Darice de Cuba

I am a Mac person since beginning 2004. The year before, still in college, I got hooked on weblogs that talked about XHTML/CSS and web standards which where a hot topic back then. Most of those webloggers are Mac users. When they talked about the apps they used and the browsers I just fell in love when seeing screenshots of their setups. Incidentally it was then that I ditched Internet Explorer for good and started using Mozilla.

So when I started my six months internship I decided to save the money and buy an iBook which I did. Now I’m on my third Apple computer, the Mac Mini. Plus I have a netbook with Leopard on it, so I really kicked that Windows habit cold turkey back then.

While many people’s objection to a Mac is that it doesn’t has many choice in apps like on Windows, which by the way is becoming less true. The apps available for the Mac are way nicer and better than Windows in my personal opinion. But then again everyone likes something different.

The apps

TextMate

For coding PHP, HTML, Javascript and others except CSS, I use TextMate. TextMate is a very versatile coding app that supports more then 50 languages. I’m not a hardcore coder so I don’t take advantage of all the shortcuts, macros, etc. But the lightweight and simplicity of the app is what attracts me. I use the very hard to find iLife color theme and Anonymous Pro as font. You can find the iLife theme in this theme bundle.

When editing files through Unix command I also use TextMate for editing. With a simple mate php.ini the task is done. I remember using vi for editing and it was just a pain while with TexMate and most other editors supporting command line it’s way easier. It even supports sql files, which make it a breeze to scan the content and with find and replace I can edit the whole sql file in one click to change tables name for example. Although this is something most apps dealing with code are able to do.

CSSEdit

For writing CSS I use CSSEdit which is like the easiest CSS editor I have ever used. It has auto-complete and suggestions, a validator and a sidebar with a list of each item you have in your style sheets plus comments that make it easy to browse your style sheet. Especially when working with large style sheets. I’m so used to using CSSEdit that I can’t even use other apps to do some small editing. At my old job they only had Windows and I never got used to using Dreamweaver.

Transmit

Another app that doesn’t has an equal on Windows, I have tried so many FTP clients on Windows and none come even close. Transmit is simple, nice interface and fast. I keep different FTP accounts sorted in folders, I live edit my files through Transmit. You can set it to edit specific files format with specific apps, so when I want to edit a css file it will launch CSSEdit, TextMate for html and php files, etc. For each FTP account I can specify which local folder to open with it so I don’t have to navigate to the local folders each time I use a different account. And with the sync option I can synchronize my local and server folders with each other. Transmit is a no-brainer to use.

I feel the price for each of these apps are worth it, I use them daily and they make my work flow easier. Which reminds me, all these three apps support the use of tabs. This means minimal windows clutter when working on several files at once.

Before settling for these apps I tried others like BBEdit, Coda, StyleMaster but none where to my taste. As long as TextMate, CSSEdit and Transmit do the job I want I’m satisfied.

When the first generation iPhone came out in the United States on June 29 2007 it became the most wanted gadget world wide. But the rest of the world had to wait to be able to buy through official ways. This brought on a big market on ebay and all kind of shady websites to sell locked iPhones for huge prices. It wasn’t long before in the Netherlands iPhones started to make an appearance, people who managed to buy one and jailbreak it to use it with their current mobile account.

I remember considering doing the same but really didn’t want to take the risk of buying one and then having it breakdown and not be able to use the warranty. In any case the few who had the first generation iPhone where mostly tech savvy people considering you needed to know how or know someone who could jailbreak the phone for use. For one year the first generation iPhone was a status item in the Netherlands.

Then in the summer of 2008 T-Mobile started selling the 3G iPhone as an official Apple reseller. On launch day it was craziness of long lines at every T-Mobile store, everyone and their grandmother standing inline to be one of the first to buy the 3G iPhone. Due to lot of things not going smooth right away I waited until fall when my contract with T-Mobile was up for renewal to get an iPhone.

The iPhone went from an exclusive gadget to a an everybody gadget. People bought the iPhone which comes at a minimum with a 2 year contract starting at 30 euros a month. They didn’t even know right what the iPhone could do or not. I remember a colleague arguing with me that “yes the iPhone 3G can record video, of course it can”. And I was seriously dude it can only take photos.

People bought the iPhone just because it was/is an wanna have gadget, most will know their way around and get it under the knee. But most will just use it as a phone/sms/ipod and a few popular apps like Facebook, train info(Trein). But the advanced options like syncing your Google Calendar, iCal and such will go unused, most don’t know to turn off data roaming when abroad consequently getting bills of 500 euros.

So now you could say there are different levels of iPhone users:

• the casual user (phone, sms, ipod, maybe email and few apps and games apps)
• the business user (phone, sms, (multiple)email, calendar and and few apps)
• the power user(phone, sms, (multiple)email, calendar, tethering, lots of apps like twitter(some more hen one twitter app), facebook, wordpress, as of recently dropbox, feed readers, Ego, Airme, Camerabag, Flickr, etc.) Note I don’t mention iPod because most power user have an iPod also.

Off course not everyone is a fan of the iPhone. Just like the Windows/Apple war you now have the Blackberry/iPhone “which one is better” war. Here in the Netherlands the iPhone came out first and then the Blackberry. There are iPhone users who switched to Blackberry and there are those gadgets fan who now own both. As for me the only pro I saw in the Blackberry was the ping system. But as of recently the iPhone has it’s own ping app. It’s a no contest really; the touch screen, the huge amount of available apps and the eye candy of most apps. This makes it a no brainer, for me anyway.

The general notion is that since the introduction of the iPod and now the iPhone Apple went from a small “exclusive” user base to a wanna have products to the general public. For Apple this is good because it means more income. For the ones who are using Apple before it became a wanna have it means patience.

Last I was standing in the Apple store waiting to be helped, I had to wait half an hour while the store guy kept answering question after question about the iMac before the guy decided to buy the thing. Core Apple users know their stuff but now with a broader base of users you’ll have to pack an extra dosis of patience before going to an Apple store.