Photo by Milan Trykar. Courtesy of Snow Leopard Trust.

So here I was, trying to do something to heal the rift between Heidi and Lauren on The Hills. Suddenly, I realized it was almost time for WWDC.

Mind you, I wasn’t really that interested, since it seemed to me all of the chatter was about the iPhone. When people discussed the conference, all I could hear was “iPhone blah, blah, blah .Mac blah, blah, blah” and I quickly tuned out. That is, until I read about the supposed name of Mac OS X 10.6, or Snow Leopard.

According to this article, Snow Leopard is an evolutionary update (hence the code name), with the focus being not on new features, but stability and reliability. And, it could be all Cocoa.

And, in the biggest news, 10.6 marks the end of PowerPC support. Which means that those machines would be stuck on 10.5 in perpetuity.

While I would love to believe this, I don’t know. Seems a bit soon to end support for PowerPC machines. Plus, all Cocoa I don’t see happening for a while, if at all.

I guess we will find out tomorrow, but this sure does make WWDC a lot more interesting, at least for me.

Happy days are here again! Nisus Writer Pro 1.1 is now out and about. Thank you to everyone who contributed bug reports, feedback, and rants during the public beta period.

You can download this new version from our Pro download page. You can read about all of the new features, fixes, enhancements, and localizations in the release notes.

The system requirements are Mac OS X 10.4 and above.

Nisus Writer Pro 1.1 is a free update for licensed users of previous versions of Nisus Writer Pro.

So head on over to the Pro page and download that update right now!

Apparently management thinks that I am slacking off. No one has told me this, no one has to. I can sense it. And before you accuse me of being paranoid, let me just say that I am paranoid.

Having said that, let me introduce you to my shadow. He is grey, with four legs and big eyes. He doesn’t talk much, he just watches me. He won’t even tell me his name! He just sits in the chair next to me, watching, waiting for me to make a mistake. He even sleeps with one eye open, just in case I fall asleep, or watch a movie, or play a game. I know he is filing reports to ownership … he is very sneaky, this one.

Well, he won’t catch me. I am working like I have never worked before: hard. This spy in the house of Nisus will not get the better of me. I won’t give him the satisfaction!

Now where is my Call of Duty DVD?

Hey, what do you know: the World Wide Web as we know it is fifteen years old.

Happy Birthday, WWW!

I can remember when we first saw an Intel-based iMac in the office. Our jaws dropped when we saw how fast the thing booted up. Here is a consumer iMac, parked right next to a dual G5, and it just left that machine in the dust.

It was at that point that we knew our PowerPC machines were not long for the office. This has come to pass, as we all use Intel Macs and the PowerPC Macs are used as test machines only.

But I wasn’t so sure that those newfangled Intel Macs were going to catch on. After all, up to that point, Intel was the enemy. It was almost traitorous to consider anything other than a PowerPC powered Mac, right?

Well, I was dead wrong. Apparently Mac aficionados have embraced Intel as their own. According to the stats provided by the Omnigroup, a whopping 83.5 percent of their customers are using Intel-based Macs.

Excluding the new Mac users, which seem to be coming over in droves (Thanks, Microsoft!), that seems to mean that many of you die hard Mac users have dropped your PowerPC machines for Intel Macs.

I knew that eventually people would switch, but I didn’t think it would be this fast.

See, this is why I don’t gamble.

Here at Nisus we spend an awful lot of time talking about Nisus Writer Pro. So much so that Nisus Writer Express has started to feel a bit neglected.

However, Tom Dillon of MacApper gives Express some much needed love.

In his review entitled “Nisus Writer Express: The BMW of Word Processors?” Tom says “In short, Nisus Writer Express is everything a word processor for Mac should be: a combination of utility and elegance that just works.”

Check out Express for yourself if you haven’t already.

The Nisus Writer Pro 1.1 Preview Release is now available for download.

New features include Comments, Mail Merge, Go To Page, Page Borders, and a Large Caret option. The Macro language has been updated, and bugs have been fixed.

Nisus Writer Pro is a Universal Binary and you need at least Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger).

You can download this release from our Pro Preview page.

Disclaimer: Please remember that this is beta software, and is still in development. Please take appropriate caution. Use copies of important documents, for example. Read the release notes before using the software.

We offer no formal technical support for beta software, but remember that you can ask questions in our beta forum.

Enjoy!

We have been working pretty hard since Macworld on the next release of Nisus Writer Pro: 1.1. This new version, which is free to current license holders of Pro, will offer several new features.

A highly requested feature for Pro is comments. Comments that are compatible with Word. We have accomplished that, and have included a few nice touches as well.

We have added a comment history, which is a really nice way of grouping together related comments. This feature makes it easier to read all of the comments, as they do not clutter up your document.

You can also collapse and expand comments, if you are into that kind of thing.

Lastly, comments are also customizable.

We have also added Mail Merge, another highly requested feature. Mail Merge is pretty straightforward, with one twist: You can add custom bits of perl code as a placeholder. This addition adds flexibility and makes it very customizable. You can also preview the final output.

There are other features, such as Go to Page, and the addition of a Large Caret option. A number of new additions to the macro language have been made. And many bugs are being squashed.

The system requirements have changed a bit. You now need at least Mac OS X 10.4, as Panther (Mac OS X 10.3.9) is no longer supported.

We hope to release this update before the end of the second quarter of this year. I hesitate to say that, however, as unforeseen things happen. Let’s just say that is what we are aiming for.

(Edited 11 April 2008 for clarity)

I like simple technology. That is to say, things that are simple to use, and not too overloaded with features I probably won’t use. I don’t care about how it works, I just want it to work for me. It is a big reason why I like the MacBook Air so much. Nothing I don’t need, just the basics. I own a bottom of the line MacBook because I don’t need a DVD burner, and an 80 gig drive is enough for me. Compared to the Air, the MacBook is a heavyweight.

So when I saw that Martha Stewart is now the proud owner of a MacBook Air, I have to say that I feel … conflicted.

On one hand, it is pretty cool that a high profile media mogul is a Mac owner. On the other hand … It just feels weird. I mean, it’s Martha Stewart! Like … ewww! It just feels so dirty!

I guess my MacBook isn’t so bad after all …

Many moons ago we sold a product called Kyoto Gardens. It came from our partner in Japan, Mercury Software. We sold many copies of this CD, and it was popular for quite a while. But, as OS X became the Mac OS of choice, sales dwindled to almost nothing. (By the way, we still have a sealed copy of this version. If someone wants an older version, please let me know.)

Fast forward a few years and in early January of this year I received a package from Mercury. There was an updated version of Kyoto Gardens that was native for OS X. We ordered a few and it sold out pretty quickly. We ordered twice as many the next time and they sold out.

So now I have a bunch of these in stock. The good news is that back in the OS 9 days we used to sell Kyoto Gardens for $40. This new version, which is a Universal Binary, sells for $25 plus shipping. It’s a pretty good deal, I think.

Anyway, if you would like to purchase this new version, you can do so from our store.

Now back to your regularly scheduled silliness.

It’s early, and I must be losing it, because I am finding this very funny.

Enjoy!

We are always thrilled when we get a review of our products. We have received two reviews in the last few weeks, and in this case, we are over the moon.

A local magazine called ComputerEdge has reviewed Nisus Writer Pro. In this review, Wallace Wang says that “If you need only the power of Word 2008 without the complexity, then Nisus Writer Pro is the one you want.”

In his extensive review of Pro, Kirk Hiner sums it up by saying that “There are a lot of good word processors available for the Mac—some big, some small—so it becomes a matter of finding the one that offers the features you want set up in the manner in which you work. For me, that’s Nisus Writer Pro.”

Read the entire review at the Applelinks web site.

So this year is a Leap Year. Huh … who knew? Everyone but me, it seems.

I will make up for my lack of knowledge on this subject by running a Leap Year Sale. It works like this: From now until Leap Day, February 29, you can save 10 percent on Nisus Writer Pro. All you have to do is use the coupon “LEAPYEAR” in the shopping cart to get your discount.

Remember, this absolutely ends on the 29th of February, so be quick about it!

Copyright 2008 Jolanta Lewak

Yesterday we had some weather. For us here in San Diego, that’s news. Our county (San Diego County) ran the gamut: rain, sleet, slush, and snow. It rained hard enough that the streets flooded, and the area we park our cars was suddenly a muddy mess. There were some people visiting the local mountains that were caught off guard. They were stranded and had to be rescued. It was a bizarre day, to say the least.

Weather like this usually brings out the surfers, and yesterday was no exception. This picture was snapped in the middle of the afternoon, as the winds were howling from the east and the water was quite cold. This guy was going out just after the rain stopped. He was soon joined by more than a few surfers trying to catch a few waves.

Contrary to popular belief around here, I do not have a Pocky problem. Sure, I have an awful lot of Pocky around, but I can handle it, man. Dude, I can stop any time I want. I don’t need it, I just like it after dinner.

Look, I admit that I might have a bit more than I should. But I use it in moderation. I don’t have a problem!

Sure, I wear sunglasses when I eat my Pocky, but that’s because my eyes are sensitive to the packaging.

Hey, I am not hurting anyone. I like it, that’s all.

Get off my back, man!

In the January 2008 MacLife (formally MacAddict) Nisus Writer Pro was named an Editors Choice. Pro was also rated “Awesome”.

Needless to say we are both thrilled and humbled.

The author calls Pro a “worthy wordsmith” and writes that “Nisus Writer Pro is simple, responsive, and packed with useful features …” and goes on to say that “The Pro version positions itself as a heavyweight word processor for demanding users—and it’s much more pleasant to work with than Microsoft Word any day of the week.”

Music to our ears!

I have been trying to remember to post this now for a while, but I keep forgetting. However, I have been home sick for the last few days and this suddenly came to mind. The fact that I can get paid for doing this only sweetens the deal.

But I digress.

In an article titled “An Interface of One’s Own” Virginia Heffernan has a nice mention of “Nisus Writer”. I think she is talking about Nisus Writer Express, which Michael Chabon used to write “The Yiddish Policeman’s Union.”

In the end, it was just one sentence, but as our very own Mark Hurvitz says “It’s the New York Times!”

Indeed.

We also had a nice mention in the Seattle Post Intelligencer. Their reporter, Todd Bishop, came by the booth on the first day of Macworld and asked a lot of questions. Thankfully, we had answers. The article isn’t about us, but again, we love the mention!

This isn’t really about Nisus in the news, but I thought it was cool enough to warrant a mention. We were told at the show that the MacSpeech folks were using Nisus Writer Pro to demonstrate MacSpeech Dictate. How cool is that! I can’t wait to use that app … if it works the way I think it will, I won’t even have to type!

Yes, I am that lazy.

Sorry to be so late with this, but we have been pretty busy with … some things. Work being chief among them. Trying to catch up from a week at Macworld is a daunting task, to say the least. I tried to do it while I was there, but after 8 hours a day on the show floor, I don’t really want to think about doing even more work. But, since I don’t attend the parties, and I don’t drink anymore, I hang around the hotel and try to catch up.

Well, I would have if I could have stayed in a hotel that had a decent wireless connection.

Anyway, enough of that.

Overall, it was a fun show, but just didn’t have the buzz that last years show had. It would be very hard to live up to the show last year, with Apple introducing the iPhone. This year, as you know, we got the MacBook Air, Time Capsule (which I think was the best thing they introduced), updates to Apple TV, and the iPhone and iPod Touch. Good stuff, but not groundbreaking I think.

I still want a MacBook Air, but I am not quite sure why. I like the idea of it, and I could live with the compromises. But, and there is always a but, the price is a bit too rich for me. I also want a pony and I am not getting that either, apparently.

At the booth, we were often asked why we were wearing pants. I have no idea why people were asking this odd question. We handed out all of the CDs we brought for the show (no matter how many we bring, it just isn’t enough). We were also reprimanded for bringing CDs in the first place. Not good for the environment, it seems. I would love to not carry hundreds of CDs to the booth. If anyone has any ideas on how to handle that, please feel free to let us know.

We also had fun with the people in the booth near us. Very silly people, and we owe them a serious taunting.

Oh, and one last thing: food. Want a great sandwich while at Macworld? Wichcraft has some very tasty food, not to mention their fast wifi connection (thanks for the tip, Cabel!). If you want a world class dinner, try The House in North Beach. A bit pricey, and you need patience waiting for a parking spot to open, but absolutely worth it!

Now back to work, the lot of you!

My favorite booth at MacWorld featured adorable penguin and dragon USB thumb drives. Apparently the company is looking for an American distributor, so hopefully we can all have cute USB buddies helping us move our files around soon.

As I write this from the show floor it is day 3 of Macworld 2008. Plenty of press this year … more than I have seen in previous shows. The mainstream press is all over the floor, which is quite a change. Apple is now mainstream … that hit me yesterday and frankly it feels a bit weird.

The big buzz is about the MacBook Air (another name that I am just not going to get used to). Having seen it in the flesh, it is amazingly thin, and pretty powerful for what it does. You just want to make sure that it fits your needs. To me, though, Time Capsule is the star. That’s a neat piece of equipment that hopefully goes mainstream quickly. It is backup for lazy people. Very minimal set up, and from there you do nothing, Works for me!

As for Nisus, our booth is very busy. We are showing the latest versions and the upcoming Pro 1.1 (more on that later). The response to 1.1 has been fantastic, which is nice. We have a lot of loyal customers that come by the booth every year. Lately, we have a lot of new customers that come by the booth. We appreciate all who do come by, no matter how much we ignore you.

So if you are in town for the show or otherwise, come by booth W-4348. You can see the latest and greatest in Nisusland and be entertained by oddballs. Like me, for example.

Now I am off to see if I can figure out how to sell my Macbook to get a Macbook Air …