NewsGator, the company that owns NetNewsWire, has just announced that it will now be offering all of its products for free. This is great news for the world of feed readers. NetNewsWire is a fantastic reader that I’ve been using for several years. They have a shiny new version too. I’ve heard that FeedDemon is a good Windows client, although I haven’t used it myself.

Get the new and improved free download of NetNewsWire here.

Apple has just released the 10.4.11 update for Mac OS X Tiger, which has two interesting tidbits. First of all, it lists “Improves compatibility when using OpenType fonts in QuarkExpress.” I would be really interested in knowing more about exactly what has changed here. Unfortunately, given how tight-lipped Apple usually is about these types of things, I doubt I’ll find out.

The second item pertains to Safari 3. Starting with this update, Safari 3 will be the default browser. Now, this is really great, but it introduces some problems with my workflow. If I install this update, how am I going to be able to continue to test my designs in Safari 2.x?

As it turns out, Michel Fortin has gone through the trouble of creating standalone versions of every Safari installment. So go ahead, jump on that update from Apple, then grab a standalone copy of Safari 2.

The beta version of NetNewsWire Lite 3.1 has finally been released. This is my favorite feed reader for OS X (or any system for that matter). I’ve been waiting for this release ever since they released the new version of NetNewsWire.

A couple of weeks ago, I was helping to spec out some new iMacs for our computer labs. This is usually pretty straightforward; the only sticky part is actually deciding how much RAM to get. We run a lot of sophisticated software (Photoshop, Illustrator, Final Cut Pro, etc.), so I always want to make sure that we have enough RAM, now and down the road. These computers have to get us through a three year cycle.

Unfortunately, the options for built-to-order RAM on a Mac range from questionable to obscene. Keep in mind, there are only two slots for RAM in an iMac. Here’s how it breaks down:

Thats right, 2 sticks of 2GB RAM will cost you $850 if you get it from Apple.

The 1GB option seems silly if you’re doing anything more than web browsing. 2GB is enough RAM for now, but the configuration of 2 sticks of 1GB stinks. This means that if you want to upgrade to 4GB of RAM later, those two sticks are worthless. There is no option for the obvious choice: to chose one stick of 2GB RAM, leaving an easy upgrade path.

All of this left me pretty annoyed at Apple, and feeling like no matter what I did, I was either wasting RAM (and money) now or later. So, I really had to laugh when I came across Mike Davidson’s post on RAM Arbitrage:

…to max out my MacBook’s RAM, Apple charges me $850, while if I go through my trusty RAM comparison shopping site DealRam, I am pointed to NewEgg, which ships me the same amount of RAM for $120. As a point of comparison, Dell charges $465 for an extra 4GB… still outrageous, but not a 700% markup!

He nails it. What really sucks about this practice by Apple is that I would guess many people who buy Macs don’t know that they can get the same kind of RAM from places like New Egg. They also probably don’t know how easy it is to replace RAM. It’s a racket.

Via Daring Fireball.

I’ve heard a lot of rumors about Spotlight now actually ‘working’ in Leopard. That’s good news, because it was a total bust in Tiger. I liked the idea of it, but it was just too damn slow to actually be useful and I ended up using Quicksilver instead.

In More Goodies in Apple’s New Operating System, David Pouge mentions two new features in Spotlight (other than fixing the molasses problem) I wasn’t aware of.

Menu bar calculator:

[Spotlight] is also a tiny pocket calculator now. Hit Command-Space, type or paste 38*48.2-7+55, and marvel at the first result in the Spotlight menu: 1879.6. You don’t even have to fire up the Calculator.

This is a neat idea, and if I could train myself to actually use it, it would be useful.

Dictionary lookups

The Spotlight menu also searches the Leopard dictionary now. If you type, for example, “schadenfreude” into the Spotlight box, the beginning of the actual definition appears right there in the menu. Click it to open Dictionary and read the full-blown entry.

Um, interesting example word. Anyway, one of my favorite features in OS X is the ability to move your mouse cursor over any word (in a Cocoa app) and press Ctrl + Cmd + D and get a little pop up that defines the word.

I’ve been steadily beefing up my vocabulary by using this feature. Sometimes this little trick isn’t enough though and I have to go to the real dictionary. I usually use Dashboard for this, but in general I’m really not a fan of it. This new Spotlight trick is great.