P. J. Connolly

The World Wide Web turned 20 on August 6, and it’s easily one of the five most important inventions of the last century. (If you’re interested, nuclear fission, television, the transistor and the laser make up the rest of my top five.) It has changed human culture immeasurably, and perhaps for just that reason, it […]

It makes sense that Apple is apparently planning to make full-fledged web apps out of its iWork suite, as AppleInsider reported Tuesday; it’s one of the few areas where iWork has to take a back seat to Microsoft Office. I’m hard pressed to think of anyone I know who has looked at the core applications […]

I want to spend some time today on the subject of Safari 5.1, which debuted on July 20 with Mac OS X Lion. Safari 5.1 doesn’t require Lion; it will run on Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.8, Windows XP with Service Pack 2, Windows Vista, or Windows 7. Now, I’m the first to admit […]

The new release of Apple’s desktop operating system is certainly a leap ahead for the Mac platform in many ways. Mac OS X “Lion”-release 10.7-provides a better security architecture, new data encryption options and introduces user interface paradigms that foreshadow a time when gesture-based touch computing will be taken for granted. There’s no question that, […]

How long will it take before your software can fully take advantage of the new features of Lion? Granted, it’s only been a few months since the first developer previews became available, and not all software vendors consider the Mac platform to be a top priority, but some tools are already taking advantage of the […]

Automated Workflows Simplify Complex Processes The workflows built into Autodesks Factory Design Utility automate common tasks such as rendering, asset creation and material flow analysis. Create More Accurate Point Clouds AutoCAD 2012 now supports point clouds of up to 2 billion points, enabling users to more easily create 3D models of existing buildings using laser […]

So, in a sense, today’s the 30th birthday of MS-DOS. That’s because on this day in 1981, Microsoft rebranded the 8-bit operating system that it acquired as part of its contribution to the first IBM PC. [WP_IMAGE] I used DOS every day of my working life in the late 1980s and early to mid-1990s, and […]

[WP_IMAGE] The new release of Apple’s desktop operating system is certainly a leap ahead for the Mac platform in many ways. Mac OS X “Lion”-release 10.7-provides a better security architecture, new data encryption options and introduces user interface paradigms that foreshadow a time when gesture-based touch computing will be taken for granted. There’s no question […]

Launchpad Gives -Lion’ an iOS Feel OS X Lion features the Launchpad tool, which is meant to put all of ones applications at ones fingertips; could this be the first sign of a future merging of the OS X platform with iOS? A Replacement for Spaces Mission Control brings together all the applications currently running […]

MacBook Air combines power and lightness The new MacBook Air models became available in stores July 21; weighing less than 3 lbs., the 13-inch model shown here measures 12.8 inches across, and just under 9 inches from front to back. Storage and data ports On the right side of the 13-inch MacBook Air are (left […]

I have my own beefs with Lion, but something has surfaced that’s much more important than my petty concerns: the Time Machine backup tool in Lion doesn’t work with many NAS devices. Now, I’m surprised that there’s a problem; big OS releases always break third-party stuff, and in this case, it’s a conflict between Lion’s […]

I’m taking my first look at (Mac) OS X Lion this week, but so far, I can’t say that I’m happy with what I see. That’s because the user interface of Lion is a step backwards in so many ways that I’m going to sit out this release for a while. [WP_IMAGE] I would have […]