When the first details of Leopard sprung onto the scene at WWDC 2006, Spaces was something which caught the eye for a second, and immediately disappeared from my mind. Even over the past few weeks when the official feature list was posted on Apple’s website and Spaces was featured as one of the main components to the operating system, I still glanced over it - thinking it wouldn’t change the way I worked.

Boy, was I wrong. At this point in my continued exploration of Leopard, Spaces is by far one of the most convenient Leopard feature.

Active Spaces

I’m currently using three separate Spaces. These are all in a single row as I find this much easier to remember what each space contains in my mind. Although you can’t name individual Spaces within System Preferences, I’ve given each of these ‘virtual’ labels. Focus, information, and communication.

Focus is home to any application I’m currently working within such as photo editing applications, web browsers, media organizers, and text editors.

Information is used for iTunes and my RSS reader NewsFire. I keep both of these permanently open in this space for quick access to the latest news and podcasts.

Communication is home to Mail, iChat, Skype, and Twitterrific. This is my favorite Spaces environment of all - allowing me to keep tab on all communicational tools on my machine. I’m frequently switching to this tab and comprehending emails, tweets, and instant messages at once.

Spacing Out

The ability to assign certain applications to different Spaces is something third party applications such as Virtue Desktops in Tiger didn’t allow. The feature is very convenient in keeping applications sorted in a tidy manner.

Shortcut keys are easily customizable, I have mine set using the default choice the OS shipped with (Control + Arrow Keys), although this can be switched on user demand.

If I could add one thing to the organizational side of Spaces, I’d like to be able to name individual Spaces and have these names appear underneath the overlay window when switching between.

For a feature I initially skimmed past, Spaces is quite easily my favorite major feature of Leopard. It has shaped my general day-to-day computing use in just two days of practical use - not something that can be said about to many other applications.

Typing this post within the brand new and still shiny Leopard environment, I’m now completely setup and running with the new evolutionary operating system from Apple - OSX 10.5 Leopard.

Leopard turned up two days earlier than I had expected - landing on my doorstep on Saturday afternoon along with a few other goodies. I’d seen many photos of the Leopard software packaging on Flickr in the days leading up to its arrival here in New Zealand, and knew exactly what to expect.

I was impressed right from the word go. The packaging is elegant and simple. Apple has something as simple but important as product presentation nailed down, they know what they’re doing right down to the small details. Leopard was no exception, impressing right from the word go.

Installation

On Friday I wrote about how I planned to install Leopard using the Archive & Install option. That didn’t go exactly to plan..

Before inserting the Leopard DVD I backed up my boot drive to an external LaCie Porsche drive. I made sure my entire home folder was stored safely on the drive just in-case the install went to mush.

I came across the first problem when the Leopard DVD only picked up my Storage drive, I promptly rebooted into Tiger and did a quick search on the Apple discussion boards for this problem. I was relieved to find a few others had experienced the same issue as it was quickly fixed by booting back into the Leopard DVD, opening Disk Utility, and un-mounting the drive. When I navigated back to the install screen, both drives were available for installation.

To my disappointment the Archive and Install attempt went sour, I was presented with a screen where Leopard told me the drive was corrupt and it needed to be wiped before I could proceed. It kicked in at this point that an Archive & Install wasn’t on the cards, Erase & Install was the only way to go.

Although a little disappointed with the option I had to take, the Erase & Install gave me an opportunity to play with Leopard from scratch, and let me properly organize my files in a structured format. Sure - it look a few hours longer than I’d have liked, but all in all, I now have the system running without hitch. I’m thoroughly impressed.

My copy of Mac OSX Leopard left Sydney on route to Auckland, New Zealand as of last night. I’m not expecting it to turn up until Monday morning due to living at a rural delivery address in New Zealand, though if I could order Leopard again, I’d have it sent to a friends place in town and make the twenty minute journey in to pick it up this afternoon.

However, I can’t go back - so I have the weekend ahead of me to prepare for Leopard. If it turns up early, I’ll be equally thrilled (but a little under prepared).

I have a few steps I need to carry out over the weekend before Monday morning before I can pop open the CD tray on my Mac Pro and drop in the install DVD.

1. Move all personal data currently on 250GB boot disk to 500GB internal storage drive. Then copy essential files to my 250GB LaCie external drive for safekeeping should anything go horribly wrong.

This includes content in my home folder, and application support files for Safari and Mail - along with a bunch of applications I want moving to the new system.

2. Burn a DVD with full application support folder from the Library folder. This way if there’s any essential supporting files to any application I forgot to copy over and need, I’ll have easy access to them after wiping the system.

3. Insert the Leopard DVD and perform a clean install on the 250GB boot drive. Once installed, I’ll boot into Leopard and spent a little time sorting my files back into their original locations scattered over the 250GB/500GB internal drives. The LaCie drive will be wiped and set up for Time Machine use of my Documents/Pictures folders.

4. Install Microsoft Office 04, iLife 08, iWork 08, eyeTV Hybrid software, and Parallels/Vista for course work.

The final step is to start playing with Leopard, and expressing my opinionated views here, on Macguide, and with a few videos.

Update: After some thorough investigation and a few phone calls, I’ve decided to perform an Archive & Install.

Applications are carried over, preferences and user accounts retained, and the installation of the core OS is brand spanking new: the same as if it were an erase and install. The user folder remains untouched. This will be a much more simple route for migrating to the new OS. The hours saved will be better used playing with the OS.

With the release of Mac OSX 10.5 Leopard just over 24 hours away, if you’re like me you’ll be eagerly preparing for the new operating system. I’ve been asked a few times over the weeks leading up to the launch announcement of Leopard on which external hard drives would be good to hook up for use with Time Machine.

While defining the word ‘good’ is hard as people have different needs, different budgets, and different views on what looks good. I took all three of these points to hand while picking four classy external drives to pair with Time Machine.

Western Digital MyBook Home Edition

A few of my buddies use this hard drive and their main statement about it is how great it looks on their desk.

Western Digital have an extensive range of MyBook HDDs in their lineup. The one highlighted here is the Home Edition.

The Home Edition drive spins at 7200 RPM, offers a triple interface of USB 2.0, Firewire 400 & 800, and has a capacity gauge on the exterior of the unit to see at a glance how much space is free.

500GB $219.99

Iomega Desktop Hard Drive

Along with the G-Tech G-DRIVE, Apple is heavily promoting the Iomega 500GB Hi-Speed USB 2.0 external drive on the Apple online store.

This drive spins at 7200 RPM, connects via USB 2.0, and includes a classy stand in the box allowing you to stand the drive vertically for extra airflow.

This drive is currently on special while supplies last from Apple. See below for a pull quote from the Apple Store.

Special deal: Only $139.95 for this 500GB Iomega drive while supplies last.

500GB $139.95

G-Tech G-DRIVE

If you’ve been watching any of Apple’s recent videos on Leopard such as the official Leopard Tour, you’ll have seen Apple using this drive in conjunction with the iMac to demonstrate Leopard.

It’s not the cheapest external hard-drive on the market, but it looks the piece when paired up with an aluminum Mac, in particular, the iMac.

This drive spins at 7200 RPM with a Hitachi drive, has FireWire 400 and FireWire 800 ports, and features a unique silent cooling technology for superior reliability.

500GB $279.95

Newertech miniStack V3

We have one of these in our household attached to the Airport Extreme as network attached storage for family related files. I can vouch for its quality.

The miniStack is a compact hard-drive available in two versions, FireWire 400/800 and USB. Like the other drives featured, it spins at 7200 RPM. It’s encased in a slim white enclosure which sits nicely underneath a Mac mini or Apple Airport Extreme.

500GB $199

Personally, I’m currently ’stuck’ with a 250GB LaCie Porsche Firewire drive for Time Machine. I plan to swap this out with a 1TB external drive as prices continue to drop. The LaCie drive will be set up to backup my boot drive. My Aperture library will get backed up via the Ministack (as seen above).

Keeping on the topic of Time Machine and external hard-drives, Paul Stamatiou wrote a great post about Leopard & the sales of external drives on his blog yesterday morning.

What drive are you going to employ into full time Time Machine service?

As Apple has become more involved with mobile media, they’ve developed a strong connection with Google integrating YouTube into their line of products. The integration of YouTube they’ve mapped in on the iPhone, iPod touch and the Apple TV is impressive - their connection with Google has increased in strength and reach as the year has passed, I’m very excited to see where it’s going to head in the future.

In a thoroughly thought out decision, I recently settled on YouTube as the main resource to spread my video show because of the increasing widespread compatibility over different platforms and devices. Apple partnering up with YouTube really makes it hard for competitors to get into the market, with YouTube regaining exclusive iPhone and Apple TV deals providing widespread exposure for YouTube publishers.

Putting it in perspective, if you were to publish a video to the web, would you prefer to upload it to YouTube where you have millions of potential viewers from all over the world, via computers, the Apple TV, the iPod touch, and the iPhone within minutes uploading it, or alternatively, would you prefer to upload it to a smaller video site to retain a somewhat ‘better’ community feeling?

I chose the larger community with the more widespread viewer base. Sites like Vimeo initially attracted me due to their tightly knit community feeling, though the pulling power of Apple + Google’s YouTube made my decision for me. YouTube appears as if it will provide a much more stable base for my videos in the future.

The latest and greatest Mac operating system OSX Leopard 10.5 is just six days away from arriving in our hands. I took a good look at the full list of 300 new features and hand picked ten small but significant ones to showcase.

Multicore Enhanced OS

As I’m sporting a Mac Pro, I like to make the most of my four processor cores with software optimized for this platform.

Leopard provides optimum performance from Core Image, Core Animation, and OpenGL, all tuned to take advantage of your Mac’s multicore processor. All application on the system including ‘lightweight’ apps such as Mail and Address Book are all now multi core ready.

iChat Video/Audio Conversation Recording

Perfect for keeping track of important meetings or for creating video podcasts with others from around the globe, you can now save your audio and video chats with iChat recording.

iChat asks your buddies for recording permission before the chat starts, then stores completed audio chats as AAC files and video chats as MPEF-4 files — so you can share with others or sync to your iPod.

I’m often chatting on iChat and can’t keep track of notes on paper quick enough to keep up with the conversation, this will help me dictate notes after the fact - perfect for audio interviews.

Safari/Mail RSS Integration

RSS has become far more popular over the past year but a large majority of Mac users are still not too sure what it’s all about. With Leopard, Apple has made it even easier to manage and add RSS feeds to Safari/Mail.

You’re able to add news feeds to Mail directly from Safari. When you read an article in Safari, it will show up as read in Mail, and vice versa. This universal way of accessing your RSS feeds will make it much less of a chore to keep up with the latest news.

Of course, some will still stick with dedicated RSS readers like NewsFire, though having everything in sync between Safari and Mail, and multiple machines is appealing.

New AirPort Menu

Leopard gives you a clearer picture of your surrounding Secure networks in the AirPort menu, Secure wireless networks are now identified by a lock icon.

Talk about handy for those sporting laptops. How often have you been in a hotel and wanted to connect to an pen network without having to click on each one in the list to find an open one.

Image Manipulation Tools In Preview

Preview is no longer just an image viewing application without much of a purpose. You can now crop, rotate, resize, and save images in a range of image formats. Selection tools make it a snap to cut and paste images from Preview directly into other applications.

I’m looking forward to the revamped Preview as it looks like it will quicken up my photo output workflow for things such as Desktop Friday. No more wasted time opening Photoshop just to scale an image and save for web.

Enhanced Find In Safari

I wrote about this feature a couple of months ago. No more is searching on long pages clunky and time consuming, I can simply hit Apple + F and start typing, with results highlighted in orange instantaneously.

Safari now allows you to instantly and graphically locate any text on the current web page. It highlights every instance of the word you’re searching for and even dims the rest of the page so you can focus on the results of your find.

Calculations in Spotlight

I’m often opening Dashboard to make a quick calculation with the Calculator widget. Spotlight now allows you to calculate simple equations at the click of your mouse, or the touch of a key.

Simply hit your Spotlight shortcut, and start typing. Spotlight will instantly show you the result. Enjoy support for over 40 functions ranging from simple math to logarithms to trigonometry.

System Wide Grammar Check

Tigers system wide spelling check has been a real asset to the operating system since it was first introduced. Apple is introducing a similar feature in Leopard, a system wide grammar tool.

Let your grammar set a shining example. A built-in English language grammar checker helps ensure that you don’t make errors in grammar - I expect a few bloggers to be silently excited over this feature.

Eject All Partitions/Devices In Finder

I’m often stuck with a CD inserted in my Mac Pro, a handful of DMG files on my desktop, and multiple iPods hooked up to my machine. Ejecting and dismounting all of these devices doesn’t take long, but it’s annoying when you’re doing it multiple times a day.

Leopards new eject all partitions/devices feature provides greater flexibility when ejecting a partitioned USB or FireWire volume. You can eject just one of the volumes or all the volumes at once with a single click. No more dragging and dropping to the trash, just one painless click.

Hot Corner for Sleep Display

As Paul Stamatiou wrote a few days ago, this is one of the smaller new additions within System Preferences, yet it will make a large difference to those too lazy to switch their monitors off each time they leave their Mac.

I’ll be taking advantage of this feature and setting up a convenient hot corner to put my display to sleep each time I leave my desk.

Do any of these feature excite you as much as they excite me? Have you placed your pre-order for Leopard or do you plan to pick it up from an Apple Store on launch night?

Each and every Friday I post a desktop wallpaper which I have taken personally on travels and outings with my Canon 350D. The wallpaper is sized at a resoultion of 2560×1600 pixels, big enough to be used on a 30 inch Apple Cinema Display, so no-one will miss out.

Warm/Shadows

| This image was captured using these settings: f/4.5 | 50mm | 1/4000th | ISO 400|

Feel free to leave any comments or constructive criticism about this wallpaper below - it helps me grow and learn the art of photography.

Get Desktop Version | Get iPhone Version

Want more? Check out the archives.

A few days after posting about the troubles I were having with the Apple Wireless keyboard, I received an email from an Apple customer relations employee from Australia who offered to send out a replacement unit.

This isn’t the first time I’ve been left in awe amazement by Apple’s customer support. I’ve had trouble with a couple of iPods in the past which were promptly fixed by Apple. Their customer relations and support are executed perfectly - well enough for me to say their support has exceeded any other company I’ve had contact with.

The replacement keyboard was sent out just a few days after first contact, I unpacked the box a few hours after the courier turned up and packaged the old keyboard in the included shipping box, sending it on its way back to Apple Australia for inspection.

Impressions of the new keyboard are much better. It’s much more responsive and is much more enjoyable to use. The problems I experienced with the dud haven’t appeared again, leaving me thoroughly impressed with a proper working version of the Apple Wireless Keyboard.

In saying this, I’m currently typing on the wired version, still my preferred option - it’s feels much sturdier due to its larger size. I also like having a keypad. It’s up to personal opinion. Do you simply want something small and wireless, or do you want the full package with the added “annoyance” of a single wire?

I just read the news of Canon’s latest two super telephoto lenses, the EF 200mm f/2L IS USM and the EF 800mm f/5.6L IS USM. Both lenses will be shown off by Canon at PhotoPlus Expo from October 18 to 20.

I’ve been watching in the past few weeks as the old discontinued Canon EF 200 f/1.8 lens has been selling for upwards of $5000. The f/1.8 lens was discontinued due to a lack in popularity - it became uneconomical for Canon to continue producing it.

I have a feeling the new 200mm super telephoto from Canon will slightly kill the market for used f/1.8 versions. Expect to see a few put up for sale over the next few months, I’m expecting to see a steady price drop of the unit gradually falling to around the $3500 mark.

Not enough sales to keep the production running or may be it had to do with the by-products generated during the manufacturing since some of the elements contained lead (as in Pb, a heavy metal)?

Since it contained lead, the by-products (read: waste) will have to be contained and handled appropriately as it may harm the environment. Regardless, this lens has increased in value after it has been discontinued.

The 200mm f/2 IS looks the ticket for low light sports photographers, or event photographers who are constantly shooting in dimly lit halls like Duncan Davidson. It’s already playing in my mind if he’ll purchase this and have it take over the majority of his workload the 70-200 cops week in week out.

The pricing for the 200mm f/2 IS is currently speculated by POTN forum members at around $3500 USD - sitting just below the price of the 300mm f/2.8 IS. However we won’t know this officially for a while.

One thing we do know is this lens will be worth waiting for if it’s anything close in IQ to the f/1.8. Lustworthy is the way to put it.

Each and every Friday I post a desktop wallpaper which I have taken personally on travels and outings with my Canon 350D. The wallpaper is sized at a resoultion of 2560×1600 pixels, big enough to be used on a 30 inch Apple Cinema Display, so no-one will miss out.

Weave/Wave

| This image was captured using these settings: f/7.1 | 50mm | 1/125th | ISO 100|

Feel free to leave any comments or constructive criticism about this wallpaper below - it helps me grow and learn the art of photography.

Get Desktop Version | Get iPhone Version

Want more? Check out the archives.

The recently introduced iTunes Wi-Fi Store is something I’ve been waiting on for a long time. In the past I’d heard people talking about how they’d love to be able to purchase music directly on their iPod over Wi-Fi - now they can with the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store.

I must say, this is one of the smarter moves Apple has made in recent times (and they’ve made a few). The Wi-Fi music store allows you to browse the full catalog of music on the iTunes Store and also offers convenient access to featured and top ten lists, while searching for your favorite artist is effortless.

The main attraction is the simplicity of the store - Apple have made it almost too easy to purchase music. After turning on your iPod touch/iPhone you’re just three touches away from making a purchase. I’m sure this will be a huge incremental money maker for Apple as I’ve already been tempted many times to purchase music as I’ve been lying in bed listening to podcasts, I don’t think the store functions could have been planned out any more gracefully.

Apple also made a smart move with their store icon placement as 37signals recently pointed out. Instead of placing the store icon next in order on the home-screen - Apple pushed the icon to the right of screen above the music button. In my eyes it’s an excellent design decision from Apple, as pointed out, this is the only button on the home screen which incrementally makes Apple any money. They way it’s emphasized has been perfectly executed.

The iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store has been perfectly executed in both form and function. If this is a sign of things to come from Apple’s mobile platform software division - I’m excited.

If you’re a frequent TV watcher and enjoy spending time on your Mac, why not combine two “hobbies” into one with the eyeTV Hybrid, a simple device which plugs into a free USB port on your Mac allowing you to watch, pause, and record live TV.

Included in the box is a remote control to operate the device from across the room. It also comes with a break-out cable for composite video and S-Video, enabling you to connect a set-top box directly to your Mac.

Depending on where you plug in the device, the remote might not operate correctly as the IR sensor is on the front of the Hybrid. If you’ve got it plugged into the back of a Mac Pro or iMac, don’t expect to be able to control it using the remote.

Setup Process

Initial setup wasn’t a breeze - which was entirely my fault. I opted to use the included aerial instead of plugging directly into a television port. Because of this, the signal was rather weak and wouldn’t pick up many channels. After plugging directly into the wall and doing another exhaustive scan it picked up ten channels, far more impressive.

After the unit picked up ten local channels. I dragged them into their correct order and named them appropriately. I could have left the settings as is, however decided to configure things correctly to make the recording and scheduling process easier.

Live TV Features

The main concept of the eyeTV Hybrid is to watch live TV - this feature is executed perfectly (as it should be). You can watch multiple channels at once - handy if you want to record a channel while watching another.

You can pause, rewind, and fast forward live TV. This is handy if you’re called away while watching a show you don’t want to record, just hit the pause button and click play when you’re back - you’ll even be able to fast forward through the ads.

I have had some frequent crashes while leaving eyeTV playing in the background, muted and hidden. When I go to open it, it has often crashed and the only way to force quit it completely is to..not. I have to restart the whole machine. I have run a few maintenance scripts on my Mac Pro and reinstalled the eyeTV software, however this still could be an isolated incident. It’s a minor issue for me given it’s such a great product.

Recording

My favorite feature of the Elgato eyeTV Hybrid is the ability to record live TV. With the click of a button, or the press of a button on the included remote recording of a show will begin. You can also set up an automatic schedule to record specific shows at specific times of the day.

You can set specific parameters including which channel, what time, how long before/after the show to record, and how often to repeat the recording - daily, all week days, weekends, weekly, or on set days. You can also choose to have recordings auto exported to iTunes after the show is finished.

Recorded files end up in a playlist in the main eyeTV window. From here, you can export with one click to iTunes using the iPod or Apple TV buttons, play them from directly within the eyeTV application, or delete them.

One feature I’d love to see added to the application is the ability to allow eyeTV to wake up your machine from sleep when a recording is due to start. As is, if your machine is on sleep it will skip the scheduled recording.

I was disappointed with the lack of a program guide for New Zealand. For those in the United States and many other countries, you’re able to see a full program guide which provides an overview of shows - letting you record a show with one simple click.

Conclusion

It’s fair to say I have a new favorite accessory for the Mac - the eyeTV Hybrid. It’s wonderful to be able to record the shows I like to watch and catch up with them all, completely ad free on the weekend. It’ll become even better when I pick up an Apple TV and can have recordings automatically exported into iTunes to watch on the big screen.

I highly recommend this product to anyone who enjoys watching TV. At $150 USD, you can’t go wrong.

As I’m away from home at the moment, I’d like to take a second to thank Paul Stamatiou for allowing me to use his screenshots of the eyeTV Hybrid software.

One major disappointment I didn’t cover in much detail in yesterdays iPod touch review is the restriction on regions of data input. With the iPhone, you have the ability to take notes, add contacts, write emails, browse the web, and add calendar events - with the iPod touch, you’re restricted to just browsing the web and adding contacts.

I find this rather lame on Apple’s part. Limiting the users ability to enter certain data into the iPod. I fully understand the reasoning to not include the Mail application on the iPod as it’s a hefty selling point for some on the iPhone, but leaving out something as simple yet as important as adding calendar events is foolish in my eyes.

If you’re going to block out features, do them all, or don’t do them at all. I don’t think something as small as the iPod having the ability to add calendar events will stop people from purchasing the iPhone - even if it did, what does Apple have to lose? Both devices are comparable in price.

In a perfect world, I’d like to have seen both the Notes and Mail applications included on the iPod touch. I fully understand they are somewhat “large” features on the iPhone, but Apple has always been about offering as much as possible to their customers, it was possible to offer these applications on the iPod touch - but they didn’t.

Taking a swing in direction, one thing Apple do have spot on are its frequent software updates which are delivered in a fashionable way, let’s hope the lack of these features are reversed in a future update.

I’ve just finished polishing up my 1500 word review on the new 16GB iPod touch for Macguide. I’ve been really impressed with the iPod to date, it’s quickly becoming one of my favorite Apple products. The user interface is one of the best features of the iPod touch, it makes searching for and browsing through music a very smooth experience.

I’ve been very impressed with my iPod touch. Although it lacks in areas such as capacity, Safari reliability, and a difficult on screen keyboard, it makes up for all of this with its smooth user interface which is an absolute joy to play with.

Our advice, if you’re drooling over the iPhone, buy the iPod touch now. If you’re happy with “just” 16GB of storage and want to upgrade from a previous generation iPod, the iPod touch is perfectly suited.

A few good points to be made about the device among a few negative made in the article include some of the following.

Almost scratch proof screen

Superb battery life

Slimness and lightweight design

Beautiful touch based interface

One word: Wi-Fi

Keep an eye out here for content related to the iPod touch, I still have many points I want to make and follow up on over the next few weeks.

Check out the review, and if you’re feeling in a Digging mood, here.