Apple made many changes with the release of XCode 3 and Interface Builder 3 with the OS X Leopard operating system for the Mac. The workflow for these toolsets is very good as to be expected. With the release of these latest versions they aimed to provide an even more strict bound toolset to the ideals of the MVC paradigm.

In previous versions of Interface Builder, whilst creating your views for your application, you could quickly create a subclass of an existing object, say NSObject, by clicking the "Classes" tab and Control-clicking a class to subclass it into your own custom class. Apple realized this was probably not the best form as it allowed you to basically be creating part of the model within the wrong part of the IDE. The model should be created within XCode itself where all the other classes are developed. In Interface Builder 3, you can no longer subclass. You need to go back to XCode and create your class there, then when you go into Interface Builder, drag a generic Object/ObjectController and drop it in your nib. From there, inside the Inspector under Name, start typing the name of the custom class you created in XCode and push return after it has auto-completed. This will in turn apply the parent class to your custom class.

I just read in the news that Firefox 3.0 Beta was released today. I have been keeping an eye on this release for quite some time as it will contain some improvements that I, as a Mac user, have been wanting and asking for for a long time.

The foremost reason why I have been watching this release is the simple fact that pre-3.0 versions of Firefox have just been plain out ugly amongst the gorgeous Aqua façade of Mac OS X. Such things like any form widgets: buttons, textboxes, select boxes, etc. These widgets were great boxy and very Netscape 1.0ish in my opinion. This issue was due to the very fact that the version of Firefox for the Mac, did not use the native Cocoa framework to display widgets on a webpage.

I believe about a year ago, it was finally announced that Firefox 3.0 was going to be using the native Cocoa library on OS X to display any kind of page widget. This immediately made me extremely happy.

In addition to the page widgets, the application in it's entirety still looked out of place. I think this had to do with the clear division of the toolbar and the buttons below the toolbar.

For about six months now, I have been running Firefox (Minefield) 3.0a to keep an eye on any changes. It was still fairly slow and lacked some other things but it did have the native page widgets. I never liked it enough to switched it to my default browser and continued to stick with Safari--especially when Safari 3.0b came out.

Well, I just now downloaded Firefox 3.0 Beta from Mozilla's website and I must say, I am presently impressed with the work they have accomplished thus far. The page widgets look great, there is a new unified toolbar at the top, and its seems to be pretty responsive and fast.

I will attempt to use it as my default browser for as long as possible. Now that the user interface things have been added, my main comparison will be speed. I truly feel that Safari has Firefox beat on that one.

iClip 4 is a nifty little OS X clipboard history manager. It's user interface is good and fits in well with the OS X style. What is nice about it, is that at a glance of the iClip toolbar, are the last 8 clipboard copy or cuts that you performed in the system as little previews or clips. This can be pretty much anything that can fit on a clipboard.

I picked up iClip 4 through the MacHeist bundle. I personally don't use it nearly as much as I thought. Maybe once a week! I have a feeling that the reason for that is because, I am still not used to it being on the side of the screen and so I forget about it. Furthermore, I am a very big keyboard user, and so if my hands stay on the keyboard to do all my copy and pasting (even if I have to switch back and forth between my applications) then I will do that. It is a great tool and designed well, I simply don't actually ever use it.

To find out more information, check it out at http://inventive.us