So for awhile now I've been half-thinking in the back of my mind that I need to refresh myself on the HTML specs for input elements, since in Safari I wasn't able to tab through forms as intended. For example, when I'm logging into certain websites like Good-Tutorials, I want to just keep tabbing through the form fields, hit the checkbox, tap spacebar to check the checkbox and then hit return to submit the form. In other words, I want to be able to use forms without having to move my hand back to my mouse where possible.
I always thought this was some inherent problem with form fields (that checkboxes needed a separate attribute to determine the tab order or else you couldn't tab to them), but after looking for a different thing I stumbled on the Keyboard preference pane in Leopard. (I'm not sure if this is Leopard-specific at this point- if you can verify this, let me know.)
To enabling "proper" tabbing, go to the keyboard shortcuts sub-pane and on the bottom is a section for "Full Keyboard Access". Make sure "all controls" is selected, and reload your web pages and you should be able to tab as intended now. I checked and Firefox is prone to this too, so this option fixes the behavior in that (presumably in all browsers as well).
Currently I'm primarily Mac-less, since I'm in limbo waiting for a new iMac to be shipped. That means I'm relegated to using my MacBook, which, while I love it, is just not my primary development and all-around-life machine. I do pretty well in terms of mobility- my email is pulled via IMAP so all of my email, folders, and message read settings are constantly up-to-date whether I'm on any of my Macs, iPhone, or web browser, but there are some things that I still find missing. Namely, iCal and Address Book.
The "official" way to do this is via .Mac or other pseudo-.Mac service. But, while I really could use that seamless up-to-dateness, .Mac, at this point in time, simply doesn't add a lot of benefit for me for how much I'd have to pay for it. This is a common complain for .Mac, really, and I'm not the only one noticing this. I've been hoping for Apple to revamp .Mac to make it more useful (or drop the price on its current offerings), but they're just not quite there yet.
So as a hint to iPhone users out there: I've found that the iPhone's multi-sync capability works well in this regard, particularly if you don't necessarily need up-to-date changes pushed to all of your Macs. Just connect your iPhone to your second Mac, then you can go into the "info" tab and check off what you'd like synced on the new machine. When you press "sync", iTunes will give you the option on whether you'd like to wipe your phone with data from your second Mac, or if you'd like to merge your details between your phone and your Mac (which is what you'd probably like). Sync it up, approve any iSync conflicts, and you're good to go.
So the Apple rumor world is all about the idea of brushed metal iMacs, which the possibility as dropping on us as soon as next week at WWDC. I think it's interesting. I own a G5 iSight model iMac, which is starting to somewhat show its age (missing out on Parallels and VM Fusion on my primary machine makes me cry), but all in all, I really love the iMac form factor. Screen looks great, the lines are clean, and having everything right in front of me is convenient.
Having a brushed aluminum iMac, much like the Pro series of Apple's lineup (Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, Xserve, etc.), brings up the idea of making it look like regular Cinema Displays, which makes sense. I think the most tantalizing notion to come out of this rumor is the idea that they can somehow drop the "chin" on the bottom of the iMac and have it look nearly identical to Cinema Displays. That way you'd get the natural option to pick up an iMac and then pick up an extra Cinema Display to dual-screen with, and the bevel would match between the two. Although, to do that you'd have to think they'd have to make the whole iMac deeper than it already is.
And then this also gets some people talking about the breakdown between Pro and Consumer additions of Apple's hardware. Typical Pro hardware got the brushed metal look, and consumer hardware got the shiny, translucent white look (or, with the MacBook, black). It might just be a lot of speculation (as all rumors are), but maybe the iMac is going to be transitioned more towards the Pro end. With rumors of the Mac Mini getting retired (which I'm still not sold on), perhaps there will be a replacement for both the Mini and the current consumer-level iMac. Oh, speculation, how much fun (and worthless) you are.
At least this is less speculation than normal- we'll find out in less than a week.
This is possibly something that I should have discovered quite some time ago, but I just stumbled on it today: enabling auto spellcheck in various applications.
I've been using OS X like a fiend the past 2-3 years or so, and I'd consider myself to be fairly advanced at this point. I've used spell check frequently before via the highlight -> click method, and silently griped about a lack of auto spellcheck in Safari's text fields. Well, looks like it was just one click away the whole time. Just right click on a text field in any application, go to "Spelling", and select "Check Spelling as You Type". Love it.
All thoughts on the switch to Intel aside, and the solid performance of new Macs like the Mac Pro and the MacBook Pro (which are some very substantial thoughts), I was reflecting lately on the new strides made in the application front.
Apple and its third party developers have usually been at the forefront of software development, particularly in terms of UI and aesthetics. But there's some really cool things happening specifically right now. Web development is making some huge strides, for example. Being a UNIX-based system, OS X has been able to run industry standard software like Apache for awhile, but there's some interesting new additions coming up, notably built-in support for Ruby on Rails in Leopard. But there's some amazing apps that define web development gaining prevalence. Here I'm speaking mostly of TextMate (which just blows my mind every time I use it), although a case could be made for Panic's Transmit, too. Panic's Coda is the newcomer to what might be the "next big thing". With apps like these, it's no wonder that a lot of developers are starting to switch. I'm told that at most RoR conferences, you're in the distinct minority if you're toting a laptop not made by Apple.
It's not all for developers, though. Adium is perhaps the gold standard for IM clients, and, as of yesterday or so, I'm finally happy to throw in my support for a BitTorrent application: Transmission. Transmission has always been a decent application, but with the new update that came out, it doesn't have issues with trackers anymore and the UI has really evolved into something really slick. And, while I haven't had a chance to play with the new version yet, HandBrake's looking really nice. Oh, and how can anyone forget possibly the best app ever created: Quicksilver.
New app releases like the past couple of weeks keep me pretty optimistic about the future of OS X, and the future of Apple in general. I can't wait to see how the iPhone turns out (and the 3rd party apps/widgets that will be developed even without official support for it).