Category: General

OS X and Mac App Store signals the death of desktop customization

Back in the day of Mac OS 7, 8 and 9, Apple didn’t make it too terribly difficult to customize the OS with themes and custom icons. Theming your desktop was so popular that it was nearly its own sub-culture. Theming websites sprout up almost weekly, offering window themes, icons, and other theming items. There were literally thousands of options. But that all changed when Apple released Mac OS X.

Candybar

Mac OS X was a top-to-bottom change to the system architecture, and theming was infinitely more difficult. It took a long time before creative developers figured out a way to bring customization to OS X. There were themes, if only a few dozen, and of course you could still customize icons. But it was never to the extent that you could in Mac OS 9.

Eventually (I don’t remember if it was OS 10.4 or 10.5), theming became nearly impossible. But when Apple released the Mac App Store, customizing your Mac desktop all but died. Because of the code signing of all apps sold through the Mac App Store, altering files contained in individual apps (such as icons) rendered them either useless, or at the very least prevented you from updating them in the Mac App Store.

Between code signing, recently implemented Sandboxing rules, and the release of OS X Mountain Lion (which prevents theming of the Dock), it’s all but a dead art. If you need any more evidence, Panic Software recently announced they were sunsetting their icon customization tool, CandyBar. For many years, CandyBar was the gold-standard of customizing icons. Thankfully, Panic made CandyBar freely downloadable, and updated it for Mountain Lion. For those like me who used CandyBar for it’s icon collection organizing feature, and the ability to quickly and easily export app icons as PNG images with transparency intact, the fact that it still works is a bit of relief. But it’s future is most decidedly in doubt. It surely won’t be long before it can no longer customize System icons.

It’s sad to see theming and customization fade off into the sunset. But to be honest, Apple has improved the appearance of the OS to the point where even the most avid themed simply preferred the clean look of the standard theme. And right now, you can get an absolutely fantastic icon customizing and organizing app for free.

Replug: Save your jack!

Replug
Replug saves your headphone jack
Replug

Replug saves your headphone jack

Replug is one of the most useful gadget accessories I’ve seen in a long time. At only $13, Replug protects your iPhone or computer headphone jack by turning it into a sort of mag-safe adapter like you find on Apple’s laptop line. Put simply, when you jerk your headphone cord by accident, rather than the jack breaking off in the mic jack, it safely just pulls away. Very cool!

Design advice: Know your target audience

Lost on most of the design talent coming out of portfolio school is the fact that all the talent in the world won’t make you successful unless you learn how to target your desired audience with your design and messaging. Design is about communicating the message in a way that your target finds it easy to read and desirable. Great design isn’t always successful, but success is always due in part to great design.

Here’s a case of great design that isn’t remotely successful. The email below is one I received from Network Solutions recently. It’s not that it looks bad, it’s not that the information in the email isn’t accurate or easy to read. The problem is that it’s certainly not targeted at someone like me. But it is rather insulting to me, and has absolutely no chance of getting results from me. Now I’ll grant you that the average consumer isn’t as knowledgable about this subject matter as I am, and it’s a mass-email sent to (presumably) hundreds of thousand of people. But they sent it to me, and it’s a great example.

Nice design

A nicely designed email advertisement? Only if I’m an Internet idiot.

As you can see above, the email’s primary message is that Network Solutions offers Cloud-based hosting. The main message is also the main problem. Can you tell me what hosting (from any Internet Hosting Provider) is NOT cloud-based? Of course not. All hosting is cloud-based, otherwise nobody but you could see it. Duh! Let’s move on to the next problem. Apparently they think I’m blind and wouldn’t notice the fact that the $5.99 per month is only for the first three months. No mention of what it is after, not even in the disclaimer. I could spend an hour listing the reliable hosting companies that offer cheaper prices than $5.99. Clearly they’re hoping I don’t do research before paying for a service. The fun doesn’t stop there… (more…)

Design tip: Choose your fonts wisely

Choose fonts wisely

A quick tip for designers who find themselves re-branding a company or designing a campaign. Choose your fonts wisely. That really cool font you download from the Internet probably looks great in the headline. But keep in mind that you’ll likely find out later on that the client wants to use it in the body copy of their brochures, posters, annual reports, etc. The last thing you want to be stuck with is a font family that has only a regular and bold font.

Try to use font families that offer a wide range of fonts. You’ll likely need a light, regular, semibold, bold and black version, as well as condensed versions of all of them.

Recent acquisitions should make you wary of buying new apps

The headline sounds a bit over-the-top, I know. But it sums-up my point best. With Google acquiring Sparrow (the extremely popular email client software for OS X and iOS), and Facebook buying out Acrylic (makers of the popular RSS reader, Pulp), and Instagram, it’s clear that no matter how small or large your favorite app or service is – it’s entirely possible that it will cease to exist at any time.

Software acquisitions

With Instagram, Facebook chose to allow it to live-on for now – but I suspect it will eventually get fully integrated into Facebook’s brand apps. Unfortunately, Google has not been as kind. They’ve made it clear that they have no intention on adding features to it in the future. It’s dead. And while Facebook only hired the developers and not purchased the apps themselves, they’re essentially dead as well.

I’m not suggesting that you should not buy apps from independent developers. They’re what makes the Apple community great. And I absolutely do not blame any developer for selling their company for large sums of money. They worked hard to create a great app or service and they deserve the rewards.

But you should take these recent acquisitions into consideration when you purchase your next app that may be a mission-critical one. Let me give you an example. (more…)

Extensis Universal Type Server updated for Adobe CS6

Extensis recently announced the immediate availability of updates for the Universal Type Server Client font management software. The updates provide plug-in based font auto-activation to teams that use Adobe Creative Suite 6 (CS6) applications.

The updates are available as a FREE download for Universal Type Client for Mac OS X, and include plug-ins for Adobe InDesign, Illustrator and InCopy.

[ilink url=”http://typeserver.com “]Click here for more information about Universal Type Server[/ilink]

Why Google+ is losing the battle with Facebook: It’s simple

Facebook vs. Google+

If you’re using a Mac (and you probably are if you visit this website), one reason you do is probably because it’s simple to use and maintain. If you’re a designer in the advertising business you know that the simpler the ad, the better the results.

Simple is always better. Simple-to-use always beats feature-rich-but-complicated. If you believe that, then you know why Facebook is beating the digital pants off Google+ in the social media arena.

Facebook is a fairly simple service:

  1. You sign up
  2. You search for friends or companies you want to follow
  3. You click a “Like” button on their page
  4. You get a feed of everything they post (text and photos)

There’s very little thinking or learning-curve involved with using Facebook. Finding new friends is dead simple using Facebook, as is finding brands you wish to follow, and sharing photos and video. There is very little in the way of techy lingo used on the site, and outside of the privacy controls, the entire site is easy for even the most non-geek user to navigate and use. Now let’s look at Google+. (more…)

Apple didn’t kill RIM with the iPhone, they just shed light on RIM’s ignorance with it

The BlackBerry (insert obscure model name here) was my introduction to the smartphone. Prior to the BlackBerry, I never considered the usefulness of a smartphone. Obviously, I didn’t know what I was missing out on.

After about a year of using the BlackBerry, two things became abundantly clear to me. First, my needs were evolving. Having my calendar, contacts, notes, reminders, email and basic access to the web would make my life a lot easier. Having to wait until I got home to check personal email, and using sticky notes and business cards to remind me of things was a royal pain.

The second thing I learned was that the Blackberry was fairly lousy at all of these things, and they weren’t improving with upgrades.

The screen (both in size and quality) absolutely sucked. The physical keyboard was a horrible experience for me because the keys were so small that I spent more time re-typing text than it was worth. The little trackball was a joke, and the “apps” were truly anemic. I had two BlackBerry phones, and you would be hard-pressed to know which was the latest and greatest. RIM and the BlackBerry never evolved.

It became clear to me that Apple had solved virtually every problem I had with the BlackBerry and most other smartphones — including Apple’s previous generation iPhone — when it released the iPhone 4.

BlackBerryAnd there you have the essence of Apple’s success. They don’t necessarily make the best product out of the gate. They make a really good product out of the gate, and waste little time improving upon it in simple ways that were noticeable to the user. Even with the first iPhone, you could see it was going to be great in no time. This is something RIM just never seemed to understand.

To this day, the BlackBerry remains much the same device it was prior to the rise of the iPhone and Android OS. RIM’s hardware is still a convoluted line of dozens upon dozens of mediocre devices that are mostly the same. The OS suffers from the same problems it had when I used it years ago, and has improved only in superficial ways.

RIM’s management is a case study in “stick your head in the sand and hope the storm passes.”

Well, if you read Dante D’Orazio’s article at the Verge on Sunday, it’s fairly clear that RIM still has its head stuck in the sand, and the storm is about to sweep their asses away.

Steve Jobs used to joke that when he returned to Apple, Gil Amelio (the CEO at the time) told him that “Apple was a ship with a hole in the bottom, and it was his job to get it pointed in the right direction.” RIM is a leaking ship with a captain and crew that seem to be dead-set on steering the ship into shallow, rocky waters.

RIM hasn’t evolved. They haven’t catered to the changing market. They haven’t improved. Simply, they’re just ignorant. And now it appears they’re going to pay the ultimate price for business ignorance.

Apple’s new MacBook Pro 15″ with Retina Display = Mehhhhhh!

Ok, so maybe that headline is a tad bit misleading. The new MacBook Pro with Retina Display (MBPR) is a great laptop if you love the latest & greatest from Apple. But when I look at a PRO machine, I’m looking at specs. And when I look at the specs of the new MBPR, I see a lot of trade-offs. I also see a big, giant whammy!

You’re giving up ethernet & firewire. You’re losing your CD/DVD burner. You’re giving up a great MagSafe power connector (the new one sucks). You’re losing quite a bit of storage (the SSD drive is half the size of the regular MB Pro. You’re also losing dedicated audio line in and line out ports in exchange for a single audio port. In exchange you’re getting a much faster SSD storage drive, an HDMI port, more video RAM on the low end model, and a lighter weight computer overall.

Since I can live without the losses, and find the additional features enticing, I’ll call all those specs a wash. That means it comes down to the Retina Display.

MB Pro Retina

The MBPR offers a ridiculous 2880 x 1800 Retina resolution that looks absolutely stunning. The color and vibrancy is incredible. But unless I’m watching video or looking at photos, it’s really not something that offers much benefit to me. I was more interested in the increased screen real estate.

The problem is, at the highest resolution setting, the MBPR’s display makes everything on the screen tiny. Really tiny. I fired up Photoshop on the MBPR at my local Apple store and could barely distinguish the icons in the toolbar. I had to move up so close to the display that I felt like I was looking at my iPhone, rather than a 15″ laptop. Apps that aren’t specifically built for Retina Displays show some blurriness (though I didn’t think it was bad as some tech reviews I’ve read).

You can of course change the resolution 1920 x 1200, but I found that to be a bit too small as well. The next step down is what Apple considers the middle of the road, or “best,” setting in the Display Preferences: 1680 x 1050. I agree with Apple, it was the best setting for me. The regular 15″ MB Pro comes with a 1440 x 900 resolution display by default, but for $100 you can upgrade to the HD screen with the same 1680 x 1050 resolution.

So at the end of the day the MBPR costs $400 more, and I must accept the trade-offs mentioned above, and I can’t enjoy or take advantage of the premiere feature – the display. In the end, I can spend the same amount of money to upgrade the regular MB Pro to the same specs as the MBPR, and keep the Ethernet, optical drive, etc.

Suitcase Fusion 4 gains Adobe Creative Suite 6 compatibility

Suitcase FusionI reviewed Suitcase Fusion 4 just about a month ago and mentioned that Adobe CS6 compatibility was surely on the way. This week, Extensis released an update that does just that.

The update brings auto-font activation to InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop CS6, as well as the new Font Panel plugin for ID and AI (a Photoshop version is in the works).

If you’re a current Suitcase Fusion 4 user, simply visit the Suitcase Fusion menu and select Check for Updates to get the latest update. If you haven’t tried Fusion 4 yet, download the demo and give it a shot.