Apple Inc.: September 2004 Archives

So, I am glad that Ranchero Software finally released NetNewsWire 2.0, even if it is only a beta. I bought 1.0.8 about a month after I started blogging, and I was starting to get a little unhappy with it, because the software appeared to be stagnating. But I bought a copy so that I could encourage further development! But, my purchase has paid off, because 2.0 is awesome. It finally supports Atom feeds, which means that I can finally have Chris' blog polled from NetNewsWire. It has a new swanky tabbed interface for viewing HTML articles right in NetNewsWire (which is vastly superior to popping open new Safari windows). Plus, it seems like it is faster at going out and polling for new articles, which is quite welcome.

Those are the new features that have immediately jumped out at me. Well, there is one more thing -- I had numerous beefs with the built in blog editor, but I used it for posting to my blog anyway. In NetNewsWire 2.0, Ranchero has gone ahead and put this feature out of its misery, and removed it from the product. But am I mad?!? Heck no, because they have gone ahead and rolled out a dedicated blogging client, MarsEdit. I've been using it for the last several days, and so far I am pretty happy with it. It is already won me over with how easy it is to paste URLs (much faster than in the old client).

If you have a mac, I definitely recommend checking these two applications out.

-Andy.

Apple has a new tech note out, "PowerBook G4: Faint White Spots in Display", the crux of which is that if your PowerBook's serial number falls within a certain range, it qualifies for a free LCD replacement. This is of course, assuming that your PowerBook is exhibiting the "faint white spots" phenomenon. So, I called AppleCare this morning, and the gentleman on the other end of the phone told me that my PowerBook did fall in the affected serial number range, and that my options were to send it to Apple, and they would repair it if they felt that the display was defective, or I could take it to an Apple authorized repair center, which could presumably make the judgment about the display and go from there.

Reading more about this issue on the web, I don't think that my display suffers from the "white spots" problem. I think that the lower-right quadrant of the display is a little dim, but that is all. Basically, I don't think that I'm getting uniform brightness from my display, which sounds like a different (and probably not covered) issue from the white spots. Of course, it could all be in my head....

-Andy.