I’m finally opening up the betas of my Mac app, WebnoteHappy Lite. I’ve been conducting private betas since September. I’ve gotten good feedback, but I’m looking for more so I’m opening up the latest beta to the public.

What is WebnoteHappy Lite and just what is a webnote? Here’s a quote from the download page:

WebnoteHappy Lite lets you write a note for any web page that interests you, creating a bookmark in the process. But “web page bookmark with a note” is kind of long, so let’s just call it a “webnote”.

You can write just a one word tag or you can write a novel.

Later, browse through your webnotes or search to find the web pages that matter to you.

So download a copy of WebnoteHappy Lite. It runs on Mac OS X Tiger (10.4) and is freeware!

Please tell me what you like and don’t like about it, what uses you find for it, and perhaps suggest a feature for the Pro version to feedback@happyapps.com. Thanks! – Luis

I’ve got an iCurve on my desk, which makes my PowerBook be at the right height for ideal ergonomic usage. Well OK, actually its a little more complicated than that, since I have my desk cranked down so my hands are perpendicular. So I actually have the iCurve BOX on top of my desk and then the iCurve on top of that and finally the PowerBook on top of the iCurve. It doesn’t look as bad as it sounds because the iCurve packaging is quite sleek. I think it gives the appearance that my PowerBook is floating in the air.

Anyways, recently my PowerBook started sliding a bit when I placed it on top of the iCurve. And then a bit more. This is pretty disconcerting since I don’t want my PowerBook to take a nasty fall.

It looks like I’m not the only one who has this problem, as Tom Bridge writes:

But lately, the little grip pads on the arms have lost their grippyness, and so, once an hour, I have to slide my laptop back up the arms so it won’t tip over on my desk.

What’s the solution? I just wiped the grip pads with a dry paper towel. They had accumulated some dirt and oil over the past year and a half. Now my PowerBook is safe and secure again on my iCurve. :)

Paul Graham writes in Return of the Mac:

In the matter of “platforms” this tendency is even more pronounced, because novel software originates with great hackers, and they tend to write it first for whatever computer they personally use. And software sells hardware. Many if not most of the initial sales of the Apple II came from people who bought one to run VisiCalc. And why did Bricklin and Frankston write VisiCalc for the Apple II? Because they personally liked it. They could have chosen any machine to make into a star.

Now I don’t know if I’ll sell any Mac hardware because of my apps, but maybe I’ll entice a few people to move to Tiger.

What I do know is that I love my Mac and I love writing software. So the two go hand in hand, like chocolate and peanut butter.

I took a trip to the Tyson’s Corner Apple Store today. It was PACKED full of Christmas shoppers buying iPods, Macs, and accessories. But I was there to check out the new PowerBooks.

Why? Aren’t I content with my 17″ 1.33ghz PowerBook G4? Yes I am. Its the best computer I’ve ever had and is the answer to my dreams of combining a great user experience, rock-solid stability, full UNIX underneath, great apps, all in a portable computer. Oh and I love the instant on / instant off with the opening / closing of the lid. There’s more love here, but I’ll save it for another post.

I went to check it out because the new 15″ and 17″ PowerBooks have more pixels. Maybe it doesn’t seem as sexy as a G5 under the hood, but I think it is a great trend: towards more screen space on laptops.

My current 17″ is 1400 pixels wide and 900 pixels high. At the time, it was the largest number of pixels on a laptop that is still readable. I make that caveat because I’ve seen PC laptops that had a lot of pixels, but were basically illegible. So the owners tweak the system font size and Windows looks even worse than it usually does.

So I was concerned that the 15″, which is smaller physically, but which now has slightly more pixels than my current 17″ would be illegible too. The 15″ is 1400 wide and 960 high.

I’m happy to say that it looks great. I’d highly recommend it if you need a new laptop, since it combines the screen space that can make you more productive along with the portability of the 15″.

On to the 17″: On New Year’s Day, I had a bit of fun and made some predictions, one of them being that Apple would introduce a 20″ PowerBook G5. Well, we’re still waiting for the G5, but Apple essentially gave us the 20″ part. The reason is because the 17″ PowerBook now has the screen space, pixel-wise as a 20″ Cinema Display. If you’re looking for the ultimate laptop with the largest screen space available, then definitely go out and get the 17″. Also predicted, you can get a 7200 RPM drive built to order now. :)

And if you want an in-depth review of the new PowerBooks, check out John Gruber’s excellent Full Metal Jacket.

You might have noticed that this blog is hosted on happyapps.com. So what is that? What is Happy Apps?

I’ve been thinking about writing a manifesto, but maybe this impromptu chat session with my buddy Shep will explain it better:

1:13:57 AM louielouie: so you think i should have a big manifesto or just a short little blurb explaning what Happy Apps is all about
1:14:06 AM shep: short
1:14:14 AM shep: scannable
1:14:15 AM louielouie: ok. how about just:
1:14:26 AM louielouie: Happy Apps is about…
1:14:45 AM louielouie: 1. meeting other Mac users
1:15:06 AM louielouie: 2. writing cool Mac software
…
1:16:28 AM louielouie: that’s all i got right now…
1:16:31 AM shep: heh
1:16:36 AM shep: I was waiting for 3
1:16:40 AM louielouie: i mean its like all about doing the opposite of the day job
1:16:51 AM shep: that’s a great tagline
…
1:19:59 AM louielouie: and i want apps to be simple, like 37signals simple

You HAVE to check out Merlin Mann’s 43F Podcast: How to Leave a Voice Mail Message | 43 Folders. Its the funniest podcast I’ve heard. Like Ferris Bueller, you’ll be glad you stayed until the very end. ;)

My roommate and I used to freak people out in our dorm with the computer voice from my Amiga 3000/UX back in college, especially since we pumped it through my stereo. But I think the Academy Award for Best Use of Computer Voice will probably go to Merlin this year.

I upgraded to 10.4.3 today and noticed that the Safari that is bundled with it is now Acid 2 compliant.

What does that mean in plain english? It means that Safari is fully web standards compliant, putting it ahead of Firefox and way ahead of IE6 and even IE7.

I had been running a WebKit daily build that had this, but its nice to it productized into Safari 2.0.2. There’s a lot of other fixes in Safari 2.0.2, the biggest being some BIG memory leaks. I admit that I would quit and restart Safari every few days to deal with it, so this is a good development since it is probably the Mac app I use the most.

So go and update to 10.4.3 if you haven’t already. It’s worth it. But be sure to back up first!

The video of Evening at the Adler is now online. It features 10 Mac developers talking about a whole bunch of stuff. Most of them are Mac Indies, meaning independent software developers. You’re probably using some of their apps.

Its quite a big download, but well worth it if you are interested in getting a different view on the Mac universe. Thanks to Drunken Batman (gotta love that name) for staging this event. Now, here’s the official line…

On October 21st in the year of ’05, ten top Mac developers (primarily indies) from around the USA were invited to the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, IL for an evening of conversation around a broad range of topics: Making a living writing for the Mac, software patents, competing with Apple, digital rights management (DRM), software activation, bugs, Ajax, unit testing, building communities, the x86 transition, and much much more…

(Updated on 4/13/2011 to link to archived video. Tip of the hat to @danielpunkass.)

I like MarsEdit. It has a nice metaphor: blogging should be like writing an email (and just as easy.) The design is fairly minimal and it is useful for bloggers on the Mac. I reviewed MarsEdit last year.

So it’s good to see that MarsEdit will finally get a new programmer, thanks to Gus Mueller of Flying Meat. I admit that I was a bit concerned when NewsGator bought NetNewsWire. But Gus has relieved my concerns. Here’s to MarsEdit 1.1, which I guess will come out by February. He’s on contract, so he is still living The Mac Indie Life. So that makes four Mac apps that he is working on.

I’m aiming to have a nice stable of apps someday. But right now I need to focus on releasing my first app. :)

Welcome to my new blog, titled MacHappy!

What’s MacHappy you say? Well… its the state of mind when you’re sort of obsessed with Macs, but… in a positive way.

I’ll be blogging about design, focusing in on Mac application design, but also considering other sorts of design. I’ll also be blogging about business, especially the more creative aspects of it.

And of course I’ll be blogging about Macs in a category I like to call “mac love”. Talking about news in the Mac world, uncovering hidden goodies, and the benefits of having a Tiger in a world of vistas and penguins.