After getting my first Mac I was raving about the Mighty Mouse saying it was the best mouse in the world, but since then it has started to irritate me by not scrolling up for hours on end and then working again.

I spent hours cleaning the scroll ball the way Apple recommended and still no luck; a few hours later it wasn’t scrolling down again.

I did a bit of forum surfing to see if i could fix it a lot of people recommended to keep trying Apple’s method of cleaning which is to turn the mouse upside down and run the scroll ball on a slightly damp cloth. After hours of this I thought it was time to call Apple. They said they have a lot of problems with the Mighty Mouse scroll ball and that they would replace it free of charge because it was still in the one-year warranty.

I was a little unhappy that the Mighty Mouse had let me down after only six months. Maybe Apple should not be branding this as the Mighty Mouse because it’s not so mighty.

Apple showed off the next version of OS X at WWDC 08 this week saying it’s going to hit the pause button on new features. Apple says it is going to be focusing on making the OS more compatible with today’s multicore processors using a new technology called Grand Central, which allows applications to spread the load over multiple cores and processors. Its also helps developers create applications that can squeeze more power from these multicore processors.

Apple is also adding a new technology Open CL (Open Computing Language) which gives developers access to the vast power of the GPU. OS X 10.6 will also include out of the box support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 for push email, calendar, and contacts.

QuickTime is also receiving a workover with QuickTime X, a new platform for better media playback. We are also set to see the next iteration of the massively popular Web Safari; Apple says Safari 4 will have the the fastest implementation of JavaScript to date. Apple claims it will run up to 53% faster than the current JavaScript - this will make Web applications run more smoothly.

It seems Apple is committed to fixing the bugs in its operating system and it’s working to polish and perfect it, which brings me to the name Snow Leopard. Not a totally new animal; just a little different.

As many will know the iPhone 3G was launched at WWDC 08. During the keynote Apple showed off the new iPhone which has had a slight case redesign the metal back has gone to be replaced by a full plastic case for better signal and for the new gps chip.

Apple also showed off the iPhone SDK, which does look amazing, and last they showed some of the new features of the new 2.0 firmware but one of the things the iPhone has been missing is mms alot of people have been asking for this since day pne of the iPhone almost a year ago.

The only reason I can see that Apple has not introduced MMS is the fact that they do not want you to share your music or other media that has been purchased on the iTunes music store. Another thing people have been craving for is video recording on the iPhone. I am not quite sure why they have not added this yet as it is one the most asked for additions to the iPhone, With the launch of the app store there might be a third party application that can ad these missing features to the iPhone. Although I do love the phone, it’s still not perfect.

The official date of download day 2008 has been announced as June 17th. You can pledge here.

Sounds like a good deal, right? All you have to do is get Firefox 3 during Download Day to help set the record for most software downloads in 24 hours - it’s that easy. We’re not asking you to swallow a sword or to balance 30 spoons on your face, although that would be kind of awesome.

By the way, the official date for the launch of Firefox 3 will be posted here soon - http://www.spreadfirefox.com/en-US/worldrecord/ - so check back! Join our community and this effort by pledging today.

The apple iMac has just received a long predicted update which has brought faster processors and new graphics cards.At the bottom end of the line up is one of the 20 inch iMacs which has been boosted up to a 2.4ghz processor and at the top end of the line up is the 24 inch iMac with a 3.06ghz processor. All the new processors have 6mb of l2 cache and a faster 1066mhz front side bus. all specs are listed below.20″, 2.4GHz, 1GB RAM, 250GB Hard Drive, ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT 128MB,20″, 2.6GHz, 2GB RAM, 320GB Hard Drive, ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO 256MB, 24″, 2.8GHz, 2GB RAM, 320GB Hard Drive, ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO 256MB, 24″, 3.06GHz, 2GB RAM, 500GB Hard Drive, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS 512MB  more details can be found at http://www.apple.com/imac/ 

Apple has released safari 3.1.1 for mac osx and it mainly consist of bug fixes and security patches. Safari 3.1.1 is available through the software update utility and also from apple.com/downloads

Were to start, After using vista for a few months i got my mac and i fell in love with the operating system. I found i moved around my computer and hard drive contents using leopards finder faster then i did using windows explorer the side bar in finder is quite a lot easier to use the fact you can just drag and drop things into it makes my life so much easier. Another feature vista fails on is backing up your files. Windows fans will say vista has shadow copy but shadow copy backs up to the same hard drive as the operating system which means if the hard drive fails you loose all your data and the back ups were a waste of time. On the other hand leopard has the amazing time machine plug any external hard drive leopard will ask you if you want to use it a time machine drive and it will back up onto the drive keeping your info safe away from your main hard drive. Another feature windows has no equivalent to is web clips which cuts a part of a website and saves it to your dashboard as a widget. Another little thing that i love about leopard is that i can define my own keyboard shortcuts and re-map the one set by apple. Another feature in leopard that vista has no equivalent to is spaces as many will know spaces is a feature which gives you the ability to have up to 16 virtual workspaces rather then having a large monitor or dual monitors i find spaces a great feature i could not life without as it makes me so much more productive when working as i can different things open in different spaces. To be honest i think windows is starting to fall behind and they will really need to do something special in there next operating system to regain my attention. I’am not saying that leopard is perfect because no operating system is but leopard comes much closer to the perfect mark then vista is.    

As this little trend of reviews of a recent Apple purchases is moving on I thought i would review the mac mini. I will start with the packaging, I was pleasantly surprised by the packaging and the very high quality when you look at the inside of the box you see a lot of time has gone into designing the way every thing goes into that little box, so I would have to give Apple top marks for there packaging its simply far better than any other pc manufacturer I have ever purchased from. On to the actual mac mini, I purchased the base system the specs are as follows 1.83GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor with 2Mb of shared L2 Cache1Gb of PC5300 667MHz DDR2 memory Intel GMA950 GPU 80 Gb Hard drive Slot loading combo drive1 Fire Wire 400 port4 USB ports DVI output10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet portAudio in and out portsAirport Extreme WiFi 802.11gBluetooth with EDR ( enhanced data rate ) I Decided on this system because i was totally new to the macintosh and was not 100 percent sure i would work well with it. ascetically the mac mini is great looking little machine and its hard to believe that they fit so much into such a small case, styling wise i’am a big fan of the way Apple make there products look clean and fresh. Back of the mac has so many ports it is so tightly it can be a little hard to somethings in and out if you swap usb devices a lot you may struggle. This brings me on to one thing about the mac i had more of usb ports, For me four is not enough i ended up buying a external usb powered hub to give me some extra usb ports, As I consider my self a bit of a power user i often use a lot of different usb devices. I was again surprised that the mac mini would power a 23 inch monitor, I have it set up on my 22 inch acer p223w at a resolution of 1680 x 1050 and it looks fantastic and with spaces activated i can optimise a massive amount of screen real estate. The internal speaker of the mac mini is rather weak but most will have there computer set up with some generic speakers. The Wifi strength is also very impressive to i have not dropped the connection since i set it up. One of the big sealing points of the mini for me was the virtually silent computing experience, I have it sat about two feet away and cant here a thing which is a big change from most of the other pc’s I have owned. The one thing that makes the mac mini great is the operating system I honestly believe this little machine my make me leave the windows world for the foreseeable future. So if your a windows user wanting to try something new the mac mini is the cheapest way to try a macintosh and another good thing is if you don’t like mac osx macintosh’s generally hold there value more then any other type of computer so you could always sell it and make most of your money back.              

  The Apple wired mighty mouse is definitely one of the best mice i have used coming a close second to the Logitech MX revolution which has to be the best mouse to use in the windows world but osx is a totally different world, As you would expect the mighty mouse works fantastically with osx. The design is a one piece shell some love it some hate personally i really like it, the mouse has a small scroll ball which i enjoy using more then a scroll wheel. The scroll ball also acts as a third mouse button and is pre set to bring up dashboard in osx, There is also a button on each side of the mouse and with a gentle squeeze of the buttons it will activate expose. Most of the mouse buttons can be configured to do a number of tasks by going to system preferences and then mouse and keyboard. one thing i love about the mighty mouse is the way it feels in the hand its so comfortable to use were as some generic mice feel a lot bigger in hand, One little niggle i have with this mouse is the secondary click, because it is touch sensitive i find my self having to lift up my index finger off the mouse shell to activate the secondary click, Its not a real problem its just one of those things you need to learn if your switching from the windows world, All in all i really do enjoy using the mighty mouse and if your using mac osx i would definitely recommend the mighty mouse. One of the best mice i have used in a very long time.