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My iMac-purchasing plan is officially on hold

I was all set to hit a local Apple Store with my son this evening for a shiny new 20-inch iMac with all that Leopard goodness -- but those plans are now on hold.

I arrived at work this morning to see my loaner iMac all kernel panic-ed (the second time it has locked up in some way in less than 24 hours). And in doing a quick search for "leopard imac freeze" in the discussions area of Apple's support site, I saw I was far from alone. (See this thread, for instance.)

Apple has earlier acknowledged an iMac-freezing issue (which it promised to fix, but hasn't yet.) I'm unclear whether the current spate of freezes is the same thing, or a Leopard-flavored variation/escalation, or something else entirely.

All I know is, my loaner iMac worked flawlessly before I installed Leopard.

So I'm not plunkin' down a wad of cash until I have a better sense of what just happened here -- and can be reasonably certain the coast is clear.

Tiger users, if you don't have to install Leopard (and who really does?), you may want to hold off on an upgrade for at least a little while.

Update: Yes, it IS cool that my tech-writing job allows me to test-drive computers before purchasing them, thanks for noting that. This will be my first computer purchase of any kind in a half-decade, though, I'm on a pretty tight budget.

Related: Leopardphobia

Mac site targets moi in e-mail protest effort

Yikes, I'm the target of an e-mail protest campaign from (wait for it) a Macintosh-related site -- quite the irony given my Mac leanings.

MacDailyNews takes me to task for this sentence in today's Leopard review (PDF): "(Leopard's features) collectively place OS X ahead of Microsoft's Windows Vista."

This incenses the writer, who fumes, "Mac OS X was already well ahead of Vista; Leopard only increases Apple's lead."

Well, yes. I couldn't agree more. As said in an e-mail reply (which has yet to be posted on the site):

While I'm honored to be on the receiving end of an e-mail protest campaign initiated by the most-excellent MacDailyNews, I should note that this one is based on a defective premise. When I stated that Leopard's features put it ahead of Windows Vista, I was not implying that Tiger was BEHIND Vista. In fact, in my review of Windows Vista, I endlessly poked fun at how the Microsoft OS is just a blatant rip-off of Mac OS X (version 10.4 Tiger, at the time).

Still, being accused of a "brain fart" certainly makes for an entertaining day. So does being designated an e-mail-protest target in a Macolyte tradition (the site posted the Pioneer Press' letters-to-the-editor e-mail address, and everything).

Update: MDN still hasn't posted my reply with their original piece (so much for equal time), but the site did respond to me via e-mail:

If you believe Tiger was already ahead of Vista, then why didn't you write that sentence in your article? Clearly it was called for as many of the comments regarding your article on the Pioneer Press site and our site prove. The headline of your article is also quite misleading.

Intentional or not, your article implies (strongly) that it took Leopard for Mac OS X to pass Vista. It's your article, not our premise, that's defective. Hence our coverage and the subsequent e-mails your are receiving.

For the record, I have received no e-mails as of this morning, other than the one from MDN.

Update: MDN has updated its site with my response, and their response to my response (and my response to their response to my response :-)  Scroll down for all the juicy comments. A related Google search is here.

Update: By the way, the language in my piece also confused a fellow Mac fiend here in the office:

I'm sorry to say that I did a double take last night when the paper came up to the newsroom and I read the piece. I thought you had said previously in print that OS X Tiger topped Vista. But whether you had or had not, I was still surprised. Maybe you were thinking OS X Panther was pulling even farther ahead?

Um, correct.

Mac OS X "Leopard" leaps, nuttiness ensues!

It's Leopard day, Mac boys and girls.

I've whipped up little tour of the new OS X version, and the slide show is now live on the Pioneer Press site.

This is a prelude to my Tech Test Drive column on the subject (with a largely graphical approach, this time around; look for a sneak-peek PDF shortly).

In a bit, I'm heading over to an Apple retail store at the Mall of America to watch all the usual OS X-update hullabaloo, and possibly snag a T-shirt. Wouldn't miss it.

Update: Here's a PDF of my Monday column, exactly as it will appear in print.

Update: Here's a Leopard review from my sister paper in Silicon Valley.

Google wakes up, smells coffee...adds IMAP

I recently agonized over a switch from FastMail.FM to Google's Gmail for my personal e-mail.

One big reason: The latter service didn't do IMAP, which is great for keeping a mail account in sync while using multiple devices (computers, handheld devices, etc.), and accessing messages via desktop-mail software as well as via the Web.

I did eventually switch to Gmail while hoping Google would soon wake up, smell the coffee and add support for IMAP.

Well, now it has (largely due to an internal IMAP advocate, apparently).

Google is rolling this out slowly, so only one of my six or so Gmail accounts has this at the moment. Luckily, it happens to be my primary account, one of those Google Apps accounts associated with my personal domain name.

Gmail IMAP works just fine. I just wish it were implemented a bit more elegantly. I use Apple Mail on a Mac, and most accounts are neatly organized in the program's folder pane once they're set up. Google, though, litters folders all over the pane. I've never seen this, looks awful. I hate to imagine what will happen when I have multiple accounts set up.

Now that I finally have IMAP for Gmail, I'm not even sure how much I want it anymore, or will actually use it. I've grown accustomed to using Gmail via desktop and mobile Web interfaces, and I love these.  But having all my Gmail accounts synced to the desktop for easy access as well as indexing (via Apple Spotlight and Google Desktop) will come in handy.

Here is a great post on getting the most out of Gmail IMAP. Here is a video on how to configure IMAP on the iPhone.

Related: Revamped Gmail coming soon.

Update: Gmail's IMAP folders do tidy up nicely in the new Leopard version of Apple mail -- and more so when multiple Gmail accounts are set up. So Mail will be my e-mail supercenter and archive, while Mailplane will be my everyday mail client for access to my primary Gmail account (which aggregates all my latest personal and work mail).

I've also just set up my Gmail account on the iPhone's mail client, and it works like a charm. No luck setting this up on other phones, such as the Palm Centro and the Nokia N95, though.

Kal-El's blonde cousin is from...Minnesota :)

I laughed tonight when watching Smallville here in St. Paul, Minn.

At one point, Lex Luthor asks about Clark Kent's mysterious blonde cousin (Kara, from Kal-El's native Krypton).

She's "from Minnesota," Lana Lang says.

Google Reader upgraded for the iPod touch

Google last night pushed out an update to its Google Reader, which is my default RSS newsreader.

One big improvement: The Reader now looks great on Apple's Web-capable iPod touch. This has been the case on Apple's iPhone for a while, but touch users had to settle for a generic Reader interface better suited for older mobile handsets with smaller, non-touch screens.

No longer. Cool.

Recent Google Reader reliability problems (possibly related to the upgrade in progress) seem to have cleared up, too, knock on wood.

In researching this post, I also found this.

Must Comcast die, die die? Not if you ask me

I'm one of Bob Garfield's biggest fans. I practically worship the host of "On the Media," which is my hands-down-favorite podcast. The Bobster is right up there with Molly Wood and Leo Laporte in my little pantheon of podcasting gods.

So when Garfield takes up a cause, I perk right up and pay attention. Alas, I can't join him in wishing ill of Comcast (or, at least, wishing it would improve), per his nightmarish experiences with the cable, phone and Internet provider.

I'm sorry, Bob, but I'm a happy Comcast customer. My Internet and television service has been almost completely glitch-free for years. (I don't use Comcast phone service.)

When my Internet service did sporadically cut out a couple of weeks ago, a Comcast repairman came right out, gave me a new modem and restored my service to its formerly reliable state. It's been that way ever since.

Bob, I have no Comcast nightmares to share with your blog readers, but I'll certainly let you know if that ever changes.

Update: Wait, I do have a minor beef with Comcast: Where the heck are the promised TiVo features for its set-top video recorders?

I don't do vanilla TiVo, and I've held off on Comcast's own  video recorders in their current inferior-to-TiVo state, but I'd be all over a TiVo-ized Comcast box...

Related: How not to handle Comcast's customer service (even if you want to)

Update: Ah, movement on the Comcast/TiVo front (just apparently not in Minnesota :-(

Oops, I irk Uncle Walt (Disney not Mossberg)

I recently wrote, none too rosily, about a then-upcoming Blu-ray mall tour sponsored by Disney and Panasonic:

If you're at the Mall of America today through Sunday, go see the Disney and Panasonic "Magical Blu-Ray Tour" focused on high-definition Blu-ray movie discs and the fancy gear that plays them. Look for the display in the West Market area.

But be wary about buying what Disney and Panasonic are trying to sell you -- we mean that literally and figuratively.

You see, the Blu-ray camp is locked in an epic format war with the rival HD DVD folks and their similar -- but utterly incompatible -- movie platters. If this reminds you of the VHS-vs.-Betamax fight, you know what we're talkin' about.

I just got a call from a ticked-off Disney rep who wondered what I had against Blu-ray, and asked what she could do to make me like it more.

Easy, I said: Get with the HD DVD folks and agree on a single high-definition disc. That way, confused consumers won't be divided between rival formats, neither of which provides a complete movie selection.

For now, I told the irked rep, my recommendation is to buy neither Blu-ray nor HD DVD gear under most circumstances. Call that recommendation what you will. "Boycott" has a nice ring to it. And, yes, I do mean avoiding HD DVD as well as Blu-ray.

By the way, my editor trimmed for space what was a slightly longer story. Here's the rest of it:

So here’s a suggestion: Head over to the megamall and give those silly people a good — but polite! — scolding about flagrant consumer unfriendliness. And until this absurd format battle gets worked out, stick to old-fashioned DVDs.

With a nice, inexpensive “upconverting” DVD player hooked up to your HDTV set, you will scarcely tell the difference.

I did check out that Disney and Panasonic booth at the megamall, in case you're wondering.

And, as one who has steeped himself in Blu-ray gear, and happens to think it's quite impressive as a next-generation home-video technology ("Rocky Balboa" on a PlayStation 3 and an HDTV is fan-frickin'-tastic, just like "King Kong" on HD DVD and an Xbox 360), I was aghast at how badly the Disney/Panasonic booth came off.

The point of Blu-ray is movies -- glorious high-def, startlingly realistic flicks. Yet many screens displayed breathtakingly lame games, such as one of the worst Space Invaders knock-offs I've seen (it almost looked worse than the first), and some kind of dice-rolling thing. I had two kids in tow,and their eyes glazed over in seconds.

Nicely done!

Grammar Grater is great for grammar geeks

Podcasts are more time-consuming to get through than printed or online text, so I have just completed another major purge of the podcast subscriptions in my iTunes software.

I did add one show: Minnesota Public Radio's Grammar Grater.

It's short, it's funny, it hits me right where I work (we're all grammar geeks here at the Pioneer Press), and it's (gasp!) teaching me a thing or two even though I'm a pro writer.

Here's the iTunes link.

Per a recent MPR press release:

Because we live in a time of e-mail, blogs, instant messaging, even online product reviews, everybody’s a writer. And with the global nature of communication, there’s not a single style guide everyone uses. Each episode takes linguistic bugbears and puts them through the Grammar Grater. 

Written and hosted by Luke Taylor, Grammar Grater takes a traditionally stodgy subject and transforms it through the magic of radio. The podcast features three- to five-minute episodes with topics ranging from word usage to punctuation to spelling. A written episode format accompanies an audio feature complete with sound effects, wry humor and dramatizations from the Grammatis Personae Players. 

“With Grammar Grater, we acknowledge that language is constantly evolving,” said Taylor. “The goal is to activate discussion, not necessarily to be heavy-handed. We as staff have healthy debates on grammar all the time and find that there isn’t necessarily a single correct answer for all the rules in the English language, particularly as we look beyond borders and consider how the world is getting smaller.” 

Indeed, the Grammar Grater Web site links to a discussion group on Gather.com, http://grammargrater.gather.com, which enables listeners a chance to weigh in and suggest topics for future episodes. 

Grammar Grater has seen swift success, going from 76 downloads in July to more than 65,500 during the month of August. “With or Up?”—its inaugural episode, which examines the difference between “chatting with” and “chatting up”—has so far had more than 31,000 downloads. Another episode, “Walking the Line,” employed the use of slide whistles and other sound effects to provide an audio representation of hyphens and dashes in a sentence.

Another Minnesota university embraces Mac

After writing about skyrocketing Macintosh share among college students in Minnesota and elsewhere, I heard from a technical staffer at Bemidji State University. He said I missed a good angle on his campus -- and he's right.

Turns out the university "superlab" for students has been converted to recent-model iMacs that can run Windows as well as the Mac OS X. That's about 110 iMacs available to students, along with several dozen other iMacs around the campus, all booting as either PCs or Macs via a customized, easy-to-use screen.

(A few of those iMacs triple-boot, with Linux added to the mix.)

In a separate effort, Bemidji State is outfitting about 20 faculty members with dual-booting MacBook Pro laptops to see whether these are good substitutes for the Windows laptops customarily issued to instructors.

Speaking of Macs on campus, my pal Mark Fawcett pointed me to this piece about Princeton University. Cool.