Official iCreate Blog > OS X

There’s a sea of web browsers for Mac OS X out there so it’s only when a more unique take on the standard navigation tool appears that we ever get interested.

Flock is one such app. Built on Mozilla’s Firefox 3 Technology, it taps into the world’s infatuation with social networking and sharing within a slick and very Mac oriented interface.

Scooping a slew of awards from a Webby to a top ten listing in PC World’s 100 Best Products of 2008, Flock is constantly evolving and is now available in 2.0 Beta form.

So what’s the big deal? Well, if you’re one of those web users who always has a Facebook page open or can’t resist a quick skim across comments on Flickr photos or YouTube videos, Flock makes the process far simpler. Integrating the most popular social websites like those mentioned above and many more, Flock negates the requirement of navigating to a page to view, connect and share – it’s all in the browser interface. Send photos to friends on Facebook by dragging and dropping, check messages on Twitter, share links and text and much more.

A “Gloss” edition of Flock now brings you the latest in fashion and entertainment gossip across the web should you require it.

Setup is as smooth as can be with a simple login to your chosen site being enough for Flock to create your own sidebar or account within the browser. Facebook is a classic example here with a list of your friends appearing in a bar at the side of the browser showing their picture, status and more. You can even drag and drop images and links on to a user’s profile to share with them instantly.

Whether you’re into social networks, photos, blogs, media or news feeds, Flock has something for you. There’s even a built-in media bar that scours sites like Picasa, Truveo and YouTube, a feed reader for RSS and a blog editor for the most popular blogging apps.

It sounds crass and clichéd but Flock, that dubs itself “The Social Web Browser”, is just downright sociable. From the feature set through to the cute interface it’s an App no Mac fan or web fiend should overlook.

www.flock.com

I admit it. I bought an XBox 360.

Well come on, until Apple really goes for it and launches a games console (not the Pippin!) I didn’t have much choice. I had a Wii for a while (because it seemed the most Apple-esque choice) but it didn’t quite cut it against the next-gen breed. 

So…I’ve had this Microsoft product in my home for a fortnight now. All has been good and, I hate to say it, I’ve enjoyed using it. I bought the top of the line Elite model and a bunch of games and, despite it looking like a VCR or some kind of high tech shoebox, things have been fine.Today I come home looking to settle down for a quick game of Call of Duty and what happens… the disc drive is emitting some kind of buzzing sound and no game can be read. I knew the last 14 days had been too good to be true.

Online I hop and, lo and behold, literally hundreds of people have had this problem if not thousands. Apparently it’s my fault. I should have made sure my XBox was kept cool and rested on its side!

What the @$%&!? 

There are some things I don’t need to be warned about. I know the coffee in my cup is hot and I know that smoking kills.What I didn’t know was that if you position an XBox in one of the ways it’s built to sit/stand it will break. I also didn’t know that if you allow an XBox to heat up to anything close to room temperature, it’ll break.

So Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is sitting out in Vegas at the moment complaining that the MacBook Air is too heavy, he’s moaning about the iPhone price, always dissing Apple. Ok Steve, at least when Apple brings a product to market, “It just works”. The bastard child of Sloth from The Goonies and an albatross can blindly tout Vista as a revolution and Windows Mobile as groundbreaking but can he honestly say that any of his products really face up to actual use and tests of functionality?

I’ve had a MacBook for two years. No faults. An iMac which I’ve had fixed once in 5 years of ownership and an iPhone thats been dropped, knocked and had a cigarette put out on its screen and it still works, still looks great. All of the above run Mac OS X by the way. Any problems with that? No. Even after upgrading to the latest OS which (unlike Microsoft’s effort is better than the previous version).

I’ve had an XBox less than half a month and its stopped working.

Another admission: I’ve owned an XBox before. The original model. What happened to it? The drive broke. Then the HD. Then some kind of video fault developed. All within one year.

I’m the idiot here. I naively thought that, as much as its operating system is a pile of the proverbial, Microsoft had its games devision nailed and would certainly have been committed to more stable hardware after many issues with the original XBox model. Man was I wrong.Knock it together, fire it out to the masses, pay the price when a huge percentage of the products fail.

The guy who sold me my XBox tried to push me onto a PS3, citing the “hundreds” of returns he’d been plagued with since he began stocking the XBox 360. I wish I’d listened to him. I wish I’d taken his advice, given my money to another company that cares about the end user, cares about products standing the test of time and cares about quality.As we well know, Microsoft is not a company on that list. 

I’m the sucker for thinking things couldn’t possibly get any worse.

So, to Evil Steve (Ballmer): Screw you, your stupid dancing antics, your sweating and your mangled vocal chords.

To Good Steve (Jobs): It’s time to bring out yet another device to shame the morons at Microsoft.