Apple in Zoom

For several hours it was a terrible day today. As I decided to update my iPhone to the new firmware version 2.0, it was a bit worse than expected.
I used an excellent tool – PwnageTool, which is very intuitive to provide a lot of help during the procedure of the upgrade of the iPhone to the new version.

The procedure was really easy and it can be done within several clicks, but I made a mistake at the end of the procedure. I did not update my iPhone with the new firmware produced by PwnageTool, but I used an firmware offered by iTunes and I locked my iPhone.

After several minutes I was able to get the phone back to the DFU mode, which is necessary and I discovered I have to click Restore with ALT in iTunes to have the option to choose the firmware to be used for the update procedure.

Finally, it really works and the new firmware and applications are installed in my iPhone and it is really good.

By the way, after some time, my new HRM Advice Blog got some PageRank. Life is good.

PR: wait…  I: wait…  L: wait…  LD: wait…  I: wait… wait…  C: wait…  SD: wait…

I have the issue with my new website HRM Advice and its template. I developed the template with the CSS Handbook in my hand the website is displayed correctly in IE7, Firefox, Opera and Safari. But IE6 does not show the site correctly, the width of the columns is not displayed correctly and it destroys the site completely.

I did try to search for the solution but I did not find any. Do you have any idea?

After several months of inactivity it is time to get back to write about my life with Apple and other stuff. The work is done, the project is finished, let’s get back to funny stuff again.

A lot of things changed during my “holidays”. A new iMac is out, Leopard is finally out and all of this stuff is excellent. But I like Leopard most. In the light of iPhone on the scene, the revolution in the desktop area does not look so big, but many features are really excellent.

And personally? I have to divide my time also to my other project – HRM Advice and Apple in Zoom.

Microsoft has its Microsoft Exchange and it is really one of the best solutions for the office. But, Zimbra looks to be a good alternative to Microsoft Exchange and it has big advantage - it is provided as open source for free in its basic edition.

Zimbra is a multiplatform application, being developed and supported on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux to name the most common operating systems.

Zimbra provides integrated email, calendars and documents. But it is not all - it also provides VoIP, but I had no chance to try it.

When you need additional functionality from the collaboration suite, you have pretty well documented API and you can develop your own small extensions of the suite - they are called zimlets.

Zimbra Collaboration Suite has its value and you can definitely try it.

To work with photos in Mac OS X you have generally three options. You can use iPhoto, which is cool for sorting photos, but to make adjustments, it is very painful. Or you can buy Adobe Light Room and you can run with your photos at full speed. As a last option - you can buy Aperture provided directly by Apple.

Aperture is not a cheap piece of software. With its price, you have to be sure, you will really use almost all its features or you will loose a lot of money. Aperture is a professional solution helping the photographers to store, sort, adjust and export their photos.

The features available to the user in Aperture are really enormous. The whole process of adjusting photos starts with the import, which is very easy and you can choose whether to import photos to the new project or just add them to the existing one.

After importing, the computer gets really slow for a while as Aperture makes all the calculations in the background. You can go on with the work, but I usually leave the computer to finish the task as it takes about several minutes and the work is really painful. But, when the calculations are finished, the work with Aperture is really fun.

When you start to edit RAW images, you will find no feature covered. All the changes are visible immediately as the original image is not touched by the changes, all the changes in Aperture are done on the previews and thumbnails and you are really supported by Aperture to make experiments with your photos.

Generally, there is nothing better to work with, when you need to make changes to your RAW images and export them. But, the cost is really pretty huge. When you are not sure, just download the trial version of Aperture and you will see. But - be aware, you will not want to go back to your current solution as Aperture is really the best.

By the way, I was visiting my parents during this weekend and made some photos, you can have a look at them in my Photo Gallery. And the photos are stored in Aperture.

Nothing is perfect. Skype was perfectly servicing the community and customers for quite a long time without major issues. But today - Skype does not exist for its customers.

The company makes apologizes to its customers and they expect to solve the major issue by Friday.

So, we will see. No service  is perfect.

Apple announced a new application Numbers, which will be part of new iWork ‘08. As iWork was not updated for quite a long time and spreadsheet function was really missing in the whole “office” suite.

The expectations from Numbers are really high. As it was announced - it is about spreadsheets the Mac way. I am a bit worried as office suite - it is not a best domain of Apple’s designers and programmers.

KeyNote is an excellent application, but Pages are not my favorite application to produce documents.

Looking at the preview of Numbers application I am really looking forward to seeing the work with large data basis and the orientation of the graphics and output. To add sliders to documents, it is a good idea, but what about the analysis of sales results for the last quarter? Will be Numbers comfortable to make it then?

Working with Microsoft Excel is fine as the application makes no borders in your work, you can use any cell you want and you can add supplemental calculations to every possible cell. But Numbers look to show just the cells you really need at the moment and adding another one will need additional action from the user.

The tables in Numbers are presented as intelligent tables, but Microsoft could tell a story about “intelligent” wizards and auto-corrections. People are usually annoyed by them. When you work with Excel right now, you have full freedom. With “intelligent” solution - it can be a real pain to make the table to make things differently.

But finally, I expect Apple to aim a different target group of customers with Numbers. Really looking forward to reading the review of new iWork’08.

The rumor was - new iMac will be black, then new iMac was silver. And the final result? You can find both colors on the new gadget. It is black and silver. In my opinion - it is beautiful, but many people will disagree with me.

I was expecting Apple to introduce just a slimmer solution to my table, but the result - it is really amazing. The design is beautiful. And I decided to buy a new one as soon as possible.

And you?

It looks to be confirmed. New iMac will be announced on 7th August during the press conference. New iMac will be silver and will be very similar to the current Cinema Display. The article is about the new keyboard, but in the discussion, there is a small note from the author about a new iMac.

Just by checking this site /in Czech/ from a guy working for the manufacturer of iMacs, new iMac should be very similar to current Cinema Displays. Or more correctly - it should be a combination of the current iMac and Cinema Display. I think it is the best confirmation from the person, who has a chance to see the new iMac personally.

Honestly, I am really looking forward to see it as I want to buy a new one during Fall, including new Mac OS X Leopard.

And the new iMac should be very very sexy and cute.

WriteRoom is a special text editor for Mac OS X. When you run the text editor, you will feel like a computer operator from 70s of the previous century. The screen will become completely black and only blinking cursor will make you aware of the computer being turned on.

WriteRoom is not a text editor for everyone. It has one clearly defined goal. When you need to write a document, nothing else should disturb you in the process of thinking about the document and sorting your ideas. The screen is black and you have no chance to be disturbed by any other application running on your Mac.

No AdiumX messages, no new emails. You will not notice them and you will have your time to type a document. WriteRoom is not a text editor to make nice documents. It is a text editor to make creative and idea-rich documents. Formatting is a task for a completely different application. You will have no chance to make any kind of formatting the document in WriteRoom.

WriteRoom is the text editor, which use a plain text document file format and you will have no issue to open the document in any other application to add formatting. Many times, people start writing document by defining the styles and fonts, but WriteRoom will make you to start with the most important part of the document - the content.

The only thing you can hate at WriteRoom is a depression when you need to type a new document. Completely empty black page and just a cursor. But, when you will start to write a document using WriteRoom, you will find it is the text editor of your choice.