Coda Review
Jun/090
Coda is an amazing application, if you’re a web designer or developer, it’s the perfect solution for text/ code editing and managing your website when it’s online.
Coda has many features, and really is an ‘All-in-one website builder.’. The application has a powerful code editor, with syntax highlighting for multiple languages, there so many great features to the code editor, in addition to syntax highlighting it has an advanced find and replace function making editing multiple files even easier.
Coda has a built-in FTP client, based on Panic’s other application Transmit, on of the leading FTP clients on the Mac platform. The FTP, is slick, but simple allowing you to create, and edit files with complete integration with Coda. In addition to FTP, Coda has full subversion support, and multi-user file editing along with a handful of other great useful features such as, live website previews, CSS editing, books and lots more.
TechSkip Rating: 8.5/10
Website: http://panic.com/coda/
iPhone 3G S – Should you upgrade?
Jun/092
So, there has been a simple question on peoples mind over the last few days, specifically those who have an iPhone 3G, is it worth it, to go ahead and pay high upgrade fees for the new iPhone. In my opinion, that really depends on who you are, and what you want your phone for. I decided to upgrade for a multitude of reasons, one of which was the increased space, being able to get a 32GB iPhone is great. Obviously, there are other advantages, the 3 megapixel camera and video capabilities make it an attractive upgrade for some.
There are many new features in the iPhone OS 3.0 software, that can be downloaded to your existing iPhone 3G phone. Some main features, highlighted about the iPhone 3G S, such as cut, copy and paste and MMS, among other things, are simply no more than software updates, that are available free to all iPhone customers, and for the incredibly low price of $9.95 (USD) to iPod Touch users.
No, I’m not telling you that you should, or shouldn’t go out and buy the new iPhone 3G S. I’m just saying that, is the 3 megapixel camera, video capability and a few other things that actually require the new hardware, worth going out and spending however much you would need to, to purchase the new iPhone… again, it comes down to a personal decision. If those features are valuable to you, then an upgrade in your device may be worth your while, but if for you Video, and a better camera is just a bonus, think to yourself do you really need it.
One thing has to be said if we’re going to make this a fair argument, the new iPhone 3G S is pretty nice, it has a new screen which is noticeably brighter, and crisper. The screen also appears to have some sort of coating on it, the screen feels much more pleasant to the touch, and doesn’t seem to smudge as much. In addition to this, you’ve got faster chips, making apps super-snappy, and an enhanced GPS and camera.
There is no denying that the 3G S is a great phone, but in these economic times, it’s good to take a step back and ask yourself if you really need the upgrade, if not,why not wait a few months.
[TIP] Use Spaces
Jun/090
An amazing feature in Mac OS X Leopard, is Spaces… but surprisingly not many people know about it… I’m constantly asked by people how I can use a 15″ MacBook Pro, and still be as productive as I am on my Dual 23″ MacPro. The answer is simple, the answer is Spaces.
Spaces basically allows you to have multiple Spaces for you to put windows in on your Mac desktop… for example, I use 4 spaces, one for ‘Internet & Email’ one for ‘Writing’ another for ‘Design’ and one for ‘Development’. I have set my system preferences, so that when I open up, say Photoshop, it opens in the Design space, and when I open up Coda, or Xcode, they open up in the ‘Development’ space. Simple, right?
This allows me to keep organized, and keep on top of things. I also use an app called DeskShade, which hides all of my desktop icons, allowing my desktop to look un-cluttered… it has also allowed me to maximize my use of the finder.
How to set-up, and start using spaces… first go to System Preferences, and go to the ‘Exposé and Spaces’ tab. Once in there, click on the ‘Spaces’ option at the top, and check the ‘Enable Spaces’ checkbox… here you can set the number of spaces you want, and tell the Mac what apps, by default, will open in which spaces.
Then it’s up to you to start working on using spaces to their full potential, use Cmd + Arrow Keys to switch between spaces or click the ‘Spaces’ icon in the dock to see an overview of your spaces and you can even drag windows between them. (we know, fancy stuff, right)
Have fun, be productive and stay safe space.
WWDC ‘09 Predictions
Jun/091
Well, it’s only a few more days until WWDC 2009 begins in California. Many suspect this WWDC will be one to remember with the predicted release of iPhone OS 3.0, which I think is a very likely spectacle. In addition to that, It is rumored that Steve Jobs will make a surprise appearance for a ‘One more thing…’ announcement, which would be great to see, al though, I’m skeptical if this one will happen, my guess is we’ll see Jobs return to the company in late June.
As for hardware to go along with OS 3.0, I think we’ll see an announcement of a new phone, but it won’t be released until late June, early July. In addition to the iPhone, I think we’ll see a ‘nearly finished’ version of Snow Leopard, as for new Mac hardware, I don’t think we’ll see any immediately, until the release of Snow Leopard where we will most likely see new Macs, will better processors.
As for other, ‘new’ products, there have been a lot of rumors going around, about the potential release of a large touch-screen tablet device, sort of a cross between the white MacBook and the iPhone/ iPod Touch. Unfortunately I don’t think that this will be an announcement at WWDC, however I do think such device could be released by apple in the future.
One thing that hasn’t been discussed much, but is a possibility is a new TV potentially with a Boxee style interface, with a similar function, and potentially the equivalent of the App Store, but with dedicated TV applications.
Obviously, I don’t know for sure what’s happening at WWDC, but these are my predictions, I would think something along the lines of that will be what’s happening at WWDC.
Hello, and welcome…
Jun/090
Well, we tried TechSkip a blog for all things tech, except we found ourselves only blogging, generally about things to do with Macs. It’s because we’re fanboys at heart, we use Macs everyday, and we love Apple and Macintosh. So, we’re launching Mac.TechSkip, a blog/ news site filled with all the latest Mac news, announcements, tips, reviews and tutorials.
Unfortunately, for now until we can find dedicated writers, this does mean that this site will be replacing the old TechSkip site, so there will now only be Mac news here, but, you may have noticed, we are using a sub-domain, this is so, maybe in the coming months, or perhaps weeks, we can launch other variations of the TechSkip network.
For now though, it’s going to be all Mac all the time, we’ll try, as hard as we can to keep on top of things, with regular posting, up to date news and fair reviews. We hope you all will enjoy reading the new articles on the site, as much as we enjoy writing them.