Coming soon to an OS X near you, the latest installment of Microsoft Office 2008 for the Macintosh. It has been four years since the last release of Office for the Mac and I’m honestly glad even just for an updated user interface. But Office 2008 does so much more, obviously.
What’s the deal with Microsoft releasing several editions of Office though? They’ve gone version happy with Vista and now MS Office as well? Why can’t they just release one, Microsoft Office 2008 “Really Good” edition? Is one office suite less productive than the other? Gee.
According to MacWorld, Office will be available in three versions: Office 2008 for Mac ($399.95; $239.95 upgrade), Office 2008 for Mac Home and Student Edition ($149.95) and Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition ($499.95; $299.95 upgrade).
I’m not liking the way the Microsoft software division sees consumers. So does being an educator or student dictate how I’m going to use my computer all the time? This sort of degenerated access to software is actually limiting to consumers instead of allowing them to explore. If all the students need is a discount, then offer a special student promo, not a completely different version. What’s in the “special media” edition? More clip arts? Just offer it as an add on, or heck, offer the whole damn package in one REALLY GOOD edition. Stop with the scrimping.
There were over 60+ prizes up for grabs and there were only about 30 of us who braved not going to the Microwarehouse sale the holiday traffic. Do the math and everyone goes home with two prizes each. Some even three! Read more »
Hey geeks! It’s that time of the year once more where Microwarehouse attracts a long line of tech-savvy consumers as early as 12 noon. It’s the closest thing we have to a geek camp out in the US as the lines usually stretch out for hours. It’s going to be a bit different this year as the venue has been moved to the 2/F Silver City Automall Frontera Verde Drive Julia Vargas cor. E. Rodriguez Jr. Pasig. Up to 90% off on items! The gates open at 12 noon and close at 12 midnight.
From last year, people were able to get refurbished Macs as low as P30,000.00. If I feel up to it, I’ll prolly pick up Apple Care for the ol’ MacBook (it’s the best time to grab this!).
Oh! Oh! And …. alright, this is so non-sequitur but I just wanted to plug my brief modeling stint for Microwarehouse in the image above. Haha! In the photo I think I’m supposed to be a “technician” trying to fix that err … what’s that … a fax machine? And the “customer” is played by Jed Quiambao. Photo by Jake Verzosa.
Here’s an application pick recommended by Amber MacArthur - Disk Inventory X presents a visual way of looking at the contents of your hard drive. The benefit of installing this free application is it divides your hard disk into colored cubes, showing you which types of applications take up the most space.
As I rarely look through my applications folder (I use keyboard shortcuts with Quicksilver), I forgot that World of Warcraft (grenish-blue rectangle on the upper right) was taking up almost 7GB of space - a game which I no longer have time to play on the road, and best reserved for my PC desktop. It also shows me that photos (huge blue block) are the real killer in disk space, and that I should get an external HD to store all of my DSLR photos. I also forgot about how Parallels and Windows XP (the purble block at the bottom) is taking up so much space as well. In theory I thought I’d find a use for it but the practice didn’t.
You can download Disk Inventory X. The best thing about it — it’s completely free!
Because of the new Fan and Grid feature of Leopard’s downloads folder, I can spend more time beautifying a less cluttered desktop. Now despite the eye candy of the new dock, a lot of users have complained about how they preferred the old dock in OS X Tiger because it was easier to tell whether an application was open or not via the reversed triangle visual aid. Leopard has replaced the default “triangle” with transparent lights which makes it harder for some people with vision problems to discern what application is open.
I’ve managed to customize my dock’s skin using Leopard Docks. You will need to do some file replacing in the system folder. This is how you do it:
Go to Macintosh HD > /System/Library/Core Services/
Right-Click on “Dock” and select “Show Package Contents”
Go to /Contents/Resources/
Backup the files you are about to replace (Incase you did not listen, here they are)
Move those same original files to the trash
Move the files you downloaded to that folder
Open Terminal and type “killall Dock” (without the quotes)
Been fiddling around with Leopard for the past few hours. I have a lot of things to say in the pipeline but before that, I’d like to show you a little trick I picked up while browsing the forums. In the beta stages of Leopard, a PhotoBooth effect for the Star Wars hologram was excluded for final release. For us Star Wars fans, the effect simulates the holographic transmission effect used for communications.
Here is an example with me doing the Jedi:
The effect has also become quite popular for Halloween:
Here are some charts that show how often Macintosh users back up their data. 26% of all Macintosh users back up their systems regularly. However, only 4% make use of the auto back up feature:
Hands down, the three most eyecatching experiences with Leopard are, in no order, the new iChat moving backgrounds, the new reflective effect of the dock, and Time Machine. Apple engineers intentionally made Time Machine look this good so that people will be encouraged to back up often in exchange for the eye candy.
It is advised to purchase a “time machine” (aka external drive) that is at least equal to the total hard drive space of your current Macintosh. It is advised to run Time Machine before you go to sleep so that when you wake up the next day, the backup process would have been completed.
Mac OS X Leopard is officially in the Philippines.
If you bought a Macintosh anytime beginning October 1 2007 in the Philippines, you are entitled to an almost free upgrade to OS X Leopard for only PHP 527.00. All new Macs come pre-installed with Leopard.
On a side note, I’ve heard reports of retailers in the Philippines going out of stock for the MacBooks. This can only mean two things: (1) the new Macs are coming with Leopard, which is no surprise OR (2) the new version of the MacBooks may be due in the next few weeks.
One. Ultimate. Version.
Farhad Manjoo (Salon) makes a compelling case. “If we’re going just by what’s better—the ages-old Mac-vs.-PC debate is over. Long over. Yell it from the rooftops; The Mac has won.” Now’s the right time “to buy an Apple computer,” proclaims Manjoo. “Indeed, it’s been that time for the past five years.” After all, “its Macintosh business is now in league with that of the biggest PC companies in the world.” And “everyone who’s used it agrees that Leopard, the operating system that Apple released late last month, is to its chief rival, Microsoft’s Windows Vista, roughly as Richard Wagner is to Richard Marx.” Manjoo even takes the opportunity to “put to rest the myth that an Apple computer will set you back more than a Windows PC. In fact,” he says, “it’ll cost you less.” [Start]
My gosh! I am speechless! This can only mean that the Macintosh’s market share is really increasing, putting Mac users at an awkward position for attacks. This is the inevitable turnout for these sorts of things.
Miscreants have released a sophisticated Trojan into the wild that targets Mac users, according to Intego, a company that markets security software that runs on OS X.
The malicious Trojan, dubbed OSX.RSPlug.A, is making the rounds on several porn websites. When Mac users try to view some videos, the site feeds them a page that says QuickTime is unable to play the file unless a special codec is installed first. If the user proceeds, a form of DNSChanger is installed that hijacks some web requests sent to eBay, PayPal and some banking websites, according to this write-up from Intego. [Oh noes!]
I’m miles away from the Leopard store launch in Greenbelt (allegedly, all the Apple Powermac employees are in Leopard spots make up). But this is the most I can give. I videotaped the countdown to Zero Hour.
Was honestly expecting something grand to happen to the site. But still, I’m such a geek. Such an Apple Geek.
