This weekend we went out and purchased an Apple Mini. I was hesitant at first about switching to MACs, well mostly because they're SOOOOO different from Microsofts layouts that I got lost just trying to get them functioning.
Not to mention the previously discussed fear of change.
Anyway, this is my first blog post from the new Mini-Mac and tonight I found a feature of the MAC that will have people tearing it out of my cold dead hands.
See... with MAC's there is this handy-dandy "dashboard" feature, which is mostly just a bunch of gadgets that you can set up, that are on a separate screen... a semi-transparent overlay on top your real screen, when you're not using the computer, or if you just want to check on them.
You hit a key, and woosh the dashboard goes up and you can check things like weather, dictionary, address book, time, stocks, or whatever. The dashboard also shows when you log into your machine or when you come out of screen saver. It disappears with one click on the screen as well, which makes it easy to use.
Now most of that doesn't sound that fabu-lous, and those features aren't really all that.
What I do love is the post-its that it lets you put up on the dashboard. Post-its with grocery lists, notes of things to do, reminders.. Now when I'm in the middle of doing something on the computer and I remember "Oh yes, tomorrow I should go do" I can click to the dashboard, make a post-it and remind myself.
The other feature, is this widget (thats what they call all these fancy-pants dashboard things) that imports your google calendar into it. So you can see at a glance any meetings you have for the day or scheduled errands, doctors appts, etc. (now if only my phone would sync with Google Calendar). So far I haven't done much of anything with it but put in a few reminders, but I'm imagining much much more.
8am Breakfast
9am Gym
10-12pm Errands
12-1pm Lunch
1-4pm Get cracking on that novel. jk
5pm Put on Superhero suit & Save World
6pm Cook
7pm Serve Dinner
8-11pm Relax & Watch TV (Superhero's have to have their downtime)
11pm Sleep
Yes, I am easily amused. :)
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Posts
Links
- MY NEW SITE - Von Young
- News for Corn Avoiders
- Corn-free Foods & Products List
- Delphi Forums: Avoiding Corn
- Dating 2.0
- List of Corn Allergens
- Datarat
- IgorMud - Feeding the Inner Geek
- Schlock Mercenary Online Comic
- Ill Will Press - Neurotically Yours
- Writing Excuses
- Google News
- WEREGEEK
- Violets
- Purple Kanga
- Everything-Free Eating Blog
- Terra Nova Crusade
- Dr. Flea - Angsty Pediatrician
- Dr. Scott - Just Practicing - Post Katrina Medical Practice
- JunkFood Science
- First, Do No Harm: Fat Predjudice in Health Care
- The Ethicurean
- WorldChanging
- Holi - Sandy
- HoliDreamer -Sandy
- My Zazzle Stuff
2 comments:
I'll give Apple credit for pushing some interface improvements, but none of this is really unique.
Google desktop includes many of the things you mentioned, and there's a company called Stardock that has been doing nothing but interface modification software for over a decade.
There are literally thousands of Yahoo Widgets, and MS has finally decided to integrate some of this cool stuff with Vista.
But either way, welcome to the 21st century. :)
Well I won't argue with you about Vista since I haven't used it.
However having things on the desktop clouds up the desktop. Sure you can click the desktop button and have everything clear off so you can see your desktop, and then have it come back. But you still have a ton of things on your desktop and it can be distracting.
The MACs screen thing isn't part of the desktop. My desktop is completely clear except for the few programs I have open and am working on.
I click a button and I see the widget screen, and I click and it disappears. No clutter.
From my experiences with widgets and Windows, they don't work that way.
But maybe things have changed since XP.
Post a Comment