The new MacBook Pros, released in June, are the first Macs to ship with a SD slot. Although the slot is ostensibly for making it easy to get photos from your camera to iPhoto, it's also a bootable drive. You can install OS X to an SD card (32GB cards sell for around $130AUD). That makes it part of a viable backup and system recovery strategy.

With a pair of 32GB cards most of us could have a bootable disk with a core set of applications (including SuperDuper for rebuilding a broken system) and a backup of key data (maintained with Time Machine).

I typically connect my MacBook Pro to the web in two different ways; WiFi and a Huawei E160G 3G modem. One of the things I've found, that is really annoying, is that OS X is really dumb when it comes to dealing with multiple network connections.

What I find is that OS X tries to connect to a WiFi network while the 3G connection is active. The problem is that if the WiFi connection is poor OS X persists in trying to use it even if the 3G connection is better. I've encountered the same thing when I've connected an iMac to one router by Ethernet and another over WiFi (Idid this as part of some router testing). OS X was unable to aggregate the connections.

The cure is easy - turn off WiFi before initiating the 3G connection. But that's not very Apple-like.

For an OS that's generally very traveller-friendly this is a real PITA.

When Apple launched OS X 10.4 (aka Tiger) one of the heavily pushed features was integration of RSS into Safari. This was extended to add RSS integration into Apple's Mail.app. As I recently upgraded to a shiny new 13" MacBook Pro I've not yet reinstalled all my favourite apps. Partly this was through being too busy but another part of this was to see which I apps I really used and which I could live without.

I've been using NetNewsWire for ages and it's a great app - particularly as it now offers iPhone syncing via a free web service. However, I've never really put Apple's built-in RSS support to the test till now. In my view, the RSS support in Safari and Mail is only barely usable. I suspect that if you only look at 10 or fewer feeds it's OK but even my relatively slim collection of a hundred or so feeds is too many to be effectively managed.

Non-existent OPML Support
Why didn't Apple support migrating feeds into Safari and Mail by OPML? By ignoring the lingua franca of the RSS world they have effectively stopped potential users from migrating to their software from third party applications.

Last night I searched for a way to migrate my RSS feeds into Safari. I had an OPML file that I'd created by using Google Reader's export function. However, I had to visit the Google Fairy to find a way to import this into Safari.

Safari can only import feeds from a HTML file. That means that I needed to find a way to convert the OPML file to HTML. After some searching I found this article. Basically, you need to copy the script on that page into a text editor (I use TextWrangler). Then save it to your desktop as convert.php.

To make life easy, I saved the OPML (actually XML) file from Google Reader to the desktop and renamed it to "subscriptions.xml". I then opened a Terminal (it's in the Applications | Utilities folder on your Mac) and ran the following:

cd Desktop

This line makes the current directory for executing commands the OS X desktop. If you don;t do this you'll need to ener the full file paths for the various files referred to in the next command.

I then ran this:

php convert.php subscriptions.xml > MySubscriptions.html

If all goes well, you should end up with a HTML file that will open in Safari and display a nicely arranged list of all your feeds.

You can then import that file into Safari (File | Import Bookmarks...). I then dragged the imported feeds into a folder called Feeds that's on my Bookmarks Bar.

Broken and Missing Functionality
Once I had all my feeds imported I was mightily annoyed that none of my carefully arranged folders, for logically grouping feeds were retained. There's another half an hour of my life I'll never get back! On the upside, this did get me to clean up dead and unwanted feeds - a task I'd been putting off for some time.

Apple's approach is then to use their bookmark folders for managing feeds. If I open the highest level folder I see all of my feeds. Open a lower level folder and I see the appropriate subset. It'd be nice if I could set that up as a sidebar. However, I can see how many unread items I have.

RSS in Mail.app
I don't know how many people use RSS in Mail.app but I imagine that the number would be small. You'd expect that all those carefully arranged folders could be brought across to Mail nicely. Well, you'd be disappointed. You can bring the feeds across but only one at a time. Which fool thought that would be a good idea?

Pop over to the File | Add RSS Feeds... command and you'll see what I mean.

The Better Way
Clearly, Apple's implementation of RSS leaves a bit to be desired. Perhaps it'll be one of the hundreds of enhancements we'll see in Snow Leopard although I'm not holding my breath given that Safari has only just been updated.

As I mentioned before, NetNewsWire is a great alternative.

However, if you're a Firefox user then there are several plug-ins that work nicely. Wizz RSS Lite isn't too bad and works with Firefox 3.5. High on people's favourite list is Sage although when i looked last night it wasn't FF3.5 ready so I couldn't test it out.

Over the last couple of months my computing needs have changed further. I've spent many hours with the Eee PC, both the 700 and 900 series models, and reckon that the new form factor they've pioneered, the netbook, has a definite place in the IT market. For me, the two major shortcomings of the Eee PC, screen and keyboard size, were too much for me to overcome.

Hence, I've sold my MacBook Pro and shifted to a MacBook Air. There are plenty of nay-sayers when it comes to Air's combination of hardware and features. Common rants are the lack of ethernet, just one USB port, the hardwired battery and lack of an optical drive. However, I'm not seeing the Air as my main computer - it's an accessory to my main system, the 20" iMac at home.

A few weeks ago, I thought that the Eee PC 900 might do the job but I kept hitting the same brick wall - the keyboard. Trying to type 1000 words on the small keyboard was just too hard for me. Perhaps others are more patient and can train themselves to be more accurate (my mate Gus is one such person).

So, I've gone for the MacBook Air. I know that my familiarity and preference for the Mac OS is part of the decision but the compromises that the Air makes are ones that I can live with. The ones made by the Eee PC were not compromises I could work around in the long term. Also, the Macbook Air is only slightly heavier that the

I'm sure I'll have more to say about the Air in due course as this is a journey that's only just started.

Australian broadband is, shall we say, crap! Unlike many other countries local pricing is governed by two facotrs (other than the greed of service providers!). These are

• Speed
• Traffic

As an example, my ISP allows me 7GB of traffic between midday and midnight and 14GB from midnight to midday (designated peak and off-peak periods respectively). Fortunately, only download traffic is counted as I'm on an old deal. Current deals count traffic in both directions.

However, the majority of customers have lower traffic allowances and slower connections. If they want more traffic they pay more. If they want faster, they pay more. All of this means that tracking your Internet usage is a big deal as using too much traffic can lead to "shaping" (where the connection is slowed down till the next billing cycle) or excess usage charges (some are exorbitant. There are reports of folks on 200MB connections getting bill for thousands of dollars when the grand-kids come and use P2P software and download a few GBs).

LemonJar, a local start-up, has created a series of widgets that make it easy to track Internet use from a variety of ISPs. I've been using one of their widgets for many months and it passes my "just works" test.

If you're ISP is supported, you need this widget!

 LemonJar • OS X • widgets

Apple's next big cat, Snow Leopard was announced but details are still quite thin. The official press release says:

“We have delivered more than a thousand new features to OS X in just seven years and Snow Leopard lays the foundation for thousands more,”

With the iPhone and MobileMe forming two parts of a strategy to sneak into offices, Snow Leopard delivers several features that will appeal to corporate IT providers.

For the first time, OS X includes native support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 in OS X applications Mail, iCal® and Address Book, making it even easier to integrate Macs into organizations of any size.

Many of the the proposed improvements seems very technical to me. For example:

...support for multi-core processors with a new technology code-named “Grand Central,” making it easy for developers to create programs that take full advantage of the power of multi-core Macs. Snow Leopard further extends support for modern hardware with Open Computing Language (OpenCL), which lets any application tap into the vast gigaflops of GPU computing power previously available only to graphics applications. OpenCL is based on the C programming language and has been proposed as an open standard. Furthering OS X’s lead in 64-bit technology, Snow Leopard raises the software limit on system memory up to a theoretical 16TB of RAM.

In other words, Leopard delivered plenty of eye candy and user-centric features whereas Snow Leopard will lay a foundation for future developments. Given that it's at least a year away and that the benchmark results quoted in the press release are for an Intel Mac I'd not be surprised to see Power PC support dropped for this and future releases.

 Apple • OS X Snow Leopard

Waking up this morning in Australia meant that the morning news included some, limited, coverage of WWDC. It must be the first time that a developer conference managed to get air time on mainstream news. Of course, the reason for this was that Apple made a slew of important product announcements this morning.

Firstly, the iPhone 3G has finally made the leap from rumour to reality. Despite all the specuation, there's just one model, with a 3.5", 480-by-320 display. Comms are covered by WiFi, Bluetooth and UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz). There's fallback to EDGE and GPRS as well. GPS is now part of the package as well.

iPhone availability starts on 11 July 2008 with only two Australian carriers officially on the list - Vodafone and Optus. No word yet from Three (although they have made announcements regarding other territories so, given the month before official availability we might expect something soon) or Telstra. I suspect that Telstra might not be hgh on Apple's list of potential carriers given their infamous "stick to your knitting" outburst.

MobileMe was also announced. This is an online extension to the Mac which delivers push email and calendar to the iPhone. The need to re-brand comes from the fact that it's now a Windows tool as well as a Mac one. It can sync with Microsoft Outlook as well as iCal and Address Book. Interestingly, there's no mention of Entourage support. Apple has provided some instructions to prepare for MobileMe.

 Apple • iPhone 3G • MobileMe

Many sources (including Apple Insider are saying that Apple will be releasing another update, 10.5.4 next week at WWDC. After the recent half-gigabyte update, this might seem a little unfair (Matthew JC Powell recently discussed OS X updates at Australian Macworld.).

The only, sensible reason for another update is support of new features from Apple peripherals such as a new iPhone and MobileMe. Hopefully, it'll be a slimmer update than the last one and isn't another shed-load of bug fixes and minor enhancements.

Apple's .Mac service has been down for much of the day. Email access has been non-existent and the .Mac customer site has been unavailable intermittently. The Mac user group I'm a member of, iMug, has had several members reporting issues throughout the day. Syncing my iCal and Address Book data doesn't seem to have been affected.

100% of members were unable to access mail using an IMAP client. Normal service has been restored.
5.30.2008 :: 22:00 - 01:00 PST Due to scheduled maintenance from 10:00PM to 1:00AM PST, Some .Mac members could not access .Mac Mail. Normal service has been restored. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Access has been restored new but with all the hoopla about Apple renaming .Mac and registered about a bazillion new domains, many registered in Montenegro so that they get a .me TLD I wonder if some of today's hassles have been driven by preparations being made for a change-over.

With the iPhone to probably get push email and all the other iPhone speculation there hasn't been much attention on OS X and other parts of the Apple quiver. Well, the word is that .Mac will be getting a big revamp.

For starters, rumours are rife that .Mac will be renamed Me.Com. Apparently, that domain was owned by someone else but transferred last year. The full low-down is over at MacRumors. The links in the information chain started coming together when some developers found that the variable strings for .Mac in the latest OS X Leopard update had been changed to "%@".

In any case, my .Mac Me.Com wish-list would include push email, online calendar, and far faster access. I don't know what it's like in other countries but .Mac is excruciatingly slow at file syncing from the Antipodes.

Hopefully, it'll all be revealed at WWDC.

 .Mac • Apple • me.com • OS X