Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think this is the first time in computer history that any company took time to optimize a core product, like operating system, for performance, size, stability, and not include more user features.

Apple decided this time to focus more on application developers then users. To make Leopard a better platform for application development. Is this new release only about developers then? No, end-users will benefit not only form more hard disk space, speed or improved stability of the new operating system. They will, in the end, also enjoy wide range of improved applications that are going to be built on top of new, underlying technologies not visible to them at first.

I wish more companies would follow and take time optimizing they products rather then rushing new features in.

Said that, there is no rush in upgrading your Mac. At least from end-user point of view. Snow Leopard has very few improvements in terms of user experience. You are just fine with good, old Leopard and all you favorite applications running on top of it. Wait till all the compatibility issues with your favorite applications are ironed out and upgrade then. Unless you want to have the latest and greatest OS running on your machine as soon as it is available and are willing to accept that some of your applications will not work right from the start.

Update: Read the ultimate Snow Leopard review by John Siracusa at Ars Technika.

You need to follow a few simple steps on your iPhone to set it up. If you like me, use Google apps for your domain, you also need to enable mobile sync option. Go to ‘Manage this domain’ admin section, then ‘Service settings’ and ‘Mobile’. Under ‘Google Sync’ set ‘Enable Google sync’ check box.

Palm Pre

The exceptional thing about this device is that the UI engine implementation is based on Webkit rendering engine. This means that all applications, including once coming from Palm, are written in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

It is very interesting to see a browser used as UI rendering engine for embedded device like a phone. I hope the performance will be good enough to provide snappy user experience.

It is surprising to see this approach taken by Palm and not by Google (Android phone applications are written in Java).

No word on price yet, expected to be shipped later this year.

UPDATE: See also the overview from Ars Technica.

Me and my wife Rita have discovered it a few years back while wondering around the city and looking for a place to sit down and relax. Once we entered the cafe, we both knew it’s a unique place in its atmosphere. It was early afternoon and the place was almost empty. Jazz music was pouring out of the speakers. We were having a cup of coffee accompanied with cake, relaxing and looking around appreciating the interior decor. I took a few shots with my camera hoping to get them right in a dark interior of the cafe lighted up only by dimmed daily light and candles burning on a few tables.

Later on back home, we were watching slides from our trip and remembering the places we have visited. The Singer cafe and slides I took there turned out to be one of our favourites. All thanks to the charming atmosphere of old interior with famous brand vintage sewing machines recycled in coffee tables and candle holders.

Rita came up with the idea to make a theme that would reflect the place atmosphere we liked so much. And so, the Jazz Cafe theme was born.

The theme was originally created for Typo, Ruby on Rails blogging system and later on ported to Serendipity. Recently, I refreshed the theme for this website and released it for Wordpress. If you want to give it a spin on your blog, you can download the latest version here: JazzCafe (zip file). And, if you use the theme I would love to here from you.

The update allows Apple TV owners to rent movies, browse photos from Flickr, subscribe to podcast, buy TV shows and music directly form iTunes online store. All without the use of a computer. The fact that I can now do all of this from the comfort of my couch using one slim device in usable and effortless way is something exceptional that only Apple could delivered so far.

What I really like about it now, is that I can rely on Flickr solely to store all my photos and slide show them on all my devices including TV. No need to store them locally on my Mac and synchronize them via iTunes. The same is true for audio and video podcasts which used to eat up quite some space on my hard drive. Not to mention pain it was to synchronize and share them between computers. I can save a lot of disk space and time right now by relying more on the cloud services and live stream my content directly from the web when needed. It would be great to be able to do the same with all my media content including my music library.

Apple TV direct integration with Web based services is something I would like to see happening for more consumer devices. Some people may argue about the lack of openness to other services and possibility to extend the functionality using some sort of SDK. At this point however, I’m willing to trade the lack of it for great user experience Apple made devices offer. Nothing beats Apple TV when it comes to ease of use and convenience.

The only thing I can be a bit disappointed about, is that the movie rentals service is not yet available in Europe. It will be started later on and I can only hope for this to happen sooner then later. Honestly, I was expecting that having in mind all the trouble Apple has had in EU with the iTunes store service. It is hard to blame Jobs for that. He simply needs more time to sort it out.

It’s not about a missing Ethernet or DVD drive. I also don’t need more then one USB port. I use these features sporadically and could do well without them. The lack of a large hard drive is also not a problem for me. I’ve learned to rely on the cloud services and have only essential desktop apps installed. I use online services for almost all day to day tasks including email, word processing and RSS reading. I also use online storage to backup and archive my data to have it available at any time from any place having WiFi connection available. My intention is to keep it that way and try to resist temptation to install more apps or buy more gadgets – only essentials please, no more. I’m willing to sacrifice all the missing features for well designed lightweight laptop.

My hesitation to buy MacBook Air comes from the fact that I need a bit more processing power. To use iMovie, Flash or Photoshop comfortably you need more power than Core 2 Duo running at 1.8 GHz can deliver. Also, 2 GB of memory seams like a bit short. But, this is just me who would like to use one computer to do all the work including heavy lifting processing like video editing or photoshoping and, I think, I’m not a type of user this laptop is meant for.

It may sound strange but I believe MacBook Air will become popular because of the limitations it has. The form factor makes it very attractive despite the price. It would be just ideal for me if I would not need to run applications like Photoshop on it. I think I’m not alone in relying more and more on cloud services and MacBook AIR looks like a perfect cloud computer came true.

What I would like to see next to the MacBook Air is improved .Mac service allowing me to seamlessly store all my data and sync my preferences between MACs, iPod, AppleTV and iPhone at home and on the move. It would be much more attractive to me then just Time Capsule device alone used solely for backup at home. Time Capsule could act as a kind of cache device in between the home network devices and .Mac service. But still, .Mac style of service is the key to provide access to all your data on all your devices at home and on the move.

I’m quite sure, over time, we all are going to use more online services and MacBook AIR is a first sign Apple understands this trend. The next step would be to improve .Mac service or even team up with Google on this. Either way, online data storage and synchronization done right is essential and I hope Apple will take a step in this direction. Improved .Mac service combined with some processor speed boost would make me reconsider to buy and use MacBook Air as my only computer.

I also keep wondering what new devices based on the custom made, mini version of Core 2 Duo are in the works. It is hard to believe all the effort of shrinking the processor package was made to produce MacBook Air only.

The design

For some time now, I’ve been working to redesign this site. At first, my intention was to start from scratch and give it a completely new and fresh look. But after a few hours spend with Fireworks working on a new design I found myself looking at my aging Typo’s Jazz Cafe theme screenshot. I realized, I still like it a lot and would like to give it well deserved refreshment. So what should have been a new design, turned out to be another revision of my old Jazz Cafe theme. While it still requires some polishing, I’m happy with it for now.

Under the hood

It is difficult to argue which of the currently available blogging applications is the best. And what makes live even more difficult, is the fact that there are a lot of them available. Each one has its own advocates, cons and pros. I’m long time MovableType user but felt like I need to look for an application giving me more freedom to experiment with code and extend functionality. Also, I’m more comfortable with PHP and Python then Perl. Keeping that in mind I narrowed a set of candidates I should evaluate to Wordpress, Expression Engine and writing my own blogging application in django.

First, I ruled out the last option as one taking to much time. I know, you can implement basic django blog application in a few hours but to get complete functionality provided by “of the shelf” blogging applications would take more time. I like django framework a lot but I also know myself. I would spend a lot of time perfecting the implementation up. Being busy with other projects I simply can not afford it regardless of how much I would like to do it.

Second option on my list, Expression Engine, is to me more of a content management system then blogging application. It’s not open source, and is only free for non commercial use. I find it an overkill for a simple blogging site like this. But, if you look for more functionality like simple e-commerce, wiki or forum, all under one administration, I encourage you to give it a serious thought. I personally see it as cost effective, “of the shelf” solution offering functionality that can be easily tailored to most of the client projects you may experienced in your daily work.

Wordpress is in my case clear winner. Very popular, open source PHP application providing basic blog functionality that can be easily extended with endless list of existing plug-ins and dressed up with themes. I like the approach taken by Wordpress project of having a good core functionality implementation, also providing clear plug-in mechanism allowing you to tailor the application to your own needs. A friend of mine told me once about some product he bought, “I simply like it, it does exactly what I need, nothing less and nothing more.” I have exactly the same feeling about Wordpress, the only difference is, you can make it do more with plug-ins if you wish.

From now on

So here it is, the new design and content management system. What to expect next you may ask. I would like to start writing. While I can’t promise to do it on daily basis I hope to be able to do it regularly. I would like to share wisdom gained from ongoing projects: solutions to problems, small snippets of code, tutorials or reviews. Also, I will be releasing Jazz Cafe theme for Worpress. Stay tuned if you want to give it a try on your own blog.

Thanks for reading and I hope to see you coming back.

Stay tuned.