Almost perfect, but not quite

Apple finally released the long-awaited and very-much-needed 10.5.2 update to Leopard, the newest "big kitty" in Apple's line of OS X operating systems.

The only problem is, there are STILL problems. Well, it's probably impossible for any given update, on any given OS, to solve ALL the reported problems with the previous version of said operating system, but I was hoping that at least supposedly-dinky things (especially those things that had been FINE in Tiger, 10.4.x) would get resolved in Leopard.

The problems I've been experiencing with my MacBook Pro (2.2 GHz, Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GB RAM, 120 GB HD) include:

* Problems syncing my Motorola RAZR v3re using iSync. For some reason it keeps syncing OLD information that is not on my iCal (e.g. last semester's schedule). I'm not sure if iSync is interfering with something in the phone itself, and the phone is copying over old data (e.g. from last year), but it's really annoying not to have my alarms on my phone. I've already tried to do this, and it's STILL fucked up. In 10.5.1, I already tried deleting the device from iSync, but it's done no good. If there's a way to reset calendar data on the V3re, I don't know what it is... I don't have the manual(s) on me, and the on-phone browser help... DOESN'T help. Not surprising, frankly, but it pisses me off more because this is A NEW PHONE.

* Problems creating PDFs from Word documents (and presumably other programs); the Adobe 8.0 PDF printer simply "couldn't be located" and the only work-around I found was something that spit out the PDF but kept the PDF printer in a perpetual "paused" state.

* I have an HP 1210xi PSC (All-in-One) that I bought with my original MacBook Pro two years ago. Two years isn't that old for a printer (I feel), but HP seems to think it is, and has "no plans to release a fully-featured driver for Leopard." Fully-featured meaning I can actually DO what I paid for the printer-- printing, scanning and copying! Supposedly I can print, but from my experience, it's only with the printer directly connected into USB, not via Bonjour (using my AirPort Extreme Base Station). I can't test whether or not 10.5.2 fixed this problems; Apple says they released more drivers for compatibility with this very issue, though; they just didn't specify which drivers.

* Firefox would "hang" (not respond, crash, whatever you like to call it) a lot more in Leopard than in Tiger. Of course, Firefox has its own updates, and recently updated to 2.0.0.12, so it's entirely possible that the hangs are program-specific and not related to 10.5.x at all... but I doubt it, because I've had no such problems on any PC I've used (and I use Firefox all the time at work), and not on older Macs (like the iMac at work which uses 10.4 or 10.3 or something. In any case, it still has Sherlock). Plus, forum threads I found about the issue mention something about Leopard incompatibility with certain DNS servers...? It sounds bizarre to me.

* Dashboard has been a right BITCH since I updated-- sometimes I have widgets that won't go away, even when I click the X in the corner in Manage Widgets mode, and sometimes I have widgets that never "update" (e.g. weather, Apple Store updates, etc.) Very annoying. Sometimes a good ol' fashioned restart helps... but I'm always afraid it'll happen again during a period when I really need my widgets. People came up with odd solutions, like using the Leopard install disc to "Archive & Install," while others did some sort of Terminal command. A restart did the trick for me, so I hope 10.5.2 means I won't have to worry about those other potential solutions-- I don't want the problem to be an issue anymore. So far, so good... I've gone into Dashboard a few times and not had any issues.

* Finally, since I couldn't get my phone to work with iSync, I tried my iPod-- I didn't know it had Calendar, Address Book, etc. capability until I started playing around with iTunes one day. But it seems to have the same problem as my phone, grabbing dates that frankly ARE NOT in iCal. To make matters worse, when the alarm goes off, the iPod will stay ON, which means my battery drains a lot sooner. I'd like ONE device or another to just WORK with iSync, PLEASE? I'll have to test this when I get home, since I don't have my iPod cable with me. Maybe iPods ought to be able to sync with Bluetooth?

But I guess in the long run, all of this is stuff I was never able to do with any PC I ever owned or use, and compared to the problems I see every day in the Walk-In Center with spyware, viruses, and other B.S., the Mac is still a godsend. So for all my bitching and ranting, I still love my Mac. :)

On commercials

I don't drink Pepsi, let alone something Diet, but I love the new Diet Pepsi Max commercial to Haddaway's "What is Love?" Everyone (including LL Cool J) is starting to pass out until they get some DPM, and then they start the old-school head bopping. It's contagious, even at the dry cleaning where Haddaway himself (at least, I think it is... would make sense) goes "STOP IT!" and storms out. Very funny.

Sometimes commercials are considered tasteless and get changed. I remember that happened once in an Axe (deodorant) commercial where a young guy who's wearing Axe gets stopped as he gets in an elevator. The original shows a hand wearing a pearl bracelet and a fuzzy pink cardigan-- you don't get a good look at the hand, but the flash shows an old woman with a devilish grin on her face. They changed it, apparently because some people thought it was tasteless that an old lady would get her knickers in a twist over a young man's deodorant. So they changed it to a young woman, which kind of ruined the humor and made it like every single other Axe commercial.

Now, there was an animated Red Bull commercial where a bird shits on a professor-like character's jacket. In the original, the guy takes a swig of Red Bull, grows wings, and then flies above the bird and starts to unbuckle his belt... it's pretty clear what it implies. Also, it uses the classic "Red Bull gives you wings" tagline. But the new version doesn't have that-- instead, the professor character takes a swig of Red Bull and then chuckles and withdraws a slingshot from his briefcase. He fires a cork into the bird's bum, and the tagline is now "Red Bull also stimulates your mind." Okay, so the original one was a bit messed up, but it was still better than "bird butt plug."

For someone that's not a marketing major or PR concentration, I sure am opinionated about commercials. In fact, there's a lot that I downright hate and think fail to get the point across. All I tend to remember about them is how annoying they are, versus the product and how much I might like to try it.

That said, I'm only being so observant of commercials tonight because of all the repeats-- thus, I'm watching shows I either have never watched (Supernatural) or ones I haven't watched in AGES (Smallville). And it's always nice to get caught up on shows I've just started to find interesting (Without a Trace).