I tell everyone I meet who asks about my MacBook that I love it. Sure I’ve had some problems with the hardware replacing the fans, but other than that, nothing. The Software, OS X, Safari, and every other app I generally use on the Mac are stellar. I have never really had an issue, until now.

I typically use Safari for my browsing needs. Firefox always seems sluggish and continues to be a memory hog (probably more due to the extensions I have installed than anything else). I just use it for the moderate amount of web development I do. So for the most part, I stick with Safari. However lately, I have noticed that it crashes quite often on me. I might have a handful of tabs open with GMail, Facebook, ESPN, and a few other pages going, but nothing crazy. That little annoying colored pinwheel pops up and then blam! Safari crashes, asking me to report a problem.

I don’t remember this happening this often, if at all, with Safari 3.x. What has Apple changed? I’m hoping that Snow Leopard and any updates there might right the ship. But I won’t hold my breath. Is anyone else out there having similar issues with Safari 4.0?

I have a HP Photosmart 7200 Series Ink Jet printer. It’s convenient that OS X has what seems to be every printer driver under the sun installed as part of its system so you can plug in almost every printer and have it work (except a stupid all-in-one Dell printer my fiancee has). So more times than not, as long as all of the cords are plugged in, my printer works the way I want it to. That was until today.

The color cartridge in my printer is shot. Hardly any color comes out on the paper at all. Since I’m cheap, I haven’t gone out to the store to purchase a replacement yet. I needed to print a gift certificate from a web site for dinner tonight, but it wouldn’t print properly since the color cartridge was trying to print the parts of the document I really needed (a certificate # to be specific).

So, I did some Googling to find out how to just print in black & white. You’d think this would be simple since OS X is so easy to use, right? Not quite. It turns out, to print in black & white you have to do the following:

• Save the page as PDF
• Open in Preview
• CMD+Print to open the Print Dialog
• Click Paper Type/Quality
• Click Color Options
• Select the Black Printer Cartridge Only radio button

Now, I understand this might be a little out of the norm, but I think it should be way easier to do this from the browser than going through all these steps. Maybe I missed something along the way, but this was the only way I could get black only printing to work. Hopefully this is helpful for someone else out there who’s having the same issue.

I just checked Software Update on my MacBook Pro and noticed that Leopard 10.5.2 is available (there’s also a post here on Digg). That made sense since it appeared the entire world was after it since it took about 5 minutes for Software Update to do its thing and check for all the available updates.

The download comes in at a heafty 180MB. Not quite as big as I had heard in the various article I’d read about the developer seed downloads. Lets hope it fixes some of the lingering issues from the initial update. My biggest issue is that the Synergy screen sharing software doesn’t work (maybe some network issue) and with the desktop updating and some quirks with spaces. Anyway, my update is downloading as I write this and I’m anxious to have it installed to see what’s in here.

Steve Jobs and Apple announced Apple TV Take 2 at the MacWorld Keynote this morning. Lots of cool features:

• Movie Rentals
• HD Movies with Dolby 5.1
• Podcasts – Audio & Video
• Photos from Flickr & .Mac
• YouTube Integration
• Buy TV Shows & Music
• Play iTunes Content & Photos

And it sells for just $229.

Obviously Apple is positioning itself to sell content and a hardware device to potential non-mac users, much like they did with the iPod. Steve Jobs even said they got it wrong with Apple TV Take 1, as did all the other players in this market. But Steve, I think you guys are still missing one important feature. DVR! As far as I know (and I might be wrong here), you can’t DVR your shows from your TV to your Apple TV. Only take content from Apple TV and display it on my television. Integrating digital recording would make this a powerful device, one that I’d consider buying to replace the DVR from my cable company.

Anyone out there aware of why this limitation is in place? Is it a hardware issue with the footprint they put in place for the device? Are there licensing issues with the media moguls. Hopefully I can find some answers to these questions and post them here.

I had been putting of buying an iPod for quite some time now. The time just hadn’t come where I could justify spending the money when I wasn’t sure I was going to use it. But, I don’t have to wait any longer as I was a happy recipient of an 8GB Nano for Christmas! I’m really excited to have one now as its that time of year when its time to hit the gym (especially with a wedding coming up in 6 months). I’m also wondering if I’ll enjoy listening to it while mountain biking, though I’m wondering if that could be a tad dangerous.

The Nano’s have come a long way since the original iPod Mini. Obviously they’ve gotten smaller and have a larger song capacity than ever, but even the interface has gotten better. I think my favorite feature so far is the integration of Cover Flow when browsing the Nano. That’s how I browse my music in iTunes and being able to do that seamlessly on the Nano is key.

Unless I’m on the move, I typically I have my MacBook Pro “docked” with an external keyboard, mouse, and display. This is a habit I picked up from Kyle plus that fact that the new MacBook Pro’s get really, really, REALLY hot. That being said, I’d like a new monitor for home. But one of the biggest annoyances when docking my MacBook is that now I’m sans iSight. Total crap.

My request to Steve Jobs and the rest of Apple: Cinema Displays with built in iSight. Please. I’ve heard rumors of them forever and I’m almost expecting them next month at MacWorld. If they don’t come out I’m going to be totally bummed. Mostly because I can’t imagine this would be hard or costly for Apple to do. It also seems like the next logical step when refreshing the “pro” line like they did with the new iMac and its cool, sleek design.

I’d buy another brand display, but really, nothing compares the the quality of the current Cinema Display in my opinion. Yeah, you can probably get more “bang for your buck” or whatever that means, but I’d prefer an Apple. So Steve, whadda ya say ‘ole chap?