Mac misc.

Random Mac thoughts on a Wednesday afternoon:

Upgrading to MacOS 10.4.3 has so far been a very smooth operation on all my systems. The only problems I have noted are that the initial restart after install took about 5 minutes, and that my spotlight indexes got rebuilt by the OS, resulting in a lot of disk grinding for the first 15 minutes or so after startup. But, that being done, I've noticed Spotlight is much faster and, well, actually useable now.

Apple's new iMac comes with two new software applications not available separately from a new iMac, Front Row (for controlling media) and PhotoBooth (for taking silly snapshots). Both of these have been, uh, liberated on the Internet thus allowing all Mac users to give them a try. My verdict: Front Row is a cool interface, but it is really designed for a TV, and until Apple builds a tuner into the iMac or provides an easy way to get video out of a Mac, it is just a toy. PhotoBooth is also a toy, but that is what it is supposed to be. It is a lot of fun, in a goofy way, and hopefully Apple will provide it as a download for anyone who owns an iSight camera, and not just for purchasers of iMacs.