james polits

I wouldn’t say I am an adict, but I am on Facebook at least twice a day. Catching up on the lives of my friends is a fun way of wasting fifteen minutes. And with it’s Facebook’s user numbering more than 150 million people, I’d say a lot of people feel the same way.

Recently, I was given the book The Facebook Era by Clara Shih. The book brings to light the power of using Facebook as a business tool, not just a personal social network platform. It’s pretty impressive the ways business are using Facebook. I had no idea. (more…)

Sooner or later everyone needs to upgrade their computer. I’m in the “sooner” category. My 5 year old Powerbook just isn’t cutting it when it comes to render times and streaming HD video.

Recently, I’ve had my eye on a new iMac. They are about a million times faster than my old computer, bigger screen real estate, and they are just sexy. And their price tags start at a whopping $1200.

Despite my deep longing, if not need, I can’t justify $1200 on a new computer right now. Most people are in the same boat right now with the economy as bad as it is and not many people feel completely secure in their jobs. So buying a new computer drops down on the priority list.

Well, if you still long for a new computer, there is a great way to cut down on the cost: buy refurbished. A refurbished computer is one that was returned due to some sort of malfunction, fixed and given a clean bill of health, and then resold for a reduced price.

In the Apple Store online, there is a section specifically for refurbished Macs. I’ve seen a $1500 iMac for $1050. That’s a stinkin’ stellar deal! The only catch is that you can’t customize the machine’s add-ons and you never can be certain what sorts of refurbished machines they will have available. So, unless you are really picky about your needs or are looking for something specific in a hurry, this is the way to buy a new (practically) Mac.

That’s what I’m gonna do for my next computer.

Being the technoholic that I am, I downloaded and installed Safari 4 Beta as soon as I heard about it. In the past, I’ve not been a huge Safari fan and would only use it to see how sites loaded and functioned compared to Firefox. It seemed like a average, simple browser. With that said, I had low expectations when I fired up Safari 4.

There are some great features included in this version. Top Sites is a visual bookmark implementation that suggests websites that you frequently visits. It also updates and includes a live preview and an graphic to let you know that the site has new content since last visited. Another feature that I really like is the Tabs-On-Top (as I call it). It saves screen real estate by putting the tabs where the window title was instead of below your bookmark toolbar.

Aside from some of the neat features taken from other browsers (Top Sites = Opera’s Speed Dial, Tabs-On-Top = Chrome’s tabs) that I love, Safari 4 is stinkin’ fast! It absolutely blows my Firefox 3 setup away. It’s not one of those “it’s faster on paper, but you can’t tell” things. Once you open it up, you’ll be able to tell the difference.

If you want some non-Apple stats on Safari 4, Mac Rumors posted an article with some tips and tricks as well as a link to speed test that CNet did.

There has been quite a bit of buzz surrounding Chrome’s (Google’s web browser) graduation from beta. Gizmodo thinks that the non-beta Chrome will start stealing browser market-share because the all-powerful Google will now be pushing their browser and instead of Firefox.

Back in 2005, Google was paying good money to people who referred Friefox + Google Toolbar downloads. With their help, Mozilla’s Firefox gained a lot of attention and downloads. It became the major competition to Microsoft’s IE. However, now the non-profit Mozilla will be up against the big-money of Microsoft AND Google.

Only time will tell how the browser war will pan out. I just hope IE looses a few points.