiting the width of text area fields, or scrolling horizontally as you type?

The endless demos to friends/co-workers/random joes on the street :) (actually, I don't mind too much!)

Things that need improving:

Text messaging! It's pretty basic at the moment - no forwarding of texts, no picture messaging. This really needs looking at, and could be done by software updates.

The camera needs some work. Really bad in low light (gets the shakes), and is slow to take a pic

The included headset/earphones are a bit rubbish. People I'm calling can barely hear me when I talk on them - I might just have a bad copy

Mac OS X background tutorials

Found a nice tutorial on creating backgrounds that look a bit Mac OS X ish.


I made this one after following it. Not too bad for 5 mins photoshoppin, thanks Veerle!

(feel free to grab the full size version - can't remember what size I made it, think it's a 6x4 crop ratio tho - might need to recrop or resize to get it to fit your desktop - pls note the cc license)


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License.

Bug on the apple

Doh! Looks like someone was a bit speedy releasin the new code for the UK Apple store's MacBook page...
So Apple aren't perfect then :-) (IE6.0/WinXP Pro)


Checkin out the source shows:

...
var gallery = new Gallery(galleryConfig);
</script> ript>
</head>
...

Superceded

Only had my MacBook for a month, and it's already been superceded. Doh! Apple released the Core 2 Duo MacBooks last night. So I wonder - if underAppleCare, a Macbook Core Duo gets a fault that warrants a full replacement, do they dredge up an old Core Duo one or do you get a 'free upgrade' to Core 2 Duo?

Ooooh and they're cheaper too... have a RAM and hard drive upgrade on the White 2GHz model.
I had to pay £100 more to get the upgrades to 1GB RAM/80GB HDD...
2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
1GB memory (was 512MB)
80GB hard drive (was 60GB)
Double-layer SuperDrive
£879.00 inc VAT