Every new Mac since 2006 comes bundled with iWeb, Apple’s program for quickly designing websites. At first, a number of web developers (myself included) were excited by this announcement, but when we actually tried this program ourselves, it became apparent that this was not going to be a tool that existing and already-knowledgeable web designers were going to embrace. There’s no interface for editing any code, and even when you look at the source of any published iWeb website, it looks horrible. iWeb doesn’t use any kind of external CSS file, instead opting to use the style=”" attribute on every single element. Furthermore, it converts text and things into complex images, and all that stuff. In fact, I think Leo Laporte said it best on MacBreak Weekly 52: once you use iWeb, you’re locked in. Without a doubt, iWeb is just an app aimed at an audience that is completely foreign to the idea of building a website.

Enter RapidWeaver. RapidWeaver is a WYSIWYG editor produced by Realmac Software, which is similar in form to iWeb, however it offers its users more control, produces cleaner code, and is overall an application more suited to serious web development.
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Tags: coding, FTP, iWeb, Mac, review, Software, web design

No, I’m not talking about the next season of new cars. For one thing, I wouldn’t call 95% of the cars out there “worth it”, mostly because their gas mileage would make any non-American laugh with their fingers pointing, and for another thing, I really don’t care about cars anyway. Nevertheless, yesterday, Apple released iLife and iWork ‘08 (along with some other new stuff, which aren’t the focus of this article), which Steve Jobs claims to be their biggest updates ever to both releases. But after spending a couple of hours today following the announcements through Engadget’s live coverage, rubbing my eyes all over the Apple.com website, watching demo videos and tutorials, and all that stuff, I’m ready to judge for myself if iLife and iWork ‘08 are really that substantial, and if they’re each worth their respective $80 upgrade price.
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Tags: 2008, announcements, Apple, documents, GarageBand, hardware, iDVD, iLife, iMac, iMovie, iPhoto, iWeb, iWork, Keynote, Mac, Microsoft Office, movies, Numbers, Pages, photos, podcasting, presentations, PreviewCast, Software, Special Event, spreadsheets, Steve Jobs, web design