Articles tagged OS_X.

Apple's Software Update (second item in the Apple menu) has been around since the first days of OS X. However, it is has grown slow and old compared to the new App Store found in the Dock or Launch Pad.

One of the features I just love about OS X was the introduction of Spaces with OS X Leopard. Spaces allowed me to have multiple "desktops" and easily assign apps to launch in those spaces. For example, if I wanted to quickly get to my Mail I knew it was in space 2 and iChat, Address Book and Calendar in space 1, and so forth. This was a great way to run many more apps without having a super cluttered screen. It was almost like having multiple monitors on my laptop.

For those looking into virtualization software, here is a succinct review of Parallels Desktop 6, with a splash VMware Fusion thrown in for good measure. In business there are still instances where Windows is required for OS X users. Many accounting packages and financial desktop-based software solutions are still tied to Windows-only versions.

Times are changing rapidly, but for Mac business users it isn't quite a 100% Windows-free world (not yet at least). To get us Mac users through the slog that is Windoze, apple.it-enquirer delivers a solid review. Who is this article written by? Good question. It only credits "Admin" but it is likely written by the site's publisher Erik Vlietinck. The quick verdict is that Parallels 6 Desktop is outpacing VMware Fusion in many user friendly areas. Games, boot time and file swapping between OS environments, Parallels is winning the war. 

Today's computers need a Portable Document Format (PDF) viewer as much as a Browser. This read only file format, which stores text, images, and vector graphics also meets secure legal document requirements. Printing to PDF is a great way to save web pages from the internet as it can be viewed on most platforms with a free viewer. Fortunately, Mac users have two free popular options for a PDF viewer: Adobe's Reader and Apple's Preview.

Adobe created the PDF document standard in 1993. Since then, they have provided a reader for many platforms including the Mac. This would seem the obvious choice for a PDF viewer, except Apple's own application Preview comes standard with OS X. Is it worth the effort to install Reader, or is it better to just use Apple's default Preview? Lets find out.