Retailing for a relatively hefty US$14.99, OmniGraphSketcher may initially leave you scratching your head and wondering exactly who the app's target audience is. OmniGraphSketcher offers a free-form drawing application for creating graphs and charts. With it, you can illustrate many kinds of numeric information, just as you would by using the chart features in a normal spreadsheet. However, OmniGraphSketcher isn't powered by spreadsheets. It's powered by human drawing, and that's a rather odd combination; it's also the application's main feature.

There's not a lot you can customize creatively when working with a standard spreadsheet graph. OmniGraphSketcher helps build persuasive illustrations that break the cookie-cutter sameness of pie-charts and bar graphs and hopefully brings design excellence to the table. This app isn't about mathematical precision, it's about beauty.

You choose the axes, the labels, the drawing style, and so forth. Like OmniGraffle, most of the functionality is placed into a pair of modes (line drawing and filled drawing, which I used to create the graph at the top of this post). An inspector popover lets you customize how each feature is colored.

The software is, clearly, first generation. I ran into a fair number of bugs both before and after Omni issued a bug-fix 1.1 release. Even now, you cannot easily move labels within a shape. I worked around this by creating separate labels and dragging them to where I wanted them to be rather than where the app wanted to put them. I could not order my objects back to front, but I realized that deleting a shape and undoing that action moved each shape to the front. (I initially drew the shapes purple, then red, then green, but wanted them ordered in the sequence you see above.)

I admit readily that I'm an engineer, not an artist. (The picture shows this quite clearly.) While the idea of creating artistically enhanced illustrations appeals to me, I have no talent whatsoever to really make the most of this application. I'll stick with spreadsheets, I'm afraid. For anyone who does have that artistic spark, you may find that this application will help you build those persuasive graphics, even when you're on the go.

Hands on with OmniGraphSketcher originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 22 Apr 2010 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Hands on with OmniGraphSketcher originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 22 Apr 2010 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Be sure to check all of our ongoing Snow Leopard coverage right here.

One of the biggest features of Snow Leopard isn't something apparent to the naked eye: software tweaks and refinements intended to make OS X a leaner, meaner OS for your fighting Apple machine. But is Snow Leopard really any faster? Now that I've successfully upgraded two Macs to Snow Leopard I've got some benchmarking results to share.

My Early 2008 MacBook Pro shipped with OS X Leopard 10.5.2 installed. I ran Geekbench on the stock OS X installation after upgrading the RAM to 4 GB to get a baseline for comparison of future performance. 18 months later I ran the same test immediately after updating to 10.6. Both tests were performed with Geekbench testing in 32-bit mode immediately after a restart, with no other programs open except the Finder, nothing loaded in Dashboard, and no Time Machine backup running.

Machine specs:

Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.60 GHz w/ 4GB RAM

Average Overall Geekbench score for this model of MacBook Pro: 3304

Read on for the scores.

Continue reading Benchmarking results: Is Snow Leopard really any faster than Leopard?

Benchmarking results: Is Snow Leopard really any faster than Leopard? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 02 Sep 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Benchmarking results: Is Snow Leopard really any faster than Leopard? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 02 Sep 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I was really disappointed when Google released their Chrome web browser for Windows only. When it comes to browsers, I've tried them all. Right now I regularly switch between Firefox and the latest nightly build from Webkit (essentially Safari). Firefox has the extensibility I rely on, while Webkit has the performance I crave. I had hoped that Chrome would magically combine those two crucial traits and become my new go-to browser. Unfortunately, Chrome is not yet nearly as extensible as Firefox, and isn't available for Mac (yet).

So imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon the latest experimental Firefox build from Mozilla, called Minefield. This Minefield should not be confused with the unofficial optimized builds of Firefox that Brett wrote about, which are also referred to as Minefield. Minefield is Mozilla's code-name for this generation of Firefox, and the code name is used for unofficial builds to avoid infringing upon the Firefox name.

So, what's so special about the Mozilla Minefield build? It's fast... smokin' fast. This is essentially a version of Firefox with the new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine under the hood, and as Ars Technica reports, it tests even faster than Google's V8 JavaScript engine.

As most Mac users have noted, Firefox is kind of pokey on the Mac platform, particularly compared with WebKit or even Safari, and even when compared with Firefox on a similarly spec'd Windows machine. Version 3 of Firefox was supposed to fix the performance problem, and while it's somewhat better, it's still not great.

Well, Minefield is great. Using Gmail or even a complex content management system is a breath of fresh air. I feel like my web apps are finally keeping up with me.

There's one caveat, and it's a big one: though the current version number is 3.1b2pre (the "b" denoting beta status), this is really alpha software. That means there will be bugs, and you will experience problems. Surprisingly, though, Minefield has been very stable in my testing -- not yet crashing in a full day of testing. I have restarted it a couple of times due to suspicion that something strange was going on, but I can't say for sure if it was.

If you use it with your regular Firefox profile rather than creating a new one, Minefield will complain that most of your extensions are not compatible. Using Nightly Tester Tools, I re-enabled all of the extensions that it disabled, and every single one of them appears to be working normally, even the complicated ones like Better Gmail 2 and TabMixPlus.

I've only had a problem with one site so far, but unfortunately it's a big one: Google Docs. The page simply won't load. But for now, I'm willing to open WebKit or Camino to edit my Google Docs, because I'm just too smitten with the raw speed that Minefield offers.

One last note: being a nightly build, you will likely find that new versions are available, well, nightly. Mozilla makes the process of upgrading to the latest version virtually painless by using the built-in version monitoring process that Firefox uses.

[via Ubuntu Unleashed]

Screaming fast Mozilla browser Minefield gives a glimpse of Firefox's future originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 26 Oct 2008 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Screaming fast Mozilla browser Minefield gives a glimpse of Firefox's future originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 26 Oct 2008 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We got to play two of Freeverse's current and future offerings this past week at 360iDev. Warpgate HD was the first -- it's out now on the App Store, and is due out for the iPhone and iPod touch. It was originally designed for the iPhone, but it ended up being a good fit for the larger device, so they readied it for a launch release. It's a fun title, although it doesn't quite take full advantage of the bigger hardware yet; as you play the space trading simulation, you get the feeling that there could probably be a little more to it on the iPad. It's still a fun title, though.

We also got to play their upcoming Pride and Prejudice and Zombies iPhone game adaptation, and being that we've been buddies with Freeverse ever since they were developing games for the Mac, we talked a little bit with them about their heritage and how their recent merger with Ngmoco has affected their outlook. Read on for more.

Continue reading 360iDev: Hands-on with Freeverse's Warpgate HD and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

360iDev: Hands-on with Freeverse's Warpgate HD and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 16 Apr 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

360iDev: Hands-on with Freeverse's Warpgate HD and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 16 Apr 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Click Here to Read the Original Article

Click Here to Read the Original Article

A long awaited telephone conversation in early in December 2009 with Nick Denton CEO of Gawker Media assured us that our response to the November Gizmodo article would get complete and equal "play-time". All we wanted was for the erroneous and false article as written and blogged about, to be removed because it violated Gawker Media's own Terms of Service. Instead we were told that we could provide our response to the Gizmodo article.

First of all we don't want to give Tom's Hardware or its self righteous and self absorbed writer Tuan Nguyen anymore "air time" than really necessary since ALL of what he has put forward is false uncredible and smacks of some fanatic that you see on the nightly news.

Second, Gizmodo did not endorse our company, they effectively reviewed our product approximately one year ago with some minor sarcasm targeted at the Mac Community.

Third, the only scams or frauds that has been committed is by Nguyen who received his product without paying, lied to the general public about his experience and grossly misrepresented the facts. Gizmodo is not innocent in all of this either because without any duty of care or due diligence, they assumed what was written by Nguyen was true without contacting the other side of the issue and that in and of itself, in our opinion is a crime.

All of this smacks of Nazi propaganda; Joseph Goebbels – If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.

The Gadget: MacPadd, the anodized aluminum mousepad meant to match the finish on newer MacBook and MacBook Pros. It's about the size of a standard mousepad, if slightly shorter than usual (but just as wide).
The Price: $25
The Verdict: Holy butterface, it works! We originally thought it would be little more than a gimmick; a shiny surface that looked great but tracked horribly. Untrue! As a mousing surface for laser and optical mice such as our favorite, the Logitech MX 1100, it works fine-or at least as well as normal mousepads.
It's also as weighty as you'd expect from something made out of metal, so there's the added bonus of it not flailing around as someone like Matt Buchanan vigorously plays Team Fortress 2, or like Jesus Diaz when he intensely photo shops Steve Jobs' face onto models (male and female). The undercarriage of the MacPadd is a gooey melted-marshmallow texture that holds the pad in place on your desk for added stability.
There are, as always, a few downsides. It's a few inches shorter in length than normal mouse pads-only one-and-a-half mouse lengths instead of about two-so you'll run out of room quicker. It's also hard (you know, metal) so you're more likely to scrape your wrist on the side as you're using it. And because it's made of aluminum, it's COLD. Using this in Chicago or New York during the winter would be a bad idea unless you had the heat turned up, but it's not too bad that you can't deal with it.
At $25 though, it's not too expensive, and should last quite a bit longer than normal pads that wear out over time from friction. And when it boils down to it, you know you want an aluminum mouse pad, and this is a good mouse pad.

Gizmodo did not mention anything about the MacPadd company, therefore this comment about "unintentionally endorsing our Company" is wrong.

Gizmodo relied upon someone else who has lied about his, capabilities, work experience, customer experience without reading the website about how we conduct business. The first lesson in life or as professional "see it for yourself".

We attempted to contact the author of the Gizmodo article but he refused to respond to our emails or phone calls. Is there any sense of fairness in this conduct in particular when you lie to the entire internet world in your article?

It is more disappointing that Gizmodo does not follow its own Terms of Service (TOS) whereby the commentary was false, slanderous and unfounded, in particular, related to privacy issues. We spoke to online business executives who take extraordinary measures to protect their own private lives so that they quite frankly are not subject to the likes of Nguyen and upon describing our experience, are appalled at the harassment and misreporting that we have been exposed to. Relative to business ethics the new targets for the social travesties in our country and afar has become the online channels.

The Consumertist reconsidered the information available and removed its article from its blog site December 10th.

Our website has been clear how we ship our product and the time factors involved. In addition, Nguyen just could not accept the fact, despite himself being born in Vietnam, immigrating to Canada and acquiring Canadian citizenship (now working in the USA without a Green Card) and having lived in Canada for 30 years could not remember or took the time to realize that Canada Post does not provide tracking numbers to USA addresses for the type of mail service (we use Small Packet Air).

Here are some facts and points related to the November 2009 Gizmodo review related to MacPadd;

• Gizmodo never endorsed MacPadd as company nor were they ever asked to, nor is this a practice on its blogsite
• Gizmodo asked to review our product
• Gizmodo was not "highly complimentary of our product" in the November 2009 review
• Gizmodo never made comment on the company selling it or any research on the owners or company itself.
• Gizmodo never endorsed MacPadd as a company
• Gizmodo has not done research on our company or product other than lies from Nguyen
• Gizmodo was not asked to own or disown the company
• Gizmodo exposes and comments in PRIVATE emails and alleged conversation of individuals against its own privacy policies
• Gizmodo did not validate the conversation with the individual who allegedly made the comments (they were falsely reported by Nguyen)
• Gizmodo commented "one sided" the information related to the conversation by a self serving individual
• Gizmodo staff refused to return our phone calls and emails
• Gizmodo has refused to remove false content contrary to their own Terms of Service (Gawker Media)
• MacPadd has a B+ rating with the Better Business Bureau
• Best of Media cannot be found as a valid USA corporation (their headquarters are in France)
• The long detailed account by Nguyen is again filled with lies and misinformation that Gizmodo did not take the time to determine if any of it was true or false.
• The Tom's Hardware article was entirely false

From our Canadian perspective, we now see how the USA became involved in a war in the Middle East in 2002. It was based on false information to the world by its generals, President and vice President wasting billions in resources, money and young lives. The media did not check their sources of information until log after the war had started and they pushed their agenda forward at the expense of soldiers and the country. The pattern seems to continue with Gizmodo.

This is the real and honest account and our position related to Nguyen.

• Why was Tom's Hardware reviewing a mouse pad? They have never reviewed this type of technology (?!?!?!) before!
• Does Tom's hardware have any qualified engineers on staff that could provide a credible technology review? Does Tom's hardware have any business graduates on staff that could comment on business conduct? And what about ethics?
• Was this incident a valid hardware review or just someone taking out their consumer anxiety on some small little company?
• When you buy a product do consumers look at the criteria on the website or do you establish your own standards for delivery or performance regardless of what is posted?
• Is a mouse pad considered hardware? Is this a continuation of the Mac Community hatred by Tom's Hardware or its writers?

Nguyen ordered two MacPadds Friday October 23rd 5:41 pm GMT (Friday evening after our office closing).
MacPadd did not address the order until Monday October 26th (the first business day after the weekend)

Nguyen received confirmation of his order from PayPal immediately upon placing his order.

MacPadd's policy is to have product shipped within 7 business days (see website) or in this instance to be shipped by November 3, 2009.

There were emails from Nguyen but there was nothing to report. Our experience with more advanced online order systems is that they have automatic responders identifying that the order is in progress. We do not engage in such services.

The product was packaged and labelled for shipping late October 29th and delivered to the post office Friday October 30th.

Nguyen issued a PayPal dispute Friday, October 30th at 3:41 pm GMT 5 business days after the order was received and 3 hours before his 13 calls to MacPadd owner's residence. MacPadd owner does not make his personal address available however, it was obtained by Nguyen and posted on Tom's Hardware site. A breach of privacy and its own Terms of Service.

MacPadd responded to the PayPal dispute to Nguyen at approximately 3:55 pm GMT identifying the shipment had been sent and would provide a tracking number (not remembering the order was from California however a Customs Declaration Form was available)

Friday evening, there were 11 telephones calls to the MacPadd owners residence (no one was home) (call display shows who calls and how many times). When the MacPadd owner arrived the call display showed the many phone calls but no voice mail. We received the 12th phone call at 7:09 pm that was threatening, abusive, intrusive and rude. Nguyen demanded a tracking number for the shipment.

Nguyen emailed my personal email address several times starting at 7:16 pm Friday evening;

David -

You have 10 minutes after this email is sent to reply with a valid tracking number for the 2 MacPadds.
Or else we will be forced to write an article about you and the company.

Regards /

Tuan Nguyen
Director of News Operations

In order to APPEASE Nguyen's time sensitive demand, MacPadd owner attempted to provide the tracking number from its paper files that evening. See email listing screen shot below.

MacPadd erroneously provided a tracking number that had a date of 2009/03/10 (March 10th) instead of the one that was 2009/10/30 (October 30th) not realizing Nguyen was from the USA.

Regardless and as a matter of fact, his order was manually prepared and no enhanced Canada Post tracking number was available however, the Canada/USA Customs Declaration forms were completed and provided as evidence in this document.

The 13th abusive and demanding telephone conversation Friday evening at 7:35 pm by Nguyen to the residence of MacPadd resulted in MacPadd stating that it no longer wants his business and is issuing a refund. Nguyen did not want a refund and refused several times however, MacPadd made the decision in order to avoid further conversations and confrontations.

MacPadd terminated the business relationship with Nguyen at 7:40 pm October 30th, Friday night, based on the 13 phone calls and demeanour of the telephone conversation and the emails.

From MacPadd's perspective there was no obligation or interest to continue any dialogue, provide any information in light of the refund. As a resolution to the PayPal dispute as filed by Nguyen Friday afternoon 3:41 pm, MacPadd authorized a refund as a resolution early Sunday morning November 1st at 5:01 am GMT. Based on the PayPal policies Nguyen's payment was held in abeyance outside of the control of MacPadd effective 3:41pm October 30th. There was no opportunity for fraud or "ripping him off".

See refund email confirmation screen shot. PayPal did not settle the dispute, QMS/MacPadd AUTHORIZED a refund to Nguyen. There were no innuendos relating to fraudulent activities by PayPal.

Throughout the weekend there were several threatening emails (see small sampling above) from Nguyen despite the issuance of a refund.

• MacPadd has been a product offering for 1 year with one BBB complaint (lost shipment by postal system) (except or Nguyen whose complaint was invalidated)
• MacPadd or QMS Inc has a B+ rating from the BBB
• MacPadd has never been contact by Police or FBI for possible fraud activities as Nguyen would have you believe
• The "rip-off" website information was brought to our attention for the first time and each issue as identified therein were addressed directly.
• MacPadd does not make false claims
• MacPadd has never committed fraud and never will
• Apple is aware of MacPadd and have considered selling the product on their website
• MacPadd met with and talked with several Apple representatives regarding the sale of our product. No concerns were expressed at the time of discussion.
• MacPadd is patent pending
• MacPadd has sold to over 8,000 customers

All of what has been attempted by Nguyen to discredit our practices and us has been refuted with evidence. What remains is the deranged self-righteous individual who himself and Tom's Hardware has a great deal to hide.

Tom Pabst of THG afraid to come to the US? (re: Fraud)

http://www.techimo.com/forum/imo-community/73275-tom-pabst-thg-afraid-come-us.html

How Tom's Hardware Pwnd the Industry Then Lost It

http://hubpages.com/hub/How-Toms-Hardware-Guide-pwnd-the-industry-then-lost-it

Slander at Tom's Hardware (by a former employee)

http://www.vanshardware.com/articles/2002/03/020317_THG_Slander/020317_THG_Slander.htm

Let's put this into perspective.

MacPadd is just a mouse pad!

The MacPadd product was created by the owner, for the owner. There were many other people who saw the idea as it was being developed and wanted it as well. If demand diminishes than the offering will shut down. It is not my livelihood.

The online business effort has been interesting and up to the date of the Tom's Hardware incident, a fun experience.

Finally, with Nguyen's allegations of fraud, this is a matter of perspective or better yet ignorance.

We researched the Tom's Hardware site to look for articles on Madoff, Ebers, Stanford, Global Crossing, Enron, MCI Worldcom just to name a few.
Despite these multi-trillion dollar frauds against the world, none of the Tom's sites has a single article about these financial and social travesties."

Somehow Tom's and Nguyen has now become an expert on fraud as both prosecutor and jury. It begs the question, what are the purported experience or educational qualifications of Tom's or Nguyen to make this kind of allegation?

Isn't ironic that a little $25.00 mouse pad can cause so much angst and anger while the accusers are in a state of moral and legal ignorance.

Gawker Media the owner of Gizmodo terms of service can best be distilled as follows and in its own words;

• Do not post threatening, harassing, defamatory, or libelous material.
• Do not intentionally make false or misleading statements.
• Do not offer to sell or buy any product or service.
• Do not post material that infringes copyright.
• Do not post information that you know to be confidential or sensitive or otherwise in breach of the law.
• Keep all comments relevant to the particular GM Site where the comment is being posted.

If Gawker Media receives notice that Material posted is not in keeping with these terms and conditions or the intended use of the Comments section where it is posted, we reserve to right to remove the material.

It is truly disappointing that Gizmodo would, themselves, post information on their blog site that is in contravention of its own Terms of Service (harassing, false, defamatory, misleading, etc.).

Definition of defamation (Wikipedia); is the communication of a statement that makes a claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may give an individual, business, product, group, government or nation a negative image. It is usually, but not always,[1] a requirement that this claim be false and that the publication is communicated to someone other than the person defamed (the claimant).

Tuan received his MacPadd and a refund. He has yet to return the product as instructed during our last conversation. If anyone could claim fraud or theft it is MacPadd on an individual who has not paid for a product he has admittedly received. This product we sent was not a gift.

QMS Inc nor McPadd has never or would ever contemplate or commit fraud. The challenge to anyone making the allegation is to prove it. Fraud in Canada is the intent to deceive. We have 8,000 customers that have not been deceived.

There have been instances where it seems either product has been lost in the mail (national postal systems) or customers have reported missing product in order to claim a refund. In this instance, the only entity that has been deceived is MacPadd by misreporting. We elected to use the USA and Canadian Postal Service. That is prevalent every step of the way in the advertising and purchasing process.

Relative to personal comments about myself, there was nothing that was consented to be public during our telephone conversations, nor did I authorize my personal information to be posted on Gizmodo or Consumerist or Tom's Hardware. Nor was it identified that any of what would be said would be twisted and manipulated for a media interview. In addition Nguyen took out of context and misreported the facts for his own agenda and deranged character.

For the record, during the 13th telephone call to my home, Nguyen asked what I was doing at that moment whereby I could not run to the office and get him his tracking number; I responded "I was having a drink with my wife". After all it was Friday night and we were starting to relax for the weekend. If that is a crime or a headline, then it should appear in every newspaper every week for over 175,000,000 people in North America, not just myself.

Tuan became more inquisitive and he asked what credentials I had to operate my business I responded with my professional and academic background (MBA, Engineer, Certified Management Account, I sit on the Board of Governors for our profession). There was no bragging, just responses to his personally intrusive questions. If I had known that any of this might have been fodder for an uncredible site like Tom's Hardware there would have been no conversation.

As the conversation became more bizarre and abusive I identified that the conversation was over and Nguyen was getting a refund. All of what was being said was weird. I won't get into the verbal exchange because quite frankly it was absurd, abusive and disrespectful. I did say that our business relationship was over and "get out of my life" after several threats. I do not apologize for my statement or position.

This statement made it clear that I did not want to talk to this person ever again and I did not want him calling my house ever again. Unfortunately that did not stop him, his friends or co-workers phone calls from continuing to call to harass and leave abusive messages (We had the police trace all phone calls and emails). None of what we have described should sound like a stable person or anyone I would want to do business with. We could advance our other findings in this matter but that would just cause the individual to become more self-righteous and create and post more falsehoods to satisfy his character and agenda.

The only fraud that has occurred in this instance is the multitude of falsehoods by Nguyen on his website and the breaches of Tom's Hardware own Code of Conduct, and Terms of Service.

I can assure you that because of this incident, the FBI, and Canadian Police Authorities (OPP) have been involved with respect to criminal and telephone harassment related to Nguyen and his followers. Fortunately the conduct, calls and emails have ceased. If anyone including the Gizmodo condones or wishes to incite threatening phone calls, emails or online conduct then that should be declared in your terms of service; but we thought Gawker Media had a better reputation than to condone that type of behaviour.

This is a record and statement of an incident falsely and irresponsibly reported by Tom's Hardware and Gizmodo. We applaud Consumerist who had the decency to realize a mistake and correct it. We believe Gizmodo should have enough character to do the same. Tom's Hardware and Nguyen are beyond hope and we are considering legal remedies in this matter.

David Free
The Creator of MacPadd

There have been incidental comments regarding our website statement that Macpadd and its resistance to the H1N1 virus. We state that we are one of the few if not only mouse pads whereby its surface can be "disinfected by a wipe" (Lysol or Clorox). Our product is currently are being considered in government and one of the largest hospital environments in Canada.